Period/Style Dates
Color Field Painting
Rothko
Sienese Gothic Painting
- International Gothic Style: Decorative style with thinner, elegant, and courtly figures (with more naturalistic figures and subtle modeling of figures and interest in defined space) - Rich colors, marble patterning on thrones or pavements - Elongated figures: Byzantine art - Drapery is less defined by mass and more by the thin fluttering of draperies and zigzagging of complex linear patterns - Hierarchy arrangement of figures, but still in proportion to one another - Figures dominate architectural setting - Explore 3D, although reached more deeply into the picture plane by expressing deeper interiors: opening of a door frame or a room wall, revealing what lies beyond (recalling effect on theatrical stage)
Early Gothic
1140-1194 France Notre Dame and Saint-Denis
Gothic Art in Italy
1250-1500 Pisa, Florence, Siena - Gothic Art in Italy forms a bridge between Medieval and Renaissance art - The artist becomes an important historical personality whose life story can be traced and recorded - Aspects of ancient sculpture are revitalized under the artistic leadership of the Pisano family - The Sienese and Florentine schools of painting dominate trecento art Historical Background 13thC mendicant orders emerge (preaching) - Franciscans: followers of St. Francis of Assisi, dark gray or brown robes tied with a rope (knots symbolized their vows of poverty, chastity and obedience) - Dominicans: followers of St. Dominic de Guzman; black cloak over a white tunic; stressed teaching, commissioned narrative pulpits and altarpieces - Both groups abstained from material concerns and committed themselves to helping the poor and the sick - Italian citizens had strong devotional attachment to their local church and commissioned artists to decorate private chapels (occasionally members of the family served as models in religious scene) - Artists' signatures indicate their rising status and a self-conscious need publicly to associate their names with their works Humanism: orientation toward humanity, combined with revived interest in classical learning and literature. Embodied worldview that focused on human beings; education that perfected individuals through the study of past models of civic and personal virtue; a value system that emphasized personal effort and responsibility; physically active life that was directed toward the common good and individual nobility; mastered Greek and Latin languages to study classical literature
High Renaissance
1490-1527 early 16th century 1527: Sack of Rome Painters Leonardo Michelangelo Raphael Giulio Romano Properzia de' Rossi Sofonisba Anguissola Venice Giovanni Bellini Giorgione Titian Tintoretto Veronese Architects Palladio Bramante
Mannerism
1520-1600 16th century Painters Correggio Lavinia Fontana Bronzino Parmigianino Pontormo Architects Giulio Romano Giacomo della Porta Sculptors Benvenuto Cellini Giovanni da Bologna
Baroque Art
1600-1700 17th century
Romanticism
1789-1848 Late 18th century - early 19th century
Art Nouveau
1890s-1914
Neo-Sumerian
2150-2000 BCE Lagash (only Sumerian state to remain independent when Akkadians conquered by Gutians) Gudea: statue = typical example of king portrayal (idealized, muscled chest, wide eyes), embodied just rule Ziggurat of Ur
Sumerian
3500-2340BCE Sumer, Uruk, Ur - First controlled Mesopotamia - Compared to prehistoric art: realistic looking figures acting out identifiable narratives - Registers - Stylized figures (conical/cylindrical shape, wide open frontal eyes, geometric eyebrows, nose that terminates into forehead, beard - Hieratic scale - Composite view figures & creatures - Ziggurats - wealth city, stability ruler and glorified gods
Late Classical Greece
400-323 BC 4thC BC - More varied expressions, complex drapery, dramatic figural groups, first female nude, ex: Praxiteles, "Venus," marble, c.345 BC - Decline major mythological narratives, rise in depictions more minor deities in sculpture; Alexander common subject - portraits, triumphant battle scenes - 338 BC at Battle of Chaeronea, Greek cities suffered devastating loss and relinquished their independence to Philip II, king of Macedon - 336 BC Philip II was assassinated and his son, Alexander III (the Great) succeeded him - 336-323 BC Alexander led powerful army, overthrew Persian Empire, control of Egypt and reached India 4th century lots of political upheaval, profound impact on art produced, and brought end to serene idealism of 5th century Greek art and thought and began to focus more on the individual and real world of appearances than on the community and the ideal world of perfect beings and buildings. 5th century artists believed rational human beings could impose order on their environment, create "perfect" statues (Canon), and discover "correct" mathematical formulas for constructing temples (Parthenon) Freestanding sculpture - Humanizing the gods; engaging in trivial acts of everyday life; retained superhuman beauty but lost their solemn grandeur and took on worldly sensuousness (Praxiteles) - Introduction of nude female statuary (Aphrodite of Knidos).. previously only female nudity confined to paintings on vases designed for household use, women depicted courtesans or slave girls, not noble women or goddesses - S-curve (off balance), - No longer rigidly adhering to Classical conventions (noble detachment) instead for sensitively rendered figures with expressions of wistful introspection, dreaminess, or fleeting anxiety Lysippos New Canon - More slender bodies, heads 1/8th of body, rather than 1/7th (Apoxyomenos) - Viewed in the round - Nervous energy - rejected stability and balance as worthy goals for statuary; at any moment statue switch body weight and scrape other arm; Deep in thought, dreamy stare - Movement - figures break shallow box that defined boundaries of earlier statutes Relief Sculpture - Active, dynamic poses, expressional faces and gestures, intense gaze
Early Byzantine
500-726 Emperor Justinian I Architecture: invented Pendentive, allows dome to be placed on flat walls, supported by 4 piers; painted - Plain exterior (brick or concrete), extensively decorated interiors (mosaics, frescoes, colored marble) - Low domes with windows around base = flickering dazzling display 2D - Mosaics, Manuscripts - stylized forms sought to express essential religious meaning, not natural inhabitation of space - figures relation to architectural space and frame can have roman influence and unnatural landscape/architectural elements
Roman Republic
509-27 BC Julius Caesar (46-44 BCE) ruled Rome - Early Rome governed by king and the senate (advisory body of leading citizens). The population was divided into two classes: patricians (wealthy, upper class) and the plebeians (lower class) - Republic was an oligarchy for about 450 years (government ruled by aristocrats) - Roman art reflected Etruscan influence, and territorial expansion exposed to other cultures arts, like Greeks Used Greek designs and orders in architecture, imported Greek art and employed Greek artists (who were considered skilled laborers, no admiration for artists, only Greek art) Sculpture - Veristic sculptures: realistic busts of noblemen, age of the sitter seemingly enhanced. May have been a form of idealization: Republicans valued virtues such as wisdom, determination, and experience (realism shows influence from Greek Hellenistic and late Etruscan); Idealized some elements: such as elegantly tossed hair - Full length statues focus on heads, bodies were occasionally classically idealized (symbolizing valor and strength) - Had great respect for their ancestors, figures sometimes hold in their hands busts of their ancestors - Starting with Julius Caesar, placed living ruler's portraits on coins → propaganda of portraits, portrait of ruler as symbol of country or image that recalls an important action (adopted by Caesar's successors) Architecture - Relied on round arches and concrete. Concrete first used in beginning of 1stc BCE; absorbed moisture so it had to be covered in a veneer of finer materials (marble, stone, stucco, painted plaster) - Essential difference between Greek and Roman arch. Is that Greek buildings reveal the building materials and Roman buildings show only the externally applied surface - Aqueducts: built with arches using concrete. Fits into natural landscape. Layered arches and orders to reduce weight: Heavier arches or orders on bottom - Influenced by Hellenistic architecture (Pergamon), Egyptian palace architecture (Deir el-Bahri) Temples: followed Greek and Etruscan buildings - Rectangular cella and a porch at one end, reached by flight of steps, Greek idea of a colonnade across the entrance with Etruscan podium and single flight of steps leading to a front porch entrance. Walls of cella are pushed out to meet engaged columns = larger interior and set on podium (like Etruscans). Continuous decorative frieze on entablature; variation on orders
Viking Art (Early Medieval Art)
8th-11th centuries Scandinavia - Inspired by prehistoric models that emphasized animals and spirals in elaborate interlacing patterns - Mostly applied art: art that is engraved or incised onto functional objects - Ships represented as sleek sea serpents - Bands of interlaced animals/ribbon/foliage carved in low relief - Typically, works are in animal style filled with horror vacui - Later the Great Beasts became associated with Christian figures/stories
Gothic Architecture
Sought to express aspiration for divinity through height and luminosity (elegance of line, light, colors and sense of transparency produced by glass) Developed advances made in Romanesque art: - Rib vault: became standard vaulting practice in Gothic art - Bays: became standard (use of repeated vertical elements in bays) - Rose Window: begun as oculus, becomes elaborate circular feature that opens up wall spaces by allowing more light in through facade and transepts - Pointed arch: first seen in Islamic Spain, arch directs thrusts down to the floor more efficiently than rounded arches New developments: - Flying Buttress: a stone arch and its pier that support a roof from a pillar outside the building; Stabilize a building and protect from wind sheer. Enabled the building to be opened up for more window space and to display more stained glass (Earliest example = Notre Dame in Paris) - Choir: a space in a church between the transept and the apse for a choir or clergymen. Needed a larger space for ceremonies - Pinnacles: a pointed sculpture on piers or flying buttresses (roof of churches), stabilizing forces in a windstorm
Gothic Painting and sculpture
Stained Glass - Became industry in Gothic period - Theological program - Larger images of saints appear in clerestory - Narratives appeared in side aisle windows Illuminated Manuscripts - Some seek to emulate stained glass windows (borders, painted in brilliant colors) - Strong black outlining - Minimal modeling Sculpture - Begins to emerge from church facades through 3D modeling that sets sculptures apart from their architectural background, stand in front of the wall, column behind the figures (columns become increasingly 3D and freestanding) - Contrasts with Romanesque sculpture which appears flattened against the walls surface - Portals change in subject matter: concentrate on the possibility of salvation, the believer is empowered with the choice of salvation (Romanesque sculptural programs stress the Last Judgment and the threat of being damned to hell) 13thC: figures are defining their own space, interacting to one another with humanizing expressions; elongated, represent the verticality of building, clothes are straight with few ripples that do not define the body 14thC: sculpture and painting develop a courtly S-curve to the bodies (unnatural) by imitating contrapposto (not yet natural), dressed from court life, definition of body beneath drapery
"Imperial" Early Christian
after 313 CE Edict of Milan - 380 CE Christianity recognized as the official religion of Roman Empire - 395 CE Emperor Theodosius I split Roman Empire into eastern and western divisions, ruled by each of his sons. Western division ruled by Honorius, capital first in Milan, then Ravenna (later under Justinian becomes administrative capital of Byzantine Italy) Imperial Christian Architecture - Reordered Roman basilica - Expressed dominance over paganism by forcing pagan architectural elements, like columns, to do service to another god (Jesus) - Exterior bare b/c recalled the facade of pagan temples; Richly appointed interior = represents the Christian whose exterior is gross but whose soul is beautiful - Multiple functions: burial site, pilgrimage shrine w/relics, congregational space Centrally planned: altar placed in the middle of the building beneath a dome ringed with windows; inspired by Roman buildings such as Pantheon Axially planned: nave lit by clerestory windows, flanked by side aisles down nave, ending in rounded apseEarly basilicas have wooden roofs with coffered ceilings (Old St. Peter's) Imperial imagery - Didactic - Robes are imperial purple and gold - Replace Shepherd's crook with a golden staff that ends in a cross - Golden halo (a symbol of the sun king) Mosaic panels - Few large figures dominate the space; strong outlines, cast shadows, 3D effects of graduated colors = shading from light to dark; overall flat forms - Solid 3D rendering foreground figures, hint of perspective, landscape setting (realistic Roman style) - Classical motifs: putti and grapevines (grapes = Bacchus, or in Christian context, wine of the Eucharist) - Separation of divine form worshipper - Toga clad officials
Roman Painting
- 79 CE Mount Vesuvius erupts, burying Pompeii - 1738 rediscovery of Herculaneum, 1748 Pompeii both stimulated rise of new artistic and decorative style in Europe: Neoclassical - Grand Tour (included Vesuvian sites of S. Italy) = essential part of gentleman's education; illustrated publications emerged and collectors filled homes with antiquities and commissioned Roman elements of painting and decoration in rooms and buildings Phase 1: horizontal rows of panels painted painted to imitate marble/stone veneers, off set by actual architectural moldings and columns Phase 2: relative (not linear) perspective and naturalism to give almost trompe l'oeil effect 1) garden vistas and 2) architectural elements open to imaginary views (3D illusionism); large mythological scenes/landscapes dominate wall surface, painted stucco decoration of the first style appears beneath in horizontal bands; created "shallow" stage set for narratives Phase 3: no illusionism, wall divided into 3 elongated horizontal sections, central section often had mythological scene or still life (like framed painting on wall), surrounded by architectural elements. Small scenes set in a field of color and framed by delicate columns and lintels and later slender, whimsical architectural and floral details and small, delicate vignettes; like backdrops on a stage (theatre design may have inspired). Intuitive perspective: A method of giving the impression of recession by visual instinct, not by the use of an overall system. Tricks the eye with atmospheric perspective Phase 4: combined elements of previous 3 styles Fresco murals featured mythological scenes, landscapes and city plazas - Some knowledge of linear perspective, atmospheric perspective and foreshortening - Greek influence in figures and subject themes
Romanesque Sculpture & Painting
- Large scale stone sculpture revival - Subjects: Jesus, miracles of the saints lives, Virgin Mary; profusion of monsters, animals, plants, geometric ornament, allegorical figures, and depictions of real and imagined buildings surround sculptures - Capitals carved with scenes from the bible → historiated captial (educational or symbolic narrative) - Figures tend to have flattened look, elongated, zigzagging drapery that often hides body form - Hierarchy of figures - Legs crossed in a graceful, almost dance like arrangement Placed within borders; rarely push against frames = defined by borders and architecture (established size and shape of images) - Faces have prominent cheekbones and variety of expressions. Variety of poses and gesturing stylized figures. Flat figures, draperies were constructed of patterns rather than naturalistically moulded - Most important imagery in tympanum directly above door in portal. Jabs or central pier below (support lintel) usually carved with figures - Tympanum = Byzantine influence - Intertwining animals = British tradition Illuminated manuscripts, or surviving ceiling or wall mural Characteristics: - Outlined in black and vibrantly colored - Emphatic gestures; emotions are exaggerated (heads and hands the largest features) - Expressive drapery folds that often hide body form - Flatness of figures, no shadows - Stylized and reduced to elements in a formal design - People are most important and dominate architectural setting (stage prop/set in background) or neutral background - No 3D reality = sense of floating, sometimes tiptoe or glide across surface - Frames control size and form or figures - Feet floating, bear no weight - Elongated figures
Romanesque Architecture
- Revivalitazion of large scale stone buildings (stone construction revival was one reason for periods name "Romanesque") - Classical architecture: monumentality, rounded arches, small windows columns and capitals - Liturgical purpose, use of ambulatories and radiating chapels and dark interiors mark differences from Roman predecessors - Adaption of Roman basilica with a nave, aisles, and apse; typically have a transept crossing the nave, and pilgrimage churches included an ambulatory and a series of radiating chapels - Didactic sculpture and painting interior and exterior - Dark interiors - few windows so that there are few holes in walls as possible; stone was heavy and the walls needed to be extra thick to sustain the weight of the roof. Stained glass darkened the attempts at lighting the interior - Facade: Round arches often used as arcades are prominent features; sometimes round oculus type windows - Wall buttresses divide facade into vertical sections that correspond to nave and side aisles, string courses suggest buildings elevation - Rib barrel vaults - Compound piers - Transverse arches - Bay - First floor = nave arcade, side-aisle bays - Second floor = gallery/triforium with smaller arches - Third floor = windows in clerestory - Aisled transepts with chapels - Ambulatory Italian: Early Christian models of horizontal naves and long main aisles; wood ceilings; separate campaniles to summon people to prayer, exterior decorated in marble - either panels or green and white marble or with arcades French and English: forecast Gothic buildings with their verticality; ceiling used Roman stone vaulting techniques (barrel and going vault), or rib-covered groin vaults (make interiors seem taller and lighter); tower incorporated into fabric of building often over the crossing
Egyptian Art
- Spans 3,000 years - Elaborate funerary practices: mastabas, pyramids and rock cut tombs in sacred imperial precincts (Necropolis) - Monumentality of stone unseen in ancient Sumeria - Most art meant for Pharaohs tombs, not for living - Build on colossal scale - Obelisks: monuments to sun god Ra, petrified sun ray - Stone column = innovation Colonnades of columns )Hatshepsut temple - Heavy reliance on symbols - Idealized Pharaoh: muscular, strong, nemes headdress (linen with cobra - symbol of Ra), fake beard, short pleated skirt; non-royalty more naturalistic depictions - Kings were revered as gods in human form, therefore built temples dedicated to gods to endorse goodwill of state and hired priest to maintain Characteristics Egyptian Painting - Funerary art dedicated to premise that things were buried to last forever and this life must continue uninterrupted into the next world → to ensure, artists represented the body as completely as possible in composite view - Canon of proportions (allows for little individuality) - Men are taller than women, and are painted ruddy brown or red (darker); women are painted with a yellowish tinge (lighter); used a grid to create figures - Ideal representation is a figure acting in a calm, rational manner; art shows stability - Figures rest on horizon line; when placed on a line above = receding into the distance - Registers, narrative painting - Clear, flat colors, simple drawing and contours - Hieratic scale (like Meso) Characteristics of Egyptian Sculpture - Range in size; sculptors created images of the deceased to serve as abodes for the ka incase the mummies were destroyed; stone primary material used for funerary statuary )To produce the statue the artist would draw on the faces of the stone block, next chiseling away excess stone → subtractive method) - Portraits of pharaohs were meant to impress and overwhelm; emphasized monumentality and grandeur over individualization - Large-scale sculptures rarely cut free from stone carved from; making figures seem more permanent and solid; some colossal sculpture carved on the site, or in situ - Relief sculptures follow same figural formula as paintings
Romanesque Art
1000-1200 Key Ideas - Romanesque art shows a revitalization of large scale architecture and sculpture - Pilgrimages to sacred European shrines increase the flow of people and ideas around the continent - Romanesque architects develop the apse of churches to accommodate large crowds of pilgrims - Church portal sculptures stress themes of the Last Judgment and the need for salvation - Manuscript painting and weaving flourish as art forms
Assyrian
1000-612 BCE Nimrud - Assurnasirpal II Khorsabad - Sargon II Nineveh - Assurbanipal - Large empire, ambitious and aggressive warrior kings - Built palaces atop high platforms inside fortified cities - decorated with scenes of battles, victories with presentations of tribute to the king, combat between man and beast, religious imagery (attest to power and wealth of kings) - Built with limestone and alabaster - Art praised greatness of the king, his ability to kill enemies, valor at hunting, masculinity - Stoic figures - Animals possess considerable emotion (Lions in anguish); kings domination over beasts express authority over his people and powerful forces of nature - Shallow relief - Lamassu - Assurbanipal II palace reliefs = oldest surviving narratives (battlefield victories and hunting)
Proto Geometic Greece
1050-900 BC 10th/9th century Ceramics - Anticipated geometric style - Linear motifs - spirals, diamonds, cross hatching rather than stylized plants, birds, and sea creatures characteristic of Minoan vase painting - Reduction of human and animal body parts to simple geometric solids, such as cubes, pyramids, cylinders, spheres, or no figures
Etruscan
10th century - 270 BC Temples - Building was adopted by Romans - Superficially inspired by Greek buildings, with pediments, columns, cella behind the porch - Built on a stone podium (platform) and a single flight of steps leading up to a front porch - Columns restricted to the front of the building - Ground plan was almost square, divided equally between porch and interior space - Interior often separated into 3 rooms (housed cult statues) - Mud-brick walls - Tuscan order (assigned by Vitruvius): resembled Doric, w/unfluted shaft, simplified base, capital, entablature - Temple roof, rather than pediment, served as base for large statue groups Tombs - Knowledge Etruscan civilization comes from elaborate necropoli - Rock cut tombs; arranged as network of streets creating city for the dead - Tombs = homes for the dead (emphasis on afterlife like Egyptians) - Reflect interior Etruscan house - Fresco murals, stucco designs, furnished, items carved to look like hanging on hooks on the walls - to provide earthly comforts to the dead - Buried entire families, including servants, in urns or sarcophagi made of terracotta Sculpture: Brilliantly painted - Figures move dynamically in space - gesturing figures, aware of world around them, realistically portrayed energy and purposeful movement - Figures show range of emotions - animated faces - Influenced by Archaic Greek works (contemporary) Bronze: Metalwork and large-scale in the round - Created items for both funerary and domestic use - Figures convey a sense of realism: have complex poses, naturalistic suggestions of a rocky setting, pull and twist of drapery emphasizes 3D Funerary Painting: brightly painted frescoes - Cheerful celebrating, dancing, eating, playing musical instruments, feasting, athletic contests, hunting, other pleasures - Men painted in darker colors than women - Women = active participants in the festivities and ceremonies
Ottonian Art (Early Medieval Art)
10th-early 11th centuries Germany - Influenced by Roman and Early Christian past, and reaffirming the commitment to imperial imagery seen in Carolingian art - Otto I gained control of Northern Italy by married widowed Lombard Queen Adelaide, crowned emperor, reestablishing Charlemagne's Christian Roman Empire Architecture: In keeping with their imperial status, Ottonian rulers sought to replicate splendors of Christian architecture in Rome; as well as Byzantine churches (Otto II married a Byzantine princess to cement ties with the East) - Large stone churches - Interior arches and windows do not line up one atop the other; Interior walls generally flat and unadorned, with very little interruption in large expanses of blank space; Arches characterized by alternating red and cream colored stones on the exterior of the arches - Rhythmic alternation of heavy and light supports, balance of rectangular and round forms, combination of horizontal and vertical movement influences Romanesque period Double ended look, apse with chapels or towers at each end Sculpture: Revives large scale sculpture (bronze and wood) - Byzantine focus on suffering of Christ, tortured martyr - Monumental bronze doors (Roman and Carolingian influence) - Monumental doors illustrate old and new testament scenes (prefigured scenes paired across doors) - Rectangular panels recall gospel books and manuscripts - Low relief landscape as stage for prominent figures in varying relief w/ fully modeled 3D heads Manuscripts: Not as varied styles as Carolingian manuscripts, greater abstraction and monumentality in figures, with dramatic gestures and striking colors; staring eyes and sharp features; draperies were angular and chiseled; backgrounds were schematic; hieratic scale (gold backgrounds), stiff frontality, Imperial propaganda, Elongated limbs, wide eyes, Monumental style for the Christian, German-Roman empire
Gothic Art
1140-1400, 12th - 15th century France, Italy, England, Germany Key Ideas - Gothic architecture built on developments made in Romanesque: the rib vault, the pointed arch, and the bay system of construction - Gothic architecture reached new vertical heights through the use of flying buttresses that carry the weight of the roof to the walls outside the building and deflect wind pressure - Gothic sculpture (portals) is more 3D that Romanesque, emerging from the wall, and emphasizing the verticality of the structure - Gothic manuscript painting is influenced by the luminosity and richness of stained glass windows Historical Background - Gothic period originated in Paris, appearance of new style and building technique coincided with the emergence of the monarchy as a powerful centralizing force in France - Period intellectual expansion: universities supplanted monastic schools as centers of learning, Crusades resulted in contact with Byzantine and Islamic worlds where literary works of antiquity had been preserved - their rediscovery posed a challenge to Christian theology by promoting rational inquiry rather than faith as the path to truth - Guild system: artwork regulated like an industry. Artist associations that organized apprenticeship; organized by occupation, exerted quality control and supervised education through an apprenticeship system; admission to guild with "masterpiece"
High Gothic, Rayonnant Gothic
1194-1300 France High Gothic: Amiens and interior of Chartres, Reims Sculpture - Quatrefoils - Implied interactions - Broad contours of heavy drapery wrapped around figures right hip, and bunched over left arm - Clear, solid forms, elegantly cascading robes - Some drew on classical sources: solidity of sculpture, full faces, gently waving hair Rayonnant: "radiating" or Court Style; aristocratic, courtly elegance. Small, V shaped head with broad brow and pointed chin, framed by wavy hair; puffy, almond shaped eyes set under arching brows; well shaped nose, thin lips curving into a slight smile Saint-Chapelle: dissolution of wall space with great sheets of stained glass
Late Byzantine
1204-1453, and beyond 1261 Restoration of Byzantine rule from Christian Crusaders 1453 Empire falls to Ottoman Turks 2D - Trompe l'oeil painting to simulate marble paneling - Haloed head, simple contours, elongation of the body, focus on a limited number of figures
Italian Gothic Architecture & Sculpture
13/14th century Architecture - Stress width and height - Interiors: one story arches and second of windows - Wide naves focus attention on apses backlit by tall windows - Clearly articulated rib vaults open up the clerestory to admit volumes of light filtered by thin masses of pastel-colored stained glass windows - Heavy piers - Emphasis on architectural detailing of lintels and on narrative door panels, as well as figural sculpture placed across the facade (French Gothic emphasized complex narrative sculptural programs) - Colorful, education paintings covered the walls of Italian churches - Fortresslike exterior of government buildings with bell towers; facing piazza Sienese Architecture - Elements of French Gothic: gables - Classical: columns, moldings - Combined to get richly ornamented screen independent of the building behind Florentine - Narrative door panel: reliefs framed by quatrefoils, monumental, classicizing figures inspired by Giotto; soft curves of northern Gothic forms in gestures, draperies - 3D figures, placed on stagelike setting Sculpture - Nicola and Giovanni Pisano (Pulpits of Pisa Baptistery and Cathedral) - More influenced by classical models - Figures with solid mass and realistically arranged drapery, deeply cut figures, closely packed composition - Sarcophagus reliefs = possible models for carving - Tendency to create crowded compositions, with various episodes represented in horror vacui, stacked one above another - Principle scene dominates by size, but subsidiary scenes compete for attention in available spaces - Figure interaction with one another, enlivened by facial expressions
Early Italian Renaissance
1400-1500 15th century Painters Masolino Antonio del Pollaiuolo Andrea del Verrocchio Fra Angelico: slender, graceful figures, use of linear perspective Andrea del Castagno Piero della Francesca: Perugino Domenico Ghirlandaio Sandro Botticelli Paolo Uccello Sculptors Donatello Nanni di Banco Lorenzo Ghiberti Andrea del Verrocchio Antonio del Pollaiuolo Venice Gentile Bellini Giovanni Bellini Carpaccio Andrea Mantegna
Early Northern Renaissance
1400-1500 15th century Flanders, Holland, Germany, France Architecture Followed the basic Gothic principles and methods of construction, with use of Flamboyant Gothic Style with elaborate carved decoration that turned solid stone into lacy confections; Gothic/Flamboyant church architecture grafted onto secular buildings Sculpture - Continues Gothic progression of having figures move away from surrounding wall, freestanding figures gave the impression of life, vitality and possibility of movement - Classicizing drapery and rounded solid volumes, developing contrapposto emerge Painting - Oil painting - International Gothic Style - detailed - atmospheric/aerial perspective - Tradition of opening wall spaces to see into rooms - Figures encased in rooms they occupy (rather than being proportional to surroundings) - Ground lines tilt up dramatically - High horizon lines - Symbolism - Bright colors Robert Campin Jan van Eyck Rogier van der Weyden Petrus Christus Hugo van der Goes Limburg Brothers
Florentine Gothic Painting
14thC literary figures: Dante, Petrarch and Boccaccio 14thC artists: Cimabue, Duccio, Giotto - Giotto observed from nature and ennobled the human form by using a weighty, monumental style, and displayed a new sense of dignity in his figures gestures and emotions Florentine - Late Gothic Italian painting is characterized by large scale panels that stand on their own (altars); trend in Gothic sculpture is to liberate works from the wall - Preferred to work in fresco or tempera techniques that enabled them to shade figures convincingly and reach for 3D reality - Dared to experiment with compositional arrangements, moving focus away from the center of the painting First artists, such as Cimabue, accepted Byzantine formulas for pictorial representation = maniera greca; emphasis on flatness of forms; introduced a new emphasis on pathos and emotion - Elongated figures, often exaggerated iconic gestures, stylized features (gold for drapery folds), striking contrasts of highlights and shadows in modeling of forms - Spatial ambiguities, individually conceived faces, Virgin's thoughtful gaze = departure from Byzantine tradition; concern for spatial volumes, solid forms delicately modeled in light and shade, warmly naturalistic human figures = new - Figures dominate architectural setting Under Giotto and his followers, moved away from tradition toward different concept of reality that sustained masses and anchored figures to ground lines - Expressive faces, meaningful gestures, emotions more tangible and dynamic - Fully 3D beings inhabiting real space with play of light across figures - Few large figures and essential props in settings that never distract the viewer by their intricate detail - Model form with color - Real human suffering, the direct, emotional appeal embodies Franciscan values - Bernardo Daddi: inspired by courtly French art
Later Renaissance in Northern Europe and Spain
1500-1600 16th century 1517: Martin Luther nails theses to church; start of Protestant Reformation Painting - Assimilation of Italian Renaissance (massiveness and size) and Mannerism (movement, elongated and stylized figures) ideas with Northern (minute details and painstaking realism/emotion) - Reluctance to use linear perspective - Artists, like Durer and Bruegel, traveled to Italy - Landscapes: generally have a trace of human involvement, by presence of buildings or farms, or small people in an overwhelming setting; use of atmospheric perspective - High horizon lines = composition full of earthbound details - After Reformation, religious imagery downplayed in favor of portraits and genre scenes - Altarpieces with wings and interior and exterior images German Albrecht Durer Lucas Cranach the Elder Matthias Grunewald French: Jean Clouet Spain: El Greco Netherlands Hieronymus Bosch Jan Gossaert Pieter Bruegel the Elder England Hans Holbein the Younger Levina Teerlinc
New Kingdom
1550-1070 BC Hatshepsut, Akhenaten, Tutankhamen, Rameses II Political/Social/Religious: Ahmose I ushered in New Kingdom = most brilliant period in Egypt's long history. - Hatshepsut = Female King. Rules as regent for stepson Thutmose III, proclaiming herself Pharaoh (Mortuary temple of Hatshepsut, Deir el-Bahri). Depicts herself as male ruler would - Akhenaton abandoned worship of many gods for one god, Aton (sun disk emanating rays, instead of gods that were human and/or animal symbols) = Amarna Period. Moves capital from Thebes to Amarna. Religion did not survive him but artistic changes he promoted were long lasting. - Ramses II = greatest pharaoh of period (Temple of Ramses II, Abu Simbel) Conventions of Art: - Hatshepsut wears costume of male pharaohs (royal headdress, kilt, false ceremonial beard), slender proportions and slight breast show femininity - Amarna Period: figures are round and elongated, softer depictions, slack jaws, protruding stomachs over low lying belts, long face, heavy lidded eyes; thinner arms and more flexible limbs → new image of pharaoh: same frontal body pose as Old Kingdom sculptures but features are smoother and more relaxed, not heroically proportioned of predecessors; royal family displayed in informal situations (loving interaction between parents and children) - Tutankhamun and Rameses II return to artistic and religious tradition after Amarna Period
Mycenaean
1600-1000 BC Mainland Greece - Heinrich Schliemann who discovered Troy and Mycenae - Spoke early form of the Greek language, unlike other Aegean civilizations - Mycenae = home of King Agamemnon - Mycenaeans = warrior-kings in glory age of heroic age to later Greeks Architecture - Centered around Megaron - main audience hall; axial plan; had a columnar porch and room with central hearth surrounded by four columns that supported the ceiling. Covered in paintings and elegant furnishings - Large citadels built of cyclopean masonry: a type of construction that uses rough, massive blocks of stone piled one atop the other without mortar - named for mythical Cyclops; heavily fortified palaces contrast sharply with open Cretan (Minoan) palaces - defensive character - Corbelled arch: a vault formed by layers of stone that gradually grow closer together as they rise until they eventually meet - Earliest burials in shaft graves: reveal opulent burial practices (buried with gold objects, jewelry, and opulent dress) inspired by Egyptian counterparts; - C.1600 BCE began building tholos tombs: above ground burial place (beehive tombs) - Unprecedented monumental stone work, created the impression of power and authority of Mycenae and King Conventions of art: Influenced by Minoan painting (small waist and broad shoulders) with overall movement away from delicate Minoan forms to a more realistic concept (Funerary Mask)
Hittite
1600-1200 BCE Hattusha, Anatolia (Turkey) - Independent culture that resisted Meso domination - Used stone rather than mud-brick as building material - Large uncut boulders set in place as impressive fortifications (guardian figures)
Rococo
1700-1750 Early 18th century
Neoclassicism
1750-1815 Late 18th century - early 19th century
Babylonian
1792-1750 BCE Babylon Hammurabi - Well organized state with strict laws handed down from the gods - earliest law code = Stele of Hammurabi - Hieratic scale, composite view figures & creatures - Abandon registers, favor tiered landscape (Like Akkadians)
Realism
1848-1860s
Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood
1848-1869
Impressionism
1872-1880s
Post-Impressionism
1880s-1890s
Symbolism
1890s
Minoan
1900-1375 BC Crete - Excavated by Arthur Evans in 1900, the civilization is named Minoan after the legend of King Minos, a king who ruled from Knossos - Wealthy sea power producing grains, olives, fruits, cattle and sheep. Used writing scripts hieroglyphic, Linear A and Linear B (early form of Greek) to keep administrative records and inventories. - Minotaur legend: half-man, half-bull, he was the son of the wife of King Minos and a bull belonging to Poseidon; the monster lived in a labyrinth or maze; King Minos ordered an annual tribute of 14 youths and maidens from Athens to sacrifice to the minotaur. Architecture - Lightly fortified complexes; had few outer walls and watch towers - Labyrinth layout due to earthquakes and rebuilding: complicated ground plan - Open courtyard = main organizational feature of Minoan palace - Rooms around central space, not long axis like Egypt and Mycenaean - Smooth wooden columns taper downwards, painted either white or red with bulbous black capitals - No grand tombs or temples in complexes Conventions of Art - Fluidity of figures unique to this point in history - figures not riveted to a ground line and enjoy movement and dynamic energy Figures: long curly hair, delicate with small waists, broad shoulders and usually depicted in Egyptian format of frontal shoulders and profile bodies (composite view), some groundbreaking works in profile (Toreador Fresco) Women: flounced skirt with short sleeves, open breasted bodice, large earrings and bracelets; shaved head with fringe of hair and long ponytail of a child Compositions dominated by curved lines, long S-shaped curves - Stylization turns natural forms into decorative patterns - Open, colorful, images of nature (alternating dark and light colors); first pure landscape painting - Palace frescoes depict aspects of Minoan life (bull leaping, processions, ceremonies) and of nature (birds, animals, flowers and marine life) Pottery: Dark painted slip on a light surface: Marine, floral, geometric motifs that are harmonious with vessels shape
Prairie Style
1900-1917 Wright
Fauvism
1905 Matisse
Expressionism
1905-1930s Modersohn-Becker Kirchner Kandinsky Marc
Cubism
1907-1930s Picasso
Futurism
1909-1914 Boccioni
Suprematism
1913-1920 Malevich
Constructivism
1914-1920s Tatlin
Dada
1916-1925 Duchamp
DeStijl
1917-1930s Mondrian Rietveld
Bauhaus
1919-1933 Gropius
Late Roman Empire
192-476 CE - Stylistic change in art reflected the dissolution and anarchy of the Roman state - Severan Dynasty - Caracalla - Tetrarchy, "rule of four," set up by Diocletian, who divided the empire into east and west with a ruling Augustus and subordinate and heir, Caesar Constantine - 313 CE - Edict of Milan: religious toleration to all religious groups, ended the persecution of Christians and recognized Christianity as a lawful religion - By end of 4thc CE Christianity = official state religion Sculpture - Classical tradition is slowly abandoned - Compositions are marked by figures that lack individuality and are crowded tightly together. Depth and recession were rejected = everything is pushed forward on the picture plane. Shortened proportions, no contrapposto; lifeless bodies behind masking drapery. Shift from cremation to burial = demand for funerary sculpture, marble sarcophagi - Emperors are represented as military figures rather than civilian rulers. Favor style of Caracalla's portraits (represents himself as intense, ruthless, no-nonsense) or as tense and worried (due to turmoil of empire) - Tetrarchs (abstract style, geometric shapes, disregard for human proportions, w/emphasis on message (imperial unity) Architecture - Baths of Caracalla: influence 20th American train station design - use of groin and barrel vaults - Arch of Constantine:looted earlier monuments of predecessors and reused items, visually transferred old Roman virtues of strength, courage, and piety associated with earlier emperors to Constantine w/addition of new reliefs that recount C's victory and symbolize his power and generosity - New style: emphasis on authority, ritual, symbolic meaning; stocky, frontal, look-alike figures, 2D, hierarchical approach differ from realism of earlier imperial reliefs - Christian church adopts art's emphasis on authority, ritual, symbolic meaning Basilica Nova: direction focus along a central axis form entrance to apse was adopted by Christians for use in churches
Art Deco
1920-1930s Van Alen
Precisionism
1920s O'Keeffe
International Style
1920s-1930s Le Corbusier
Mexican Muralists
1920s-1930s Rivera
Surrealism
1924-1930s Dali Kahlo Miro Oppenheim
Depression Era Art
1930s Hopper Lange Lawrence Wood
Pop Art
1955-1960s Hamilton Lichtenstein Warhol
Minimalism
1960s-1970s Judd
Feminist Art
1970s and beyond Kruger Sherman
Site Art
1970s-1990s Lin Smithson
Postmodern
1975-today Johnson
Early Christian
200-500 CE - Christianity begins as prohibited and underground religion first 300 years of its existence. Earliest works appear hidden in catacombs and on sarcophagi - Christian images are inspired by classical art and influenced by Constantinian artwork from the Late Roman Empire; most subject matter taken from Old and New Testaments - 313 CE Edict of Milan issued by Constantine granted religious toleration throughout the Empire and constructed a series of religious buildings honoring Christian sites Early Christian Painting: Narrative religion, deriving images from New Testament and parallel stories from Old Testament. Artists relied on their own imagination because there was no written accounts of what men and women looked like from the Bible Syncretism: artists assimilate images from classical and Jewish traditions and give them new meanings - Orant pose and Good Shepherd - Roman/Pompeian influence, sketchy painterly brushstrokes Catacomb paintings = artistic programs - Jesus maintains position of centrality and dominance, grouped around him are carefully chosen images as Old Testament prefigurations or subsidiary New Testament events - Learned from ancient painting to frame figures in either lunettes or niches, also used fresco technique and classical poses Mosaics = gold or precious materials faced with glass; create a glimmer with flickering candlelight creating other-worldly effect (classical technique) - 3D figures, cast shadows, balanced compositions - Roman illusionism Early Christian Sculpture - Last traditional artistic medium adapted to Early Christian needs - avoided large scale sculptures of Jesus and his apostles were - Small scale and personal: ivory and marble - Sculpted in late Roman style: short figures with uniform height and squat proportions; less interested in individuality of expression and proportional relationships of figures to buildings and the background setting than the spiritual message and powerful narratives the Bible stories inspired - Figures express classical roots: natural poses, figures solid modeling and revealing drapery
Middle Kingdom
2040-1640 BCE Political/Social/Religious: King Mentuhotep II unified Egypt for a second time after a period of anarchy, brought stability to Egypt for four centuries Architecture: Rock cut-tombs: pyramid building was abandoned in favor of smaller and less expensive rock-cut tombs; fluted columns cut away from rock; executed in faces of cliffs Conventions of Art: Figures are more relaxed, emotional faces (introspective expressions), not heroic figures, less idealized and youthful; reflect the period of civil unrest
Akkadian Art
2340-2180 BCE Sargon, Naram Sin - Conquer Sumerians and untie Mesopotamia - Deification of the king, who rules with the gods' approval but does not need their assistance (new concept of royal power = loyal to king, not city-state) - Erect commemorative stelai - Deification of King (major change from Sumerians) - Hieratic scale - Composite view figures & composite creatures - Geometric hair/beard; curling beard and elaborately braided hair indicated royalty and IDEAL male appearance (geometric locks of hair) - Landscapes, abandon register
Old Kingdom
2575-2134 BCE Khufu, Khafre, Menkaure Political/Social/Religious: Begins with Sneferu, period of social and political stability. Ruling families grew wealthy and size/complexity tombs reflected financial prosperity (commissioned life size/colossal royal portraits); upper level gov. Officials could also afford decorated tombs Conventions of Art: Figures show an unyielding stance and formidable expression - Sculpture in situ (carved on site = Great Sphinx) - Figures: frontal, rigid, motionless, symmetrical, rarely cut away from stone (solid presence), strict adherence to canon of proportions; Non-royality: more realistic, but not portraits; hieratic scale - Many seated or standing formulaic types employed to represent the human body: timeless nature, rigidly frontal with arms hanging straight down and and close to well built body, hands clenched into fists with thumbs forward, left leg is slightly advanced (no contrapposto) - Double portraits Pharaohs: Static, idealized face and body (heroic, muscular, powerful, athletic warrior; to claim the godlike nature of Egyptian kingship) nemes headdress, short kilt, fake beard, arms held close to the torso and thighs, legs close together → eternal stillness Tomb relief/painting: sometimes had narrative context, hunting scenes (triumph over evil forces); hieratic scale, composite view figures (conventional pose - cannon of proportions) w/realistic depicted activities or naturalistically rendered environment
Early Roman Empire
27 BC-96 CE Augustus/Octavian = first Roman emperor - Led empire for nearly 60 years - Pontifex Maximus (High Priest/empire's highest religious official) - Est. period of stability, internal peace and economic prosperity = "Pax Romana/Roman Peace" - Defined concept of empire and imperial rule for later Western rulers - Undertook building programs to make city life comfortable - Forums, basilicas, race tracks, stadiums, theatres, public baths, roads, bridges, aqueducts, middle class housing, entire new towns Augustan created new style - Roman form of idealism grounded in appearance of everyday world (inspired by Greek, Etruscan and Republican traditions) - Portraiture of both official images and private individuals - Recorded contemporary historical events on arches, columns and mausoleums erected in public places - Contributed to Roman imperial propaganda Sculpture: -Portraits = propaganda - Recognizable portraits - Idealized figures far removed from individualized portrait style of Republican period -Augustus always a vigorous young ruler (in his 70s when died) - Interest in space: figures at varied reliefs to suggest depth, feet project over ground line - 3D and volume illustrated through turning figures in space and clothed in revealing draperies - Stylized foliage and flowers, scenes framed with pilasters and entablatures to divide walls into segments Flavians - Most admirable commissions: the triumphal arch (Arch of Titus - capture of Jerusalem) and the Colosseum (Flavian Amphitheatre) - Flavian bust: strong nose and jaw, heavy bros, deep set eyes, long neck, smooth flesh and soft full lips - Hair piled high in mass of ringlets (drill work), from a distance seemed lifelike, however, idealized figure - Revival veristic portraiture of Republican period
Cycladic
3000-1600 BC Cycladic islands in the Aegean Sea - Late neolithic culture with no written records; created ceramic objects and small scale sculptures. Engaged in agriculture, herding, some crafts and trade. Later subsumed by Minoan and Mycenaean culture - Cycladic islands rich in marble deposits, as well as obsidian (good stone for cutting) - What survives has mostly found in grave sites (funerary objects/grave goods) on Greek islands - figurines, w/back tilted heads and rendered in simple geometric shapes; varied in size, from small (portable) to large - Folded-Arm Figure (FAF) = arms crossed over abdomen - Males: sculpture in the round - Nude figures, reduced to geometric essentials = Characterized by a linear abstraction and clean, cripp lines that de-emphasize details that may have been painted on (Abstract form and lines admired by artists of 20thC)
Hellenistic
323-31 BC 4th Century BC - 323 BC - Death of Alexander the Great (Empire stretched from Macedonia to Egypt and India, divided among Generals; artistic uniformity across regions with commissions of monuments and traveling artists) - 31 BC - Augustus/Octavian defeats Marc Antony and Cleopatra, ending Ptolemaic dynasty of Egypt - Dramatic facial expressions/actions, heightened realism and complex multi-figural compositions - Period of wealth and emergence of art collecting middle class: desire to decorate homes and estates with sculpture and painting resulting in explosion new secular subjects and themes, also royal monuments and mythological groups - Portraiture becomes individualized and realistic, echoing the importance of political/military personalities - Genre figures: drunken satyrs, haggard beggars, plump children, athletes, dramatic posed animals, erotic hermaphrodites Two trends: anti-Classical and Classical models - Wider range of realistic modeling and a willingness to show more movement - Figures have great variety of expressions from sadness to joy - Untouched themes of childhood, old age, despair, anger, drunkenness - Emphasis on textures: cloth, hair, skin, feathers - Sculptors carve with greater flexibility: employing negative space more freely; in the round - Overtly sexual statuary - meant to tease the spectator - Deliberate attempt to elicit a specific emotional response from the viewer - Fill sculptural space and break out of architectural boundaries and invade the spectators space Ceramics: Dynamic movements Architecture - Corinthian Order - Follow conventions: rectangular building surrounded by screen of columns standing on a 3-stepped base - Pergamon, early 3rd century; Altar of Zeus (175 BC), battle of Zeus against the giants and defeat of the Gauls; connects also to Parthenon; 400 ft. long frieze on monumental altar
Art of the Near East
3500-539 BCE Sumerian, Akkadian, Neo-Sumerian, Babylonian, Hittite, Assyrian, Neo-Babylonian, Persian - Tigris and Euphrates rivers: first place writing, cities, organized religion & government, laws, agriculture, bronze casting emerged - Birth of art in the service of the state and religion; combined with writing, objects give first systematic record of human development; Kings sense art could glorify their reign and bring gods to life - Created buildings for religion (ziggurats) or state (palaces); built of mud brick, either painted or faced with tile or stone; temples center of civic and religious pride - Stelai commemorate rulers achievements - Assyrian lion reliefs among first organized narratives - city-states with social hierarchies, specialized skills which made trade of goods possible - Organized religion emerged with priests, worshipped many gods/goddesses --> believed that rulers had direct link to their gods (like Egyptians), why kings shown in glorified state Characteristics of art: - Figures are actively engaged in activities: hunting, praying, performing a ritual (unlike prehistoric art) - Hieratic scale - Composite view figures & composite creatures - Deification of rulers - Repetition of simple/geometric patterns Legacy: - Cuneiform - Ziggurats - Monumental sculptures - Historical reliefs
Early Medieval Art
450-1050 Hiberno-Saxon Art 6th-8th centuries Viking Art 8th-11th centuries Carolingian Art 8th-9th centuries Ottonian Art 10th-early 11th centuries Key Ideas - The Migration period of the Early Middle Ages features portable works that were done in the animal style - Characteristics of Early Medieval art include horror vacui and interlacing patterns - Celts, Norse, Goths and Saxons sought to capture essence of forms in dynamic, colorful line art. Complex geometric patterns and interlaces, later mixed with classical forms - Art at the court of Charlemagne begins the first of many western European revivals of ancient Rome - Ottonian art revives large scale sculpture and architecture Innovations of Early Medieval Painting - Codex illuminations (made of vellum or parchment) - Animal style: compositions are generally symmetrical, and animals either entirely in profile or form above Historical Background - As Roman Empire declined in 4thC and came to an end in 5thC, its authority was supplanted by "barbarians" - Age of mass migrations - 8th century group of Frankish kings (aka Charlemagne) build impressive empire, centered in Aachen, Germany - 10th century, dynasty of 3 German kings, all named Otto, established the Ottonian Empire (reuniting central Europe - Monasteries/convents were principal centers of learning; scribes copied great works of ancient literature (the Bible or medical treatises); did not record contemporary literature or folk tales and were expected to copy the text exactly of a continuously recopied book, while illustrators painted important scenes (traditional style with some freedom of expression)
High Classical Greece
450-400 BC late 5th Century BC 462-429 BCE: Perikleian Age in Athens (Perikles = statesmen responsible for building the Parthenon at Acropolis) 431-404 BC: 1st and 2nd Peloponnesian Wars ending with collapse of Athens and victory of militaristic state of Sparta Canon of Polykleitos (450 BC) - Ideal physical perfection - Explores proportions based on system of ratios between a set unit and the length of various body parts (index finger or width of hand across knuckles) - Guidelines for symmetria - relaxed and weight bearing legs in a perfectly balanced figure = contrapposto - Chiastic balance of figures various parts; tensed and relaxed limbs oppose each other diagonally (harmony in opposites) Sculpture themes: Olympian gods and goddesses with superhuman beauty - X shaped compositions Ceramics - Red figure and white ground painting technique - Attempt at eyes in profile, unlike Archaic frontal eyes on profile faces Architecture - Doric and Ionic temples - Parthenon displays aesthetic control of the space is the essence of architecture. Sculptural decoration convey political and ideological themes (victory over Persia, preeminence of Athens thanks to favor of Athena, triumph civilization over barbarism); conforms to slope of pediment without any awkwardness; females "wet drapery" clinging fabric covers and reveals - Reduction of forms to their characteristic essentials; moment of pause in fluid motion; masters representing hard muscles but soft flesh - Graceful forms and rhythms over shadow disproportions (horse to human ratio), spatial incongruities and implausible compositional features (all figures standing on same ground plane) - Buildings take viewer into account: foot path and light reception - Use of classical figures: weight supported on one engaged leg (stability), while the free leg, bent at the knees, rest on the ball of the foot (relaxed grace and effortless support)
Early Classical Greece
480-450 BC 5th Century BC 480 BC: Greeks defeat Persians New naturalism in rendering human form, new artistic interest in depicting emotion, physical movement and narrative Freestanding sculpture: Move from rigid, frontal and unnatural Egyptian inspired pose of Archaic Kouros to exhibiting a more natural, lifelike quality, use of contrapposto and slight turn of the head - Seriousness, solemn expression replaced archaic smile more natural, lifelike qualities - Garments fall naturally, vary in width and depth - Balance of contrasting natural and idealized features Bronze hollow-casting technique permitted powerful and even off balance action poses - easier to create freestanding figures. Sculptors sought to craft poses that captured natural feeling of continuous movement and not arbitrary moment frozen in time. ex: Zeus, Bronze, c.460-540BC Relief sculpture - Greek male ideal = calm and reason/passion, civilization/barbarism, Greece/Persia - Organized and natural use of space in pediment sculpture (ex. Temple of Zeus West Pediment) - Figures show strong interest in realism; graceful figures, turning and twisting poses dramatize the physical struggle of enemies - Women's figures suggest flesh of bodies through graceful fall of drapery Ceramics - Red figure technique - Figures shape conform to vessel - Frontal eye Architecture Constructed new temples to honor God's - Temple of Zeus Adjustments to compensate for optical illusions - to appear perfect proportioned
Byzantine Empire
500-1453 Eastern Greek Orthodox Church - Constantine the Great (r. 307-337 AD) moved capital of Roman Empire to Constantinople (Istanbul) = centre of Eastern Roman Empire/Byzantine Empire, flourished until empire fell to Ottoman Turks in 1453 - Most Byzantine art is now preserved Italy, Sicily, Greece and Balkans b/c of two periods of iconoclasm in Constantinople and the east (730-787 and 814-843) - Religious art = balance Western Classicism and Eastern mysticism, distinctive in formalism and reliance on a language of symbols - Secular art = closer to classical ideals, subject matter and style - Mosaics, icons, manuscript illumination - Unlike classical art: Byzantine depiction of people are rarely portraits but are symbolic representations of their inner essence, presented frontally. Hieratic scale; ground line is unimportant = floating figure; light comes from within the person; little interaction btwn figures, formal reserve in actions - Influenced Ottonian and other medieval styles
Achaemenid/Persian
559-331 BCE Cyrus the Great (conquered Babylon, est. dynasty) Darius I (tolerant ruler, Susa then Persepolis capital) Xerxes I - Largest empire at time - 480 BC Defeated by Greeks (beginning of Classical Greek Period) - 330 BC Persepolis destroyed by Alexander the Great - Persepolis: raised on platform (Assyrian influence), imported workers, artists from around empire (Persian, Meso, Egypt, Greek) created artistic style that combined different cultural traditions - Erected monumental architecture: Apadana (audience hall for grand ceremonies) - Arch. characterized by columns shaped by two bull-shaped capitals holding up a wooden roof - Figures in profile, processions (bringing king gifts), hieratic scale, combating animals (ferocity of rulers) - Large stone relief carvings - Knowledge of Greek art: Greek archaic sculpture, elegant drawing and balanced composition - King: bearded, crenelated crown, long pleated robe, boots - Tribal people: belted tunic, knee length, trousers, boots, hat - Griffin
Archaic Greece
600-480 BC 6th-5th century - Greek city-states and colonies flourished - Athens forefront artistically, commercially, politically - Patrons = city council's and wealthy individuals - Artists competed for commissions: - Temples, shrines, gov. buildings - Monumental sculpture, ceramic wares - Potters and vase painters began to sign their work Monumental freestanding sculpture revived - Kouros "young man" = nude - Kore "young woman" = clothed - Differ Egyptians:figures liberated from original stone block, nude, archaic smile Relief Sculpture - Curiously turned bodies - Varying relief depth - Attempt at placing figures one behind the other but same ground line - Awkward and unnatural pose - Move toward more naturalism end Archaic - Bodies twisting in space (capture agony) - Subtle modeling convey softness of human flesh Ceramics - Decreased # of bands, limited to decoration above and below the central scene - Funerary rites, daily life, symposia, athletics, warfare, religion, mythology - Viewers would have known what happened before and after scenes on vessels - Black figure painting - Stiff figures in monumental stature, placed in single framed panel - Single eye in profile (Egyptian eye) - Compositions focus attentions and capture viewers emotions; balanced elements and colors - 530 BC: Red figure painting - end of the Archaic period - Offered more detail/expressive figures (clothing, musculature, facial features) - Expanded chromatic range (brown shades) - Explore foreshortening
Neo-Babylonian
612-539 BCE Nebuchadnezzar II (King of Kings by biblical David) - Hanging gardens, Ishtar Gate - Mud brick construction faced with blue glazed bricks, crenellated - Symmetry, order, repetition = power of king
Hiberno-Saxon Art (Early Medieval Art)
6th-8th centuries British Isles Anglo-Saxon Art (Great Britain) - Epic Beowulf - Gold and Silverwork - Objects done in cloisonne, with horror vacui designs featuring animal style decorations; interlacing patterns; elaborate symmetry w/ animals alternating with geometric designs - Portable objects Hiberno-Saxon Art (British Isles: Ireland) - Main artistic expression = illuminated manuscripts - Complicated interlacing patterns in a frenzy of horror vacui, curvilinear abstract and zoomorphic ornament with figural work - Borders = animals in stylized combat patterns (animal style) - Each section of illustrated text opens with huge initials = space for ornamentation
Orientalizing Greece
700-600 BC 7th century Ceramics - First began in Corinth (port city with luxury wares the Near East and Egypt likely inspired artists) - Moved away from dense linear decoration of the geometric style, more natualistic figures - More open compositions, around large motifs of real and imaginary animals, abstract plant forms, human figures, take place next to the geometric bands of ornament (Registers, rosettes, composite creatures) - Black figure pottery - Influenced by Egyptian and Near Eastern forms; spread through trade and travel of artists - Eastern pictorial motifs introduced: palmette and lotus, animal hunts, composite beasts (griffins, sphinxes, sirens)
Late Period
715-332 BCE Becomes provenance of Alexander the Great and his successors and eventually part of the Roman Empire - Country in hands of foreigners therefore, painting reflects conventions of Greek and Roman art - Fayum portraits
Roman Art
753 BCE: Legendary founding of Rome by Romulus and Remus 509-27 BCE: Roman Republic 27 BCE - 96 CE: Early Roman Empire 96- 192 CE: High Roman Empire 192-410 CE: Late Roman Empire 410 CE: Sack of Rome Key Ideas - Roman art reflects the ambitions of a powerful empire - monumental buildings and sculptures reflect the glory of the gods and the state - Roman architecture is revolutionary in its understanding of the powers of the arch, the vault, and concrete - A history of Roman painting survives on the walls of Pompeiian villas - Romans show an interest in the basic elements of perspective and foreshortening - Roman sculpture is greatly indebted to Greek models Historical Background - Roman state and wealthiest individuals = major patrons of the arts, commissioned home decorations (announced importance of owner, to impress and entertain), public projects - Workshops were created throughout Roman world to meet demand for Greek art - Adopted Greek gods and myths as well as Greek art and temple forms, became state religion, many adopted religious beliefs from conquered peoples Roman Sculpture - Built triumphal arches to commemorate historical events, military victories (w/didactic sculptural program and used art from previous emperors to link the glory of the past to the present - Sculptural innovation: hollowed-out columns with banded narrative relief sculpture spiraling around the exterior (emperor's accomplishments)
Middle or High Byzantine
843-1204 Empress Theodora (c.810-67) reinstates veneration of icons Architecture - Introduce Squinch: polygonal base of a dome that makes a transition from the round dome to a flat wall - vary shape and size; designed to be painted - Exteriors richly articulated with various colors of brick, stone, and marble, often with contrasting vertical and horizontal elements - Smaller domes forming a cross shape Mosaic/Manuscripts - Figures stand before monochromatic golden background (illustrating a heavenly world) - eliminate details to focus on the essential elements of a scene to convey its mood and message (emotional appeal and simplicity meant to aid worshippers seeking to achieve a mystical union with the divine through prayer and meditation) - Some renewed interest in classical models, combined with iconic compositions; suggestion of form beneath drapery (subtle modeling of forms), 3D space, atmospheric perspective - Also stylized and flat, geometric shapes
Carolingian Art (Early Medieval Art)
8th-9th centuries France, Germany Charlemagne est. "Carolingian" dynasty in second half 8thC, imposed Christianity through territories (Western Europe) - Revived of classical art beyond the ancient world; wanted to be emperor in "new Rome," designed bath houses, theatres, and a forum; revived Roman imagery on everything from coins to architecture - Benedictine monks and nuns became his "cultural army" - Looked to Rome and Ravenna for inspiration → created new, northern version of Imperial Christian style - Inspired by Roman triumphal arches, equestrian statues (imperial imagery), and Byzantine centrally planned churches Architecture - Synthesis of Roman (central and axial/basilican plan), Early Christian and northern styles - Westward (monumental entrance to church, two stair towers flank a lower central entrance) - Churches sometimes accompanied by monastic buildings; monks/nuns lived and worked around an open-air courtyard called a cloister, usually placed immediately adjacent to the church - Covered in mosaics and rich materials (marble) = Byzantine influence - Emphasis on verticality and clear division of larger forms into separate parts = Carolingian Manuscript Illumination - Drew inspiration from both roman sources and contemporary Byzantine iconography - Human figure = central focus; Style vary by illustrator (more freedom in images than text, which had to be exact copies); mix of naturalism and flat, off perspective scenes - Figure modeled beneath garments (full bodied), hint at 3D space, hint of naturalism in vines/landscape - Flat background, reverse perspective - Expressive brushstrokes (Flickering lines) to evoke spiritual excitement of sitter transcribes Word of God - Often covered in exquisite covers made with valuable materials - Cross and Crucifixion were common themes for covers; repousse technique, with heavily jeweled frames
Geometric Greece
900-700 BC 8th century - Creation monumental ceramic vessels with complex geometric designs, resumption bronze casting, construction of religious architecture - Cultural revival of historical past through epic poetry and visual arts (8th century = Homer, Greek campaign against Troy (Iliad) and adventures of Odysseus on return to Ithaca (Odyssey) Ceramics: registers, funerary urns = grave markers, abstract motifs Reintroduction human figure and narrative - Triangular torsos, tiny waist, rectangular arms, long legs with bulging thigh and calf muscles, heads (single round dot for eye in center) - Full frontal or profile view to emphasize flat patterns and outline shapes - No attempt create 3D forms occupying real space - flat patterns and outline shapes Armed warrior, chariot and horse = most familiar symbols of Geometric period Metal Sculpture: Attest to prosperity and trade - Produced many figurines of wood, clay, ivory, cast bronze Animals and humans are similar to those painted on pots: reduce forms to simple geometric shapes; composition arranged in solid forms and negative spaces → pleasing from every view - Votive offerings founds in sanctuaries Architecture: Constructed large temples and sanctuaries dedicated to patron deities = rise of state religion Sanctuaries: place of worship; embody palatial earthly homes for the gods (Like egyptians). Have outdoor altars and shrines; each building and monument treated as individual element to be integrated with natural features of site (like Greek citizens). Unlike Egyptians: dramatized the power of their gods by organizing their temples along straight processional ways Temples sheltered statue of god - Stone foundations in rectangular shape 1. Door at one end sheltered by projecting porch 2. Pronaos → reception room, proceeds cella (large interior room)
High Roman Empire
96-192 CE Trajan: expire reached greatest extent Hadrian: admiration Greek culture spurred new building programs and art patronage Sculpture - Used drill to carve - Senators busts conveyed virtues of Republican Rome - Emperors were depicted less individualized with iconography more associated with the divine (wears no armor or weapons, like Egyptian kings he conquers by will of the gods). Took inspiration from Classical Greece by adopting contrapposto, ideal proportions and heroic poses of Greek statuary (b/c of Hadrian's love of Greek art). Contained element of propaganda - Monumental sculpture created to publicize emperor's accomplishments; included elements of natural landscape setting which framed proportionally larger figures w/idealized heads, form-enhancing drapery, graceful movements Architecture Forum of Trajan: last and largest, Greek architect - Basilica: rectangular building with rounded extension (apse) at each end, central area (Nave) flanked by double colonnaded aisles surmounted by open galleries or by a clerestory; administrative purpose - Market, with large groin vaulted main hall - Trajan's column: first erected column with narrative band of military campaign (imperial propaganda) spiraling around exterior, efficient commander with barbarian enemies shown as worthy opponents or Rome Pantheon (built by Hadrian): temple to the Olympian gods, originally stood on podium, approached by stairs. Behind porch is giant rotunda w/dome, interior coffered, repetition of square against circle elements Mosaics: 3D shading of figures, foreshortening, sensitivity to a range of figure types (human torsos, animals in a variety of poses)
International Gothic Syle
A style of 14th/15thC painting began by Simone Martini. The style is characterized by elegant and intricate interpretations of naturalistic subjects, and minute detailing and patterning in drapery and color, catering to an aristocratic taste - Slender, graceful posed figures with S-shaped curve, delicate features are framed by masses of curling hair and complex headdresses - Landscape and (fanciful) architectural settings are miniaturized, however, details of nature (leaves, flowers, insects, birds) rendered with microscopic detail - Frequently walls of buildings open up so the viewer can look at the interior and exterior - Spatial recession is represented by rising filed floors that open up like stage sets; floors tilted up to give clear view of the scene - High placement of horizon line - Landscape arranged to lead eye from the foreground into the distance
Late Gothic, Flamboyant Gothic
After 1300 France - 1337-1453 The Hundred Years' War between France and England - 1304-1377 The Babylonian Captivity of the Papacy - 1378-1417 Great Schism, where there were two popes, one in Rome and one in Avignon, each claiming legitimacy - 1348 The Black Death, A quarter to a third of world population perished from pulmonary plague. Arch came to a standstill and artists interpreted the plague as a punishment from God, thus painting became conservative and began to look back to earlier styles Architecture - "Flaming" - Highly decorative - Characterized by mass of pinnacles and tracery; decoration acts as see-through screen in which the forms are revealed - Ogee arches - Example: Saint-Maclou Painting - French court style/Rayonnant: elegant figures move gracefully through a narrow stage space established by miniature architecture and elements of landscape; softly modeled voluminous draperies gathered around tall, elegantly curved figures with curly hair and delicate features - Grisaille: monochromatic painting in shades of gray with faint touches of color - English Influence : merging Christian narrative with allegory, foliate borders filled with real and grotesque creatures - Sienese Influence : figures placed within coherent architectural settings Sculpture - Religious subjects = more emotionally expressive - Secular: cult of chivalry revived: tales of romance filled popular imagination - S-curve pose, fluid drapery, hint of realism with figures interactions
Gothic Art in England Perpendicular Gothic
Architecture - English Gothic buildings are constructed in garden like setting called a close, inspired by cloistered areas in medieval monasteries - Have extremely pronounced central spires, smaller flying buttresses, diminutive portals, lower facade towers, and wide screen like facades containing sculpture everywhere - Screenlike facade that does not reflect the interior distribution of space (at odds with architectural logic of French Gothic) - Interior color stone work reminiscent of Romanesque interiors - Prefer a long horizontal view down nave terminating in a square apse - 2 transepts, both prominently stick out from building - Accent horizontal - "Decorated Style": developed beginning 14thC, corresponds to the Rayonnant style in France Painting - Elegance of French gothic visible in elongated proportions and dainty heads of figures - English tradition of draftsmanship: interlaced tendrils and stylized drapery folds - Pictorial needlework = opus anglicanum (English Work) Perpendicular Gothic Architecture (after c.1350) - Enormous window spaces interlaced with elaborate decorative vertical patterns of stone tracery - Fan Vault: fanlike shape is created when the vaults spring from the floor to the ceiling, nearly touching in the space directly over the center of the nave. They are usually highly decorated and filled with rib patterns
Gothic Art in Germany and the Holy Roman Empire
Architecture - Hall church: open, light filled interior space; nave and side aisles vaults all reach the same height Sculpture - Metalwork (goldsmiths), inspired classicizing style in the arts; naturalistically modeled figures in voluminous but revealing drapery - Dynamically expressive, large heads, short bodies clothed in fluid drapery; deeply undercut, figures stand out dramatically in crowded scene - Intense emotions = characteristic of medieval German sculpture - Realism trend; lifelike and individualized figures and faces - Courtly and elegant Painting - "Beautiful Style" Heavy bodies, oversized heads and hands, dour and haunted faces, and soft, deeply modeled draper merged with French Gothic style; complex drapery, V shaped folds - Emphasis ecstatic joy and extreme suffering (famines, wars, plagues, inspired mystical religiosity); profound shock, pity, grief, horror
Pre/Early Dynastic Period
Around 3000, King Narmer unifies Upper (southern, upstream) and Lower (norther) Egypt 2950-2631 BCE Djoser, Stepped Pyramid
Aegean Art
Bronze Age civilizations, Southern Greece - The Cycladic civilization of the Greek islands produced stylized statuettes of nude standing females and nude males playing musical instruments - The Minoans from the island of Crete build mixed-use palaces with complex ground plans - Mycenaeans from mainland Greece were noted for massive citadels marked by cyclopean masonry and corbelled vaulting - Heinrich Schliemann who discovered Troy and Mycenae - Arthur Evans - Knossos on Crete Innovations in Aegean Painting: Egypt painted in technique called fresco secco (dry fresco - paint applied to a dry wall = chipped surface), Aegean artists used buon fresco (true fresco - pigment applied to wet plaster; artists had to work quickly) Innovations in Aegean Sculpture: Minoans and Mycenaeans adept at sculpting in repousse (fitting a sheet of thin metal, gold or bronze, onto a surface, the metal is incised with small hammers from the back side of the plate. A design is beaten on the inside of the object, leaving a raised surface on the exterior; artist works on back of object only - Mycenaean Funerary Mask)
Classical Greek Art
Characteristics of Greek Sculpture (how it stands from previous civilizations) - Nudity (Egyptians thought debasing), Greeks gloried in perfection and beauty of the human body (Idealizing of the human form) - Cut away from the stone; bronze compositions were more ambitious - Classical and Hellenistic Greeks use of contrapposto (movement contrasts immobile Egyptian art) - Idealized and heroic figures - Restrained emotion and nobility, control of body (physically) and mind (actions), heroic Two major events define period: 1. 480 BCE Athens destroyed by the Persians; Greek city-states allied behind Athens and Sparta to fight Persian invasion (Delian League); defeat the Persians and Athens emerged leader of city-states (Scholars argue the self-confidence of their success of the Persians accelerated the development of Greek art, inspiring artists to seek new and more efficient ways to express their cities accomplishments = emergence of new art style) 2. 323 BCE Death of Alexander the Great Art based on - Humanism: gods looked like perfect human beings - Rationalism: reason over emotion - Idealism: ground art in close observation of nature, searched for universal ideal not actual individual detail (most desirable traits) - no memory images as Meso or Egypt 5thc BCE Polykleitos' canon of proportions: rules constructing ideal human figure (Doryphoros). Explored proportions and relationship of weight bearing and relaxed legs/arms in an ideal, perfectly balanced figure (Contrapposto) 1764 J.J. Winkelmann first defines the classical style when revolutionizing art history by systematizing the development of style based on a progression (primitive Archaic - Classical - decline of Hellenistic = degenerate b/c not art of self control)
Hellenistic (Influence)
Laocoon and his Sons, marble, c.100 BC: 1506 discovered in Rome, acquired by Pope Julius II and installed in Vatican Belvedere. Admired by Michelangelo, Raphael, Titian, Rubens, Bernini, etc. (theatrical facial expressions, dramatic musculature, writhing composition)
Organic Art
Late 1920s-1930s Brancusi Moore
Abstract Expressionism
Late 1940s-1950s DeKooning Pollock