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Art history is the study of objects of art in their historical and stylistic contexts. This discipline is distinguished from art criticism, which is concerned with placing a relative artistic dude "value" on individual works with respect to others of generally comparable style, or giving sanction to an entire style or movement; and art theory, which is concerned with the fundamental nature of art and is related more to aesthetics and determination of the essence of beauty and artistic appeal. Art history is technically not these things. Art history answers the questions, "How did the artist come to create his work?" "Who were his patrons? his teachers? his disciples?" "What historical forces shaped the artist's oeuvre, and how did he and his creation in turn affect the course of events, artistic, political and social?" Art history (also called history of art) is a term which encompasses several different methods of studying the visual arts; in its most common usage it refers to the academic study of works of art and architecture. The definition is, however, wide-ranging, and some aspects of the discipline overlap with art criticism and art theory, as noted above, and as is demonstrated by Ernst Gombrich's observation that "the field of art history is much like Caesar's Gaul, divided into three parts inhabited by three different, though not necessarily hostile tribes: the connoisseurs, the critics and the academic art historians". Works of criticism or of theory have frequently been the pivots around which the understanding of art history has turned.
Definition Art history is a relatively new academic enterprise. Whereas the analysis of historical trends in, for example, politics, literature, and the sciences, benefits from the clarity and portability of the written word, a true art history relies on faithful reproductions of artworks as a springboard of discussion and study. Advances in photographic reproduction and printing techniques after World War II made this possible. Nevertheless the appreciation and study of the visual arts has intrigued man for millennia. The definition of art history reflects the dichotomy within art; i.e., art as history and in anthropological context; and art as a study in forms. The study of visual art can be approached through the following broad categories: Contextualism is the approach whereby a work of art is examined in the context of its time; in a manner which respects its creator's motivations and imperatives; with consideration of the desires and prejudices of its patrons and sponsors; with a comparative analysis of themes and approaches of the creator's colleagues and teachers; and consideration of religious iconography and temporal symbolism. In short, this approach examines the work of art in the context of the world within which it was created. In contrast, formalism, as the term suggests, approaches the artwork through an analysis of its form; that is, the creator's use of line, shape, color, texture, and composition. This approach examines how the artist uses a two-dimensional picture plane (or the three dimensions of sculptural or architectural space) to create his art. A formal analysis can further describe art as representational or non-representational; which answers the question, is the artist imitating an object or image found in nature? If so, it is representational. The closer the art hews to perfect imitation, the more the art is realistic. If the art is less imitation and more symbolism, or in an important way strives to capture nature's essence, rather than imitate it directly, the art is abstract. Impressionism is an example of a representational style that was not directly imitative, but strove to create an "impression" of nature. Of course, realism and abstraction exist on a continuum. If the work is not representational of nature, but an expression of the artist's feelings, longings and aspirations, or his search for ideals of beauty and form, the work is non-representational or a work of expressionism. The ancient world The earliest surviving writing on art that can be classified as art history is the passages in Pliny the Elder's Natural History concerning the development of Greek sculpture and painting. From it it is possible to trace the ideas of Xenokrates of Sicyon, a Greek sculptor who was possibly the first art historian. As a result, although Pliny's work was mainly an encyclopaedia of the sciences, his writings on art were disproportionately influential from the Renaissance onwards, particularly the passages about the techniques used by the painter Apelles. Similar, though independent developments occurred in 6th century China, where a canon of worthy artists was established by writers in the scholar-official class (who, being necessarily proficient in calligraphy, were artists themselves), and the Six Principles of Painting were formulated by Xie He. The beginnings of modern art history While personal reminiscences of art and artists have long been written and read (see Lorenzo Ghiberti for the best early example), it was Giorgio Vasari, the Tuscan painter, sculptor and author of "Lives of the Painters," who ushered in the era of the story of art as history, with emphasis on art's progression and development, a milestone in this field. His was a personal and an historical account, featuring biographies of individual Italian artists, many of whom were his contemporaries and personal acquaintances. The most renowned of these was Michelangelo, and Vasari's account is enlightening. Vasari's ideas about art held sway until the 18th century, when criticism was leveled at his peculiar style of history as the personal. Scholars such as Johann Joachim Winckelmann criticised Vasari's "cult" of artistic personality, and argued that the real emphasis in the study of art belonged on the views of the learned beholder and not the unique viewpoint of the charismatic artist. Winckelmann's writings thus were the beginnings of art criticism. Winckelmann was famous for his critique of the artistic excesses of the Baroque and Rococo forms, and subsequently instrumental in reforming taste in favor of the more sober Neoclassicism, in a return to elemental Renaissance thinking. Incidentally, from Winckelmann until the early 20th century, the field of art history was dominated by German-speaking academics. Modern Art History Most acknowledge Heinrich Wölfflin (1864-1945) as the father of modern art history. Wölfflin certainly made the first formal analysis of the field. He introduced a scientific approach to the history of art, turning on three concepts. Firstly, he attempted to study art using psychology, particularly the work of Willhelm Wundt, an early behaviorist. A principal, if strained, scientific conception was that of the artistic ideal of corporeal correspondence; i.e. that art and architecture are good if they resemble the human body. For example, houses were good if their façades looked like faces. Secondly, he introduced the idea of studying art through comparison. Hence by comparing individual paintings to each other, one were able to make distinctions of style. His book Renaissance and Baroque developed this idea, and was the first to show how these stylistic periods differed from one another. In contrast to Giorgio Vasari, Wölfflin was uninterested in the biographies of artists. In fact he proposed the creation of an "art history without names." Finally, he studied art based on ideas of nationhood. He was particularly interested in whether there was an inherently "Italian" and an inherently "German" style. This last interest was most fully articulated in his monograph on the German artist Albrecht Durer. Psychoanalytic Art History Heinrich Wölfflin was not the only scholar to invoke psychological theories in the study of art. Psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud wrote a book on the artist Leonardo Da Vinci, in which Freud used Da Vinci's paintings to interrogate the artist's psyche and sexual orientation. Freud inferred from his analysis that Leonardo was likely a homosexual. The use of posthumous material to perform psychoanalysis is controversial; furthermore, the sexual mores of Da Vinci's time and Freud's are different. After Freud, several other scholars have applied psychoanalytic theory to art. One of the most well know of which is Laurie Schnieder Adams, who wrote a popular textbook Art Across Time. Prominent Critical Art Historians Since Heinrich Wolfflin's time, art history has embraced social history by using critical approaches. The goal of these approaches is to show how art interacts with power structures in society. The first critical approach that art historians used was Marxism. Marxist art history attempted to show how art was tied to specific classes, how images contain information about the economy, and how images can make the status quo seem natural (ideology). Marxist Art Historians Even Marxism has figured in the interpretation of art. Meyer Schapiro was the first art historian to take Marxism seriously. While he wrote about numerous time periods and themes in art, he is best remembered for his commentary on sculpture from the late Middle Ages and early Renaissance, at which time he saw evidence of capitalism emerging and feudalism declining. Arnold Hauser wrote the first marxist survey of Western Art, titled "The Social History of Art." In this book he attempted to show how class consciousness was reflected in major art periods. His book was very controversial when it was published during the 1950s because it makes gross generalizations about entire eras. However, it remains in print as a classic art historical text. T.J. Clark was the first art historian writing from a Marxist perspective to abandon vulgar Marxism per se. He wrote Marxist art histories of several impressionist and realist artists, including Gustav Courbet and Eduard Manet. These books focused closely on the political and economic climates in which the art was created. Notes See also | ||||||||
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