DECA - Art Section I

What is art history?

an academic discipline dedicated to the reconstruction of social, cultural, and economic contexts in which an artwork was created

Art history is dedicated to the reconstruction of what contexts in which an artwork was created?

social, cultural, and economic

What is the basic goal of art history?

to arrive at an understanding of art and its meaning in its historical moment

What other disciplines is art history closely related?

anthropology, history, and sociology

Art history sometimes overlaps with what fields?

aesthetics and art criticism

What is the field of aesthetics?

the philosophical inquiry into the nature and expression of beauty

What is art criticism?

the explanation of current art events to the general public via the press

How do art historians today define "art"?

any kind of visual material that is created by people and invested with special meaning and/or valued for its aesthetic appeal

What have art historians in the past limited their focus to in art?

"fine art"

What does fine art include?

paintings, prints, drawings, sculpture and architecture

Today we define art much more broadly, taking into consideration objects that were once dismissed as what?

"craft"

What objects were once dismissed as "craft"?

textiles, pottery, and body art

Art historians now also consider objsects that might not be considered art by their intended audience, such as:

mass-produced posters, advertisements, and the design of ordinary household items

What is one example of how the meaning of a work of art can shift over time?

Michelangelo's paintings on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel

Michelangelo's paintings on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel would have been significant in different ways in the eyes of what two people?

the Pope who commissioned the work with sophisticated theological knowledge with access to private space in the Vatican and a worker charged with cleaning the floors of the chapel whos literacy level was low

The paintings' meaning to a ______________ century Protestant, Muslim, or atheist is certainly different from the meaning they had for a practicing Catholic in the ___________ century.

21st century, 16th century

The meaning of a work of art is not fixed, but it is what?

open to multiple interpretations taking into consideration factors such as historical context

The two modes of analysis art historians use are what?

formal analysis and contextual analysis

What does formal analysis focus on

visual qualities of the work of art itself

The terms associated with the formal qualities of works of art are also known as what?

the elements of art

What does formal analysis require?

excellent observation and description skills

What does contextual analysis involve?

looking outside of the work of art in order to determine its meaning

Contextual analysis involves not only the context in which the work was created but also what?

the later contexts in which the work was and continues to be consumed

What contexts does contextual analysis focus on?

cultural, social, religious, and economic

Art historians may examine what issues?

patronage, viewer access to the work, the cost of the work of art, and the subject matter in relation to other artworks of the period

How does art history emphasize chronological development?

one generation of artists will impact following generations

What type of study do art historians often use?

comparative study

What is one example of comparative study?

contrasting a Gothic with a Renaissance artwork

What can we understand by contrasting a Gothic and Renaissance artwork?

we can understand more clearly the unique features of each and the series of stylistic changes that led from one to the other

How do art historians often begin their analysis?

with a close examination of a work of art

Why is direct examination ideal?

because much is lot when we look at a reproduction rather than an original object

In what form of art is it difficult to get a proper sense of scale?

sculpture

In what form of art are the three-dimensional qualities of a piece difficult to get?

photography

What happens when we experience paintings in reproduction?

we lose the texture and some of the rich colors

Why is it common for art historians to settle for studying from reproductions?

due to practical constraints

In addition to examining the work of art in question, what must art historians do?

seek to understand any associated studies and other works by the artist and their contemporaries

What are examples of associated studies to a work of art?

sketches and preparatory models

In the quest for contextual information about a work of art, what do art historians use?

many written sources

Often, these written sources or texts are stored in what?

archives or libraries

What may archival sources include?

letters between the artist and patron, or other documents pertaining to the commission, and art criticism produced at the time the work of art was made

What might an art historian search for about a work of art?

written documentation about the materials used to produce it, like the cost and source, and about the function of the artwork

Art historians seek to situate the work of art in the context of what?

literature, music, theater, and history of the time period

Guided by what field do some art historians use methods to understand the context of a work of art?

anthropology

What is one method art historians use to understand a work of art's context?

participant observation

When did art history arise as an academic discipline?

mid-eighteenth century

What ancient Roman historian sought to analyze historical and contemporary art?

Pliny the Elder

Roman historian Pliny the Elder analyzed historical and contemporary art in what text?

Natural History

Giorgio Vasari was an artist and author in what period?

the Renaissance

In what text did Vasari gather the biographies of great Italian artists, past, and present?

The Lives of the Artists

What is the nationality of the artists in The Lives of the Artists?

Italian

What does Vasari's text provide us with?

insight on the changing roles of artists in society during the Renaissance and the developing concept of artistic genus

The Lives of the Artists introduced what developing concept?

the artistic genus

Modern art history was strongly influenced by what philosophy?

eighteenth-century Enlightenment

Who was Johann Joachim Winckelmann?

a German scholar

What did Johann Joachim Winckelmann do?

he shifted away from Vasari's biographical emphasis to a rigorous study of stylistic development as related to historical context

Through what centuries did art historians continue to develop approaches that increased emphasis on the interrelationship between the formal qualities of a work of art and its context?

19th and 20th centuries

When considering contemporary views of art history as well as perspectives on art history from the past, it is important to keep what in mind?

all histories are individual stories and inevitably reflect certain biases

From who has art history been recently revised?

by feminist historians

What have feminist historians noted?

the traditional version of art history has largely focused on white men, as artists and patrons

Art history has expanded and often includes what methods and viewpoints?

Marxist, feminist, and psychoanalytic

The full range of visual culture ranges from what to what?

advertisement posters to film to photography and television imagery

Much of what we know of the earliest life on earth have been revealed through what?

a study of the objects or artifacts that remain from early cultures

Objects that remain from the earliest life on earth have been made of what?

enduring materials like stone, metal, or fired clay

What are perishable materials?

wood or fibers

What climate in Egypt enabled the preservation of even delicate materials like papyrus?

the hot dry climate

What helped preserve the objects contained in Egyptian caves and tombs?

the sealed atmosphere

What climate in West Africa made it so that objects of perishable materials had little chance of survival

humid climate

What is one reason that the history of art as a discipline as placed greater emphasis on Western cultures?

climate in Nonwestern areas

What are the oldest works of art that is considered in the guide?

cave paintings found in Chauvet Cave

Where is the Chauvet Cave?

southeastern France

When were the paintings in the Chauvet Cave discovered?

1994

The paintings in the Chauvet Cave date from when?

c. 30,000 BCE

The paintings are placed in what age?

the Old Stone Age (Upper Paleolithic Period)

What were the paintings and engravings in Chauvet Cave created using?

red ochre and black charcoal

What animals do the paintings depict?

horses, rhinoceros, lions, buffalos, and mammoths

Where have additional cave paintings been discovered?

parts of France and Spain

Where are the most famous cave paintings?

Lascaux and Altamira

How did they make the black outlines in the paintings?

with charcoal

It is possible that these works were created as part of what?

hunting ceremonies or other ritual behaviors

What is another well-known group of artworks from the Old Stone Age?

small stone female gifures that have exaggerated bellies, breasts, and pubic areas

What is the best known sculpture of these types of female figures?

Venus of Willendorf

What is Venus also known as?

Woman

When does Venus of Willendorf date to?

28,000-25,000 BCE

How tall is Venus of Willendorf?

4 and 1/8th inches

What contrasts with the exaggerated female features of the body?

the undefined facial features, the barely visible arms, and the missing feet

What do these figures symbolize?

fertility

What happened to the climate during the Middle Stone Age (Mesolithic Period)?

the climate warmed

With the warming of temperatures during the Middle Stone Age, what did cave dwellers do?

they moved out of their caves and began using rock shelters

How do we know that cave dwellers moved out of caves into rock shelters?

because of paintings that have been discovered in locations like eastern Spain

It is estimated that the paintings in eastern Spain were created when?

7000 BCE until 4000 BCE

How were the rock shelter paintings similar to the cave paintings?

they depicted animal figures

Except for one human figure found in the paintings at ___________, cave paintings did not include any human beings.

Lascaux

How were the rock shelter paintings and cave paintings different?

the rock shelter paintings potrayed human beings, both alone and in groups

The rock shelter paintings seemingly emphasize what scenes?

human beings dominating animals

What art forms are most often linked with the New Stone Age (Neolithic Period)?

rings or rows of rough-hewn stones located in Western Europe

The rings of rough-hewn stones located in Western Europe that are linked with the New Stone Age have been dated as early as when?

4000 BCE

How tall were these stones in Western Europe?

17 feet

How heavy were these stones in Western Europe?

50 tons

The size of these works in Western Europe led historians to call the stones what?

megaliths

What does megaliths mean?

great stones