Context is a certain environment of a work of art that contributes to its comprehension. It also makes up the problematic and informational field of consciousness, which has its own structure.
Contextual thinking is formed as the predominant way of perception, and evaluation of phenomena, promising reliable and critically invulnerable results. It allows us to combine narrowly disciplinary art approaches with a new reality, experience the element of living life, and focus on the past, present, and future in unified cognitive constructs.
In this regard, any change in the external context leads to changes in the internal context and meaning of the work of art. For example, if in one historical period, a work of art was perceived negatively, then changes in political, moral, and other positions in another period may lead to the acceptance of the work of art and to its different perception.
A study of sources on iconometry in Tibet shows that there were no invariable rules for depicting the deities of the Buddhist pantheon. They changed over time, in the process of the struggle of the dominant schools and trends of Buddhism. These changes in a special kind of system of proportional relations that create a numerical and quantitative model of a work of art in Buddhist culture occurred under the influence of the historical context affecting religion.
The very emergence of Buddhist culture is closely connected with the history of the period of its formation. Sacrifices and ritual aspects of the existence of this culture played a decisive role in the perception of works of art by the audience. They were evaluated within the framework of how accurately the sacrifices are performed and the ritual actions depicted in the works of art are observed.
All Indian art, striking in its richness and diversity, developed under the influence of religion, thereby reflecting the faith of the people of the country. The classical art of India is based on religious and mythological subjects.
With the spread of Buddhism in the country, architecture began to change, and its cultural context changed. Each of the statues in Indian temples began to carry an encrypted message as a result of a replacement in the religious context (the emergence of a new widespread religion). In addition, Indian culture is difficult to perceive in isolation from other Eastern cultures.
The special significance of religion, mythology, and the entire spiritual sphere of activity in it is its specific trait, which makes up originality. It is impossible to notice this outside the context of Eastern culture as a whole. In them, natural conditions (Egypt, Mesopotamia), features of the political system (China) or other aspects of reality are the determining principle.
The Renaissance culture was conditioned by the early stage of the development of bourgeois relations in Western Europe. The historical context of the appearance of the bourgeoisie in feudal society makes man the main theme of art. The idea of a beautiful, harmonious person is formed through the prism of the humanistic culture of the Renaissance.
The essence of Renaissance culture is the beginning of an ideological struggle against feudalism and all its manifestations in art. Cultural figures of that time fought against theology, mysticism, and the subordination of literature and art to religion. They sought to create a new culture based on the principle of the free development of an independent human personality, its liberation from the restrictive guardianship of religion and the church.