Aesthetic Criteria

An interesting question in aesthetics is whether criteria work the same way they do outside of aesthetics, for example, in grading apples. The art historian Jakob Rosenberg proposed a set of criteria for painting as being "more or less valid for the whole field of master drawing...from the fifteenth through nineteenth century."

Rosenberg makes his use of these criteria more plausible through the comparison of closely similar works of art. He applies this tailored set of criteria to these two drawings.

• Madonna with Flower
  
• Saint with Book

The key question is whether these criteria mean the same thing when they are applied in these (or any other) paintings.