The Fresh Winds of Changing Cultural Values Manifest in the Visual Arts and Architecture

Abstract: A change in cultural values is partly dependent on economic, science, and technology developments. This article examines how the local cultural values of Italy (15th–18th centuries), France (19th–20th centuries), and the global world cultural values (20th–21st centuries) have left significant imprints on the transformation of traditional values in the visual arts and architecture. Employing Rokeach’s theory of human values and Schwartz’s theory of basic human values and by using qualitative methods and an ethnographic approach, this research references artworks to argue that these three periods in history represent value changes among different social groups. In Italy, where natural philosophy and science clashed with religion, the bourgeois class determined cultural value transformation via educational institutions. In France, economic and political reforms resulted in new social classes, and the dominance of labor and social democracy led to changes in values. In the global local cultures of the twenty-first century, technologies are playing a vital part in changing local cultures, contributing to changes in geopolitical alignments and leading to local social collective actions due to migration. In the context of globalization, this article explains how global cultural values become part of national values and how cultural transmission establishes global cultural values.

Keywords: Cultural Values, Visual Arts, Architecture, Science, Technologies