Editing Seyyed Hossein Nasr (section)

====Art====

In his reflections on art, Seyyed Hossein Nasr bases himself on "the traditional perspective which is by nature meta-historic and perennial".{{sfn|Hahn|2001 |p=381}} For him, all art "must convey the truth and beauty" and "a meaning that is ultimately universal" because it is independent of "the ego of the individual artist".{{sfn|Jahanbegloo|2010 |p=239}} He cites as examples the traditional art, "whether it be Persian and Arabic in the Islamic world, Japanese and Chinese in the Far East, Hindu and Buddhist in the Indian world, medieval Christian in the West", as well as the arts of the "primal people of the Americas, Australia and Africa, who in a sense, belong to one family".{{sfn|Jahanbegloo|2010 |p=242}} "That art is the reflection of a [[Plato]]nic paradigm, idea, or archetype, in the Platonic sense, in the world of physical forms."{{sfn|Jahanbegloo|2010 |p=239}}

Thus, in traditional art, specifies Nasr, the artist "is an instrument for the expression of certain symbols, of certain ideas, [...] which are beyond the individual and are executed artistically through traditional techniques" because they belong to the "spiritual world"; "this is where the great difference between traditional and modern art comes from".{{sfn|Jahanbegloo|2010 |p=238}} An art is considered traditional "not because of its subject matter but because of its conformity to cosmic laws of forms, to the laws of symbolism, to the formal genius of the particular spiritual universe in which it has been created, its hieratic style, its conformity to the nature of the material used, and, finally, its conformity to the truth" as expressed by the religious milieu from which it comes.{{sfn|Knowledge and the Sacred |1989 |p=222}}

As for sacred art, "which lies at the heart of traditional art [, it] has a sacramental function and is, like religion itself, at once truth and presence";{{sfn|Knowledge and the Sacred|1989 |p=221}} it "involves the ritual and cultic practices and practical and operative aspects of the paths of spiritual realization".{{sfn|Knowledge and the Sacred |1989 |p=237}} In a traditional society, says Nasr, one does not distinguish between sacred art and religious art but "in the post-medieval West and also outside of the Western world since the 19th century, in fact wherever you already have had the decadence of the traditional arts",{{sfn|Jahanbegloo|2010 |p=248}} religious art is characterized only by its subject, at the expense of "its means of execution and its [supra-individual] symbolism" which "belong to the suprahuman realm".{{sfn|Jahanbegloo|2010 |p=247}} Today "much of what is called religious art is no longer traditional but individualistic and psychological."{{sfn|Jahanbegloo|2010 |p=248}}

For Nasr, the degeneration of Western art since the Renaissance is the consequence of a "view of man as a purely secular and earthly being".{{sfn|Hahn|2001 |p=391}}{{sfn|Jahanbegloo|2010 |p=236}} From symbolic as it was, art became more and more [[Realism (arts)|naturalistic]], as can be seen, for example, by comparing the sculptures of [[Chartres Cathedral]] to those of [[Michelangelo]],{{sfn|Jahanbegloo|2010 |p=238, 240}} or paintings of the [[Madonna (art)|Virgin]] by [[Raphael]] to those of the Middle Ages.{{sfn|Jahanbegloo|2010 |p=240-241}} But, tired of indefinitely reproducing beings and objects deprived of life, naturalism faded in the second half of the 19th century in front of "this new very ingenious wave of impressionist art which tries to capture some of the qualities of nature […] using light and colors [...], without simply emulating the external forms of nature".{{sfn|Jahanbegloo|2010 |p=241}} This movement, however, was only a "transient phase, and soon the whole world of form broke down from below, [...] starting with [[Picasso]] and continuing to our own day".{{sfn|Jahanbegloo|2010 |p=241}} The "cracks in the confines of the solidified mindset created by centuries of humanism, rationalism and empiricism" have opened access to the most "inferior" influences.{{sfn|Hahn|2001 |p=386}}

According to Nasr, most modern artists "become completely enmeshed in their own egos [...], leading lives which are in many cases not morally disciplined, whereas the traditional perspective", on the contrary, "seeks to free us through spiritual discipline [...] destroying the stranglehold that the lower ego has upon our immortal soul".{{sfn|Hahn|2001 |p=388}} The traditional artist "does not try to express his own feelings and ideas", as the modern artist does;{{sfn|Jahanbegloo|2010 |p=238-239}} "[[Art for art's sake]]" is not his credo, nor is "innovation, originality and creativity" because, unlike the modern artist, he knows that art has as its goal "the attainment of inner perfection and [...] human need[s] in the deepest sense [...], which are spiritual", intimately linked to "beauty and the truth."{{sfn|Jahanbegloo|2010 |p=242}}{{sfn|Hahn|2001 |p=392}} "All beauty", writes Nasr, "is a reflection of Divine Beauty and can lead to the Source of that reflection";{{sfn|Jahanbegloo|2010 |p=246}} but the contemporary rubs shoulders with "ugliness, unaware that the need for beauty is as profound in the human being as the [...] air that we breathe".{{sfn|Jahanbegloo|2010 |p=242, 244–245}}

For Nasr, there are artists in the present day, rooted in a true spirituality and who express it or attempt to express it in their art,{{sfn|Hahn|2001 |p=387, 392}} with the humility demanded by "light of the truth and the millennial heritage of traditional art, most of which was produced […] by anonymous artists who humbled themselves before the reality of the Spirit and through their transparency were able to reflect the light of the spiritual world in their works".{{sfn|Hahn|2001 |p=392}}