Types Of Art History
Art is one of the oldest forms of man’s activity and there are different types of art history. This is expressed as any product or activity performed by humans in visual forms for communicative or aesthetical purposes, expressing emotions and ideas.
Art history can be classified in several ways as a result of the historic difference between mechanical and liberal arts. But a particular classification which has been used severally is in the manifestations of human creativity. In this type of art history classification, it can be divided into nine distinct classifications: comics, photography, film, poetry, painting, music, sculpture, dance, and architecture.
Today, there are other models that have been included as a result of the emergence o information technology, including video games, television, animation, advertising, performance, computer art, and video. But a more complete classification of the different types of art history are presented below:
Academic art history
This is one of the most recent types of art history which was not in existence before the Renaissance. It began during the Victorian era as artists began to classify different types of arts and separate those that were vital and those that were not. Academic art was seen as a very important branch of art that has a lot of role to play in human existence. The Renaissance artists were treated better and regarded higher than the 15th century artists in Italy. This led to the intervention of the pre-Raphaelite movement, leading to neutrality in the way art is handled in several cultures. This was the basis for an academic art. There have been several studies on these types of art history, primarily as it concerns political and social uses. So, it wasn’t only on the visual appreciation of craftsmanship but also on the political and social benefits of arts.
What has long been regarded as an artistic masterpiece now has several dimensions, which include philosophy, cultural artistic manifestations, philosophical, social, and economic manifestations of art.
Sacred art history
These types of art history deal with the representation spiritual and ritual contexts on beautiful objects. It doesn’t concern itself with individual creativity but rather on symbols used to associate with a particular religion. The largest religions in the world have their own image making traditions. These religions include Christianity, Judaism, Shinto, Islam, Jainism, Bahai, Sikhism, Hinduism, Buddhism, and Confucianism.
Renaissance art history
These types of art history made art very popular and widely known in the world. The renaissance art has to deal with the corporeality of humans.
Eastern art history
They are usually related to the western medieval art styles with special focus on local color and surface patterning of objects. These types of art history have similar styles and predominantly make use of local color which is mostly defined in an outline form. Very good examples of Eastern arts are the arts of Japan, Tibet, and India.
Modern and contemporary types of art history
There were new discoveries in the field of art which shattered the previous achievements recorded in the 18th century medieval art. These art discoveries were led by Sigmund Freud and Einstein which were helped by the accelerated growth in civilization.
This era saw the imposition of Surrealism, Dadaism, Cubism, Fauvism, Expressionism, Imperialism, and a host of other parameters.
