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Art, Types of

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Encyclopedia of Global Archaeology
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Introduction/Historical Background

The major classification of types of art from the traditional perspective of art history is based on three main types: visual arts, applied arts, and performing arts. However, this classification has been created by scholars devoted to the study of art from a modern and Western point of view and is based on the idea of expressing individual values and skills inside a network that commodifies artistic creations (Corbey et al. 2004: 357–362). As all classification attempts, this definition does not fit perfectly into the study of arts on other places or from all times. Indeed, there is a long discussion regarding the definition of art from an archaeological point of view.

Keeping in mind that both, art history and archaeology, were born as academic disciplines during the eighteenth century, it is worth mentioning how the two disciplines have approached and understood artworks since then. Generally speaking, Western societies have had a definition of...

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Correspondence to Mireia López-Bertran .

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López-Bertran, M. (2020). Art, Types of. In: Smith, C. (eds) Encyclopedia of Global Archaeology. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-30018-0_2820

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