There are several famous dualisms that have inspired the arts for centuries - the good over evil, love over death and ofcourse, beauty and the beast. What is beautiful is good, though its goodness is often threatened by the ugliness of evil.
Peter-Paul Rubens, Susanna and the Elders, 17th c.
"There were moments when he looked on evil simply as a mode through which he could realise his conception of the beautiful"
Oscar Wilde, The Picture of Dorian Gray
I find one image that perfectly capture this incongruous moment. The swan.
Photo by Ed Buziak
A swan is an unparalleled symbol of the ugliness, violence and cruelty of beauty. We are blind to beauty's ugly origins, its shallow unfeeling nature and to its cruel behavior. We do not see the beast in the beauty just as we do not see the sinews and deformities of a ballerina's body, yet without the other, neither would exist. Therein lies the art.
Photo by Michael Macor
Photo by Michael Macor
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