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144-451: The arts or creative arts are a vast range of human practices of creative expression , storytelling , and cultural participation. The arts encompass diverse and plural modes of thinking, doing, and being in an extensive range of media . Both dynamic and a characteristically constant feature of human life have developed into stylized and intricate forms. This is achieved through sustained and deliberate study, training, or theorizing within

288-505: A scientific theory , a literary work , a musical composition , and a joke ). A physical object (e.g., an invention , a dish or meal, an item of jewelry , a costume , or a painting ). Creativity may also describe the ability to find new solutions to problems , or new methods of performing a task to reach a goal. Therefore, creativity enables people to solve problems in new or innovative ways. Most ancient cultures (including Ancient Greece , Ancient China , and Ancient India ) lacked

432-412: A "four C" model of creativity. The four "C's" are the following: This model was intended to help accommodate models and theories of creativity that stressed competence as an essential component and the historical transformation of a creative domain as the highest mark of creativity. It also, the authors argued, made a useful framework for analyzing creative processes in individuals. The contrast between

576-434: A chair be used?"). Divergent thinking is sometimes used as a synonym for creativity in psychology literature or is considered the necessary precursor to creativity. However, as Runco points out, there is a clear distinction between creative thinking and divergent thinking. Creative thinking focuses on the production, combination, and assessment of ideas to formulate something new and unique, while divergent thinking focuses on

720-399: A choreographer. Definitions of what constitutes dance are dependent on social , cultural , aesthetic , artistic , and moral constraints and range from functional movement (such as folk dance ) to codified virtuoso techniques such as ballet . In sports: gymnastics, figure skating , and synchronized swimming are dance disciplines. In martial arts, " kata " is compared to dances. Music

864-584: A desired outcome. Spontaneous behaviors by living creatures are thought to reflect past learned behaviors. In this way, a behaviorist may say that prior learning caused novel behaviors to be reinforced many times over, and the individual has been shaped to produce increasingly novel behaviors. A creative person, according to this definition, is someone who has been reinforced more often for novel behaviors than others. Behaviorists suggest that anyone can be creative, they just need to be reinforced to learn to produce novel behaviors. Another theory about creative people

1008-537: A figure standing on its head, and another, on the Pashupati Seal , sitting cross-legged in a yoga -like pose. This figure has been variously identified. Sir John Marshall identified a resemblance to the Hindu god , Shiva . The animal depicted on a majority of seals at sites of the mature period has not been clearly identified. Part bull, part zebra, with a majestic horn, it has been a source of speculation. As yet, there

1152-482: A form of art history , and contemporary criticism of work by living artists. Despite perceptions that criticism is a lower-risk activity than making art, opinions of current art are liable to corrections with the passage of time. Critics of the past can be ridiculed for dismissing artists now venerated (like the early work of the Impressionists ). Some art movements themselves were named disparagingly by critics, with

1296-486: A framework for understanding creativity in problem solving , namely the Explicit-Implicit Interaction (EII) theory of creativity. This theory attempts to provide a more unified explanation of relevant phenomena (in part by reinterpreting/integrating various fragmentary existing theories of incubation and insight ). The EII theory relies mainly on five basic principles: A computational implementation of

1440-470: A group of people. In a pottery or ceramic factory, a group of people design, manufacture, and decorate the pottery. Some pottery is regarded as art pottery . In a one-person pottery studio, ceramists or potters produce studio pottery . Ceramics excludes glass and mosaics made from glass tesserae . Conceptual art is art wherein the concept(s) or idea(s) involved in the work take precedence over traditional aesthetic and material concerns. The inception of

1584-531: A hundred different definitions can be found in the literature, typically elaborating on the context (field, organization, environment, etc.) that determines the originality and/or appropriateness of the created object and the processes through which it came about. As an illustration, one definition given by Dr. E. Paul Torrance in the context of assessing an individual's creative ability is "a process of becoming sensitive to problems, deficiencies, gaps in knowledge, missing elements, disharmonies, and so on; identifying

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1728-441: A means of developing capacities of attention and sensitivity and ends in themselves , the arts can simultaneously be a form of response to the world. It is a way to transform our responses and what we deem worthwhile goals or pursuits. From prehistoric cave paintings to ancient and contemporary forms of ritual to modern-day films , art has served to register, embody, and preserve our ever-shifting relationships with each other and

1872-437: A neurobiological description of creative cognition. This interdisciplinary framework integrates theoretical principles and empirical results from neuroeconomics , reinforcement learning , cognitive neuroscience , and neurotransmission research on the locus coeruleus system. It describes how decision-making processes studied by neuroeconomists as well as activity in the locus coeruleus system underlie creative cognition and

2016-567: A number of disciplines, primarily psychology , business studies , and cognitive science ; however, it is also present in education, the humanities (including philosophy and the The English word "creativity" comes from the Latin terms creare (meaning 'to create') and facere (meaning 'to make'). Its derivational suffixes also comes from Latin. The word "create" appeared in English as early as

2160-557: A painter that he makes something?" he answers, "Certainly not, he merely imitates ." It is commonly argued that the notion of "creativity" originated in Western cultures through Christianity, as a matter of divine inspiration . According to scholars, "the earliest Western conception of creativity was the Biblical story of the creation given in Genesis ." However, this is not creativity in

2304-1046: A particular tradition, generations, and even between civilizations . The arts are a vehicle through which human beings cultivate distinct social, cultural, and individual identities while transmitting values, impressions, judgements, ideas, visions, spiritual meanings, patterns of life, and experiences across time and space. Prominent examples of the arts include: visual arts (including architecture , ceramics , drawing , filmmaking , painting , photography , and sculpting ), literary arts (including fiction , drama , poetry , and prose ), and performing arts (including dance , music , and theatre ). They can employ skill and imagination to produce objects and performances , convey insights and experiences , and construct new environments and spaces. The arts can refer to common, popular, or everyday practices as well as more sophisticated, systematic, or institutionalized ones. They can be discrete and self-contained or combine and interweave with other art forms, such as combining artwork with

2448-451: A potentiality state, because how it will actualize depends on the different internally or externally generated contexts it interacts with. Honing theory is held to explain certain phenomena not dealt with by other theories of creativity—for example, how different works by the same creator exhibit a recognizable style or "voice" even in different creative outlets. This is not predicted by theories of creativity that emphasize chance processes or

2592-544: A problem may aid creative problem-solving. Early work proposed that creative solutions to problems arise mysteriously from the unconscious mind while the conscious mind is occupied on other tasks. This hypothesis is discussed in Csikszentmihalyi 's five-phase model of the creative process which describes incubation as a time when your unconscious takes over. This was supposed to allow for unique connections to be made without our consciousness trying to make logical order out of

2736-668: A quarter of a million figures and figurines. The earliest rock carvings in India were discovered by Archibald Carlleyle , twelve years before the Cave of Altamira in Spain , although his work only came to light much later via J Cockburn (1899). Dr. V. S. Wakankar discovered several painted rock shelters in Central India , situated around the Vindhya mountain range . Of these, the c. 750 sites making up

2880-472: A railing that provides a sacred path for Buddhist followers to practice devotional circumambulation in ritual settings. Also, ancient Indians considered caves as sacred places since they were inhabited by holy men and monks. A chaitya was constructed from a cave. Relief sculptures of Buddhist figures and epigraphs written in Brahmi characters are often found in divine places specific to Buddhism. To celebrate

3024-504: A style in which surface detail, nudity, and sensuality is continued in the terracotta plaques of the Shunga Dynasty. The most common figural representations seen on these plaques are women, some of which are thought to be goddesses, who are mostly shown as bare-chested and wearing elaborate headdresses. The Satavahana dynasty ruled in central India, and sponsored many large Buddhist monuments, stupas , temples, and prayer-halls, including

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3168-542: A sub-stage. Wallas considered creativity to be a legacy of the evolutionary process, which allowed humans to quickly adapt to rapidly changing environments. Simonton provides an updated perspective on this view in his book, Origins of Genius: Darwinian Perspectives on creativity . In 1927, Alfred North Whitehead gave the Gifford Lectures at the University of Edinburgh, later published as Process and Reality . He

3312-495: A way to explain possible benefits of creativity on mental health. The theory also addresses challenges not addressed by other theories of creativity, such as the factors guiding restructuring and the evolution of creative works. A central feature of honing theory is the notion of a potential state. Honing theory posits that creative thought proceeds not by searching through and randomly "mutating" predefined possibilities but by drawing upon associations that exist due to overlap in

3456-468: A worldview to attempt to resolve dissonance and seek internal consistency amongst its components, whether they be ideas, attitudes, or bits of knowledge. Dissonance in a person's worldview is, in some cases, generated by viewing their peers' creative outputs, and so people pursue their own creative endeavors to restructure their worldviews and reduce dissonance. This shift in worldview and cognitive restructuring through creative acts has also been considered as

3600-486: Is a form of iron oxide ( hematite ). Despite its wide spread and sophistication, the Indus Valley civilisation seems to have taken no interest in public large-scale art, unlike many other early civilizations. A number of gold , terracotta and stone figurines of girls in dancing poses reveal the presence of some forms of dance . Additionally, the terracotta figurines included cows, bears, monkeys, and dogs. By far

3744-509: Is a performance over time that combines any number of instruments, objects, and art within a predefined or less well-defined structure, some of which can be improvised. Performance art may be scripted, unscripted, random, or carefully organized—even audience participation may occur. John Cage is regarded by many as a performance artist rather than a composer, although he preferred the latter term. He did not compose for traditional ensembles. Cage's composition Living Room Music , composed in 1940,

3888-688: Is a product of culture and that our social interactions evolve our culture in way that promotes creativity. In everyday thought, people often spontaneously imagine alternatives to reality when they think "if only...". Their counterfactual thinking is viewed as an example of everyday creative processes. It has been proposed that the creation of counterfactual alternatives to reality depends on similar cognitive processes to rational thought. Imaginative thought in everyday life can be categorized based on whether it involves perceptual/motor related mental imagery, novel combinatorial processing, or altered psychological states. This classification aids in understanding

4032-400: Is a quartet for unspecified instruments, really non-melodic objects, that can be found in the living room of a typical house, hence the title. The applied arts are the application of design and decoration to everyday, functional objects to make them aesthetically pleasing. The applied arts include fields such as industrial design , illustration , and commercial art. The term "applied art"

4176-512: Is about transforming those ideas into tangible outcomes that have a practical application. The distinction is critical because creativity without implementation remains an idea, whereas innovation leads to real-world impact. There is also emotional creativity, which is described as a pattern of cognitive abilities and personality traits related to originality and appropriateness in emotional experience. Most ancient cultures, including Ancient Greece , Ancient China , and Ancient India , lacked

4320-412: Is an interaction between one's conception of the task and one's worldview. The conception of the task changes through interaction with the worldview, and the worldview changes through interaction with the task. This interaction is reiterated until the task is complete, at which point the task is conceived of differently and the worldview is subtly or drastically transformed, following the natural tendency of

4464-675: Is conducive to involvement in more traditional art forms. In 2011, the National Endowment of the Arts included video games in its definition of a "work of art", and the Smithsonian American Art Museum presented an exhibit titled The Art of the Video Game in 2012. Art criticism is the discussion or evaluation of art. Art critics usually criticize art in the context of aesthetics or the theory of beauty. A goal of art criticism

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4608-531: Is credited with having coined the term "creativity" to serve as the ultimate category of his metaphysical scheme: "Whitehead actually coined the term—our term, still the preferred currency of exchange among literature, science, and the arts—a term that quickly became so popular, so omnipresent, that its invention within living memory, and by Alfred North Whitehead of all people, quickly became occluded". Although psychometric studies of creativity had been conducted by The London School of Psychology as early as 1927 with

4752-442: Is defined as an art form whose medium is a combination of sounds. Though scholars agree that music generally consists of a few core elements , their exact definitions are debated. Commonly identified aspects include pitch (which governs melody and harmony), duration (including rhythm and tempo ), intensity (including dynamics), and timbre . Though considered a cultural universal , definitions of music vary wildly throughout

4896-488: Is divided into audience and affordance , which consider the interdependence of the creative individual with the social and material world, respectively. Although not supplanting the four Ps model in creativity research, the five As model has exerted influence over the direction of some creativity research, and has been credited with bringing coherence to studies across a number of creative domains. There has been much empirical study in psychology and cognitive science of

5040-449: Is insufficient evidence to substantiate claims that the image had religious or cultist significance, but the prevalence of the image raises the question of whether or not the animals in images of the IVC are religious symbols. The most famous piece is the bronze Dancing Girl of Mohenjo-Daro , which shows remarkably advanced modelling of the human figure for this early date. After the end of

5184-480: Is literally "acquaintance with letters", as in the first sense given in the Oxford English Dictionary . The noun "literature" comes from the Latin word littera , meaning "an individual written character ( letter )." The term has generally come to identify a collection of writings , which in Western culture are mainly prose (both fiction and non-fiction), drama, and poetry. In much, if not all, of

5328-470: Is often categorized as the performing arts of music, the word itself is Italian for "works", because opera combines artistic disciplines into a singular artistic experience. In a traditional opera, the work uses the following: the sets, costumes, acting, the libretto , singers and an orchestra. The composer Richard Wagner recognized the fusion of so many disciplines into a single work of opera, exemplified by his cycle Der Ring des Nibelungen ("The Ring of

5472-608: Is referred to as a drafter , draftswoman , or draughtsman . Drawing can be used to create art used in cultural industries such as illustrations , comics, and animation. Comics are often called the "ninth art" ( le neuvième art ) in Francophone scholarship, adding to the traditional "Seven Arts". Painting is considered to be a form of self-expression. Drawing, gesture (as in gestural painting ), composition , narration (as in narrative art ), or abstraction (as in abstract art ), among other aesthetic modes, may serve to manifest

5616-560: Is that local colour is defined by an outline (a contemporary equivalent is the cartoon). This is evident, for example, in the art of India , Tibet , and Japan . Islamic art avoids the representation of living beings, particularly humans and other animals, in religious contexts. It instead expresses religious ideas through calligraphy and geometrical designs. In the Middle Ages, liberal arts were taught in European universities as part of

5760-513: Is the investment theory of creativity . This approach suggests that many individual and environmental factors must exist in precise ways for extremely high levels of creativity opposed to average levels of creativity to result. In the investment sense, a person with their particular characteristics in their particular environment may see an opportunity to devote their time and energy into something that has been overlooked by others. The creative person develops an undervalued or under-recognized idea to

5904-507: Is the art and science of designing buildings and structures . A wider definition would include the design of the built environment, from the macro level of urban planning , urban design , and landscape architecture , to the micro level of creating furniture. The word architecture comes from the Latin architectūra , from architectus "master builder, director of works." Architectural design usually must address feasibility and cost for

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6048-459: Is the branch of the performing arts concerned with acting out stories in front of an audience using combinations of speech, gesture, music, dance, sound, and spectacle. In addition to the standard narrative dialogue style, theatre takes such forms as opera, ballet, mime, kabuki , classical Indian dance , and Chinese opera . Areas exist in which artistic works incorporate multiple artistic fields, such as film, opera, and performance art. While opera

6192-707: Is the principal product. Performing arts are distinguished by this performance element in contrast with disciplines such as visual and literary arts, where the product is an object that does not require a performance to be observed and experienced. Each discipline in the performing arts is temporal in nature, meaning the product is performed over a period of time. Products are broadly categorized as being either repeatable (for example, by script or score) or improvised for each performance. Artists who participate in these arts in front of an audience are called performers , including actors , magicians , comedians , dancers , musicians , and singers . Performing arts are also supported by

6336-425: Is the pursuit of a rational basis for art appreciation but it is questionable whether such criticism can transcend prevailing sociopolitical circumstances. The variety of artistic movements has resulted in a division of art criticism into different disciplines, which may each use different criteria for their judgements. The most common division in the field of criticism is between historical criticism and evaluation,

6480-440: Is used in distinction to the fine arts , where the latter is defined as arts that aim to produce objects that are beautiful or provide intellectual stimulation but have no primary everyday function. In practice, the two often overlap. Video games are multidisciplinary works that include non-controversially artistic elements such as visuals and sound, as well as an emergent experience from the nature of their interactivity. Within

6624-560: The Ajanta Caves , the surviving works are almost all religious sculpture. The period saw the emergence of the iconic carved stone deity in Hindu art, as well as the Buddha-figure and Jain tirthankara figures, these last often on a very large scale. The main centres of sculpture were Mathura Sarnath , and Gandhara , the last the centre of Greco-Buddhist art . The Gupta period marked

6768-535: The Amaravati Stupa , the Karla Caves , and the first phase of the Ajanta Caves . Stupas are religious monuments built on burial mounds, which contain relics beneath a solid dome. Stupas in different areas of India may vary in structure, size, and design; however, their representational meanings are quite similar. They are designed based on a mandala , a graph of cosmos specific to Buddhism. A traditional stupa has

6912-450: The Bhimbetka rock shelters have been enrolled as a UNESCO World Heritage Site ; the earliest paintings are some 10,000 years old. The paintings in these sites commonly depicted scenes of human life alongside animals, and hunts with stone implements. Their style varied with region and age, but the most common characteristic was a red wash made using a powdered mineral called geru , which

7056-540: The Greco-Buddhist art . Mahayana Buddhism flourished, and the depictions of Buddha as a human form first appeared in art. Wearing a monk's robe and a long length of cloth draped over the left shoulder and around the body, the Buddha was depicted with 32 major lakshanas (distinguishing marks), including a golden-colored body, an ushnisha (a protuberance) on the top of his head, heavy earrings, elongated earlobes, long arms,

7200-660: The Hellenistic art of nearby Bactria where this design is known. In the production of colossal Yaksha statues carved in the round, which can be found in several locations in northern India, the art of Mathura is considered as the most advanced in quality and quantity during this period. The major survivals of Buddhist art begin in the period after the Mauryans, from which good quantities of sculpture survives. Some key sites are Sanchi , Bharhut and Amaravati , some of which remain in situ , with others in museums in India or around

7344-481: The Pallavas symbolizes early Hindu architecture , with its monolithic rock relief and sculptures of Hindu deities. They were succeeded by Chola rulers who were prolific in their pursuit of the arts . The Great Living Chola Temples of this period are known for their maturity, grandeur and attention to detail, and have been recognized as a UNESCO Heritage Site . The Chola period is also known for its bronze sculptures,

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7488-580: The Trivium , an introductory curriculum involving grammar , rhetoric , and logic , and of the Quadrivium , a curriculum involving the "mathematical arts" of arithmetic , geometry , music, and astronomy . In modern academia , the arts can be grouped with, or as a subset of, the humanities . The arts have been classified as seven: painting, architecture, sculpture, literature, music, performing , and cinema. Some view literature, painting, sculpture, and music as

7632-443: The builder , as well as function and aesthetics for the user . In modern usage, architecture is the art and discipline of creating or inferring an implied or apparent plan for a complex object or system . Some types of architecture manipulate space, volume, texture, light, shadow, or abstract elements, to achieve pleasing aesthetics. Architectural works may be seen as cultural and political symbols , or works of art. The role of

7776-494: The early Vedic religion focused exclusively on the worship of purely "elementary forces of nature by means of elaborate sacrifices", which did not lend themselves easily to anthropomorphological representations. Various artefacts may belong to the Copper Hoard culture (2nd millennium BCE), some of them suggesting anthropomorphological characteristics. Interpretations vary as to the exact signification of these artifacts, or even

7920-487: The large-scale brain network dynamics associated with creativity. It suggests that creativity is an optimization and utility-maximization problem that requires individuals to determine the optimal way to exploit and explore ideas (the multi-armed bandit problem ). This utility maximization process is thought to be mediated by the locus coeruleus system, and this creativity framework describes how tonic and phasic locus coeruleus activity work in conjunction to facilitate

8064-970: The lost-wax casting technique and fresco paintings . Thanks to the Hindu kings of the Chalukya dynasty , Jainism flourished alongside Islam evidenced by the fourth of the Badami cave temples being Jain instead of Vedic . The kingdoms of South India continued to rule their lands until the Muslim invasions that established sultanates there and destroyed much of the temples and marvel examples of architectures and sculptures Other Hindu states are now mainly known through their surviving temples and their attached sculpture. These include Badami Chalukya architecture (5th to 6th centuries), Western Chalukya architecture (11th to 12th centuries) and Hoysala architecture (11th to 14th centuries), all centred on modern Karnataka . In east India, Odisha and West Bengal , Kalinga architecture

8208-402: The video game community , debates surround whether video games should be classified as an art form and whether game developers — AAA or indie —should be classified as artists. Hideo Kojima , a video game designer considered a gaming auteur , argued in 2006 that video games are a type of service rather than an art form. In the social sciences, cultural economists show how playing video games

8352-594: The "Geneplore" model, in which creativity takes place in two phases: a generative phase, where an individual constructs mental representations called "preinventive" structures, and an exploratory phase where those structures are used to come up with creative ideas. Some evidence shows that when people use their imagination to develop new ideas, those ideas are structured in predictable ways by the properties of existing categories and concepts. Weisberg argued, by contrast, that creativity involves ordinary cognitive processes yielding extraordinary results. Helie and Sun proposed

8496-467: The "golden age" of classical Hinduism, and saw the earliest constructed Hindu temple architecture , though survivals are not numerous. Over this period Hindu temple architecture matured into a number of regional styles, and a large proportion of the art historical record for this period consists of temple sculpture, much of which remains in place. The political history of the middle kingdoms of India saw India divided into many states, and since much of

8640-731: The 14th century—notably in Chaucer's The Parson's Tale to indicate divine creation. The modern meaning of creativity in reference to human creation did not emerge until after the Enlightenment . In a summary of scientific research into creativity, Michael Mumford suggests, "We seem to have reached a general agreement that creativity involves the production of novel , useful products." In Robert Sternberg 's words, creativity produces "something original and worthwhile". Authors have diverged dramatically in their precise definitions beyond these general commonalities: Peter Meusburger estimates that over

8784-499: The 2nd century BCE, Yakshas became the focus of the creation of colossal cultic images, typically around 2 meters or more in height, which are considered as probably the first Indian anthropomorphic productions in stone. Although few ancient Yaksha statues remain in good condition, the vigor of the style has been applauded, and expresses essentially Indian qualities. They are often pot-bellied, two-armed and fierce-looking. The Yakshas are often depicted with weapons or attributes, such as

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8928-437: The 3rd millennium BCE. On its way to modern times, Indian art has had cultural influences, as well as religious influences such as Hinduism , Buddhism , Jainism , Sikhism and Islam . In spite of this complex mixture of religious traditions, generally, the prevailing artistic style at any time and place has been shared by the major religious groups. In historic art, sculpture in stone and metal, mainly religious, has survived

9072-599: The Americas Art of Oceania Indian Art consists of a variety of art forms, including painting , sculpture , pottery , and textile arts such as woven silk . Geographically, it spans the entire Indian subcontinent , including what is now India , Pakistan , Bangladesh , Sri Lanka , Nepal , Bhutan , and at times eastern Afghanistan . A strong sense of design is characteristic of Indian art and can be observed in its modern and traditional forms. The origin of Indian art can be traced to prehistoric settlements in

9216-615: The Buddha and bodhisattvas , which are not found before 100 CE at the least. Buddhism developed an increasing emphasis on statues of the Buddha, which was greatly influenced by Hindu and Jain religious figurative art, The figures of this period which were also influenced by the Greco-Buddhist art of the centuries after the conquests of Alexander the Great . This fusion developed in the far north-west of India, especially Gandhara in modern Afghanistan and Pakistan . The Indian Kushan Empire spread from Central Asia to include northern India in

9360-549: The Buddha and his bodhisattvas are well-defined, solid, and muscular, with swelling chests, arms, and abdomens. Buddhism and Buddhism art spread to Central Asia and the far East across Bactria and Sogdia , where the Kushan Empire met the Han Dynasty of China. The Gupta period is generally regarded as a classic peak of north Indian art for all the major religious groups. Although painting was evidently widespread, and survives in

9504-628: The Four P model as individualistic, static, and decontextualized, Vlad Petre Glăveanu proposed a "five A's" model consisting of actor, action, artifact, audience, and affordance. In this model, the actor is the person with attributes but also located within social networks; action is the process of creativity not only in internal cognitive terms but also external, bridging the gap between ideation and implementation; artifacts emphasize how creative products typically represent cumulative innovations over time rather than abrupt discontinuities; and "press/place"

9648-464: The Indian climate better than other media and provides most of the best remains. Many of the most important ancient finds that are not in carved stone come from the surrounding, drier regions rather than India itself. Indian funeral and philosophic traditions exclude grave goods , which is the main source of ancient art in other cultures. Indian artist styles historically followed Indian religions out of

9792-715: The Indus Valley Civilization, there is a surprising absence of art of any great degree of sophistication until the Buddhist era. It is thought that this partly reflects the use of perishable organic materials such as wood. The millennium following the collapse of the Indus Valley civilisation, coinciding with the Indo-Aryan migration during the Vedic period , is devoid of anthropomorphical depictions. It has been suggested that

9936-528: The Maurya Empire. The Great Stupa was enlarged to its present diameter of 120 feet, covered with a stone casing, topped with a balcony and umbrella, and encircled with a stone railing during the Shunga Dynasty c. 150 BCE – 50 BCE. In addition to architecture, another significant art form of the Shunga Dynasty is the elaborately moulded terracotta plaques. As seen in previous examples from the Mauryan Empire,

10080-572: The Nibelung"). He did not use the term opera for his works, but instead Gesamtkunstwerk ("synthesis of the arts"), sometimes referred to as "music drama" in English, emphasizing the literary and theatrical components, which were as important as the music. Classical ballet is another form that emerged in the 17th century in which orchestral music is combined with dance. Other works in the late 19th, 20th, and 21st centuries have fused other disciplines in creative ways, such as performance art. Performance art

10224-519: The Renaissance that creativity was first observed, not as a conduit for the divine, but from the abilities of " great men ". The development of the modern concept of creativity began in the Renaissance, when creation began to be perceived as having originated from the abilities of the individual and not God. This could be attributed to the leading intellectual movement of the time, aptly named humanism , which developed an intensely human-centric outlook on

10368-420: The Shunga Dynasty in south India, some of the most significant early Buddhist architecture was created. Arguably, the most significant architecture of this dynasty is the stupa, a religious monument which usually holds a sacred relic of Buddhism. These relics were often, but not always, in some way directly connected to the Buddha. Due to the fact that these stupas contained remains of the Buddha himself, each stupa

10512-695: The Yaksha Mudgarpani who in the right hand holds a mudgar mace, and in the left hand the figure of a small standing devotee or child joining hands in prayer. It is often suggested that the style of the colossal Yaksha statuary had an important influence on the creation of later divine images and human figures in India. The female equivalent of the Yakshas were the Yakshinis, often associated with trees and children, and whose voluptuous figures became omnipresent in Indian art. Some Hellenistic influence, such as

10656-410: The accumulation of expertise, but it is predicted by honing theory, according to which personal style reflects the creator's uniquely structured worldview. Another example is the environmental stimulus for creativity. Creativity is commonly considered to be fostered by a supportive, nurturing, and trustworthy environment conducive to self-actualization. In line with this idea, Gabora posits that creativity

10800-477: The act of conceiving of a variety of ideas that are not necessarily new or unique. Other researchers have occasionally used the terms flexible thinking or fluid intelligence , which are also roughly similar to (but not synonymous with) creativity. While convergent and divergent thinking differ greatly in terms of approach to problem solving, it is believed that both are employed to some degree when solving most real-world problems. In 1992, Finke et al. proposed

10944-534: The architect, though changing, has been central to the design and implementation of pleasingly built environments, in which people live. Ceramic art is art made from ceramic materials (including clay ), which may take forms such as pottery , tile , figurines , sculpture, and tableware . While some ceramic products are considered fine art , others are considered decorative , industrial , or applied art objects. Ceramics may also be considered artefacts in archaeology . Ceramic art can be made by one person or by

11088-418: The arts and politics, particularly between various kinds of art and power , occurs across history and cultures . As they respond to events and politics, the arts take on political as well as social dimensions, becoming themselves a focus of controversy and a force of political and social change . One observation is that an artist has a free spirit . For instance Pushkin , a well-regarded writer, attracted

11232-535: The audacity of his sensual fancy, and in his propensity for making fun of major and minor tyrants." Artists use their work to express their political views and promote social change, from influencing negatively in the form of hate speech to influencing positively through artivism . Governments use art, or propaganda , to promote their own agendas. Creativity Creativity is the ability to form novel and valuable ideas or works using one's imagination . Products of creativity may be intangible (e.g., an idea,

11376-532: The brain cooperate during creative tasks, suggesting a complex interaction between these networks in facilitating everyday imaginative thought. The term "dialectical theory of creativity" dates back to psychoanalyst Daniel Dervin and was later developed into an interdisciplinary theory. The dialectical theory of creativity starts with the ancient concept that creativity takes place in an interplay between order and chaos. Similar ideas can be found in neuroscience and psychology. Neurobiologically, it can be shown that

11520-419: The career trajectories of eminent creative people in order to map patterns and predictors of creative productivity. Theories of creativity (and empirical investigations of why some people are more creative than others) have focused on a variety of aspects. The dominant factors are usually identified as "the four P's", a framework first put forward by Mel Rhodes : In 2013, based on a sociocultural critique of

11664-404: The central four arts, of which the others are derivative; drama is literature with acting, dance is music expressed through motion , and song is music with literature and voice . Film is sometimes called the "eighth" and comics the "ninth art" in Francophone scholarship, adding to the traditional "Seven Arts". Cultural fields like gastronomy are only sometimes considered as arts. Architecture

11808-450: The concept of an external creative " daemon " (Greek) or " genius " (Latin), linked to the sacred or the divine. However, none of these views are similar to the modern concept of creativity, and the rejection of creativity in favor of discovery and the belief that individual creation was a conduit of the divine would dominate the West probably until the Renaissance and even later. It was during

11952-451: The concept of creativity, seeing art as a form of discovery and not creation. The ancient Greeks had no terms corresponding to "to create" or "creator" except for the expression " poiein " ("to make"), which only applied to poiesis (poetry) and to the poietes (poet, or "maker" who made it. Plato did not believe in art as a form of creation. Asked in the Republic , "Will we say of

12096-523: The concept of creativity, seeing art as a form of discovery, rather than a form of creation. In the Judeo-Christian-Islamic tradition, creativity was seen as the sole province of God, and human creativity was considered an expression of God's work; the modern conception of creativity came about during the Renaissance , influenced by humanist ideas. Scholarly interest in creativity is found in

12240-455: The creative process by pioneering theorists such as Graham Wallas and Max Wertheimer . In his work Art of Thought , published in 1926, Wallas presented one of the first models of the creative process. In the Wallas stage model, creative insights and illuminations may be explained by a process consisting of five stages: Wallas' model is also often treated as four stages, with "intimation" seen as

12384-657: The creative process takes place in a dynamic interplay between coherence and incoherence that leads to new and usable neuronal networks. Psychology shows how the dialectics of convergent and focused thinking with divergent and associative thinking leads to new ideas and products. Personality traits like the "Big Five" seem to be dialectically intertwined in the creative process: emotional instability vs. stability, extraversion vs. introversion, openness vs. reserve, agreeableness vs. antagonism, and disinhibition vs. constraint. The dialectical theory of creativity applies also to counseling and psychotherapy. Lin and Vartanian developed

12528-540: The culture and the periodization to which they belonged. Some examples of artistic expression also appear in abstract pottery designs during the Black and red ware culture (1450-1200 BCE) or the Painted Grey Ware culture (1200-600 BCE), with finds in a wide area, including the area of Mathura. After a gap of about a thousand years, most of the early finds correspond to what is called the "second period of urbanization" in

12672-429: The difference between creativity and originality. Götz asserted that one can be creative without necessarily being original. When someone creates something, they are certainly creative at that point, but they may not be original in the case that their creation is not something new. However, originality and creativity can go hand-in-hand. Creativity in general is usually distinguished from innovation in particular, where

12816-513: The difficulty; searching for solutions, making guesses, or formulating hypotheses about the deficiencies: testing and retesting these hypotheses and possibly modifying and retesting them; and finally communicating the results." Ignacio L. Götz, following the etymology of the word, argues that creativity is not necessarily "making". He confines it to the act of creating without thinking about the end product. While many definitions of creativity seem almost synonymous with originality, he also emphasized

12960-406: The distributed neural cell assemblies that participate in the encoding of experiences in memory. Midway through the creative process, one may have made associations between the current task and previous experiences but not yet disambiguated which aspects of those previous experiences are relevant to the current task. Thus, the creative idea may feel "half-baked.". At that point, it can be said to be in

13104-566: The divine, Satavahana people also made stone images as the decoration in Buddhist architectures. Based on the knowledge of geometry and geology, they created ideal images using a set of complex techniques and tools such as chisels, hammers, and compasses with iron points. In addition, delicate Satavahana coins show the capacity of creating art in that period. The Satavahanas issued coins primarily in copper, lead and potin . Later on, silver came into use when producing coins. The coins usually have detailed portraits of rulers and inscriptions written in

13248-528: The early centuries CE, and briefly commissioned large statues that were portraits of the royal dynasty. With the fall of the Maurya Empire , control of India was returned to the older custom of regional dynasties, one of the most significant of which was the Shunga Dynasty (c. 185 BCE – 72 BCE) of central India. During this period, as well as during the Satavahana Dynasty which occurred concurrently with

13392-476: The exploiting and exploring of creative ideas. This framework not only explains previous empirical results but also makes novel and falsifiable predictions at different levels of analysis (ranging from neurobiological to cognitive and personality differences). B.F. Skinner attributed creativity to accidental behaviors that are reinforced by the environment. In behaviorism, creativity can be understood as novel or unusual behaviors that are reinforced if they produce

13536-410: The expression of Christian themes due to the overlap of church and state . Eastern art has generally worked in style akin to Western medieval art , namely a concentration on surface patterning and local colour (meaning the plain colour of an object, such as basic red for a red robe, rather than the modulations of that colour brought about by light, shade, and reflection). A characteristic of this style

13680-410: The expressive and conceptual intention of the practitioner. Paintings can be a wide variety of topics, such as photographic , abstract, narrative, symbolistic ( Symbolist art ), emotive ( Expressionism ), or political in nature ( Artivism ). Some modern painters incorporate different materials, such as sand , cement, straw , wood, or strands of hair, for their artwork texture . Examples of this are

13824-544: The first place. There is more from various early sites of Indian rock-cut architecture . The most famous survivals are the large animals surmounting several of the Pillars of Ashoka , which showed a confident and boldly mature style and craft and first of its kind iron casting without rust until date, which was in use by vedic people in rural areas of the country, though we have very few remains showing its development. The famous detached Lion Capital of Ashoka , with four animals,

13968-406: The geometrical folds of the drapery or the walking stance of the statues, has been suggested. According to John Boardman , the hem of the dress in the monumental early Yaksha statues is derived from Greek art. Describing the drapery of one of these statues, John Boardman writes: "It has no local antecedents and looks most like a Greek Late Archaic mannerism", and suggests it is possibly derived from

14112-513: The grandest building was commissioned by rulers and their court, this helped the development of regional differences. Painting, both on a large scale on walls, and in miniature forms, was no doubt very widely practiced, but survivals are rare. Medieval bronzes have most commonly survived from either the Tamil south, or the Himalayan foothills. Inscriptions on the Pillars of Ashoka mention coexistence of

14256-500: The impression of a chakra (wheel) on the palms of his hands and the soles of his feet, and the urna (a mark between his eyebrows). One of the hallmarks of Gandharan art is its relation to naturalism of Hellenistic art . The naturalistic features found in Gandharan sculptures include the three-dimensional treatment of the drapery, with unregularized folds that are in realistic patterns of random shape and thickness. The physical form of

14400-452: The individual attributes of a person, such as their aesthetic taste, while Chinese people view creativity more in terms of the social influence of creative people (i.e., what they can contribute to society). Mpofu et al. surveyed 28 African languages and found that 27 had no word which directly translated to "creativity" (the exception being Arabic). The linguistic relativity hypothesis (i.e., that language can affect thought) suggests that

14544-427: The intersection of two quite different frames of reference. In the 1990s, various approaches in cognitive science that dealt with metaphor , analogy , and structure mapping converged, and a new integrative approach to the study of creativity in science, art, and humor emerged under the label conceptual blending . Honing theory, developed principally by psychologist Liane Gabora , posits that creativity arises due to

14688-466: The irritation of Russian officialdom and particularly the Tsar , since he "instead of being a good servant of the state in the rank and file of the administration and extolling conventional virtues in his vocational writings (if write he must), composed extremely arrogant and extremely independent and extremely wicked verse in which dangerous freedom of thought was evident in the novelty of his versification, in

14832-611: The lack of an equivalent word for "creativity" may affect the views of creativity among speakers of such languages. However, more research would be needed to establish this, and there is certainly no suggestion that this linguistic difference makes people any less, or more, creative. Nevertheless, it is true that there has been very little research on creativity in Africa, and there has also been very little research on creativity in Latin America. Creativity has been more thoroughly researched in

14976-506: The language of Tamil and Telugu . Officially established by Kujula Kadphises , the first Kushan emperor who united the Yuezhi tribes, the Kushan empire was a syncretic empire in central and southern Asia, including the regions of Gandhara and Mathura in northern India. From 127 to 151 CE, Gandharan reached its peak under the reign of Kanishka the Great. In this period, Kushan art inherited

15120-626: The many theories to criticize and appreciate art. Art criticism and appreciation can be subjective based on personal preference toward aesthetics and form, or on the elements and principles of design and by social and cultural acceptance. Arts in education is a field of educational research and practice informed by investigations into learning through arts experiences. In this context, the arts can include performing arts education (dance, drama, music), literature and poetry, storytelling , visual arts education in film, craft , design, digital art , media and photography. A strong relationship between

15264-554: The middle of the 1st millennium BCE. The anthropomorphic depiction of various deities apparently started in the middle of the 1st millennium BCE, possibly as a consequence of the influx of foreign stimuli initiated with the Achaemenid conquest of the Indus Valley , and the rise of alternative local faiths challenging Vedism , such as Buddhism , Jainism and local popular cults. The north Indian Maurya Empire flourished from 322 BCE to 185 BCE, and at its maximum extent controlled all of

15408-526: The modern sense, which did not arise until the Renaissance . In the Judeo-Christian-Islamic tradition, creativity was the sole province of God; humans were not considered to have the ability to create something new except as an expression of God's work. A concept similar to that in Christianity existed in Greek culture. For instance, Muses were seen as mediating inspiration from the gods. Romans and Greeks invoked

15552-421: The most common form of figurative art found is small carved seals . Thousands of steatite seals have been recovered, and their physical character is fairly consistent. In size they range from 3 ⁄ 4 inch to 1 1 ⁄ 2 inches square. In most cases they have a pierced boss at the back to accommodate a cord for handling or for use as personal adornment. Seals have been found at Mohenjo-Daro depicting

15696-541: The name later adopted as a badge of honour by the artists of the style with the original negative meaning forgotten, e.g. Impressionism and Cubism . Artists have had an uneasy relationship with their critics. Artists usually need positive opinions from critics for their work to be viewed and purchased. Many variables determine judgement of art such as aesthetics, cognition or perception. Aesthetic, pragmatic, expressive, formalist, relativist, processional, imitation, ritual, cognition, mimetic, and postmodern theories, are some of

15840-442: The neural foundations and practical implications of imagination. Creative thinking is a central aspect of everyday life, encompassing both controlled and undirected processes. This includes divergent thinking and stage models, highlighting the importance of extra- and meta-cognitive contributions to imaginative thought. Brain network dynamics play a crucial role in creative cognition. The default and executive control networks in

15984-529: The northern hemisphere, but here again there are cultural differences, even between countries or groups of countries in close proximity. For example, in Scandinavian countries, creativity is seen as an individual attitude which helps in coping with life's challenges, while in Germany, creativity is seen more as a process that can be applied to help solve problems. James C. Kaufman and Ronald A. Beghetto introduced

16128-461: The northern kingdoms with the triumvirate of Chola , Chera and Pandya Tamil dynasties , situated south of the Vindhya mountains . The medieval period witnessed the rise and fall of these kingdoms, in conjunction with other kingdoms in the area. It is during the decline and resurgence of these kingdoms that Hinduism was renewed. It fostered the construction of numerous temples and sculptures. The Shore Temple at Mamallapuram constructed by

16272-475: The object of an important cult in the early periods of Indian history, many of them being known such as Kubera , king of the Yakshas, Manibhadra or Mudgarpani . The Yakshas are a broad class of nature-spirits, usually benevolent, but sometimes mischievous or capricious, connected with water, fertility, trees, the forest, treasure and wilderness, and were the object of popular worship. Many of them were later incorporated into Buddhism, Jainism or Hinduism. In

16416-592: The point that it is established as a new and creative idea. Just like in the financial world, some investments are worth the buy-in, while others are less productive and do not build to the extent that the investor expected. This investment theory of creativity asserts that creativity might rely to some extent on the right investment of effort being added to a field at the right time in the right way. Indian art Art of Central Asia Art of East Asia Art of South Asia Art of Southeast Asia Art of Europe Art of Africa Art of

16560-463: The problem. J. P. Guilford drew a distinction between convergent and divergent production (commonly renamed convergent and divergent thinking ). Convergent thinking involves aiming for a single, correct, or best solution to a problem (e.g., "How can we get a crewed rocket to land on the moon safely and within budget?"). Divergent thinking, on the other hand, involves the creative generation of multiple answers to an open-ended prompt (e.g., "How can

16704-412: The problem. Ward lists various hypotheses that have been advanced to explain why incubation may aid creative problem-solving and notes how some empirical evidence is consistent with a different hypothesis: Incubation aids creative problems in that it enables "forgetting" of misleading clues. The absence of incubation may lead the problem solver to become fixated on inappropriate strategies of solving

16848-464: The processes through which creativity occurs. Interpretation of the results of these studies has led to several possible explanations of the sources and methods of creativity. "Incubation" is a temporary break from creative problem solving that can result in insight. Empirical research has investigated whether, as the concept of "incubation" in Wallas 's model implies, a period of interruption or rest from

16992-531: The recognition of creativity (as measured) as a separate aspect of human cognition from IQ -type intelligence, into which it had previously been subsumed. Guilford's work suggested that above a threshold level of IQ, the relationship between creativity and classically measured intelligence broke down. Creativity is viewed differently in different countries. For example, cross-cultural research centered in Hong Kong found that Westerners view creativity more in terms of

17136-428: The self-organizing, self-mending nature of a worldview. The creative process is a way in which the individual hones (and re-hones) an integrated worldview. Honing theory places emphasis not only on the externally visible creative outcome but also on the internal cognitive restructuring and repair of the worldview brought about by the creative process and production. When one is faced with a creatively demanding task, there

17280-440: The separation being made between talent (productive, but not new ground) and genius. As an independent topic of study, creativity effectively received little attention until the 19th century. Runco and Albert argue that creativity as the subject of proper study began seriously to emerge in the late 19th century with the increased interest in individual differences inspired by the arrival of Darwinism . In particular, they refer to

17424-405: The services of other artists or essential workers, such as songwriting and stagecraft . Performers adapt their appearance with tools such as costumes and stage makeup . Dance generally refers to human movement , either used as a form of expression or presented in a social, spiritual , or performance setting. Choreography is the art of making dances, and the person who does this is called

17568-573: The stress is on implementation. For example, Teresa Amabile and Pratt define creativity as the production of novel and useful ideas and innovation as the implementation of creative ideas, while the OECD and Eurostat state that "[i]nnovation is more than a new idea or an invention. An innovation requires implementation, either by being put into active use or by being made available for use by other parties, firms, individuals, or organizations." Therefore, while creativity involves generating new ideas, innovation

17712-599: The sub-continent except the extreme south as well as influences from Indian ancient traditions, and Ancient Persia , as shown by the Pataliputra capital . The emperor Ashoka , who died in 232 BCE, adopted Buddhism about half-way through his 40-year reign, and patronized several large stupas at key sites from the life of the Buddha , although very little decoration from the Mauryan period survives, and there may not have been much in

17856-518: The subcontinent, having an especially large influence in Tibet , South East Asia and China . Indian art has itself received influences at times, especially from Central Asia and Iran , and Europe. Rock art of India includes rock relief carvings, engravings and paintings, some (but by no means all) from the South Asian Stone Age . It is estimated there are about 1300 rock art sites with over

18000-582: The term in the 1960s referred to a strict and focused practice of idea-based art that defied traditional visual criteria associated with the visual arts in its presentation as text. Through its association with the Young British Artists and the Turner Prize during the 1990s, its popular usage, particularly in the United Kingdom, developed as a synonym for all contemporary art that does not practice

18144-683: The terms "Big C" and "Little C" has been widely used. Kozbelt, Beghetto, and Runco use a little-c/Big-C model to review major theories of creativity. Margaret Boden distinguishes between h-creativity (historical) and p-creativity (personal). Ken Robinson and Anna Craft focused on creativity in a general population, particularly with respect to education. Craft makes a similar distinction between "high" and "little c" creativity and cites Robinson as referring to "high" and "democratic" creativity. Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi defined creativity in terms of individuals judged to have made significant creative, perhaps domain-changing contributions. Simonton analyzed

18288-448: The theory was developed based on the CLARION cognitive architecture and used to simulate relevant human data. This work is an initial step in the development of process-based theories of creativity encompassing incubation, insight, and various other related phenomena. In The Act of Creation , Arthur Koestler introduced the concept of bisociation – that creativity arises as a result of

18432-628: The traditional skills of painting and sculpture. Drawing is a means of making an image using any of a wide variety of tools and techniques. It generally involves making marks on a surface by applying pressure from a tool, or moving a tool across a surface. Common tools are graphite pencils , pen and ink, inked brushes , wax coloured pencils , crayons , charcoals , pastels , and markers . Digital tools with similar effects are also used. The main techniques used in drawing are line drawing, hatching , cross-hatching, random hatching, scribbling, stippling , and blending. An artist who excels in drawing

18576-594: The visual arts that operates in three dimensions. It is one of the plastic arts . Durable sculptural processes originally used carving (the removal of material) and modelling (the addition of material, such as clay), in stone , metal, ceramics , wood, and other materials, but shifts in sculptural processes have led to almost complete freedom of materials and processes following modernism . A wide variety of materials may be worked by removal such as carving, assembled by welding or modelling, or moulded or cast . Literature (also known as literary arts or language arts )

18720-466: The word techne . Ancient Greek art brought the veneration of the animal form and the development of equivalent skills to show musculature, poise, beauty, and anatomically correct proportions. Ancient Roman art depicted gods as idealized humans, shown with characteristic distinguishing features, e.g. Zeus ' thunderbolt. In Byzantine and Gothic art of the Middle Ages , the dominant church insisted on

18864-471: The work of Francis Galton , who, through his eugenicist outlook took a keen interest in the heritability of intelligence, with creativity taken as an aspect of genius. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, leading mathematicians and scientists such as Hermann von Helmholtz (1896) and Henri Poincaré (1908) began to reflect on and publicly discuss their creative processes. The insights of Poincaré and von Helmholtz were built on in early accounts of

19008-585: The work of H.L. Hargreaves into the Faculty of Imagination, the formal psychometric measurement of creativity, from the standpoint of orthodox psychological literature, is usually considered to have begun with J.P. Guilford 's address to the American Psychological Association in 1950. The address helped to popularize the study of creativity and to focus attention on scientific approaches to conceptualizing creativity. Statistical analyzes led to

19152-403: The works of Jean Dubuffet or Anselm Kiefer . Photography as an art form refers to photographs that are created in accordance with the creative vision of the photographer. Art photography stands in contrast to photojournalism , which provides a visual account of news events, and commercial photography, the primary focus of which is to advertise products or services. Sculpture is the branch of

19296-492: The world as they are based on diverse views of nature , the supernatural, and humanity. Music is differentiated into composition and performance, while musical improvisation may be regarded as an intermediary tradition. Music can be divided into genres and subgenres, although the dividing lines and relationships between genres are subtle, open to individual interpretation, and controversial. Theatre or theater (from Greek theatron ( θέατρον ); from theasthai , "behold")

19440-449: The world, artistic linguistic expression can be oral as well and include such genres as epic , legend , myth , ballad , other forms of oral poetry, and folktales . Comics, the combination of drawings or other visual arts with narrating literature, are called the "ninth art" ( le neuvième art ) in Francophone scholarship. Performing arts comprise dance, music, theatre, opera , mime , and other art forms in which human performance

19584-412: The world, valuing the intellect and achievement of the individual. From this philosophy arose the Renaissance man (or polymath), an individual who embodies the principles of humanism in their ceaseless courtship with knowledge and creation. One of the most well-known and immensely accomplished examples is Leonardo da Vinci . However, the shift from divine inspiration to the abilities of the individual

19728-403: The world. The arts are considered various practices or objects done by people with skill, creativity, and imagination across cultures and history, viewed as a group. These activities include painting, sculpture, music, theatre, literature, and more. Art refers to the way of doing or applying human creative skills, typically in visual form. In Ancient Greece , art and craft were referred to by

19872-443: The world. Stupas were surrounded by ceremonial fences with four profusely carved toranas or ornamental gateways facing the cardinal directions. These are in stone, though clearly adopting forms developed in wood. They and the walls of the stupa itself can be heavily decorated with reliefs, mostly illustrating the lives of the Buddha. Gradually life-size figures were sculpted, initially in deep relief, but then free-standing. Mathura

20016-487: The written word in comics . They can also develop or contribute to some particular aspect of a more complex art form, as in cinematography . By definition, the arts themselves are open to being continually redefined. The practice of modern art , for example, is a testament to the shifting boundaries, improvisation and experimentation, reflexive nature, and self-criticism or questioning that art and its conditions of production, reception, and possibility can undergo. As both

20160-463: Was adopted as the official Emblem of India after Indian independence . Mauryan sculpture and architecture is characterized by a very fine Mauryan polish given to the stone, which is rarely found in later periods. Many small popular terracotta figurines are recovered in archaeology, in a range of often vigorous if somewhat crude styles. Both animals and human figures, usually females presumed to be deities, are found. Yakshas seem to have been

20304-529: Was gradual and would not become immediately apparent until the Enlightenment . By the 18th century and the Age of Enlightenment, mention of creativity (notably in aesthetics ), linked with the concept of imagination, became more frequent. In the writing of Thomas Hobbes , imagination became a key element of human cognition; William Duff was one of the first to identify imagination as a quality of genius, typifying

20448-563: Was the broad temple style, with local variants, before the Muslim conquest. In antiquity, Bengal was a pioneer of painting in Asia under the Pala Empire. Miniature and scroll painting flourished during the Mughal Empire. Kalighat painting or Kalighat Pat originated in the 19th century Bengal, in the vicinity of Kalighat Kali Temple of Kolkata, and from being items of souvenir taken by the visitors to

20592-441: Was the most important centre in this development, which applied to Hindu and Jain art as well as Buddhist. The facades and interiors of rock-cut chaitya prayer halls and monastic viharas have survived better than similar free-standing structures elsewhere, which were for long mostly in wood. The caves at Ajanta , Karle , Bhaja and elsewhere contain early sculpture, often outnumbered by later works such as iconic figures of

20736-458: Was venerated as being an extension of the Buddha's body, his enlightenment, and of his achievement of nirvana. The way in which Buddhists venerate the stupa is by walking around it in a clockwise manner. One of the most notable examples of the Buddhist stupa from the Shunga Dynasty is The Great Stupa at Sanchi, which was thought to be founded by the Mauryan emperor Ashoka c. 273 BCE – 232 BCE during

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