Idealized Art

Idealism in
art is an attempt to depict the world as we would like it to be or feel it ought to be. It
portrays the beautiful and the noble, and aims as far as possible at capturing perfection. It
tries to imagine the world at its best and then show what that would look like. It is meant to
inspire.

Michelangelo's sculpture of David is an example of an attempt at
depicting an idealized human form. His David is handsome, muscular, beautiful, at the height of
his powers, and, as far as possible, without flaw.

Idealism is often
contrasted with . Realism is the attempt to portray the world as it really is, warts and all. It
does not try to make people or objects more beautiful than they are. If idealistic art tries to
move people with beauty so that they will want to attempt to make the world a better place,
realist art tries to show the ugliness of the world in order to move people to fix it.

Realism is more in fashion these days than idealism in the world of "high"
culture, but there...