ABSTRACT
Lurking behind this discussion of art history and aesthetics is the question of values. “Value” is a much-derided term, yet is at the foundation of both aesthetics and art history. It has two related definitions for the present purposes: (1) the overall desirability or purported “intrinsic” worth of the work of art—that is, the starting point and scope of aesthetics, and (2) a principle or belief held as a criterion for evaluation. At the outset, Arthur Danto rightly noted that “beauty is a value,” alluding to the long-standing equation between the central object of aesthetics and its moral and ethical connotations. It is this issue of values, however, that quickly fell by the wayside in the conversation but that offers a possible hinge between aesthetics and art history.
