Origins Of Art Essay

Submitted By ekaterina1987
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Pages: 12
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Ekaterina Petrova
100211908
Rick Blacklaws
ANTH1132
Origins of Art. Evolution of animal images in art.

What can we say about the essence of the word art? Art is different from all other activities. Art is an expression of the inner nature of human in its entirety, which disappears in private sciences and in any other specific activities where a person shows only one of their sides, and not his all self.
In art, people freely create a special world, so they actually feel like creators. Creators of something new, beautiful. Product of art is like a fingerprint - unique and unrepeatable. Aesthetic experience of art, as well as its creation requires the whole person, because it includes the higher cognitive values and emotional perception. There is no point in our inner spiritual life, which could not be invoked and activated by art. It is intended to provide a complete reconstruction of the world, which is possible only if the combination of cognitive, ethical, aesthetic, and all other aspects of the human spirit are present. No one really can now determine the time of occurrence of the arts but a lot of evidence suggests that art emerged in the era of Homo sapiens. The problem of the appearance of art is inextricably linked with the problem of man. As there are several theories about the origin of man, so there are several theories about the origin of art. Divine theory of the origin of art is connected with the theory of the origin of man, described in the Bible - "Man was created by God in his image and likeness." It is the spiritual principle of human factors were responsible for the art. The second theory of the origin of art is aesthetic theory. Rock and cave paintings date from 40-20 thousand BC. The first images are profile pictures of animals which made in full
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size. In the times of occurrence of tribal alliances songs and hymns are created: songs played on the fields during agricultural work and on holidays after the harvest, battle hymns of the soldiers, sang before the battle, wedding hymns. At the same time the tales of gods and goddesses are created. Originating in one tribe, these stories and legends spread among the other, passing from generation to generation. Thus, with the help of art collective experience is accumulated and communicated . Primitive art was united, not divided into separate parts(Bednarik, 170). Along with the above theories of art, there is also a psycho-physiological theory. From the perspective of this version - the art was necessary to mankind to save themselves and survive (from the point of view of psychology) in this complex world (Blum, 196). In primitive times there were special rituals associated with art. Artists painted on the walls of caves scenes of successful hunting, flocks of cattle. That is how people called on luck, asked the spirits for good outcome of the hunt. People at that time believed in magic: they believed that with the help of pictures and other images nature can be influenced. It was believed, for example, that one need to hit an drawn beast with an arrow or a spear, to ensure the success of this hunt. The oldest surviving works of art were created in the Middle Paleolithic, approximately sixty thousand years ago. At that time people did not know of metal so the tools were made of stone; hence the name of the era - the stone age. Stone Age people gave artistic image to everyday objects - stone tools and vessels of clay, although there was no practical need (Bednarik, 172). The exact time of creation of cave paintings still could not be established. The most
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beautiful of them were created, according to scientists, about twenty - ten thousand years ago. While most of Europe was covered with a thick layer of ice; only the southern part of the continent remained habitable. Glacier slowly retreated, and hunters moved to the north following it. We can assume that in this difficult conditions most of the man's power was used to fight hunger,
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