William Hogarth, The Bad Taste of the Town
 1724

Strolling Actresses Dressing in a Barn, William Hogarth, 1738 
William Hogarth, Taste in High Life, 1742

•	William Hogarth,
•	self-portrait, 1745
•	The Analysis of Beauty 1753
Hogarth, The Analysis of Beauty: A New Edition, 1772, original edition, 1753 
Hogarth  Hogarth Painting the Comic Muse. c.1757. 
Hogarth, the line of beauty, from Analysis of Beauty, and a quote from “Disinformation and "The Analysis of Beauty" A Project History”
Joe Banks, web, accessed 2009, 
•	In "The Analysis of Beauty" book, William Hogarth explored the aesthetics and symbolism of the sinusoidal "Line of Beauty and Grace" or 'serpentine Line", originally portrayed in his self-portrait of 1745. In his self-portrait Hogarth had depicted a perfect sine-wave, weaving across a painter's palette in place of the brushes and paints that would conventionally have appeared as tools of the artist's trade. 
Analysis of Beauty pg. 25  Accessed through Google Books, (London: R. Showley, 1810 printing)
•	Hogarth wrote that "the eye hath this sort of enjoyment in winding walks, and serpentine rivers, and all sorts of objects, whose forms, as we shall see hereafter, are composed principally of what I call the waving or serpentine lines... intricacy in form, therefore, I shall define to be that peculiarity in the lines, which compose it, that leads the eye a wanton kind of chase, and from the pleasure that gives the mind, intitles it to the name of beautiful". 
William Hogarth
The analysis of beauty. Written with a view of fixing the fluctuating ideas of taste.
London: J. Reeves, 1753

William Hogarth
The Analysis of Beauty, Plate II: The Country Dance 1753

William Hogarth. The Lady's Last Stake. 1758-1759. Oil on canvas. Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, NY, USA.
The Prologue to Taste, 1753, which was "Written by Mr GARRICK, And spoken by him in the Character of an Auctioneer":

David Hume, Scottish Philosopher, 1711-1776

The Royal Exchange Building in Edinburgh housing the Custom House on the second
floor. Note: bottom left sign ‘Royal Exchange – Coffee House’ (underground).
Poet, bookseller and wigmaker Allan Ramsay’s [father of painter of Hume] shop in Edinburgh’s High Street, from The Works of Allan Ramsay, Vol. III, 1851

David Hume, portrait by Allan Ramsay ("the Younger"), 1754
Allan Ramsay 1766  “David Hume”
David Hume [Scotland]  "Of the Standard of Taste" 1757
•	The great variety of Taste is obvious, even for men educated under the same government and with the same prejudices.  [78]
•	It is natural to seek a Standard of Taste:  a rule to reconcile or to confirm or condemn someone’s taste. [80]
One species of philosophy says this is hopeless.  It says that:
•	All sentiment [feeling] is right because it does not refer and is always real.
•	All determinations of the understanding [judgments of scientific and mathematical fact] are not right for they refer beyond themselves.
–	Here, only one opinion is true.
•	By contrast, sentiment only marks a conformity between the object and the faculties of the mind.

[On this view] beauty is not a quality in things themselves.
–	It exists merely in the mind that contemplates those things.
–	Each mind perceives a different beauty.
–	No one should try to regulate the feelings of others.
–	There is no more real beauty than real sweet.
–	It is fruitless to dispute concerning tastes:  mental as well as bodily.
–	Here, common sense and skeptical philosophy join.
Another species of common sense  opposes, or at least restrains, the first!  It says that:
–	Ogilby [a writer practically unknown today] is obviously not as great as Milton [a writer still taught in English departments as one of the greats, 1669].
–	No one [serious] pays attention to the taste of someone who says Ogilby is as great as Milton:  we say that such people are absurd.
None of the rules of composition are fixed by reasonings a priori [there are no rules of taste based on logic alone].
•	The foundation of the rules of [good] composition is experience [Hume's empiricism].
•	Many beauties of poetry are founded on falsehood and fiction.
•	So, making art follow the kind of highly logical rules found in geometry would produce boring art.
•	Poetry must be confined by rules of art discovered by the author.
Irregular writers
–	Irregular writers please not because of their breaking the rules but in spite of this:  the beauties of their works overcome their disgusting parts.  [81]
–	Ariosto pleases because of the force and clearness of his expression, by the readiness and variety of his inventions, and by his natural pictures of the passions  [this is Hume's only description of rules or principles of art in this essay], not because of his faults.
–	However, if our pleasure really arose from the parts of his poem we call faults then we should change our rules of criticism.
Ludovico Ariosto (1474-1533) by Titian
Ariosto’s Orlando Furioso
Orlando Furioso The Online Medieval and Classical Library, 
•	OF LOVES and LADIES, KNIGHTS and ARMS, I sing, Of COURTESIES, and many a DARING FEAT; And from those ancient days my story bring, When Moors from Afric[a] passed in hostile fleet, And ravaged France…
Founded on Experience
•	General rules of art are founded only on experience.
•	But the feelings of men do not always conform to these rules. [81]
•	Finer emotions are delicate:  many favorable circumstances are needed for them to play.
•	The least exterior hindrance or internal disorder may disturb the machine [the parts of the brain that allow this play].
•	For an experiment:  proper time and place:  perfect serenity of mind, recollection, attention to the object.
•	Relation that nature has placed between form and sentiment.
The test of time:  the same Homer pleases today.
–	Authority or prejudice may make some authors popular temporarily.
–	But with a real genius, the longer his works endure, and the more widely spread they are, the more sincere his admiration.
–	When envy, jealousy and familiarity are set aside, those beauties of his work that are naturally fitted to excite agreeable feelings  come forth.
So there are certain general principles of approval and blame.
–	Their influence can be traced in the mind.
–	Some particular forms are calculated in relation to the structure of the mind to please.
–	They fail because of some defect in the organ [eye, brain, mind].
–	[A person who cannot see the beauties in the arts] is like a man in a fever who cannot tell flavors.
The sound state of the creature [in this case,  human] affords a true standard of taste.
–	If there is at least a considerable agreement in feelings among men in the sound state of their organ there is perfect beauty. 
–	Similarly, we say that the true color of an object is what is seen in daylight by a man in health, even though color is merely a sense illusion.
–	There are many defects of internal organs [faculties of the mind], and so the pleasure will not be equally felt in every individual.
Delicacy of imagination is needed to feel finer emotions.
–	We need a more accurate definition of “delicacy.”
–	Consider the story in Don Quixote of Sancho's hereditary judgment in wine. [83]
–	Each of two kinsmen of Sancho taste from a hogshead of wine supposed to be excellent, and both judge it as good, although one tastes a bit of metal and the other a bit of leather:  the audience laughs, as this inconsistency seems to disprove their excellence as judges.  But then the key with the leather thong is found. 
Honoré Daumier, Don Quixote and Sancho Panza (ca. 1850), and an early edition of Don Quixote, 1618
Hogshead
Since mental taste is similar to bodily taste we can apply this story [to the issue of the standard of taste].
–	Beauty and deformity are not qualities in objects, but belong entirely to the sentiment  [affirms one aspect of species of philosophy #1]
–	[Yet] There are certain qualities in objects fitted by nature to produce those particular feelings. [closer to #2]
–	These are found in small degree, mixed, and confused. 
General Rules of Beauty
–	One has delicacy of taste if the organs [mental or physical] are so fine as to allow nothing to escape.
–	General rules of beauty [patterns of composition] are drawn from established models and what pleases when presented singly and in high degree.
–	 When the same qualities in smaller degree do not affect a person then that person has no delicacy of taste.

Producing these general rules is like finding the key with leather:  it justifies the verdict of men who have delicacy.
–	One proves the superiority of judges by reference to the general principles.
–	But even if these general principles had never been acknowledged, one man's taste would still be preferable to another's.
–	We can silence the bad critic [the person without taste] by showing him that the principles work in his own case and that the same principle can be applied to this [more complicated or subtle work of art].
The perfection of a faculty is to perceive with exactness its most minute objects.
–	Mixtures of small ingredients test a good palate.
–	A man [of taste] should only be satisfied with himself when every beauty and deformity [of the work of art] is noted.
–	Delicate taste of wit and beauty is always desirable:  it is the source of the finest and most innocent pleasures. 
–	All approve of the delicacy of taste.
Practice in a particular art improves delicacy.
–	With practice one perceives the beauties and defects of each part and quality.
–	This requires surveying each performance several times and in different lights.
Prejudice is just as contrary to good taste as to the understanding:  good sense governed by reason checks prejudice.
–	Good sense is also needed to note the mutual relation and correspondence of parts in works of genius.
–	Each work of art has a purpose and is to be thought perfect to the extent it is fitted to this end:  e.g. the object of poetry is to please by means of the passions and imagination. [Good sense also determines whether the work fits its purpose.] 
The Poet Needs Judgment
–	Every composition is a chain of propositions and reasonings:  the poet needs judgment as well as taste and imagination to present this [like Aristotle].
–	Clearness of conception, exactness of distinction and vivacity of apprehension are essential to true taste.
–	Good sense is needed to discern the beauties of design and reasoning.

The principles of taste are universal and nearly the same in all men.
–	Yet few are qualified to give judgment on any work of art.
–	The organs are seldom so perfect.
The True Standard of Taste
–	Strong sense [i.e. “good sense”], united to delicate sentiment, improved by practice, perfected by comparison, and cleared of all prejudice give critics their valuable character.
–	The joint verdict of such critics is the true standard of taste and beauty.

Project Runway Season 5 2008
Where are these to be found?
–	This is a question of fact, not of sentiment [or of value].  Whether a particular person is a good judge may be subject to dispute.
–	But that such a character is valuable will be agreed by all mankind.
–	Should indulge those who differ from them in appeals to the standard of taste.
–	But the taste of all individuals is not equal.
–	Some men in general will be acknowledged to be preferred [In general, people will agree that “good judges” are admirable]. 
Contrast with Theoretical Knowledge
•	The difficulty of finding the standard of taste is not so great at thought.  In practice it is harder to determine the criterion of judgment in science than in taste. 
•	Philosophical and theological theories have prevailed in one age and have been exploded later:  the decisions of science are subject to fashion and chance.
•	But the case is not the same with the beauties of poetry:  they gain and their just applause and maintain forever.
•	Aristotle, Plato, Descartes succeed each other, but Terence and Virgil [great Roman writers] are universal.

•	Men of taste are rare, but may be distinguished by sound understanding and superior faculties.  
•	We know them to be superior since they give lively approval to the the productions of genius.  
•	Many men are capable of relishing a fine stroke when it is pointed out: conversion of admiration multiplies.
•	Prejudices may prevail for a time but will not unite in celebrating a false genius.
There are still two sources of variation that will often produce a difference in degrees of approval or blame.
•	There is a difference in personality type among men.
•	The manners and opinions of an age and country differ.
Blameless Diversity
Although some defect of the faculties, i.e. want of one of the criteria of good judge, gives reason to approve one taste and condemn another, where there is diversity within and also externally it is blameless and there is no room for preference:  then we seek in vain for a standard of taste.

Young men vs. older men
•	A young man with warm passions will be more affected by amorous images than an older man who will prefer wise reflections concerning moderation.  Ovid vs. Horace vs. Tacitus.
•	It would be vain to try to “enter into the sentiment of others” and get rid of our natural propensities.
•	We choose our favorite author by conformity to our personality:  we sympathize with the author who is like us, for example tends to see things humorously if we do.
•	Such preferences are innocent and unavoidable.
Ovid (43 BCE – 17 or 18 CE), Horace (65-8 BCE), Tacitus   (56 CE – 117 CE)

•	Similarly, we are more pleased with pictures and characters like those of our own age and country.
•	Is hard to accept ancient customs, including images of royalty doing their own work or cooking for themselves.
•	This is why comedy is not easily transferred from one country to the next.

•	For example, in some Greek and Italian plays the female protagonist never appears, and that is contrary to British taste.  A scene from Andria by Terence is shown here 200 CE. 

•	“A man of learning and reflection can make allowance for these peculiarities of manners, but a common audience can never divest themselves [of their usual ideas and feelings]…as to relish pictures which [do not] resemble them.”
•	Anon after William Hogarth
(Laughing Audience)
Ca. 1750
Ancients vs. the Moderns
•	There is a controversy between ancient and modern learning. (90)
•	One side will excuse any seeming absurdity in the ancients based on the difference of their manners.  
•	Hume:  where innocent peculiarities are represented they should be admitted:  if you are shocked by them this proves you have false delicacy and refinement.

•	The monument to the great artist will collapse if we make no allowance for revolutions in manners and customs.
•	We should not throw aside pictures of ancestors because of their ruffs and fardingales [farthingales] 
•	Right:  Elizabeth I, the "Ditchley" portrait, by Marcus Gheerraerts the Younger, c. 1592.

•	But where vicious manners are described without blame the poem is made ugly.
•	I cannot have these feelings or enjoy the work, even though I may excuse the poet because of his time.
•	Want of humanity or decency, even found in the Greeks, diminishes the merit, and gives modern poets and advantage.
•	We do not like to see vice confused with virtue.
Speculative Errors Different
•	Moral principles are different from speculative opinions which are constantly changing.  Sons differ from fathers.
•	Speculative [philosophical or scientific] errors detract little from art.
•	We need only a turn of thought or imagination to enter into the opinions of another age and enjoy the feelings that come from them.
•	But a violent effort is needed to change our judgment of manners.   
•	Men confident of their morals will not pervert their feelings for any author. 
Religion in Art
•	Of speculative errors, those regarding religion are the most excusable:  we can and must overlook the absurdities of pagan [non-Christian] systems in order to give a just assessment of ancient poetry.
•	No religious principles should be seen as a fault for any poet as long as they do not open him to accusation of bigotry or superstition.  
•	The later break the boundary between vice and virtue:  they always are blemishes.

But the Roman Catholic religion hates every other religion.

•	Such sentiments are blamable.
•	This bigotry has disfigured two fine French tragedies: Poleiucte:  Polyeucte is a drama by Pierre Corneille (1642-43) based on the life of the martyr Saint Polyeuctus. [His wife and father-in-law convert after the martyrdom.]  Racine, wrote Athalie in 1691.

•	In these plays “an intemperate zeal for particular modes of worship is set off with all the pomp imaginable, and forms the predominate character of the heroes.”  

•	Joad finds Josabet [Jewish] talking with a priest of Baal who he sees as a traitor and enemy of God.
•	These feelings are applauded in Paris but not in London.

Modern aside:  
•	The Temple of Bel [Baal] at Palmyra was destroyed by Isis [a Muslim extremist group] in 2015  [based on the same religious prejudice Hume was attacking].
  
•	Religious principles also are a blemish when they rise to superstition and intrude everywhere.
•	It is no excuse for a poet if no part of life is free from the yoke of religion.
•	It is ridiculous for Petrarch to compare his mistress to Jesus, or Bocaccio, the libertine, to give thanks to God.  

•	William Hogarth. 
•	David Garrick with His Wife 
•	Eva-Maria Veigel
•	"La Violette" or "Violette".
•	 1757.
Joshua Reynolds  Miss Elizabeth Ingram 1757
Allan Ramsay. Portrait of Margaret Lindsay, Mrs. Allan Ramsay. c.1757. Oil on canvas. National Gallery of Scotland
George Stubbs Molly Longlegs  1762
Thomas Gainsborough.  John Plampin. About 1753-4. Oil on canvas. National Gallery, London, UK.
Thomas Gainsborough.  The Painter's Daughters, Margaret and Mary, Chasing Butterfly. About 1756. National Gallery, London, UK. 
Robert C. Solomon, Philosopher, U.S., mainly University of Texas, 1942-2007 
Japanese maneki-neko, beckoning cat, brings good luck 
“On Kitsch and Sentimentality” (1991)
•	The notion of “taste” in art implies the existence of “bad taste” and bad art.
•	There are many kinds of bad art:  technically incompetent, ignorance of the medium, tradition and history, lack of imagination, plagiarism, “no eye,” and ethically bad art.
•	Once there was unacceptable subject matter, but today it is wise for a young artist to offend the viewer.

•	One kind of bad art is “kitsch” and one variety of that is “sweet kitsch.”  
•	Sweet kitsch is art or intended art that appeals to the softer, sweeter sentiments.
•	Wide-eyed puppies, Keane [he misspelled this] type paintings, saccharine religious art, Muzak, Rod McLuen poetry.  
•	Some kitsch may be highly professional, some even flawed by its very perfection.
Walter Keane, (really Margaret Keane?) “My Kitty,” 1960, painting to the right copyrighted by Margaret Keane
Sentimentality
•	“better shocking or sour than sweet” has become a rule of thumb.
•	What is wrong with sweet kitsch, where its deficiencies would seem to be virtues?
•	It seems to be its sentimentality, easy evocation of sweet emotions.
•	The problem is with the poor opinion [intellectuals have] of emotions in general, especially of softer emotions.
•	I will defend kitsch and sentimentality against the non-aesthetic charges against them.
Sentimentality
•	Friedrich Schiller praised sentimental poetry which he saw as cultivated fineness and intelligences of feeling.
•	Later, however, Oscar Wilde attacked Lord Douglas as a sentimentalist for his fraudulent and contemptible passions.
•	“sentimentalist” became a term of abuse
•	In museums the ignorant flock to sweet kitsch [for example Bouguereau]

•	Kitsch and sentimentality have been accused on ethical grounds, as promoting flaws in character.
•	Underlying this is a distrust of tender emotions.
•	Sentimental masters in the 18th and 19th centuries:  Greuze, Bouguereau, Meissonier.
•	Immanuel Kant attacked sentiment and sentimentalism, against popular novels:  seen as an ethical defect.
•	In art, to call something sentimental or kitsch is to say that it is very bad art.

•	Jean-Baptiste Greuze - The Souvenir (Fidelity) 1797-1789
Bouguereau  Hazelnuts  1882

•	Mark Jefferson:  sentimentality is a moral defect, a form of self-indulgence.
•	Mary Midgley associates it with brutality,  Hermann Broch with evil, and Mark Tanner with cynicism:  in general kitsch is dangerous.  
•	That’s a bit odd when applied to:  

•	Much of the attacks on kitsch are political, i.e. from Marxists who despise the mass-marketing origins of kitsch.
•	Much kitsch is attached because cheap or mass-produced, but there is also expensive “high” kitsch, for example 19th century academic painting, where the attack is on sentimentality.

•	Kitsch:  a German word origins obscure 1870:  smear, playing with mud [Bearn:  from English for "sketch"], mucking with emotion?  [Wikipedia:  originally came from “cheap, hotly marketable pictures or sketches” made for the German bourgeoisie]  (4)
–	Harries: Kitsch is always considered immoral.
–	Solomon: But one culture’s kitsch may be another’s avant garde [thinking of the common opposition between avant-garde and kitsch]
Oxford Dictionary definition
•	“art, objects, or design considered to be in poor taste because of excessive garishness or sentimentality, but sometimes appreciated in an ironic or knowing way: the lava lamp is an example of sixties kitsch” 

•	John Canaday about Bouguereau:  it is all of a piece, no element out of harmony, not a flaw, but its conception and execution are false, a perverse perfection.
•	The Degas is discomforting and haunts the viewer afterwards.
•	The Bouguereau is the most popular:  pretty and easy to understand, using it for dreams of future or nostalgic memories.
Bouguereau  Hazelnuts  1882;  Degas  Dancer, 1874
How would Hume respond to kitsch?
•	“There is a species of beauty, which, as it is florid and superficial, pleases at first,; but being found incompatible with a just expression either of reason or passion, soon palls upon the taste, and is then rejected with disdain, at least rated at a much lower value.” (85)
•	Comparison of species of beauty and degrees of excellence needed for taste:
•	"The coarsest daubing contains a certain lustre of colours and exactness of imitation, which are so far beauties, and would affect the mind of a peasant or Indian with the highest admiration.” But Hume refers to this as an “inferior beauty.”  (85)

•	“Where no comparison has been employed, the most frivolous beauties, such as rather merit the name of defects, are the object of [the bad critic’s] admiration.” (87)
•	“Where good sense is wanting, [the critic] is not qualified to discern the beauties of design and reasoning, which are the highest and most excellent.” (87) Kitsch does not appeal to “good sense.”

Art and kitsch defined as opposites
•	“The word, kitsch, was popularized in the 1930s by the art theorists Theodor Adorno, Hermann Broch, and Clement Greenberg, who each sought to define avant-garde and kitsch as opposites. The art world of the time perceived the immense popularity of kitsch as a threat to culture. The arguments of all three theorists relied on an implicit definition of kitsch as a type of false consciousness, a Marxist term meaning a mindset present within the structures of capitalism that is misguided as to its own desires and wants.” Wikipedia “Kitsch” accessed 9/20/10
Adorno perceived this in terms of what he called the “culture industry."
•	“where the art is controlled and formulated by the needs of the market and given to a passive population which accepts it—what is marketed is art that is non-challenging and formally incoherent, but which serves its purpose of giving the audience leisure and something to watch or observe. It helps serve the oppression of the population by capitalism by distracting them from their social alienation. Contrarily for Adorno, art is supposed to be subjective, challenging, and oriented against the oppressiveness of the power structure. He claimed that kitsch is parody of catharsis and a parody of aesthetic experience.” ibid.
Clement Greenberg defined it in this way. 
•	“simultaneously with the entrance of the avant-garde, a second new cultural phenomenon appeared in the industrial West: that thing to which the Germans give the wonderful name of Kitsch: popular, commercial art and literature with their chromeotypes [chromotypes:  colored illustrations], magazine covers, illustrations, ads, slick and pulp fiction, comics, Tin Pan Alley music, tap dancing, Hollywood movies, etc.” “Avant-Garde and Kitsch,” Partisan Review  1939 http://www.sharecom.ca/greenberg/kitsch.html

•	Garden gnome with wheelbarrow, photo taken by Joannes Baptista, Oct. 16, 2005
Sentimentality and kitsch
–	"it is the sentimentality of kitsch that makes kitsch kitsch and sentimentality that makes kitsch morally suspect…”
–	"kitsch may be bad art"  and "show poor taste"  but Solomon challenges the condemnation of the sentimentality of kitsch and the idea that it is ethically wrong. He asks why the sentimentality of kitsch is condemned.
Good taste?
–	Contempt for kitsch is considered [by many, but not Solomon] a standard for good taste.
–	But there is too little agreement about what is wrong with kitsch to back up this view.
–	The "vicissitudes" [changes or variations] of taste in art are rarely rational.
Chris Burden  “Through the Night Softly” 1973:  dragging himself across broken glass

•	Carl Andre (born 1935) 
•	Equivalent VIII
•	1966 
•	Firebricks
 
Belk, a.k.a. Daniel Cortez Aldama, 18, of Fremont, who police consider Public Vandal No. 1, was arrested on four felony counts of illegal graffiti. 12/7/07
Cuddly dog from the on-line shop of Stucky’s
•	This cuddly little lifelike dog is looking for a good home! Made from farm-raised rabbit fur, he measures almost 12" long and comes atop his own pillow. He makes the perfect companion without eating you out of house and home! 
Attacks on kitsch and answers.

•	Kitsch provokes excessive or immature expressions of emotion.
"cute"  "pretty"  "Aaaaah"  
–	These are unsophisticated and child-like emotions. 
–	What is the charge?  too much of these emotions? provokes them at all?  attack on emotions as such?

–	Sure, emotions develop with experience:  but are emotions of a 70-year-old better or wiser than those of a seven-year-old?
–	Often we take emotions to be sophisticated when they are cynical or suppressed.

Child-like feelings
–	But there is something charming about an adult with child-like feelings, and it is wrong when he/she never can have them, e.g. in an art gallery.
–	One purpose of art is to remind us of tender, outgrown sentiments - to help us feel them again [vs. Plato!].

Gentle Emotions
–	We have a limited vocabulary and a cultivated inability to recognize the more gentle emotions.
–	Agreed, we can condemn the public [childish] expression of  emotion as being inappropriate.
–	The usual cultivated response is a sneer.
–	We are probably embarrassed by the gentle emotions because they make us uncomfortable in any amount.

Bad art, sure, but…
•	One point of view [which he seems to reject when he calls it “whiggish” and cold-blooded] is that good taste requires subtlety.
•	It may be that certain emotions are inappropriate, i.e. getting “turned on” by Bouguereau’s paintings of little girls.
•	Generally the problem is that feeling “cuddly” isn’t “cool” and is considered poor taste.  
•	Perhaps kitsch is bad art, but why more?
Bouguereau  Hazelnuts  1882
William Adolphe Bouguereau 1864
Bouguereau  Plums  1896
2. One suggestion: Kitsch and sentimentality manipulate the emotions.
–	Kitsch is manipulative, using “icons” (little girls, puppies) to guarantee emotional response.
–	One argument is that manipulating emotions violates a person’s autonomy.
–	S.  suspects this is covert reaction to the emotions themselves: it is not a violation if a person is “reasoned with,” so why is it when the appeal is to the emotions?
–	This assumes that emotions are humiliating.
But not all emotions are humiliating.
–	Why should we feel humiliated by feelings of tenderness?
–	Emotions are intentionally brought about all the time, for example gratitude is brought by a gift.
–	“Manipulation” refers to an unwanted emotion.
–	But saccharine [overly sentimental] sentiments [are not always unwanted] and would seem appropriate in the sanctuary of the museum.

Thomas Kinkade Gingerbread Cottage  1990s
Thomas Kinkade Sunrise Chapel 2006
John Constable Salisbury Cathedral from the Bishop's Grounds    c.1823-5. V&A version.
John E. Thornes. John Constable's skies: a fusion of art and science
 (Edgbaston, Birmingham: The University of Birmingham Press, 1999). 
•	Thornes calls this painting, a “turning point in Constable’s technical development, both from the point of view of painting the exact detail on the cathedral and from the successful use of warmer colors such as red, green and gold without sacrificing harmony” 126.  

•	Constable “I was at one time fearful that it would not be a favorite [with the bishop who commissioned it] owing to the dark cloud … but we got over the difficulty.”, pg. 127.  Actually the bishop continued not to like the cloud and had him paint a second version without it as a wedding present.  The second version is considered less dramatic. “Salisbury Cathedral” (Henry E Huntington Library & Art Gallery, San Mareno) 1823..next 

Two versions compared.
Salisbury Cathedral today
3. kitsch evokes cheap, easy, or superficial emotions
–	“Cheap” may mean “low quality” or may refer to the class of the responder.
–	Oscar Wilde:  “To be sentimental is to be shallow” - mark of the uneducated
–	S.:  The “high” class (in society) associate themselves with emotional control and reject sentimentality.
–	and male society demeans the “emotionality” of women
Snobbery?
–	also ethnic:  Northern European against Southern European, West against East
–	Kitsch is “cheap” because the person who feels these emotions is thought emotionally cheap as well.
–	Can a society that seeks equality afford such snobbery? 
4.  Kundera:  kitsch is self-indulgent:  how nice to see children play, followed by “how nice to be moved” by this
–	It is “false” because it is the emotion and not the object of the emotion which is the primary concern.
–	Harries:  love is kitsch if its object is not the beloved but itself, “in love with love.”
–	But reflectivity of emotion is not self-indulgent in cases of appreciating a work of art:  it is suspicion of the emotions as such that makes kitsch a vice.
5.  The most common charge is that kitsch and sentimentality distort our perceptions and interfere with rational thought. [Plato]
–	Mary Midgley:  the central offense is self-deception.
–	S.:  all emotion is “distorting” and such is not really distorting at all:  in anger one looks at the offense, etc.:  we take sides and edit scenes.
Solomon’s Definition of kitsch:
•	It is art that is deliberately designed to move us by presenting a well-selected and perhaps much-edited version of some particularly and predictably moving aspect of our shared experience.
•	But it is not, contra Herman Broch, “universal hypocrisy.” 
velvet Jesus

•	--- my entire life in my grandma dorothy's 1960's ranch house in st. petersburg, florida this magnificent painting of jesus on velvet has hung above the console tv “funnel erickass” anonymous, flickr
American pop superstar Michael Jackson with his pet monkey Bubbles by Jeff Koons. Photograph: David Kendall/PAhttps:
www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2009/jun/30/jeff-koons-exhibition-serpentine

Ilya Repin "The Reply of the Zaporozhian Cossacks to Sultan of Turkey“ 1880-1891. [Greenberg’s example.] 
Odd Nerdrum, The Kiss, 2002 [Nerdrum proclaims that he makes kitsch and that he is opposed to Art.]

•	William-Adolphe Bouguereau, “The Thank Offering” (1867)
Frank Sibley  “Aesthetic Concepts”  selection  from the article of the same name  1959.
•	Aesthetic terms include:  unified, balanced, integrated, lifeless, serene, somber, dynamic, powerful, vivid, delicate, moving, trite, sentimental, tragic, “telling contrast,” “sets up a tension,” etc.  
–	 includes terms used both by laymen and professionals