MODULE 1 Arts and Humanities
Humanities Defined
The word humanities comes from the Latin humanus, which means human, cultured
and refined. It is based on the philosophical view of humanism which stresses the dictum of
Protagoras, a Greek philosopher, that “man is the measure of all things,” implying that the
humanities emphasizes the dignity and worthiness of man and recognizes creative
expressions. (Estolas, Josefina V. et. al. 2008).
To be human is to have or show qualities like rationality, kindness, and tenderness. It
has different connotations in different historical eras. When the first medieval universities
were established in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, the professors, mostly churchmen,
were interested in arguing about metaphysics and religion (Scholasticism). To them
Humanities meant primarily philosophy and theology.
The Humanists of the Renaissance asserted the intrinsic value of man’s life on earth,
as opposed to the medieval interest in eternity. Hence Humanities included disciplines which
would make man’s life richer and more meaningful: the languages and literature of Greece
and Rome, fine arts, music, and philosophy in its more traditional divisions.
The nineteenth century witnessed a certain loss of prestige of the Humanities to the
sciences and social sciences, because many men believed that science could procure
everything that man needed or wanted. Now, there has come the important realization that
science is not an unmixed blessing. The atomic bomb, insecticides, drugs, and other scientific
inventions can ultimately destroy man unless they are controlled by individuals of high ideals,
morality, and good will.
Another troublesome development has been the tendency to explore a field of
knowledge in depth rather than in breadth. While this technique has produced amazing
discoveries in all fields of learning, it has also produced the specialist “who knows more and
more about less and less. At long last, the emphasis has shifted to modern literature although
masterpieces of philosophy, history, theology, and science are often included. Included too
are critical and historical studies of the fine arts and music with the emphasis on serving man
as an individual rather than as a social being. Ideas and experiences in the Humanities have
their full effect only when they are examined critically, evaluated, and appropriated by the
student.
We will try to discover what the arts can tell us about how men thought and felt in the
historical period which produced them. Conversely, we will see how man’s thinking and
feeling are reflected in the arts which were produced in a given period so that we may
appreciate a work of art in the light of the age which produced it. This discipline should give
us the historical and aesthetic background for a more comprehensive response to art in
general. In reality, a person who opens his home to the arts has never a dull moment, nor
can he ever be lonely or bored. It is fascinating to see how each bit of new insight fits into the
picture where it belongs like pieces in a jigsaw puzzle, but unlike the puzzle the picture is
never finished.
We may examine a work of art as the record of a particular artist’s vision. He has
selected something he has seen, felt, or thought and has recorded it in an arrangement of
design, color, line, mass, tones, or words which satisfies his aesthetic purpose. Hence, it is
the product of his unique personality. But the artist has also been influenced consciously or
unconsciously by many other determining factors: his environment, traditions, national traits,
religious beliefs, economic condition, his patron, and even geography and climate have all
influenced him. Hence, each work of true art represents the individual genius of its creator,
and the general character of the age and locale in which it was born.
Factors Affecting Art Style
A number of factors determine a particular style.
1. Historical Factors. When an artist searches for new perceptions, he is tied to the
world around him. If he ignores or loses this tie, his work becomes unintelligible to his own
contemporaries. Early Gothic begins in French art about 1150, in German art about 1230.
The Renaissance in Italy starts around 1400, some eighty years earlier than the
corresponding period in the north. Victor Hugo’s Les Miserables depicts the French
Revolution. Rizal’s novels, Juan Luna’s “Spolarium” depicts Filipino Oppression by the
Spaniards.
2. Geographical Factors. Artists are conditioned by their nationality. For example,
artistic expression may be typically Dutch, French, or English. More particularly, in Italy they
may be Florentine, Roman, or Venetian; in Germany, south German or north German. Of
course, national characteristics are most extreme in literature because of the differences in
language. One can differentiate between English and Dutch landscapes of the seventeenth
century; yet both are Baroque.
3. Political Factors. In France, from the mid-seventeenth through the eighteenth
century, art was the servant of king and court. Hence, personal vanity and frivolous rivalry
were motivating factors.
4. Psychological factors. Works produced by the artists are affected by their
psychological make-up or frame of mind. Edward Munch’s “The Sick Child” shows an effect
of his unfortunate childhood experience of contracting a long illness after losing his love at an
early age. Vincent Van Gogh painted Starry Night which was painted while Vincent was in
asylum and his behavior was very erratic at that time due to the severity of his attacks. In the
Starry Night, the dark spires in the foreground are cypress trees, plants most associated with
cemeteries and death.
5. Sociological Factors. With social and economic change, the groups in a society
which sponsor art also change. At different periods, art has been subject to the church, the
nobility, and the wealthy middle class, as in seventeenth-century commercial Holland, when
the rich burghers delighted in paintings of themselves decked out in fine lace and velvets and
seated at festive tables loaded with platters of fruit and fish.
6. Ideational Factors. Spiritual movements such as Christianity, the Renaissance,
Humanism, the Counter Reformation, and the Enlightenment brought striking changes in
social and political structures and they also influenced directly changes in art styles.
The famous Bernini arcade in front of St. Peter’s, which was built during the Counter
Reformation, not only flings out its mighty arms to embrace the faithful, but it draws them
right into the church. Ideologies are coming from great thinkers. Sigmund Freud, proposed
ideas that have influenced surrealist painters. The idea that the human body is the most
beautiful figure to present as an art subject gave rise to the school of thought called nudism.
7. Technical Factors. The importance of technique has been overemphasized in the
past. Modern piano technique with its cult of the virtuoso could not exist before the modern
piano was perfected. Landscapes painted out-of-doors were limited before light canvas and
readily transportable oil paints in tubes had come into general use. But these technical and
material influences are not nearly so important as other style shaping factors.
8. Economic Factors. The availability of financial and other resources plays an
important role in the life of an artist. Example, a filmmaker who is not financially well-off may
produce a low-budgeted independent film with the use of outmoded equipment. An abstract
painter may shift to realism if his paintings do not sell. (Van de Bogart, Doris. 1970)
Scope of Art
Humanities are branch of learning stems from humanism, a movement that was
widespread in the western world during the 13th century. It was originated in vigorous protest
against the teaching of the Medieval Church which held that man’s life was significant only in
so far as it contributed to his eternal life after death and to his relationship to God. In their
search for lasting peace values which were “human”, the scholars of this time turned to the
literatures of ancient Greece and Rome which incorporated the belief that man’s nobility arose
from the cultivation of his faculties and powers and was determined not by his destiny but by
his activities during his lifetime.
The arts are usually considered as part of the humanities. These include visual arts
(painting, sculpture and architecture), auditory arts (music and literature) and performing arts
(drama and dance). (Gayeta, Macario, G. et. al. 2010)
Different Forms of Art We Cannot Imagine the World Without
There are two general dimensions of arts, namely
(1) Fine arts or independent arts and
(2) Practical arts or utilitarian arts.
Fine arts are made primarily for aesthetic enjoyment through the senses, especially visual
and auditory. Practical arts are intended for practical use or utility. It is the development of
raw materials for utilitarian purposes.
Fine arts or aesthetic arts are music, painting, sculpture, architecture, literature, dancing and
drama. Practical arts or useful arts are industrial art, applied or household art, civic art,
commercial art, graphic art, agricultural art, business art, distributive art, and fishery art.
According to Custodia Sanchez, visual arts are those we perceive with our eyes. They
may be classified into two groups, namely: (1) graphic arts; and (2) plastic arts. Graphic arts
include painting, drawing, photography, graphic process (printing), commercial art (designing
of books, advertisements, signs, posters and other displays), mechanical process, in which
portrayals of forms and symbols are recorded on a two-dimensional surface. Plastic arts
include all fields of visual arts for which materials are organized into three-dimensional forms
such as structured architecture, landscape architecture, (gardens, parks, playgrounds, golf
course beautification), city physical planning and interior arranging (design of wallpaper,
furniture), sculpture, crafts, industrial design, dress and costume design, and theatre design.
Josefina and Estolas grouped arts into major and minor arts. Major arts include
painting, architecture, sculpture, literature, music and dance. Minor arts include the
decorative arts, popular arts, graphic arts, plastic arts, and industrial arts. Popular arts
include film, newspaper, magazine, radio, and television. Decorative arts or applied arts
refers to beautify houses, offices, cars and other structure. (Ariola, Mariano M. 2014)
