Assumptions, Nature, and History of Art

Vocabulary flashcards covering the concepts, etymologies, elements, humanities branches, and historical movements of art from prehistoric times to modern art periods.

Imagination

An abstraction of a certain thought or feeling that produces good art based on reality or experience (Hollick, 2014).

Expression

An automatic response to imagination; unexpressed imagination is not considered art.

Ars

The Latin term from which the word 'art' is derived, meaning skill, talent, or ability.

Art (Oxford Definition)

An expression of creative skills and imagination in different genres for appreciation of beauty and emotional power.

Creativity

A metacognitive skill and form of divergent thinking that allows one to generate relationships, integrate concepts, elaborate information, and brainstorm issues with fluency, flexibility, and originality (Johnson, 2010).

Craft

A form of work utilizing available materials that provides a utilitarian and mechanical process of creation.

Craftsmanship

The manner in which an artist selects art media, uses brushes, mixes colors on a palette, and contrasts hues between lighter and darker values of tints, tones, and shades to enhance techniques.

Humanities

Fields derived from the Latin words 'Humanu' and 'humanitas', meaning humans, providing opportunities to think critically and creatively to understand world values and cultures.

Philosophy

A discipline derived from the Greek words 'philos' or 'philein' (love) and 'Sophia' (wisdom), meaning 'Love of wisdom.'

History

A discipline derived from the Latin word 'historia', meaning to scribble and record past events.

Religion

A discipline derived from the Latin 'religare' or 'religio', meaning to bind; a form of obligation that binds the faithful with one Divine power.

Literature

A discipline derived from the Latin word 'littera' or 'litteratura', meaning letter or knowledge of books, focusing on the study of fiction such as myths, epics, folktales, short stories, poems, and drama.

Language

A field derived from the Latin word 'lingua', providing avenues for communication through the auditory arts of speaking and listening.

Music

Derived from the Greek 'mousa' and Latin 'Musa' (goddess of music), representing a song or poetry for appreciation of beauty and succession of sounds with or without instruments (Harper, 2020).

Line

An identifiable path created by a point moving in space that is one-dimensional and can vary in width, direction, and length.

Shape

A two-dimensional area with height and width, defined by lines.

Value

An element describing the brightness or darkness of a color, where a gradient represents a series of values from darkest to lightest.

Form

An element of art that defines three-dimensional objects in space possessing height, width, and depth.

Space

An element of art referring to a feeling of depth/three-dimensions or the artist's use of the area within a picture.

Color

Reflected light organized on a color wheel consisting of 3 primary colors, 3 secondary colors, and 6 intermediate colors.

Art vs. Arts

'Art' refers to fine arts, painting, drawing, and carving as a skill, while 'arts' represents disciplinal subjects like fashion, cuisine, sports, economics, commerce, and the humanities.

Nomads

Early human ancestors who practiced primitive art, used stone flakes to make fire, hunted wild animals for food, and used animal skins for clothing.

Cro-Magnons

Early humans who created wood/rock carvings and petroglyphs (cave paintings) associated with hunting routines, magic, and fertility rituals.

Paleolithic Age

The Old Stone Age (from Greek 'lithos'), during which Homo erectus learned to build fire using old stones.

Mesolithic Age

The Middle Stone Age (from Greek 'meso'), a transitional era when humans began practicing primitive livestock breeding and agriculture.

Neolithic Age

The New Stone Age (from Greek 'neo'), during which humans learned to farm, domesticate animals, make pottery, and produce textiles.

Ziggurats

Structures built by ancient Mesopotamians to bring temples closer to the heavens and gods, grounded in the belief that gods appeared on earth at the highest point of land.

The Gate of Ishtar

A famous citadel constructed in 575 BCE in Babylon (Iraq).

Erbil Citadel

Located in Iraq, it is recognized as possibly the oldest continuously occupied human settlement on Earth, dating back at least 6,000 years.

Mortuary Temples of Queen Hatshepsut

Ancient Egyptian temples constructed in 1500 BCE for Queen Hatshepsut and her family.

Petra City

An ancient city of rock in Jordan that served as a major trade center for Nabataean and foreign merchant caravans.

Pyramids of Giza

Ancient structures constructed in 2000 BCE that served as tombs for Egyptian pharaohs.

Bust of Queen Nefertiti

A famous sculpture created during the Amarna period in 1300 BCE that symbolizes female political power and leadership in the ancient world.

Naturalism

An art movement starting around 1820 that depicts realistic objects in natural settings, incorporating a Darwinian perspective on human life against natural forces.

Realism

An art and literary movement originating around 1850 that depicts subjects as they exist in third-person objective reality without embellishment or interpretation.

Romanticism

An artistic movement originating around 1800 in Europe as a reaction to the Industrial Revolution and scientific rationalization of nature.

Dada

An art movement emerging during WWI (1916) in New York, Zurich, and Munich that challenged the meaning of art using crude or simple objects.

Cubism

An art style developed around 1907 characterized by geometric shapes, interlocking planes, and collages.

Surrealism

An art movement of the early 1920s featuring dream-like paintings and nightmares containing oddly transformed objects.