ugliness as beauty

How can ugliness be portrayed as beautiful in art? A monster, a serpent?

Since from evil comes good, it is therefore well said that evil contributes to good and hence it is said to be beautiful within the order of things. Thus it is not called beautiful in an absolute sense, but beautiful within the order; in fact, it would be preferable to say: "the order itself is beautiful."

- Alexander of Hales

Hieronymus Bosch - The Garden of Earthly Delights, Earthly Paradise (1506)

It is the task of many medieval mystics, theologians, and philosophers to show how, in the great symphony concert of cosmic harmony, monsters contribute, albeit purely by way of contrast (like shading and chiaroscuro in a picture) to the Beauty of the whole. Rabanus Maurus held that monsters were not against nature because they spring from the divine will. Hence, they are not against nature, but against the nature to which we are accustomed.

- Umberto Eco

The non-beautiful [Jesus' persecutors, serpents] were represented as a necessary phase that allowed for the resurrection of Christ that was ultimately beautiful--this was not the case with classical concepts of Beauty.