Great points. I would add: art is perceived through an act of intellect that ultimately resonates in the heart. I was in Rome last summer and went into the church where the Caravaggio paintings of the St. Matthew story are and I stood there looking and looking and taking it in and by the end I was just sobbing. I wonder whether a Kinkade painting, or one of the salon winners on artrenewal, could have that effect on somebody? Where they end up wiped out for an hour afterward, and then, finally, elated and inspired?
Absolutely. That's what knowledge is. Of course, there are aspects of Reason that lie beyond the intellect, as Pascal reminds us:
Le cœur a ses raisons
que la raison ne connaît point;
on le sait en mille choses.
I was in Rome last summer and went into the church where the Caravaggio paintings of the St. Matthew story are and I stood there looking and looking and taking it in and by the end I was just sobbing.
What a powerful story! I had a similar experience with the Chagall windows at the Art Institute of Chicago a couple of years back.