Art: the origin of art. Kinds of art

2024 Author: Leah Sherlock | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 05:25

Comprehension of reality, expression of thoughts and feelings in symbolic form - all these are descriptions that can characterize art. The origin of art lies behind centuries of mystery. While some activities can be traced back to archaeological finds, others simply leave no trace.

Read on to learn about the origins of the various art forms, as well as the most popular theories of scientists.

Origin theories

For many thousands of years people have been fascinated by art. The origin of art is taught in various educational institutions. Researchers develop hypotheses and try to confirm them.

Today, there are various theories of the origin of art. The most popular five options, which we will discuss next.

So, the religious theory will be voiced first. According to her, beauty is one of the names and manifestations of the Lord on earth, inour world. Art is the material expression of this idea. Therefore, all the fruits of human creativity owe their appearance to the Creator.

The following hypothesis speaks of the sensory nature of the phenomenon. The origin of primitive art, in particular, comes down to the game. It is this type of activity and recreation that appeared before labor. We can observe it in representatives of the animal kingdom. Among the supporters of the version are Spencer, Schiller, Fritsche and Bucher.

The third theory sees art as a manifestation of eroticism. In particular, Freud, Lange and Nardau believe that this phenomenon appeared as a result of the need of the sexes to attract each other. An example from the animal world would be mating games.

Ancient Greek thinkers believed that art owes its appearance to the human ability to imitate. Aristotle and Democritus say that by imitating nature and developing within society, people were gradually able to symbolically convey sensations.

The youngest is the Marxist theory. She talks about art as a result of human production activity.

Next, we will look at the history of the emergence of various types of manifestations of creative genius.

Theatre

The theater as an art form has been born for a long time. Researchers believe that this idea arose from shamanic rituals. In the ancient world, people strongly depended on nature, worshiped various phenomena, asked the spirits to help with hunting.

For this, variousmasks and costumes, plots were worked out, separately for each case.

However, those rituals cannot be called a theatrical performance. These were the rituals. In order for a certain game to be classified as a spectacular art, there must be, in addition to the actor, also a spectator.

Therefore, in fact, the birth of the theater begins in antiquity. Before that, different actions were inextricably linked - dance, music, singing, etc. Subsequently, a separation occurs, three main directions are gradually formed: ballet, drama and opera.

Fans of the game theory of the origin of art claim that it appeared as fun, amusement. Basically, this statement is based on ancient mysteries, where people dressed up in costumes of satyrs, bacchantes. During this era, masquerades, crowded and fun holidays were held several times a year.

Subsequently, they begin to take shape in a separate direction - the theater. There are works of playwrights, for example, Euripides, Aeschylus, Sophocles. There are two genres - tragedy and comedy.

After the fall of the Roman Empire, the art of theater was forgotten. In fact, in Western Europe it was born anew - again from folk holidays and festivities.

Painting

The history of fine arts is rooted in antiquity. Until now, new drawings are being found on the walls of caves in different parts of the world. For example, in the Altamira cave in Spain, Niah Caves in Malaysia and others.

Usually, dyes were mixed for them with binders, for example, coal or ocher with resin. Plots notwere varied. Basically, these were images of animals, hunting scenes, handprints. This art belongs to the Paleolithic and Mesolithic.

Later petroglyphs appear. In fact, this is the same rock painting, but with a more dynamic plot. Silhouettes of people are already appearing here, the number of hunting scenes is increasing.

However, some researchers attribute the origin of fine art to the era of Ancient Egypt. It is in this state on the banks of the Nile that strict canons of various genres appear. In particular, the fine arts here resulted in sculpture and monumental painting.

If we study ancient drawings, we will see that this direction of creative thought appeared from human attempts to copy, fix the surrounding reality.

Later painting is represented by monuments of the Crete-Mycenaean period and ancient Greek vase painting. The development of this art begins to accelerate. Frescoes, icons, first portraits. All this occurs during the first centuries BC.

If frescoes were especially popular in antiquity, then in the Middle Ages, most artists worked on the creation of the faces of saints. Only during the Renaissance period do modern genres gradually begin to stand out.

So the Italian Renaissance gave impetus to the development of all Western European painting. Caravagism, for example, significantly influenced Flemish artists. Later, baroque, classicism, sentimentalism and other genres develop.

Music

Music is no less ancient art. The origin of art is attributed to the first rituals of our ancestors, when dance developed, theater was born. At the same time, music appeared.

Researchers believe that fifty thousand years ago in Africa, people conveyed their emotions through music. This is confirmed by the flutes that archaeologists find next to the sculptures in the area. The figurines are about forty thousand years old.

The hypotheses of the origin of art, among others, do not dismiss the divine influence on the first creative people. It is hard to imagine that a bored shepherd or hunter creates an elaborate system of holes on the pipe to play a cheerful tune.

Nevertheless, the first Cro-Magnons used percussion and wind instruments in rituals.

Later comes the era of ancient music. The first recorded melody dates back to 2000 BC. A clay tablet with a cuneiform text was found during excavations in Nippur. After deciphering, it became known that the music was recorded in thirds.

This type of art is widely known in India, Persia, Mesopotamia, Egypt. During this period, wind, percussion and plucked instruments are used.

Early music comes to replace. This is art dating from the fall of the Roman Empire to the middle of the eighteenth century. During this period, the church direction developed especially powerfully. The secular version is represented by the work of troubadours, buffoons and minstrels.

Literature

History of art and culture more understandable andargumentative becomes when it comes to written sources. It is literature that allows the most complete transfer of information. If other types of art are focused mainly on the sensual-emotional sphere, then the latter also operates with the categories of the mind.

The most ancient texts are found in countries such as India, China, Persia, Egypt and Mesopotamia. They were mostly carved on the walls of temples, stones, carved on clay tablets.

Among the genres of this period, it is worth mentioning hymns, funerary texts, letters, autobiographies. Later, narratives, teachings, prophecies appear.

However, ancient literature has become more extensive and developed. Thinkers and playwrights, poets and prose writers of Ancient Greece and Rome left to their descendants an inexhaustible treasure trove of wisdom. Here the foundations of modern Western European and world literature were laid. In fact, the division into lyrics, epic and drama was proposed by Aristotle.

Next comes the Middle Ages. The history of Russian art, in particular literature, begins during this period. The first genres include copies of the Gospel, the Bible, selection books, teachings, and others.

Dance

One of the most difficult art forms to document. No one doubts that the dance originated a very long time ago, however, it is unlikely that it will be possible to determine even an approximate framework.

Earliest images found in caves in India. There are painted human silhouettes in dancing poses. According to theories, the origin of art, in short, is the need to express emotions andattracting the opposite sex. It is the dance that most fully confirms this hypothesis.

Until now, dervishes use dances to enter a trance. We know the name of the most famous dancer in Ancient Egypt. It was Salome, originally from Idom (an ancient state in the north of the Sinai Peninsula).

The civilizations of the Far East still do not separate dance and theater. Both of these art forms have always gone hand in hand. Pantomime, Japanese performances by actors, Indian dancers, Chinese carnivals and processions. All these are events that allow you to express emotions and keep the tradition without using words.

Sculpture

It turns out that the history of fine art is inextricably linked with other manifestations of creativity. For example, the sculpture has become a stopped moment of the dance. Many statues of ancient Greek and Roman masters serve as confirmation.

Researchers reveal the problem of the origin of art ambiguously. Sculpture, for example, on the one hand, arose as an attempt to personify the ancient gods. On the other hand, the masters were able to stop the moments of ordinary life.

It was sculpture that allowed artists to convey feelings, emotions, inner tension or, conversely, peace in plastic. The frozen manifestations of the human spiritual world actually became an ancient photograph that has preserved the ideas and appearance of people of that time for many millennia.

Like many other arts, sculpture comes from Ancient Egypt. Probably the most famous monumentis the Sphinx. At first, craftsmen created decorations exclusively for royal palaces and temples. Much later, in antiquity, the statues reach the national level. By these words, it is meant that from that era, anyone who had enough money to order could decorate his house with a sculpture.

Thus, this kind of art ceases to be the prerogative of kings and temples.

Like many other manifestations of creativity, sculpture in the Middle Ages was in decline. Revival only begins with the advent of the Renaissance.

Today this art form is moving into a new orbit. In combination with computer graphics, 3D printers make it possible to simplify the process of creating three-dimensional images.

Architecture

The art of architecture is probably the most practical activity of all possible ways to express creative thought. After all, it is architecture that combines the organization of space for a comfortable human life, the expression of ideas and thoughts, as well as the preservation of certain elements of tradition.

Separate elements of this art form arose when society was divided into layers and castes. The desire of rulers and priests to decorate their own dwellings so that they stand out from the rest of the buildings subsequently led to the emergence of the profession of architect.

Man-made reality, orderliness of the environment, walls - all this creates a sense of security. And the decor allows the artist to convey the mood and atmosphere that he puts into the building.

Circus

The concept of "artists" is rarely associated with the circus. This type of spectacle is often perceived as entertainment. From time immemorial, fairs and other festivities have been its main venue.

The very word "circus" comes from the Latin term "round". An open building of this form served as a place for the amusement of the Romans. In fact, it was a hippodrome. Later, after the collapse of the empire, in Western Europe they tried to continue the tradition, but such activities did not gain popularity. In the Middle Ages, the place of the circus was taken by minstrels among the people and mysteries among the nobility.

At that time, artists focused more on pleasing the rulers. The circus, on the other hand, was perceived as a fair entertainment, that is, it was low-grade.

It was only in the Renaissance that the first attempts to create a prototype of the modern circus appeared. Unusual skills, people with birth defects, animal trainers, jugglers and clowns were fun for the public at the time.

Not much has changed today. This kind of art requires remarkable stamina, the ability to improvise and the ability to "wander" life.

Cinema

Scientists say that a person comprehends reality through science and art. The origin of art, according to theories, is associated with the need for self-expression and interaction in society.

Gradually developed traditional forms of creative activity, fine and spectacular arts. However, with the development of progress, a stage has come of completely unprecedented ways of transmittingthoughts, emotions, information.

New types of art are emerging. Cinema was one of them.

For the first time people managed to project an image onto a surface using a "magic lantern". It was based on the principle of the “camera obscura”, which was developed by Leonardo da Vinci. Cameras come later. Only at the end of the nineteenth century did the Lumiere brothers manage to invent a device that allowed them to project moving images.

At the beginning of the twentieth century, it was said that theater as an art form had become obsolete. And with the advent of television, this was perceived as an indisputable fact. However, we see that each type of creativity has its admirers, it's just that the audience is redistributed.

Thus, we figured out the theories of the origin of art, and also talked about different types of creativity.