If beauty is related to proportion as Aquinas and others would say, then it necessarily involves priority. For proportion is only possible through priority of dimensions.
If we then take the concept of priority, and relate it to the notion that beauty is a whole, we must recognize that there are internal aspects of beauty which may take priority over external aspects. These simple propositions reconcile much of the tension between the internal and external beauty of form. For instance, they may reconcile – to some extent – an Edwardian version of beauty with a Catholic version of beauty (Aquinas’ perspective).
