Ministry of Education and Science, Youth and Sports of Ukraine
Sumy State University
A. Yu. Perelomov
A. O. Synach
AESTHETICS
Lectures with guidelines
for foreign students
Approved
by the session of the
Philosophy Department
as a course of lectures
on Aesthetics.
Minutes № 01 of 31.09.2011 p.
Sumy
Sumy State University
2011
Aesthetics: lectures with guidelines for foreign students /
compilers A. Yu. Perelomov, A. O. Synach; editor-in-chief
V. M. Vandyshev. – Sumy State University, 2011. – 63 p.
Philosophy Department
This book presents a vision of aesthetics, created on the basis of the
artistic experience of the classical art of the past and the art of the twentieth century. It gives a brief, complete description of the main provisions of
aesthetics as a science, orientating on human values and humanistic understanding of the overall aesthetic of the material world and culture.
Given material comes along with illustrations, which help understand
information in the best possible way.
The lectures were prepared according to The State National programme
«Education», Doctrine of National Education as well as experience of
compiling similar programme of the Centre of humanities of Ukraine, the
philosophical faculty of Kyiv National Taras Shevchenko University and
Vasyl Karazin Kharkiv National University
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Contents
I.
The subject and the history of Aesthetics….………………….………4
II.
Ancient Aesthetics…………..………………………………….………11
III.
The medieval Aesthetics……………..……………………….……….30
IV.
The aesthetics of renaissance and romantism …………….……….35
V.
Modern Aesthetics…………………………………………...…………48
VI.
The aesthetical ideas of Russian and Ukrainian culture……………54
VII.
Notions…………….……………………….………………….………...61
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Topic №1. THE SUBJECT AND THE HISTORY OF AESTHETICS
1.
2.
3.
4.
Plan
The subject of aesthetics and the problem of terminology
The subject of aesthetics and the formation of science perspective
The emergence of aesthetics as an independent science
Aesthetics in the structure of interdisciplinary relationships
§1. The subject of aesthetics and the problem of terminology
The ideas of liberalization and humanization of education find its practical implementation in the teaching of disciplines, aimed at a holistic examination of the role and man's place in the history of world civilization. Thus it is a
task that got to be executed by such disciplines as aesthetics, ethics, culturology and the history of world and homeland culture. These are so called culturological disciplines.
The aim of study of the discipline
Society cannot exist without a highly developed human and technological
culture. Without the moral and cultural landmarks man loses the general orientation of his life. That is why the course is designed for aesthetic education of
a healthy sense principle in man.
Aesthetics is multifaceted and diversified science. People study the aesthetics, not only to find out what art in general and art in particular is, and
most importantly to be a cultured and educated man.
The aim of the study of aesthetics is a conscious attitude to the cultural
heritage of humanity and his nation.
The course introduces students to the main stages of the aesthetics, concepts and categories of aesthetics.
The task of course is to learn the theoretical information about the peculiarities of sensory.
Aesthetics is the science of the general laws of artistic development and
knowledge of reality, the laws of development of art and its role in society. It
covers the entire scope of human emotions, exploring the relationship between
man and the world, influences the formation of the aesthetic consciousness.
Students must learn the notion of specificity of aesthetic understanding of
reality, the historical pattern of artistic development, a typology of historical
art, as well as aesthetic feature alternatives.
Aesthetics in its most general sense of the word can be defined as the science of beauty in all its forms and modifications of the aesthetic-relativistic
relation of man to reality, which is realized in his mind, and in various areas of
practice.
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The issue of aesthetics has developed long before the "official recognition" of aesthetics in science. Aesthetic problems arose and developed in the
bosom of mankind's spiritual culture as integral aspects of philosophy, theology, literature, art, everyday practices of people – in the field of material production, social and political relations in other spheres of life and practice.
However, only in the XVIII century aesthetics has found, finally, the status of self-autonomy of scientific disciplines.
What exactly is studying aesthetics, what is its object? In the history of
aesthetic thought in the modern literature one can find many different definitions of the science. The subject of aesthetics is the whole world, viewed in
terms of value, the value of its effects for humanity.
§2. The subject of aesthetics and the formation
of science perspective
The content of the subject of aesthetics defined the terms of the problems
that explores this science. Briefly list the main ones.
The aesthetic relation of man to reality, his essence, origin, analysis of
the various approaches to solving this problem.
Aesthetic human activity, its significance and specific characteristics, the
main areas (labor, material production, socio-political, family and everyday
attitudes, behavior and communication, play, art, etc.).
Aesthetic consciousness of man, its structure (the need for an aesthetic,
an aesthetic emotion, aesthetic sense, aesthetic taste, the aesthetic ideal), especially the functioning and development.
The main categories of aesthetics, the beautiful and ugly, sublime and
base, the tragic and the comic, the aesthetic and artistic, and others, the evolution of their content, especially in the use of various "aesthetic contexts."
Art, artistic activities of man in all its diversity (aesthetic and social characteristics, the basic functions of the system and the arts, especially art and
aesthetic perception of works of art, etc.).
Aesthetic culture of the individual and society (culture behavior and
communication, the aesthetic potential of the individual and society, etc.).
History of aesthetic doctrines, modern aesthetic concepts, the emergence
and development of ideas about beauty in different historical periods, the formation of aesthetic concepts, and their interaction in the system of spiritual
values of man.
Aesthetics is a science of formation of sensate culture of a man. (Aesthetics (also spelled aesthetics or esthetics) is a branch of philosophy dealing with
the nature of beauty, art, and taste, and with the creation and appreciation of
beauty. It is more scientifically defined as the study of sensory or sensoriemotional values, sometimes called judgments of sentiment and taste. More
broadly, scholars in the field define aesthetics as "critical reflection on art,
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culture and nature." Aesthetics is a subdiscipline of axiology, a branch of philosophy, and is closely associated with the philosophy of art. Aesthetics studies new ways of seeing and of perceiving the world.)
The subject of aesthetics is the organic union of two parts: 1) identification of the dialectics of the process of development, the specificity of the aesthetic as a manifestation of the value relationship of man to reality, and 2) the
artistic activity of man.
These parts are closely linked, although they are relatively independent.
The first part examines the nature and specificity of the creative potential of
the aesthetic, the categories of aesthetics – a beautiful, tragic and comic. The
second part examines the structure and functional characteristics, the nature of
artistic talent, types, genre and stylistic originality of art.
The process of finding an adequate balance between these parts is exactly
a history of the formation of aesthetics.
Such notions as the beautiful, perfect, harmony, value, philosophy of art
combine these two parts. For centuries, aesthetics has been and is "the science
of the beautiful", "science of the perfect", "science of the laws of art."
The complexity of determining the object of aesthetics draws our attention to the problem of terminology.
The term "aesthetics" was coined in the German
form Æsthetik (modern spelling Ästhetik) by Alexander
Baumgarten in 1735. It was derived from the Greek
αισθητικός (aisthetikos, meaning "esthetic-sensitivesentient"), which in turn was derived fromαίσθησηαισθάνομαι (aisthese-aisthanomai, meaning "to perceive-feel-sense").
It’s also necessary to consider such greek terms as /estanomai/, /estesi/,
/estanome/.
These terms correspond to the notion of feelings. But it also absorbed the
many shades of the individual human relationship to the object oriented person
on their own visual, auditory, tactile sensibility, demanded trust to their own
perception of the world.
Still, the aesthetic knowledge formed within philosophy as a kind of part,
regardless of the appearance of certain terminology.
§3. The emergence of aesthetics as an independent science
The adoption of aesthetics as an independent discipline occurred only in
18-th century. (German philosopher Alexander Gottlieb Baumgarten).
The formation of the first aesthetic ideas humanity connects with the importance that ancient Greek philosophy gave human feelings in general.
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Pythagoras, Alcmaeon, Empedocles, Theophrastus in their reflections are
trying to analyze and classify the senses, to determine their nature, clearly differentiate the feelings of the beautiful and ugly, tragic and comic. These were
important components of their philosophical views. Gradually the aesthetics
"rebuilt" its own subject of study.
Philosophical school, founded by Pythagoras (6th century BC) the socalled "Pythagoras school" made the first attempt to use feelings as a basis for
understanding certain aesthetic phenomena. Pythagoras
identified the concept of harmony, perfection, beauty. He
considered the number as a basis of harmony. The harmony
of numbers Pythagoras` followers found even in the arrangement of the planets. Among the arts, the highest carrier of harmony proclaimed music. Music in his understanding is the bearer of equanimity; it stimulates the peace of
mind.
The immortality of the soul also found reflection in the philosophical
views of Pythagoras. Specifically, he believed that the soul can reincarnate
into any body (metempsychosis).
Reincarnation is believed to occur when the soul or spirit, after the death
of the body, comes back to Earth in a newborn body. This phenomenon is also
known as transmigration of the soul.
But in order to be alive and move, in his opinion, should undergo purification (catharsis), the highest form of which is the takeover of musicalnumeric structure of space.
The followers of Pythagoras brought the concept of tetraktide
(1+2+3+4=10 it includes the main intervals: octave (2:1), quint (3:2) and quart
(4:3)).
Famous physician and natural philosopher Alcmaeon (I part of V century
B.C.) was the first scientist of Greece, who devided the thinking and feeling.
He argued that the perception – is a complex process of movement from sensory nerves to the senses and then to the brain.
Theoretical reflections on the feelings expressed also Empedocles (490430 years. BC). The lowest level of emotions he believed feelings that operate
on the principle of "similar is cognized be the similar".
The unity “feelings-perception” generates greater forces – Love and Hatred. Cyclical course of world process driven by the alternation of the priorities of these forces, which are not material, but they are spatially defined, in
the view of Empedocles.
Thus Empedocles continues the tradition of the previous study of the nature and significance of feelings. He introduced the concept of catharsis, with
emphasis on moral and ethical nature of purification.
In the III century BC the theory of emotions finally came to the time of
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presentation in the works of the famous ancient Greek philosopher Theophrastus. His works "About feelings," "Ethical character", "The dignity" are
in sensuous direction.
In the historical process of forming the subject of aesthetic science attracts the attention of "the principle of the golden section" (another names:
“Golden ratio”, “Golden Cut” “Golden Proportion”) – a geometric-mathematical ratio of proportions. Its essence is that when crossing the whole
also correlated well with its bigger part, as bigger
with less. In the geometric form, this principle appears as a ratio: 5:8 = 8:13 = 13:21 = 21:34 = 34 ...
and so on.
Greek science, believed that any body, object, geometric figure, the ratio
of parts of which corresponds to a ratio is proportional and make a good impression.
The Greek Parthenon, marble columns which divide the church on the
principle of "golden section" is the most persuasive example of the practical
use of the principle.
In the Renaissance, the law of "golden section" was seen as a mandatory
law of architecture, painting and sculpture. Theorists and the creators of that
time were trying to find the absolute, perfect geometric basis of beauty.
A treatise of the famous Italian mathematician Luca Pacioli LA called
"On the Divine Proportion." He was absolutely convinced that the rule of the
golden section is defined aesthetic value "of all earthly things." But absolutisation of this principle is mistaken. The proportion for the proportions formalizes beauty, mechanizes this complex concept. But still, the rule of golden ratio
emphasizes the importance of human visual capacity in the formation of aesthetic sense. Why the ratio of 5:8 is the basis for the interpretation of mathematical proportions? The proportion of 5:8 is the intersection of horizontal and
vertical angles of view of human two eyes. Consciously or intuitively Greeks
came to the principle of "golden section" due to an innate capacity of human
vision. Thus nature is "presented" humans direct and unmistakable way to a
sense of proportion and harmony.
§4. Relationship of aesthetics to other sciences
It must be borne in mind that aesthetic issues important place on the
methodology of aesthetic cognition and activities, as well as communication
and interaction with other aesthetic spiritual values of human.
Relationship with the philosophy of aesthetics, its philosophical nature of
the "issues" and himself an aesthetic of categories of science, which are widely used in such philosophical categories as "objective" and "subjective", "content" and "form", "progress" and "regress" and number of other categories.
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Of course, one should not literally identify the aesthetics and philosophy.
And she and the other spheres of spiritual life retain their specificity. It is only
on this interaction of which creates a certain way as philosophical and aesthetic attitudes. Philosophy, in particular, "arming" the aesthetics of a systematic
approach helps to consider aesthetic objects, like a certain integrity that has
one or other specific aesthetic features.
In turn, the aesthetic philosophy helps to create a universal conception of
man, his opportunities, reveals the inner harmony of the human world, points
to the creative nature of all aspects of his life, the possibility of their transformation under the laws of beauty. In aesthetics are actively used by a variety of
philosophical and scientific methods.
One of the most important features of aesthetics lies in its connection
with the theory and practice of world culture, which is a powerful source of
supply as the aesthetics of ideas, thoughts, and the most important concrete
material for the analysis of various aspects of man's spiritual activity. Aesthetics at the same time seeks to identify and investigate the general laws of artistic creation and development of art as a kind of spiritual whole, establishes its
connection with life, social and personal practices of people who identify very
specific artistic activity, which is extremely difficult to understand, while remaining within the limits of any one of Arts
Very close is the relationship between aesthetics and psychology, which
investigates and reveals mechanisms for the occurrence, operation, transformation of emotions, including aesthetic and underlying comprehension of human beauty. The role of psychology in the study of this problem is so significant that some scholars have almost equate these two sciences, or at least, are
ready to interpret the psychology of the part, which is associated with the aesthetic as an experimental aesthetics. The basis of this belief is the idea that
pleasure of beauty is the communication process.
Rejecting the extremes of such a comparison of these sciences, we should
recognize that their cooperation is indeed extremely valuable for both sides.
This interaction is effectively implemented in the investigation of psychology
of the creative process of artistic creation of values, analysis of works of art
themselves, a process of aesthetic perception of the recipient (viewer, listener,
reader).
In recent decades, the methodology of aesthetics and more persistently
penetrate trends associated with the era of scientific and technological revolution. Are increasingly being used in aesthetic research methods of science,
cybernetics, mathematics, etc. This is especially true for these two broad fields
of aesthetic, the art and the aesthetic design of a man of his environment. Increasingly "invade" the aesthetics and methods of cybernetics. With their help
it is possible to simulate some aspects of the processes of artistic creation.
Machines (more precisely, the program contained in them), write music, write
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poetry, play chess, etc.
For example, in art semiotics (science of signs and sign systems), helps to
investigate the structure of the artwork. Patterns of sign systems, semiotics of
disclosures, allow to identify specific connections between literary works and
their meanings (semantics), the structural relations between the elements
forming the aesthetic and artistic point (syntactic), the communicative function of art (pragmatics). Semiotic analysis clarifies the content and the relationship of such traditional notions of art as an artistic image, type, form, allegory, metaphor, etc. Semiotics claims and a more active part in the study of
aesthetic problems. Semiotic approach may have some importance for understanding the structure of aesthetic values and aesthetic attitude toward them.
Later, the terms «estanome», «estanomai», «eisentikos» have lost their
direct link with the concept of feelings, the subject began to make sense of
aesthetics much broader in scope and content: perfect, proportional, harmonious, beautiful and aesthetical.
Therefore it is necessary to consider the history of aesthetics, which has a
long and deep roots.
The first shoots of artistic knowledge and understanding of reality can already be found in mythological texts. The formation of aesthetic knowledge is
not linked to any one specific country, as it is characteristic of both Greek philosophy and the philosophy of China, India, the Arab-Muslim world, the Byzantine Empire.
1.
2.
3.
4.
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Questions
Give the definition of art
What is the subject of aesthetics?
Explain the principle of «Golden cut»
What is harmony?
Topic №2. ANCIENT AESTHETICS
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Plan
The aesthetics of Ancient Greece
Islamic aesthetics
Indian aesthetics
Chinese aesthetics
African aesthetics
§1. The aesthetics of Ancient Greece
Already in the 5th century BC replaced by sense-observation approach to
reality, the rule of cosmology (the perception of space as a harmony, usefulness, and beauty) comes to sharpening of interest to the person who is able to
learn and explore the world around us.
Theoretical views of Socrates relied on the political and ethical basis for
attempts to define the concept of good and evil. Criticizing the Athenian democracy, Socrates insisted on the best transfer of power, that is highly moral
members of society.
Morality, in his view, should serve pledge fairness, integrity, nobility of
man.
Taking as a basis the principle of expediency, Socrates attempts to discover the relationship between ethical and aesthetic, beautiful and useful. He
called this ratio Kalos kagathos – the union of the old Greek word "beautiful
and good (perfect)
The adjective καλός means beautiful and encompasses meanings equivalent to English "good", "noble", and "handsome". The form given by convention is the masculine, but it was equally used of women (the feminine form is
καλή) and could also describe animals or inanimate objects.
Plato, in his work Republic, used the term τό καλόν (the neutral form) in
his attempts to define ideals. However, his protagonist in the dialogue, Socrates, stated that he did not fully comprehend the nature of this καλόν.
This second adjective «agathos» means good and had no particular physical or aesthetic connotations, but could describe a person's excellence of
character (ethical virtue) for example their bravery. Again, around the 4th century, it had become politically meaningful, and carried implications of dutiful
citizenship.
This is one of the most important concepts of classical aesthetics, which
meant the harmony of external and internal that is the condition of the individual beauty.
This term was interpreted differently in different times. Pythagoras fol-
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lowers understood Kalos kagathos as an external human behavior, which
simultaneously determines its internal quality. Herodotus connected Kalos
kagathos with religious rituals, the priests of morality.
Herodotus linked Kalos kagathos with religious rituals, morals of the
priests.
Plato believed that the principle kalos kagathos is
directly related to the profession of soldiers, the notion
of military honor and morality. Later, the Greeks are
increasingly begun to transform this concept into the
sphere of education, education rights. Since then began
philosophical understanding of the concept.
The trend was directly related to the concept of Aristotle, who interpreted the Kalos kagathos as the outer
and inner harmony. Under the inner, he understood wisdom, which leads a person to a deep understanding of
the unity of beauty and goodness, the aesthetic and moral, that is, the harmony, which should become the norm of human existence.
Man cannot attain the ideal, but it must at least through the selfimprovement strive for this. The principle of Kalos kagathos art sought to realize their creative property. (Phidias, Sophocles, Polycleitus).
In subsequent historical periods principle of kalos kagathos was forgotten, and the ethics and aesthetics more were separated and each of them to
choose its own path of development.
The problem of link of these sciences has moved into the sphere of art,
and the most typical aspect of studying the interaction of ethics and aesthetics
was the problem of "art and morality."
The name of Sophocles related statement of problem of the relationship
between the beautiful and useful, as well as an attempt to as closely as possible to determine what is ideal.
Aesthetic views of Socrates got a creative continuation of the philosophical concept of an outstanding representative of ancient philosophy – Plato
(427-347 BC)
He investigated the nature of perception of beauty, sources of talent, the
problems of aesthetic education. He paid particular attention the study of art,
because it played a special role in the life of Athens t VI-V BC. Athenian democracy won the right to free access to the theater, the whole people enjoyed
the work of respected poets and musicians. Plato and Socrates as linked the
influence of art with the formation of the moral world of human: it brings both
positive and negative qualities.
He expanded the aesthetic perspective. In his theoretical dialogues present ideas about the relativity of beauty, of the absolute best ways to achieve
beauty, which exists only as an idea, but the very possibility of movement
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from simple to complex in the formation of fine opens the way for future theoretical developments in the field of aesthetic.
It was Plato, who set the contradictions in the formulation and solution of
some aesthetic problems that in the future in different historical periods have
become the basis for the formation of new philosophical concepts.
In the dialogs "Ion", "State" Plato admires the one hand, "divine power"
of the artist, on the other side – deliberately humiliates him through the lack of
utility of the results of its activities. According to Plato the poet and the doctor
or craftsmen should be given an advantage because of their significant work in
practice. The problem of the role of art in the spiritual development of man,
the formation of his sensate culture is not formed theoretically, and at the level
of identification of art and craft activities art loses its identity and self-worth.
Comparing God – the poet – rhapsode – spectator, Plato ascribed to the
poet the role of an intermediary, who passed from God the benefit to human.
This is a formal function, considered a philosopher, thus, high levels of creativity is lost.
Another controversial problem was Plato’s attempt to identify the subject
of Aesthetics. This is thinking and watching man, and the world of the absolute idea, the world of soul, that are able to comprehend the essense.
While acknowledging that universal beauty created by God, and beautiful
objects – it is only an imperfect copy of the universal beauty, Plato notes in
the dialogue "Hippias Major", "Great - it's hard".
The pinnacle of ancient aesthetics is considered theoretical legacy of Aristotle (384-322 BC). His work "Poetics", "Rhetoric," "Politics", "Metaphysics," "ethics" covers a wide range of aesthetic problems.
Aristotle was fond of the cosmos as a carrier of harmony, order and integrity.
Aesthetic perception and art he saw as a reflection of world harmony. Aristotle first gave detailed structure of aesthetic categories, offered his own understanding of the beautiful, tragic, comical. He explained the basic principle
of the creative activity of the artist – mimesis. He believed that mimesis is
peculiar to man from childhood. Man is distinguished from the animal due to
the ability to inheritance.
Mimesis (Greek: μίμησις (mīmēsis), from μιμεῖσθαι (mīmeisthai), "to imitate," from μῖμος (mimos), "imitator, actor") is a critical and philosophical
term that carries a wide range of meanings, which include: imitation, representation, mimicry, imitatio, receptivity, nonsensuous similarity, the act of resembling, the act of expression, and the presentation of the self.
In ancient Greece, mimesis was an idea that governed the creation of
works of art, in particular, with correspondence to the physical world understood as a model for beauty, truth and the good. Plato contrasted mimesis, or
imitation, with diegesis, or narrative. After Plato, the meaning of mimesis
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eventually shifted toward a specifically literary function in ancient Greek society, and its use has changed and been re-interpreted many times since then.
One of the best-known modern studies of mimesis, understood as a form
of realism in the arts, is Erich Auerbach's Mimesis: The Representation of Reality in Western Literature. Published in 1946 and written while the author
was in exile from Nazi Germany, the book opens with a famous comparison
between the way the world is represented in Homer's Odyssey and the way it
appears in the Bible. From these two seminal Western texts, Auerbach builds
the foundation for a unified theory of representation that spans the entire history of Western literature, including the Modernist novels being written at the
time Auerbach began his study.
The Frankfurt school critical theorist T.W. Adorno made use of mimesis
as a central philosophical term, interpreting it as a way in which works of art
embodied a form of reason that was non-repressive and non-violent.
The concept of mimesis, was later transformed into the development of
cognitive and emotional functions of art. According to Aristotle inheritance
promotes knowledge, creates a feeling of satisfaction, and stimulates the imagination. This property was used as a mimesis peculiar link to introduce the
figurative and symbolic conception in the Middle Ages. Aristotle's aesthetic
views are associated not only with aesthetic issues, but also to pedagogy, elements of psychology art criticism (genera, genres of literature).
Both Plato and Aristotle saw in mimesis the representation of nature. Plato wrote about mimesis in both Ion and The Republic (Books II, III and X). In
Ion, he states that poetry is the art of divine madness, or inspiration. Because
the poet is subject to this divine madness, it is not his/her function to convey
the truth. As Plato has it, truth is the concern of the philosopher only. As culture in those days did not consist in the solitary reading of books, but in the
listening to performances, the recitals of orators (and poets), or the acting out
by classical actors of tragedy, Plato maintained in his critique that theatre was
not sufficient in conveying the truth. He was concerned that actors or orators
were thus able to persuade an audience by rhetoric rather than by telling the
truth.
In Book II of The Republic [377], Plato describes Socrates' dialogue with
his pupils. Socrates warns we should not seriously regard poetry as being capable of attaining the truth and that we who listen to poetry should be on our
guard against its seductions, since the poet has no place in our idea of God.
In developing this in Book X, [596–599] Plato tells of Socrates' metaphor
of the three beds: one bed exists as an idea made by God (the Platonic ideal);
one is made by the carpenter, in imitation of God's idea; one is made by the
artist in imitation of the carpenter's.
So the artist's bed is twice removed from the truth. The copiers only
touch on a small part of things as they really are, where a bed may appear differently from various points of view, looked at obliquely or directly, or differently again in a mirror. So painters or poets, though they may paint or describe
a carpenter or any other maker of things, know nothing of the carpenter's (the
craftsman's) art, and though the better painters or poets they are, the more
faithfully their works of art will resemble the reality of the carpenter mak14
ing a bed, nonetheless the imitators will still not attain the truth (of God's creation).
Similar to Plato's writings about mimesis, Aristotle also defined mimesis
as the perfection and imitation of nature. Art is not only imitation but also the
use of mathematical ideas and symmetry in the search for the perfect, the
timeless, and contrasting being with becoming. Nature is full of change, decay, and cycles, but art can also search for what is everlasting and the first
causes of natural phenomena. Aristotle wrote about the idea of four causes in
nature. The first formal cause is like a blueprint, or an immortal idea. The second cause is the material, or what a thing is made out of. The third cause is the
process and the agent, in which the artist or creator makes the thing. The
fourth cause is the good, or the purpose and end of a thing, known as telos.
Aristotle's Poetics is often referred to as the counterpart to this Platonic
conception of poetry. Poetics is his treatise on the subject of mimesis. Aristotle was not against literature as such; he stated that human beings are mimetic
beings, feeling an urge to create texts (art) that reflect and represent reality.
Aristotle considered it important that there be a
certain distance between the work of art on the one
hand and life on the other; we draw knowledge and
consolation from tragedies only because they do not
happen to us. Without this distance, tragedy could
not give rise to catharsis. However, it is equally important that the text causes the audience to identify
with the characters and the events in the text, and unless this identification
occurs, it does not touch us as an audience. Aristotle holds that it is through
"simulated representation", mimesis, that we respond to the acting on the stage
which is conveying to us what the characters feel, so that we may empathize
with them in this way through the mimetic form of dramatic role-play. It is the
task of the dramatist to produce the tragic enactment in order to accomplish
this empathy by means of what is taking place on stage.
In short, catharsis can only be achieved if we see something that is both
recognizable and distant. Aristotle argued that literature is more interesting as
a means of learning than history, because history deals with specific facts that
have happened, and which are contingent, whereas literature, although sometimes based on history, deals with events that could have taken place or ought
to have taken place.
Aristotle thought of drama as being "an imitation of an action" and of
tragedy as "falling from a higher to a lower estate" and so being removed to a
less ideal situation in more tragic circumstances than before. He posited the
characters in tragedy as being better than the average human being, and those
of comedy as being worse.
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The poets, beginning with Homer, far from improving and educating humanity, do not possess the knowledge of craftsmen and are mere imitators
who copy again and again images of virtue and rhapsodise about them, but
never reach the truth in the way the superior philosophers do.
Plato’s “Theory of Creativity” emphasized the mystical, beyond the reality stimuli of talents, the Aristotle’s “Poetics” appeals to generalize the artistic
image, transfer it to others during their upbringing and education.
Aristotle developed a new ethical concepts, as well as the theoretical basis of existing (mimesis, Kalos kagathos, catharsis). It includes in the analysis
of theoretical concepts such notions as "canon" – a system of norms and rules
in the development of art, "hedonism" (pleasure) – the emotional and sensual
nature of the arts, "allegory" – imaginative way of saying, “measure", "proportion" "association". Aristotle not only enriches the perspective of science, but
also develops his own categories and concepts. Based on these concepts and
categories aesthetics could subsequently become an independent science.
§2. Islamic aestheics
Islamic art is not, properly speaking, an art pertaining to religion only.
The term "Islamic" refers not only to the religion, but to any form of art created in an Islamic culture or in an Islamic context. It would also be a mistake to
assume that all Muslims are in agreement on the use of art in religious observance, the proper place of art in society, or the relation between secular art
and the demands placed on the secular world to conform to religious precepts.
Islamic art frequently adopts secular elements and elements that are frowned
upon, if not forbidden, by some Islamic theologians.
According to Islam, human works of art are
inherently flawed compared to the work of God;
thus, it is believed by many that to attempt to depict in a realistic form any animal or person is
insolence to God. This tendency has had the effect of narrowing the field of artistic possibility to
such forms of art as Arabesque, mosaic, Islamic
calligraphy, and Islamic architecture, as well as
more generally any form of abstraction that can
claim the status of non-representational art.
The arabesque is a form of artistic decoration consisting of "surface decorations based on rhythmic linear patterns of
scrolling and interlacing foliage, tendrils" or plain lines, often combined with
other elements. Within the very wide range of Eurasian decorative art that includes motifs matching this basic definition the term "arabesque" is used consistently as a technical term by art historians to describe only elements of
16
the decoration found in two phases: Islamic art from about the 9th century
onwards, and European decorative art from the Renaissance onwards. Arabesques are a fundamental element of Islamic art but they develop what was
already a long tradition by the coming of Islam. The past and current usage of
the term in respect of European art can only be described as confused and inconsistent. Some Western arabesques derive from Islamic art, but others are
closely based on Ancient Roman decorations. In the West they are essentially
found in the decorative arts, but because of the generally non-figurative nature
of Islamic art arabesque decoration is there often a very prominent element in
the most significant works, and plays a large part in the decoration of architecture.
The limited possibilities have been explored by artists as an outlet to artistic expression, and has been cultivated to become a positive style and tradition, emphasizing the decorative function of art, or its religious functions via
non-representational forms such as Geometric patterns, floral patterns, and
arabesques.
Human or animal depiction is generally forbidden altogether in Islamic
cultures because it is said to lead to sculptural pieces which then leads to worship of that sculpture or "idol". Human portrayals can be found in early Islamic cultures with varying degrees of acceptance by religious authorities. Human
representation for the purpose of worship that is uniformly considered idolatry
as forbidden in Sharia law. There are many depictions of Muhammad, Islam's
chief prophet, in historical Islamic art.
The calligraphic arts grew out of an effort to devote oneself to the study
of the Quran. By patiently transcribing each word of the text, the writer was
made to contemplate the meaning of it. As time passed, these calligraphic
works began to be prized as works of art, growing increasingly elaborate in
the illumination and stylizing of the text. These illuminations were applied to
other works besides the Quran, and it became a respected art form in and of itself.
Islamic calligraphy, colloquially known as Arabic
calligraphy, is the artistic practice of handwriting, or
calligraphy, and by extension, of bookmaking, in the
lands sharing a common Islamic cultural heritage. This
art form is based on the Arabic script, which for a long
time was used by all Muslims in their respective languages. They used it to represent God because they denied representing God with images. Calligraphy is especially revered among Islamic arts since it was the primary means for the
preservation of the Qur'an. Suspicion of figurative art as idolatrous led to calligraphy and abstract depictions becoming a major form of artistic expression
in Islamic cultures, especially in religious contexts. The work of calligraphers
17
was collected and appreciated.
Arabic, Persian and Ottoman Turkish calligraphy is associated with abstract arabesque motifs on the walls and ceilings of mosques as well as on the
page. Contemporary artists in the Islamic world draw on the heritage of calligraphy to use calligraphic inscriptions or abstractions in their work.
Calligraphy has arguably become the most venerated form of Islamic art
because the Arabic script was the means of transmission of the Qur'an. The
holy book of Islam, the Qur'an, has played an important role in the development and evolution of the Arabic language, and by extension, calligraphy in
the Arabic alphabet. Proverbs and complete passages from the Qur'an are still
active sources for Islamic calligraphy.
Islamic Mosque calligraphy is calligraphy that can be found in and out of
a mosque, typically in combination with Arabesque motifs. Arabesque is a
form of Islamic art known for its repetitive geometric forms creating beautiful
decorations. These geometric shapes often include Arabic calligraphy written
on walls and ceilings inside and outside of mosques.
The subject of these writings can be derived from different sources in Islam. It can be derived from the written words of the Qur'an or from the oral
traditions relating to the words and deeds of Islamic Prophet Muhammad.
There is a beautiful harmony between the inscriptions and the functions
of the mosque. Specific surahs (chapters) or ayats (verses) from Koran are
inscribed in accordance with functions of specific architectural elements. For
example, on the domes you can find the Nour ayat (the divine stress on light)
written, above the main entrance you find verses related to the entrances of the
paradise, on the windows the divine names of Allah are inscribed so that reflection of the sun rays through those windows remind the believer that Allah
manifests Himself upon the universe in all high qualities.
Islamic architecture encompasses a wide
range of both secular and religious styles from
the foundation of Islam to the present day,
influencing the design and construction of
buildings and structures in Islamic culture.
The principal Islamic architectural types are:
the Mosque, the Tomb, the Palace and the
Fort. From these four types, the vocabulary of
Islamic architecture is derived and used for buildings of lesser importance
such as public baths, fountains and domestic architecture.
A specifically recognizable Islamic architectural style emerged soon after
Muhammad's time, inspired by Islam with addition of localized adaptations of
the former Sassanid and Byzantine models, the Germanic Visigoths in Spain
also made a big contribution to Islamic architecture They invented the Horseshoe arch in Spain and used them as one of their main architectural features,
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After the moorish invasion of Spain in 711 AD the form was taken by the
Ummayyads who accentuated the curvature of the horseshoe. The Dome of
the Rock (Qubbat al-Sakhrah) in Jerusalem (691) is one of the most important
buildings in all of Islamic architecture, marked by a strong Byzantine influence (mosaic against a gold background, and a central plan that resembles that
of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, although the church itself was renovated
several times in the Islamic period), but already bearing purely Islamic elements, such as the great epigraphic frieze. It featured interior vaulted spaces, a
circular dome, and the use of stylized repeating decorative arabesque patterns.
The desert palaces in Jordan and Syria (for example, Mshatta, Qasr Amra, and
Khirbat al-Mafjar) served the caliphs as living quarters, reception halls, and
baths, and were decorated to promote an image of royal luxury.
§3. Indian aesthetics
Indian art evolved with an emphasis on inducing special spiritual or philosophical states in the audience, or with representing them symbolically. According to Kapila Vatsyayan, "Classical Indian architecture, sculpture, painting, literature (kāvya), music, and dancing evolved their own rules conditioned
by their respective media, but they shared with one another not only the underlying spiritual beliefs of the Indian religio-philosophic mind, but also the procedures by which the relationships of the symbol and the spiritual states were
worked out in detail."
In the Pan Indian philosophic thought the term 'Satyam Shivam
Sundaram' is another name for the concept of the Supreme. 'Sat' is the truth
value, 'Shiv' is the good value & 'Sundaram' is the beauty value. Man through
his 'Srabana' or education, 'Manana' or experience and conceptualization and
'Sadhana' or practice, through different stages of life (Asramas) comes to form
and realize the idea of these three values to develop a value system. This Value-system helps us to develop two basic ideas 1) that of 'Daksha' or the
adept/expert and 2) of Mahana/Parama or the Absolute and thus to judge anything in this universe in the light of these two measures, known as 'Adarsha'. A
person who has mastered great amounts of knowledge of the grammars, rules,
& language of an art-form are adepts (Daksha), where as those who have
worked through the whole system and journeyed ahead of these to become a
law unto themself is called a Mahana. Individuals idea of 'Daksha' and 'Mahana' is relative to one's development of the concept of 'Satyam-ShivamSundaram.' For example, Tagore's idea of these two concepts should be way
above any common man's and many perceive Tagore as a 'Mahana' Artist in
the realm of literature. This concept of Satyam-Shivam-Sundaram, a kind of
Value Theory is the cornerstone of Indian Aesthetics.
Of particular concern to Indian drama and literature are the term 'Bhava'
or the state of mind and rasa referring generally to the emotional fla19
vors/essence crafted into the work by the writer and relished by a 'sensitive
spectator' or sahṛdaya or one with positive taste and mind. Poets like Kālidāsa
were attentive to rasa, which blossomed into a fully developed aesthetic system. Even in contemporary India the term rasa denoting "flavor" or "essence"
is used colloquially to describe the aesthetic experiences in films; "māsala
mix" describes popular Hindi cinema films which serve a so called balanced
emotional meal for the masses, savored as rasa by these spectators.
Rasa theory blossoms beginning with the Sanskrit text Nātyashāstra
(nātya meaning "drama" and shāstra meaning "science of"), a work attributed
to Bharata Muni where the Gods declare that drama is the 'Fifth Veda' because
it is suitable for the degenerate age as the best form of religious instruction.
While the date of composition varies wildly among scholars, ranging from the
era of Plato and Aristotle to the seventh century CE. The Nātyashāstra presents the aesthetic concepts of rasas and their associated bhāvas in Chapters
Six and Seven respectively, which appear to be independent of the work as a
whole. Eight rasas and associated bhāvas are named and their enjoyment is
likened to savoring a meal: rasa is the enjoyment of flavors that arise from the
proper preparation of ingredients and the quality of ingredients. What rasa
actually is, in a theoretical sense, is not discussed and given the Nātyashāstra's
pithy wording it is unlikely the exact understanding of the original author(s)
will be known.
The theory of the rasas develops significantly with the Kashmiri aesthetician Ãndandavardhana's classic on poetics, the Dhvanyāloka which introduces
the ninth rasa, shānta-rasa as a specifically religious feeling of peace (śānta)
which arises from its bhāva, weariness of the pleasures of the world. The primary purpose of this text is to refine the literary concept dhvani or poetic suggestion, by arguing for the existence of rasa-dhvani, primarily in forms of
Sanskrit including a word, sentence or whole work "suggests" a real-world
emotional state or bhāva, but thanks to aesthetic distance, the sensitive spectator relishes the rasa, the aesthetic flavor of tragedy, heroism or romance.
The 9th – 10th century master of the religious system known as "the nondual Shaivism of Kashmir" (or "Kashmir Shaivism") and aesthetician, Abhinavagupta brought rasa theory to its pinnacle in his separate commentaries
on the Dhvanyāloka, the Dhvanyāloka-locana (translated by Ingalls, Masson
and Patwardhan, 1992) and the Abhinavabharati, his commentary on the
Nātyashāstra, portions of which are translated by Gnoli and Masson and Patwardhan. Abhinavagupta offers for the first time a technical definition of rasa
which is the universal bliss of the Self or Atman colored by the emotional tone
of a drama. Shānta-rasa functions as an equal member of the set of rasas but is
simultaneously distinct being the most clear form of aesthetic bliss. Abhinavagupta likens it to the string of a jeweled necklace; while it may not be
the most appealing for most people, it is the string that gives form to the neck20
lace, allowing the jewels of the other eight rasas to be relished. Relishing the
rasas and particularly shānta-rasa is hinted as being as-good-as but neverequal-to the bliss of Self-realization experienced by yogis.
Architecture. The architecture of India is rooted in its history, culture and
religion. Indian architecture progressed with time and assimilated the many
influences that came as a result of India's global discourse with other regions
of the world throughout its millennia-old past. The architectural methods practiced in India are a result of examination and implementation of its established
building traditions and outside cultural interactions.
The Rasa theory. Indian art evolved with an emphasis on inducing special spiritual or philosophical states in the audience, or with representing them
symbolically.
Of particular concern to Indian drama and literature are the term 'bhAva'
or the state of mind and rasa (Sanskrit रस lit. 'juice' or 'essence') referring generally to the emotional flavors/essence crafted into the work by the writer and
relished by a 'sensitive spectator' or sahṛdaya or one with positive taste and
mind. Rasas are created by bhavas. They are described by Bharata Muni in the
Nātyasāstra, an ancient work of dramatic theory.
Although the concept of rasa is fundamental to many forms of Indian art
including dance, music, musical theatre, cinema and literature, the treatment,
interpretation, usage and actual performance of a particular rasa differs greatly
between different styles and schools of abhinaya, and the huge regional differences even within one style.
Eight primary rasas
Bharata Muni enunciated the eight Rasas in the Nātyasāstra, an ancient
work of dramatic theory. Each rasa, according to Nātyasāstra, has a presiding
deity and a specific colour. There are 4 pairs of rasas. For instance, Hasya
arises out of Sringara. The Aura of a frightened person is black, and the aura
of an angry person is red. Bharata Muni established the following.
Śṛngāram (शङ्
ृ गारं ) Love, attractiveness. Presiding deity: Vishnu. Colour:
light green.
Hāsyam (हास्यं) Laughter, mirth, comedy. Presiding deity: Pramata. Colour: white.
Raudram (रौद्रं ) Fury. Presiding deity: Rudra. Colour: red.
Kāruṇyam (कारुण्यं) Compassion, mercy. Presiding deity: Yama. Colour:
grey.
Bībhatsam (बीभत्सं) Disgust, aversion. Presiding deity: Shiva. Colour:
blue.
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Bhayānakam (भयानकं) Horror, terror. Presiding deity: Kala. Colour:
black.
Vīram (वीरं ) Heroic mood. Presiding deity: Indra. Colour: yellowish.
Adbhutam (अद्भत
ु )ं Wonder, amazement. Presiding deity: Brahma. Colour: yellow.
Śāntam rasa
A ninth rasa was added by later authors (See History section). This addition had to undergo a good deal of struggle between the sixth and the tenth
centuries, before it could be accepted by the majority of the Alankarikas, and
the expression Navarasa (the nine rasas), could come into vogue.
Śāntam Peace or tranquility. deity: Vishnu. Colour: blue.
Shānta-rasa functions as an equal member of the set of rasas but is simultaneously distinct being the most clear form of aesthetic bliss. Abhinavagupta
likens it to the string of a jeweled necklace; while it may not be the most appealing for most people, it is the string that gives form to the necklace, allowing the jewels of the other eight rasas to be relished. Relishing the rasas and
particularly shānta-rasa is hinted as being as-good-as but never-equal-to the
bliss of Self-realization experienced by yogis.
Sculpture. The first sculptures in the
Indian subcontinent date back to the Indus
Valley civilization, where stone and bronze
carvings have been discovered. This is one
of the earliest instances of sculpture in the
world. Later, as Hinduism, Buddhism and
Jainism developed further, India produced
some of the most intricate bronzes in the
world, as well as unrivaled temple carvings. Some huge shrines, such as the
one at Ellora were not actually constructed using blocks, but instead carved
out of rock, making them perhaps the largest and most intricate sculptures in
the world.
During the 2nd to 1st century BCE in far northern India, in what is now
southern Afghanistan and northern Pakistan, sculptures became more explicit,
representing episodes of the Buddha’s life and teachings. Although India had a
long sculptural tradition and a mastery of rich iconography, the Buddha was
never represented in human form before this time, but only through some of
his symbols. This may be because Gandharan Buddhist sculpture in modern
Afghanistan displays Greek and Persian artistic influence. Artistically, the
Gandharan school of sculpture is said to have contributed wavy hair, drapery
covering both shoulders, shoes and sandals, acanthus leaf decorations, etc.
Indian painting. Indian painting has a very long history, although the
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seasonally humid Indian climate was difficult for the long-term preservation
of paintings and there are far fewer survivals than of other forms of Indian art.
The earliest Indian paintings were the rock paintings of pre-historic times, the
petroglyphs as found in places like Bhimbetka, some of them from before
5500 BC. India's Buddhist literature is replete with examples of texts which
describe palaces of kings and the aristocratic class embellished with paintings,
but the frescos of the Ajanta Caves are the most significant of the few survivals.
Smaller scale painting in manuscripts was probably also practised in this
period, though the earliest survivals are from the medieval period. Mughal
painting represented a fusion of the Persian miniature
with older Indian traditions, and from the 17th century
its style was diffused across Indian princely courts of
all religions, each developing a local style. Company
paintings were made for British clients under the British raj, which from the 19th century also introduced art
schools along Western lines, leading to modern Indian
painting, which is increasingly returning to its Indian
routes.
Indian paintings provide an aesthetic continuum
that extends from the early civilization to the present
day. From being essentially religious in purpose in the
beginning, Indian painting has evolved over the years to become a fusion of
various cultures and traditions.
Indian music. India's classical music tradition, including Carnatic and
Hindustani music, has a history spanning millennia and, developed over several eras, it remains fundamental to the lives of Indians today as sources of
spiritual inspiration, cultural expression and pure entertainment. India is made
up of several dozen ethnic groups, speaking their own languages and dialects,
having very distinct cultural traditions.
Hindustani music is an Indian classical
music tradition that goes back to Vedic times
around 1000 BC, and further developed circa
the 13th and 14th centuries AD with Persian
influences and from existing religious and folk
music. The practice of singing based on notes
was popular even from the Vedic times where
the hymns in Sama Veda, a sacred text, was
sung as Samagana and not chanted. Developing a strong and diverse tradition over several centuries, it has contemporary
traditions established primarily in India but also in Pakistan and Bangladesh.
In contrast to Carnatic music, the other main Indian classical music tradition
23
originating from the South, Hindustani music was not only influenced by ancient Hindu musical traditions, historical Vedic philosophy and native Indian
sounds but also enriched by the Persian performance practices of the
Mughals.During the Medivel age especially in Mughals era various Gharana
got famous due to excellence and class in type of musics like raga.Tansen is
one of the navratna of Mughals Admiral Akbar. Classical genres are dhrupad,
dhamar, khyal, tarana y sadra.
§4. Chinese aesthetics
Chinese art has a long history of varied
styles and emphases. In ancient times philosophers were already arguing about aesthetics.
Confucius emphasized the role of the arts and
humanities (especially music and poetry) in
broadening human nature and aiding "li" (etiquette, the rites) in bringing us back to what is
essential about humanity. His opponent Mozi,
however, argued that music and fine arts were classist and wasteful, benefiting
the rich over the poor.
By the 4th century AD, artists were debating in writing over the proper
goals of art as well. Gu Kaizhi has 3 surviving books on this theory of painting, for example, and it's not uncommon to find later artist/scholars who both
create art and write about the creating of art. Religious and philosophical influence on art was common (and diverse) but never universal; it is easy to find
art that largely ignores philosophy and religion in almost every Chinese time
period.
Early forms of art in China are found in the Neolithic Yangshao culture
(Chinese: 仰韶文化; pinyin: Yǎngsháo Wénhuà),
which dates back to the 6th millennium BC. Archeological findings such as those at the Banpo have revealed that the Yangshao made pottery; early ceramics
were unpainted and most often cord-marked. The first
decorations were fish and human faces, but these
eventually evolved into symmetrical-geometric abstract designs, some painted.
The most distinctive feature of Yangshao culture
was the extensive use of painted pottery, especially human facial, animal, and
geometric designs. Unlike the later Longshan culture, the Yangshao culture
did not use pottery wheels in pottery making. Excavations have found that
children were buried in painted pottery jars.
Porcelain is made from a hard paste made of the clay kaolin and a feldspar called petuntse, which cements the vessel and seals any pores. China
24
has become synonymous with high-quality porcelain. Most china pots comes
from the city of Jingdezhen in China's Jiangxi province. Jingdezhen, under a
variety of names, has been central to porcelain production in China since at
least the early Han Dynasty.
The most noticeable difference between porcelain and the other pottery
clays is that it "wets" very quickly (that is, added water has a noticeably greater effect on the plasticity for porcelain than other clays), and that it tends to
continue to "move" longer than other clays, requiring experience in handling
to attain optimum results. During medieval times in Europe, porcelain was
very expensive and in high demand for its beauty. TLV mirrors also date from
the Han dynasty.
Buddhism arrived in China around the 1st century AD (although there
are some traditions about a monk visiting China during Asoka's reign), and
through to the 8th century it became very active and creative in the development of Buddhist art, particularly in the area of statuary. Receiving this distant
religion, China soon incorporated strong Chinese traits in its artistic expression.
In the fifth to sixth century the Northern Dynasties, rather removed from
the original sources of inspiration, tended to develop rather symbolic and abstract modes of representation, with schematic lines. Their style is also said to
be solemn and majestic. The lack of corporeality of this art, and its distance
from the original Buddhist objective of expressing the pure ideal of enlightenment in an accessible, realistic manner, progressively led to a research towards more naturalism and realism, leading to the expression of Tang Buddhist art.
In ancient China, painting and calligraphy were the most highly appreciated arts in court circles and were produced almost exclusively by amateurs,
aristocrats and scholar-officials who alone had the leisure to perfect the technique and sensibility necessary for great brushwork. Calligraphy was thought
to be the highest and purest form of painting. The implements were the brush
pen, made of animal hair, and black inks, made from pine soot and animal
glue. Writing as well as painting was done on silk. But after the invention of
paper in the 1st century, silk was gradually replaced by the new and cheaper
material. Original writings by famous calligraphers have been greatly valued
throughout China's history and are mounted on scrolls and hung on walls in
the same way that paintings are.
Wang Xizhi was a famous Chinese calligrapher who lived in the 4th century AD. His most famous work is the Lanting Xu, the preface of a collection
of poems written by a number of poets when gathering at Lan Ting near the
town of Shaoxing in Zhejiang province and engaging in a game called "qu
shui liu shang".
Wei Shuo was a well-known calligrapher of Eastern Jin Dynasty who es25
tablished consequential rules about the Regular Script. Her well-known works
include Famous Concubine Inscription (名姬帖 Ming Ji Tie) and The Inscription of Wei-shi He'nan (衛氏和南帖 Wei-shi He'nan Tie).
§5. African aesthetics
African art existed in many forms and styles, and with fairly little influence from outside Africa. Most of it followed traditional forms and the aesthetic norms were handed down orally as well as written. Sculpture and performance art are prominent, and abstract and partially abstracted forms are
valued, and were valued long before influence from the Western tradition began in earnest. The Nok culture is testimony to this. The mosque of Timbuktu
shows that specific areas of Africa developed unique aesthetics.
Thematic Elements:
 Emphasis on the human figure: The human figure has always been the
primary subject matter for most African art, and this emphasis even influenced
certain European traditions. For example, in the fifteenth century Portugal
traded with the Sapi culture near the Ivory Coast in West Africa, who created
elaborate ivory saltcellars that were hybrids of African and European designs,
most notably in the addition of the human figure (the human figure typically
did not appear in Portuguese saltcellars). The human figure may symbolize the
living or the dead, may reference chiefs, dancers, or various trades such as
drummers or hunters, or even may be an anthropomorphic representation of a
god or have other votive function. Another common theme is the intermorphosis of human and animal.
 Visual abstraction: African artworks tend to favor visual abstraction
over naturalistic representation. This is because many African artworks generalize stylistic norms. Ancient Egyptian art, also usually thought of as naturalistically depictive, makes use of highly abstracted and regimented visual canons, especially in painting, as well as the use of different colors to represent
the qualities and characteristics of an individual being depicted
 Emphasis on sculpture: African artists tend to favor three-dimensional
artworks over two-dimensional works. Even many African paintings or cloth
works were meant to be experienced three-dimensionally. House paintings are
often seen as a continuous design wrapped around a house, forcing the viewer
to walk around the work to experience it fully; while decorated cloths are
worn as decorative or ceremonial garments, transforming the wearer into a
living sculpture. Distinct from the static form of traditional Western sculpture
African art displays animation, a readiness to move.
 Emphasis on performance art: An extension of the utilitarianism and
three-dimensionality of traditional African art is the fact that much of it is
crafted for use in performance contexts, rather than in static ones. For exam-
26
ple, masks and costumes very often are used in communal, ceremonial contexts, where they are "danced." Most societies in Africa have names for their
masks, but this single name incorporates not only the sculpture, but also the
meanings of the mask, the dance associated with it, and the spirits that reside
within. In African thought, the three cannot be differentiated.
 Nonlinear scaling: Often a small part of an African design will look
similar to a larger part, such as the diamonds at different scales in the Kasai
pattern at right. Louis Senghor, Senegal’s first president, referred to this as
"dynamic symmetry." William Fagg, the British art historian, compared it to
the logarithmic mapping of natural growth by biologist D’Arcy Thompson.
More recently it has been described in terms of fractal geometry.
The origins of African art lie long before recorded history. African rock
art in the Sahara in Niger preserves 6000-year old carvings. The earliest
known sculptures are from the Nok culture of Nigeria, made around 500 BC.
Along with sub-Saharan Africa, the cultural arts of the western tribes, ancient
Egyptian paintings and artifacts, and indigenous southern crafts also contributed greatly to African art. Often depicting the abundance of surrounding nature, the art was often abstract interpretations of animals, plant life, or natural
designs and shapes.
More complex methods of producing art were developed in sub-Saharan
Africa around the 10th century, some of the most notable advancements include the bronzework of Igbo
Ukwu and the terracottas and metalworks of Ile Ife
Bronze and brass castings, often ornamented with ivory and precious stones, became highly prestigious in
much of West Africa, sometimes being limited to the
work of court artisans and identified with royalty, as
with the Benin Bronzes.
The Nok culture appeared in Nigeria around 1000
B.C. and mysteriously vanished around 500 AD in the
region of West Africa. This region lies in Central Nigeria. The culture’s social system is thought to have
been highly advanced. The Nok culture was considered to be the earliest subSaharan producer of life-sized Terracotta. It is suggested that the society eventually evolved into the later Yoruba Kingdom of Ife.
The refinement of this culture is attested to by the image of a Nok dignitary at the Minneapolis Institute of Arts. The dignitary is portrayed wearing a
"shepherds crook" affixed with an elastic material to the right arm. The dignitary is also portrayed sitting with flared nostrils, and an open mouth suggesting performance. According to some accounts, based on artistic similarities to
both early Yoruba art forms and Nok forms, there may be connections between them and the contemporary Yoruba people. Later brass and terracotta
27
sculptures of the Ife and Benin cultures show significant similarities with
those found at Nok.
Iron use, in smelting and forging for tools, appears in Nok culture in Africa at least by 550 BC and more probably in the middle of the second millennium BC (between 1400 BC and 1600 BC depending on references).
Nok sculptures also depict animals and humans. Their function is still
unknown, since scientific field work is still missing. For the most part, the
terracotta is preserved in the form of scattered fragments. That is why Nok art
is well known today only for the heads, both male and female, whose hairstyles are particularly detailed and refined. The statues are in fragments because the discoveries are usually made from alluvial mud, in terrain made by
the erosion of water. The terracotta statues found there are hidden, rolled, polished, and broken. Rarely are works of great size conserved intact making
them highly valued on the international art market.
The terracotta figures are hollow, coil built, nearly life sized human
heads and bodies that are depicted with highly stylized features, abundant
jewellery, and varied postures. Some artifacts have been found illustrating a
plethora of physical ailments, including debilitating disease and facial paralysis. Other associated pieces include plant and animal motifs.
Little is known of the original function of the pieces, but theories include
ancestor portrayal, grave markers, and charms to prevent crop failure, infertility, and illness. Also, based on the dome-shaped bases found on several figures, they could have been used as finials for the roofs of ancient structures.
Margaret Young-Sanchez, Associate Curator of Art of the Americas, Africa, and Oceania in The Cleveland Museum of Art, explains that most Nok
ceramics were shaped by hand from coarse-grained clay and subtractively
sculpted in a manner that suggests an influence from wood carving. After
some drying, the sculptures were covered with slip and burnished to produce a
smooth, glossy surface. The figures are hollow, with several openings to facilitate thorough drying and firing. The firing process most likely resembled
that used today in Nigeria, in which the pieces are covered with grass, twigs,
and leaves and burned for several hours.
The Nok culture was discovered in 1928 on the Jos Plateau during tin
mining.
Lt-Colonel John Dent-Young, an Englishman, was leading mining operations in the Nigerian village of Nok. During these operations, one of the miners found a small terracotta of a monkey head. Other finds included a terracotta human head and a foot. The colonel, at a later date, had these artifacts
placed in a museum in Jos.
Questions
1. What is Kalos kagathos?
28
2. What was the Plato’s attitude to art?
3. What was the Aristotle’s contribution in the development of Aesthetics?
4. What is mimesis?
5. What arabesque?
6. What are the main features of islamic architecture?
7. How Buddhism has influenced the Chinese aesthetics?
8. Give the characteristics of the Nok art.
29
Topic №3. THE MEDIEVAL AESTHECTICS
(5th to the 15th century)
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Plan
General characteristics of Medieval aesthetics
Early Christian art
Byzantine art
Insular art
Gothic art
§1. General characteristics of Medieval aesthetics
Surviving medieval art is primarily religious in focus and funded largely
by the State, Roman Catholic or Orthodox church, powerful ecclesiastical individuals, or wealthy secular patrons. These art pieces often served a liturgical
function, whether as chalices or even as church buildings themselves. Objects
of fine art from this period were frequently made from rare and valuable materials, such as gold and lapis, the cost of which commonly exceeded the wages
of the artist.
A chalice (from Latin calix, cup, borrowed from Greek kalyx, shell, husk)
is a goblet or footed cup intended to hold a drink. In general religious terms, it
is intended for drinking during a ceremony.
Medieval aesthetics in the realm of philosophy built upon Classical thought, continuing the practice of Plotinus by employing theological terminology in its explications. St. Bonaventure’s “Retracing the Arts
to Theology”, a primary example of this
method, discusses the skills of the artisan as
gifts given by God for the purpose of disclosing God to mankind, which purpose is
achieved through four lights: the light of
skill in mechanical arts which discloses the
world of artifacts; which light is guided by
the light of sense perception which discloses
the world of natural forms; which light, consequently, is guided by the light of philosophy which discloses the world of intellectual truth; finally, this light is guided
by the light of divine wisdom which discloses the world of saving truth.
Saint Thomas Aquinas's aesthetic is probably the most famous and influential theory among medieval authors, Thomas, like many other medievals,
30
never gives a systematic account of beauty itself, but several scholars have
conventionally arranged his thought—though not always with uniform conclusions—using relevant observations spanning the entire corpus of his work.
While Aquinas's theory follows generally the model of Aristotle, he develops
a singular aesthetics which incorporates elements unique to his thought. Umberto Eco's The Aesthetics of Thomas Aquinas identifies the three main characteristics of beauty in Aquinas's philosophy: integritas sive perfectio, consonantia sive debita proportio, and claritas sive splendor formae. While Aristotle likewise identifies the first two characteristics, St. Thomas conceives of the
third as an appropriation from principles developed by neo-Platonic and Augustinian thinkers.
§2. Early christian art
Early christian art, more generally described as Late Antique art, covers
the period from about 200 (before which no distinct Christian art survives),
until the onset of a fully Byzantine style in about 500. There continue to be
different views as to when the medieval period begins during this time, both in
terms of general history and specifically art history, but it is most often placed
late in the period. In the course of the 4th century Christianity went from being
a persecuted popular sect to the official religion of the Empire, adapting existing Roman styles and often iconography, from both popular and Imperial art.
From the start of the period the main survivals of Christian art are the tombpaintings in popular styles of the catacombs of Rome, but by the end there
were a number of lavish mosaics in churches built under Imperial patronage.
Over this period imperial Late Roman art went through a strikingly "baroque"
phase, and then largely abandoned classical style and Greek realism in favour
of a more mystical and hieratic style—a process that was well underway before Christianity became a major influence on imperial art. Influences from
Eastern parts of the Empire—Egypt, Syria
and beyond, and also a robust "Italic" vernacular tradition, contributed to this process. Figures are mostly seen frontally staring out at the viewer, where classical art
tended to show a profile view - the change
was eventually seen even on coins. The
individuality of portraits, a great strength of
Roman art, declines sharply, and the anatomy and drapery of figures is shown with
much less realism. The models from which
medieval Northern Europe in particular
formed its idea of "Roman" style were
31
nearly all portable Late Antique works, and the Late Antique carved sarcophagi found all over the former Roman Empire; the determination to find earlier
"purer" classical models, was a key element in the art all'antica of the Renaissance.
§3. Byzantine art
Byzantine art is the art of the Greek-speaking Byzantine Empire formed
after the division of the Roman Empire between Eastern and Western halves,
and sometimes of parts of Italy under Byzantine rule. It emerges from the Late
Antique period in about 500 and soon formed a tradition distinct from that of
Catholic Europe but with great influence over it. In the early medieval period
the best Byzantine art, often from the large Imperial workshops, represented
an ideal of sophistication and technique which European patrons tried to emulate. During the period of Byzantine iconoclasm in 730–843 the vast majority
of icons (sacred images usually painted on wood) were destroyed; so little remains that today any discovery sheds new understanding, and most remaining
works are in Italy (Rome and Ravenna etc.), or Egypt at Saint Catherine's
Monastery, Mount Sinai.
§4. Insular art
Insular art refers to the distinct style found
in Ireland and Britain from about the 7th century, to about the 10th century, lasting later in
Ireland, and parts of Scotland. The style saw a
fusion between the traditions of Celtic art, the
Germanic Migration period art of the AngloSaxons and the Christian forms of the book,
high crosses and liturgical metalwork. Extremely detailed geometric, interlace, and stylised animal decoration, with forms derived
from secular metalwork like brooches, spread
boldly across manuscripts, usually gospel
books like the Book of Kells, with whole carpet
pages devoted to such designs, and the development of the large decorated and historiated
initial. There were very few human figures—most often these were Evangelist
portraits—and these were crude, even when closely following Late Antique
models.
The insular manuscript style was transmitted to the continent by the Hiberno-Scottish mission, and its anti-classical energy was extremely important
in the formation of later medieval styles. In most Late Antique manuscripts
32
text and decoration were kept clearly apart, though some initials began to be
enlarged and elaborated, but major insular manuscripts sometimes take a
whole page for a single initial or the first few words (see illustration) at beginnings of gospels or other sections in a book. Allowing decoration a "right to
roam" was to be very influential on Romanesque and Gothic art in all media.
The buildings of the monasteries for which the insular gospel books were
made were then small and could fairly be called primitive, especially in Ireland. There increasingly were other decorations to churches, where possible in
precious metals, and a handful of these survive, like the Ardagh Chalice, together with a larger number of extremely ornate and finely made pieces of
secular high-status jewellery, the Celtic brooches probably worn mainly by
men, of which the Tara Brooch is the most spectacular.
"Franco-Saxon" is a term for a school of late Carolingian illumination in
north-eastern France that used insular-style decoration, including super-large
initials, sometimes in combination with figurative images typical of contemporary French styles. The "most tenacious of all the Carolingian styles", it
continued until as late as the 11th century.
§4. Gothic art
Gothic art is a variable term depending on the craft, place and time. The term
originated with the Gothic architecture
which developed in France from about
1137 with the rebuilding of the Abbey
Church of St Denis. As with Romanesque
architecture, this included sculpture as an
integral part of the style, with even larger
portals and other figures on the facades of
churches the location of the most important sculpture, until the late period,
when large carved altarpieces and reredos,
usually in painted and gilded wood, became an important focus in many churches. Gothic painting did not appear until
around 1200 (this date has many qualifications), when it diverged from Romanesque
style. A Gothic style in sculpture originates in France around 1144 and spread
throughout Europe, becoming by the 13th century the international style, replacing Romanesque, though in sculpture and painting the transition was not
as sharp as in architecture.
The majority of Romanesque cathedrals and large churches were replaced by Gothic buildings, at least in those places benefiting from the eco33
nomic growth of the period – Romanesque architecture is now best seen in
areas that were subsequently relatively depressed, like many southern regions
of France and Italy, or northern Spain. The new architecture allowed for much
larger windows, and stained glass of a quality never excelled is perhaps the
type of art most associated in the popular mind with the Gothic, although
churches with nearly all their original glass, like the Sainte-Chapelle in Paris,
are extremely rare anywhere, and unknown in Britain.
Most Gothic wall-paintings have also disappeared; these remained very
common, though in parish churches often rather crudely executed. Secular
buildings also often had wall-paintings, although royalty preferred the much
more expensive tapestries, which were carried along as they travelled between
their many palaces and castles, or taken with them on military campaigns – the
finest collection of late-medieval textile art comes from the Swiss booty at the
Battle of Nancy, when they defeated and killed Charles the Bold, Duke of
Burgundy, and captured all his baggage train.
During this period panel painting for altarpieces, often polyptyches and
smaller works became newly important. Previously icons on panels had been
much more common in Byzantine art than in the West, although many now
lost panel paintings made in the West are documented from much earlier periods, and initially Western painters on panel were very largely under the sway
of Byzantine models, especially in Italy, from where most early Western panel
paintings come. The process of establishing a distinct Western style was begun by Cimabue and Duccio, and completed by Giotto, who is traditionally
regarded as the starting point for the development of Renaissance painting.
Most panel painting remained more conservative than miniature painting however, partly because it was seen by a wide public.
With the shift from the Middle Ages to the Renaissance, art likewise
changed its focus, as much in its content as in its mode of expression.
Questions
1. What are the main motifs of aesthetics of medieval times?
2. How can you characterize the early Christian art?
3. Give the characteristics of gothic art.
34
Topic №4. THE AESTHETICS OF RENAISSANCE
AND ROMANTICISM
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Plan
Renaissance as a cultural movement
Latin and Greek phases of Renaissance
Cultural conditions in Florence
Renaissance art
Romanticism art
§1. Renaissance as a cultural movement
The Renaissance was a cultural movement that profoundly affected European intellectual life in the early modern period. Beginning in Italy, and
spreading to the rest of Europe by the 16th century, its influence affected literature, philosophy, art, politics, science, religion, and other aspects of intellectual inquiry. Renaissance scholars employed the humanist method in study,
and searched for realism and human emotion in art.
Renaissance thinkers sought out in Europe's monastic libraries and the crumbling Byzantine Empire
the literary, historical, and oratorical texts of antiquity,
typically written in Latin or ancient Greek, many of
which had fallen into obscurity. It is in their new focus
on literary and historical texts that Renaissance scholars differed so markedly from the medieval scholars of
the Renaissance of the 12th century, who had focused
on studying Greek and Arabic works of natural sciences, philosophy and mathematics, rather than on
such cultural texts. Renaissance humanists did not
reject Christianity; quite the contrary, many of the
Renaissance's greatest works were devoted to it, and
the Church patronized many works of Renaissance art.
However, a subtle shift took place in the way that intellectuals approached
religion that was reflected in many other areas of cultural life. In addition,
many Greek Christian works, including the Greek New Testament, were
brought back from Byzantium to Western Europe and engaged Western scholars for the first time since late antiquity. This new engagement with Greek
Christian works, and particularly the return to the original Greek of the New
Testament promoted by humanists Lorenzo Valla and Erasmus, would help
pave the way for the Protestant Reformation.
Artists such as Masaccio strove to portray the human form realistically,
developing techniques to render perspective and light more naturally. Political
philosophers, most famously Niccolò Machiavelli, sought to describe political
35
life as it really was, that is to understand it rationally. A critical contribution to
Italian Renaissance humanism Pico della Mirandola wrote the famous text "De
hominis dignitate" (Oration on the Dignity of Man, 1486), which consists of a
series of theses on philosophy, natural thought, faith and magic defended
against any opponent on the grounds of reason. In addition to studying classical Latin and Greek, Renaissance authors also began increasingly to use vernacular languages; combined with the introduction of printing, this would allow many more people access to books, especially the Bible.
In all, the Renaissance could be viewed as an attempt by intellectuals to
study and improve the secular and worldly, both through the revival of ideas
from antiquity, and through novel approaches to thought. Some scholars, such
as Rodney Stark, play down the Renaissance in favor of the earlier innovations
of the Italian city states in the High Middle Ages, which married responsive
government, Christianity and the birth of capitalism. This analysis argues that,
whereas the great European states (France and Spain) were absolutist monarchies, and others were under direct Church control, the independent city republics of Italy took over the principles of capitalism invented on monastic
estates and set off a vast unprecedented commercial revolution which preceded and financed the Renaissance.
Most historians agree that the ideas that characterized the Renaissance
had their origin in late 13th century Florence, in particular with the writings of
Dante Alighieri (1265–1321) and Francesco Petrarca (1304–1374), as well as
the painting of Giotto di Bondone (1267–1337). Some writers date the Renaissance quite precisely; one proposed starting point is 1401, when the rival geniuses Lorenzo Ghiberti and Filippo Brunelleschi competed for the contract to
build the bronze doors for the Baptistery of the Florence Cathedral (Ghiberti
won). Others see more general competition between artists and polymaths
such as Brunelleschi, Ghiberti, Donatello, and Masaccio for artistic commissions as sparking the creativity of the Renaissance. Yet it remains much debated why the Renaissance began in Italy, and why it began when it did. Accordingly, several theories have been put forward to explain its origins.
During the Renaissance, money and art went hand in hand. Artists depended totally on patrons while the patrons needed money to sustain geniuses.
Wealth was brought to Italy in the 14th, 15th, and 16th centuries by expanding
trade into Asia and Europe. Silver mining in Tyrol increased the flow of money. Luxuries from the Eastern world, brought home during the Crusades, increased the prosperity of Genoa and Venice.
§2. Latin and Greek phases of Renaissance
In stark contrast to the High Middle Ages, when Latin scholars focused
almost entirely on studying Greek and Arabic works of natural science, philosophy and mathematics, Renaissance scholars were most interested in
36
recovering and studying Latin and Greek literary,
historical, and oratorical texts. Broadly speaking, this
began in the 14th century with a Latin phase, when
Renaissance scholars such as Petrarch, Coluccio Salutati (1331–1406), Niccolò de' Niccoli (1364–1437)
and Poggio Bracciolini (1380–1459 AD) scoured the
libraries of Europe in search of works by such Latin
authors as Cicero, Livy and Seneca. By the early
15th century, the bulk of such Latin literature had
been recovered; the Greek phase of Renaissance humanism was now under way, as Western European
scholars turned to recovering ancient Greek literary,
historical, oratorical and theological texts.
Unlike the case of those Latin texts, which had been preserved and studied in Western Europe since late antiquity, the study of ancient Greek texts
was very limited in medieval Western Europe. Ancient Greek works on science, maths and philosophy had been studied since the High Middle Ages in
Western Europe and in the medieval Islamic world, but Greek literary, oratorical and historical works, (such as Homer, the Greek dramatists, Demosthenes
and Thucydides and so forth), were not studied in either the Latin or medieval
Islamic worlds; in the Middle Ages these sorts of texts were only studied by
Byzantine scholars. One of the greatest achievements of Renaissance scholars
was to bring this entire class of Greek cultural works back into Western Europe for the first time since late antiquity. This movement to reintegrate the
regular study of Greek literary, historical, oratorical and theological texts back
into the Western European curriculum is usually dated to Coluccio Salutati's
invitation to the Byzantine diplomat and scholar Manuel Chrysoloras (c.1355–
1415) to Florence to teach Greek.
§3. Cultural conditions in Florence
It has long been a matter of debate why the Renaissance began in Florence, and not elsewhere in Italy. Scholars have noted several features unique
to Florentine cultural life which may have caused such a cultural movement.
Many have emphasized the role played by the Medici, a banking family and
later ducal ruling house, in patronizing and stimulating the arts. Lorenzo de'
Medici (1449–1492) was the catalyst for an enormous amount of arts patronage, encouraging his countryman to commission works from Florence's leading artists, including Leonardo da Vinci, Sandro Botticelli, and Michelangelo
Buonarroti.
The Renaissance was certainly underway before Lorenzo came to power;
indeed, before the Medici family itself achieved hegemony in Florentine society. Some historians have postulated that Florence was the birthplace of
37
the Renaissance as a result of luck, i.e. because "Great Men" were born there
by chance. Da Vinci, Botticelli and Michelangelo were all born in Tuscany.
Arguing that such chance seems improbable, other historians have contended
that these "Great Men" were only able to rise to prominence because of the
prevailing cultural conditions at the time.
§4. Renaissance art
Renaissance art is the painting, sculpture and decorative arts of that period of European history known as the Renaissance, emerging as a distinct style
in Italy in about 1400, in parallel with developments which occurred in philosophy, literature, music and science. Renaissance art, perceived as a "rebirth" of ancient traditions, took as its foundation
the art of Classical antiquity, but transformed that
tradition by the absorption of recent developments
in the art of Northern Europe and by application
of contemporary scientific knowledge. Renaissance art, with Renaissance Humanist philosophy,
spread throughout Europe, affecting both artists
and their patrons with the development of new
techniques and new artistic sensibilities. Renaissance art marks the transition of Europe from the
medieval period to the Early modern age.
In many parts of Europe, Early Renaissance
art was created in parallel with Late Medieval art.
By 1500 the Renaissance style prevailed. As Late
Renaissance art (Mannerism) developed, it took
on different and distinctive characteristics in every region.
The influences upon the development of Renaissance art in the early 15th
century are those that also affected Philosophy, Literature, Architecture, Theology, Science, Government and other aspects of society. The following list
presents a summary, dealt with more fully in the main articles that are cited
above:
 Classical texts, lost to European scholars for centuries, became available. These included Philosophy, Prose, Poetry, Drama, Science, a thesis on
the Arts and Early Christian Theology.
 Simultaneously, Europe gained access to advanced mathematics
which had its provenance in the works of Islamic scholars.
 The advent of movable type printing in the 15th century meant that
ideas could be disseminated easily, and an increasing number of books were
written for a broad public.
 The establishment of the Medici Bank and the subsequent trade it
38
generated brought unprecedented wealth to a single Italian city, Florence.
 Cosimo de' Medici set a new standard for patronage of the arts, not
associated with the church or monarchy.
 Humanist philosophy meant that man's relationship with humanity,
the universe and with God was no longer the exclusive province of the
Church.
 A revived interest in the Classics brought about the first archaeological study of Roman remains by the architect Brunelleschi and sculptor Donatello. The revival of a style of architecture based on classical precedents inspired a corresponding classicism in painting and sculpture, which manifested
itself as early as the 1420s in the paintings of Masaccio and Uccello.
 The improvement of oil paint and developments in oil-painting technique by Netherlandish artists such as Jan van Eyck, Rogier van der Weyden
and Hugo van der Goes led to its adoption in Italy from about 1475 and had
ultimately lasting effects on painting practices, worldwide.
 The serendipitous presence within the region of Florence in the early
15th century of certain individuals of artistic genius, most notably Masaccio,
Brunelleschi, Ghiberti, Piero della Francesca, Donatello and Michelozzo
formed an ethos out of which sprang the great masters of the High Renaissance, as well as supporting and encouraging many lesser artists to achieve
work of extraordinary quality.
 A similar heritage of artistic achievement occurred in Venice through
the talented Bellini family, their influential inlaw Mantegna, Giorgione, Titian
and Tintoretto.
 The publication of two treatises by Leone Battista Alberti, De Pitura
(On Painting), 1435, and De re aedificatoria (Ten Books on Architecture),
1452.
The "universal genius" Leonardo da Vinci was to further perfect the aspects of pictorial art (lighting, linear and atmospheric perspective, anatomy,
foreshortening and characterisation) that had preoccupied artists of the Early
Renaissance, in a lifetime of studying and meticulously recording his observations of the natural world. His adoption of oil paint as his primary media
meant that he could depict light and its effects on the landscape and objects
more naturally and with greater dramatic effect than had ever been done before, as demonstrated in the Mona Lisa. His dissection of cadavers carried
forward the understanding of skeletal and muscular anatomy, as seen in the
unfinished St Jerome. His depiction of human emotion in The Last Supper set
the benchmark for religious painting.
The art of Leonardo's younger contemporary Michelangelo took a very
different direction. Michelangelo, in neither his painting nor his sculpture
demonstrates any interest in the observation of any natural object except the
39
human body. He perfected his technique in depicting it, while in his early
twenties, by the creation of the enormous marble statue of David and the
group the Pieta, in St Peter's Basilica, Rome. He then set about an exploration
of the expressive possibilities of the human anatomy. His commission by Pope
Julius II to paint the Sistine Chapel ceiling resulted in the supreme masterpiece of figurative composition, which was to have profound effect on every
subsequent generation of European artists.
Standing alongside Leonardo and Michelangelo as the third great painter
of the High Renaissance was the younger Raphael, who in a short life span
painted a great number of lifelike and engaging portraits, including those of
Pope Julius II and his successor Pope Leo X, and numerous portrayals of the
Madonna and Christ Child, including the Sistine Madonna.
In Northern Italy the High Renaissance represented by the religious
paintings of Giovanni Bellini which include several large altarpieces of a type
known as "Sacred Conversation" which show a group of saints around the enthroned Madonna. His contemporary Giorgione left a small number of enigmatic works, including The Tempest, the subject of which has remained a
matter of speculation. The earliest works of Titian date from the era of the
High Renaissance, including a massive altarpiece The Assumption of the Virgin which combines human action and drama with spectacular colour and atmosphere.
The Renaissance marks the period of European history at the close of the
Middle Ages and the rise of the Modern world. It represents a cultural rebirth
from the 14th through the middle of the 17th centuries. Early Renaissance,
mostly in Italy, bridges the art period during the fifteenth century, between the
Middle Ages and the High Renaissance in Italy. It is generally known that Renaissance matured in Northern Europe later, in 16th century. One of the distinguishing features of Renaissance art was its development of highly realistic
linear perspective. Giotto di Bondone (1267–1337) is credited with first treating a painting as a window into space, but it was not until the demonstrations
of architect Filippo Brunelleschi (1377–1446) and the subsequent writings of
Leon Battista Alberti (1404–1472) that perspective was formalized as an artistic technique. The development of perspective was part of a wider trend towards realism in the arts. To that end, painters also developed other techniques, studying light, shadow, and, famously in the case of Leonardo da Vinci, human anatomy. Underlying these changes in artistic method, was a renewed desire to depict the beauty of nature, and to unravel the axioms of aesthetics, with the works of Leonardo, Michelangelo and Raphael representing
artistic pinnacles that were to be much imitated by other artists. Other notable
artists include Sandro Botticelli, working for the Medici in Florence, Donatello another Florentine and Titian in Venice, among others.
Concurrently, in the Netherlands, a particularly vibrant artistic culture
40
developed, the work of Hugo van der Goes and Jan van Eyck having particular
influence on the development of painting in Italy, both technically with the
introduction of oil paint and canvas, and stylistically in terms of naturalism in
representation. (For more, see Renaissance in the Netherlands). Later, the
work of Pieter Brueghel the Elder would inspire artists to depict themes of
everyday life.
In architecture, Filippo Brunelleschi was foremost in studying the remains of ancient classical buildings, and with rediscovered knowledge from
the 1st century writer Vitruvius and the flourishing discipline of mathematics,
formulated the Renaissance style which emulated and improved on classical
forms. Brunelleschi's major feat of engineering was the building of the dome
of Florence Cathedral. The first building to demonstrate this is claimed to be
the church of St. Andrew built by Alberti in Mantua. The outstanding architectural work of the High Renaissance was the rebuilding of St. Peter's Basilica,
combining the skills of Bramante, Michelangelo, Raphael, Sangallo and
Maderno.
The Roman orders types of columns are used: Tuscan, Doric, Ionic, Corinthian and Composite. These can either be structural, supporting an arcade or
architrave, or purely decorative, set against a wall in the form of pilasters.
During the Renaissance, architects aimed to use columns, pilasters, and entablatures as an integrated system. One of the first buildings to use pilasters as an
integrated system was in the Old Sacristy (1421–1440) by Filippo Brunelleschi.
Arches, semi-circular or (in the Mannerist style) segmental, are often
used in arcades, supported on piers or columns with capitals. There may be a
section of entablature between the capital and the springing of the arch. Alberti was one of the first to use the arch on a monumental. Renaissance vaults do
not have ribs. They are semi-circular or segmental and on a square plan, unlike
the Gothic vault which is frequently rectangular.
The Renaissance artists were not pagans although they admired antiquity
and they also kept some ideas and symbols of the medieval past. Nicola Pisano (c. 1220 – c. 1278) imitated classical forms by portraying scenes from the
Bible. The Anunciation by Nicola
Pisano, from the Baptistry at Pisa,
demonstrates that classical models influenced Italian art before
the Renaissance took root as a
literary movement
Italian renaissance painting is the painting of the period
beginning in the late 13th century
and flourishing from the early
41
15th to late 16th centuries, occurring within the area of present-day Italy,
which was at that time divided into many political areas. The painters of Renaissance Italy, although often attached to particular courts and with loyalties
to particular towns, nonetheless wandered the length and breadth of Italy, often occupying a diplomatic status and disseminating both artistic and philosophical ideas.
The city that is renowned as the birthplace of the Renaissance and in particular, Renaissance painting, is Florence. A detailed background is given in
the companion articles Renaissance and Renaissance architecture.
Italian Renaissance painting can be divided into four periods: the ProtoRenaissance, 1300–1400; the Early Renaissance, 1400–1475; the High Renaissance, 1475–1525, and Mannerism, 1525–1600. These dates are approximations rather than specific points because the lives of individual artists and
their personal styles overlapped the different periods.
The Proto-Renaissance begins with the professional life of the painter
Giotto and includes Taddeo Gaddi, Orcagna and Altichiero. The Early Renaissance was marked by the work of Masaccio, Fra Angelico, Paolo Uccello, Piero della Francesca and Verrocchio. The High Renaissance period was that of
Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo and Raphael. The Mannerist period included
Andrea del Sarto, Pontormo and Tintoretto.
Renaissance architecture is the architecture of the period between the
early 15th and early 17th centuries in different
regions of Europe, demonstrating a conscious
revival and development of certain elements of
ancient Greek and Roman thought and material
culture. Stylistically, Renaissance architecture
followed Gothic architecture and was succeeded
by Baroque architecture. Developed first in Florence, with Filippo Brunelleschi as one of its innovators, the Renaissance style quickly spread to
other Italian cities. The style was carried to
France, Germany, England, Russia and other
parts of Europe at different dates and with varying degrees of impact.
The Renaissance style places emphasis on
symmetry, proportion, geometry and the regularity of parts as they are demonstrated in the architecture of classical antiquity and in particular ancient Roman architecture, of which many examples remained. Orderly arrangements of
columns, pilasters and lintels, as well as the use of semicircular arches, hemispherical domes, niches and aedicules replaced the more complex proportional
systems and irregular profiles of medieval buildings.
Historians often divide the Renaissance in Italy into three phases. Where42
as art historians might talk of an "Early Renaissance" period, in which they
include developments in 14th century painting and sculpture, this is usually
not the case in architectural history. The bleak economic conditions of the late
14th century did not produce buildings that are considered to be part of the
Renaissance. As a result, the word "Renaissance" among architectural historians usually applies to the period 1400 to ca. 1525, or later in the case of nonItalian Renaissances.
 Historians often use the following designations:
 Renaissance (ca. 1400–1500); also known as the Quattrocento and
sometimes Early Renaissance
 High Renaissance (ca.1500–1525)
 Mannerism (ca. 1520–1600)
Quattrocento. In the Quattrocento, concepts of architectural order were
explored and rules were formulated. The study of classical antiquity led in
particular to the adoption of Classical detail and ornamentation.
Space, as an element of architecture, was utilised differently from the
way it had been in the Middle Ages. Space was organised by proportional logic, its form and rhythm subject to geometry, rather than being created by intuition as in Medieval buildings. The prime example of this is the Basilica di San
Lorenzo in Florence by Filippo Brunelleschi (1377–1446).
High Renaissance. During the High Renaissance, concepts derived from
classical antiquity were developed and used with greater surety. The most representative architect is Bramante (1444–1514) who expanded the applicability
of classical architecture to contemporary buildings. His San Pietro in Montorio
(1503) was directly inspired by circular Roman temples. He was, however,
hardly a slave to the classical forms and it was his style that was to dominate
Italian architecture in the 16th century.
Mannerism. During the Mannerist period, architects experimented with
using architectural forms to emphasize solid and spatial relationships. The
Renaissance ideal of harmony gave way to freer and more imaginative
rhythms. The best known architect associated with the Mannerist style was
Michelangelo (1475–1564), who is credited with inventing the giant order, a
large pilaster that stretches from the bottom to the top of a façade. He used this
in his design for the Campidoglio in Rome.
Prior to the 20th century, the term Mannerism had negative connotations,
but it is now used to describe the historical period in more general nonjudgemental terms.
§5. Romanticism art
Romanticism (or the Romantic Era or the "'Romantic Period"') was an artistic, literary and intellectual movement that originated in the second half of
43
the 18th century in Europe, and gained strength in reaction to the Industrial
Revolution. In part, it was a revolt against aristocratic social and political
norms of the Age of Enlightenment and a reaction against the scientific rationalization of nature. It was embodied most strongly in the visual arts, music,
and literature, but had a major impact on historiography, education and natural
history.
In a basic sense, the term "Romanticism" has been used to refer to certain
artists, poets, writers, musicians, as well as political, philosophical and social
thinkers of the late 18th and early to mid 19th centuries. It has equally been
used to refer to various artistic, intellectual, and social trends of that era. Despite this general usage of the term, a precise characterization and specific
definition of Romanticism have been the subject of debate in the fields of intellectual history and literary history throughout the 20th century, without any
great measure of consensus emerging.
Arthur Lovejoy attempted to demonstrate the difficulty of defining Romanticism in his seminal article "On The Discrimination of Romanticisms" in
his Essays in the History of Ideas (1948); some scholars see romanticism as
essentially continuous with the present, some like Robert Hughes see in it the
inaugural moment of modernity, some like Chateaubriand, 'Novalis' and Samuel Taylor Coleridge see it as the beginning of a tradition of resistance to Enlightenment rationalism – a 'Counter-Enlightenment' – to be associated most
closely with German Romanticism. Still others place it firmly in the direct
aftermath of the French Revolution. An earlier definition comes from Charles
Baudelaire: "Romanticism is precisely situated neither in choice of subject nor
exact truth, but in the way of feeling."
The movement validated strong emotion as an authentic source of aesthetic experience, placing new emphasis on such emotions as trepidation, horror and terror and awe-especially that which is experienced in confronting the
sublimity of untamed nature and its picturesque qualities, both new aesthetic
categories. It elevated folk art and ancient custom to something noble, made of
spontaneity a desirable character (as in the musical impromptu), and argued
for a "natural" epistemology of human activities as conditioned by nature in
the form of language and customary usage.
Romanticism reached beyond the rational and Classicist ideal models to
elevate a revived medievalism and elements of art and narrative perceived to
be authentically medieval, in an attempt to escape the confines of population
growth, urban sprawl, and industrialism, and it also attempted to embrace the
exotic, unfamiliar, and distant in modes more authentic than Rococo chinoiserie, harnessing the power of the imagination to envision and to escape.
Although the movement was rooted in the German Sturm und Drang
movement, which prized intuition and emotion over Enlightenment rationalism, the ideologies and events of the French Revolution laid the background
44
from which both Romanticism and the Counter-Enlightenment emerged. The
confines of the Industrial Revolution also had their influence on Romanticism,
which was in part an escape from modern realities; indeed, in the second half
of the 19th century, "Realism" was offered as a polarized opposite to Romanticism. Romanticism elevated the achievements of what it perceived as heroic
individualists and artists, whose pioneering examples would elevate society. It
also legitimized the individual imagination as a critical authority, which permitted freedom from classical notions of form in art. There was a strong recourse to historical and natural inevitability, a zeitgeist, in the representation
of its ideas.
Romanticism in music. Although the term "Romanticism" when applied
to music has come to imply the period roughly from the 1820s until around
1900, the contemporary application of "romantic" to music did not coincide
with this modern interpretation. In 1810 E.T.A. Hoffmann called Mozart,
Haydn and Beethoven the three "Romantic Composers", and Ludwig Spohr
used the term "good Romantic style" to apply to parts of Beethoven's Fifth
Symphony. Technically, Mozart and Haydn are considered Classical composers, and by most standards, Beethoven represents the start of the musical Romantic period. By the early 20th century, the sense that there had been a decisive break with the musical past led to the establishment of the 19th century as
"The Romantic Era", and it is referred to as such in the standard encyclopedias
of music.
Pyotr Tchaikovsky's wide ranging output includes symphonies, operas,
ballets, instrumental and chamber music and songs. He wrote some of the
most popular concert and theatrical music in the classical repertoire, including
the ballets Swan Lake, The Sleeping Beauty and opera
Eugene Onegin.
The traditional modern discussion of the music
of Romanticism includes elements, such as the growing use of folk music, which are also directly related
to the broader current of Romantic nationalism in the
arts as well as aspects already present in 18th-century
music, such as the cantabile accompanied melody to
which Romantic composers beginning with Franz
Schubert applied restless key modulations.
It is the period of 1815 to 1848 which must be regarded as the true age of
Romanticism in music – the age of the last compositions of Beethoven (d.
1827) and Schubert (d. 1828), of the works of Schumann (d. 1856) and
Chopin (d.1849), of the early struggles of Berlioz and Richard Wagner, of the
great virtuosi such as Paganini (d. 1840), and the young Liszt and Thalberg.
Now that we are able to listen to the work of Mendelssohn (d. 1847) stripped
of the Biedermeier reputation unfairly attached to it, he can also be placed in
45
this more appropriate context. After this period, with Chopin and Paganini
dead, Liszt retired from the concert platform at a minor German court, Wagner
effectively in exile until he obtained royal patronage in Bavaria, and Berlioz
still struggling with the bourgeois liberalism which all but smothered radical
artistic endeavour in Europe, Romanticism in music was surely past its primegiving way, rather, to the period of musical romantics.
Romanticism in literature. In literature, Romanticism found recurrent
themes in the evocation or criticism of the past, the cult of "sensibility" with
its emphasis on women and children, the heroic isolation of the artist or narrator, and respect for a new, wilder, untrammeled and "pure" nature. Furthermore, several romantic authors, such as Edgar Allan Poe and Nathaniel Hawthorne, based their writings on the supernatural/occult and human psychology.
Romanticism also helped in the emergence of new ideas and in the process led
to the emergence of positive voices that were beneficial for the marginalized
sections of the society.
The roots of romanticism in poetry go back to the time of Alexander
Pope (1688–1744). Early pioneers include Joseph Warton (headmaster at
Winchester College) and his brother Thomas Warton, professor of Poetry at
Oxford University. Joseph maintained that invention and imagination were the
chief qualities of a poet. The "poet's poet" Thomas Chatterton is generally
considered to be the first Romantic poet in English. The Scottish poet James
Macpherson influenced the early development of Romanticism with the international success of his Ossian cycle of poems published in 1762, inspiring
both Goethe and the young Walter Scott.
An early German influence came from Johann Wolfgang von Goethe,
whose 1774 novel The Sorrows of Young Werther had young men throughout
Europe emulating its protagonist, a young artist with a very sensitive and passionate temperament. At that time Germany was a multitude of small separate
states, and Goethe's works would have a seminal influence in developing a
unifying sense of nationalism. Another philosophic influence came from the
German idealism of Johann Gottlieb Fichte and Friedrich Schelling, making
Jena (where Fichte lived, as well as Schelling, Hegel, Schiller and the brothers
Schlegel) a center for early German romanticism ("Jenaer Romantik"). Important writers were Ludwig Tieck, Novalis (Heinrich von Ofterdingen, 1799),
Heinrich von Kleist and Friedrich Hölderlin. Heidelberg later became a center
of German romanticism, where writers and poets such as Clemens Brentano,
Achim von Arnim, and Joseph Freiherr von Eichendorff met regularly in literary circles.
Important motifs in German Romanticism are travelling, nature, and ancient myths. The later German Romanticism of, for example, E. T. A. Hoffmann's Der Sandmann (The Sandman), 1817, and Joseph Freiherr von Eichendorff's Das Marmorbild (The Marble Statue), 1819, was darker in its mo46
tifs and has gothic elements.
Early Russian Romantism is associated with the writers Konstantin
Batyushkov (A Vision on the Shores of the Lethe, 1809), Vasily Zhukovsky
(The Bard, 1811; Svetlana, 1813) and Nikolay Karamzin (Poor Liza, 1792;
Julia, 1796; Martha the Mayoress, 1802; The Sensitive and the Cold, 1803).
However the principal exponent of Romanticism in Russia is Alexander Pushkin (The Prisoner of the Caucasus, 1820–1821; The Robber Brothers, 1822;
Ruslan and Ludmila, 1820; Eugene Onegin, 1825–1832). Pushkin's work influenced many writers in the 19th century and led to his eventual recognition
as Russia's greatest poet. Other Russian poets include Mikhail Lermontov (A
Hero of Our Time, 1839), Fyodor Tyutchev (Silentium!, 1830), Yevgeny Baratynsky's (Eda, 1826), Anton Delvig, and Wilhelm Küchelbecker. Influenced
heavily by Lors Byron, Lermotov sought to explore the Romantic emphasis on
metaphysical discontent with society and self, while Tyutchev's poems often
described scenes of nature or passions of love. Tyutchev commonly operated
with such categories as night and day, north and south, dream and reality,
cosmos and chaos, and the still world of winter and spring teeming with life.
Baratynsky's style was fairly classical in nature, dwelling on the models of the
previous century.
In the United States, romantic Gothic literature made an early appearance
with Washington Irving's The Legend of Sleepy Hollow (1820) and Rip Van
Winkle (1819), followed from 1823 onwards by the Leatherstocking Tales of
James Fenimore Cooper, with their emphasis on heroic simplicity and their
fervent landscape descriptions of an already-exotic mythicized frontier peopled by "noble savages", similar to the philosophical theory of Rousseau, exemplified by Uncas, from The Last of the Mohicans. There are picturesque
"local color" elements in Washington Irving's essays and especially his travel
books. Edgar Allan Poe's tales of the macabre and his balladic poetry were
more influential in France than at home, but the romantic American novel developed fully in Nathaniel Hawthorne's atmosphere and melodrama. Later
Transcendentalist writers such as Henry David Thoreau and Ralph Waldo
Emerson still show elements of its influence and imagination, as does the romantic realism of Walt Whitman. The poetry of Emily Dickinson – nearly
unread in her own time—and Herman Melville's novel Moby-Dick can be taken as epitomes of American Romantic literature. By the 1880s, however, psychological and social realism was competing with romanticism in the novel.
Questions
1. What are the main features of Renaissance?
2. Who are the main representatives of the Renaissance period of art?
3. What are the characteristic features of Romanticism?
4. What famous composers of these periods do you know?
47
Topic №5. MODERN AESTHETICS
Plan
1. Modernism as an aesthetic movement of late 17-th-early 20-th century
2. Modernism in art
3. Postmodern aesthetics
§1. Modernism as an aesthetic movement
of late 17-th-early 20-th century
From the late 17th to the early 20th century Western aesthetics underwent a slow revolution into what is often called modernism. German and British thinkers emphasised beauty as the key component of art and of the aesthetic experience, and saw art as necessarily aiming at absolute beauty.
For Alexander Gottlieb Baumgarten aesthetics is the science of the sense
experiences, a younger sister of logic, and beauty is thus the most perfect kind
of knowledge that sense experience can have. For Immanuel Kant the aesthetic experience of beauty is a judgment of a subjective but similar human truth,
since all people should agree that “this rose is beautiful” if it in fact is. However, beauty cannot be reduced to any more basic set of features. For Friedrich
Schiller aesthetic appreciation of beauty is the most perfect reconciliation of
the sensual and rational parts of human nature.
For Friedrich Wilhelm Joseph Schelling, the philosophy of art is the "organon" of philosophy concerning the relation between man and nature. So
aesthetics began now to be the name for the philosophy of art. Friedrich von
Schlegel, August Wilhelm Schlegel, Friedrich Schleiermacher and Georg
Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel have also given lectures on aesthetics as philosophy
of art after 1800.
For Hegel all culture is a matter of "absolute spirit" coming to be manifest to itself, stage by stage, changing to a perfection that only philosophy can
approach. Art is the first stage in which the absolute spirit is manifest immediately to sense-perception, and is thus an objective rather than subjective revelation of beauty.
For Arthur Schopenhauer aesthetic contemplation of beauty is the most
free that the pure intellect can be from the dictates of will; here we contemplate perfection of form without any kind of worldly agenda, and thus any intrusion of utility or politics would ruin the point of the beauty. It is thus for
Schopenhauer one way to fight the suffering.
The British were largely divided into intuitionist and analytic camps. The
intuitionists believed that aesthetic experience was disclosed by a single mental faculty of some kind. For Anthony Ashley-Cooper, 3rd Earl of Shaftesbury
this was identical to the moral sense, beauty just is the sensory version of
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moral goodness. For Ludwig Wittgenstein aesthetics consisted in the description of a whole culture which is a linguistic impossibility. That which constitutes aesthetics lies outside the realm of the language game.
On 7 January 1904 James Joyce attempted to publish A Portrait of the
Artist, an essay-story dealing with aesthetics, only to have it rejected from the
free-thinking magazine Dana. He decided, on his twenty-second birthday, to
revise the story into a novel he called Stephen Hero. It was a fictional rendering of Joyce's youth, but he eventually grew frustrated with its direction and
abandoned this work. It was never published in this form, but years later, in
Trieste, Joyce completely rewrote it as A Portrait of the Artist as a Young
Man. The unfinished Stephen Hero was published after his death.
For Oscar Wilde the contemplation of beauty for beauty's sake was not
only the foundation for much of his literary career but was quoted as saying
"Aestheticism is a search after the signs of the beautiful. It is the science of the
beautiful through which men seek the correlation of the arts. It is, to speak
more exactly, the search after the secret of life.".
Wilde famously toured the United States in 1882. He travelled across the
United States spreading the idea of Aesthetics in a speech called "The English
Renaissance." In his speech he proposed that Beauty and Aesthetics was "not
languid but energetic. By beautifying the outward aspects of life, one would
beautify the inner ones." The English Renaissance was, he said, "like the Italian Renaissance before it, a sort of rebirth of the spirit of man".
For Francis Hutcheson beauty is disclosed by an inner mental sense, but
is a subjective fact rather than an objective one. Analytic theorists like Henry
Home, Lord Kames, William Hogarth, and Edmund Burke hoped to reduce
beauty to some list of attributes. Hogarth, for example, thinks that beauty consists of (1) fitness of the parts to some design; (2) variety in as many ways as
possible; (3) uniformity, regularity or symmetry, which is only beautiful when
it helps to preserve the character of fitness; (4) simplicity or distinctness,
which gives pleasure not in itself, but through its enabling the eye to enjoy
variety with ease; (5) intricacy, which provides employment for our active
energies, leading the eye on "a wanton kind of chase"; and (6) quantity or
magnitude, which draws our attention and produces admiration and awe. Later
analytic aestheticians strove to link beauty to some scientific theory of psychology (such as James Mill) or biology (such as Herbert Spencer).
§2. Modernism in art
Modernism, in its broadest definition, is modern thought, character, or
practice. More specifically, the term describes the modernist movement, its set
of cultural tendencies and array of associated cultural movements, originally
arising from wide-scale and far-reaching changes to Western society in the
late 19th and early 20th centuries.
49
Modernism was a revolt against the conservative values of realism. Arguably the most paradigmatic motive of modernism is the rejection of tradition
and its reprise, incorporation, rewriting, recapitulation, revision and parody in
new forms. Modernism rejected the lingering certainty of Enlightenment
thinking and also rejected the existence of a compassionate, all-powerful Creator God in favor of the abstract, unconventional, largely uncertain ethic
brought on by modernity, initiated around the turn of century by rapidly
changing technology and further catalyzed by the horrific consequences of
World War One on the cultural psyche of artists.
In general, the term modernism encompasses the activities and output of
those who felt the "traditional" forms of art, architecture, literature, religious
faith, social organization and daily life were becoming outdated in the new
economic, social, and political conditions of an emerging fully industrialized
world. The poet Ezra Pound's 1934 injunction to "Make it new!" was paradigmatic of the movement's approach towards the obsolete. Another paradigmatic exhortation was articulated by philosopher and composer Theodor
Adorno, who, in the 1940s, challenged conventional surface coherence and
appearance of harmony typical of the rationality of Enlightenment thinking. A
salient characteristic of modernism is self-consciousness. This selfconsciousness often led to experiments with form and work that draws attention to the processes and materials used (and to the further tendency of abstraction).
The modernist movement, at the beginning of the 20th century, marked
the first time that the term "avant-garde", with which the movement was labeled until the word "modernism" prevailed, was used for the arts (rather than
in its original military and political context). Surrealism gained fame among
the public as being the most extreme form of modernism, or "the avant-garde
of modernism".
In the 1880s a strand of thinking began to assert that it was necessary to
push aside previous norms entirely, instead of merely revising past knowledge
in light of current techniques. The growing movement in art paralleled such
developments as the Theory of Relativity in physics; the increasing integration
of the internal combustion engine and industrialization; and the increased role
of the social sciences in public policy. It was argued that, if the nature of reality itself was in question, and if restrictions which had been in place around
human activity were falling, then art, too, would have to radically change.
Thus, in the first fifteen years of the 20th century a series of writers, thinkers,
and artists made the break with traditional means of organizing literature,
painting, and music.
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Explosion period, 1910–1930. On the eve of the First World War a
growing tension and unease with the social order, seen in the Russian Revolution of 1905 and the agitation of "radical" parties, also manifested itself in artistic works in every medium which radically simplified or rejected previous
practice. Young painters such as Pablo Picasso and
Henri Matisse were causing a shock with their rejection of traditional perspective as the means of structuring paintings—a step that none of the impressionists, not even Cézanne, had taken. In 1907, as Picasso
was painting Demoiselles d'Avignon, Oskar Kokoschka was writing Mörder, Hoffnung der Frauen
(Murderer, Hope of Women), the first Expressionist
play (produced with scandal in 1909), and Arnold
Schoenberg was composing his String Quartet No.2
in F-sharp minor, his first composition "without a
tonal center." In 1911, Kandinsky painted Bild mit
Kreis (Picture With a Circle) which he later called
the first abstract painting. In 1913—the year of Edmund Husserl's Ideas, Niels
Bohr's quantized atom, Ezra Pound's founding of imagism, the Armory Show
in New York, and, in Saint Petersburg, the "first futurist opera," Victory Over
the Sun—another Russian composer Igor Stravinsky, working in Paris for
Sergei Diaghilev and the Ballets Russes, composed The Rite of Spring for a
ballet, choreographed by Vaslav Nijinsky, that depicted human sacrifice.
Second generation, 1930–1945. By 1930, Modernism had entered popular culture. With the increasing urbanization of populations, it was beginning
to be looked to as the source for ideas to deal with the challenges of the day.
As modernism gained traction in academia, it was developing a self-conscious
theory of its own importance. Popular culture, which was not derived from
high culture but instead from its own realities (particularly mass production)
fueled much modernist innovation. By 1930 The New Yorker magazine began
publishing new and modern ideas by young writers and humorists like Dorothy Parker, Robert Benchley, E.B. White, S.J. Perelman, and James Thurber,
amongst others. Modern ideas in art appeared in commercials and logos, the
famous London Underground logo, designed by Edward Johnston in 1919,
being an early example of the need for clear, easily recognizable and memorable visual symbols.
Abstract expressionism. In abstract painting during the 1950s and 1960s
several new directions like hard-edge painting and other forms of geometric
abstraction began to appear in artist studios and in radical avant-garde circles
as a reaction against the subjectivism of abstract expressionism. Clement
Greenberg became the voice of post-painterly abstraction when he curated an
influential exhibition of new painting that toured important art museums
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throughout the United States in 1964. Color field painting, hard-edge painting
and lyrical abstraction emerged as radical new directions.
Pop art. In 1962 the Sidney Janis Gallery mounted The New Realists, the
first major pop art group exhibition in an uptown art gallery in New York
City. Janis mounted the exhibition in a 57th Street storefront near his gallery
at 15 E. 57th Street. The show sent shockwaves through the New York School
and reverberated worldwide. Earlier in England in 1958 the term "Pop Art"
was used by Lawrence Alloway to describe paintings that celebrated consumerism of the post World War II era. This movement rejected abstract expressionism and its focus on the hermeneutic
and psychological interior in favor of art
that depicted and often celebrated material
consumer culture, advertising, and iconography of the mass production age. The
early works of David Hockney and the
works of Richard Hamilton and Eduardo Paolozzi were considered seminal
examples in the movement. Meanwhile in the downtown scene in New York's
East Village 10th Street galleries artists were formulating an American version
of pop art. Claes Oldenburg had his storefront, and the Green Gallery on 57th
Street began to show the works of Tom Wesselmann and James Rosenquist.
Later Leo Castelli exhibited the works of other American artists, including
those of Andy Warhol and Roy Lichtenstein for most of their careers. There is
a connection between the radical works of Marcel Duchamp and Man Ray, the
rebellious Dadaists with a sense of humor, and pop artists like Claes Oldenburg, Andy Warhol, and Roy Lichtenstein, whose paintings reproduce the look
of Benday dots, a technique used in commercial reproduction.
§3. Postmodern aesthetics
Early twentieth century artists, poets and composers challenged existing
notions of beauty, broadening the scope of art and aesthetics. In 1941, Eli
Siegel, American philosopher and poet, founded Aesthetic Realism, the philosophy that reality itself is aesthetic, and that "The world, art, and self explain
each other: each is the aesthetic oneness of opposites."
Various attempts have been made to define Post-modern aesthetics. The
challenge to the assumption that beauty was central to art and aesthetics,
thought to be original, is actually continuous with older aesthetic theory; Aristotle was the first in the Western tradition to classify "beauty" into types as in
his theory of drama, and Kant made a distinction between beauty and the sublime. What was new was a refusal to credit the higher status of certain types,
where the taxonomy implied a preference for tragedy and the sublime to comedy and the Rococo.
52
Croce suggested that “expression” is central in the way that beauty was
once thought to be central. George Dickie suggested that the sociological institutions of the art world were the glue binding art and sensibility into unities.
Marshall McLuhan suggested that art always functions
as a "counter-environment" designed to make visible
what is usually invisible about a society. Theodor
Adorno felt that aesthetics could not proceed without
confronting the role of the culture industry in the
commodification of art and aesthetic experience. Hal
Foster (art critic) attempted to portray the reaction
against beauty and Modernist art in The AntiAesthetic: Essays on Postmodern Culture. Arthur Danto has described this
reaction as "kalliphobia" (after the Greek word for beauty – 'kalos'). André
Malraux explains that the notion of beauty was connected to a particular conception of art that arose with the Renaissance and was still dominant in the
eighteenth century (but was supplanted later). The discipline of aesthetics,
which originated in the eighteenth century, mistook this transient state of affairs for a revelation of the permanent nature of art. Brian Massumi suggests
to reconsider beauty following the aesthetical thought in the philosophy of
Deleuze and Guattari.
Daniel Berlyne created the field of experimental aesthetics in the 1970s,
for which he is still the most cited individual decades after his death.
Pneumaist aestheticism is a theory of art and a highly experimental approach to art negating historical preconceptions of the aesthetic.
Jean-François Lyotard re-invokes the Kantian distinction between taste
and the sublime. Sublime painting, unlike kitsch realism, "...will enable us to
see only by making it impossible to see; it will please only by causing pain."
Sigmund Freud inaugurated aesthetical thinking in Psychoanalysis mainly via the "Uncanny" as aesthetical affect. Following Freud and MerleauPonty, Jacques Lacan theorized aesthetics in terms of sublimation and the
Thing.
Questions
1. What are the main aesthetical ideas of the modern times?
2. What period covers modern aesthetics
3. What are the characteristic features modern aesthetics
4. What art movement arises during this period?
53
Topic №6. THE AESTHETICAL IDEAS OF RUSSIAN
AND UKRAINIAN CULTURE
1.
2.
3.
4.
Plan
Russian culture
Russian art forms
Ukrainian culture
Ukrainian art forms
§1. Russian culture
Russian culture is associated with the country of Russia and, sometimes,
specifically with ethnic Russians. It has a rich history and can boast a long
tradition of excellence in every aspect of the arts, especially when it comes to
literature and philosophy, classical music and ballet, architecture and painting,
cinema and animation, which all had considerable influence on the world culture. The country also has a rich material culture and a strong tradition in
technology.
Russian culture started from that of the East
Slavs, with their pagan beliefs and specific way of
life in the wooded areas of Eastern Europe. Early
on, the culture of Russian ancestors was much influenced by neighbouring Finno-Ugric tribes and
by nomadic, mainly Turkic, peoples of the Pontic
steppe. In the late 1st millennium AD the Scandinavian Vikings, or Varangians, also took part in the
forming of Russian identity and Kievan Rus' state.
Kievan Rus' had accepted Orthodox Christianity
from the Eastern Roman Empire in 988, and this
largely defined the Russian culture of next millennium as the synthesis of Slavic and Byzantine cultures. After the fall of Constantinople in 1453,
Russia remained the largest Orthodox nation in the
world and claimed succession to the Byzantine legacy in the form of the Third
Rome idea. At different points of its history, the country also was strongly
influenced by the culture of Western Europe. Since Peter the Great's reforms
for two centuries Russian culture largely developed in the general context of
European culture rather than pursuing its own unique ways. The situation
changed in the 20th century, when the Communist ideology became a major
factor in the culture of the Soviet Union, where Russia, or Russian SFSR, was
the largest and leading part.
54
Nowadays, Russian cultural heritage is ranked seventh in the Nation
Brands Index, based on interviews of some 20,000 people mainly from the
Western countries and the Far East. That's with the fact, that due to relatively
late involvement of Russia into the modern globalisation and international
tourism, many aspects of Russian culture, like Russian jokes and the Soviet
Art, remain largely unknown to foreigners.
§2. Russian art forms
Folklore. Old Russian folklore takes its roots in the pagan beliefs of ancient Slavs and now is represented in the Russian fairy tales. Epic Russian
bylinas are also an important part of Slavic mythology. The oldest bylinas of
Kievan cycle were actually recorded mostly in the Russian North, especially
in Karelia, where most of the Finnish national epic Kalevala was recorded as
well.
Many of Russian fairy tales and
bylinas were adapted for animation
films, or for feature movies by the
prominent directors like Aleksandr
Ptushko (Ilya Muromets, Sadko) and
Aleksandr Rou (Morozko, Vasilisa
the Beautiful). Some Russian poets,
including Pyotr Yershov and Leonid
Filatov, made a number of wellknown poetical interpretations of the
classical Russian fairy tales, and in some cases, like that of Alexander Pushkin, also created fully original fairy tale poems of great popularity.
Literature. Russian literature is considered to be among the most influential and developed in the world, contributing many of the world's most famous
literary works. Russia's literary history dates back to the 10th century; in the
18th century its development was boosted by the works of Mikhail Lomonosov and Denis Fonvizin, and by the early 19th century a modern native tradition had emerged, producing some of the greatest writers of all time. This period and the Golden Age of Russian Poetry began with Alexander Pushkin,
considered to be the founder of modern Russian literature and often described
as the "Russian Shakespeare". It continued in the 19th century with the poetry
of Mikhail Lermontov and Alexey Nekrasov, dramas of Aleksandr Ostrovsky
and Anton Chekhov, and the prose of Nikolai Gogol, Ivan Turgenev, Leo Tolstoy, Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Mikhail Saltykov-Shchedrin, Ivan Goncharov,
Aleksey Pisemsky and Nikolai Leskov. Tolstoy and Dostoyevsky in particular
were titanic figures to the point that many literary critics have described one or
the other as the greatest novelist ever.
55
Architecture. Russian architecture began with the woodcraft
buildings of ancient Slavs. Since
Christianization of Kievan Rus'
for several ages Russian architecture was influenced predominantly by the Byzantine architecture,
until the Fall of Constantinople.
Apart from fortifications (kremlins), the main stone buildings of
aincient Rus' were Orthodox
churches, with their many domes, often gilded or brightly painted. Aristotle
Fioravanti and other Italian architects brought Renaissance trends into Russia.
The 16th century saw the development of unique tent-like churches culminating in Saint Basil's Cathedral. By that time the onion dome design was also
fully developed. In the 17th century, the "fiery style" of ornamentation flourished in Moscow and Yaroslavl, gradually paving the way for the Naryshkin
baroque of the 1690s. After Peter the Great reforms had made Russia much
closer to Western culture, the change of the architectural styles in Russia generally followed that of Western Europe.
Icon painting. Russian icons are typically paintings on wood, often
small, though some in churches and monasteries may be as large as a table
top. Many religious homes in Russia have icons
hanging on the wall in the krasny ugol, the "red" or
"beautiful" corner (see Icon Corner). There is a
rich history and elaborate religious symbolism
associated with icons. In Russian churches, the
nave is typically separated from the sanctuary by
an iconostasis (Russian ikonostás) a wall of icons.
Icon paintings in Russia attempted to help people
with their prayers without idolizing the figure in
the painting. The most comprehensive collection
of Icon art is found at the Tretyakov Gallery.
Classical painting. The Russian Academy of
Arts was created in 1757, aimed to give Russian artists an international role
and status. Notable portrait painters from the Academy include Ivan Argunov,
Fyodor Rokotov, Dmitry Levitzky, and Vladimir Borovikovsky.
In the early 19th century, when neoclassicism and romantism flourished,
famous academic artists focused on mythological and Biblical themes, like
Karl Briullov and Alexander Ivanov.
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Soviet Art. During the Russian Revolution a movement was initiated to
put all arts to service of the dictatorship of the
proletariat. The instrument for this was created
just days before the October Revolution, known
as Proletkult, an abbreviation for "Proletarskie
kulturno-prosvetitelnye organizatsii" (Proletarian
Cultural and Enlightenment Organizations). A
prominent theorist of this movement was Alexander Bogdanov. Initially, Narkompros (ministry of
education), which was also in charge of the arts,
supported Proletkult. Although Marxist in character, the Proletkult gained the disfavor of many
party leaders, and by 1922 it had declined considerably. It was eventually disbanded by Stalin in
1932. De facto restrictions on what artists could paint were abandoned by the
late 1980s.
However, in the late Soviet era many artists combined innovation with
socialist realism including Ernst Neizvestny, Ilya Kabakov, Mikhail Shemyakin, Erik Bulatov, and Vera Mukhina. They employed techniques as varied as
primitivism, hyperrealism, grotesque, and abstraction. Soviet artists produced
works that were furiously patriotic and anti-fascist in the 1940s. After the
Great Patriotic War Soviet sculptors made multiple monuments to the war
dead, marked by a great restrained solemnity.
Folk music and dance. Russians have distinctive traditions of folk music. Typical ethnic Russian musical instruments are
gusli, balalaika, zhaleika, balalaika contrabass, bayan
accordion, Gypsy guitar and garmoshka. Folk music
had great influence on the Russian classical composers,
and in modern times it is a source of inspiration for a
number of popular folk bands, most prominent being
Melnitsa. Russian folk songs, as well as patriotic songs
of the Soviet era, constitute the bulk of repertoire of the
world-renown Red Army choir and other popular Russian ensembles.
Ethnic Russian dances include khorovod, barynya, kamarinskaya, kazachok and chechotka (a tap dance in bast shoes and with a bayan).
Music. Music in 19th century Russia was defined by the tension between
classical composer Mikhail Glinka along with his followers, who embraced
Russian national identity and added religious and folk elements to their compositions, and the Russian Musical Society led by composers Anton and Nikolay Rubinstein, which was musically conservative. The later Romantic tradition of Tchaikovsky, one of the greatest composers of the Romantic era,
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whose music has come to be known and loved for its distinctly Russian character as well as its rich harmonies and stirring melodies, was brought into the
20th century by Sergei Rachmaninoff, one of the last great champions of the
Romantic style of European classical music.
World-renowned composers of the 20th century included Scriabin, Stravinsky, Rachmaninoff, Prokofiev, Shostakovich and Sviridov. During most of
the Soviet Era, music was highly scrutinized and kept within a conservative,
accessible idiom in conformity with the policy of
socialist realism.
Soviet and Russian conservatories have turned
out generations of world-renowned soloists. Among
the best known are violinists David Oistrakh and
Gidon Kremer; cellist Mstislav Rostropovich; pianists Vladimir Horowitz, Sviatoslav Richter, and
Emil Gilels; and vocalists Fyodor Shalyapin, Galina
Vishnevskaya, Anna Netrebko and Dmitry Hvorostovsky.
Ballet. The original purpose of the ballet in Russia was to entertain the imperial court. The first ballet
company was the Imperial School of Ballet in St. Petersburg in the 1740s. The
Ballet Russe was a ballet company founded in the 1909 by Sergey Diaghilev,
an enormously important figure in the Russian ballet scene. Diaghilev and his
Ballets Russes' travels abroad profoundly influenced the development of dance
worldwide. The headquarters of his ballet company was located in Paris,
France. A protégé of Diaghileve, George Balanchine, founded the New York
City Ballet Company in 1948.
During the early 20th century, Russian ballet dancers Anna Pavlova and
Vaslav Nijinsky rose to fame. Soviet ballet preserved the perfected 19th century traditions, and the Soviet Union's choreography schools produced one internationally famous star after another, including Maya Plisetskaya, Rudolf
Nureyev, and Mikhail Baryshnikov. The Bolshoi Ballet in Moscow and the
Mariinsky in Saint Petersburg remain famous throughout the world.
§3. Ukrainian culture
Ukrainian culture refers to the culture associated with the country of
Ukraine and sometimes with ethnic Ukrainians across the globe. It contains
elements of other Eastern European cultures as well as some Western European influences. Within Ukraine, there are a number of other ethnic groups with
sizable populations, most notably Russians. Ukrainian customs are heavily
influenced by the Eastern Orthodox Church and Pre-Christian Alpine traditions still present in Slavic mythology.
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Ukraine has a shared culture with neighboring nations, dating back to the
9th century and the Land of Rus. Mutual influence is particularly apparent
among the cultures of Russia, Ukraine, Poland and Belarus.
§4. Ukrainian national dance
Traditional dances are popular within Ukraine, many of which derive
from rural Cossack villages.
One Ukrainian style of dancing is called Kalyna. Both men and women
participate in this type of dancing.
The women wear colourful costumes, sometimes featuring a solidcoloured (usually blue, green, red, or black) tunic and matching apron, and
under that an open skirt, and below that a white skirt with an embroidered hem
that should reach an inch or so below the knee. If they wear a tunic, then under
that they wear a long-sleeved richly embroidered white shirt. Traditionally,
women wear a type of red leather boots to dance in. They also wear a flower
head piece (vinok), that is a headband covered with flowers and has
long flowing ribbons down the
back that flow when they dance,
and plain red coral necklaces.
The men wear baggy trousers
(usually blue, white, black or red)
and a shirt (usually white, but
sometimes black) embroidered at
the neck and down the stomach.
Over the shirt they sometimes will
wear a richly embroidered vest. Around their waist they wear a thick sash with
fringed ends. Like the women, they wear boots, but these can be black or
white in addition to red.
Kalyna dancing involves partner dancing. One dance, called the pryvitannia, is a greeting dance. It is slow and
respectful, the women bow to the audience
and present bread with salt on a cloth and
flowers. Another, called the hopak is much
more lively, and involves many fast-paced
movements. Hence hopak as a dance is derived from hopak martial art of Cossacks.
Ukrainian music. Ukraine is a multiethnic Eastern European state situated north
of the Black Sea, previously part of the Soviet Union. Many of its ethnic groups living
within Ukraine have their own unique musical traditions and some have developed
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specific musical traditions in association with the land in which they live.
Ukraine found itself at the crossroads of Asia and Europe and this is reflected within the music in a perplexing mix of exotic melismatic singing
(singing of a single syllable of text while moving between several different
notes in succession) with chordal harmony which does not always easily fit
the rules of traditional Western European harmony. The most striking general
characteristic of authentic ethnic Ukrainian folk music is the wide use of minor modes or keys which incorporate augmented 2nd intervals. This is an indication that the major-minor system developed in Western European music did
not become as entrenched or as sophisticated in Ukraine.
Rhythmically the music rarely uses complex time-signatures, but compound meters are encountered, and the music can be extremely complex harmonically.
Harmonically three and even four part harmony had developed and was
recorded in the central steppe regions of Ukraine, but was not in popular use in
the mountain regions by the late 19th century.
 Ritual songs show the greatest tendency to preservation. They are frequently in recitative style, essentially monodic, based on notes in the range of
a third or a fourth. An example of this style is the theme for the Shchedrivka
"Shchedryk" known in the West as "Carol of the Bells".
 A large group of Ukrainian ritual melodies fall within a perfect fourth
with the main central tone as the lowest note. Many of the ritual Easter melodies known as Hayivky fall into this category. The tetrachordal system is also
found in wedding and harvest songs. Folk dances often have melodies based
on two tetrachords fused together.
 The pentatonic scale in anhemitonic form is common in spring songs
known as Vesnianky.
 The bulk of Ukrainian folk songs melodies are based on scales identical to mеdieval modes, but differ in melodic structure. The Mixolydian and
Dorian modes are used more often than Ionian and Aeolian modes. This is a
feature of traditional paraliturgical Koliadky.
 The augmented 2nd interval is found, as well as the raising of the
fourth and seventh degree of the scale. It is often used for melodic expression.
This melodic manner gives an effect that is described as adding severe tension
or sadness in some Ukrainian songs. The phenomena is not found in Russian
folk songs and is thought to have been introduced or developed in the 17th
century.
Questions
1. What are the main features of the art of Soviet period?
2. How correlates Ukrainian and Russian arts?
3. Who are the famous Russian and Ukrainian composers?
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NOTIONS
Aesthetics – is a branch of philosophy dealing with the nature of beauty, art,
and taste, and with the creation and appreciation of beauty.
Arabesque – is a form of artistic decoration consisting of "surface decorations
based on rhythmic linear patterns of scrolling and interlacing foliage, tendrils"
or plain lines, often combined with other elements.
Balalaika – is a stringed musical instrument of Russian origin, with a characteristic triangular body and three strings.
Baroque is a period as well as the style that used exaggerated motion and
clear, easily interpreted detail to produce drama, tension, exuberance, and
grandeur in sculpture, painting, literature, dance, and music.
Buddhism – is a religion and philosophy encompassing a variety of traditions,
beliefs and practices, largely based on teachings attributed to Siddhartha Gautama, commonly known as the Buddha.
Bylina – is a traditional Russian oral epic narrative poem. Byliny singers
loosely utilize historical fact greatly embellished with fantasy or hyperbole to
create their songs.
Catharsis – is a term in dramatic art that describes the "emotional cleansing"
sometimes depicted in a play as occurring for one or more of its characters, as
well as the same phenomenon as (an intended) part of the audience’s experience.
Expressionism was a modernist movement, initially in poetry and painting,
originating in Germany at the beginning of the 20th century. Its typical trait is
to present the world solely from a subjective perspective, distorting it radically
for emotional effect in order to evoke moods or ideas.
Folklore – consists of legends, music, oral history, proverbs, jokes, popular
beliefs, fairy tales and customs that are the traditions of that culture, subculture, or group. It is also the set of practices through which those expressive
genres are shared. The study of folklore is sometimes called folkloristics.
Golden ratio – in mathematics and the arts, two quantities are in the golden
ratio if the ratio of the sum of the quantities to the larger quantity is equal to
the ratio of the larger quantity to the smaller one.
Gothic art – was a Medieval art movement that developed in France out of
Romanesque art in the mid-12th century, led by the concurrent development
of Gothic architecture.
Gusli – is the oldest Russian multi-string plucked instrument. Its exact history
is unknown, but it may have derived from a Byzantine form of the Greek
kythare, which in turn derived from the ancient lyre.
Hedonism – is a school of thought which argues that pleasure is the only intrinsic good. In very simple terms, a hedonist strives to maximize net pleasure
(pleasure minus pain).
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Hopak, also referred to as Gopak or Cossack dance, – is a Ukrainian dance. It
is performed most often as a solitary concert dance by amateur and professional Ukrainian dance ensembles, as well as other performers of folk dances.
Kobzar – was an itinerant Ukrainian bard who sang to his own accompaniment.
Metempsychosis – is a philosophical term in the Greek language referring to
transmigration of the soul, especially its reincarnation after death. It is a doctrine popular among a number of Eastern religions such as Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism and Druzism wherein an individual incarnates from one body
to another, either human, animal, or plant.
Mimesis, "to imitate," from μῖμος (mimos), "imitator, actor" – is a critical and
philosophical term that carries a wide range of meanings, which include: imitation, representation, mimicry, imitatio, receptivity, nonsensuous similarity,
the act of resembling, the act of expression, and the presentation of the self.
Modernism – is a set of cultural tendencies and array of associated cultural
movements, originally arising from wide-scale and far-reaching changes to
Western society in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
Mosaic – is the art of creating images with an assemblage of small pieces of
colored glass, stone, or other materials. It may be a technique of decorative art,
an aspect of interior decoration, or of cultural and spiritual significance as in a
cathedral.
Postmodernism – is a tendency in contemporary culture characterized by the
problem of objective truth and inherent suspicion towards global cultural narrative or meta-narrative. It involves the belief that many, if not all, apparent
realities are only social constructs, as they are subject to change inherent to
time and place. It emphasizes the role of language, power relations, and motivations; in particular it attacks the use of sharp classifications such as male
versus female, straight versus gay, white versus black, and imperial versus
colonial.
Reincarnation – best describes the concept where the soul or spirit, after the
death of the body, is believed to return to live in a new human body, or, in
some traditions, either as a human being, animal or plant.
Renaissance – was a cultural movement that spanned roughly the 14th to the
17th century, beginning in Florence in the Late Middle Ages and later spreading to the rest of Europe.
Romanticism – was an artistic, literary and intellectual movement that originated in the second half of the 18th century in Europe, and gained strength in
reaction to the Industrial Revolution.
Yangshao culture – was a Neolithic culture that existed extensively along the
central Yellow River in China.
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Навчальне видання
Естетика.
Конспект лекцій з методичними вказівками
Відповідальний за випуск д-р філософських наук,
професор В.М. Вандишев
Комп’ютерне верстання А. Ю. Переломова
Підписано до друку 23.09.11. Поз.
Формат 60х84/16. Ум. друк. арк. 3,72. Обл.-вид. арк. 5,38. Тираж 30 пр.
Зам. № ___
Собівартість видання
грн.
к.
Видавець і виготовлювач
Сумський державний університет
вул. Римського-Корсакова, 2, м. Суми, 40007
Свідоцтво суб’єкта видавничої справи ДК № 3062 від 17.12.2007
63