Bravo.
Restraint is an aspect of economy -- an austere dignity and horror of waste -- and economy is understood by the classes that create wealth better than by the classes that consume it. The notion of Restraint as emblematic of conservatism first occurred to me while reading Mary McCarthy's
The Stones of Florence. Art in Florence peaked in the quattrocento, before the advent of the grand dukes and the sterile but ostentatious bad taste found in their official art.
At its best, the Florentine aesthetic echoed the balance and truthfulness of classicism, but in a human and Christian context, in which the figures and through them the viewer, are rooted in a cosmic order that's serene without being simplistic. Restraint in art is thus a manifestation of restraint in life -- not out of joyless hatred for the created world, but out of joy in considered contemplation of the incalculable value of every particle of creation.
