Fine art

Fine art is a form of artistic expression created to reflect aesthetic value or beauty. As is the case with all art, a precise definition of fine art is subjective. It is generally considered to include the visual arts—painting, drawing, sculpture, architecture, photography, and film. Some definitions also include the performing arts, such as music, theater, and dance. The opposite of fine art is decorative art—pottery, metalworking, weaving, etc.—which is a creative expression that also serves a functional purpose.

Background

Archaeologists believe the earliest use of tools by human ancestors occurred more than two million years ago. These primitive tools were used to hunt, make clothing, and build shelters, but there is no evidence they were used to create art. Some experts speculate a series of 430,000-year-old zigzag scratch marks found on a shell in Indonesia may be the oldest example of human art; however, it is impossible to determine the exact purpose of the markings.

Prehistoric humans were carving marks into rock walls at least as far back as 60,000 to 70,000 years ago. Some cup-shaped markings found in India are believed to be much older, perhaps dating as far back as 290,000 years ago. Whether the designs were created for artistic or functional purposes is unknown, but similar markings have been discovered in several archaeological sites around the world.

Humans in Morocco were known to have worn clay-covered shells as jewelry about 80,000 years ago; in South Africa, humans colored stones and shells as decorations about 70,000 years ago. In Spain and Indonesia, painted outlines of human handprints have been discovered on cave walls dating from about 40,000 years ago. These and many other early forms of expression are seen as definitive examples of an artistic tradition developing in humans. However, some debate exists as to whether this early art was meant to be for aesthetic or decorative purposes.

Painting

About 40,000 years ago, ancient humans began painting animal figures on the walls of caves in which they took shelter. The art mainly featured brightly colored depictions of bison, deer, and other figures that reflected the hunting lifestyle of Paleolithic cultures. The pigments they used were made from minerals, iron, manganese, and even animal blood and fat. Among the best-known examples of prehistoric cave art are the Cave of Altamira in northern Spain and the Lascaux Cave in France. Altamira is believed to have been created about 15,000 to 34,000 years ago; Lascaux dates from about 15,000 to 17,000 years ago.

Most of the first great human civilizations, from Egypt to ancient Greece and Rome, used painting to adorn the walls of tombs, palaces, and homes. Egyptian tomb paintings typically depicted images of the afterlife or events from the life of the deceased. The Greeks decorated temples and palaces with expansive wall murals. Archaeological evidence suggests many Roman houses and villas were also adorned with wall paintings. Some Greek and Roman buildings featured a form of art known as a mosaic, which contains small squares of painted tile, stone, or glass arranged to create a larger image.

Early Christian and medieval painting was predominately religious in nature. Many churches featured brightly colored religious mosaics inset with gold to add a glittering effect. Medieval monks excelled at creating intricate, gold- or silver-infused designs to adorn the texts they were copying. These illuminated manuscripts are one of the most common forms of medieval art to survive into the modern era.

Europe broke free from the medieval period about the fourteenth or fifteenth centuries in an artistic and cultural "rebirth" known as the Renaissance. Painters were inspired by the classical art of ancient Greece and Rome that focused on realistic depictions of the human form. Most Renaissance art was commissioned by the church or by wealthy families for private use. One of the most famous works of art in history, the Mona Lisa by Italian artist Leonardo da Vinci, was a portrait of an Italian noblewoman painted sometime in the early sixteenth century.

While styles evolved and varied by location, the painting of the next few centuries generally reflected religious themes and realistic portrayals of human subjects. Many of the artistic conventions of the period were dictated by art academies that sprang up across Europe. In the late nineteenth century, a group of young French painters rebelled against the academies and developed a less realistic style that used different techniques and new perspectives of light and shadow. This style was called impressionism because it was more about capturing the "impression" of the natural world than duplicating it on canvas.

Impressionism is often considered the first form of modern art, a wide-ranging description usually categorized as a rebellion against previous art forms. Painters began emphasizing emotion over detail and realism in their work. In the early twentieth century, more abstract styles such as the geometrically inspired cubism or the dream-like imagery of surrealism became popular. Many paintings of the later twentieth and early twenty-first centuries abandoned realism altogether and embraced increasingly abstract and controversial styles. Contemporary painting often carried with it a commentary on social issues and focused on the concept behind the art and the viewer's interpretation of a project. Modern forms of art also use mediums other than traditional paints that are oil, acrylic, or water based; these may include printmaking, computer-generated graphics, or collages using a variety of other materials.

Sculpture

Some of the oldest works of human art may be carved stone sculptures dating back hundreds of thousands of years. Two rough-hewn objects that resemble human figures—the Venus of Berekhat Ram and the Venus of Tan-Tan—are believed to be more than 230,000 years old. However, some experts are unsure if the objects were made by humans or were the result of natural processes. One of the oldest known true works of human sculpture is the Lion Man of Hohlenstein Stadel, a 38,000-year-old ivory-carved figure of a human with the face of a lion. A common type of sculpture from the same period was known as Venus figures—stone likeliness of females with extended bellies and sexual features. Archeologists believe these figures may have been used in fertility rituals.

Mesopotamian sculpture displayed an obvious religious influence with carved images of priests, gods, and mythological monsters. The belief in an afterlife was of primary importance to the Egyptians, who immortalized their sacred rulers in numerous sculptures. These images were often placed in temples and buried with the deceased in elaborate tombs. The most iconic example of Egyptian sculpture is the Great Sphinx of Giza, a 185-foot (57-meter) long limestone statue of a lion with the head of what is believed to be the pharaoh Khafre.

Ancient Greek sculpture focused almost entirely on the human form, with artists taking great pains to depict the human figure in anatomically exact detail. One of the most common forms of Greek sculpture was the kouros, a free-standing statue of a nude, male youth. The conquering Romans copied the style of Greek sculptors, but relaxed their attention to the complete human form. Much of later Roman sculpture consisted of busts, or portrait-sized sculptures of emperors or nobility.

The majority of sculpture during the medieval period was associated with Christianity and was almost exclusively displayed in or carved on churches or cathedrals. During the Renaissance, sculptors returned to the Greek emphasis on proportionality and the detail of the human figure. The bronze statue David, created by fifteenth-century Italian artist Donatello, resembles the style of many ancient Greek sculptures. The next centuries brought several stylistic changes, but sculpture remained predominantly focused on human subjects.

In the late nineteenth century, French sculptor Auguste Rodin modernized the art form by experimenting with light, shadow, and form, similar to the impressionist painters. Rodin revolutionized sculpture and set the stage for the growth of modern styles. The cubism movement of the early twentieth century influenced sculpture by introducing less realistic forms and nontraditional materials. Further stylistic changes infused sculptures with more emotional, surreal, and abstract elements. Sculptors also experimented with different mediums, utilizing everything from automobiles, trash, the natural landscape, and both living and non-living creatures.

Architecture

While architecture often encompasses elements of decorative art, structures designed for both functional and aesthetic purposes are considered by many experts to be fine art. Among the most famous examples of ancient architecture are the Great Pyramids of Giza, constructed about 2500 BCE to remind the living of the glorious reigns of the pharaoh Khufu and his successors. Greek and Roman architects utilized an artistic style that emphasized proportion and aesthetic beauty. The Greeks built large temples to honor their gods, while many great Roman structures honored their rulers. Famed structures such as the Colosseum in Rome used architectural innovations such as the arch and ornate columns as both a means of support and an aesthetic design element.

The great cathedrals of the medieval period not only tried to recapture the grandeur of ancient Rome, but were also a reminder of the power and glory of the Christian church. Similar to painting and sculpture, Renaissance architecture drew inspiration from classical antiquity, combining the arches and columns of Greece and Rome with domes and towers developed in the medieval era. Among the triumphs of Renaissance architecture was Rome's St. Peter's Basilica, which was constructed over the course of a century by several of the period's greatest architects.

For most of human history, the primary building materials were wood, stone, and concrete, which limited the shapes and heights of structures. In the mid-nineteenth century, however, technological advancements in steel and iron production led to the creation of taller, stronger, and more adaptable structures. This allowed not only for purely aesthetic works such as the 1,063-foot (324-meter) tall iron latticework design of the Eiffel Tower in Paris, but also for the construction of great skyscrapers that acted as both functional buildings and artistic statements.

Skyscrapers were just one of many twentieth-century architectural styles that mirrored the rapid changes in art and society. Some styles mirrored the trend toward abstract, conceptual forms found in modern art, while others merged classical and ancient elements with sleek, futuristic design.

Photography and film

Photography was invented in the mid-nineteenth century, but it was not until the early twentieth century that it was accepted as a form of art. The Steerage, a 1907 image taken by photographer Alfred Stieglitz of poor passengers aboard a steamship headed for Europe, is widely considered to be one of the first examples of photographic art. While most photography was used to capture a moment in time, artistic photographers focused on the relationship between color, light, shadow, and subject to create an image of aesthetic beauty.

In the mid-twentieth century, Ansel Adams captured the stunning landscapes of the American West in a series of now iconic black-and-white photographs. Later artists infused their photography with social commentary or controversy. The work of photographer Cindy Sherman explored feminist issues and the role of women in society; while Robert Mapplethorpe was known for his celebrity portraits and images of nude figures.

The medium of film began as an offshoot of photography at the turn of the twentieth century. Some early films were novelties, designed to showcase the technology with moving pictures of everyday life. Eventually, filmmakers began introducing elements of narrative and camera movement to elevate film to entertainment. Some films, such as 1922's German vampire tale Nosferatu adopted the shadowy, foreboding atmosphere of expressionist painting.

As the film industry grew, movies became grander in scale and embraced a visual style of storytelling. Some critics argued that most Hollywood films were mass entertainment and not true works of art. To adherents of this line of thinking, film as art was exclusively relegated to avant-garde filmmaking that used experimental techniques and broke the rules of conventional cinema. Among some notable examples were the works of Italian director Federico Fellini who blended realism with dreamlike imagery, and American director Quentin Tarantino, who is famed as much for his visual style as for his use of dialogue and stylized violence.

Performing arts

Music, theater, and dance are considered by some experts to be a form of fine art, although this distinction is not universally accepted. Music and dance likely developed from prehistoric rituals and celebrations, and evolved along with changes in technology and society. In the modern era, critics debate their inclusion as an art form using many of the same criteria as film. Music and dance produced for popular consumption are often not considered art; while those deemed as a form of artistic expression are.

The ancient Greeks developed the earliest known form of theater about the sixth century BCE. The narrative styles of drama and comedy used by the Greeks remain the backbone of much of modern theater. Some critics are more willing to accept theatrical performances as art because plays are performed live and act as a collaborative effort between script, actor, and stage direction. Theater sets and costume design can also contribute to the feeling of fine art. For example, the Broadway production of The Lion King used intricate designs and stunning costumes to create the animal appearance of the actors. Theater also occasionally includes music and dance in its performances.

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