For one who holds reason as one of their highest virtues, who is certain that the Universe is finite and knowable, who believes in the benevolence of existence and in Man's capacity for greatness, the ultimate expression of this view must be profoundly integrated and harmonious, it must have no contradictions, it must be passionate about what is important in life; in short, it must be beautiful.

Throughout the history of Art, men have sought after the nature of beauty. For Leon Battista Alberti (1404-1472 A.D.), an architect whose writings had a great influence on all of the arts in the Renaissance, beauty was objective: "When you make judgements on beauty, you do not follow mere fancy, but the workings of a reasoning faculty that is inborn in the mind." [OTAB Book 9 "Ornament to Private Buildings", Part 5] Moreover, for Alberti, beauty was not only to be found in nature, but it was the main purpose for building:

"Most noble is beauty, therefore, and it must be sought most eagerly by anyone who does not wish what he owns to seem distasteful.... Nature herself, as is everywhere plain to see, does not desist from basking in a daily orgy of beauty - let the hues of her flowers serve as my one example." [OTAB Book 6 "On Ornament", Part 2]