Framing the Nature of Art
wood, etc., to express human feelings,
Etymology
Art = Ars
 Ancient Latin:
craft or specialized form of skill
 Medieval Latin:
any special form of book-keeping
 Renaissance Period:
The word reacquired a meaning that was
inherent in its ancient form of craft.
 17th century
The study of beauty began to unfold
distinctly from the notion of technical
workmanship, which was the original
conception of the word art.
 18th century
The word has evolved to distinguish
between the fine arts and the useful arts.
The fine arts would come to mean not
delicate or highly skilled arts but beautiful
arts.
Definitions
 F. Zelueta
Art is a product of man’s need to express
himself
 C. Sanchez
Art is concerned with the communication of
certain ideas and feelings by means of
sensuous medium, color, sound, bronze,
marble, words, and film.
 A. Tan
Art is an attitude of spirit, a state of mind-
one which demands for its own satisfaction
and fulfilling, a shaping of matter to new
and more significant form.
 A. Panizo and Rustia
Art is the skillful arrangement or
composition of some common but
significant qualities of nature such as colors,
sounds, lines, movements, words, stones,
emotions, or thoughts in a perfect
meaningful and enjoyable way.
 Jose Garcia Villa
Art is never a means; it is an end in itself.
 Plato
Art is an imperfect imitation of an imitation
 Aristotle
Art completes what nature failed to finish.
 Immanuel Kant
Art is a kind of representation that is
purposive in itself and, though without and
end, nevertheless promotes the c
ultivation of the mental powers for sociable
communication.
 Longinus
Art is perfect when it seems to be nature,
and nature hits the mark when she contains
art within her.
Assumptions on Art
1. Art is universal.
2. Art is not nature.
3. Art involves experience.
4. Art as a product of imagination.
- Imagination is more important than
knowledge. For knowledge is limited to all
we know and understand, while imagination
embraces the entire world, and all there ever
will be to know and understand.
(Albert Einstein)
- Through imagination, one is able to craft
something bold, something new, and
something better in the hopes of creating
something that will stimulate change.
- Imagination allows endless possibilities.
- Artists use their imagination that gives birth
to reality through creation.
- In the same way that imagination produces
art, art also inspires imagination.
5. Art as an expression
- What an artist does to an emotion is not to
induce it, but express it. Through
expression, he is able to explore his own
emotions and at the same time, create
something beautiful out of them.
- There are countless ways of expressing
oneself through art.
Philosophical Perspectives on Art
1. Art as an imitation
- Plato (2000) in his masterpiece, The
Republic, particularly paints a picture of
artists as imitators and art as mere imitation.
- Art is an imitation of imitation.
- Art is dangerous because it provides a petty
replacement for the real entities that can
only be attained through reason.
- The arts, then, are to be banished alongside
the practitioners, so that the attitudes and
actions of the members of the Republic will
not be corrupted by the influence of arts.
2. Art as a representation
- For Aristotle, all kinds of art, including
poetry, music, dance, painting, and
sculpture, do not aim to represent reality as
it is.
- What art endeavors to do is to provide a
vision of what might be or the myriad
possibilities in reality.
- Aristotle conceived of art as representing
possible versions of reality.
- In Aristotelian worldview, art serves two
particular purposes: affective and cognitive.
3. Art as a disinterested judgement
- Kant considered the judgment of beauty, the
cornerstone of art, as something that can be
universal despite its subjectivity.
- Aesthetic judgement for Kant is a cognitive
activity.
- Every human being, after perception and the
free play of his faculties, should recognize
the beauty that is inherent in a work of art.
4. Art as a communication of emotion
- Art plays a huge role in communication to
its audience’s emotions that the artist
previously experienced.
- Art serves as a language, a communication
device that articulates feelings and emotions
that are otherwise unavailable to the
audience.
- As a purveyor of man’s innermost feelings
and thoughts, art is given a unique
opportunity to serve as a mechanism for
social unity.
Functions of Art
1. Personal function
- The personal functions of art are varied and
highly subjective.
- An artist may create an art out of the need
for self-expression.
- It can also be mere entertainment for his
intended audience.
- An art may also be therapeutic.
2. Social Function
- Art is considered to have a social function if,
and when, it addresses a particular collective
interest as opposed to a personal interest.
- Art may convey a message of protest,
contestation, or whatever message the artist
intends his work to carry.
- Art can also depict social conditions.
- Art can also rouse emotions and rally people
toward a particular end.
3. Physical Function
- The physical functions of art are the easiest
to spot and understand.
- The physical functions of art can be found in  handicrafts, embroidery, ceramics, iron and
artworks that are crafted in order to serve metal crafts, tin can manufacturing
some physical purpose. - Liberal arts
 philosophy, psychology, literature,
mathematics, sciences
Scope of Art - Fine arts
 painting, sculpture, architecture
1. Manaois
- Major arts
A. Fine arts/ Independent arts
 music, poetry, sculpture
 music, painting, sculpture, architecture,
- Minor arts
literature, dance, drama
 interior decoration, porcelain art
B. Practical/ Useful/ Utilitarian arts
 industrial art, applied or household art,
civic art, commercial art, graphic art,
B. According to media and forms
agricultural art, business art, distributive
- Plastic arts
art, fishery art
 sculpture, decorative materials
2. Estolas (1995) - Kinetic arts
A. Major arts  dance
 painting, architecture, sculpture, literature, - Phonetic arts
music, dance  music, drama, literature
- Pure arts
B. Minor arts  sound in music; color in painting
 decorative arts, popular arts, graphic arts, - Mixed arts
plastic arts, industrial arts  opera (combines music, poetry, and drama)

C. Others 4. Custodiosa-Sanchez (2002)

- Visual Arts A. Visual arts
 graphic arts, plastic arts - Graphic arts
- Performing Arts  painting, drawing, photography, graphic
 theatre, play, dance, music process, commercial art, mechanical
- Literary arts process
 short story, poetry, novel, drama
- Popular arts - Plastic arts
 film, newspaper, magazine, radio, television  structural architecture, landscape
- Decorative arts architecture, city physical planning and
 beautification of houses, offices, cars, other interior arranging, sculpture, crafts,
industrial design, dress and costume design,
structure
theatre design
- Gustatory art of the cuisine
 food preparation, beverage preparation

3. Panizo & Rustia (1995)

A. According to purpose
- Practical/ Useful arts
 Basic Components of a Work of Art The distinction between representational art and
nonrepresentational art is not a clear cut divide;
One of the major hurdles that spoils an
rather, they exist in a spectrum.
individual’s engagement with an artwork is the
notion that in order to appreciate it, one must be
able to extract a specific image, isolate the artist
 Pablo Picasso,
or maker’s intention, and unearth a particular
Head of a Woman, Mougins (1962).
meaning.

In most cases, there are clues that mediate

between the artwork and the viewer, allowing the
viewer to more easily comprehend what he is
seeing.

 Subject Sources and Kinds of Subject

- the visual focus  Nature
 Content  Vinccent Van Gogh,
- the meaning that is communicated by the Wheat Fields Near Auvers (1980)
artist of the artwork
 Form  Greek and Roman Mythology
- the development or the configuration of the  Sandro Botticelli,
artwork The Birth of Venus (1480)

 Judeo-Christian Trandition
Subject in Art  Michelangelo.
 Representational Art Sistine Chapel (1508-1512)
- also known as figurative art
- contains subjects that refer to objects or  History
events occurring in the real world  Francisco de Goya,
El Tres de Mayo (1814)
 Non-representational Art
- does not make a reference to the real world  Sacred Oriental Texts
- is stripped down to visual elements Shiva Nataraj

 Dreams and Fantasies

Between representational and non-  Salvador Dali,
representational art, which is often favored? Persistence of Memory (1931)

 Other works of art

Is non-representational art the same as abstract  Don Mclean,
art? Vincent (1972)
 Content in Art
To take on the challenge of understanding the
content of art, it must be reiterated that there are
various levels of meaning.
 Factual meaning
This pertains to the most rudimentary level
of meaning for it may be extracted from the
identifiable or recognizable forms in the
artwork and understanding how these
elements relate to one another.
behind, all seemingly align with the shape of
the human brain.
o According to Meshberger, the work can also
be aptly called “The Endowment of Adam”
for it brought to light that as God’s creation,
the most important qualities imparted to man
was intellect.
o For Meshberger, it was his medical
background and perhaps exposure to art and
history that allow him to catch the symbol,
hidden in Michelangelo’s work.

 Michelangelo, Creation of Adam (from the

ceiling of the Sistine Chapel)

o From a factual perspective, Michelangelo

depicted a scene from the Creation story, in
particular, the creation of man.
o Aside from being a key element of
Michelangelo’s fresco at the ceiling of the
Sistine Chapel, the subject matter suggests
that this is an example of a biblical art.

 Conventional meaning
This pertains to the acknowledged
interpretation of the artwork using motifs,
signs, symbols and other cyphers as bases of
its meaning.

o The specific poses of God and Adam

(convex and concave postures, respectively)
allude to the correspondence of the body and
the common held belief that man was
created in the image and likeness of God.

 Subjective meaning
This stems from the viewer’s or audience’s
circumstances that come into play when
engaging with art.

o Frank Lynn Meshberger, a gynecologist,

theorized that an image and a message were
hidden in a plain sight: how the silhouette of
God, the shroud and the drapery that trail