“Most aesthetic objects that we admire, Greek temples or the great cathedrals of the Middle Ages for example, were not created in this way. The people who conceived of them were not focused upon the dimension of art, which did not yet exist, but rather built edifices to the glory of God, edifices the functionality of which was to make a cult to the divinity possible. This is not at all similar [to creating an aesthetic object]. They had in mind the divine, the sacred, and it was only beautiful by chance. It is we who, today in the 20th century, by projecting our concept of art retrospectively, find these works beautiful.”

Michael Henry