EE Talking point — arts

The Gallery of Cornelis van der Geest

The Gallery of Cornelis van der Geest, by the Flemish Baroque painter Willem van Haecht (1593–1637). Rubenshuis, Antwerp, Belgium.

Arts"art", from the Latin arti-, ars, professional, artistic, or technical skill, craftsmanship / from the same Indo-European base as ancient Greek ἀραρίσκω to join together, fasten, fit together, construct, prepare, contrive: "Art originally shared many of its meanings with craft . . . however, by the 17th cent. the association of art with creative or imaginative skill . . . rather than technical ability tended to result in less semantic overlap between the two words. . . . art is often contrasted with science . . . with art now frequently understood . . . as an ability to adopt a creative or flexible approach, in contrast to the application of more theoretical or scientific principles. From the Middle Ages art has often been contrasted with nature . . . ." (OED, 2nd edition. Oxford: 1989).

Topics: architecture | dance | design | drawing | music | painting | poetry | prose | theatre


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