Canon (translated from Greek. - the rule ) - the norms of composition and color, the system of proportions, iconography of this type of image or other normative sample. The canon sets the totality of artistic techniques or rules that are mandatory in a given era.
In addition, the canon is a work that serves as a normative model. Canons associated with religious precepts dominated the art of ancient Egypt and the Middle Ages . Creative people of Antiquity and the Renaissance tried to find the ideal proportions of the human body and derive the invariable, mathematically justified rules for constructing a human figure.
At the beginning of the 20th century, in the visual arts and in music, there is a decisive break in the norms that have been rooted for several centuries.
By the definition of Professor A.F. Losev, a canon is a quantitative-structural model of an artwork of a style that, as an exponent of certain socio-historical indicators, is interpreted as the principle of creating a well-known set of works.
Sources
- TSB
Literature
- The literary canon as a problem // New Literary Review, 2001, No. 51, p. 5-86
- Jan Assman. Canon - to clarify the concept // Assman I. Cultural memory: Writing, memory of the past and political identity in the high cultures of antiquity. - M .: Languages of Slavic culture, 2004, p. 111-138