The four elements in painting art: Air, water, fire and earth

From ancient times to today, the elements, 'water', 'air', 'fire' and 'earth' are of importance as symbolic value in the field of art. They have been accepted as the primordial principle of existence and mediate to understand both material and spiritual world, and appear in every system of thought and disciplines from philosophy to history of religions, from alchemy to physics and chemistry, from medicine to moral, from psychology to cosmology. It is seen that the indispensability of the fertile, erotic, exotic "woman" issue, which extends to one of the mother goddess idols of Feminism, is associated with protective/defensive/present-absent element, which we owe our life to, 'earth'; educational, instructive, entertaining, and multi-functionality of the art pieces are related to the indispensability of the life-giving/purifying/destructive element, 'water'; an artist's piece being the symbol of the power, which artist, who is under the effect of the sovereigns, transformed from materiality is associated with the element of 'fire' which is a counterbalancing/protective/punishing element of opposing forces; thanks to their unique and authentic nature, the aura works of art have is related to the element of 'air' which holds the creative power of life energy. Our study of the thesis titled, The Four Elements in Painting Art : Water, Air, Fire and Earth have been developed in order to understand their importance to art and the fact that it is an integral part of men's life with consciousness by looking at the discussions about origin, purpose and functionality of the art from the perspective of "four element" As far as artistic and scientific intellectualism is concerned, these elements also have a supporting aspect to environmental sensitivity. Key Words: Four Element Symbolism, Allegory, Painting Art, Art History