Oil on canvas, 10' 5" x 9'
1" (3.2 m x 2.76 m)
In art history, holism may involve the idea that the
artist and his or her art are parts of the societies in which they live, which
is a special case of the organic idea that changes in a part may spread
systematically throughout a whole, just as changes in a whole can affect the
parts. This is not an explanation, but a
model for interpreting facts and seeing the connections among many discreet
historical phenomena. There’s no point
to criticizing holistic explanations, because there are none; there are only
holistic models for coordinating facts and descriptions into classificatory or
causal explanations. When we address the
changes in style that characterize the history of Western art, we have to use the
larger social context that was the background of an artist’s life. For example, as a court painter, Velázquez
recorded the lives of Spanish royalty in the 1600’s, whereas Manet explored the
anomic cultural conditions of Paris in the late 1800’s. From that perspective, the artist’s work
becomes a personal expression of his or her culture. “Explanations of the perceptible features of
a painting are at once both causal and interpretive, rendered chiefly case by
singular case, but always with attention to prevailing personal and cultural practices.”
(Joseph Margolis, “Works of Art as Physically Embodied and Culturally Emergent Entities” in British Journal of Aesthetics Vol. XIV, No. 3 (1974) p. 247)
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