The Handy Art History Answer Book

Traditionally, artists were craftsmen, or artisans. Medieval European sculptors, for example, were considered to be manual laborers. It was only after the Renaissance when cultural perceptions of artists began to change. Great masters such as Leonardo da Vinci and Diego Velázquez made a point of promoting the idea that an artist was much more than a manual laborer. They wanted to be acknowledged for their genius and special talent. The idea of artist-as-genius continues to this day.

“Beauty is no quality in things themselves. It exists merely in the mind which contemplates them.” Not only does this idea evoke the cliché, “beauty is in the eye of the beholder” but it also suggests that beauty doesn’t necessarily serve a purpose. We humans are interested in beauty for its own sake

Every culture on the planet devotes time and energy to creating and caring for works of art.