history of art - report

7/28/2019 History of Art - Report

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HISTORY OF ART

ART – the product of human creativity; the creation of beautiful or significant thing; human expression

The History of art is the history of any activity or product made by humans in a visual form for

aesthetical or communicative purposes, expressing ideas, emotions or, in general, a worldview. Over

time visual art has been classified in diverse ways, from the medieval distinction between liberal arts

and mechanical arts, to the modern distinction between fine arts and applied arts, or to the many

contemporary definitions, which define art as a manifestation of human creativity. The subsequent

expansion of the list of principal arts in the 20th century reached to nine: architecture, dance, sculpture,

music, painting, poetry (described broadly as a form of literature with aesthetic purpose or function,

which also includes the distinct genres of theatre and narrative), film, photography and comics. At the

conceptual overlap of terms between plastic arts and visual arts were added design and graphic arts. In

addition to the old forms of artistic expression such as fashion and gastronomy, new modes of

expression are being considered as arts such as video, computer art, performance, advertising,

animation, television and videogames.

BREAKDOWN

1. PRE-HISTORY

A. STONE AGE

1) PALEOLITHIC (25 000-8000 BC)

This is a prehistoric period of human history distinguished by the development of the

most primitive stone tools and covers roughly 99% of human technological prehistory. It

extends from the earliest known use of stone tools, probably by Hominids.During the Paleolithic, humans grouped together in small societies such as bands, and

subsisted by gathering plants and hunting or scavenging wild animals. The Paleolithic is

characterized by the use of knapped stone tools, although at the time humans also used

wood and bone tools. Other organic commodities were adapted for use as tools,

including leather and vegetable fibers; however, due to their nature, these have not

been preserved to any great degree. Surviving artifacts of the Paleolithic era are known

as paleoliths. Humankind gradually evolved from early members of the genus Homo

such as Homo habilis – who used simple stone tools – into fully behaviorally and

anatomically modern humans (Homo sapiens sapiens) during the Paleolithic era. During

the end of the Paleolithic, specifically the Middle and or Upper Paleolithic, humansbegan to produce the earliest works of art and engage in religious and spiritual behavior

such as burial and ritual. The climate during the Paleolithic consisted of a set of glacial

and interglacial periods in which the climate periodically fluctuated between warm and

cool temperatures.



The term "Paleolithic" was coined by archaeologist John Lubbock in 1865. It derives

from Greek: palaios, "old"; and lithos, "stone", literally meaning "old age of the stone"

or "Old Stone Age."

Picture of a half-human, half-animal being in a Paleolithic cave painting in France.

2) MESOLITHIC (8000-6000 BC)

This is an archaeological concept used to refer to specific groups of archaeological

cultures defined as falling between the Paleolithic and the Neolithic. The term

developed as a catch-all to refer to material that did not fit into the other categories of

prehistory and after the development of radiocarbon dating the arbitrary nature of its

definition has become apparent.

Mesoliths

3) NEOLITHIC

This period—from circa 6000 BC in the Near East—was a profound change for the

ancient man, who became sedentary and engaged in agriculture and animal husbandry,



new forms of social coexistence and religion developed. The rock art of the Iberian

Mediterranean Basin—dated between Mesolithic and Neolithic—contained small,

schematic human and figures.

Neoliths

African cave painting

B. METAL AGE

2. HISTORY

3. HISTORICAL DEVELOPMENT

history of art - report

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