- What are the Fine Arts?
- History of Fine Arts
- How are Fine Arts classified?
- Characteristics of Fine Arts
We explain what Fine Arts are and how these forms of artistic realization are classified. History and main characteristics.
What are the Fine Arts?
The Fine Arts refer to the main forms of artistic realization or aesthetic representation historically cultivated by the humanity, and considered "pure" forms of art that employ techniques, materials and procedures different from each other. Each of the seven, however, encompasses a multitude of recognized practices, styles and trends.
Are Arts are traditionally part of the enduring and transcendental elements of humanity: those considered worthy of a central place in the high culture, both as documents or testimonials of a time, a way of feeling, or as symbols that concern a specific conception of the world and of existence.
Traditionally, six forms of Fine Arts are recognized: the painting, the music, the literature, the dance and the sculpture. Later the movie theater (the seventh art), the architecture and graphic narrative or sequential art (the ninth art).
It must be said that the concept of Fine Arts is linked to the idea of the museum and historical art, and not so much to contemporary art, which has put this concept in check or questioning. Today art is viewed from different perspectives, since the traditional notion of Fine Arts has often been accused of being ethnocentric (it favors the European conception of art) and culturally exclusive.
History of Fine Arts
The ancient Greeks studied artistic representation (especially Aristotle) and included it in two opposable categories: superior and minor. The former were more elevated, poetically powerful and transcendental, while the latter were more vulgar and simple. This distinction was assumed from the senses used to perceive beauty (sight and hearing were the superior senses).
However, the term Fine Arts was properly used from the eighteenth century to group the artistic practices valued at the time and try to unify the many theories that existed on beauty, style or taste. Initially, the declamation and the oratory, but they were replaced in the weather.
How are Fine Arts classified?
The classical division of Fine Arts is established from the materials it uses and the way it uses them, as follows:
- Architecture. He uses the various construction materials to make homes, buildings and urban spaces that are beautiful and functional, aesthetic and livable at the same time.
- Dance. It employs the human body and rhythm musical as a form of expression of artistic content.
- Sculpture. Use stone, clay, or a variety of solid materials to achieve three-dimensional artistic representations, whether figurative or abstract.
- Painting. It uses pigments obtained from various natural and artificial sources, to aesthetically represent the reality Through the color and shapes on canvas and other surfaces.
- Music. Through various instruments built by the human being, seeks to achieve beauty through rhythms, melodies and harmonically orchestrated sounds to elicit an aesthetic experience in the listener.
- Literature. Using language as raw material, composes stories, theatrical performances or descriptions poetic that can then be read and enjoyed aesthetically.
- Movie theater. Using complex technical instruments, he captures the light, the sound and the weather same in sequences of simulated or real events that make up a story, a speech or an audiovisual representation of reality.
Characteristics of Fine Arts
The Fine Arts are diverse among themselves, but they assume a uniform set of characteristics:
- They aspire to beauty. In any way and through the techniques and materials that are, but the Fine Arts seek to communicate a specific experience of the beautiful, the harmonious, the transcendent or the profound.
- They are universal. In principle, works of art should be appreciated by all humanity, regardless of the particularities of their origin, religion or sex.
- They are durable. Works of art should last over time and be able to communicate their content to future generations, whether in museums, reproductions or specialized media for this.