Art Appreciation, Criticism and Aesthetics
Indian aesthetics
Bharata's Natyashastra formulates rasa: the spectator's relished aesthetic experience arising when vibhava (cause), anubhava (response) and vyabhichari bhava (passing states) combine. The nine rasas are shringara (erotic), hasya (comic), karuna (pathetic), raudra (furious), veera (heroic), bhayanaka (terrible), bibhatsa (odious), adbhuta (wondrous) and shanta (peaceful). Abhinavagupta's commentary and Anandavardhana's dhvani (suggestion) extend the theory: great art suggests rather than states.
The shadanga, six limbs of painting - rupabheda (differentiation of forms), pramana (proportion), bhava (expression), lavanya yojana (graceful composition), sadrishya (resemblance) and varnikabhanga (colour handling) - come from Vatsyayana's Kamasutra and are echoed in the Vishnudharmottara Chitrasutra.
Western aesthetics in brief
Plato: art as mimesis, twice removed from truth. Aristotle: mimesis plus catharsis. Kant: disinterested pleasure, purposiveness without purpose. Tolstoy: art as communication of feeling. Clive Bell: 'significant form'. Formalism judges the object; contextualism reads it through history, patronage and function.
Criticism: Feldman's four steps
- Description – inventory only, no judgement.
- Analysis – how elements and principles are arranged.
- Interpretation – meaning, mood, symbols, supported by evidence.
- Evaluation – informed judgement against purpose and success.
Worked example
A Chola Nataraja bronze. Reasoning: description notes the circle of flame, drum, fire and dwarf underfoot; analysis notes radial balance and a contained circle; interpretation links the drum to creation, fire to destruction and the ring to cosmic cycle; evaluation praises the lost-wax casting and the resolution of stillness and motion - judgement last, and grounded in the earlier steps.
Traps
Defining rasa as the emotion shown by the character rather than the experience relished by the spectator; writing evaluation inside description; interpreting without visual evidence; confusing the shadanga with the Vedangas.