Art Humanities Midterm

Susannah Blair

Modern Cult of Movements: Its Character and Origin by Alois Riegl (1903)

Before Riegl, only the most beautiful or artistically perfect buildings were preserved.

Riegl argued that preservation should not depend on taste or aesthetics — since ideas of beauty change over time — but on historical significance.

Every period, style, and building contributes to the continuous evolution of human culture.

Age-value monuments – appreciated for showing the passage of time (ruins, weathered stone), which evoke emotion and connection to the past.

“There is no such thing as western
civilisation” by Kwame Anthony Appiah

The main idea of Kwame Anthony Appiah’s essay “There Is No Such Thing as Western Civilization” is that “Western civilization” is a myth — a modern invention that oversimplifies history and misrepresents cultural identity.

“On Painting” by Leon Battista Alberti (1436)

The main idea of Leon Battista Alberti’s On Painting (1436) is that painting is a noble and intellectual art grounded in science, geometry, and the imitation of nature, and that it should be practiced with reason, knowledge, and skill — not just manual craft.

Alberti argues that painting is not a mechanical craft but a liberal art, worthy of learned study and humanistic respect.

• Painting is “divine” because it makes the absent present — it can represent the dead and evoke memory and emotion.

• Painters, through imitation of nature, act almost like creators, giving life to images.

• He elevates painters above mere craftsmen, comparing their creative power to the divine act of creation.

📐 2. The Scientific Foundation of Painting

Alberti defines painting as composed of three essential parts:

1. Circumscription – drawing the outline or contour of forms.

2. Composition – arranging forms harmoniously within the picture.

3. Reception of light – modeling forms with light and shade to create depth and realism.

He treats painting as a science of vision, rooted in geometry, optics, and proportion — reflecting Renaissance humanism’s blend of art and mathematics. His invention of the “veil” (a grid or perspective screen) was an early system for accurate perspective drawing.

🏛 3. Imitating Nature and Creating Beauty

For Alberti, the goal of painting is to imitate nature — but with selection and idealization.

• The artist should study nature’s forms, proportions, and light to understand beauty scientifically.

• Beauty arises from harmony, balance, and grace — qualities found in nature and perfected through intellect.

• The painter’s task is not to copy nature exactly, but to recreate it according to reason and ideal proportion.

👁 4. The ‘Historia’: The Highest Form of Painting

Alberti identifies the historia (a narrative composition with figures and actions) as the most complete and noble form of painting.

• A good historia should be varied, balanced, emotionally expressive, and dignified.

• It should move the viewer by expressing human emotions through gesture, expression, and movement.

• Figures, architecture, and landscape must all be organized harmoniously to tell a clear story.

💡 5. The Painter as Scholar and Philosopher

Alberti’s ideal artist is not a mere artisan, but an educated humanist — someone who unites intellectual, moral, and manual excellence.

• Painters should study literature, geometry, anatomy, and philosophy.

• They should seek fame and virtue, not money, as their reward.

• Through painting, the artist can achieve immortality by capturing human experience and divine beauty.

marginality as a site of resistance — Bell Hooks

in relation to women and how marginality gives opportunity to find one’s own niche

“The Master’s Touch” Alpers (1988)

Rembrandt: Rough vs. Smooth & Sight vs. Touch
Alpers argues that Rembrandt’s rough, textured painting style (impasto) shows the artist’s hand and connects sight with touch.
Unlike smooth painters who hid their brushwork to please the eye, Rembrandt’s thick paint lets viewers see and almost feel the surface.
His impasto makes light and texture part of the image, turning painting into both a visual and tactile experience.
This visible texture — the “master’s touch” — becomes a sign of his individuality and presence, proving mastery through the trace of his hand rather than polished illusion.