Art history usually refers to the history of the visual arts. Although ideas about the definition of art have changed over the years, the field of art history attempts to categorize changes in art throughout time and better understand how art shapes and is shaped by the outlooks and creative impulses of its practitioners. Although many think of Art history as purely the study of European art history, the subject encompasses all art, from the megaliths of Western Europe to the paintings of the Tang dynasty in China.
The field of "arthistory" was developed in the West, and originally dealt exclusively with Western arthistory, with the High Renaissance (and its Greek precedent) as the defining standard.
Study of the history of art is a relatively recent phenomenon; prior to the Renaissance, the modern concept of "art" did not exist, and art was used to refer to workmanship by generally anonymous tradesmen.
In Byzantine and Gothic art of the Middle Ages, the dominance of the church insisted on the expression of biblical and not material truths.
Arthistory (also sometimes called history of art, particularly when a university subject) is a term which encompasses several different methods of studying the visual arts; in its most common usage it refers to the academic study of works of art and architecture.
Winckelmann's writings were also early works of art criticism, criticising the excesses of the Baroque and Rococo and instrumental in bringing about the change of taste in favour of sober Neoclassicism.
While he wrote about numerous time periods and themes in art, he is best remembered for his commentary on sculpture from the late middle ages and early Renaissance, at which time he saw evidence of capitalism emerging and feudalism declining.
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