2. Last Class• Prehistoric Art- Paleolithic vs Neolithic
• Paleolithic- cave paintings (Altamira, Chauvet),Venus of Willendorf
• Neolithic- more symbolic, abstract; settled communities allowing for pottery
and Stonehenge,Thinker and Sitting Woman
• Mesopotamian vs Egyptian Art
• Mesopotamian- fertile crescent, chaotic, warring tribes; Ziggurat and
Lamassu
• Egyptian- art purpose is religious (reflect death and afterlife) and impose
order, stable, unchanging, brief period of change with Akhenaten; Great
Pyramids, Nefertiti
• Greek vs Roman
• Greek- Archaic, Classical, and Hellenistic periods- idealized bodies, Spear-
Bearer, Parthenon
• Roman- non-idealized bodies, portrait paintings and busts
3. Early Christian and
Middle Ages
• After Emperor Constantine’s conversion,
art needed to spread the new official
religion
• entirely new art
• human body covered, no effort to depict
perfect human form, only symbolic
• Symbolism vs realism
4. Illuminated Manuscripts
• decorated or illustrated texts, often with gold and silver inlay, often of the
Gospels
• Made by monastic scribes who helped retain the written works from
antiquity
• Mixing celtic or native north european design with Christian narrative, often
made to impress illiterate rulers and kings
5. Byzantine Art
• region of Byzantium, later Byzantine Empire
• mixing of Islamic and Christian design
• Hagia Sophia- began as eastern orthodox cathedral
6. Romanesque Art
• mid 11th-mid 12th century style of architecture, first distinctive style in
Europe since Roman empire
• brought back roman architectural elements such as barrel-vaulted ceilings,
stone construction
• example:Tower of London
7. Gothic Art
• style of architecture of late Middle Ages, replaced by Renaissance
architecture
• style of the great cathedrals, marked by pointed arches, ribbed vaults, and
flying buttresses
• originated in France
8. Renaissance
• Renaissance= French for “rebirth”
• move away from purely spiritual concerns to more human and classical
• mixing of the classical Greek/Roman humanism and rationalism with
Christian spirituality
• began in Italy (Florence,Venice) moved into Northern Europe
• realism, chiaroscuro, linear perspective,atmospheric perspective, study of
nature, scientific knowledge
• renewed interest in mythological themes and characters
• secular as well as religious art patronage (Medici) due to rise of middle class
merchants
• fully regard individual artist as “master” or singular “genius”
10. Leonardo DaVinci
• epitomized Humanist ideal, archetype of
“Renaissance Man”
• painting, sculpting, science, math, inventor, architect,
musician (Polymath)
• discoveries in anatomy, civil and military
engineering, optics,
• The Last Supper,Virgin of the Rocks, Mona Lisa,
sketchbooks
11.
12. Michelangelo
• considered by his contemporaries the greatest
artist (“The Devine One”)
• painter, sculptor, architect
• Sistine Chapel, David, Pieta, Dome of St. Peter’s
Basilica
15. Renaissance towards
Modernism
• Growing plurality of religious, political ideas, and notions of
social order
• The Reformation and Counter Reformation
• The Enlightenment, Scientific Revolution (reason replacing
superstition)
• Growing Individualism (democracy, social contract, human
rights)
• American and French Revolutions
• Baroque, Rococo, Neoclassical, Romanticism
16. Baroque Art
• roughly 1590-1725, style of art, music, theatre,
architecture
• response to Reformation, more theatrical and
dramatic scenes and depictions to attract
commoners
• Caravaggio, Bernini, Rubens, Rembrandt
17. Rubens
Descent From the Cross The Three Graces
Part of Catholic
Counter-Reformation,
Highly theatrical,
“Painter of skin”,
“Rubenesque”
18. Bernini
Ecstasy of St. Theresa
Leading sculptor of his
day, architect
Worthy successor to
Michelangelo
22. Rococo Art
• 18th century style of art, music, literature, interior
design, furniture
• heavily French influenced, known as French style
• smaller, less grand, elegance, lots of curves, ornate,
playful
• appealed to wealthy class, nobility
• Boucher, Fragonard,Watteau
23. The Toilet of Venus, by Boucher Fragonard’s The Swing
24. Neoclassical Art
• coincides with 18th Age of Enlightenment to the
early 19th c
• revival of classical styles of antiquity
• reaction against Rococo, later opposed to
Romanticism
• order, idealism, rationalism, beauty in nature
• reflected sympathy with French revolution
• David, Ingres, Canova
27. Romanticism
• roughly 1800-1850
• reaction against rational age of Enlightenment,
against scientific revolution over nature, not against
democratic social change
• embraced emotion, exotic,“aesthetic experience”,
“the sublime”, originality and imagination
• applied to art and poetry (Wordsworth, Byron,
Coleridge)
• Friedrich, Delacroix, Gericault, Goya, JMW Turner
