Go down, beauteous Sun

Works of art can die as a result of being looked at by too many dull eyes, and even the radiance of holiness can, in a way, become blunted when it encounters nothing but hollow indifference. But this remains but an external offense to beauty which may be rectified by purifying the heart and by exhuming what has been buried under the ruins. Hölderlin exclaimed in this vein: "Go down, beauteous Sun. They paid but little heed to thee; they knew thee not, thou holy one... for me thou graciously go'st down and up, O Light! And my eyes surely recognize thee, Splendour!" And even if works of art should die, even if the 'holy Sun' itself should die, how could the highest beauty die if it were true that its form had attained a living immortality?

—Hans Urs von Balthasar, Glory of the Lord, Vol. 1: Seeing the Form, (1967)