This paper tries to present different configurations of the artistic in the relationship between Aesthetics and Ethics. We perform a historical and hermeneutical analysis of this relationship, and try to clarify under what kind of conditions these configurations emerged. We propose a new way to understand this phenomenon by creating a conceptual category, that of supeditation, which is the predominance of one over the other (of ethics over aesthetics or vice versa). This category intends to group the multiple and subtle relationships that occur within this pair, in order to comprehend the different traditions that emerged from this dynamics and the consequences they have presently. We undertook a conceptual journey through what is known as “closed aesthetics”, a concept limited to the artistic universe and whose cultural use creates the possibility of constructing ways of living and inhabiting the world that mimic the traditional ideas of the utility of arts. The thesis of this text is: every use of the artistic is a direct reflection of discursive and practical value systems from different cultures, and a comprehension of this phenomenon is a way to understand the historic and social progression of artistic and aesthetic practices.