Chapter One AoBH

aesthetic

An experience in the arts or in life, such as watching a sunset, that we value for no reason beyond itself.

beauty

A pleasing arrangement of parts that affects us aesthetically.

discipline

In the humanities, a given art form-literature, visual art, music, drama, dance, and cinema-as well as a field of academic study (such as "literary theory"or "history of dance").

humanism

A movement begun in the early Renaissance that extolled and studied the creative and intellectual legacies of classical Greece and Rome, leading to the conviction that only through such study could one become fully human; a term that is now expanded to include the study of contributions from all cultures.

Renaissance man

A label often applied to Leonardo da Vinci, indicating his display of genius in many areas from art to science; now used as high praise for anyone who has earned a reputation for high achievement in several fields (e.g. Albert Einstein).

humanities

Once limited to "the best products of the best minds," narrowly defined as classical Greek or Roman, but later expanded to include Western European achievements and, more recently, the creative expressions of men and women around the world.