History of art

The history of art refers to the history of the arts, including the literary, visual, musical and performing arts. Literary arts include poetry, prose and scripts (theatrical scripts, screenplays, comics scripts). The visual arts include painting, sculpture and architecture. Performing arts include theatrical and dance spectacles. Art is also part of the humanities. The humanities also include theory of art or aesthetics, which is the study of the appreciacion of all forms of art. In the past, performing arts were excluded from the fine arts and considered minor arts, but the currently the dominant view is that there are no minor arts, only minor artists or artworks.

Considered encyclopedically, the history of art is an attempt to survey art throughout human history, classifying cultures and periods by their distinguishing features. This is undertaken by people and institutions with diverging goals, but whose efforts interrelate, including: academic art historians, museum curators, auction house personnel, private collectors, and religious adherents. Given these agendas, it is unsurprising that there are many ways of structuring a history of art, as will be outlined below.