1. Is it possible to be finished with examining any work of art, beautiful or not?
I think when Nehamas said that "beauty is the promise of happiness," it doesn't necessarily have to mean that it will fulfill that promise. We could possibly exhaust viewing a painting. We might have seen everything that we can see in it that the artist meant for us. But, if it's truly beautiful, we feel this attraction, this hold on the painting, that we continue to examine it. As Nehamas said, it might disappoint us. It may be a fruitless endeavor, but if we find it beautiful, it will remain beautiful to us. Something that isn't beautiful, such as an attractive couch, may be mistaken as beautiful, but eventually, we'll stop noticing its attractiveness. Truly beautiful things are not like that.
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