Has art or architecture been moving forward like pure and applied sciences? Does the growth of knowledge and the change in the mental cognitive processing of man directly increase the "quality" and "value" of art works? The accumulation of knowledge in different fields, technological developments and their reflections in architectural production are usually consid­ered signs of development or "progress". However, the "art value " in art and architectural works can not be evaluated with technical and theoretical knowledge alone. After a brief critical analysis of the idea of "progress" from different perspectives, the paper gives an emphasis to the understanding of the idea of "transformation " which particularly relates to Giambaltista Vico's theory of " poetic wisdom " in art and architecture.