People around the world go to museums to observe works of art from the beginnings of civilization to the present day. Although art style has changed the one thing that is unchanged are the purposes behind art. Throughout time art is used to express many different things like religion, communication, daily life, societal recognition and appeal to the audience.
Religion and art have a very long-lived relationship. The work Christ of the Pentecost, a stone sculpture on Saint Madeleine Cathedral, 1125-1150 France, is a good example of an art with a religious expression. The statue is of Christ in the crucifixion position but he is not on the cross. The work is not realistic, instead the figure of Christ is very elongated and not proportioned correctly. The body has extremely large hands and a slender body. The garments worn by Christ are designed with a pattern of swirls and linear perspectives that leave the figure with a rough texture.
Art is also used to communicate things like stories or ideas. The Rose De France,1233, window is a fine example because it communicates religion to any person observing it. It tells of Mary, Jesus and the Saints without words. The window is colorful, using bright blue and red colors to make it stand out. The symmetry of the window adds to its beauty. The left side of the window is exactly the same as the right. The stain glass windows from the Middle Ages were good ways to teach people, especially illiterate people, stories. Today there is a variety of ways to communicate information to the world like the Internet, movies and of course art.
An expression of art that is often overlooked by people is the art in the things and objects around us. Objects that we used daily may not be art to us but fifteen hundred years from now the chair you"re sitting in may be in a famous museum. Exekias is a vase, used by Greek people back in 540 B.C.E. The vase has a smooth texture and is designed using two colors.