Humanities

====History of visual arts====
[[File:Quatrain on Heavenly Mountain.jpg|thumbnail|''Quatrain on Heavenly Mountain'' by [[Emperor Gaozong of Song China|Emperor Gaozong]] (1107–1187) of [[Song dynasty]]; fan mounted as album leaf on silk, four columns in cursive script.]]
The great traditions in [[art]] have a foundation in the art of one of the ancient civilizations, such as [[Ancient Japan]], [[Ancient Greece|Greece]] and [[Ancient Rome|Rome]], [[China]], [[Indus Valley civilisation|India]], [[Greater Nepal]], [[Mesopotamia]] and [[Mesoamerica]].

Ancient Greek art saw a veneration of the human physical form and the development of equivalent skills to show musculature, poise, beauty and anatomically correct proportions. [[Roman Empire|Ancient Roman]] art depicted gods as idealized humans, shown with characteristic distinguishing features (e.g., [[Zeus]]' thunderbolt).<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Janson |first1=Horst Woldemar |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=MMYHuvhWBH4C |title=History of Art: The Western Tradition |last2=Janson |first2=Anthony F. |date=2004 |publisher=Prentice Hall Professional |isbn=978-0-13-182895-7 |language=en}}</ref>

The emphasis on spiritual and religious themes in [[Byzantine Empire|Byzantine]] and [[Gothic Revival architecture|Gothic]] art of the Middle Ages reflected the dominance of the church. However, in the [[Renaissance]], a renewed focus on the physical world was reflected in art forms that depicted the human body and landscape in a more naturalistic and three-dimensional way.<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Janson |first1=Horst Woldemar |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=MMYHuvhWBH4C |title=History of Art: The Western Tradition |last2=Janson |first2=Anthony F. |date=2004 |publisher=Prentice Hall Professional |isbn=978-0-13-182895-7 |language=en}}</ref>

Eastern art has generally worked in a 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 is that the local colour is often defined by an outline (a contemporary equivalent is the cartoon). This is evident in, for example, the art of India, Tibet and Japan.

Religious [[Islam]]ic art forbids iconography, and expresses religious ideas through geometry instead.<ref>{{Citation |last=Ali |first=Nadia |title=The royal veil: early Islamic figural art and the Bilderverbot reconsidered |date=2020-05-21 |url=http://dx.doi.org/10.4324/9780429341588-6 |work=Exploring Aniconism |pages=70–89 |access-date=2023-10-19 |publisher=Routledge |doi=10.4324/9780429341588-6 |isbn=978-0-429-34158-8}}</ref>The physical and rational certainties depicted by the 19th-century Enlightenment were shattered not only by new discoveries of relativity by [[Albert Einstein|Einstein]]<ref>
{{cite news
|url=http://books.guardian.co.uk/review/story/0,,1035752,00.html
|title=Does time fly?
|work = The Guardian|access-date=2008-05-01
|last=Turney
|first=Jon
| location=London
| date=2003-09-06
}}
</ref> and of unseen psychology by [[Sigmund Freud|Freud]],<ref>
{{cite web
|url=http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/mod/modsbook36.html
|title=Internet Modern History Sourcebook: Darwin, Freud, Einstein, Dada
|publisher=www.fordham.edu
|access-date=2008-05-01
}}
</ref> but also by unprecedented technological development. Increasing [[globalization|global]] interaction during this time saw an equivalent influence of other cultures into Western art.