David E. Cooper, Professor of Philosopy at Durham, (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_E_Cooper) has put together this volume of writings about the theory of beauty. Possibly on the esoteric side, nevertheless whole academic careers have been devoted to it. Authors represented are Plato, Aristotle, Plotinus, Hume, Kant, Schiller, Hegel, Schopenhauer, Tolstoy, Bell, Dewey, Heidegger and Collingwood. Hume and Schopenhauer are the most convincing to me. See what you think.
If interested proceed to Oswald Hanfling’s Philosophical Aesthetics: An Introduction (1992) (http://www.amazon.co.uk/Philosophical-Aesthetics-Introduction-Oswald-Hanfling/dp/0631180354/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1388067045&sr=1-1&keywords=philosophical+aesthetics#_) This takes a different tack having commissioned a group of modern scholars from The Open University to take a thematic approach.
Another useful volume is Stuart Sim’s Art: Context and Value (1992) http://www.amazon.co.uk/Art-Context-Value-Edited-University/dp/0749211067/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1388067338&sr=1-1&keywords=art+context+and+value
Also, listen to the BBC Radio 4 broadcast on beauty available as a podcast at http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p003k9hf
282 pages in Wiley-Blackwell paperback edition
ISBN 978-0631195696
David E. Cooper contemplates beauty