Traditionalists, Beauty, and Art Hierarchy

Traditionalist generally classify art into three groups of religious, traditional, and holy. The first two are regarded as spiritual arts, but the third one is called holy which is higher in hierarchy. To the traditionalists, there is a distinct borderline between these arts. Holy art has a direct influence upon religious and traditional art. It has its own language and its message is universal. The holy art’s message is the same in all religions, but it is manifested differently in each one. In Christianity, for instance, this message is pictured in the art of Christ’s Portrayal, in Islamic art it is pictured in the art of reciting Koran, calligraphy, the holy architecture, and in some of the literary and mystic works. The holy art’s specialty lies in its heavenly beauty, but the beauty itself is not the target. On the contrary, this beauty is a reflection of the God’s infinite beauty. This beauty holds its mirror to the spiritual and inner world. Thus the artist who creates such art is a special person and also the audience of such art are special people as well. Regarding what was said, this article studies the characteristics of traditional art and also the higher art which is the holy art. In this frame, while analyzing the characteristics of such arts, the article will also study the ideas and theories of some remarkable figures of traditional school in west including A.K. Coomaraswamy, Rene Guenon, Frithjof Schuon, Martin Lings, and Seyyed Hossein Nasr.