[The question is met with a sudden burst of animation and engagement.]

Of course it does. It gives the beholder a glimpse of a perfect beauty that either exists in some other realm of being or masks the ugliness of reality--dignifies an existence full of death and decay by hiding it behind something idealized and ephemeral. Either way, beauty's purpose is to... to appeal to whatever within us looks for perfection in a world of imperfections. To inspire art or to mislead.