The Values of Art

Mrs. Dacey

Material Value• Works of art may be valued

because they are made of a precious material.

• Gold, for example, was used in Egyptian art to represent divinity and the sun.

• Through the centuries art objects have been stolen and plundered, in disregard of their cultural, religious, or artistic significance.

Intrinsic Value

• Depends largely on the general assessment of the artist who created it.

• The Mona Lisa, for example, is made of relatively modest materials, but it is a priceless object - the icon of Western Culture.

Religious Value

• Paintings and sculptures depicting gods and goddesses make their images accessible to the public.

• Temples and churches have served as symbolic dwelling of the gods.

Nationalistic Value

• Art work that express the pride and accomplishment of a particular culture.

• Sometimes rulers patronized the arts in the service of revolutionary developments in politics and religion.

Psychological Value

• One of the psychological aspects of art is its ability to attract and repel us, and this is not necessarily a function of whether or not we find a particular image aesthetically pleasing.

Finding Examples

• Look through your text book and find examples of each “Value of Art”.

• Write down all the values on a page with their definitions and select one to recreate in your RWB (with historical, cultural and aesthetic information).