Page 6 - World of Art magazine (2000)

andrea PaGnes

and the nature oF art

a correct under-
keys For standing oF a work
oF art and suggestions For a thorough
investigation oF artistic phenoMenology’s,
in order to acquire a broader and More
exhaustive knowledge oF the poetics and
the ideologies innate in theM.
firMLY considerinG art a the means of expression. There- their connection and in their logical, intuitive knowledge, the
human activity ’based on expe- fore it is unthinkable to study development in time. creative faculty of which is imag-
rience, on quality and on par- a work of art by trying to ascer- Undoubtly it is a required con- ination; but the importance of
ticular aptitudes, on talent and tain “what is being said, who dition to seek the reasons why Vico’s aesthetics is linked to two
on individual ingeniousness, any says it, to whom and what the a work of art becomes a subject fundamental themes: the rela-
critical estimations of artistic effects are.” of knowledge, a phenomenon, or tionship of art with myth and
works must necessarily take In fact art is a form of Man’s an idea because any artistic cre- the identification between art
account of their development activity which is intended as a ation can not be considered sep- and language as rules.
through various periods, of their confirmation or exaltation of his arately, but should be thought of They were the first to analyze
complexity with special ref- creative skill and of his capacity as a moment and a result of his- critically these themes, nowa-
erence to their own stylistic of expression, therefore he mod- torical - artistic process in whose days extremely topical in the
expression, to the time when ifies himself and the natural context we will be able to under- artistic phenomenology and in
they were created, to their place environment according to a dra- stand its full meaning. In this the specify of literary poetics,
of origin. matic, ironical etc. connection way the history of art itself with special attention to the syn-
However it is not sufficient to which goes with the individual becomes a way of researching ergism that exists among art,
pass judgment on a work of art or social needs of a logical or and of viewing the world. myth and symbol. These themes
simply explaining its origin or moral nature. Among these considerations of include the concept of art as
the essence of its various stylistic Through the qualities of a a general nature the more creation, as expression and as
forms; we need to try to under- work of art, criticism should find strictly aesthetical question can communication, which are to be
stand art as an aspect of human essential the definition and real- not be left in the background: developed by the idealistic and
and social life and, particularly, ization of the nature and origi- how we can identify the nature neo-idealistic aesthetics of Bene-
to study the influence of art on nality of an artist, with a con- of the beautiful and the nature detto Croce.
man and on society, on the artis- stant reference to the general of art? Kant laid the premise for the
tic awareness and culture educa- concepts of imitation, simulation In fact since Plato and Aristotle affirmation of the subjective
tion, on the contacts, on the civil and the singular artifices of the the problem of nature-art rela- moment over the objective one
and social conflicts that art rep- technical and stylistic particu- tion has taken on specific and of beauty and therefore for the
resents, reproduces or is ahead larities. Then the investigation fundamental valences. identification of natural beauty
of. and study of the aesthetical The concept of imitation and and artistic beauty.
The birth, the development qualities of a work of art will the purifying-or rather educa- According to him, the basis of
and the decadency of the social allow us to understand exhaus- tional-role of art that was con- beauty is the aesthetical feeling
institutions of art are defined by tively the processes of transfor- stitutional to ancient Greek phi- which is the feeling of pleasure
the kinds of organization and by mation and transfiguration of losophy changed into medieval aroused by the inner harmony
the social groups, which influ- reality or of a certain ideas and Renaissance speculation. between nature and spirit,
ence artistic creations. It is not developed by an artist. The Middle Ages emphasized the between the world of necessity
an easy task at all, but such tHe eLaBoration of philo- nature of the subordination of and moral need. Then Schiller
an approach can make possible sophical concepts and of Man’s beauty to truth and justified art will entrust art with the task
methodologies for a wider inter- thought follows the course of as an allegory; the Renaissance of educating without any con-
pretation of a work of art with a the whole history of art, from gave more autonomy to natural straint and the whole romantic
precise reference to human per- ancient times to the present day: beauty but it always considered aesthetics, and subsequently
sonality. therefore it is necessary to search art as imitation, and the prin- Schelling will make of art the
art Gives rise to and estab- for the links among the various ciple of verisimilitude as its it’s supreme degree of knowledge.
lishes new forms of behavior classical branches of knowledge fundamental rule. Idealistic-romantic aesthetics
especially if it is considered from in order to interpret artistic Vico and Kant laid the funda- were succeeded by positivism,
the point of view of propaganda, movements and the works which mentals of modem aesthetics. which conceived aesthetics as
of the distribution, of the pro- characterize them critically and Vico claimed that the auton- a study and production of
cess of communication and of correctly considering them in omy of art is a form of pre- forms-an aspect already singled

4 world of art spEcial issuE 2000