Art for art's sake Art for art's sake "Art for art's sake" is the usual English rendering of a French slogan from the early 19th century, "l'art pour l'art", and expresses a philosophy that the intrinsic value of art, and the only "true" art, is divorced from any didactic, moral, or utilitarian function. Such works are sometimes described as "autotelic", from the Greek "autoteles", "complete in itself", a concept that has been expanded to embrace "inner-directed" or "self-motivated" human beings. The term is sometimes used commercially. A Latin version of this phrase ("ARS GRATIA ARTIS") is used as a motto by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and appears
Theatrum artis scribendi Theatrum artis scribendi Theatrum Artis Scribendi is a book about calligraphy by Jodocus Hondius. The first edition was published in Amsterdam in 1594; a second edition was published in 1614 by his son, Johannes Janssonius. A facsimile, limited to 300 copies, was published in 1969 by Midland Publishers of the Netherlands. The facsimile was printed by N. Miedma and Co. of Leeuwarden and bound by Van Rijmenam N.V. in The Hague. Translated from Latin, the title of the book is "Theatre of the Art of Writing". It is an anthology of handwriting specimens by Solomon Henrix, van den Velde, Felix