User:Coin945/Art of Catalonia
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The Art of Catalonia has had a parallel evolution in the rest of the European art, following the many different trends have been occurring in the context of art throughout Western history. Art has always been a major means of expression of the human being, through which one expresses their ideas, feelings and their relation to the world. Its role may differ from the more practical to the more ornamental, it can have a religious content or be simply aesthetic, it can be lasting or ephemeral.
Throughout its history, Catalonia has hosted different cultures and civilizations that have contributed their concept of art and left their legacies. Each historical period has had concrete and definable characteristics common to other regions and cultures, or unique and separate, that have evolved over time. From here artistic styles emerge, which may have a geographic origin or temporary, or even reduced to the work of a particular artist, as long as they occur within clearly defining artistic forms.
Catalan art is the result of a diverse social and cultural amalgamation provided by various peoples who have inhabited its territory: The priginal inhabitants of the area are the prehistoric Celtic and Iberian settlers who arrived in the Metal Age, who dweeled with colonists from other civilizations from across the Mediterranean Sea - first the Greeks, and then the Romans who turned in a Catalonia province into a part of its empire. After the fall of this empire, Catalonia was part of the Visigoth kingdom, and later suffered an Islamic invasion. The Middle Ages was the start of the Catalan culture when it defined itself as an entity with its own language, heir to the Latin and the formation of the first Catalan state. This was a glorious period for Catalan art, and the Romanesque and Gothic periods very fruitful for the artistic development of the Principality. During the Modern Age, with links to Spain and the succession of economic crises and cultural, art has declined, and the Renaissance and Baroque styles not considered to be particularly remarkable in the history of Catalan art. Finally, since the nineteenth century, the economic and cultural revitalization, floral art again, being the modernist one of the most splendid periods of Catalan art. However, the twentieth century is the updating of various styles produced by Catalan artists, connecting with international trends, offering even leading figures worldwide as Salvador Dalí, Joan Miró and Antoni Tàpies.