" Various aesthetic theories, from Antiquity to the Middle Ages, see Ugliness as an antithesis of Beauty, a discordance that breaks the rules of that proportion on which both physical and moral Beauty is based, or a lack of something that a creature should by nature possess. In any case a principle is admitted that is observed almost uniformly: although ugly creatures and things exist, art has the power to portray them in a beautiful way, and the Beauty of this imitation makes Ugliness acceptable."