I think that anybody who truly wants to understand different peoples and cultures of the world and of our history surely must want to study art history. Art is the way we can know ourselves, with all cultures being facets of our own diamond, our own existence. When we really look into the depths of a painting or the curves of a sculpture, we see straight into the artist 's time and reality, as if a small part of us is sent back to their time and place. The same sense of comprehension may be felt immersing our senses into any art from any period. The experience of a culture 's art allows us to experience some of that culture with the same intuitions and emotions that our ancestors did.
It is amazing, for example, to study the art of ancient cultures such as the Greeks (one of my personal favorite periods of art) and Romans. These people had a high culture and we know a great deal about what they held dear. We know the stories of their spiritual faiths, the accomplishments and failures of their leaders, their family lives, and their contributions to modern society. Most of what we know about them comes from their paintings, sculptures, and writing. As it says on Khan Academy 's website "learn to identify the classical orders and you will never look at your city or town the same way" (Khan Academy, n.d., para. 1). Thousands of years past and we still value those people 's contributions to our potential. I studied art history and now notice whether or not contemporary columns