Art and Architecture, Outline Example

Art is the activity which an individual undertakes as a means of expressing herself through one or more media. When someone practices art, she takes an image, feeling, thought, idea, experience or concept in her head and uses materials such an assortment of materials to convey what is in her mind. For example, Leonardo da Vinci painted the Mona Lisa as a way of using an ordinary woman to make extraordinary art- an experiment in expression. He took an unfamous woman and made her one of the most known in history using a number of factors: he used chiaroscuro to begin his oil painting instead of painting in an outlined figure; placed a new importance on geometry in art by having the lines of perspective converge at one point behind her head; and created a three-dimensional sense on a flat medium (Strickland 34).

Architecture can also be viewed as a form of art but with one key difference: it should have intent of practical usage. An artist’s idea, image, feeling or any other concept she holds in her mind can still be expressed in a variety of media, but it must be able to be used practically. One such example of architecture as art is Doge’s Palace, created by Pietro Baseggio in Venice, Italy that combines art and functionality. The palace has pointed-arch arcades, showing Baseggio’s use of Gothic architecture; carved, frescoed and gilded ceiling indicate Byzantine influence; and inspiration from textiles, with the pink-and-white marble pattern on the top level resembling a weave (Strickland 51).

Works Cited

Strickland, C., and John Boswell. The Annotated Mona Lisa: A Crash Course in Art History from Prehistoric to Post-Modern. Kansas City, MO: Andrews McMeel Publishing, 1992. Print.

Strickland, C., and Amy Handy. The Annotated Arch: A Crash Course in the History of Architecture. Kansas City, MO: Andrews McMeel Publishing, 2001. Print.