"What is Beauty?" is an infinite question!
Let's start by contrasting beauty, as a realistic quality of the object, with pleasure, the pleasing sensation of the beholder. Beauty is objective; pleasure subjective. The taste of chocolate is pleasing to one person, displeasing to another. Here we have subjective feelings or emotions. But the beauty of an object, a symphony or a mountain range or a single rose, abides in the object and is appreciated by the admirer.
In classic thought (Aristotle, Plato) beauty is one of the four transcendentals or qualites of Being as such. The others are Truth, Goodness and Unity. In this realist perspective, any thing, any entity or being, is...by virture of its existence, at once true and good and beautiful. It is such according to its significant, specific form: so a rose is beautiful as a rose, a symphony as a symphony, a woman as a woman. The form is the inner essence, the interior principle of life, which animates the object in all its aspects. So, the perception of beauty by the beholder is an intelligent act by which the knower/lover sees, intuits, knows, and delights in the form of the object as that form animates and radiates in all elements of the object. So, the appearances...sounds, visuals, colors, shape, words, dramatic narrative...in their multiplicity and diversity all manifest or express the interior form, which is deep, hidden yet manifest, spiritual yet indwelling material, invisible yet becoming visible.
The question asked often is: "Are you beautiful because I love you or do I love you because you are beautiful?" This is not an absolute binary, either-or question. Clearly the beloved becomes more beautiful as she enjoys the enjoying gaze of the lover. His love enhances, elicits, affirms, augments her beauty. But the primacy is in the inherent beauty of the beloved. The lover is first of all passive, receptive of the beauty; he is carried away; he is defenseless, overcome and captivated. Only susequently, secondarily does he seek and court out of a desire conceived in receptivity.
Beauty is classicaly described in three dimensions: integrity, proportion and radiance. Integrity refers to the unity of the object, the interior singular and distinctive identity which brings together all elements of the object. Proportion, related to integrity, indicates that all elements are properly ordered to each other in a harmony that is pleasing. Radiance is the mysterious illumination, from the depth of the object, that shines forth from every element as it manifests the form that yet remains hidden, deep, transcendent.
Beauty indwells real things, but by an analogy and an imitation it also lives in artwork, human creations. Art is an imitation, but is far more than a mere photocopy. The creative spirit of the artist gives life to a new "thing" which reflects actual reality but in a novel, imaginative, beautiful and inspiring manner. So, for example, a beautiful rose or a lovely woman or a striking sunset might inspire in the poet a poem, in the painter a painting, and the composer a song. Each echoes or draws from the beauty of the original, the actual being, but in a novel, imaginative manner. The beauty of the original is elaborated, developed, enhanced...we might say "glorified." It is new and surprising even as it orginates in a prior, primary reality. It is not "creation out of nothing." It is derivitave even as it is innovative.
Beauty, as indwelling the real or being, in nature or in art, is intrinsically united with Truth and Goodness. We distinguish them conceptually but in reality they indwell each other. So, for example, something that is inauthentic or deceptive and therefore not true cannot be really beautiful. A failure in truth wounds the being which loses beauty as well. Similarly, a failure in the good, something that is apparently beautiful but somehow evil, is also degenerate and therefor lacking in true beauty, no matter how pleasing, impressive or glamorous the appearances. Appreciation for Beauty without Goodness or Truth (think of Nazi officers listening to a symphony) is an empty, superficial aestheticism; concern for the Good without the Truth or the Beautiful is a dry, oppressive moralism; devotion to Truth without Beauty or the Good is a vague abstraction or lifeless empiricism. But a good society will be enhanced by the authetically beautiful. The moral and aesthetic and the intellectual cannot be separated from each other.
Beauty and Art are ends in themselves and are not mere means to another end. So, for example, a piece of art that is primarily intended to advance a moral or political end would be diminished if not entirely emptied of beauty. However, a genuine work of art will manifest beauty and organically also express the good and the true so the beholder is pleased and delighted, but also illuminated in truth and inspired in good. Beauty, along with Goodness and Truth, are qualities of the real, of being. Analagously, genuine work is a creative expression, again, of the Good the True and the Beautiful.
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