Art Appreciation: Basics and Definition

ART: THE BASICS

• Art is defined as completing what nature cannot bring to a finish (Aristotle), a shadow of divine perfection (Michelangelo), a mediator of the unspeakable (Johann Wolfgang von Goethe), and a mad search for individualism (Paul Gauguin).
• Art is the expression of man's ideas, imagination, and emotions through the use of his body.

CHARACTERISTICS OF ART

• Man-made and transformed by man.
• Unique and individualistic, no two art pieces are alike.
• Aesthetic, beautiful, and intelligible.

TYPES OF ART

• Traditional Art (High Art): Painting, Sculpture, Architecture, Literature, Music, Dance, and Theatre.
• Elements of Art: Space, Line, Shape, Form, Color, and Texture.

ELEMENTS OF ART

• Space: Refers to the distances or areas around, between, and within components of a piece.
• Line: Indicates direction, orientation, movement, and energy.
  • Types of Line: Vertical, Horizontal, Jagged, and Curved.
• Shape: An enclosed space, a bounded two-dimensional form that has both length and width.
  • Types of Shape: Organic and Geometric.
• Form: Connotes something that is three-dimensional and encloses volume, having length, width, and height.
• Color: Produced when light, striking an object, is reflected back to the eye.
  • Terminologies of Colors: Hue, Saturation, and Value.
• Texture: Used to describe the way a three-dimensional work actually feels when touched.

PRINCIPLES OF ART

• Emphasis: Developing points of interest to pull the viewer's eye to important parts of the work.
• Balance: Achieved in a body of work by using similar elements throughout the work.
• Movement: Adds excitement to the work by showing action and directing the viewer's eye throughout the picture plane.
• Unity: Seen in a painting or drawing when all the parts equal a whole.

MODULE 2 | ANCIENT GREEK ART

• Frescoes: Paintings of color pigments on wet lime plaster without a binding agent, often depicting scenes from everyday life.
• Pottery: Vases were meant to be used in everyday life, with painters partnering with potters in creating vases.
• Sculptures: Greek art of classical antiquity is believed to be a mixture of Egyptian, Syrian, Minoan, and Persian cultures.
  • Three periods of Greek Sculpture: Archaic Period, Classical Period, and Hellenistic Period.

MODULE 2 | ANCIENT GREEK SCULPTURES

• Archaic Period: Characterized by the development of monumental marble sculpture.
• Classical Period: The creative highpoint of Greek sculpture, with famous sculptors like Phidias, Praxiteles, Kritios, Lysippos, and Myron.
• Hellenistic Period: A continuation, refinement, and expansion of Greek influence in the Mediterranean world after Alexander the Great.

MODULE 2 | ARCHITECTURE

• Three Types of Columns:
  • Doric Order: Earliest of the three Classical orders of architecture, characterized by a plain, unadorned column capital and a column that rests directly on the stylobate of the temple without a base.
  • Ionic Order: Originated in Ionia, a coastal region of central Anatolia, characterized by volutes (scroll-like ornaments) and a base supports the column.
  • Corinthian Order: Originated from the Greek city-state of Corinth, characterized by an elaborate, carved capital, which incorporates even more vegetal elements than the Ionic order does.

MODULE 2 | THEATRE

• Originated from the cult of Dionysus, associated with darkness, with the loss of boundaries around the self.
• Four Dionysian Festivals: Rural Dionysia, Lenaia, Anthesteria, and City Dionysia.
• Plays and Playwrights: Only 44 plays survived from the Greek classical period, written by Aeschylus, Sophocles, Euripides, and Aristophanes.
• Performers, Masks, Costumes, and Music:
  • All performers were male.
  • Masks were essential, with tragic masks having formalized, expressionless faces, and comic masks presenting caricatures, grotesques, or animal heads.
  • Costumes for tragedy included a tunic or sometimes a long/short cloak, and for comedy, based on everyday wear and included a phallus.
  • Music was integral, with a double pipe, aulos, used above the rest of the crowd to denote importance.

MODULE 3 | ANCIENT ROMAN ART

• Spanned for 1,000 years in three continents – Europe, Asia, and Africa.
• Used a broad spectrum of media, including marble, painting, mosaic, gems, silver and bronze work, and terracotta.
• Mostly has Greek, Etruscan, and Egyptian influences.
• Roman Art in Republican Rome:
  • Art was produced in the service of the state, depicting public sacrifices or celebrating victorious military campaigns.
  • Portraits depicted the collective goals of the Republic, with patrons choosing to have themselves represented with balding heads, large noses, and extra wrinkles.
• Roman Art in Imperial Rome:
  • Aggrandized the ruler and his family, often hearkening back to the Classical art of the past.

MODULE 3 | MINOR ART

• Jewelry equates to richness, mostly worn by women but also by men.

• Made of precious stones such as opals, emeralds, diamonds, topaz, and pearls.

• Types of Jewelry: Bracelets of bronze, bone, and jet, often made of shale.### Late Antique Art

• Characteristics include frontality, stiffness of pose and drapery, deeply drilled lines, less naturalism, squat proportions, and lack of individualism.

• Important figures are often slightly larger or placed prominently.

• Jewellery like bracelets and rings were worn by men, women, and children, made of silver, gold, bronze, iron, and jet, sometimes with precious stones and intaglios.

Mosaics

• Mosaics, also known as opus tessellatum, were made with small black, white, and colored squares of marble, tile, glass, pottery, stone, or shells.
• Each piece measured between 0.5 and 1.5 cm, with fine details rendered using even smaller pieces (as little as 1mm in size).
• Popular subjects included scenes from mythology, gladiator contests, sports, agriculture, hunting, food, flora, and fauna, as well as realistic portraits of Romans.

Pottery

• Ancient Roman fine wares were called terra sigillata, characterized by red-colored pottery with glossy surface slips.
• They flourished in Italy and Gaul (modern-day France) during the Roman Empire.

Sculpture

• Roman sculpture blended the idealized perfection of earlier Classical Greek sculpture with a greater aspiration for realism and Eastern art styles.
• Sculptures depicted prominent political figures, wealthy individuals, gods, emperors, and heroes, often larger than life.
• Materials used included marble and bronze.

Painting

• Roman interiors were lavishly painted and had stucco.
• The largest body of evidence comes from Pompeii and Herculaneum, both destroyed by Mt. Vesuvius.
• Wall painters preferred natural earth colors like darker shades of red, yellow, and brown.
• Subjects included portraits, scenes from mythology, architecture, flora, fauna, and townscapes.

Architecture

• Roman architecture continued the legacy left by earlier Greek architects.
• Marble was favored, especially for state-funded projects.
• Notable architects included Apollodorus of Damascus, Hadrian, Severus, Celer, and Vitruvius.
• The Roman Composite order mixed the volute of the Ionic order with the acanthus leaves of the Corinthian order.
• The Roman Tuscan order is a form of Doric column but with a smaller capital.

Socio-Cultural Context

• By 146 BCE, Rome had conquered Greece and absorbed its other territories.
• Romans were uninterested in theoretical questions but were skilled engineers, military tacticians, and administrators.

Theatre

• Ludi were official religious festivals, Pompa was a religious procession, and Munera were honorary festivals.
• Ludi Romani was the oldest festival in honor of Jupiter, held every September.
• Fabula crepidata were tragedies based on Greek originals, while Fabula praetexta were tragedies based on Roman subjects.

Roman Comic Playwrights

• Livius Andronicus was the first playwright, coming to Rome as a prisoner of war but later freed.
• Gnaeus Naevius was the first native playwright, writing comedies with Roman allusions added to Greek originals.
• Titus Maccius Plautus was the first important successor, known for his comedies, witty jokes, and varied poetic meters.

Roman Tragic Playwrights of the Republic

• Only three recorded Roman tragedians exist from 200-75 BCE: Quintus Ennius, Marcus Ocuvius, and Luccius Accius.

Acting Style in Tragedy and Comedy

• Delivery in tragedy is slow, stately, and declamatory, while in comedy, it is conversational.
• Actors specialized in one dramatic form, with movement in tragedy being slow and dignified, and lively in comedy.
• Gestures and movement were considered enlarged, and actors did not use masks in mime.