Art history
This article is about the academic discipline of art history. For an overview of the history of art worldwide, see History of art.Art history (also sometimes called
history of art, particularly when a university subject) is a term which encompasses several different methods of studying the
visual arts; in its most common usage it refers to the
academic study of works of art and architecture. The definition is, however, wide-ranging, and some aspects of the discipline overlap with
art criticism and art theory, as is demonstrated by
Ernst Gombrich's observation that "the field of art history [is] much like
Caesar's
Gaul, divided into three parts inhabited by three different, though not necessarily hostile tribes: the connoisseurs, the critics and the academic art historians".
[Ernst Gombrich (1996). The Essential Gombrich, p. 7. London: Phaidon Press] Works of criticism or of theory have frequently been the pivots around which the understanding of art history has turned.
The ancient world
The earliest surviving writing on art that can be classified as art history is the passages in
Pliny the Elder's
Natural History concerning the development of
Greek sculpture and painting. From it it is possible to trace the ideas of
Xenokrates of Sicyon, a Greek sculptor who was possibly the first art historian. As a result, although Pliny's work was mainly an
encyclopaedia of the sciences, his writings on art were disproportionately influential from the
Renaissance onwards, particularly the passages about the techniques used by the painter
Apelles. Similar, though independent developments occurred in
6th century China, where a canon of worthy artists was established by writers in the scholar-official class (who, being necessarily proficient in calligraphy, were artists themselves), and the
Six Principles of Painting were formulated by
Xie He.
The beginnings of modern art history
It was not until the end of the
Italian Renaissance that the first modern account of the 'history of art' recognisable as such appeared, although the personal reminisces of artists such as
Lorenzo Ghiberti had long been in circulation. This was the
Lives of the most Excellent Painters, Sculptors and Architects by
Giorgio Vasari, a biographical account of individual Italian artists which saw the story of art as being one of continual progress, its apogee being Vasari's contemporary and friend
Michelangelo. Considered 'the father of art history', Vasari's ideas largely held sway until the
18th century. At that time scholars such as
Johann Joachim Winckelmann criticised his focus on personalities, arguing that emphasis should be put on the meaning of art to the beholder and not to the artist. Winckelmann's writings were also early works of
art criticism, criticising the excesses of the
Baroque and
Rococo and instrumental in bringing about the change of taste in favour of sober
Neoclassicism. From Winckelmann onwards until the early 20th century, the field of art history was dominated by academics from the German-speaking world.
The "father" of modern art history is
Heinrich Wölfflin, whose ideas fall into three categories. First, his dissertation was an attempt to study art using psychology--particularly the work of
Willhelm Wundt. His major idea was that art and architecture is viewed as good if it reflects the human body. For example, houses were good if their
façades looked like faces. His second idea was to study art using comparison. Through comparison of individual paintings he was able to distinguish
style. His book Renaissance and Baroque was the first to show how the
Baroque period differed from the
Renaissance. He was totally disinterested in the biographies of artists and proposed that we create an "art history without names." Finally, he studied art based on ideas of
nationhood. He was particularly interested in whether there was an inherently "
Italian" and an inherently "
German" style. This last interest was most fully articulated in his monograph on the German artist
Albrecht Durer.
Heinrich Wölfflin was not the only art historian to use psychological theories to study art.
Sigmund Freud himself wrote a book on the artist
Leonardo Da Vinci. In this book, Freud used his paintings to interrogate the artist's
psyche. Among the points that Freud made was that Leonardo was likely a
homosexual. The book is quite controversial today because he applies modern psychological categories onto the past, when these categories had no meaning. In other words, Freud thought that Leonardo was homosexual, but Leonardo himself would not have thought of himself in that way. If Leonardo categorized his homosexuality at all, then he would have considered himself a
sodomite.
After Freud, several other scholars have applied psychoanalytic theory to art. One of the most well know of which is
Laurie Schnieder Adams, who wrote a popular textbook Art Across Time.
Since Heinrich Wolfflin's time, art history has embraced
social history by using critical approaches. The goal of these approaches is to show how art interacts with power structures in society. THe first critical approach that art historians used was Marxism. Marxist art history attempted to show how art was tied to specific classes, how images contain information about the economy, and how images can make the status quo seem natural (
ideology).
Meyer Schapiro was the first art historian to take Marxism seriously. While he wrote about numerous time periods and themes in art, he is best remembered for his commentary on sculpture from the late
Middle Ages and early
Renaissance, at which time he saw evidence of
capitalism emerging and
feudalism declining.
Arnold Hauser wrote the first marxist survey of Western Art, titled "The Social History of Art." In this book he attempted to show how class consciousness was reflected in major art periods. His book was very controversial when it was published durinmg the 1950s because it makes gross generalizations about entire eras. However, it remains in print as a classic art historical text.
T.J. Clark was the first art historian to abandon vulgar Marxism. He wrote Marxist art histories of several
impressionist and
realist artists, including Gustav
Courbet and Eduard
Manet. These books focused closely on the politics and economies that the art was created in.
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Art - including theoretical overview
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Art criticism*
Art periods*
Aesthetics*
History of art*
History of decorative arts*
History of painting*
History of sculpture*
History of architecture*
History of dance*
Visual culture*
NYC Metropolitan Museum of Art Timeline of Art History*
Biographical Dictionary of Art Historians (free access, full text)
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Art History of Chinese calligraphy, painting, and seal making*
Art History Timeline
