The Aesthetics of the Thirteenth Century

The aesthetics of the West of the thirteenth century is worthy of the great system of scholastic philosophy in which it is enshrined, and worthy also of an era which was a witness of considerable artistic achievement. The Gothic cathedrals arose from the soil of France, which they covered with a splendid florescence, and almost simultaneously the new harvest was spread to Germany, to England, and to Spain. The aesthetic thought of the writers of the thirteenth century develops in part under the form of commentaries. They comment on the treatise of St. Augustine and on the writings of PseudoDionysius, notably the treatise on the Divine Names which, after being neglected for four hundred years, becomes the object of general admiration. Aristotle, who created the metaphysics of form, does not establish its relation to beauty.