Art History - E-book - ePub

Art history is all about challenging the creative side of yourself, in inspiring you to find beauty in all forms. Since the existenceof this world, mankind have known and practiced art indifferent styles. May it be the crude drawings and paintings ofthe caveman or the masterpiece of Leonardo da Vinci. Arthistory spans the entire account of the human race, right fromthe primeval times to the 21st century.
It is the study of objects of art and the ancient style, designand genre that they have been made in. This includespaintings, sculptures, architectures even furniture and otherdecorative like ceramics and many more. Art History embracesvarious methods to study the works of art and architecture. The field of art is much easier to understand when dividedinto three parts, which is the specialists, the critics and the arthistorians.
The part played by the art critics is very imperative andcrucial, reason being they are the ones who help in establishinga comparative artistic value to the piece of work with respectto the works of others of the same genre. They have theauthority to sanction an entire new style or a movement orphilosophy of art and art theory, which is apprehensive withthe nature of art. There is another department of study knownas, study of Aesthetics and it majorly deals in investigating theproblem of the transcendent and defining the quintessence ofbeauty.
On the other hand, Art History has nothing to do withany of these. Art historians use historical methods to find answers to ahistorical piece of art, to questions such as: How did the artistinspire to create the particular work?, who were thesupporters?, Who was the teacher?, who were the spectators?, who were the followers?, what historic events forced the artist'swork?, what effects did the art create socially and politically?.
Many questions like such arise for each piece of art, the arthistorians' work is to find those answers. It is however, uncertain whether or not questions like these would get asatisfactory answers to it. This book is on a revitalizing and awe inspiring revelationabout art history the study of Art History. The meaning of it, and the methods used to study the artefacts by the arthistorians. How it came to improve in the developing years anddifferent eras.