GENERAL EDUCATION

ART APPRECIATION

Etymology and Definition of Art

Art
✓ is derived from the Latin term “ars,” which means skill, talent or ability.
✓ is skill in making or doing something
✓ is the expression of the creative skill and imagination in different genres for
appreciation of beauty and emotional power
Note:
Creativity is the mother of all inventions and Imagination remains its grandmother.
Creativity is a metacognitive skill – form of divergent thinking that allows us to generate
relationship, integrate concepts, elaborate information, brainstorm issues with fluency,
flexibility and originality.

Art vs. Craft

Art
✓ is an expression of feelings and emotions
✓ art is beautiful rather useful
✓ is an expression of imagination
✓ tinged with a psychological process
Craft
✓ is a form of work with the use of available materials
✓ is making something useful more than beautiful
✓ realization of the expression
✓ provides a utilitarian and mechanical process of creation

The Humanities
 ✓ coined from the Latin word humanus and humanitas meaning humans, the field of
humanities provides human beings opportunity to think critically and creatively, in
order to understand the values and cultures of the world and to bring clarity to the
future.

Philosophy
✓ is derived from the Greek word philos or philen, which means love and sophia
which means wisdom

History
✓ is derived from the Latin word historia, which means to scribble and record the
events in the past

Religion
✓ is derived from the Latin word religare or religio which means to bind

Literature
✓ is a derivative of the Latin word litera or literatura, which means letter or
knowledge of books

Language
✓ from the Latin word lingua, which means tongue, language provides avenues for
better communication using the art of speaking and listening

Music
✓ from the Greek word mousa, which means muse and the Latin word musa which
denotes the goddess of music, to represent a song or poetry for appreciation of
beauty brings the etymology of music

ELEMENTS OF ART
Line An element of art defined by a point moving in space.
Line may be two-or three-dimensional, descriptive, implied,
or abstract.
Shape An element of art that is two-dimensional, flat, or limited to
height and width.

Form An element of art that is three-dimensional and encloses

volume; includes height, width AND depth (as in a cube, a
sphere, a pyramid, or a cylinder). Form may also be free
flowing.

Value The lightness or darkness of tones or colors. White is the

lightest value; black is the darkest. The value halfway
between these extremes is called middle gray.

Space An element of art by which positive and negative areas are

defined or a sense of depth achieved in a work of art

Color An element of art made up of three properties: hue, value,

and intensity.

Texture An element of art that refers to the way things feel, or look
as if they might feel if touched.

Dante Alighieri
✓ he believes that nature is the art of God
Sumbanese women
✓ extracted brown colors from tobacco juices, blue colors from indigo and other
plants to produce different colors for the weaving or spinning of cloth
Oriental artists
✓ use nature with beautiful landscape, seascape and select flora and fauna as a
subject of art.
✓ Typically depicted in Chinese, Japanese and Korean paintings
Sumbanese weavers (Indonesia)
✓ Featured images of crocodiles, horses, deer, lions, and sea creatures in the
weaving of cloth.
Yakan weavers (Basilan, Philippines)
 ✓ Portray peneh kenna kenna (fish like design), peneh sawe-sawe (snake-like
design), peneh dawen-dawen (folial design), and peneh kule-kule (turtle like
design)
Sufism
✓ Emphasizes introspection and spiritual closeness with Allah
✓ Is based on esoteric principle that reflects simplicity in the use of geometric shapes
and forms in Islamic art because beauty is objective and self-expressive if the
truth.
Islamic architecture
✓ The dome represents a cosmic symbol of the arch of heaven and embellished
structure with arabesques combined with repeated patterns of tessellations in
exact measurement and proportions.

In the Philippines weaving ….

✓ Observes its utilitarian purpose by using natural materials in the environment
✓ Cebuanos weave bakat a large basket-like container of braid bamboo strips with
hexagram tessellation (a motif found in the eyes of the basket in hexagonal
patterns that form like a honeycomb
o The design of bakat reflects the animalistic belief of Handurawism, a ritual
supplication of intimacy to Laon, “Supreme Visayan Deity – The Ruler of
Time,” in harmony with the kalikupan or nature
✓ Puso (hanging rice pouches)
o Six geometrical designs using tender leaves of palm leaves braided into
kinasing (heart-like shape), binaki (froglike shape), manan aw (cascading
like phalaenopsis shape), binosa (fish-like shape), badbaranay (wad-like
shape), and tinigib (chisel-like shape) using tender and supple palm leaves.

Art History
Pre-historic Period
✓ People were regard as nomads
✓ They engaged in primitive art using stone flakes to produce fire to protect
themselves.
✓ They joined hunting wild animals for food and used animal skins to cover their
bodies
✓ Cro-Magnons were known in cave paintings that reflected their daily hunting
routines
 ✓ In Southeast Asia, the art began since the early appearance of humans, on records
in 43,900 years old cave paintings discovered in Maros-Pangkep, Sulawesi,
Indonesia.
✓ Mesolithic period/age, the art of tool-making was improved like the use of axes by
sharpening the tools using stone flaking and grinding.
✓ Neolithic Age, nomadism ended. They ventured in art of farming.
✓ Often associated with struggle for security and human survival

Ancient Period
✓ Represented the architectural construction of stones and bricks for temples,
fortresses, tombs and places that symbolizes power and authority
✓ In 2700 BCE, ancient Sumerians constructed the Ziggurat of Ur as a votive offering
to Entil, their deity.
✓ In 575 BCE in Babylon, Gate of Ishtar, is one of the famous citadels in the ancient
world in the ancient world.
✓ In 2000 BCE in Giza, Egypt, the pyramids as well as tombs of the pharaohs
✓ In 1500 BCE New Kingdom, the mortuary temples of Queen Hapshetsup
✓ Legacies of the Age of Metals (significant part of Ancient Period)
✓ Bronze Age (Art of Pottery Making during Minoan and Mycenean kingdoms in
Ancient Greece)
✓ Egyptian – first group to use copper during Cooper Age
✓ Greek Art – influenced the Etruscan art by mixing Greek and Roman styles to
create composite columns in sophisticated homes and tombs.
✓ Frescoes are mural paintings using watercolor in freshly laid plaster on walls and
ceiling
✓ The Last Supper of Leonardo da Vinci (Frescoes)
✓ Mosaic is a picture made from colored chips of stones or glass.
✓ Murals are paintings executed directly on walls. An example are from
Michealangelo
✓ In 400 CE, Early Christian art (St. Peter’s Basilica, Mausoleum of Galla Placidia,
etc)

The Medieval Period

✓ Divided into two: early medieval and late medieval
✓ In early medieval (410 CE to 1024 CE)
o Featured arts of warlord, Hiberno-Saxon and Carolingian and Ottonian
o This period also features the Byzantine Art, Islamic Art, and Romanesque
and the Gothic
 o Byzantine art includes the architectural design of the Hagia Sophia and the
heavenly Byzantine Mosaic
o Islamic art featured the architectural design of the Dome of the Rock,
Mosque of Cordoba, Palace of the Lions and Mosque of Selim II
o Romanesque architecture is characterized by heavy walls and smaller
windows as shown in Pisa and Durham Cathedrals, relics of Reliquary of
Sainte-Foy
o Gothic period architecture featured Rayonnant style with flying buttresses
and the use of stained glasses, which are depicted in the cathedrals of
Salibury and Notre Dame
✓ In late medieval (1300 CE to 1500 CE)
o Coincided with massive development of art during the Renaissance as a
redemption of freedom curtained during early medieval times.
o In Early Renaissance, they used oil painting, extreme detail and symbolism
as depicted in the frescoes of church ceiling
▪ This period was also regarded as the rebirth of classical culture that
used linear perspectives.
▪ The Medici family who introduced the Medici neo platonic academy
became the patron of art during this period.
Modern Period
✓ Was enlightened by the following ages: Mannerism, Baroque, Rococo and
Neoclassical, Romanticism, realism, photography, England’s arts and crafts and
Paris Art, Nouveau, Impressionism, Post Impressionism, Fauvism and
Expressionism, Cubism, Futurism, Suprematism, Constructivism and De Stijil, Dada
and Surrealism
✓ Baroque Period, art was used as a weapon for religious wars. It emphasized in the
works of Rubens, Caravaggio, Bernini and Gentileschi
✓ Rococo period, the theme of art was highly decorative during the time of King
Louis XIV of France.
✓ Period of Enlightenment and Industrial Revolution
✓ Neo-classical art recaptured Graeco-Roman grace and grandeur.
✓ In the height of American and French Revolution, romanticism celebrated the
triumph of imagination and individuality in art.

Contemporary Period
✓ Marked the beginning of Abstract Expressionism
✓ After World War II, art observed pure abstraction and expression without forms
✓ Also paved the way to postmodernism and deconstructivism