Disciplines
In the Middle Ages, the Artes Liberales (liberal arts) were taught in universities as part of the Trivium —an introductory curriculum involving grammar, rhetoric, and logic— and of the Quadrivium —a curriculum involving the “mathematical arts” of arithmetic, geometry, music, and astronomy. The Artes Mechanicae (mechanical arts, such as vestiaria -tailoring, weaving-, agricultura -agriculture-, architectura -architecture, masonry-, militia and venatoria -warfare and hunting, "martial arts"-, mercatura -trade, commerce-, coquinaria -cooking-, and metallaria -blacksmithing, metallurgy —division made, somewhat arbitrarily, by Johannes Scotus Eriugena, already in the 9th century) were practiced and developed in guild environments. The modern distinction between "artistic" and "non-artistic" skills did not develop until the Renaissance.
In modern academia, the arts are usually grouped with or as a subset of the Humanities. Some subjects in the Humanities are history, linguistics, literature, and philosophy. Newspapers typically include a section on the arts.
Traditionally, the arts are classified as seven although the list has been expanded to nine. These being Architecture, Sculpture, Painting, Music, Poetry, Dance, Theater/Cinema, with the modern additions of Photography and Comics.
Read more about this topic: The Arts