Humanities

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Humanities

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are the creative and intellectual contributions of humankind. The disciplines of the humanities include the formal arts (visual art, music, literature, theater, cinema, dance, and architecture) and philosophy

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Humanism

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is the study of the creative and intellectual contributions of all human cultures

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Myths

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are the traditional stories of a people or culture that serve to explain some natural phenomenon, the origin of humanity, or customs or religious rites

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Beauty

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is an arrangement of elements that is pleasing to us. The arrangement might be (for example) in nature, a human face, a musical composition, a painting, or a poem.

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Archetypes

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are the age-old models by which we comprehend human experience. They are the emblematic mythic characters, images, plot patterns, symbols, and buried assumptions shared across cultures.

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Aesthetic experience

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is an experience of beauty that inspires a feeling of pleasure which is its own justification.

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Style

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is the characteristics of a work of art that identify it with a particular artist, region, artistic movement, or historical period

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Context

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is the set of facts or circumstances that surround a work of art and help us determine and clarify its meaning.

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Imagery

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Pronunciation is the employment of evocative images in works of art, especially poetry and literature, where words can summon up "mental pictures" for the reader.

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Studying the humanities can help us

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•Better understand human relationships and the human condition
•Become better problem-solvers by boosting our emotional intelligence
•Place contemporary works of art in context
•Connect to cultures and traditions of the past
•Discover new favorite works of art
•Appreciate and participate in a larger culture

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Shaping of culture includes

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•The power of storytelling in influencing the development of language
•The use of symbolism* to distill abstract ideas and themes into visual or figurative representations
•The advancement of cultural development through cultivating our facility of language, nurturing idea formulation, and recording and deepening our sense of the past
•The emergence of written symbols to record and preserve humankind's subjective experience.
•The use of art in early cultures in promoting religious beliefs and practices.

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Myth and Storytelling

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In ancient cultures, myths and storytelling allowed humans to feel they could exert control on the world around them.

Myths helped ancient people to:
•preserve their heritage by creating mythic tales about the past
•teach moral lessons regarding the consequences of "evil" behavior
•express their understanding of their origins (creation myths), the cycle of life, their relationship to the gods, the natural world, and morality (differentiating right from wrong).

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Hero's journey

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The mythic quest in pursuit of some destination or goal whose attainment will lend greater meaning to life

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Universal themes

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of humanism include recurring themes that define what it means to be human:
•These universal themes transcend time and place.
•Among them are the conflict between individual and society, the hero's journey, the struggle between good and evil, the coming of age, the experience of birth and of death, and the search for spiritual meaning.
•The theme of love has included the distinction between eros*Glossary Pronunciation, or erotic love; and agape*Glossary Pronunciation, or platonic love.
•The hero's journey has been called a monomyth*, or world myth, because it is found in all cultures.

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Monomyth

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The hero's journey archetype that appears in all cultures (Joseph Campbell for example)

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The Renaissance

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•witnessed the revival of classical art, literature, philosophy, architecture, and learning,
•spawned renewed study of the great works of ancient Greco-Roman civilizations, and
•produced among the finest artistic and intellectual achievements in the history of the Western humanities.

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Renaissance Man

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The potential and talents of the individual became a significant focus in the Renaissance, including the idea of the well-rounded

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Renaissance Humanism

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•emphasized not only scholarly achievement, but also moral and athletic development
•encouraged the individual to engage with the world ("The whole glory of man lies in activity")
•rejected much of medieval thinking as irrelevant to a changing world

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Perspectives on Humanism: Western and Non-Western

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•a focus on human life that reflected less concern about theological and religious questions
•an emphasis on rationalism and common sense
•the study of classical literature to discover and apply its lasting truths

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Chinese humanism

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stresses harmony, duty, hierarchy, and the individual's contribution to the collective ideas that are not as resonant in the West, with its emphasis on individual liberty.

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Aesthetic perception

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can be defined as an innate or learned ability to appreciate a work of art. This involves not only valuing art solely for its beauty, but also understanding an artwork's context, appreciating its level of artistry, and judging its merits

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In the Western tradition, the three roles of the artist have been to produce art that:

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•supports or glorifies society's rulers or the political system
•challenges people to question what they have been taught by their society
•appeals to the values of people who will purchase it

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The Purposes of Art

The major purposes of art include:

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•offering a representation of the world around us.
•expressing feelings and emotions.
•revealing beauty.
•illuminating the spiritual.
•edifying and persuading.
•providing new perspectives.

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Some Functions of Art

Five broad functions of art are:

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•providing aesthetic pleasure
•offering political and social commentary
•assisting in physical and emotional healing
•creating historical artifacts from a specific time or place
•enabling commerce in advertising products and services.

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Artistic media

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are the materials (and techniques) employed to create works of art. (Media is the plural of medium.) For example, painters use the media of oil, fresco and watercolor (among others); sculptors employ clay, stone, ice, etc.

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Visual elements*

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line, form, color, space, and texture) are the basic visual material with which artists create works of art.

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Visual principles*

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(repetition, balance, unity, focal area) are ways artists arrange the elements to greatest effect.

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Composition

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describes an artist's technique, or specific use of the general visual elements and principles.

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Rule of Thirds

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holds that in a more interesting composition the focal point is not in the center but rather in an outlying area.

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A line

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is the path of a moving point through space. A line has the properties of direction, width, and length. Line can give outline to a form or shape; can establish boundaries between colors, shapes, forms; can suggest movement; and can focus the viewer's eye in a particular direction and can create mood and expressive content.

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Form

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is the shape or mass of an object within an artwork. In two-dimensional art (such as painting), a shape* is described by lines on the flat surface of the media with identifiable boundaries. Circles and squares, for example, are shapes. In three-dimensional art, objects have mass*. Spheres and cubes are masses. Artists will use shading and perspective* to achieve the effect of three-dimensions on flat surfaces.

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Color

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is our perception of reflected or emitted light and, employed as a visual element, adds interest, variety, and excitement to art. Hue*Glossary Pronunciation designates the common name of a color (red, blue, green, yellow). Value* refers to the relative lightness or darkness of color. Intensity* is the strength, or purity of a color.

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Space

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can be defined as a literal or figurative visual element. In literal sense, space (mass) is a three-dimensional volume that can be empty or filled with objects. In a figurative sense, space is when an artist creates a feeling of actual depth in a two-dimensional artwork through various techniques, such as shadowing or shading.

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Texture

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is the surface quality of materials, either actual (tactile) or implied (visual).

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Visual Principles

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Repetition, harmony, Balance, Unity, Focal area

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Perspective

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is a key device used by painters to create the illusion of depth and distance on a two-dimensional canvas or surface is perspective