HumanitiesthroughtheArts.pdf

THE HUMANITIES
THROUGH THE ARTS

T e n t h E d i t i o n

Lee A. Jacobus
Professor of English Emeritus

University of Connecticut

F. David Martin
Professor of Philosophy Emeritus

Bucknell University

©Universal History Archive/Getty Images

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THE HUMANITIES THROUGH THE ARTS, TENTH EDITION

Published by McGraw-Hill Education, 2 Penn Plaza, New York, NY 10121. Copyright © 2019 by
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Bound:
ISBN 978-1-259-91687-8
MHID 1-259-91687-1

Looseleaf:
ISBN 978-1-260-15418-4
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Cover Image: (background): LACMA – Los Angeles County Museum of Art; (back cover (left) to front cover
(right)); (door): ©Lee A. Jacobus; (wall carving): ©Lee A. Jacobus; (cave painting): ©siloto/Shutterstock RF;
(amphitheater): ©Inu/Shutterstock RF; (Taj Mahal): ©Seb c’est bien/Shutterstock RF; (dancer): ©Fuse/Getty Images
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All credits appearing on page or at the end of the book are considered to be an extension of the copyright page.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Martin, F. David, 1920- author. | Jacobus, Lee A., author.
 The humanities through the arts/F. David Martin, Professor of
 Philosophy Emeritus, Bucknell University; Lee A. Jacobus, Professor of
 English Emeritus, University of Connecticut.
 Tenth edition. | New York : McGraw-Hill Education, 2018. | Includes index.
 LCCN 2017051530 | ISBN 9781259916878 (alk. paper)
 LCSH: Arts–Psychological aspects. | Art appreciation.
 LCC NX165 .M37 2018 | DDC 701/.18–dc23 LC record available
 at https://lccn.loc.gov/2017051530

The Internet addresses listed in the text were accurate at the time of publication. The inclusion of a website
does not indicate an endorsement by the authors or McGraw-Hill Education, and McGraw-Hill Education
does not guarantee the accuracy of the information presented at these sites.

mheducation.com/highered

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iii

ABOUT THE AUTHORS

Lee A. Jacobus (PhD, Claremont Graduate University) taught at Western Con-
necticut State University and then at the University of Connecticut (Storrs) until
he retired in 2001. He held a Danforth Teachers Grant while earning his doctor-
ate. His publications include Shakespeare and the Dialectic of Certainty (St. Martin’s
Press, 1992); Sudden Apprehension: Aspects of Knowledge in Paradise Lost (Mouton,
1976); John Cleveland: A Critical Study (G. K. Hall, 1975); Aesthetics and the Arts
(McGraw-Hill, 1968); The Bedford Introduction to Drama (Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2018);
and A World of Ideas (Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2017).

F. David Martin (PhD, University of Chicago) taught at the University of Chicago
and then at Bucknell University until his retirement in 1983. He was a Fulbright
Research Scholar in Florence and Rome from 1957 through 1959 and received
seven other major research grants during his career, as well as the Christian Lind-
back Award for Distinguished Teaching. Dr. Martin’s publications include Art and
the Religious Experience (Associated University Presses, 1972); Sculpture and the En-
livened Space (The University Press of Kentucky, 1981); and Facing Death: Theme and
Variations (Associated University Presses, 2006). Professor Martin died in 2014.

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We dedicate this study to
teachers and students of the humanities.

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v

BRIEF CONTENTS

PREFACE xi

Part 1 FUNDAMENTALS

1 The Humanities: An Introduction 1
2 What Is a Work of Art? 17

3 Being a Critic of the Arts 42

Part 2 THE ARTS

4 Painting 58
5 Sculpture 91

6 Architecture 121
7 Literature 163
8 Theater 196
9 Music 224

10 Dance 254
11 Photography 276

12 Cinema 299
13 Television and Video Art 330

Part 3 INTERRELATIONSHIPS

14 Is It Art or Something Like It? 352
15 The Interrelationships of the Arts 378

16 The Interrelationships of the Humanities 397

GLOSSARY G-1

INDEX I-1

Source: The Michael C. Rockefeller Memorial Collection, Bequest
of Nelson A. Rockefeller, 1979/The Metropolitan Museum of Art

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vi

CONTENTS

Subject Matter and Content 34

EXPERIENCING: Interpretations of the Female Nude 40

Further Thoughts on Artistic Form 41
Summary 41

3 Being a Critic of the Arts 42
You Are Already an Art Critic 42
Participation and Criticism 43
Three Kinds of Criticism 43
Descriptive Criticism 44
Interpretive Criticism 48
Evaluative Criticism 52

EXPERIENCING: The Polish Rider 55
Summary 56

Part 2 THE ARTS

4 Painting 58
Our Visual Powers 58
The Media of Painting 59
Tempera 59
Fresco 61
Oil 62
Watercolor 64
Acrylic 64
Other Media and Mixed Media 65

Elements of Painting 68

PREFACE xi

Part 1 FUNDAMENTALS

1  The Humanities: An
Introduction 1

The Humanities: A Study of Values 1
Art, Commerce, and Taste 4
Responses to Art 5

EXPERIENCING: The Mona Lisa 9

Structure and Artistic Form 10
Perception 11

Abstract Ideas and Concrete Images 12
Summary 16

2 What Is a Work of Art? 17
Identifying Art Conceptually 18
Identifying Art Perceptually 18
Artistic Form 19
Participation 23
Participation and Artistic Form 25
Content 26
Subject Matter 28
Subject Matter and Artistic Form 28
Participation, Artistic Form, and Content 29
Artistic Form: Examples 30

Photo: Kira Perov. Courtesy Bill Viola Studio

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CONTENTS  vii

6 Architecture 121
Centered Space 121
Space and Architecture 122
Chartres 123
Living Space 125
Four Necessities of Architecture 126
Technical Requirements of Architecture 126
Functional Requirements of Architecture 127
Spatial Requirements of Architecture 131
Revelatory Requirements of Architecture 131

Earth-Rooted Architecture 132
Site 132
Gravity 133
Raw Materials 134
Centrality 136

Sky-Oriented Architecture 138
Axis Mundi 141
Defiance of Gravity 142
Integration of Light 143

Earth-Resting Architecture 144
Earth-Dominating Architecture 145
Combinations of Types 146
Guggenheim Museum Bilbao and The Taj Mahal 147

EXPERIENCING: The Taj Mahal 149

High-Rises and Skyscrapers 150

FOCUS ON: The Alhambra 155

Urban Planning 157
Summary 161

7 Literature 163
Spoken Language and Literature 163
Literary Structures 167
The Narrative and the Narrator 167
The Episodic Narrative 169
The Organic Narrative 171
The Quest Narrative 176
The Lyric 177

EXPERIENCING: “La Belle Dame Sans Merci” 182

Line 68
Color 72
Texture 73
Composition 73

The Clarity of Painting 75
The “All-at-Onceness” of Painting 77
Abstract Painting 78
Intensity and Restfulness in Abstract Painting 80
Representational Painting 81
Comparison of Five Impressionist Paintings 81

FOCUS ON: The Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood 86

Frames 88
EXPERIENCING: Frames 89

Summary 90

5 Sculpture 91
Sensory Interconnections 92
Sculpture and Painting Compared 92
Sculpture and Space 94
Sunken-Relief Sculpture 94
Low-Relief Sculpture 95
High-Relief Sculpture 96
Sculpture in the Round 97
Sculpture and Architecture Compared 98
Sensory Space 99
Sculpture and the Human Body 99
Sculpture in the Round and the

Human Body 101
EXPERIENCING: Sculpture and Physical Size 103

Contemporary Sculpture 104
Truth to Materials 104
Protest against Technology 108
Accommodation with Technology 110
Machine Sculpture 112
Earth Sculpture 113

FOCUS ON: African Sculpture 114

Sculpture in Public Places 117
Summary 120

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viii  CONTENTS

Literary Details 183
Image 184
Metaphor 185
Symbol 187
Irony 189
Diction 190

FOCUS ON: Po Chü’i, Poet of the T’ang Dynasty 191
Summary 194

8 Theater 196
Aristotle and the Elements of Drama 197
Dialogue and Soliloquy 198

Archetypal Patterns 200
Genres of Drama: Tragedy 201
The Tragic Stage 202
Stage Scenery and Costumes 202
Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet 206

Comedy: Old and New 209
Tragicomedy: The Mixed Genre 211
A Play for Study: Riders to the Sea 211

EXPERIENCING: Riders to the Sea 218

FOCUS ON: Musical Theater: Hamilton 218

Experimental Drama 221
Summary 222

9 Music 224
Hearing and Listening 224
The Elements of Music 225
Tone 225
Consonance 226
Dissonance 226
Rhythm 227
Tempo 227
Melodic Material: Melody, Theme, and Motive 227
Counterpoint 228
Harmony 228
Dynamics 229
Contrast 229

The Subject Matter of Music 229
Feelings 230

EXPERIENCING: Chopin’s Prelude 7 in A Major 231

Two Theories: Formalism and Expressionism 233
Sound 233
Tonal Center 234
Musical Structures 236
Theme and Variations 236
Rondo 236
Fugue 237
Sonata Form 237
Symphony 238

FOCUS ON:  Beethoven’s Symphony in E♭ Major, No. 3, Eroica 243

Blues and Jazz: Popular American Music 248
Rock and Roll and Rap 251
Summary 253

10 Dance 254
Subject Matter of Dance 254

EXPERIENCING: Feeling and Dance 256

Form 257
Dance and Ritual 258
Ritual Dance 258
Social Dance 259
The Court Dance 259

Ballet 260
Swan Lake 262

Modern Dance 265
Alvin Ailey’s Revelations 267
Martha Graham 269
Batsheva Dance Company 270
Pilobolus and Momix Dance Companies 271
Mark Morris Dance Group 272

FOCUS ON: Theater Dance 272

Popular Dance 274
Summary 275

11 Photography 276
Photography and Painting 276

EXPERIENCING: Photography and Art 280

Photography and Painting: The Pictorialists 281

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CONTENTS  ix

Straight Photography 283
The f/64 Group 284

The Documentarists 286
The Modern Eye 292

FOCUS ON: Digital Photography 296
Summary 298

12 Cinema 299
The Subject Matter of Film 299
Directing and Editing 300
The Participative Experience and Film 303
The Film Image 305

EXPERIENCING: Still Frames and Photography 305

Camera Point of View 308
Violence and Film 310
Sound 312
Image and Action 313
Cinematic Structure 315
Cinematic Details 317
The Context of Film History 318
Two Great Films: The Godfather and

Casablanca 319
The Narrative Structure of The Godfather Films 320
Coppola’s Images 321
Coppola’s Use of Sound 321
The Power of The Godfather 322

FOCUS ON: Michael Curtiz’s Casablanca 323

Experimentation 326
Animated Film 327
Summary 329

13 Television and Video Art 330
The Evolution of Television 330
The Subject Matter of Television and

Video Art 331
Commercial Television 332
The Television Series 333
The Structure of the Self-Contained Episode 334

The Television Serial 335
Three Emmy Winners 339

FOCUS ON: The Americans 342

Video Art 344
EXPERIENCING: Jacopo Pontormo and Bill Viola: The

Visitation 348
Summary 351

Part 3 INTERRELATIONSHIPS

14  Is It Art or Something
Like It? 352

Art and Artlike 352
Illustration 354
Realism 354
Folk Art 355
Popular Art 357
Propaganda 362

EXPERIENCING: Propaganda Art 362

FOCUS ON: Kitsch 363

Decoration 365
Idea Art 370
Dada 370
Duchamp and His Legacy 371
Conceptual Art 372

Performance Art 374
Virtual Art 376
Summary 377

15  The Interrelationships
of the Arts 378

Appropriation 378
Interpretation 379
Film Interprets Literature: Howards End 380
Music Interprets Drama: The Marriage of Figaro 382
Painting Interprets Poetry: The Starry Night 385
Sculpture Interprets Poetry: Apollo and Daphne 387

EXPERIENCING: Bernini’s Apollo and Daphne and Ovid’s
The Metamorphoses 389

Drama Interprets Painting 390

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x  CONTENTS

EXPERIENCING: The Humanities and Students
of Medicine 399

Values 400
FOCUS ON:  The Arts and History, the Arts and Philosophy,

the Arts and Theology 402
Summary 406

GLOSSARY G-1

INDEX I-1

FOCUS ON: Photography Interprets Fiction 391

Architecture Interprets Dance: National Nederlanden Building 392
Painting Interprets Dance and Music: The Dance and Music 392

EXPERIENCING: Death in Venice: Three Versions 395
Summary 396

16  The Interrelationships
of the Humanities 397

The Humanities and the Sciences 397
The Arts and the Other Humanities 398

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xi

PREFACE

Overview

The Humanities through the Arts, tenth edition, explores the humanities with an em-
phasis on the arts. Examining the relationship of the humanities to values, objects,
and events important to people is central to this book. We make a distinction between
artists and other humanists: Artists reveal values, while other humanists examine or
reflect on values. We study how values are revealed in the arts while keeping in mind
a basic question: “What is art?” Judging by the existence of ancient artifacts, we see
that artistic expression is one of the most fundamental human activities. It binds us
together as a people by revealing the most important values of our culture.

Our genre-based approach offers students the opportunity to understand the
relationship of the arts to human values by examining, in-depth, each of the major
artistic media. Subject matter, form, and content in each of the arts supply the
framework for careful analysis. Painting and photography focus our eyes on the
visual appearance of things. Sculpture reveals the textures, densities, and shapes
of things. Architecture sharpens our perception of spatial relationships, both in-
side and out. Literature, theater, cinema, and video explore values and make us
more aware of the human condition. Our understanding of feelings is deepened by
music. Our sensitivity to movement, especially of the human body, is enhanced by
dance. The wide range of opportunities for criticism and analysis helps the reader
synthesize the complexities of the arts and their interaction with values of many
kinds. All of this is achieved with an exceptionally vivid and complete illustration
program alongside detailed discussion and interactive responses to the problems
inherent in a close study of the arts and values of our time.

OrganizatiOn

This edition, as with previous editions, is organized into three parts, offering con-
siderable flexibility in the classroom:

Part 1, “Fundamentals,” includes the first three introductory chapters. In Chapter 1,
The Humanities: An Introduction, we distinguish the humanities from the sciences,
and the arts from other humanities. In Chapter 2, What Is a Work of Art?, we raise
the question of definition in art and the ways in which we distinguish art from other
objects and experiences. Chapter 3, Being a Critic of the Arts, introduces the vital role
of criticism in art appreciation and evaluation.

©ArenaPal/Topham/The Image Works

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xii

PREFACE

Part 2, “The Arts,” includes individual chapters on each of the basic arts. The
structure of this section permits complete flexibility: The chapters may be used
in their present or in any one wishes. We begin with the individual
chapters Painting, Sculpture, and Architecture; follow with Literature, Theater,
Music, and Dance; and continue with Photography, Cinema, and Television
and Video Art. Instructors may re or omit chapters as needed. The chapter Pho-
tography logically precedes the chapters Cinema and Television and Video Art for the
convenience of instructors who prefer to teach the chapters in the presented.

Part 3, “Interrelationships,” begins with Chapter 14, Is It Art or Something Like It?
We study illustration, folk art, propaganda, and kitsch while raising the question
“What is art?” We also examine the avant-garde as it pushes us to the edge of defi-
nition. Chapter 15, The Interrelationships of the Arts, explores the ways in which the
arts work together, as in how a film interprets E. M. Forster’s novel Howards End,
how literature and a musical interpretation of a Beaumarchais play result in Mo-
zart’s opera The Marriage of Figaro, how Walt Whitman’s poetry inspires van Gogh’s
painting The Starry Night, how a passage from Ovid’s epic poem “The Metamorpho-
ses” inspires the Bernini sculpture Apollo and Daphne, and more. Chapter 16, The
Interrelationships of the Humanities, addresses the ways in which the arts reveal val-
ues shared by the other humanities—particularly history, philosophy, and theology.

Key Changes in the tenth editiOn

NEW Expanded Connect course with SmartBook. Connect is a highly reliable,
easy-to-use homework and learning management solution that embeds learning
science and award-winning adaptive tools to improve student results.

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xiii

PREFACE

LearnSmart is an adaptive learning program designed to help students learn faster,
study smarter, and retain more knowledge for greater success. Distinguishing what
students know from what they don’t, and focusing on concepts they are most likely
to forget, LearnSmart continuously adapts to each student’s needs by building
a personalized learning path. An intelligent adaptive study tool, LearnSmart is
proven to strengthen memory recall, keep students in class, and boost grades.

The Humanities Through the Arts now offers two reading experiences for students
and instructors: SmartBook and eBook. Fueled by LearnSmart, SmartBook is the
first and only adaptive reading experience currently available. SmartBook™ creates
a personalized reading experience by highlighting the most impactful concepts a
student needs to learn at that moment in time. The reading experience continu-
ously adapts by highlighting content based on what the student knows and doesn’t
know. Real-time reports quickly identify the concepts that require more attention
from individual students—or the entire class. eBook provides a simple, elegant read-
ing experience, available for offline reading.

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xiv

PREFACE

Updated illustration program and contextual discussions. More than 30 percent
of the images in this edition are new or have been updated to include fresh
classic and contemporary works. New discussions of these works appear near
the illustrations. The 200-plus images throughout the book have been carefully
chosen and reproduced in full color when possible, resulting in a beautifully
illustrated text. Newly added visual artists represented include painters Arte-
misia Gentileschi, Diego Velasquez, Frederic Lord Leighton, Amedeo Modigliani,
Winslow Homer, Morris Louis, Hokusai, Willem de Kooning, Jean-Honore Frag-
onard, Arshile Gorky, Henry Wallis, Dante Gabriel Rossetti, Arthur Hughes,
William Holman Hunt, and John Waterhouse; sculptors Edgar Degas, Kara
Walker, Magdalena Abakanowicz, and Naum Gabo; photographers Berenice
Abbott, Nan Goldin, Paul Strand, Bruce Davidson, Carrie Mae Weems, Tina
Barney, Wang Quinsong, and Bill Gekas; and video artists Pipilotti Riist and Bill
Viola. Newly added film and television stills represent Michael Curtiz’s classic
film Casablanca, the popular television shows Game of Thrones and The Americans,
Orson Wells’s The Lady from Shanghai, Jonathan Demme’s The Silence of the
Lambs, Steven Spielberg’s Saving Private Ryan, Alejandro Inarritu’s The Revenant,
and more.

Along with the many new illustrations and contextual discussions of the visual
arts, film, and television, new works and images in the literary, dance, theatrical, and
musical arts have been added and contextualized. These include works by Robert
Herrick, John Masefield, Amy Lowell, Alfred Lord Tennyson, John Donne, Wang
Chang-Ling, Po Chu’i, John Millington Synge, Lin-Manuel Miranda, Frederic
Chopin, Tupac Shakur, and the Batsheva Dance Company.

Increased focus on non-Western art and art by minority and female artists. This
edition contains numerous new examples, including paintings (Artemesia
Gentileschi’s Self-portrait as the Allegory of Painting and Hokusai’s The Wave),
sculpture (Kara Walker’s A Subtlety, or The Marvelous Sugar Baby and Magdalena
Abakanowicz’s Bronze Crowd), architecture (the Mortuary Temple of Hatshepsut,
Egypt), literature (Amy Lowell’s “Venus Transiens” and Po Chu’i’s T’ang dynasty
poetry), theater (Lin-Manual Miranda’s Hamilton), dance (the Batsheva Dance
Company), photography (Berenice Abbott, Nan Goldin, Carrie Mae Weems, Tina
Barney, and Wang Quinsong), film (The Revenant), and television and video art
(Pipilotti Riist).

PedagOgiCal Features

Four major pedagogical boxed features enhance student understanding of the
genres and of individual works within the genres: Perception Key, Conception Key,
Experiencing, and Focus On.

• The Perception Key boxes are designed to sharpen readers’ responses to the
arts. These boxes raise important questions about specific works of art in
a way that respects the complexities of the works and of our responses to
them. The questions raised are usually open-ended and thereby avoid any
doctrinaire views or dogmatic opinions. The emphasis is on perception and

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xv

PREFACE

awareness, and how a heightened awareness will produce a fuller and more
meaningful understanding of the work at hand. In a few cases our own in-
terpretations and analyses follow the keys and are offered not as the way to
perceive a given work of art but, rather, as one possible way. Our primary
interest is in exciting our readers to perceive the splendid singularity of the
work of art in question.

PERCEPTION KEY Chartres Cathedral
1. Form and function usually work together in classic architecture. What visible ex-

terior architectural details indicate that Chartres Cathedral functions as a church?
Are there any visible details that conflict with its function as a church?

2. The two spires of the church were built at different times. Should they have been
made symmetrical? What might be some reasons for their not being symmetrical?

3. What seem to be the primary values revealed by the rose window of Chartres?
4. How did the builders satisfy the fourth requirement of architecture: that the build-

ing be revelatory? What values does the exterior of the building reveal?
5. What is implied by the fact that the cathedral dwarfs all the buildings near it?

• We use Conception Key boxes, rather than Perception Key boxes, in certain
instances throughout the book where we focus on thought and conception rather
than observation and perception. Again, these are open-ended questions that
involve reflection and understanding. There is no single way of responding to
these keys, just as there is no simple way to answer the questions.

CONCEPTION KEY Theories
Our theory of art as revelatory, as giving insight into values, may appear to be
mired in a tradition that cannot account for the amazing developments of the
avant-garde. Is the theory inadequate? As you proceed with this chapter, ask your-
self whether the distinction between art and artlike is valid. How about useful? If
not, what theory would you propose? Or would you be inclined to dismiss theories
altogether?

• Each chapter provides an Experiencing box that gives the reader the opportunity
to approach a specific work of art in more detail than the Perception Key boxes.
Analysis of the work begins by answering a few preliminary questions to make it
accessible to students. Follow-up questions ask students to think critically about
the work and guide them to their own interpretations. In every case we raise
major issues concerning the genre of the work, the background of the work, and
the artistic issues that make the work demanding and important.

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PREFACE

• In each chapter of “The Arts” and “Interrelationships” sections of the book, we
include a Focus On box, which provides an opportunity to deal in-depth with a
group of artworks in context, the work of a single artist, or a single work of art.
Many of the Focus On boxes are new to this edition, including those discuss-
ing the pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, the Alhambra, Chinese poet Po Chu’i, the
popular musical play Hamilton, the classic film Casablanca, and the critically ac-
claimed television series The Americans. Each of these opportunities encourages
in-depth and comparative study.

FOCUS ON The Alhambra
The Alhambra (Figure 6-33) is one of the world’s
most dazzling works of architecture. Its beginnings
in the Middle Ages were modest, a fortress on a hilly
flatland above Granada built by Arab invaders—
Moors—who controlled much of Spain. In time,
the fortress was added to, and by the fourteenth
century the Nasrid dynasty demanded a sumptuous
palace and King Yusuf I (1333–1352) began con-
struction. After his death it was continued by his
son Muhammad V (1353–1391).

While the needs of a fortress were still evident, in-
cluding the plain massive exterior walls, the Nasrids
wanted the interior to be luxurious, magnificent, and
beautiful. The Alhambra is one of the world’s most astounding examples of beautifully
decorated architecture. The builders created a structure that was different from any that
had been built in Islam. But at the same time, they depended on many historical traditions
for interior decoration, such as the Seljuk, Mughal, and Fatimid styles. Because Islam for-
bade the reproduction in art of the human form, we see representations of flowers, plants,
vines, and other natural objects in the midst of elaborate designs, including Arabic script.

The   aerial view (Figure 6-34) reveals the siting of the Alhambra rising above trees
surrounding it. The large square structure was added much later by Charles V, after the
Nasrid dynasty collapsed and the Moors were driven from Spain. 

FIGURE 6-33
The Alhambra, Granada, Spain.
Circa 1370–1380. “Alhambra”
may be translated as red, possibly a
reference to the color of the bricks
of its outer walls. It sits on high
ground above the town.

©Daniel Viñé …