P L AT O H A D T W O T H E O R I E S O F A R T
1. Art is Imitation
According to this theory, since art imitates physical things, which in turn imitate the Forms, art is always a copy of a copy (form), and leads us even further from truth and toward illusion. (Which can be dangerous)

Plato saw the changing physical world as a poor, decaying copy of a perfect, rational, eternal, and changeless original.
A beautiful flower, for example, is a copy or imitation of the universal Forms "flower ness" and "beauty." The physical flower is one step removed from reality, that is, the Forms. A picture of the flower is, therefore, two steps removed from reality. This also meant that the artist is two steps removed from knowledge, and, indeed, Plato's frequent criticism of the artists is that they lack genuine knowledge of what they are doing. Artistic creation, Plato observed, seems to be rooted in a kind of inspired madness.
According to this theory the artist, perhaps by divine
inspiration, makes a better copy of the True than may be found in ordinary experience. Thus the artist are some features of the two theories:
They can strongly influence our behaviour, and even our character. For that reason Plato insisted that art (especially music), along with poetry and
2. Art is powerful, and therefore dangerous
education of young citizens in his ideal republic, but should be strictly censored to present, at first, only the good.
Although he approved of certain religious and moralistic kinds of art. Again, his approach is related to his theory of Forms.
THE THEORY OF FORMS Forms are perfect Ideals, but they are also more real than physical objects. He called them "the Really Real". The world of the Forms is rational and unchanging; the world of physical appearances is changeable and irrational, and only has reality to the extent that it succeeds in imitating the Forms.
THEORIES ON ART &BEAUTY
Plato-Aristotle-Tolstoy-
PLATO ON ART

Found the arts threatening. He proposed sending the poets and playwrights out of his ideal Republic, or at least censoring what they wrote; and he wanted music and painting severely censored.
Poetry, drama, music, painting, dance, all stir up our
emotions. All of the arts move people powerfully.
drama and the other arts, should be part of the
Plato had a love-hate relationship with the arts.

The arts, he thought, are powerful shapers of character. Thus, to train and protect ideal citizens for an ideal society, the arts must be strictly controlled.