Perspectives on Humanity in the Fine Arts

Perspectives on Humanity in the Fine Arts takes a historical approach to western art and helps readers envision times and places by studying their unique forms of artistic expression. Students first learn about the elemental principles of the four basic arts: visual art, music, theater, and dance, as expressions of the vibrancy of different cultural environments. They then learn to understand the arts in their geographical and historical contexts, as the text immerses the student in the fabric of western cultural history through artistic experience.

Within the historical domain of each era, a rich variety of visual and performing arts examples brings the period and its culture to life. The arts offer a way for the student to understand each culture's ideals, aspirations, and search for perfection. By studying a diverse grouping of arts within a specific geographical and historical niche, the student can experience each culture as a contemporary participant might.

Areas covered include prehistory, the ancient Near East and Egypt, classical Greece and Rome, the Byzantine Empire, Romanesque, Gothic, Renaissance, baroque, neoclassical, romantic and twentieth-century art forms, and others. Students come to understand the position and impact of art as expressions of a culture's soul in the development of western history.

Rooted in this conception of the collective arts as expressions of unique cultures, Perspectives on Humanity in the Fine Arts is intended for survey courses that cover the fine arts for non-majors.

Gary Towne earned his bachelor's degree in music theory at Yale University and his Ph.D. in musicology at the University of California, Santa Barbara. Now a professor of music at the University of North Dakota, Dr. Towne has taught music history and theory, historical performance, and interdisciplinary courses on the arts and culture. He twice received a Gladys Krieble Delmas Foundation grant and was a Fulbright Senior Research Scholar. He has written extensively on the music and composers of Bergamo, Italy, and his interest in period music in Bergamo led to the discovery of a previously unrecognized sixteenth-century organ manuscript.

Perspectivele umanitatii in artele plastice adopta o abordare istorica a artei occidentale si ii ajuta pe cititori sa-si imagineze vremuri si locuri studiind formele lor unice de expresie artistica. Elevii invata mai intai despre principiile elementare ale celor patru arte de baza: arta vizuala, muzica, teatru si dans, ca expresii ale vibratiei diferitelor medii culturale.