Who Began the History of Art?

Published on : 02-09-2023

Giorgio Vasari, a painter and sculptor from Tuscany, authored the first comprehensive history of art in the 17th century. His 1550 publication, Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors and Architects, was a significant milestone for the subject. It is a book that has endured the test of time and has become a standard text for art history students.

Art historians investigated the aesthetic aspects of paintings, sculptures, and other works of art during the 18th and 19th centuries. This emphasis was motivated by philosophy, which emphasized the notion that art should be aesthetically pleasant. Art historians began using new theoretical techniques like as object theory and actor-network theory to evaluate works of art in the 20th century.

Numerous contemporary academics are interested in the political, social, economic, and cultural settings of art production and presentation. The study of nationalism, for instance, is a major research topic in modern art history. Additionally, some artists are inspired by nationalist pride and wish to display their allegiance to a specific nation or culture through their artwork.

In art history, the study of non-Western art has also gained prominence. The expansion of photography and the Internet has made it feasible to study works from different regions, such as Africa, China, India, Japan, and Southeast Asia.

Typically, art history is subdivided into specializations or concentrations depending on eras and regions, with further divisions based on media. One could, for instance, specialize on "19th-century German architecture" or "16th-century Tuscan sculpture."

The work of philosophers like Debra Gudema inspired the research of other scholars. These academics maintained that the artwork was not merely a symbol, but also an experiential object. This concept of an object that was both a symbol and a physical object helped to explain how certain art objects might be both fleeting and temporal.