Bell was one of the first critics to expand on the theory of aesthetic formalism. His view of formalism was based on the idea that “significant form” in art can stir the near-religious “aesthetic emotion” in the appropriate viewer. Significant form was the name Bell gave to shapes and colors that naturally evoked a profound feeling – or the aesthetic emotion – in the educated, sensitive viewer. According to Bell, the more realistic a piece of art, the less value it had, as the representation distracts from the form of the work. Realistic art could also have a significant and pleasing form, but that happened often by accident.The magic of Bell’s book is that it managed to make the new art of the modernists appeal to the old-world view of the Victorians and continued to be popular well in to the 1960’s.