Arts and Culture : An Introduction to the Humanities, Combined Volume

by Benton, Janetta Rebold; DiYanni, Robert

• ISBN13: 9780131899155
• ISBN10: 0131899155
• Edition: 2nd
• Format: Paperback w/CD
• Copyright: 2005-01-01
• Publisher: Prentice Hall

Summary

Arts and Culture, Second Edition, is richly illustrated, beautifully designed, and engaging to read. Students move chronologically from prehistoric culture through the twenty-first century to gain insight into the achievements and ideas in painting, sculpture, architecture, literature, philosophy, religion, and music. Highlights of the new edition include: bull; bull;New Cultural Impact boxes at the end of each chapter that explain the influence of one culture or civilization on later ones, showing students how the broad strands explored in the chapter continue to impact today's world. bull;Expanded and revised coverage of India, Africa, China, Japan, and the Americas. bull;New Music for the Humanities CD included free with each copy of the text.

Table of Contents

The Dawn of Culture

Ancient Egypt

Aegean Culture and Early Greece

Classical and Hellenistic Greece

Roman Civilization

Judaism, Early Christianity, and Byzantine Civilization

Islamic Civilization

Indian Civilization

Early Chinese & Japanese Civilizations

Early Civilizations of the Americas & Africa

Early Middle Ages and the Romanesque

Gothic and Late Middle Ages

The Renaissance and Mannerism in Italy

The Renaissance in Northern Europe

The Baroque Age

The Eighteenth Century

Romanticism and Realism

The Belle Eacute;poque: Impressionism and post-Impressionism

Chinese Civilization After the Thirteenth Century

Japanese Civilization After the Fifteenth Century

Age of Anxiety: World War I and After

Modern Africa and Latin America

Age of Affluence: World War II and After

Diversity in Contemporary Life

Glossary

Picture Credits and Further Information

Literature Credits

Index

Table of Contents provided by Publisher. All Rights Reserved.

Excerpts

As in our First Edition ofArts and Culture,we provide in this Second Edition an introduction to the world's major civilizations--to their artistic achievements, their history, and their cultures. Through an integrated approach to the humanities,Arts and Cultureoffers an opportunity to view works of art, listen to music, and read literature in historical and cultural contexts. Works of art from different cultures reveal common human experiences of birth and death, love and loss, pleasure and pain, hope and frustration, elation and despair. Study of the humanities--literature, philosophy, history, religion, and the arts--reveals what others value and believe, inviting each of us to consider our personal, social, and cultural values in relation to those of others. In studying the humanities, we focus our attention on works of art that reflect and embody the central values and beliefs of particular cultures and specific historical moments. In our approach we consider the following questions: What kind of artwork is it? To what artistic category does it belong?These questions lead us to consider a work's type. Why was the artwork made? What was its function, purpose, or use? Who was responsible for producing it? Who paid for or commissioned it?These questions lead us to consider the context of a work. What does the work express or convey? What does it reveal about its creator? What does it reveal about its historical and social context?These questions lead us to considerations of a work's meaning. How was the artwork made or constructed?This question leads us to consider technique. What are the parts or elements of a work of art? How are these parts related to create a unified artwork?These questions lead us to considerations of formal analysis, understanding the ways the artwork satisfies aesthetically. What social, cultural, and moral values does the work express, reflect, or embody?This question leads us to consider the social, cultural, and moral values of an artwork. InArts and Culture,we highlight the individual artistic qualities of numerous works, always in view of the cultural worlds in which they were created. We discuss each work's significance in conjunction with the social attitudes and cultural values it embodies, without losing sight of its individual expression and artistic achievement. Two important questions underlie our choice of works inArts and Culture:(1) What makes a work a masterpiece of its type? (2) What qualities of a work of art enable it to be appreciated over time? These questions imply that certain qualities appeal to something fundamental and universal in all of us, no matter where or when we may live. There are the aesthetic principles and predilections that link all of us together. MAKING CONNECTIONS We believe that a study of the humanities involves more than an examination of the artistic monuments of civilizations past and present. In our view, it also involves a consideration of how forms of human achievement in many times and places echo and reinforce, alter and modify each other. An important aspect of humanities study involves seeing connections among the arts of a given culture and discovering relationships between the arts of different cultures. We have highlighted three forms of connections that are especially important: Interdisciplinary connectionsamong artworks of an individual culture Cross currentsamong artworks of different cultures Transhistorical links between past and present,then and now These forms of connection invite our readers to locate relationships among various humanities disciplines and to identify links between the achievements of diverse cultures. Discovering such connections can be intellectually stimulating and emotion