The Western canon is the body of high-culture literature, music, philosophy, and works of art that are highly valued in the West; works that have achieved the status of classics. However, not all these works originate in the Western world, and such works are also valued throughout the globe. It is "a certain Western intellectual tradition that goes from, say, Socrates to Wittgenstein in philosophy, and from Homer to James Joyce in literature".
Dante, Homer and Virgil in Raphael's Parnassus fresco (1511), key figures in the Western canon
Detail of Sappho from Raphael's Parnassus (1510–11), shown alongside other poets. In her left hand, she holds a scroll with her name written on it.
Picasso, Girl with a Mandolin (Fanny Tellier) (1910), oil on canvas, 100.3 × 73.6 cm, Museum of Modern Art, New York
Chandos portrait of the English playwright and poet William Shakespeare
In a society, high culture encompasses cultural objects of aesthetic value, which a society collectively esteems as being exemplary works of art, and the intellectual works of literature and music, history and philosophy, which a society considers representative of their culture.
The Creation of Adam, from Michelangelo’s Sistine Chapel ceiling – an example of high culture
The Acropolis of Athens, Greece
T. S. Eliot
A painting by Ming Dynasty artist Chen Hongshou showing a scholar-gentleman (literai) with a guqin, a Chinese musical instrument
