Art and Philosophy

Immitationism and Representationism

Mr. Rich Albano

This Photo by Unknown author is licensed under CC BY-SA-NC.

 What is
Representational
Theory?
• The Represenatational Theory states that the
fundamental, definitive quality of art is the ability to
capture some aspect of reality.
• In short, if it's not a reflection of something that actually
exists, it's not art.
• This means that art can be defined foremost as
an extension of human perception, it's a way to
reflect the ways that the mind perceives and
understands reality.
 • The roots of representational theory date all
the way back to ancient Greece when
imitation theory was the foundation of
artistic principles.
What is the root • According to the ancient Greeks, the
definitive role of art is to imitate nature in its
of most perfect forms.
Representational • The aesthetic theory known
Theory? as imitationalism applies to artworks that
look realistic.
• If the the primary purpose of the artwork is
to show us how something looks in real
life, then it belongs in this category.
• Plato imagined as enemy of art because he
viewed art products of all kinds, whether
poetry, theatre or painting as inferior copies of
the ultimate reality.
• He believed that art imitates reality, that
it imitates the objects and events of ordinary
life, be it image of nature, or a photograph of a
ballerina.
• He saw art is nothing more than an imitation of
people, places, and thing's that already exist.
 • Applies to artworks to create a realistic
apperance.
• Realistic looking objects that scenes that
clearly mimic what we see in the world
around us.
Imitation • He main purpose of imitationism is to
define as: portray the subject matter as realistic as
possible.
• Plato discussed art forms like tragedy, along
with sculpture, painting, pottery and
architecture, not as ART but as TECHNE or
skilled craft.