What is Art?

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Art is generally used to express something of skill, which creates an aesthetic outcome, but there is not a common definition to describe art. There are no clear lines that differentiate a handmade statue and a beautiful painting that is mass-produced. Some scholars believe that art have need of a creative drive and thought, but this tends to raise more questions then answers. The definition of art is hard to agree upon because there is a vast amount of forms, genres, and types.
Art is not localized to one era or country. It is a global movement with a collection of disciplines. Fine, liberal, visual, decorative, applied, design, crafts, performing are all forms of art each with its own rules. Many categories are narrowed down based on the materials used such as drawing and painting, glass and metal art, photography, wood and porcelain. The list does not stop there. Art has subcategories to include different genres like narrative, landscape, and still life. In addition to the art forms that have been around for centuries, new types of art have appeared in the 20th century ranging from conceptualism, earthworks, collage, video, and graffiti.
The awareness of the culture and period from which the art was created adds more questions than answers in accurately defining art. Comparing prehistoric wall paintings or African art to styles such as Expressionism, Surrealism, and Dada would be like comparing a tiger to a fish. Cultural distinction act as a border to different types of art and religion plays a major role in the artistic styles of the East and the West.
Whatever meaning of art that is arrived upon, it is limited to our own culture. Art is multifaceted in terms of forms and types and its cultural and historical ancestry. A straightforward definition has proven highly indefinable.

Art is generally used to express something of skill, which creates an aesthetic outcome, but there is not a common definition to describe art. There are no clear lines that differentiate a handmade statue and a beautiful painting that is mass-produced. Some scholars believe that art have need of a creative drive and thought, but this tends to raise more questions then answers. The definition of art is hard to agree upon because there is a vast amount of forms, genres, and types.
Art is not localized to one era or country. It is a global movement with a collection of disciplines. Fine, liberal, visual, decorative, applied, design, crafts, performing are all forms of art each with its own rules. Many categories are narrowed down based on the materials used such as drawing and painting, glass and metal art, photography, wood and porcelain. The list does not stop there. Art has subcategories to include different genres like narrative, landscape, and still life. In addition to the art forms that have been around for centuries, new types of art have appeared in the 20th century ranging from conceptualism, earthworks, collage, video, and graffiti.
The awareness of the culture and period from which the art was created adds more questions than answers in accurately defining art. Comparing prehistoric wall paintings or African art to styles such as Expressionism, Surrealism, and Dada would be like comparing a tiger to a fish. Cultural distinction act as a border to different types of art and religion plays a major role in the artistic styles of the East and the West.
Whatever meaning of art that is arrived upon, it is limited to our own culture. Art is multifaceted in terms of forms and types and its cultural and historical ancestry. A straightforward definition has proven highly indefinable.

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Filed Under: Italian Art, Italian Fine arts Tagged With: , ,

Fresco is here to stay

Last Judgement - painted by Michelangelo and h...
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The world today is so fast paced that time passes at a blur, so over stimulating that even a car ride can contain simultaneous imagery, and so commercialized that every month has a “holiday”. These times are hectic and a person doesn’t have to look far to see the effects of society’s pace. Even in the art world the effects can be seen. Instead of glorious, hand-painted portraits and intricate sculptures, people today are surrounded by frenzied works of energetic colors and lines. It’s amazing that the labor-intensive art of Fresco has passed into this century at all.

The art of fresco has been around for thousands of years; the earliest dates 30,000 years ago. While its demand for fresco has experienced peaks and valleys, the art form was never more revered than during the Italian Renaissance. The most notable fresco, Michelangelo’s work on the Sistine Chapel, was painted during this time, but it was not a singular work of art. Italy is home to a plethora of frescos, many dating from the 12th through the 15th centuries. From Florence to Pompeii, the lasting beauty of fresco is seen in on the walls of chapels and villas throughout Italy.

Fresco is not merely an artist picking up a brush and brushing a few strokes, it’s a multi-step process that’s quite involved. At every step, the utmost care must be taken to ensure the quality of the entire piece. Mortar is prepared, painted with premixed, exact pigments, smoothed and transferred—and that’s not all the steps. Each step takes intricate preplanning and accuracy; one mistake at any point can ruin an entire piece. Artists spend years, even decades, mastering this technique before finished work will be deemed acceptable. Fresco is not for the faint hearted, it’s a time-honored skill that takes persistence and a meticulous nature. While it’s unlikely that fresco would become as popular as it once was, it’s easy to see why these amazing works of art took people’s breath back then because they still do today.

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Filed Under: Italian Life, Italian Society Tagged With: , , ,