Decorative arts

The decorative arts are arts or crafts concerned with the design and manufacture of
beautiful objects that are also functional. It includes interior design, but not usually
architecture. The decorative arts are often categorized in opposition to the "fine
arts", namely, painting, drawing, photography, and large-scale sculpture, which
generally have no function other than to be seen.

Contents
1 "Decorative" and "fine" arts
2 Influence of different materials
3 Renaissance attitudes
4 Arts and Crafts movement
5 See also
The front side of the Cross of Lothair
6 References and sources
(c. 1000), a classic example of "Ars
7 Further reading Sacra"
8 External links

"Decorative" and "fine" arts

The distinction between the decorative and the fine arts has essentially arisen from
the post-Renaissance art of the West, where the distinction is for the most part
meaningful. This distinction is much less meaningful when considering the art of
other cultures and periods, where the most highly regarded works or even all
works include those in decorative media. For example, Islamic art in many periods
and places consists entirely of the decorative arts, often using geometric and plant
forms, as does the art of many traditional cultures. The distinction between
decorative and fine arts is not very useful for appreciating Chinese art, and neither is
it for understanding Early Medieval art in Europe. In that period in Europe, fine arts Wine Pot, ca. 18th century, China,
such as manuscript illumination and monumental sculpture existed, but the most Walters Art Museum

prestigious works tended to be in goldsmith work, in cast metals such as bronze, or

in other techniques such asivory carving. Large-scale wall-paintings were much less
regarded, crudely executed, and rarely mentioned in contemporary sources. They were probably seen as an inferior substitute for
mosaic, which for this period must be viewed as a fine art, though in recent centuries mosaics have tended to be seen as decorative.
The term "ars sacra" ("sacred arts") is sometimes used for medieval Christian art done in metal, ivory, textiles, and other high-value
materials but not for rarer secular works from that period.

Influence of different materials

Modern understanding of the art of many cultures tends to be distorted by the modern privileging of fine art media over others, as
well as the very different survival rates of works in different media. Works in metal, above all in precious metals, are liable to be
"recycled" as soon as they fall from fashion, and were often used by owners as repositories of wealth, to be melted down when extra
money was needed. Illuminated manuscripts have a much higher survival rate, especially in the hands of the church, as there was
little value in the materials and they were easy to store.

Renaissance attitudes
The promotion of the fine arts over the decorative in European thought can largely
be traced to the Renaissance, when Italian theorists such as Vasari promoted artistic
values, exemplified by the artists of the High Renaissance, that placed little value on
the cost of materials or the amount of skilled work required to produce a work, but
instead valued artistic imagination and the individual touch of the hand of a
supremely gifted master such as Michelangelo, Raphael or Leonardo da Vinci,
reviving to some extent the approach of antiquity. Most European art during the
Middle Ages had been produced under a very different set of values, where both
expensive materials and virtuoso displays in difficult techniques had been highly
valued. In China both approaches had co-existed for many centuries: ink and wash
painting, mostly of landscapes, was to a large extent produced by and for the
scholar-bureaucrats or "literati", and was intended as an expression of the artist's
imagination above all, while other major fields of art, including the very important
Surahi, Mughal, 17th Century CE.
Chinese ceramics produced in effectively industrial conditions, were produced
National Museum, New Delhi
according to a completely different set of artistic values.

Arts and Crafts movement

The lower status given to works of decorative art in contrast to fine art narrowed
with the rise of the Arts and Crafts movement. This aesthetic movement of the
second half of the 19th century was born in England and inspired by William Morris
and John Ruskin. The movement represented the beginning of a greater appreciation
of the decorative arts throughout Europe. The appeal of the Arts and Crafts
movement to a new generation led the English architect and designer Arthur H.
Mackmurdo to organize the Century Guild for craftsmen in 1882, championing the
idea that there was no meaningful difference between the fine and decorative arts.
Many converts, both from professional artists' ranks and from among the intellectual
[1]
class as a whole, helped spread the ideas of the movement. Chinese bowl, Northern Song
Dynasty, 11th or 12th century,
The influence of the Arts and Crafts movement led to the decorative arts being given porcelaneous pottery withceladon
a greater appreciation and status in society and this was soon reflected by changes in glaze
the law. Until the enactment of the Copyright Act 1911 only works of fine art had
been protected from unauthorised copying. The 1911 Act extended the definition of
[2][3]
an "artistic work" to include works of "artistic craftsmanship".

See also
American craft
Applied art
Design museum
Faux painting
History of decorative arts
Industrial Design
Ornament (architecture)

References and sources

References

1. "Arts and Crafts Movement".Encyclopdia Britannica. Encyclopdia Britannica

Online (http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/37281/Arts-and-Crafts-move
ment). Encyclopdia Britannica Inc. 2012. Retrieved 5 June 2014.
2. "Section 35(1)", UK Legislation, Copyright Act 1911(http://www.legislation.gov.u
k/ukpga/Geo5/1-2/46/section/35/enacted)
3. Edmund Eldergill (2012),The Decorative Arts and Copyright(http://www.vivalago
on.com/en/content/8-decorative-arts-copyright-uk)
, Lagoon Contemporary
Furniture

Sources

Fiell, Charlotte and Peter, eds. Decorative Art Yearbook (one for each decade of Arts and Crafts movement
the 20th century). Translated. Bonn: Taschen, 2000. "Artichoke" wallpaper by
Fleming, John and Hugh Honour. Dictionary of the Decorative Arts. New York: Morris and Co.
Harper and Row, 1977.
Frank, Isabelle. The Theory of Decorative Art: An Anthology of European and
American Writings, 17501940. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2000.
Campbell, Gordon. The Grove Encyclopedia of Decorative Arts. New York: Oxford University Press, 2006.
Thornton, Peter. Authentic Decor: Domestic Interior, 16201920. London: Seven Dials, 2000.

Further reading
Dormer, Peter (ed.), The Culture of Craft, 1997, Manchester University Press,ISBN 0719046181, 9780719046186,
google books

External links
Home Economics Archive: Tradition, Research, History (HEARTH)
Cornell University
Victoria and Albert Museum
Argentine Decorative Art Museum
Digital Library for the Decorative Arts and Material Culture- electronic resources
Metropolitan Museum of Art American decorative arts collection
National Gallery of Art decorative arts collection
Bagatti Valsecchi Museum, Milan, Italy
Museum of the City of New York Decorative Arts Collection

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