HUMANTIIES:

Arts Appreciation
Who Am I?
HUMANITIES
• Humanities came from the word
HUMANUS which means to be
truly human.
• To be truly human is to be
culturally enhanced and refined.
• Culture comes from Latin Cultus-
Colere, which means to cultivate.
• Culture is the general way of life of
a human society.
Historical Development of Humanities
• MEDIEVAL Period – anything that
pertains to man’s cultivation of his
spirituality.

• RENAISSANCE – set of disciplines being

taught at the universities.

• MODERN – is equal to ARTS.

Art Derivation…
Aryan root “AR” meaning “join” or
“put together”.
From this ancient etymon, two Greek
verbs are derived:
• Artizein – to prepare
• Arkiskein – to put together
• Latin derivation- “ars, artis”-
everything artificially made or
composed by man.
Two Kinds of Man’s Actions
• There are actions to be done- in
relation to man’s ultimate destiny
and moral obligations.

• There are actions to be made- in

relation to man’s practical needs.
What an Art is….
• Art is the subjective expressions of
man’s thought and feelings
• Agent: man
• Importance: expression is an integral
part of human being
Arts vs. Craft
• Art is for appreciation
• Craft is for utilization
• Combination: Functional Art
FUNCTIONS of the Arts
Physical Functions
• Utility
• Instructional
• Historical
• Representational
Social Functions
• Influential Media
• Interaction(communication)
Psychological Functions
• Inspirational
• Relaxation
•
PURPOSES of the Arts
1. Arts have moral, educational, social,
cultural, and religious purposes
2. Art for art’s sake
3. Moments of relaxation
4. Imagination is satisfied
5. Arts as outlet of our slumbering
passions
6. Powerful means to reform man.
Division of Arts
1. With respect to purpose:
a. Practical arts- directed to produce artifacts and
utensils which cope with human needs like basket
b. Liberal arts-intellectual efforts are considered; take
for the case of AB Course
c. Fine arts- produce to the human creativity in so far
as they express beauty in different ways and
different media like drawing
d. Major arts- characterized by their actual and
potential expressiveness like music
e. Minor arts- connected with the practical uses and
purposes like interior design
Division of Arts
2. With respect to media and form
a. Plastic arts- perceived by sense of sight like
painting
b. Phonetic arts- based on sounds and words like
music
c. Kinetic arts- rhythmic movement like the
different kinds of dances
d. Pure arts- which take only one medium of
expression, like color in painting.
e. Mixed Arts – two or more media like opera is
a combination of music, poetry, and drama
Classification of Arts
1. Space arts- visual arts
- 2 dimensional(see only in one angle)
Painting
Printing
Photography
Drawing/sketching
- 3 dimensional (see in several angles)
Sculpture
Architecture
Classification of Arts
2. Time arts – auditory arts
- music
- dance
- combination: Musical
Theater/ opera
GROUPING THE ARTS
• SPATIAL (VISUAL) ARTS
These are types of arts that can be
perceived by the sense of sight and can
be projected into 3-dimensional
graphical forms. They are primarily
visual in nature.
• LITERARY ARTS (LITERATURE)
Etymologically, it came from the Latin
word “ litterae “, which means letters.
Grouping the Arts…
• PERFORMING ARTS
The performing arts include all forms of art that use the human
body, face and presence as media

• DECORATIVE ARTS
This group of arts deals with the creation of ornamental and
functional works using diverse materials like ceramic, wood,
glass, metal, textile etc

• POPULAR ARTS
This group of art comprises all forms of popular culture. Pop
culture is the totality of ideas, perspective, attitudes, images
and other phenomena that showcases what is trendy, well-
liked, and prevalent
Hierarchy of Arts
• Immanuel Kant: Music is the lowest of all
arts because it gives only sensible pleasure
• Arthur Schopenhauer: Music is the greatest
because is capable of freeing man from his
fears and desire
• George Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel: Poetry has
the best qualities like immediate perception,
creative imagination, development of
thoughts and events.
• Gottfried Leibnitz: The Fusion of poetry and
music is the highest art
Origin of the Arts
• The dance was probably the first art cultivated by man.
• Music and poetry accompanied dance performances.
• Some scholars also traced the origin of painting and
sculpture to dance as seen in many caves of the
Neolithic Period where in numerous charcoals and
color designs of women dancing around idols or men.

• Other authors believe that the origin of these arts is

connected with sorcery and magic or their
superstitious beliefs.

• Religion and superstition , therefore, are the two

factors which greatly influenced the origin and
evolution of arts.
What an Art is according to…

Plato
Art imitates nature. Art imitates life.
Aristotle
Art imitates men and nature in action
Oscar Wilde, Irish Author(The Importance of Being
Earnest)
It is life that imitates art.
Henri-Louis Bergson (Noble Prize in Literature, 1927)
It is not reason that enables us to imitate; art
is not imitation; art is made from intuition.
•
What an Art is according to…
G.E Moore
Art is both imitation and intuition
Sigmund Freud, Austrian Psychiatrist
Art is a wish-fulfillment; an excellent work of
art results from frustration
Jose Ortega Y Gasset, Spanish Philosopher
Art is a form of escape; escape from human
negative elements
Leo Tolstoy, Russian Novelist
Art is communication; it infects our feelings
What an Art is according to…
Benedetto Croce, Italian writer
Art is merely an expression regardless if it is
understood or not
Albert Camus; French Philosopher and writer
Art is rebellion
John Dewey, American Philosopher
Art is not limited in the gallery and museum
Dante Leoncini
When man beautifies himself, he becomes a human
art
Margaret Macdonald Mackintosh Art is esoteric.
It is mysterious. It is indefinable. It is only
describable.
Is art an Imitation or a Creation?
• Art tends not simply to imitate, but to express nature with
clarity and meaning. Arts therefore, is not mere copying of
things and nature, but a creative activity.

• Are there any criteria to determine the excellence of the

works of art?
• Art depends on individual feelings and opinions; tastes are
relative and personal. It may vary according to different
periods and culture.

• How do we form good standards for art appreciation and

judgment?
• Successive EXPERIENCES reveal to us the insight of beauty
and the meaning of art.
When do we say an art is BEAUTIFUL?

• Beautiful is that which a source

of pleasure. Thus, if an art is
the reason of our pleasure, it is
then really beautiful.
Where does beauty lie?
• Beauty is out there; it is objective. It is
a primary quality that resides in the
object.
• Beauty is not there. It is a secondary
quality that resides in the perceiver.
(John Locke)
• Beauty is neither primary nor
secondary; it is tertiary in nature. It
depends on the appropriate
situational perspective
Is everything in nature and art beautiful?
Why certain things are called “ugly” ?
Everything in nature and art is beautiful for everything
is created perfect according to its nature and form.
All things are beautiful and perfect in themselves,
but not in relation to us. The reasons ?
- Objects which we see every day lose their
significance to us. People who have been residing in
the Banawe Rice Terraces for a long time will not see
beauty of their mountains as in the eyes of a tourist.
- Certain things are dangerous to our lives
like snakes, and other wild animals.
- Certain conditions in human life such as
poverty and disease are referred to as ugly but once
painted in a novel, they become meaningful and
beautiful.
Categories of Beautiful
1. The Sublime-enjoyment is aroused by
astonishment and awe, like looking at the
starry heavens, the majesty of mountain
ranges, the heroic acts of heroes and saints.
2. The Nice-enjoyment is aroused by sympathy,
love, benevolence, tenderness and modesty
like children, flowers , flower arrangement,
artifacts.
3. The Comic- enjoyment because it makes us
laugh like satire and irony, the exaggerated,
the repetitious, the ridiculous, and the
playful.
The Role of Art Criticism
• Criticism is a method of
verifying or testing artistic
works. It is a technique to
stimulate the understanding of
art and to develop artistic
sensibility.
OBJECTIVITY OF ART
If the appreciation of arts is subjective, can it
be somehow objective?
YES, it can be objective as well.
1. Through critical study of the properties of
beauty
a. order
b. proportion
c. clarity
d. unity
e. balance
f. dominance
OBJECTIVITY OF ART
2. Through the general consensus of
the experts .
3. Get rid of our prejudices and
personal sentiments.
4. . The final arbiter in the judgment
of the works of arts is TIME. Good
art last long, if not immortal. Bad
art is ephemeral and transitory.
Art: Subjects, Medium and Technique
• Subject- the object matter
• Medium- materials and
equipments that the artist
utilizes in his expression
• Technique- the manner in
which the artist utilizes his
medium
Art Subjects (person, scene or event)
1. Representational- has definite
subjects.
- Natural (from nature)
- Conventional (man-made)
2. Non-representational- has no
definite subjects, only ideas
attached. Product of imagination
Sources of Art Subjects
1. Mythology- one of the richest source of
arts subjects
2. Heroes and Patriots
3. Religion
4. Nature
a. persons
b. animals
c. inanimate objects
5. Rural and Urban ecology