The disconnect in our ideas and experience of beauty

A recent painting by the author. The thick moss on trees lit by the winter sun in forestland near my home struck me with an experience of beauty. What can explain this deep and profound human experience? A Portugese philosopher believes that when it comes to beauty we today live with cognitive dissonance. Our cultural drivers say it is one thing, our deep experience says it is something quite different.

Can a chess move be beautiful? Is a formula like e=mc2 beautiful? Can you have a beautiful thought? Is the jagged peak of a snow capped mountain beautiful merely because of its line, its color, its shape and how these things relate to each other? Why do scientists and mathematicians believe that solutions can be beautiful, and beautiful solutions are more likely to be true?