Imitation (art)
DOCTRINE OF ARTISTIC CREATIVITY ACCORDING TO WHICH THE CREATIVE PROCESS SHOULD BE BASED ON THE CLOSE IMITATION OF THE MASTERPIECES OF THE PRECEDING AUTHORS
Imitation (the arts); Artistic imitation; Doctrine of imitation; Imitation in art; Imitation in the arts
Imitation is the doctrine of artistic creativity according to which the creative process should be based on the close imitation of the masterpieces of the preceding authors. This concept was first formulated by Dionysius of Halicarnassus in the first century BCE as imitatio, and has since dominated for almost two thousand years the Western history of the arts and classicism.