ABSTRACT
Paintings and sculptures are to be looked at; sonatas and songs are to be heard. What is important about such works of art is what can be seen or heard in them. This apparent truism has inspired attempts by aesthetic theorists to purge from criticism of works of art supposedly extraneous excursions into matters not available to inspection of the works and to focus attention narrowly on the works themselves. A feature of a work of art is standard with respect to a category just in case it is among those in virtue of which works in that category belong to that category. A feature is variable with respect to a category just in case it has nothing to do with works belonging to that category. An important consideration in determining whether a work depicts or represents a particular object, or an object of a certain sort is whether the work resembles that object, or objects of that kind.
