It’s in the Genes In 17th century Rome, the Baroque style painter Orazio Gentileschi provided his children with the finest art education available. Despite his efforts, only one of his children (Artemisia, his daughter) became an artist. She not only matched her father’s talent, but surpassed his skills, and became the first female member of the Academy of Design in Florence. On the contrary, Artemisia 's brother, Francesco, did not have the innate sense of artistic ability and did not pursue his art career any further. Art is visible everywhere in the world, but the big question remains; Is artistic ability an inborn talent, or can it be learned? Although painting is one of the more famous types of art, it is not limited. Forms of art range
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According to Professor Tania Lombrozo at Berkely University, for most people, the left hemisphere is important for language, maths, and reasoning; whereas the right is more important for emotion, recognising faces, and art. Joining the two halves together is one of the most crucial parts of the brain known as the corpus callosum. “Writers, artists and musicians were found to have a smaller corpus callosum, which may augment their creativity by allowing each side of their brain to develop its own specialisation. The authors suggests that this ‘benefits the incubation of ideas that are critical for the divergent-thinking component of creativity’” (Cox). The research conducted on the corpus callosum exposes the similarity between brain patterns across many artistic people. A recent study at the University of Helsinki “gauged the musical creativity of participants based on their ability to judge pitch and time as well as crucial skills such as composing, improvisation and arranging. The researchers discovered that the presence of a particular cluster of genes directly correlated with musical creativity” (Summers). This recently developed evidence has legitimized old theories of the past that “the frequency with which talent passed through families was more than mere a coincidence” (Konnikova). The research concluded that creativity and artistic ability can be passed down through generations. “‘I was surprised to find how frequently ability seemed to go by descent,’ Galton wrote, in the introduction to the 1869 volume ‘Hereditary Genius.’ The title of his work heralded his main conclusion: that some individuals had “an ability that was exceptionally high…’ and that it was this hereditary genius, rather than a combination of traits or factors, that led to true creative achievement” (Konnikova). If one is succeeded by a great line of musicians, they will have this musical trait within their DNA. Since
According to Professor Tania Lombrozo at Berkely University, for most people, the left hemisphere is important for language, maths, and reasoning; whereas the right is more important for emotion, recognising faces, and art. Joining the two halves together is one of the most crucial parts of the brain known as the corpus callosum. “Writers, artists and musicians were found to have a smaller corpus callosum, which may augment their creativity by allowing each side of their brain to develop its own specialisation. The authors suggests that this ‘benefits the incubation of ideas that are critical for the divergent-thinking component of creativity’” (Cox). The research conducted on the corpus callosum exposes the similarity between brain patterns across many artistic people. A recent study at the University of Helsinki “gauged the musical creativity of participants based on their ability to judge pitch and time as well as crucial skills such as composing, improvisation and arranging. The researchers discovered that the presence of a particular cluster of genes directly correlated with musical creativity” (Summers). This recently developed evidence has legitimized old theories of the past that “the frequency with which talent passed through families was more than mere a coincidence” (Konnikova). The research concluded that creativity and artistic ability can be passed down through generations. “‘I was surprised to find how frequently ability seemed to go by descent,’ Galton wrote, in the introduction to the 1869 volume ‘Hereditary Genius.’ The title of his work heralded his main conclusion: that some individuals had “an ability that was exceptionally high…’ and that it was this hereditary genius, rather than a combination of traits or factors, that led to true creative achievement” (Konnikova). If one is succeeded by a great line of musicians, they will have this musical trait within their DNA. Since