In "A Cognitive Account of Aesthetics," Francis Steen presents an intriguing and plausible theory of the development of aesthetic appreciation as part of the process that allows human beings to have a well functioning perceptual system. He starts by denying the idea that aesthetics has its evolutionary justification as a means of identifying attractive habitats and potential mates. The absurdity of the first is easily seen in the aesthetic attractiveness of some terribly inhospitable landscapes, such as colorful rock formations in the desert.
However, he goes on not only to insist on the aesthetic appetite serving as a goal in itself, which I find hard to dispute, but to give it a specific function in "calibrating the embedded brain's perceptual systems. Here I think he makes a good case, but from a philosophical rather than a physiological standpoint. In the early days of psychology, this would have been quite sufficient, but plausible as his arguments are I can't see them as unquestionably convincing; I would like to see more in the way of functioning brain scans to demonstrate just where there is activity during aesthetic experience and how it relates to later perceptual experiences.