Comp Images

- During the 15th century, the Hundred Years' War crippled the French economy, but dukes and members of the royal court still commissioned some notable works - The Limbourg brothers expanded the illusionistic capabilities of manuscript illumination in the Book of Hours they produced. Their full-page calendar pictures alternately represent the nobility and the peasantry, always in naturalistic settings with realistically painted figures

14th-15th Century France

c. 1892-1905 -1st modern art style -Internationally oriented, nationalism key motivator -Evokes nature -Response to Industrialization -Very important in domestic realm

Art Nouveau

1194-1300 -Built on designs of early Gothic, became more interested in verticality. -Flying buttresses, tripartite elevation- elimination of gallery

High Gothic

Near East: 6000-3500 BC/Europe: 4000-1500 BC -Marked by the settling of hunter gatherer societies into fixed abodes. Domestication of plants and animals. Assured food supply led to specialization of labor, foundational for rise of cities.

Neolithic Period

- Diversity of style characterized the art of 13th century Italy, with some artists working in the newly revived classical tradition, some in the mode of Gothic France, and others in the maniera greca, or Italo-Byzantine style - Trained in southern Italy in the court style of Frederick II (r. 1197-1250), Nicola Pisano was a master sculptor who settled in Pisa and carved pulpits incorporating marble panels that both stylistically and in individual motifs, depend on ancient Roman sarcophagi - Nicola's son, Giovanni Pisano, also was a sculptor of church pulpits, but his work more closely reflected the Gothic sculpture of France - The leading painters working in the Italo-Byzantine style were Bonaventura Berlinghieri and Cimabue. Both artists drew inspiration from Byzantine icons and illuminated mansucripts.

13th Century Italy

- During the 14th century, Italy suffered the most devastating natural disaster in European history - the black death that swept through Europe - but it was also the time when Renaissance humanism took root. Although religion continued to occupy a primary position in Italian life, scholars and artists became much more concerned with the natural world - Giotto di Bondone of Florence, widely regarded as the first Renaissance painter, was a pioneer in pursuing a naturalistic approach to representation based on observation, which was at the core of the classical tradition in art. The Renaissance marked the rebirth of classical values in art and society - The greatest master of Sienese school of painting was Duccio di Buoninsegna, whose Maesta still incorporates many elements of the maniera greca. He relaxed the frontally and rigidity of his figures, however, and in narrative scenes took a decisive step towards humanizing religious subject matter by depicting actors displaying individual emotions - Secular themes also came to the fore in 14th century Italy, most notably Ambrogio Lorenzetti's frescoes depicting the city and its surrounding countryside are among the first landscapes in Western art since antiquity

14th Century Italy

- The most powerful ruler north of the Alps during the first three-quarters of the 15th century were the dukes of Burgundy. They controlled Flanders, which derived its wealth from wool and banking - Duke Philip the Bold was the great patron of the Carthusian monastery at Champmol, near Dijon. He employed Claus Sluter, whose Well of Moses features innovative statues of prophets with portrait-like features and realistic costumes - Flemish painters popularized the use of oil paints on wooden panels. By superimposing translucent glazes, they created richer colors than possible using tempera or fresco. - A major art form in churches and private homes alike was the altarpiece with folding wings. Campin's Merode Altarpiece is an early example painted in oil, in which the Annunciation take place in a Flemish home. Typical of Northern Ren painting, the everyday objects depicted often have symbolic significance. - Van Eyck and Vander Weyden established portraiture as an important art form in 15th C. Flanders. Van Eyck's self portrait reveals the growing self-awareness of Renaissance artists

14th-15th Century Burgundy and Flanders

- The Late Gothic style remianed popular in 15th century Germany for large carved wooden retables featuring highly emotive figures amid Gothic tracery - The major German innovation of the 15th century was the development of the printing press, which soon was used to produce books with woodcut illustrations. Woodcuts are relief prints in which the artist carves out the area around the printed lines, a method that requires the images to be conceptualized negatively - German artists such as Martin Schongauer were also the earliest masters of engraving. This intaglio technique allows for a wider variety of linear effects because the artist incises the image directly onto a metal plate - Widespread dissatisfaction with the Church in Rome led to the Protestant Reformation, splitting Christendom in half. Protestants object to the sale of indulgences and rejected most of the sacraments of the Catholic Church. They also condemned ostentatious church decoration as a form of idolatry that distracted the faithful from communication with God - As a result, Protestant churches were relatively bare, but art, especially prints, still played a role in Protestantism. - The greatest printmaker of the Holy Roman Empire was Durer, who was also a painter. Durer was the first artist outside Italy to become an international celebraty. His work reanged from biblical subjects to botanical studies. Fall of Man reflects Durer's studies of Vitruvian theory of human proportions and of classical statuary - Other German artists, such as Hans Holbien was a renowned portraitist who became court painter in England. His French Ambassadors portrays two wordly humansts and includes a masterfully rendered anamorphic skull

14th-17th Century Holy Roman Empire

- The fortunate congruence of artistic genius, the spread of humanism, and economic prosperity nourished the flowering of the new artistic culture that historians call the Renaissance - the rebirth of classical values in art and life. The greatest center of Renaissance art in the 15th century was Florence, home of the Medici, who were among the most ambitious art patrons in history - the Renaissance interest in classical culture naturally also led to the revival of Greco-Roman mythological themes in art. - Although some painters continued to work in the Late Gothic International Style, others broke fresh ground by exploring new modes of representation - The secular side of 15th century Italian painting is on display in historical works. The humanist love of classical themes comes to the fore in works of Botticelli. - Italian architects also revive the classical style

15th Century Florence

- Although Florentine artists led the way in creating the Renaissance in art and architecture, the papacy in Rome and the princely courts in Urbino, Mantua, and elsewhere also were major art patrons - Among the important papal commissions of the 15th century was the decoration of the walls of the Sistine Chapel with frescoes, including Perugion's Christ Delivering the Keys to the Kingdom to Saint Peter, a prime example of linear perspective - Under the patronage of Federico da Montefeltro, Urbino became a major center of Renaissance art and culture. The leading painter in Federico's employ was Piero della Francesca, a master of color and light and the author of the first theoretical treatise on perspective - Mantua became an important art center under Marquis Ludovico Gonzaga, who brought in Alberti to rebuild the church of Sant' Andrea. Alberti applied the principles he developed in his architectural treatise to the project and freely adapted forms from Roman religious, triumphal, and civic architecture

15th Century Italian Princely Courts

- The Netherlands was one of the most commercially advanced and prosperous countries in 16th century Europe. Much of Netherlandish art of this period provided a picture of contemporary life and values. - Prominent female artists of the period include Caterina van Hemmessen, who painted the first known Northern European self-portrait of a woman, and Levina Teerlinc, who painted portraits for the English Court

16th & 17th Century Netherlands

- The Dutch Republic received official recognition of its independence from Spain in the Treaty of Westphalia of 1648. Worldwide trade and banking brought prosperity to its predominantly Protestant citizenry, which largely rejected church art in favor of private commissions of portraits, genre scenes, landscapes, and still lifes - Frans Hals produced innovative portraits of middle class patrons in which a lively informality replaced the formulaic patterns of traditional portraiture. Jacob van Ruisdael specialized in landscapes depicting specific places, not idealized Renaissance settings. Pieter Claesz, Willem Kalf, and others painted "vanitas"- still lifes featuring meticulous depictions of worldly goods and reminders of death - Rembrandt, the greatest Dutch artist of the age, treated a broad range of subjects, including religious themes and portraits. His oil paintings are notable for their dramatic impact and subtle gradations of light and shade as well as the artist's ability to convey human emotion. -Jan Vermeer specialized in painting Dutch families in serenely opulent homes. Vermeer's convincing representation of interior spaces depended in part on his employment of the camera obscura. He was also a master of light and color and understood that shadows are not colorless

17th Century Dutch Republic/ Baroque

- In the 17th century, Flanders remained Catholic and under Spanish control. Flemish Baroque art is more closely tied to the Baroque art of Italy than is the art of much of the rest of Northern Europe - The leading Flemish painter of this era was Peter Paul Rubens, whose work and influence were international in scope. A diplomat as well as an artist, he counted kings and queen among his patrons and friends. His paintings of the career or Marie de Medici exhibit Baroque splendor in color and ornament, and feature Ruben's characteristic robust and foreshortened figures in swirling motion

17th Century Flanders/ Baroque

- The major art patron in 17th century France was the Sun King, the absolutist monarch Louis XIV, who expanded the Louvre and built a gigantic palace-and-garden complex at Versailles featuring sumptuous furnishings and sweeping vistas. Among the architects Louis employed were Charles Le Brun and Jules Hardouin-Mansart, who succeeded in marrying Italian Baroque and French classical styles - The leading French proponent of classical painting was Nicholas Poussin, who spent most of his life in Rome and championed the grand manner of painting, which called for heroic or divine subjects and classical composition with figures often modeled on ancient statues - Claude Lorrain, whose fame rivaled Poussin's, specialized in classical landscape rendered in linear and atmospheric perspective. His compositions often incorporated ancient ruins

17th Century France

- Baroque- in contrast to the precision and orderly rationality of Italian Ren. classicism, Baroque art and architecture is dynamic, theatrical, and highly ornate - Baroque architects emphatically rejected the classical style, by emphasizing the sculptural qualities of buildings. The interior of buildings pulsate with energy and feature complex domes that grow organically from curving walls - In painting, Caravaggio broke new ground by employing stark and dramatic contrasts of light and dark (tenebrism) and by setting religious scenes in everyday locales filled with rough-looking common people. - Illusionistic ceiling paintings were very popular in Baroque Italy.

17th Century Italy/ Baroque

- Although the power of the Habsburg kings of Spain declined over the course of the 17th century, the royal family, which was devoutly Catholic, continued to spend lavishly on art. Spanish artists eagerly embraced the drama and emotionalism of Italian Baroque art. Scenes of death and martyrdom were popular in Spain during the Counter-Reformation. - The greatest Spanish Baroque painter was Diego Velazquez, court painter to Philip IV (r. 1621-1665). Velazquez painted a wide variety of themes ranging from religious subjects to royal portraits and historical events. His masterwork, Las Meninas, is extraordinarily complex visually and mixes true spaces, mirrored spaces, pictured spaces, and pictures within pictures. It is a celebration of the art of painting itself

17th Century Spain/ Baroque

- Abstract Expressionism has become the most accepted term for a group of artists who did hold much in common. All were committed to an expressive art of profound emotion and universal themes, and most were shaped by the legacy of Surrealism, a movement that they translated into a new style fitted to the post-war mood of anxiety and trauma. In their success, the New York painters robbed Paris of its mantle as leader of modern art, and set the stage for America's post-war dominance of the international art world. - Political instability in Europe in the 1930s brought several leading Surrealists to New York, and many of the Abstract Expressionists were profoundly influenced by the style and by its focus on the unconscious. It encouraged their interest in myth and archetypal symbols and it shaped their understanding of painting itself as a struggle between self-expression and the chaos of the unconscious.

Abstract-Expressionism

C. 2300-2150 BC Sumerian city-states came under dominion of Sargon of Akkad (r. 2332-2279 BC). The city of Akkad was in the vicinity of Babylon. They had an entirely different language than the Sumerians. Sargon introduced a new concept of royal power based on unswerving loyalty to the king rather than to the city-state. - They were the first Near Eastern rulers to call themselves kings of the world and to assume divine attributes. The earliest recorded name of an author is the Akkadian priestess Enheduanna. - Akkadian artists may have been the first to cast hollow life-sized bronze sculptures and to place figures at different levels in a landscape setting.

Akkadian Art

c. 600-480 BC - Around 600 BC, the first life-size stone statues appeared in Greece. The earliest Kouroi emulated the frontal position of Egyptian statues, but artists depicted the young men nude, the way Greek athletes competed at Olympia. - During the course of the 6th century BC, Greek sculptors refined the proportions and added "Archaic Smile" to the faces of their statues to make them seem more life-like. - The Archaic age also saw the erection of the first stone temples with peripteral colonnades and the codification of the Doric and Ionic orders. - The Andokides Painter invented red-figure vase painting around 530 BC. Euphronios and Euthymides rejected the age-old composite view for the human figure and experimented with foreshortening.

Archaic Art

c. 600-480 BC - The sixth century BC was the apex of Etruscan power in Italy. Etruscan kings even ruled Rome until 509 BC - The Etruscans admired Greek art and architecture but did not copy Greek works. Etruscan temples were made of wood and mud brick instead of stone and had columns and stairs only at the front. Terracotta statuary decorated the roof. - Most surviving Etruscan artworks come from underground tombs chambers. At Cerveteri, great earthen mounds (tumuli) covered tombs with interiors sculptured to imitate the houses of the living - At Tarquinia, painters covered the tomb walls with monumental frescoes, usually depicting funerary banquets attended by both men and women.

Archaic Etruscan

- As Emperor of the French 1804-1815, Napoleon embraced the Neoclassical style in order to associate his regime with the empire of ancient Rome. Napoleon chose Jacques-Louis David as First Painter of the Empire. - Napoleon's favorite sculptor was Antonio Canova, who carved marble Neoclassical portraits of the imperial family, including Napoleon's sister, Pauline Borghese, in the guise of Venus - The beginning of a break from Neoclassicism can already be seen in the work of some of David's students, including Gros, Girodent-Trioson, and Ingres, all of whom painted some exotic subject that reflect Romantic taste

Art Under Napoleon

5th-10th Centuries - After the fall of Rome in 410, the Huns, Vandals, Merovingians, Franks, Goths, and other non-Romean peoples competed for power and territory in the former northwestern provinces of the Roman Empire. - The surviving art of this period consists almost exclusively of small scale status symbols, especially portable items of personal adornment such as bracelets, pins, and belt buckles, often featuring cloisonne ornament. The decoration of these early medieval objects displays a variety of abstract and zoomorphic motifs. Especially characteristic are intertwined animal and interlace patterns.

Art of the Warrior Lords

c. 900-612 BC - At the height of their power, they ruled an empire that extended from the Persian Gulf to the Nile and Asia Minor. - Assyrian palaces were fortified citadels with gates guarded by monstrous lamassu. Painted reliefs depicting the king at battle and hunting lions decorated the walls of the ceremonial halls.

Assyrian Art

768-877 - Charlemagne, king of the Franks since 768, expanded the territories he inherited from his father, and in 800, Pope Leo III crowned him emperor of Rome (r. 800-814). Charlemagne reunited much of western Europe and initiated a revival of the art and culture of Early Christian Rome - Carolingian illuminators merged the illusionism of classical painting with the northern linear tradition, replacing the calm and solid figures of their models with figures that leap from the page with frenzied energy - Carolingian sculptors revived the imperial Roman tradition of equestrian ruler portraiture and the Early Christian tradition of depicting Christ as a statuesque youth - Carolingian architects looked to Ravenna and Early Christian Rome for models, but transformed their sources, introducing, for example, the twin-tower western facade for basilicas and employing strict modular plans in their buildings

Carolingian Art

306-337 - Constantine's Edict of Milan of 313 granted Christianity legal status equal or superior to paganism. The emperor was the first great patron of Christian art and built the first churches in Rome, including Old Saint Peter's - In a Christian ceremony, Constantine dedicated Constantinople as the new capital of the Roman Empire in 330. He was baptized on his deathbed - Early Christian artists produced mural and ceiling paintings in the catacombs and sarcophagi depicting old and new testament stories in great number

Christian Art Under Constantine

- During the early 20th century, avant-garde artists searched for new definitions of art in a changed world. Matisse and the Fauves used bold colors as the primary means of conveying feeling. German Expressionist paintings feature clashing colors, disquieting figures, and perspectival distortions. - Picasso and Braque radically challenged prevailing artistic conventions with Cubism, in which artists dissect forms and place them in interaction with the space around them - The Futurists focused on motion in time and space in their effort to create paintings and sculptures that captured the dynamic quality of modern life. The Dadaists celebrated the spontaneous and intuitive, often incorporating found objects in their artwork

Early 20th Century Europe

527-726 - The reign of Justinian (r. 527-565) opened the first golden age of Byzantine art. Justinian was a great patron of the arts, and in Constantinople alone he built or restored more than 30 churches - Constructed in only five years, Hagia Sophia a brilliant fusion of central and longitudinal plans, rivaled the architectural wonders of Rome. Its 180ft high done rests on pendentives but seemed to contemporaries to be suspended by a golden chain for Heaven - The seat of Byzantine power in Italy was Ravenna, which enjoyed its greatest prosperity under Justinian. San Vitale is Ravenna's greatest church. Its mosaics, with their weightless, hovering, frontal figures against a hold background, reveal the new Byzantine aesthetic - Justinian also rebuilt the monastery at Mount Sinai in Egypt, where the finest Early Byzantine icons are preserved. in 726 however, Leo III enacted a ban against picturing the divine, initiating the era of iconoclasm (726-843)

Early Byzantine Art

c. 3000-2000 BC - Marble statuettes are the major surviving artworks of the Cyclades during the third millennium BC, but little is known about their function. - Many of the Cycladic figurines were buried in graves and may represent the deceased, but others, for example, musicians, almost certainly do not. Whatever their meaning, these statuettes mark the beginning of the long history of the marble sculpture in Greece.

Early Cycladic Art

27 BC-96 AD - Augustus (r 27 BC- 14 AD) became the first Roman emperor after defeating Mark Antony and Cleopatra at Actium in 31 BC. - Augustan art revived the Classical style with frequent references to Periclean Athens. Augustus's ambitious building program made lavish use of marble, and his portraits always depicted him as an idealized youth. - Under the Julio-Claudians (r. 14-68), the full potential of concrete began to be realized in buildings such as the Golden House of Nero. - The Flavian emperors (r. 69-96) erected the Colosseum, Rome's first and largest amphitheater, and arches and other monuments celebrating their victory in Judaea. - Pompeii and Herculaneum were buried in 79 CE during the eruption of Mont Vesuvius. During the last quarter century of the towns' existence, the Third and Fourth styles were used to decorate the walls of houses.

Early Empire

1140-1194 - Early Gothic is characterized by soaring gothic arches, thin walls, huge stained glass windows, flying buttresses, and everything was taller and more fragile looking - Ribbed vaulting - intersecting barrel vaults, which reduced weight and outward thrust - Flying buttresses - eliminated the need for thick solid walls - Pointed arches - made weight distribute more vertically - Saint Denis is the earliest example of Gothic architecture - Notre-Dame, Chartres, Cologne, and Laon are all examples of early Gothic - Laon was the first to introduce four levels

Early Gothic

Early Classical: c. 480-450 BC High Classical: c. 450-400 BC - The Classical period opened with the Persian sack of Athenian Acropolis in 480 BC and the Greek victory a year later. The fifth century BC was the golden age of Greece, when Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides wrote their plays, and Herodotus, the "father of history," lived. - During the Early Period, sculptors revolutionized statuary by introducing contrapposto to their figures. - In the High Classical period, Polykleitos developed a canon of proportions for the perfect statue. Iktinos and Kallikrates similarly applied mathematical formulas to temple design in the belief that beauty resulted from the use of harmonic numbers. - Under the patronage of Pericles and the artistic directorship of Phidias, the Athenians rebuilt the Acropolis after 447 BC. The Parthenon, Phidias' Athena Parthenos, and the works of Polykleitos have defined what it means to be "Classical" ever since.

Early and High Classical Greece

Geometric: c. 900-700 BC Orientalizing: c. 700-600 BC - Homer lived during the 8th century BC, the era when the city-states of Classical Greece took shape, the Olympic Games were founded (776 BC), and the Greeks began to trade with their neighbors to both east and west. - The human figure returned to Greek art in the form of bronze statuettes and simple silhouettes amid other abstract motifs on Geometric vases. - Increasing contact with the civilizations of the Near East precipitated the so-called Orientalizing phase (c. 700-600 BC) of Greek art, when Eastern monsters began to appear on black-figure vases

Geometric & Orientalizing Art

323-31 BC - The Hellenistic age extends from the death of Alexander until the death of Cleopatra, when Egypt became a province of the Roman Empire. The great cultural centers of teh era were no longer the city-states of Archaic and Classical Greece but royal capitals such as Alexandria in Egypt and Pergamon in Asia Minor - In art, both architects and sculptors broke most of the rules of Classical design. At Didyma, for example, a temple to Apollo was erected that had no roof and contained a smaller temple within. - Hellenistic sculptors explored new subjects - Gauls with strange mustaches and necklaces, impoverished old women - and treated traditional subjects in new ways - athletes with battered bodies and faces, openly erotic goddesses. Artists delighted in depicting violent movement and unbridled emotion.

Hellenistic

98-192 AD - The Roman Empire reached its greatest extent under Trajan (r. 98-117 AD). The emperor's new forum and markets transformed the civic center of Rome. The Column of Trajan commemorated his two campaigns in Dacia in a spiral frieze with thousands of figures. - Hadrian (r. 117-138 AD), emulating Greek statesmen and philosophers, was the first emperor to wear a beard. He built the Pantheon, a triumph of concrete technology. - Under the Antonines (r. 138-192 AD), the dominance of Classical art began to erode, and imperial artists introduced new compositional schemes in relief sculpture and a psychological element in portraiture.

High Empire

- A hostile critic applied the term Impressionism to the paintings of Claude Monet because of their sketch quality. The Impressionists - Monet, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Degas, and others - strove to capture fleeting moments and transient effects of light and climate on their canvas. Monet, for example, repeatedly painted Rouen Cathedral at different time of the day - The Impressionists also focused on recording the contemporary urban scene in Paris. They frequently painted bars, dance halls, the ballet, wide boulevards, and railroad stations - Complementing the Impressionists' sketchy, seemingly spontaneous brush strokes are the compositions of their paintings. Reflecting the influence of Japanese prints and photography, Impressionist works often have arbitrarily cut off figures and settings seen at sharply oblique angles

Impressionism

- WWI gave rise to the Neue Sachlichkeit movement in Germany. New Objectivity artist depicted the horrors of war and explored the themes of death and transfiguration - The Surrealists investigated ways to express in art the world of dreams and the unconscious. Natural Surrealists aimed for concrete irrationality in their naturalistic paintings of dreamlike scenes. Biomorphic Surrealists experimented with automatism and employed abstract imagery - Many European modernists pursued utopian ideals. The Suprematists developed an abstract style to express pure feeling. The constructivists used nonobjective forms to suggest the nature of space-time. De Stijl artists employed simple geometric forms in their search for pure plastic art

Interwar Europe

1261-1453 - In 1204, Latin Crusaders sacked Constantinople, bringing to an end the second golden age of Byzantine art. In 1261, Michael VIII Palaeologus succeeded in retaking the city. Constantinople remained in Byzantine hands until the Ottoman Turks captured it in 1453 - Important mural painting of the Late Byzantine period are in the Constantinolian Church of Christ in Chora. An extensive picture cycle portrays Christ as Redeemer; in the apse he raised Adam and Eve from their tomb - Late Byzantine icons were displayed in tiers on an iconostasis or on individual stands so that the paintings on both sides could be seen. The great painting centers during this period were in Constantinople and Russia. The work of Andrei Rublyev is notable for its great spiritual power and intense color

Late Byzantine Art

c. 400-323 BC - In the aftermath of the Peloponnesian War, which ended in 404 BC, Greek artists, while still adhering to the philosophy that humanity was the "measure of all things," began to focus more on the real world of appearances than on the ideal world of perfect beings. - Late Classical sculptors humanized the remote deities, athletes, and heroes of the fifth century BC. Praxiteles, for example, caused a sensation when he portrayed Aphrodite undressed. Lysippos depicted Herakles as a strong man so weary that he needed to lean on his club for support. - In architecture, the ornate Corinthian capital became increasingly popular, breaking the monopolies of the Doric and Ionic order. - The period closed with Alexander the Great, who transformed the Mediterranean world politically and ushered in a new artistic age as well.

Late Classical

193-337 AD - In the art of the Severans (r. 193-235 AD), the Late Antique style took root. Artists represented the emperor as a central frontal figure disengaged from the action around him. - During the chaotic era of the soldier emperors (r. 235-284 AD), artists revealed the anxiety and insecurity of the emperors in moving portraits. - Diocletian (r. 284-305 AD), reestablished order by sharing power. Statues of the tetrarchs portray the four emperors as identical and equal rulers, not as individual - Constantine (r. 306-337 AD), restored one-man rule, ended persecution of the Christians, and transferred the capital of the Empire from Rome to Constantinople in 330. The abstract formality of Constantinian art paved the way for the iconic art of the Middle Ages.

Late Empire

480-89 BC - The Greek defeat of the Etruscan fleet off Cumae in 474 BC ended Etruscan domination of the sea and marked the beginning of Etruscan's decline. Rome destroyed Veii in 396 BC and conquered Cerveteri in 273 BC. All of Italy became Romanized by 89 BC. - A very different, more sober, mood pervades Etruscan art during the fifth through first centuries BC, as seen, for example, in the sarcophagus of Lars Pulena. - Later Etruscan architecture is noteworthy for the widespread use of the stone arch, often framed with Greek pilasters or columns as on the Porta Mirzia at Perugia.

Late Etruscan

c. 1700-1200 BC - The so-called Old Palace period on Crete saw the construction of the first palaces on the island, but the golden age of Crete was the Late Minoan period. - The greatest Late Minoan palace was at Knossos. A vast multistory structure arranged around a central court, the Knossos palace was so complex in the plan that it gave rise to the myth of the Minotaur in the labyrinth of King Minos. - The largest art form in the Minoan world was fresco painting on walls, usually illustrating palace rituals like bull leaping - Vase painting also flourished. Sea motifs, for example, the octopus, were popular subjects. - Minoan sculpture was small scale, consisting of statuettes of "snake goddess" and reliefs on stone vases

Late Minoan Art

c. 1520-1600 - Mannerism emerged in the 1520s in reaction to the High Renaissance style. A prime feature of Mannerist art is artifice. Renaissance artists generally strove to create art that appeared natural, whereas Mannerist artists were less inclined to disguise the contrived nature of art production. Ambiguous space, departures from expected conventions, and unique presentations of traditional themes are common features - Parmigianio's Madonna with the Long Neck epitomizes the elegant stylishness of Mannerist paintings. The elongated proportions of the figures, the enigmatic line of columns without capitals, and the ambiguous positions of the figure with a scroll are the antithesis of High Renaissance classical proportions, clarity of meaning, and rational perspective - Mannerism was also a sculptural style. Giovanni's Abduction, which does not really have a subject, is typical. The sculptor's goal was to depict elegant nude figures in a dynamic spiral composition that presaged the movement of Baroque sculpture

Mannerism

843-1204 - In 867, Basil I dedicated a new mosaic depicting the Theotokos (Mother of God) in Hagia Sophia. It marked the triumph of the iconophiles over the iconoclasts. - Middle Byzantine art is stylistically eclectic. Mosaics with otherworldly golden backgrounds were common, but some paintings, for example those in the Paris Psalter, revived the naturalism of classical art - Middle Byzantine churches like those at Hosios Loukas have highly decorative exterior walls and feature domes that rest on drums above the center of a Greek cross. The climax of the interior mosaic programs was often an image of Christ as Pantokrator in the dome

Middle Byzantine Art

- Minimalism emerged in New York in the early 1960s among artists who were self-consciously renouncing recent art they thought had become stale and academic. A wave of new influences and rediscovered styles led younger artists to question conventional boundaries between various media. The new art favored the cool over the "dramatic": their sculptures were frequently fabricated from industrial materials and emphasized anonymity over the expressive excess of Abstract Expressionism. Painters and sculptors avoided overt symbolism and emotional content, but instead called attention to the materiality of the works. By the end of the 1970s, - Minimalists distanced themselves from the Abstract Expressionists by removing suggestions of biography from their art or, indeed, metaphors of any kind. This denial of expression coupled with an interest in making objects that avoided the appearance of fine art led to the creation of sleek, geometric works that purposefully and radically eschew conventional aesthetic appeal.

Minimalism

c. 1700-1200 BC - The Mycenaeans were already by 1600-1500 BC burying their kings in deep shaft graves with gold funerary masks and bronze daggers inlaid with gold and silver - By 1450 BC, the Mycenaeans had occupied Crete, and between 1400 and 1200 BC, they erected great citadels at Mycenae, Tiryns, and elsewhere, with "Cyclopean" walls of huge, irregularly shaped stone blocks - Masters of corbel vaulting, the Mycenaeans also erected beehive-shaped tholos tombs like the Treasury of Atreus, which had the largest dome in the pre-Roman world - The oldest preserved monumental sculptures in Greece, most notably Mycenae's Lion Gate, date to the end of the Mycenaean period

Mycenaean (Late Helladic) Art

c. 612-330 BC - Nebuchadnezzar II (r. 604-562) restored Babylon to its rank as one of the greatest cities of antiquity. - In the sixth century BC, the Babylonians constructed two of the Seven Wonders of the ancient world. The Ishtar Gate, with its colorful glazed brick relief, gives an idea of how magnificent Babylon was under Nebuchadnezzar II. - The capital of the Achaemenid Persians was at Persepolis, where Darius I (r. 522-486) and Xerxes (r. 486-465) built a huge palace complez with an audience hall that could accommodate thousands. Painted reliefs of subject nations bringing tribute decorated the terraces. - Alexander the Great conquered the Persian Empire in 330 BC

Neo-Babylonia and Persia

Neo-Sumerian: c. 2150-early 1900s BC Babylonian: c. 1900-1600 BC - During the Third Dynast of Ur, the Sumerians rose again to power and constructed one of the largest ziggurats in Mesopotamia at Ur. - Gudea of Lagash built numerous temples and placed diorite portraits of himself in all of them as votive offerings to the gods. - Babylon's greatest king, Hammurabi, established a comprehensive law code for the empire he ruled. Babylonian artists were among the first to experiment with foreshortening.

Neo-Sumerian and Babylonian Periods

- The Enlightenment revival of interest in Greece and Rome, which spurred systematic excavations at Herculaneum and Pompeii, also gave rise in the late 18th century to the artistic movement known as Neoclassicism, which incorporated the subjects and styles of ancient art - One pioneer of the new style was Angelica Kauffmann, who often chose subjects drawn from Rome history for her paintings. Jacque Louis David, who exalted classical art as the imitation of nature in her most beautiful and perfect form, also favored ancient Roman themes. Painted on the eve of the French Revolution, Oath of the Horatii, set in a severe classical hall, served as an example of patriotism and sacrifice - The Neoclassicism style also became the rage in interior decoration, fashion, and architecture. Roman and Italian Renaissance structures inspired Sofflot's Pantheon in Paris and Boyle's Chiswick House near London. A Greek temple in Athens was the model for Stuart's Doric portico in Worcestershire - In the United States, Thomas Jefferson adopted the Neoclassical style in his designs for Monticello, the Virginia Capital, and the University of Virginia. He championed Neoclassicism as the official architectural style of the New American republic because it represented for him idealism, patriotism, and civic virtue

Neoclassicism

919-1024 - In the early 10th century, a new line of emperors, the Ottonians, consolidated the eastern part of Charlemagne's former empire and sought to preserve and enrich the culture and tradition of the Carolingian period - Ottonian architects built basilican churches with the towering spires and imposing westworks of their Carolingian models but introduced the alternative support system and galleries into the interior elevation of the nave - Ottonian sculptors also began to revive the art of monumental sculpture in works such as the Gero crucifix and the colossal bronze doors of Saint Michael's - Ottonian painting combines motifs and landscape elements from Late Antique art with the golden backgrounds of Byzantine art. Byzantine influence on Ottonian art became especially pronounced after Otto II married Theophanu in 972

Ottonian Art

c. 35,000 BC to 6000-4000 BC depending on location Neanderthals replaced with modern humans. Hunter-gatherer cave-dwelling societies. Ice sheets covered much of Europe. Use of stone tools. First instances of art appear c. 30,000 BC- cave paintings, rudimentary sculptures from bone, stone, clay

Paleolithic Period

337-526 AD - The emperor Theodosius I proclaimed Christianity the official religion of the Roman Empire in 380 and banned pagan worship in 391 - Honorius moved the capital of his Western Roman Empire to Ravenna in 404. Rome fell to the Visigothi king Alaric in 410 - Mosaics became a major vehicle for the depiction of Christian themes in churches. Extensive mosaic cycles are preserved in Santa Maria Maggiore in Rome and in Sant'Apollinare Nuovo in Ravenna - The first manuscripts with illustrations of the Old and New Testaments, for example the Vienna Genesis, date to the early sixth century. Illuminated manuscripts would become one of the major art forms of the Middle Ages

Post-Constantinian Early Christian Art

- Post-Impressionism is not a unified style. The term refers to the group of late-19th century artists who followed the Impressionists and took painting in new directions - Georges Seurat refined the Impressionist approach to color and light into pointillism - the discipline application of pure color in tiny daubs that become recognizable forms only when seen for a distance. Van Gogh explored the capabilities of colors and distorted forms to express emotions, as in his dramatic depiction of the sky in Starry Night. Gauguin, another admirer of Japanese prints, moved away form Impressionism in favor of large areas of flat color bounded by firm lines. Cezanne replaced the transitory visual effects of the Impressionists with a rigorous analysis of the lines, planes, and colors that make up landscapes and still lifes

Post-Impressionism

c. 3500-2575 BC - 1st and 2nd Dynasties - The unification of Upper and Lower Egypt into a single kingdom under the rule of a divine pharaoh occurred around 3000-2920 BC. The event was commemorated on the earliest preserved work of Egyptian narrative art, the palette of King Narmer, which also established the basic principles of Egyptian representational art for 3,000 years. - Imhotep, the first artist in history whose name is known, established the tradition of monumental stone architecture in Egypt in the funerary complex and Stepped Pyramid he built for King Djoser.

Predynastic and Early Dynastic Periods

- Realism developed as an artistic movement in mid 19th century France. Its leading proponent was Gustave Courbet, whose paintings of menial labor and ordinary people exemplify his belief that painters should depict only their own time and place. Daumier boldly confronted authority with his satirical lithographs commenting on the plight of the working classes. Manet shocked the public with his paintings featuring promiscuous women and rough brush strokes, which emphasized the flatness of the painted surface, paving the way for modern abstract art - American Realists include Winslow Homer, Thomas Eakins, and John Singer Sargent. Eakin's painting of surgery in progress was too brutally realistic for the Philadelphia art jury that rejected it

Realism

c. 1715-1789 - In the early 18th century, the centralized and grandiose palace-based culture of Baroque France gave way to the much more intimate Rococo culture based in the town houses of Paris. There, aristocrats and intellectuals gathered for witty conversation in salons featuring delicate colors, sinuous lines, gilded mirrors, elegant furniture, and small paintings and sculptures - The leading Rococo painter was Antoine Watteau, whose usually small canvases feature light colors and elegant figures in ornate costumes moving gracefully through lush landscape. His fete galante paintings depict the outdoor amusements of French high society - Watteau's successors included Francois Boucher and Jean-Honore Fragonard, who carried on the Rococo style late into the 18th century. In Italy, Giambattista Tiepolo adopted the Rococo manner to huge ceiling frescoes in the Baroque tradition

Rococo

753-27 BC - According to legend, Romulus and Remus founded Rome in 753 BC. In the sixth century, Etruscan kings ruled the city and Roman art was Etruscan in character. - In the centuries following the establishment of the Republic (509-27 BC), Rome conquered its neighbors in Italy and then moved into Greece, bringing exposure to Greek art and architecture. - Republican temples combined Etruscan plans with the Greek orders and houses had peristyles with Greek columns. The Romans, however, pioneered the use of concrete as a building material - The first style of mural painting derived from Greece, but the illusionism of the second style is distinctly Roman. - Republican portraits were usually superrealistic likenesses of elderly patricians and celebrated traditional Roman values.

Roman Monarchy and Republic

c. 1050-1140 - Romanesque takes its name from the Roman-like barrel and groin vaults based on round arches employed in many European churches built between 1050 and 1200. Romanesque vaults, however, are made of stone, not concrete - Numerous churches sprang up along the pilgrimage roads leading to the shrine of Saint James at Santiago de Compostela. These churches were large enough to accommodate crowds of pilgrims who came to view the relics displayed in radiating chapels off the ambulatory and transept - Architects in the Holy Roman Empire built structurally innovative churches. Speyer Cathedral and Sant'Ambrogio in Milan are two of the earliest examples of the use of groin vaults in naves - The Romanesque period also brought the revival of monumental stone relief sculpture, especially on church facades, where scenes of Christ as Last Judge often greeted the faithful as they entered the doorway to salvation. - After their conversion to Christianity in the early 10th century, the Vikings settled on the northern coast of France. From there, Duke William of Normandy crossed the channel and conquered England in 1066. The Bayeux Tapestry chronicles that war - a unique example of contemporaneous historical narrative art in the Middle Ages - Norman and England Romanesque architects introduced new features to church design that greatly influenced French Gothic architecture. Saint-Etienne at Caen and Durham Cathedral are the earliest examples of the use of rib groin vaults over a three-story nave elevation (arcade-tribune-clerestory). The Durham builders also experimented with quadrant arches in the tribune to buttress the nave vaults - The leading patrons of Romanesque sculpture and painting were the monks of the Cluniac order. The Cistercians, under the leadership of Bernard of Clairvaux, condemned figural art in churches and religious books

Romanesque

c. 1800-1840 - The roots of Romanticism are in the 18th century, but usually the term more narrowly denotes the artistic movement that flourished form 1800-1840, between Neoclassicism and Realism. Romantic artists gave precedence to feeling and imagination over Enlightenment reason. Romantic painters explored the exotic, erotic, and fantastic in their art. In Spain, Francisco Goya's Caprichos series celebrated the unleashing of imagination, emotions, and even nightmares - In France, Delacroix led the way in depicting Romantic narratives set in faraway places and distant times. - Romantic painters often chose landscapes as an ideal subject to express the Romantic theme of the soul unified with the natural world. Masters of the transcendental landscape include Friedrich in Germany, Constable and Turner in England.

Romanticism

Protosumerians: c. 3500-3000 BC/Sumerians: c. 3000-2300 BC Ancient Sumer, which roughly corresponds to southern Iraq today, was made up of a dozen or so independent city-states. Each was thought to be under the protection of a different Mesopotamian deity. The Sumerian rulers were the gods' representatives on earth and the stewards of their earthly treasure. The rulers and priests directed all communal activities, including canal construction, crop collection, and food distribution. The development of agriculture to the point that only a portion of the population had to produce food meant that some members of the community could specialize in other activities, including manufacturing, trade, and administration. **Specialization of labor is a hallmark of the first complex urban society. **The oldest written documents known are Sumerian records of administrative acts and commercial transactions (3400-3200 BC).

Sumerian Art

- By the end of the 18th century, revolutions had overthrown the monarchy in France and achieved independence for the British colonies in America. A major factor was the Enlightenment, a new way of thinking critically about the world independently of religion and tradition - The Enlightenment promoted scientific questioning of all assertions and embraced the doctrine of progress. The first modern encyclopedias appeared during the 18th century. The Industrial Revolution began in England in 1740s. Engineers and architects developed new building materials. Iron was first used in bridge construction at Coalbrookdale, England in 1778 - The Enlightenment also made knowledge of ancient Rome imperative fore the cultured elite, and Europeans and Americans in large numbers undertook a Grand Tour of Italy. Among the most popular souvenirs of the Grand Tour were Antonio Canaletto's vedute of Venice rendered in precise Renaissance perspective with the aid of Camera obscura - Rejecting the idea of progress, Rousseau, one of the leading French philosphes, argued for a return to natural values and exalted the simple, honest life of peasants. His ideas had a profound impact on artists such as Chardin and Greuze, who painted sentimental narratives about rural families - The taste for naturalism also led to the popularity of portrait painting set against landscape backgrounds and a reawakening of an interest in realism

The Enlightenment

c. 1550-1070 BC -18th through 20th Dynasties -Like its predecessor, the Middle Kingdom disintegrated, and power passed to the Hyksos, or shepherd kings, who descended on Egypt from the Syrian and Mesopotamian uplands. They brought with them a new and influential cultural and practical animal, the horse. Their innovations in weaponry and war contributed to their own overthrow by native Egyptian kings of the 17th Dynasty around 1600-1550 BCE. Ahmose I, final conqueror of the Hyksos and first king of the 18th Dynasty, ushered in the New Kingdom, the most brilliant period in Egypt's long history. - The most significant architectural innovation of this period was the axially planned pylon temple incorporating an immense gateway, columnar courtyards, and hypostyle hall with clerestory windows.

The New Kingdom

c. 2575-2134 BC -3rd through 6th Dynasties -The Old Kingdom is the first of the three great periods of Egyptian history, called the Old, Middle, and New Kingdoms, respectively. Many Egyptologists now begin the Old Kingdom with the first pharaoh of the Fourth Dynasty, Sneferu (r. 2575-2551 BC), although the traditional division of kingdoms places Djoser and the Third Dynasty in the Old Kingdom. It ended with the demise of the Eighth Dynasty around 2134 BCE. -The pharaohs of the Old Kingdom amassed great wealth and expended it on grandiose architectural projects, of which the most spectacular were the Great Pyramids of Gizeh, the oldest of the Seven Wonders of the ancient world.

The Old Kingdom