The first forms of criticism appear as early as the forth century B.C. from the philosopher Plato. The Greek thinker maintained that art was a negative influence on people, and for centuries thinkers have tried to refute him. Plato believed in two realms of existence, an eternal ideal realm and the material realm. For every material object, there exists a perfect, theoretical ideal version of it. Truth and beauty exist in the ideal realm and the goal of humans born into the material realm should strive toward reaching the ideal. Because artists reflect only the material world, they provide only dull, corrupt pleasure in people that should be striving for the ideal. Later Plato conceded that artists that reflect virtue and piety are justified, but all other artists corrupt people and divert them away from the ideal.
Another ancient philosopher to discuss art and its purpose was Quintus Horatius Flaccus, a freed slave and teacher known in the English-speaking world as Horace. The Roman writer's "Ars Poetica" (or the art of poetry) was a letter to the father of one of his students. In "Ars Poetica," Horace describes the artist as a public servant as much as a politician is. According to Horace, the artist must learn his craft and master the literature of his or her people; the artist's goal is fame and respect. Horace argues that all art should "teach and delight," and critics should (and often do) address each work of art according to that criteria.
Art criticism continued to wrestle with the same questions in Medieval Europe as it did in ancient Greece, with proponents arguing for and against the existence of art. In 1579 a Puritan minister named Stephen Gosson wrote "The Schoole [sic] of Abuse" which argued against poetry and art. Gosson believed that art had no practical purpose and, like Plato, wanted to see it banished from the population. Gosson argued that poets, to engage in their art, must be liars by nature and he believed that art was a waste of human intellect. On the other hand, Sir Phillip Sidney, a soldier and poet, refuted Gosson, arguing that art teaches morals better than law and inspires virtue better than philosophy.
Since roughly the end of the first World War, the industrialized world has held a fascination with art criticism. As the sciences became more specialized and technology unlocked new cultural possibilities, questions about art and what art's purpose became far more focused. In the last century alone, feminist, post-colonial, Marxist, formalist and queer theories (along with a plethora of others) have all developed a distinct approach to interpreting art. A feminist critique of a text may radically differ from a Marxist interpretation. Art theory and criticism programs have grown in many liberal universities across the globe. There are more ways to view a work of art now than ever before.