From Caves to Cathedrals: The Dawn of Artistic Expression

In the deep recesses of ancient caves, early humans left behind the first inklings of art: primitive yet profound handprints and depictions of the world around them. These images, discovered in places like the Lascaux Caves in France, showcase our ancestors’ need to communicate but also their desire to capture the essence of life around them.

As time advanced, art became more sophisticated. The civilizations of Ancient Egypt, Greece, and Rome displayed their power and beliefs through majestic statues, intricate jewelry, and grand architectural feats. The Parthenon, The Sphinx, and the mosaics of Pompeii are testaments to the craftsmanship of these ancient artists.

Renaissance: The Rebirth of Creative Genius

Fast forward to the Middle Ages, and art became interwoven with religious fervor. Gothic cathedrals, with their towering spires and breathtaking stained glass windows, dotted the European landscape. However, art experienced a seismic shift during the Renaissance.

Names like Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo, and Raphael are not just mere mentions in history textbooks but icons that revolutionized art. Their masterpieces, such as the Mona Lisa, the Sistine Chapel ceiling, and the School of Athens, challenged perceptions and laid the foundation for art movements to come.

Impressionism to Pop Art: Bursting with Colors & Controversy

The art world witnessed numerous evolutions in the 19th and 20th centuries. The misty landscapes of Monet and the starry nights of Van Gogh marked the era of Impressionism. This was a time when artists moved away from exact representation, opting instead for emotive strokes and evocative palettes.

As society modernized, artists like Picasso and Dali introduced us to Cubism and Surrealism, challenging reality. And then came Andy Warhol’s vibrant, pop culture-infused works, emphasizing art’s fusion with consumerism.

The Digital Age: Pixels, Projections, and Possibilities

Today, art isn’t just limited to canvases and clay. The digital revolution has birthed the next generation of artists, working with tools like tablets, VR, and AI. The world witnesses art forms like digital sculptures, augmented reality installations, and AI-generated paintings.

Platforms like Instagram and DeviantArt have democratized art, allowing artists from every corner of the world to share their creations and collaborate in real time. The borders between disciplines have blurred, and the fusion of technology and creativity has taken center stage.

Interactive Art: Where Participation Meets Creation

As we move into the 21st century, a fresh wave is transforming the artistic sphere: interactive art. This movement invites the audience to play an active role in the creation process. From installations that change with human touch to digital murals that react to sound or movement, this art form emphasizes the symbiotic relationship between the artist, the artwork, and the observer.

Artists like Yayoi Kusama, with her infinity rooms, and Rafael Lozano-Hemmer with his interactive light installations, pioneer this immersive experience. Art festivals around the world, like Burning Man and Luminato, regularly feature these participatory artworks, merging community involvement with artistic innovation.

Art and Sustainability: Crafting with a Conscience

As global consciousness shifts towards environmental conservation, the art world isn’t far behind. Artists are using reclaimed materials, promoting upcycling, and drawing attention to environmental issues through their works. From haunting sculptures made of ocean plastics to murals highlighting deforestation, art is becoming a powerful medium for eco-advocacy.

Organizations like the Land Art Movement intertwine art with nature, crafting pieces that coexist with and enhance their natural surroundings. Galleries adopt sustainable practices, and art fairs emphasize green initiatives. This heralds an era where art reflects but actively contributes to global betterment.

NFTs: The Intersection of Art and Cryptocurrency

One cannot discuss art’s modern evolution without mentioning Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs). This blockchain technology has given digital art a platform, ensuring authenticity and ownership in a realm where replication is easy. Artists like Beeple have made headlines, selling digital pieces for millions. They have proven that the online realm is just as potent, if not more so, than traditional mediums.

Critics and enthusiasts continue to debate the implications and longevity of NFTs, but their influence on democratizing and diversifying the art marketplace is undeniable.

Looking Forward: The Boundless Horizon of Artistic Endeavors

As we look into the future, it’s clear that art is as dynamic as ever. Whether through augmented reality masterpieces, socio-political sculptures, or AI-generated symphonies, artistic expression boundaries are constantly redefined.

But amidst all the advancements and shifts, art’s heart remains unchanged: an unyielding human spirit, forever curious, forever creating. As viewers and creators, our journey on this global canvas is filled with endless possibilities, awaiting our exploration.

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The Aesthetic Appeal of Property

Art transforms spaces. Enter any room with a Monet or a Banksy, and you’ll feel the ambiance shift. Real estate developers have caught on, integrating art pieces as interior additions and foundational elements of their designs. Buildings are no longer just structures; they are canvasses.

In metropolitan hubs, massive murals grace condos or historic buildings. These murals do more than beautify; they increase the value of the property and its surrounding area.

Art Districts & Property Valuations

Take a moment and think about the hippest neighborhoods in major cities. The common thread? A vibrant arts scene. Regions that cultivate local artists and galleries see property values surge. It’s no accident that art districts become real estate hotspots.

New York’s SoHo, once an artists’ haven, has seen property values soar over the decades. Similarly, Miami’s Wynwood Walls turned a once-overlooked neighborhood into a sought-after real estate destination.

Personalized Spaces with Art

One of the major real estate trends influenced by art is personalizing spaces. Just as an art collector might scour the world for a piece that speaks to them, homebuyers look for properties that resonate on a personal level.

Companies in the real estate industry recognize this trend. A platform like HomesEh, for instance, can help buyers find properties that can be transformed into personalized art-filled sanctuaries.

Sustainable Art & Green Building

Another intertwining trend is the rise of sustainable art and its influence on green building practices. Sculptures made from recycled materials or installations harnessing natural energy sources set the stage. In turn, real estate developers are embracing green technologies and sustainable building materials, reflecting modern art’s eco-conscious themes.

The Role of Virtual Reality and Augmented Reality

Art and technology have always enjoyed a symbiotic relationship, pushing boundaries and breaking barriers. With the rise of Virtual Reality (VR) and Augmented Reality (AR), the real estate world is undergoing a revolution. Virtual home tours have become the norm, allowing prospective buyers to explore properties without setting foot in them. But what if this experience was infused with art?

Imagine stepping into a virtual property space adorned with digital art, allowing buyers to customize walls with paintings or sculptures in real time. This isn’t just a selling point; it’s an interactive experience that merges art’s aesthetic appeal with cutting-edge real estate technology.

Art-inspired Architectural Designs

Architects, like artists, draw inspiration from the world around them. The Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao by Frank Gehry and the Lotus Temple in New Delhi are not just buildings but pieces of art. The symbiosis between artistic thought and architectural design gives birth to buildings that defy the norm, pushing both real estate trends and architectural paradigms. Such structures become landmarks, increasing their prestige and value.

Experiential Real Estate: The Role of Art Installations

Art isn’t just static paintings or sculptures anymore. Interactive art installations, where the viewer becomes a part of the artwork, are becoming increasingly popular. Real estate developers are taking note. High-end residential communities or luxury commercial properties now boast interactive art installations, providing an experience rather than just a space.

Final Thoughts: Art – The Soul of Real Estate

The real estate canvas is vast, and the strokes of the artist bring it to life. From the colors chosen for a bedroom wall to the grand design of a skyscraper, art influences real estate in ways both tangible and intangible. As we witness this ever-evolving relationship, one thing is certain: art is not just about aesthetics; it’s an intrinsic part of our living spaces, adding depth, meaning, and value to the world of bricks and mortar.

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By combining the thrill of gambling with the beauty of art, these virtual platforms offer players a unique and enriching experience. This article delves into the world of art in PayID casinos in Australia, exploring the rise of art-themed slot games, virtual art exhibitions, collaborations with artists, and the support for artistic initiatives, providing players with an unforgettable journey of both chance and aesthetics.

The Renaissance of Online Casinos in Australia

The internet has transformed numerous industries, and gambling is no exception. Traditional brick-and-mortar casinos have faced fierce competition from the emergence of online gambling platforms, offering players the convenience of playing from the comfort of their homes. As technology advanced, these online casinos evolved further to accommodate mobile gaming, providing users with access to a plethora of games on their smartphones and tablets.

Find your favorite quick withdrawal Australian PayID Casino: https://casino-payid.com

Art-Themed Pokies Games

Slot games have always been the backbone of the casino industry, both offline and online. To enhance player engagement and create unique experiences, PayID online casinos in Australia have delved into the realm of art-themed slot games. These games bring iconic works of art to life, incorporating famous paintings, sculptures, and artistic motifs as symbols on the reels.

Aussie casino players can now spin the wheels and enjoy visual masterpieces from renowned artists like Leonardo da Vinci, Vincent van Gogh, and Pablo Picasso. Each win is accompanied by a glimpse of the artwork, enriching the player’s experience beyond mere gambling. These art-themed slot games not only cater to art enthusiasts but also introduce new audiences to the beauty and significance of art.

Virtual Art Exhibitions and Galleries

With the advent of virtual reality (VR) technology, PayID online casinos have taken the art experience to the next level by hosting virtual art exhibitions and galleries. Players can now immerse themselves in digital art spaces, exploring famous museums and galleries from around the world, all from the comfort of their own homes.

Through VR headsets or even on their computer screens, users can walk through virtual halls, admire the paintings and sculptures on display, and learn about the history and context behind each artwork. This fusion of gaming and art appreciation offers a new dimension of entertainment, creating a bridge between two seemingly distinct worlds.

Art as a Source of Inspiration for Game Design

Art is more than just a visual feast; it also serves as a wellspring of inspiration for game design. PayID online casinos have recognized the potential of art to elevate their game offerings beyond simple mechanics. Game designers often draw inspiration from famous art movements, historical periods, or specific artists to craft visually stunning and thematically rich casino games.

For instance, a slot game based on the Art Nouveau movement might feature elegant, flowing lines and intricate floral patterns. On the other hand, a game inspired by surrealism could take players on a journey through dreamlike landscapes and mind-bending visuals. These artistic influences create captivating experiences that resonate with players on a deeper level, making the gameplay more engaging and memorable.

Collaborations with Artists

As the worlds of art and online casinos collide, collaborations between PayID platforms and artists have become more frequent. Online casinos have recognized the value of incorporating original artwork into their games and promotions. This has led to partnerships with contemporary artists, who design exclusive art pieces for specific games or events.

Such collaborations provide exposure to artists and introduce their work to a broader audience. Moreover, players get to experience unique and original content, adding to the allure of the casino platform. These partnerships benefit both the artistic community and the gaming industry, fostering a creative exchange that enhances the overall player experience.

Supporting Artistic Initiatives

PayID online casinos have not only integrated art into their platforms but have also taken initiatives to support artists and art-related causes. Some casinos allocate a portion of their profits to art foundations or cultural institutions, promoting the preservation and advancement of art worldwide. By linking gambling entertainment with philanthropy, these platforms contribute to the betterment of society and show their commitment to art beyond mere aesthetics.

The Future of Art in PayID Online Casinos

The convergence of art and PayID online casinos is still in its early stages, and the future promises even more exciting possibilities. Advancements in technology will likely lead to more immersive art experiences, such as augmented reality (AR) integration, enabling users to interact with virtual art in their physical surroundings.

Furthermore, collaborations with artists are expected to diversify, encompassing various art forms like music, literature, and performance art. The integration of NFTs (Non-Fungible Tokens) may also offer new opportunities for artists and collectors to trade digital art within the casino environment, adding a layer of ownership and exclusivity to the experience.

Conclusion

The world of art in PayID online casinos is an intriguing fusion of chance and aesthetics. By incorporating art-themed slot games, hosting virtual art exhibitions, drawing inspiration from artistic movements, and collaborating with artists, these platforms provide a delightful and enriching experience for players.

Art not only enhances the visual appeal of casino games but also offers a profound connection to history, culture, and human creativity. As PayID online casinos continue to evolve and embrace artistic endeavors, they contribute to the growth of the art world while providing players with a truly immersive and unique gambling experience.

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Holland considered themselves a Protestant nation at odds with Catholic southern provinces. A key reason for the formation of Holland was the secession from the Spanish Crown and Catholicism. Holland is now a largely Protestant country in contrast to southern provinces which have mostly remained Catholic. Naturally, the division of the country has to influence life in everyday home. People have been divided into two parts – north part and south half. A broad separation also influenced art culture as people in a spiritual power over different provinces are gradually found their differences in culture between people abroad.

There were two schools: one Dutch, the other Flemish.

There is a time period in Dutch art that is often referred to as the Golden Age. This falls on the 17th century and signified a time of relative peace and calm that came after a separation from the country.

The Dutch, being a small country, were not exposed to the same influences as other countries and developed their own special style of art.

Protestantism is dissimilar from Catholicism in its style of life. Churches are not as dazzlingly decorated, nor are they as boisterous or authoritative, for instance. They rather seek to follow the “humble way of Jesus” (as Jesuits put it) and impose calmness and self-containment on those in search of something higher. The Church hasn’t issued any orders to artists for the design of temples. There are multiple reasons behind this. One is that a temple’s sole purpose is not to host artistic pieces, unlike what other places do. Another reason is that there shouldn’t be any distraction, with paintings and interior items, which in general makes architectural designing rather challenging.

Most commissions for religious paintings have been cancelled, replaced with many requests for other types of subject matter. This has led some to believe that the art of Holland in the 17th century is about everyday life. The people ordered paintings based on their usual subjects like landscapes and scenes from daily life. The themes of these paintings were not about any religious or mythological issue.

This style of painting was made possible by the new requirements and preferences for images in art, which is echoed in the depiction of life as it is – with muted colors, honest poses and bodies, and paintings with beautiful true-to-life colors. Dutch painting of the 17th century is a conversation about life and comfort, which can seem dull at first but is actually fascinating through their simplicity and lightness.

In addition, the competitive drive to reach new lands and establish new settlements has led Dutch artists to paint portraits of admirals as well as naval scenes with ships and merchant ships.

Anatomical theaters (rooms for educational dissections of corpses and lectures) were also often portrayed on canvases. Holland’s art began to change in response to the times, but it did not stop, as war scenes and everyday life became afashion.

There’s an up and coming genre in art called subject paintings, these scenes show what the artist sees in their everyday life. This was a new type of painting that emerged during the Dutch Renaissance that appealed to townspeople who wanted paintings of things they recognized in their place of living. There was no need to create monumental biblical scenes and court portraits with their inherent splendor and luxury. Dutch society was not interested in such things. That is why the development of the everyday genre falls on the 17th century: there is a greater understanding of private life and its variety in this century and a delight in portraying them.

Every artist had his own area of specialty. And fierce competition didn’t mean that there wasn’t a certain level of variety in genre and subject matter: it was necessary to be one’s best in order to succeed and receive orders on a continuous basis.

Each artist developed his talent in a particular genre and he didn’t compete with what he couldn’t do. What sets Dutch artists apart is their contentment with what they could do well without aiming to emulate more popular styles. He never had to worry about being ambitious and overreaching. He was happy with his position and this showed in the quality of his work.

In Flanders, the rise of commissions for religious paintings continued in contrast to Holland. As we remember, Flanders has traditionally been Catholic, in contrast to the Dutch Protestants. In Flanders, luxury and beauty – in richly decorated cathedrals and altarpieces – were still valued. Flanders wasn’t modest and demanded monumentality, pathos, luxury, and brightness. He would draw on mythical/biblical themes, images of festivity and ceremonial portraits as well as battles and significant events. Also, genre paintings were not particularly popular, unless they depicted still lifes only. Only the ones that were lush and bursting with abundance and happiness were necessary.

Flemish painters follow in the tradition of Michelangelo, Caravaggio, Titian and Tintoretto. They did this through the Baroque era – thirst for life, splendour, luxury. Emotionality is emphasised alongside an idealistic view of the world. The Flemish painters have some beautiful, life-embracing art that seems to transcend death. Their paintings contain a richness with warm colors and vivid details that create an atmosphere of fullness. They are absolutely marvelous from a purely artistic point of view, but the essence often feels like an experience just beyond the veil of this world.

Rubens is credited as the founder and driving force of the Baroque movement. He is known for being hugely influential in terms of creativity, a visionary, an original style and form distortion.

I agree, the style of Dutch painting did not follow the same path as baroque. The Dutch did not adopt baroque characteristics like contrasts and light/shade, but somehow they still managed to paint their own vision of the world. Furthermore, not many Dutch people left their country during the Renaissance, except for artists such as Rembrandt who were unable to work in their fields because the art movement was so new and unfamiliar. People like Rubens who travelled around Europe continued to do so through their diplomatic work. Rubens is to thank for rounding up those lost artworks, like a bunch of Leonardo da Vinci paintings.

What are the consequences? Let’s summarize what was mentioned before and explore the differences between Dutch and Flemish paintings.

Flemish art is life that throws us off balance: passionate, emotional, vibrant. Dutch art is commonplace, familiar and infinitely comfortable.

Belgian art is full of people whereas Dutch art gives the impression of small groups & quiet gatherings.

Flemish art – power and luxuries. Dutch art – less pomp and a simpler life, without much money or glory.

The Flemish school of art – to paint big! Biblical scenes, and mythological ones, with huge still lifes filled mostly with all the delicacies of the world and magnificent ceremonial portraits are just a few examples they left us. The Dutch meanwhile tended to focus on smaller paintings that could be hung in the houses of rich people. Everyday scenes or uncomplicated landscapes were. A light that doesn’t come from a physical source, but instead shines out of someone or something that we can’t see.

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But more often than not painters have learned a huge amount from sculpture, and any rivalry they may feel with sculptors is an intensely creative one. This is made abundantly clear from the Art UK website, with its wealth of paintings that include depictions of sculpture. The sculptures are not there simply as decorative fillers and background, but to stimulate eye and mind. To borrow a phrase coined by anthropologist Claude Lévi-Strauss, sculptures are ‘good to think with’.

Antique sculpture was a major inspiration for artists from the Renaissance until the nineteenth century, and one of the great pioneers in its rediscovery was the Bolognese painter and occasional sculptor Amico Aspertini (1474–1552). He is best known for a series of sketchbooks crammed with drawings of antique sculpture made in Rome in around 1500, and again in the 1530s.

Despite Aspertini’s importance, he has only recently recovered from Vasari’s hatchet job in the Lives of the Artists, where he is portrayed as a crackpot who painted at lightning speed with both hands (the ‘chiaro’ in one, the ‘scuro’ in the other!). Vasari may have been responding adversely to the sinuous intensity of works like the Virgin and Child between Saint Helena and Saint Francis (c.1520), acquired by the National Museum of Wales, Cardiff in 1986, and the only major Aspertini in the UK. He is now admired as an innovative precursor to Mannerism.

Aspertini’s painting is divided into three horizontal bands. He creates intriguing counterpoints between the central trio of monumental painted saints; an evanescent stormy landscape background with buffeted ghostly figures; and the intricately crowded sculptural relief along the bottom that resembles an antique sarcophagus.

Freestanding marble statuettes are arranged before a marble ledge on the which the saints lean, and on which the fidgety Christ child stands: on the left, we see Moses receiving the tablets with the commandments, then smashing them after he finds the Israelites worshipping the Golden Calf; on the right, we see the story of the Biblical King Josiah destroying the idols.

Paradox is piled on paradox. Why did this Bolognese lover of antique sculpture devise fictive sculpture depicting stories that celebrate the destruction of sculpture? Aspertini is trying to express a powerful yet complex idea: that Christianity both superseded and absorbed the world of classical antiquity. Antiquity had first to be destroyed and buried before it could be reborn. Imperial Rome and its temples became the foundation for Papal Rome and its churches; the Popes now owned the finest collections of antique sculpture.

Astonishingly, Christ’s legs are in the same position as those of the smashed statue of a dancing satyr displayed on a pedestal, and his skin is marmoreal. The visual quotation shows that Christian dances of spiritual joy have superseded carnal pagan dances; it also poignantly reminds us that Christ, even more fragile than a marble statue, would be ‘broken’ on the Cross.

The most celebrated antique sculpture in the papal collections depicted the Trojan priest Laocoon and his two sons being attacked by sea snakes sent by vengeful gods.

The original was dug up in Rome in 1506. Laocoon became a standard model for depictions of martyrs, and so moving was the statue that the Venetian writer Anton Francesco Doni wrote that when a spectator sees it, he is so overcome by compassion that he feels bitten by the same snakes and compelled to adopt the same pose, and to writhe in agony.

It is seen here (in reverse) in a semi-wild landscape by Dutch artist Abraham Begeyn (1637–1697), their poses echoed by the twisting oak trees: even nature feels sympathy, but not the bathetic goats.

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Art versus artifact

The word “art” is derived from the Latin ars, which originally meant “skill” or “craft.” These meanings are still primary in other English words derived from ars, such as “artifact” (a thing made by human skill) and “artisan” (a person skilled at making things). The meanings of “art” and “artist,” however, are not so straightforward. We understand art as involving more than just skilled craftsmanship. What exactly distinguishes a work of art from an artifact, or an artist from an artisan?

When asked this question, students typically come up with several ideas. One is beauty. Much art is visually striking, and in the 18th, 19th and early 20th centuries, the analysis of aesthetic qualities was indeed central in art history. During this time, art that imitated ancient Greek and Roman art (the art of classical antiquity), was considered to embody a timeless perfection. Art historians focused on the so-called fine arts—painting, sculpture, and architecture—analyzing the virtues of their forms. Over the past century and a half, however, both art and art history have evolved radically.

Artists turned away from the classical tradition, embracing new media and aesthetic ideals, and art historians shifted their focus from the analysis of art’s formal beauty to interpretation of its cultural meaning. Today we understand beauty as subjective—a cultural construct that varies across time and space. While most art continues to be primarily visual, and visual analysis is still a fundamental tool used by art historians, beauty itself is no longer considered an essential attribute of art.

A second common answer to the question of what distinguishes art emphasizes originality, creativity, and imagination. This reflects a modern understanding of art as a manifestation of the ingenuity of the artist. This idea, however, originated five hundred years ago in Renaissance Europe, and is not directly applicable to many of the works studied by art historians. For example, in the case of ancient Egyptian art or Byzantine icons, the preservation of tradition was more valued than innovation. While the idea of ingenuity is certainly important in the history of art, it is not a universal attribute of the works studied by art historians.

All this might lead one to conclude that definitions of art, like those of beauty, are subjective and unstable. One solution to this dilemma is to propose that art is distinguished primarily by its visual agency, that is, by its ability to captivate viewers. Artifacts may be interesting, but art, I suggest, has the potential to move us—emotionally, intellectually, or otherwise. It may do this through its visual characteristics (scale, composition, color, etc.), expression of ideas, craftsmanship, ingenuity, rarity, or some combination of these or other qualities. How art engages varies, but in some manner, art takes us beyond the everyday and ordinary experience. The greatest examples attest to the extremes of human ambition, skill, imagination, perception, and feeling. As such, art prompts us to reflect on fundamental aspects of what it is to be human. Any artifact, as a product of human skill, might provide insight into the human condition. But art, in moving beyond the commonplace, has the potential to do so in more profound ways. Art, then, is perhaps best understood as a special class of artifact, exceptional in its ability to make us think and feel through visual experience.

History: Making Sense of the Past

Like definitions of art and beauty, ideas about history have changed over time. It might seem that writing history should be straightforward—it’s all based on facts, isn’t it? In theory, yes, but the evidence surviving from the past is vast, fragmentary, and messy. Historians must make decisions about what to include and exclude, how to organize the material, and what to say about it. In doing so, they create narratives that explain the past in ways that make sense in the present. Inevitably, as the present changes, these narratives are updated, rewritten, or discarded altogether and replaced with new ones. All history, then, is subjective—as much a product of the time and place it was written as of the evidence from the past that it interprets.

The discipline of art history developed in Europe during the colonial period (roughly the 15th to the mid-20th century). Early art historians emphasized the European tradition, celebrating its Greek and Roman origins and the ideals of academic art. By the mid-20th century, a standard narrative for “Western art” was established that traced its development from the prehistoric, ancient, and medieval Mediterranean to modern Europe and the United States. Art from the rest of the world, labeled “non-Western art,” was typically treated only marginally and from a colonialist perspective.

The immense sociocultural changes that took place in the 20th century led art historians to amend these narratives. Accounts of Western art that once featured only white males were revised to include artists of color and women. The traditional focus on painting, sculpture, and architecture was expanded to include so-called minor arts such as ceramics and textiles and contemporary media such as video and performance art. Interest in non-Western art increased, accelerating dramatically in recent years.

Today, the biggest social development facing art history is globalism. As our world becomes increasingly interconnected, familiarity with different cultures and facility with diversity are essential. Art history, as the story of exceptional artifacts from a broad range of cultures, has a role to play in developing these skills. Now art historians ponder and debate how to reconcile the discipline’s European intellectual origins and its problematic colonialist legacy with contemporary multiculturalism and how to write art history in a global era.

Smarthistory’s videos and articles reflect this history of art history. Since the site was originally created to support a course in Western art and history, the content initially focused on the most celebrated works of the Western canon. With the key periods and civilizations of this tradition now well-represented and a growing number of scholars contributing, the range of objects and topics has increased in recent years. Most importantly, substantial coverage of world traditions outside the West has been added. As the site continues to expand, the works and perspectives presented will evolve in step with contemporary trends in art history. In fact, as innovators in the use of digital media and the internet to create, disseminate, and interrogate art historical knowledge, Smarthistory and its users have the potential to help shape the future of the discipline.

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The concept of genre in art is historically connected to specific ways of organizing and classifying art. A hierarchy of genres was often present in different artistic contexts. Landscapes and still lifes, history painting, and animal portraits are often featured in these classifications. Genre painting was developed in the 17th century in the Netherlands, as part of a fuller hierarchy of genres. It referred to artistic treatments of everyday life, rather than portraits, landscapes, or idealized historical scenery.

From the beginning of the 20th century, new artistic movements broke the hold of the traditional genres. The avant garde left behind both the stylistic requirements and the preferred subject matter of the genres in favor of more ecclectic working methods. Cubism played with existing frameworks, creating mixed media art that left painting behind for collage, and interweaving the art forms and perspectives of different styles. Photography contributed a great deal to the general disruption of painting as the addressee of artistic genres. The photograph introduced new ways of seeing the world. Artistic movements and genres like socialist realism, documentarism, futurism, and hyperrealism would have been inconceivable without the camera.

THE RENAISSANCE

The Renaissance is known as the period during which painting for painting as a fine art began in earnest. In the hands of artists like Michaelangelo, Rubens, and Caravaggio, art was conceived as a way to showcase human achievement, in the subject matter of sculpture, painting, and prints – but also through art as itself an activitiy which gave explicit testimony to human potential.

Mark Seelen’s Dutch Masters series is in this tradition. His still lifes of flowers are reminiscent of oil paintings by Willem Kalf and Pieter Claesz, who were party to the great artistic movement in which art came into its own.

ROCOCO

The Rococo, or Late Baroque period in art, was one during which the aesthetic elements in painting, architecture, sculpture, and other fine arts came to the fore. In European art of the 18th century, ornament was the watchword – and symmetry, verisimilutude, and devotional intent became secondary with respect to the opulence which patrons began to expect from commissioned artworks.

Animal portraits by Andreas Amrhein are redolent of garish and luxuriant Rococo artworks featuring animals. A similar effect is achieved in the works of Catherine Ledner, who creates incomparably fun small-format artworks. On the level of color and style, in-demand prints of paintings by Ysabel Lemay are every bit as opulent, and dense – as busy – as those by the rococo masters.

ROMANTICISM

By the peak of Romanticism, well underway by the middle of the 19th century, artists had made great strides towards the increasing autonomization of art as a discipline with standards that spoke more to the intuitive and impulsive side of the hman experience, leaving behind to some degree the mathematical and religious formalism which informed art beforehand.

Atmospheric, breathy works of art by the photo artist Andreas Chudowski recall the famous testimonial artworks of Caspar David Friedrich, whose dramatic oil paintings stage the human person’s search for spiritual meaning. Santiago’s photography pushes the human further into the distance, placing the observer before a foreground occupied by nature, and the promise of a wandering humanity somewhere off on the horizon.

IMPRESSIONISM

Impressionism, pioneered in the late 19th century by luminaries like Paul Cézanne, Camille Pissaro, and Alfred Sisley, sought to wrest painterly perception away from conventions of realism and representation, and refound them in natural perception. The artists of post impressionism, like Georges Seurat radically changed the way painting is used to portray the world.

EXPRESSIONISM

The prioritization of intense feeling as the goal of art is associated with the famous paintings of Vincent Van Gogh. In the decades around the First World War, European artists, especially in Germany, sought to depict increasingly unmediated spiritual and psychological states. This was the beginning of a long and storied attempt to escape from the Western artistic canon. Ironically, modernism, as a coherent visual lexicon of the canon’s discontents, has become a canon unto itself. In retrospect, then, Expressionism may also be seen as a starting point of modern fine art, as an attempt to finally liberate art from standards seen as exterior to itself, and to refound aesthetic value on new principles, unconstrained by the conventions of the academy and the realism of high culture at the Fin de siècle.

SURREALISM

In terms of shaping our expectations of what a fine artwork should look like – how it should comport itself in terms of style, ambition, and themes – no movement has had a greater effet than Surrealism. While other modernist currents have imparted the feel for anti-representationalism or a cool distance as fundamental virtues of fine art, surrealism has bridged a gap between fine art and popular culture. Mostly unnoticed, by creating realistic depictions in unrealistic arrangements or situations, surrealism opened the door for fine art to take on relevancy as an instrument of consumer aesthetics. But this was bidirectional: it also secured a place for fine art as a practice which participates in popular visual culture.

ABSTRACT

Abstract art is one of the flagship movements of modern art. Consisting in both figurative and non-figurative depictions, and represented by everything from warped and twisted sculpture to the aleatory, or randomized splash painting methods of mid-century abstract expressionism, abstract art has stood for a new mission for art beyond the mere representation of given reality.

The spare, geometrical aesthetics and blocks of color by artists like Sarah Morris and Bernd Uhde are reminiscent of works by pioneers of abstract art like Wasily Kandinsky or Kazimir Malevitch. The original artwork by Beatrice Hug or the sculptor Zaha Hadid emerge from the same will to abstraction seen in the famous abstract paintings of Jasper Johns or Lee Krasner.

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The Definition of Art

Art in any form is an expression or application of human creativity, skill, and imagination. Many of the arts are experienced visually but can also be audible or enjoyed through sensory touch. Arts were traditionally appreciated primarily for their beauty or emotional power but are now often used for political expression or social commentary. 

Most art can be generally categorized into the seven different forms of art we will look at in this article. Recognizing and understanding each of the distinct categories of art not only enables us to enjoy art more, but it’s also vital to help us understand the role of the arts in our lives and history.

What Are the 7 Different Forms of Art?

Specific mediums and forms of artistic expression have changed throughout human history, but for the most part, art falls into one of the following seven classical forms. Each different form of art is experienced differently and affects our emotions and feelings. 

• Painting
• Sculpture
• Literature
• Architecture
• Cinema
• Music
• Theater

We’ll explore what each art form covers, its history, and how it enriches our everyday lives.
 

1. Painting

Painting is what most minds jump to when we think of art. Painting is the most commonly taught art medium in childhood education. Many of today’s best-known contemporary artists work in this medium, including Alec Monopoly, David Kracov, Yoel Benharrouche, Angelo Accardi, and Calman Shemi.

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The first Greek statues were made during the Archaic Age (750 B.C. to 500 B.C.). They had the same rigidity, stiff posture and stylized walking gait as their counterparts in Egypt. Their left arm was forward and the fist were clenched like most Egyptian standing figures. The first advancement the Greeks made was creating a free standing statue. Egyptian statues were either seated or shown emerging from a slab of stone which acted to hold the figure up.

Early statues called “ kouroi” were often sensuous and monumental nude statues and often featured a mysterious Mona Lisa smile. “Kouros” and “ kore” are the male and female terms for “young person.” Art historian Andre Stewart told National Geographic, kouroi “were intended be erotic.” The subjects were usually young, male and had beautiful bodies. The largest known kouri are 16 feet high and made from marble. Before kouri the largest known sculpture in Greece were small bronzes.

Adam Masterman, an art teacher, wrote in Quora.com: The Archaic period (700-490 B.C.) represents the Greek response to seeing the awesome and impressive monumental sculptures of ancient Egypt. Archaic sculptures are relatively realistic, but very stiff and formal. They often stand in perfectly symmetrical poses, and have an imposing bulk to their proportions. They tend to feel more like archetypes than individuals, monuments rather than portraits.”

According to the Canadian Museum of History: “Life-sized or larger stone sculptures were not produced in Greece before 650 B.C. It was around that time that the Egyptian pharaoh Psammetichos allowed two groups of Greeks (Ionians and Carians) to settle along the banks of the Nile River. The Greeks learned the art of large stone carving from the Egyptians although they used the limestone and marble available in Greece, not the harder porphyry and granodiorite favoured by the Egyptians. The Egyptian “look and feel” was initially adopted by the Greeks but they were not content for long to simply produce sculptures in a style that had served the East for many generations. Within a couple of centuries they had evolved their distinctive Greek approach and abandoned the Egyptian formula.

Classical Greek Sculpture

Classical Greek Sculpture (500B.C. to 323 B.C.) was less rigid than sculptures from the Archaic period. Works featured flexed knees, turned heads, and contemplative expressions that were regarded as attempts to suggest motion, thoughts and naturalism. As time went on more and more anatomical features emerged, the bodies became more relaxed, muscular, sensual and less rigid, hair falls more naturally, motion was conveyed, clothing seems softer and more cloth-like facial expression convey more emotion and movement and action and are more realistically conveyed. A “middle distance” gaze of the statue’s eyes was greatly admired.

As Greek art developed and the sculptors evolved from skilled craftsmen into artists, the buttocks on their creations became more rounded, the ears took on more of a three-dimensional shape, collarbones were more pronounced, and, according to Boorstin, the lachrymal caruncle of the eyes was revealed for the first time. “The whole figure becomes more alive,” he says, “as the stance becomes relaxed and rigid symmetry and posture disappears…Their favored sculptural material was bronze…Bronze freed the sculptor to uplift limbs and tempted him to new postures.” [Source: “The Creators” by Daniel Boorstin,μ]

Adam Masterman wrote in Quora.com: “The Classical period (480-323 B.C.) was defined by a marked increase in naturalism, which means that the sculptures started looking more like real people in real poses. This period shows the first examples of contrapposto, which is where the weight is shifted to one leg (which is how humans tend to stand). Contrapposto is more realistic, and it’s also more visually dynamic; it creates a subtle s-shape to the torso that is very common and recognizable in Classical sculpture. These figures are still very idealized, but with more anatomical subtlety and muscular definition, and a broadening range of poses.”

Describing a classical Nike, or Victory, from the Acropolis Museum Holland Cotter wrote in the New York Times: “Bending to untie her sandal, the intricate, looping folds of her drapery creating a linear pattern that reveals rather than hides the swelling contours of her torso. Her sensuality stands in dramatic contrast to a stele from the Metropolitan’s own collection, in which a mournful looking little girl holds two pet doves, one of which gently touches her mouth with its beak.” [Source: Holland Cotter, New York Times, March 12, 1993]

On some funerary sculptures, some of which may have been carved by artists who worked on the Parthenon, Cotter wrote in the New York Times: “Here the figures are neither gods nor heroes but human beings engaged in the intimate activities of their lives. On one memorial, a husband and wife gaze confidingly at each other; on another, the well-known “Grave Stele of Hegeso,” a wealthy woman regretfully admires her jewels, carried in a box by her servant. The presence of the servant… is of much interest here. Notably smaller than her seated mistress, anonymous, proferring wealth that is not hers, surely she has something pertinent to say about what democracy… actually meant in the Greece of the fifth century B.C. “Golden Age,” a society, after all, that held a large population of slaves and extended full citizenship only to men.

Polyclitus and Praxiteles

Polyclitus was one of Greece’s most famous sculptures. According to an often repeated tale he once made two statues at the same time. One was made according to his principals of art and another he modified according the wishes of people who observed it. When the two were finally unveiled everyone marveled at one of the statues and laughed at the other. Thereupon Plyclitus said: “But the one of which you find fault with, you made yourselves; while he one you marvel at, I made.” [Source: “The Creators” by Daniel Boorstin,μ]

Polyclitus produced wonderful sculptures of athletes. A New York Times critic Grace Gluek wrote his “brilliance is evident on the rhythmic play between the torso and the thorax, each tilting slightly in the opposite directions, and in the lifelike separation of the feet that gives the otherwise placid statue a sense of movement.”

Praxiteles did some of the most wonderful sculptures in Olympia and is one of the few artists we know by name who has produced works that exist today; the sensuous “ Aphrodite of the Cnidians” and classic “ Hermes “ . Scopas was the name of another great Greek sculptor.

On a famous story about Praxiteles, Pausanias wrote in “Description of Greece”, Book I: Attica (A.D. 160): “ Leading from the prytaneum is a road called Tripods. The place takes its name from the shrines, large enough to hold the tripods which stand upon them, of bronze, but containing very remarkable works of art, including a Satyr, of which Praxiteles is said to have been very proud. Phryne once asked of him the most beautiful of his works, and the story goes that lover-like he agreed to give it, but refused to say which he thought the most beautiful. So a slave of Phryne rushed in saying that a fire had broken out in the studio of Praxiteles, and the greater number of his works were lost, though not all were destroyed. Praxiteles at once started to rush through the door crying that his labour was all wasted if indeed the flames had caught his Satyr and his Love. But Phryne bade him stay and be of good courage, for he had suffered no grievous loss, but had been trapped into confessing which were the most beautiful of his works. So Phryne chose the statue of Love; while a Satyr is in the temple of Dionysus hard by, a boy holding out a cup.” [Source: Pausanias, “Description of Greece,” with an English Translation by W.H.S. Jones, Litt.D. in 4 Volumes. Volume 1.Attica and Cornith, Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd., 1918]

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Mark Abbe was ambushed by color in 2000, while working on an archeological dig in the ancient Greek city of Aphrodisias, in present-day Turkey. At the time, he was a graduate student at New York University’s Institute of Fine Arts, and, like most people, he thought of Greek and Roman statues as objects of pure white marble. The gods, heroes, and nymphs displayed in museums look that way, as do neoclassical monuments and statuary, from the Jefferson Memorial to the Caesar perched outside his palace in Las Vegas.

Aphrodisias was home to a thriving cadre of high-end artists until the seventh century A.D., when an earthquake caused it to fall into ruin. In 1961, archeologists began systematically excavating the city, storing thousands of sculptural fragments in depots. When Abbe arrived there, several decades later, he started poking around the depots and was astonished to find that many statues had flecks of color: red pigment on lips, black pigment on coils of hair, mirrorlike gilding on limbs. For centuries, archeologists and museum curators had been scrubbing away these traces of color before presenting statues and architectural reliefs to the public. “Imagine you’ve got an intact lower body of a nude male statue lying there on the depot floor, covered in dust,” Abbe said. “You look at it up close, and you realize the whole thing is covered in bits of gold leaf. Oh, my God! The visual appearance of these things was just totally different from what I’d seen in the standard textbooks—which had only black-and-white plates, in any case.” For Abbe, who is now a professor of ancient art at the University of Georgia, the idea that the ancients disdained bright color “is the most common misconception about Western aesthetics in the history of Western art.” It is, he said, “a lie we all hold dear.”

In the early nineteen-eighties, Vinzenz Brinkmann had a similar epiphany while pursuing a master’s degree in classics and archeology from Ludwig Maximilian University, in Munich. As part of an effort to determine what kinds of tool marks could be found on Greek marble sculpture, he devised a special lamp that shines obliquely on an object, highlighting its surface relief. When he began scrutinizing sculptures with the lamp, he told me, he “quite immediately understood” that, while there was little sign of tool marks on the statues, there was significant evidence of polychromy—all-over color. He, too, was taken aback by the knowledge that a fundamental aspect of Greek statuary “had been so excluded” from study. He said, “It started as an obsession for me that has never ended.”

Brinkmann soon realized that his discovery hardly required a special lamp: if you were looking at an ancient Greek or Roman sculpture up close, some of the pigment “was easy to see, even with the naked eye.” Westerners had been engaged in an act of collective blindness. “It turns out that vision is heavily subjective,” he told me. “You need to transform your eye into an objective tool in order to overcome this powerful imprint”—a tendency to equate whiteness with beauty, taste, and classical ideals, and to see color as alien, sensual, and garish.

One afternoon this summer, Marco Leona, who runs the scientific-research department at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, gave me a tour of the Greek and Roman galleries. He pointed out a Greek vase, from the third century B.C., that depicts an artist painting a statue. Leona said, of polychromy, “It’s like the best-kept secret that’s not even a secret.” Jan Stubbe Østergaard, a former curator at the Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek museum, in Copenhagen, and the founder of an international research network on polychromy, told me, “Saying you’ve seen these sculptures when you’ve seen only the white marble is comparable to somebody coming from the beach and saying they’ve seen a whale because there was a skeleton on the beach.”

In the nineteen-nineties, Brinkmann and his wife, Ulrike Koch-Brinkmann, who is an art historian and an archeologist, began re-creating Greek and Roman sculptures in plaster, painted with an approximation of their original colors. Palettes were determined by identifying specks of remaining pigment, and by studying “shadows”—minute surface variations that betray the type of paint applied to the stone. The result of this effort was a touring exhibition called “Gods in Color.” Versions of the show, which was launched in 2003, have been seen by three million museumgoers in twenty-eight cities, including Istanbul and Athens.

The replicas often deliver a shock. A Trojan archer, from approximately 500 B.C., wears tight pants with a harlequin pattern that is as boldly colored as Missoni leggings. A lion that once stood guard over a tomb in Corinth, in the sixth century B.C., has an azurite mane and an ochre body, calling to mind Mayan or Aztec artifacts. There are also reconstructions of naked figures in bronze, which have a disarming fleshiness: copper lips and nipples, luxuriant black beards, wiry swirls of dark pubic hair. (Classical bronze figures were often blinged out with gemstones for the eyes and with contrasting metals that highlighted anatomical details or dripping wounds.) Throughout the exhibition, the colored replicas are juxtaposed with white plaster casts of marble pieces—fakes that look like what we think of as the real thing.

For many people, the colors are jarring because their tones seem too gaudy or opaque. In 2008, Fabio Barry, an art historian who is now at Stanford, complained that a boldly colored re-creation of a statue of the Emperor Augustus at the Vatican Museum looked “like a cross-dresser trying to hail a taxi.” Barry told me, in an e-mail, that he still found the colors unduly lurid: “The various scholars reconstructing the polychromy of statuary always seemed to resort to the most saturated hue of the color they had detected, and I suspected that they even took a sort of iconoclastic pride in this—that the traditional idea of all-whiteness was so cherished that they were going to really make their point that it was colorful.”

But some of the disorientation among viewers comes from seeing polychromy at all. Østergaard, who put on two exhibitions at the Glyptotek which featured painted reconstructions, said that, to many visitors, the objects “look tasteless.” He went on, “But it’s too late for that! The challenge is for us to try and understand the ancient Greeks and Romans—not to tell them they got it wrong.”

Lately, this obscure academic debate about ancient sculpture has taken on an unexpected moral and political urgency. Last year, a University of Iowa classics professor, Sarah Bond, published two essays, one in the online arts journal Hyperallergic and one in Forbes, arguing that it was time we all accepted that ancient sculpture was not pure white—and neither were the people of the ancient world. One false notion, she said, had reinforced the other. For classical scholars, it is a given that the Roman Empire—which, at its height, stretched from North Africa to Scotland—was ethnically diverse. In the Forbes essay, Bond notes, “Although Romans generally differentiated people on their cultural and ethnic background rather than the color of their skin, ancient sources do occasionally mention skin tone and artists tried to convey the color of their flesh.” Depictions of darker skin can be seen on ancient vases, in small terra-cotta figures, and in the Fayum portraits, a remarkable trove of naturalistic paintings from the imperial Roman province of Egypt, which are among the few paintings on wood that survive from that period. These near-life-size portraits, which were painted on funerary objects, present their subjects with an array of skin tones, from olive green to deep brown, testifying to a complex intermingling of Greek, Roman, and local Egyptian populations. (The Fayum portraits have been widely dispersed among museums.)

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