Approaches of the Concept of Style

Abstract

In present day speech the style of a work of art is often indicated by single adjectives to which can be added the word style, manner or school. In this way one speaks of gothic, impressionistic, classicistic, Venetian etc. During the Middle Ages this way of indicating style, referring to one particular work of art and adding a substantive, was the only one known. The most common substantives are: opus, scema, modus, mos, genus and stilus. The practice of using substantives derived from adjectives such as gothicism, impressionism, classicism, to indicate movements or periods, was completely unknown.