Universal Principles of Art

21 CRAFT

SKILL, EXPERTISE, AND WORKMANSHIP

Craft is the physical skill and expertise developed to perform a particular task. From the ancient world onward, the production of artworks was inseparable from the mastery of crafts, including carving, painting, weaving, and metalworking. In both Asia and Europe, crafts were passed through a system of apprenticeship, and in Medieval Europe, this system was formalized into guilds, associations of craftsmen that regulated their own trades. Even though academies of art began to appear in the late sixteenth century, the apprenticeship system, with its emphasis on craftsmanship, survived and flourished almost until modern times.

From the Romantic era onward, there was a growing recognition that art and craft ...