| A study of art history might be a good
way to learn more about a culture than that is possible to learn in general
history classes. Most{{U}} (1) {{/U}}history courses concentrate
on politics, economics, and war.{{U}} (2) {{/U}}, art history{{U}}
(3) {{/U}}on much more than this because art reflects not only the
political values of a people, but also religious{{U}} (4) {{/U}},
emotions, and psychology.{{U}} (5) {{/U}}, information about the daily
activities of our own can be provided by art. In short, art expresses the{{U}}
(6) {{/U}}qualities of a time and a place, and a study of it clearly
offers us a deeper understanding than what can be found in most history
books. In history books, objective information about the political life of a country is{{U}} (7) {{/U}}; that is, facts about political are given, but{{U}} (8) {{/U}}are not expressed. Art, on the other hand, is{{U}} (9) {{/U}}: it reflects emotions and impressions. The great Spanish painter Francisco Goya severely criticized the Spanish government for its{{U}} (10) {{/U}}of power over people. Over a hundred years later, symbolic{{U}} (11) {{/U}}were used in Pablo Picasso's Guemica to express the{{U}} (12) {{/U}}of war.{{U}} (13) {{/U}}, on another continent, the powerful paintings of Diego Rivera depicted these Mexican artists' concealed{{U}} 14 {{/U}}and sadness about social problems. In the same way, art can{{U}} (15) {{/U}}a culture's religious beliefs. For hundreds of years in Europe, religious art was{{U}} (16) {{/U}}the only type of art that existed. Churches and other religious buildings were filled with paintings that depicted people and stories from the Bible.{{U}} (17) {{/U}}most people couldn't read, they could still understand biblical stories in the pictures on church walls.{{U}} (18) {{/U}}, one of the main characteristics of art in the Middle East was (and still is) its{{U}} (19) {{/U}}of human and animal images. This reflects the Islamic belief that statues are{{U}} (20) {{/U}}. |