HUM031

Art Appreciation (First Semester)

Humanities
Definition
❖ Humanus (Latin) – human; cultured; refined
Study of Humanities
❖ Study of human culture and the human condition
❖ Philosophy
Ethics
Jurisprudence
Linguistics
Literary studies
Art
Art history
❖ Thoughts
Beliefs
Values
Feelings

Art
❖ Ars (Latin) – skill; ability; technical know-how
❖ Any human activity that expresses aesthetic ideas by the use of skill and imagination in the creation of
objects, environments, and experiences which can be shared with others to help create an aesthetic
experience in the viewer
➢ Artist: a person who uses skill/ ability and imagination in the creation of his work
❖ Einstein: “Imagination is more important than knowledge. For knowledge is limited to all we now know
and understand, while imagination embraces the entire world and all there ever will be to know and
understand.”
Types of Art
1) Visual Arts
➢ Art forms that create works that are primarily visual in nature
➢ E.g.: ceramics, drawing, painting, sculpture, printmaking, design, crafts, photography, video,
filmmaking, architecture
a) Fine Arts – painting; sculpture; architecture

(1) Pieta by Michelangelo; (2) Little Knitter (1879) by William Adolphe Bouquereau (French Academic
painter, 1825 – 1905); (3) End of Harvest by Morgan Weistling; (4) Reyna Elena

(1) David by Michelangelo (2) Bull’s Head by Pablo Picasso

b) Applied Arts
✓ Apply design and decoration to everyday and essentially practical objects → make them
aesthetically pleasing
 ✓ Fine arts = no practical use; purpose is to be beautiful or stimulate the intellect in some
way
✓ Overlaps with decorative art and the modern making of applied art (design)
✓ E.g.: architecture metalworking, ceramic art, glass art, automotive design, fashion
design, furniture design

2) Literary Arts
➢ Littera (Latin) – letter
➢ Art of written works
3) Performing Arts
➢ Artists use their voices, bodies, or inanimate objects to convey artistic expression

Specific Functions of Art

1) Vehicle for religious purposes
2) Commemoration of important event and lives if important people
3) Propaganda or Social Commentary
4) Recording of Visual data
5) Convey intense emotion
➢ Las Virgenes Cristianas Expuestas al Populacho or The Christian Virgins Exposed to the
Populace
6) Creates story
Basic Assumptions of Art
1) Art is universal and timeless
2) Art is the expression of human thoughts.
3) It is derived from physical experience
4) It is derived from emotional experience.
5) It is derived from intellectual experience.
6) It is derived from religious experience.

Paintings
❖ Practice of applying paint, pigment, color, or other medium to a solid surface (support)
❖ Medium = applied to the base with a brush, knives, sponges, and airbrushes
❖ Final output
❖ E.g.: Creation of Adam (1508 – 1512) by Michelangelo; School of Athens (1509 – 1511) by Raphael;
Impression Sunrise by Claude Monet; Starry Night by Vincent Van Gogh
Sculpture
❖ operates in three dimensions
❖ 3 Major Processes:
1) Carving – removal of material (e.g. wood sculpture)
2) Modelling or Modeling – addition of material (e.g. clay sculpture)
3) Assembled – through wielding, gluing (e.g. junk art)
4) Casting – pouring liquid material into mold (e.g. bronze art)
❖ 2 Types of Sculptures
1) Free standing/ Sculpture in the round: with free standing; all sides are visible
2) Relief: attached to a surface or wall
a) High Relief
b) Low Relief
c) Sunken Relief
Architecture
❖ Process and product of planning, designing, and constructing buildings or any other structures
❖ Form follows structure (principle associated with late 19th – 20th century)