Talk:ars gratia artis

ALTERNATE MEANINGS OF "ARS GRATIA ARTIS"

1. "Art, courtesy of the frames." Also listed as a definition of this phrase here http://www.definitions.net/definition/ars%20gratia%20artis

"Ars Gratia Artis" first appeared as part of the MGM logo in 1916 (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leo_the_Lion_(MGM)). While I understand that the common definition for this Latin phrase is "art for the sake of art," I disagree with this definition for MGM's purposes, after some easy research and logic.

"Gratia" also means "courtesy," https://glosbe.com/la/en/gratia. I think if the author simply meant "for the sake of" he would have chosen "causa." There's a gratefulness and graciousness that is denoted with "gratia," and I believe "gratia" was chosen purposefully, carefully.

"Artis" is the plural of "artus"...and according to https://glosbe.com/la/en/artus, one of the meanings is "frame."

It does not include "art" as a meaning of "artus." Further, the author already used "ars" to mean "art," and the plural of "ars" is "artes," NOT "artis." See https://glosbe.com/en/la/art

And given that MGM is a movie studio, I think they were making a statement that movies were art, too, when they created the slogan. The film industry was still in its infancy then, and they were likely trying to make a point that moving pictures, not just stills, were art.

Given the totality of the circumstances, "Art, courtesy of the frames" makes the most logical sense as to Deitz's intended definition of "Ars Gratia Artis" for MGM.

AugustConsultants (talk) 15:10, 24 May 2017 (UTC)AugustConsultants