With the advent of Renaissance humanism, being an artist was no longer considered a mechanical occupation to reach the top of the hierarchy of arts and sciences. Now being conceived as an intellectual and liberal activity has given rise to a new interest in exploring the theoretical and conceptual aspects of artistic production. But the thinker of the time also found himself faced with the task of delimiting the boundaries of this new category; certainly prestige brought with it exclusivity. However, this process became even more complicated when these thinkers were confronted with artistic forms – unusual for them – originating or found outside Europe. The inclusion of these new forms within the confines of the liberal arts inevitably led to a breaking point: what is a liberal art? And is there a universal liberal art? The Portuguese humanist Francisco de Holland was one of those who faced this dilemma. In the text Da Pintura Antiga (1548), De Holland reflects on the process of artistic creation; For him it is an intellectual undertaking because the "first entry" is "the idea... imagination and fantasy" which is invisible and mental and one must then find a channel in nature to create it, to invent it on the physical plane (60). He underlines the importance of the moment of capture of the intangible – of the first contact between the idea and reality – because for him it determines its final value and, therefore, its status as liberal art. For De Holland, drawing, this first contact between mind and reality allows the artist to give his work "proportion and geometry... decorum and decency", a quality which he considers "the strength" on which... middle of paper. .....education to reach the Greco-Roman level (236). It also highlights the ingenuity of non-European peoples, in terms of materials and new ways of communicating and “declaring their concepts in it [Painting] (235). It seems that both authors have succeeded in identifying the underlying and primordial universal process and characteristics for producing liberal and intellectual art. However, the inclusion of various genres – such as sculpture, painting and agriculture – and a certain level of cultural variability – Asia, Europe and America – seem to actually point to a universal art, elitism ends up delegitimizing every dissimilar aesthetics. Evaluating the idea as a command from God and the classical notion of beauty, precision and verisimilitude are privileged within well-established parameters and give way to an aesthetic hierarchy to which everything had to adhere..