Sometimes I google images for inspiration to various topics in my teaching. Visual material is my prime analytic tool when defining research questions, so it is also a way for me to see if there are any new angles in a topic that can challenge my perception and preconceptions. This time the  results was quite unexpected and made me wonder if I'm living in a parallell universe...

Earlier this week I had a seminar on Taste and Aesthetics in a course on design history. So I quite simply googled the word "aesthetics" (though in Swedish: "estetik"). I'm not sure what I was expecting. Perhaps som portraits of Immanuel Kant, some images that might have been used to define beauty... What I got was 10 pages of images illustrating plastic surgery. Both of beautiful young women in commercials or in more instructive images used as information of various treatments (I guess thats the chosen terminology), and of celebrities known for their perhaps not so successful facelifts, use of botox and implants. The above image is one of the top results and comes from an advertisement of a Swiss clinic.

OK. I was not trying to get all moralistic about it, even if I felt a slight sense of panic. Plastic surgery is getting more widespread in Sweden, but still it is not common. I went to my male colleague next door and asked him to do the same google search, since the result might be influenced by gender. But no; the same images in a slightly different order.

I'm confused. What does it mean when the philosophical concept of aesthetics in popular use now seems so strongly identified with plastic surgery? Have beauty nowadays turned into a question of (female) good looks and charm?

An "update": When discussing this issue with a colleague who is doing an inventory of popular trends and future buzzwords, I may have found another key for understanding why aesthetics is so connected with plastic surgery. According to some predictions Western culture is turning into a "transformation culture", where we transform various aspects of our lives. House make-overs, changes in life styles with exercise and diet are obvious examples, so why not also the growing industry of plastic surgery?

The status of images were debated by medieval theology as there was a fear of the possible seductive character of images. Among the common people of the parishes images were far more popular than texts — and far more accessible — so in order to gain control over this powerful emotional trigger a lot was written on how to create, read and use images in churches. She is a bit "late", but this quote by Teresa of Avila (1515-1582) would have been a good read for both Gregory the Great (540-604) and St. Bernard (1051-1153). Both suggested quite a strict use of art and images in Christian devotion and favored the use of "mental images".

"I had so little ability to represent things in my mind, except for what I could see. I could profit nothing from my imagination, [unlike] other persons who can see things in their minds wherever they pray...for this reason I was such a friend of images. Unhappy those who by their fault lose this good! It surely seems that they do not love the Lord, for if they loved him, they would delight in seeing his portrait, just as one is still happy to see someone one loves dearly" (quote from J. Kienschnick, "Material Culture" in The Oxford handbook of Religion and Emotion, 2008, p. 227)

This portrait of Teresa of Avila is according to Wikipedia made by an unknown artist, but Bernini made a famous sculpture of The Extacy of St. Teresa of Avila in Santa Maria della Vittoria in Rome. I guess it is fair to say that she herself became a loved image.

In February I was browsing through an archive with clips from Scandinavian newspapers and accidentally found an almost heartbreaking story about a Virgin lost and found. 

In September 1961 the police wanted information on a sculpture of a Madonna from Steninge parish church in Halland that had been lost for 38 years (!). The church was now restored and the parish wanted their precious artifact back. The photo reminds of the ones used for missing persons with such a sad expression on the Virgins face (the sculpture is in fact a Pietà as you can see below). It was taken in 1923 during an inventory — the same year that the Virgin mysteriously disappeared from a museum exhibition in Gothenburg. 

Then, in 1974, the Madonna is reported to be found, but this caused new problems for the parish. A discussion over who should have the custody over the Virgin was being raised. The parish wanted her back as it was her original home, as if talking of a real person. The museum thought the Virgin was too valuable and too fragile to be placed back in the church, taking no responsibility over the fact that it was stolen from their care in 1923, and claimed the sculpture in a matter of public interest.

I would have to consult other archives to reveal all the details to this history, but these two pieces of the puzzle are interesting on their own. Why did the police chose to publish a detail photo of the Virgin's head? Wouldn't it be easier to recognize if it had been a photo of the whole sculpture? It really looks as if it is a missing person rather than an image, also the text is describing how the parish wants "her" back. Still it is not a religious argument behind this claim, but a question of cultural heritage. A desire of making the church whole again by bringing together artifacts of its medieval history. But why call it a "madonna"?

The museum quite naturally also discusses the matter based on cultural heritage, but probably want to preserve it for other reasons. Making it more accessible to scholars and keeping it in a safe environment. This is a common debate during the mid- and late 20th century when parish churches wanted medieval sculptures, altarpieces and baptismal fonts back from museums. There was a growing interest in Christian medieval history and it gave the church and the parish a new attraction and possible authority.

Today what is left of the sculpture is back in the church, which is probably the best solution. It is not restored to its former glory, but perserved in the state it was found in the beginning of the 20th century after some hundred years of neglect.