ideal

ideal.
A conception of something that is perfect, referring in the visual arts to works that attempt to reproduce the best of nature, but also to improve on it, eliminating the inevitable flaws of particular examples. The notion derives ultimately from Plato, according to whom all perceptible objects are imperfect copies approximating to unchanging and imperceptible Ideas or Forms. This idea reappeared with the revival of Platonism in the Italian Renaissance, and throughout much of subsequent European art the model of ideal beauty was supplied by classical statuary (see antique). Its most influential formation was in a lecture by Bellori delivered before the Accademia di S. Luca (see academy) in Rome in 1664, and published as a preface to his Lives in 1672. To Bellori, the contemporary artist who best exemplified the doctrine was Poussin, whose example greatly influenced the French Académie Royale (see academy) in the 17th century. The doctrine provided the philosophical justification for the Grand Manner, and was the basis of criticism of anti-idealistic artists such as Caravaggio and Rembrandt, who were thought to have broken the ‘rules’ of good art. Although the doctrine has been responsible for much arid art, it has also been an inspiration to such great artists as Raphael, who said, ‘To paint a beautiful woman I must see several, and I have also recourse to a certain ideal in my mind’, and Guido Reni, who said, ‘The beautiful and pure idea must be in the mind, and then it is no matter what the model is.’