Art History Timeline30,000 BC- present

Stone Age30,000-10,000

b.c.

• 40,000 years ago

• Humans were hunter-gatherers– day revolved around food

• Portable art- could take with them

• Stationary art- cave walls, stayed forever

• Art was about FOOD or FERTILITY

• Artists unknown

England Ireland

Egyptian5,000 b.c.- 300 a.d.

• Painting and sculpture

• Symbolic: animals, colors, size

• Emphasis on life after death

CLASSICAL ARTGreek & Roman1700-1400 b.c.

• Classical Art’s main medium was sculpture

• Greek: Athletics, Mythology, Daily life, Doric/Ionic columns

• Athens

• Most famous temple: Parthenon (dedicated to Athena)

• Perfection, balance, idealism

• Roman: Mythology, Real people, Historical events, Corinthian columns

• Rome

• Most famous temple: Pantheon (dedicated to 7 gods)

• Practical, realism

Roman Art

Sarcófago Ludovisi– The Battle of Rome

Vatican City- St. Peter’s BasillicaColosseum

Pantheon

Ancient Ruins

The Senate

Asian653 b.c-1900 a.d

• Chinese, Japanese, Indian

• Oldest and continuous kind of art– traditional

• Painting, sculpture, pottery, decorative arts

• Ceramic factories showed wealth and power of emperors (still have today)

• Serene, meditative art; Nature

• Ink on silk or paper

Chinese Art

Terracotta Soldiers– more than 7,000

total

Buddha- Yungang Grottoes- over 51,000 Buddha statues in this

cave

Hanshan Temple- bell rings at Chinese New Year- there is one in

Japan too

Hanging Temple- for 3 religions: Buddhism, Confucianism, and

Taoism

Byzantinea.d. 476-

1853• Eastern Rome

• More abstract & symbolic than Roman art

• Flat or One-dimensional

• Why the change? Debate over whether there was a decline in artistic talent or if there was an oriental influence.

• Artists were members of the religious house

• Long, Narrow, Solemn faces– Bodies faced front

• Religion- icon image of Jesus Christ

• Dedication of Constantinople- capitol city, ruled by Constantine

• Illumination of biblical texts

• Ivory reliefs, no sculptures-- idolatry

Byzantine Art

Giunta Pisano, Crucifix

in Bologna, Italy

San Vitale Basillica in

Ravenna, Italy

Mosaics

Islamica.d. 476-

1453

• Architecture, calligraphy, painting, glass, ceramics, textiles (rugs)

• Maze-like designs, repeating elements- arabesques

• Only God is perfect

• Infinite and indivisible nature of God

• People were not portrayed in art- idolizing

• Secret miniatures

• Architecture: Mosque, Tomb, Palace, Fort

Middle Ages500-1400

• Also known as the Dark Ages: decrease in prosperity, stability, and population

• Art was associated with churches because it was costly, so almost all art was religious

• Over 1,000 years of art in Europe; includes many major art movements:

• Romanesque: Piestic paintings- religious, large churches, no portraits, muted colors

• Gothic art: brighter colors, sculptures, realism, naturalism, stained glass, symmetry

Middle Ages Art

frescoVaulted ceilings & Flying buttresses

Renaissance1400-1550

• Rebirth of Classical traditions– but apply scientific advancements & religious changes

• Naturalism, 3D, lifelike

• “rescuing and restoring art” from the “crude Byzantine style”

• Anatomy & human emotion

• Themes: religious altar pieces, fresco cycles, and small works for private collections

• Techniques: perspective, foreshortening, sfumato, chiaroscuro, balance, proportion

Renaissance Techniques

foreshortening

sfumato chiaroscuro

Mannerism1527-1580

• Break rules

• Artifice over nature

• Intellectual sophistication

• Beautiful, “has style”

• Compositional tension & instability rather than balance & clarity of the Renaissance

• Elongated proportions, stylized poses, no clear perspective, theatrical lighting, strange settings

Baroque1600-1750

• Started by Catholic church- the arts should communicate religious themes

• Art as a weapon in the religious wars- church wanted to speak to the illiterate, not just the well informed

• To impress visitors– express triumph, power, & control

• The name was at first given as an insult– too many unnecessary details, noisy--translates to “elaborate”

• Exaggerated motion, clear details

Romanticism1780-1850

• Not love romance, but GLORIFICATION– glorified concepts such as liberty, survival, ideals, hope, awe, heroism, despair, and the various feelings that nature evokes in humans (views & sunsets)

• First start seeing feelings of the artist, not everyone feels the same

• Creation from nothingness– originality

• Characteristics:

• Emotional emphasis

• Nature can kill you (shipwrecks, lots of shipwrecks)

• Current events

• No exact style, technique, or subject matter

The Raft of the Medusa

Sea of Ice, Wreck of Hope

Liberty Leading the People

The Nightmare

Wanderer above the Sea of Fog

Realism1848-1900

• Focus on every day life

• Represent art truthfully– portray exactly what they saw

• Rejected Romanticism– avoided over exaggerated emotionalism and drama, instead portrayed things as they really were with no emotions involved

• Included all classes of people in all aspects of life (even if it was ugly)

• Ordinary people in ordinary life

• Photography was introduced and became popular

The End of the Working Day

Bonjour, Monsiuer Corbet

The Arnolfini Portrait

Impressionism1865-1885

• Began in Paris by a group of artists

• Name comes from Monet’s painting, “Impression Sunrise”

• Characteristics

• Small, thin, visible brushstrokes

• Ordinary subject matter

• Capturing effects of natural light & how it changes

• Unusual visual angles

• Movement

• Colors often aren’t mixed, instead laid side by side

• Avoids using black paint, grays (complimentary colors to shade)

• Didn’t wait for paint to dry

• Painted in evenings to create shadows & studied natural colors of light

Haystacks

Lydia Leaning on Her Arms

Post-Impressionism1885-1910

• Continued impressionist style, but emphasized geometric forms

• Exaggerated an aspect of impressionism

• Impasto- thick application of paint– shows off texture and paint marks

• Used unnatural color

• Pointillism

Fauvism1900-1910

• Led by Matisse and Derain

• Only had 3 exhibitions, lasted a short time

• Wild brushstrokes

• Strong color

• Not realistic; abstract; simple

• Color theory study

Cubism1905-1920

• Considered most influential movement of 20th century

• Objects are analyzed, broken up, and rearranged

• Many viewpoints instead of just one

• Abstract

• Inspired movements in other art forms (music, literature, theatre)

Surrealism

1917-1950• Painting dreams

• Exploring the unconscious– automatic writing

• Illogical scenes that looked realistic

• Made creatures out of every day objects

• Element of surprise

Abstract Expressionism1940-1960

• First American-only influenced movement-- NYC

• Spontaneous, automatic, subconscious

• “It’s better to catch the spirit of the sea, rather than all it’s tiny ripples.”

Modernism1960-present

• Freedom of expression

• Experimentation

• Pop-Art

• Consumerism

• Radicalism

• Startled audiences

• Collage, installations

• “ready-mades”

• Performance art