Democritus

Date born:  ca. 460 B.C.

Date died:  370 B.C.

Writer whose work, based upon extent fragments, ascribed creative works of art to artists, countering the prevalent view that statues, temples and other works of art were the results of the gods.  Democritus further classified and ranked individual artworks, beginning from primitive to complex.  

Home Country:  ancient Greece

Sources:  Kultermann, Udo.  The History of Art History.  New York:  Abaris, 1993, p. 1.

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