Movements

Impressionism

A late nineteenth century movement that emerged as emperor Napoleon III was rebuilding Paris and waging war, and the Académie des Beaux-Arts dominated French art, preserving tradition, restraint, and Neoclassicism. Characterized by an emphasis on the accurate depiction of light in its changing qualities, especially resulting from the passage of time, ordinary subject matter, movement and the human perception of light and color, and unusual visual angels. Relaxed the boundary between subject and background so that the effect resembled a snapshot of a larger reality captures as if by chance. Photography was gaining more popularity and inspired painters to represent momentary, transitory action by seemingly devaluing the artists' skill in reproducing reality. Faced harsh opposition from the conventional art community in France. Napoleon III held the first Salon des Refusés in 1863.

Baroque

A seventeenth century art movement encouraged by a reactionary Catholic Church, who had decided at the Council of Trent (1545 - 1563), in response to the Reformation, that the arts should communicate religious themes that directly involved viewers' emotions. Paintings and sculptures should act as a visceral appeal to the senses, speaking to the illiterate rather than the well-informed. The Church hoped Baroque art would symbolize the Counter-Revolution and restore its prestige. The aristocracy used the dramatic style as a means of impressing visitors, especially international ones, by projecting triumph, power, and control. Superseded by the Rococo style starting in France in the 1720s and by Neoclassicism in architecture in the late 18th century.

Hudson River School

A slightly later subset of Romanticism. Focused on the 19th century themes of discovery, exploration, and settlement. Emphasized an exotic, rugged, mythicized frontier peopled by "noble savages." Characterized by their realistic, detailed and sometimes idealized portrays of nature. Based on the conviction that the nature of the American landscape was a manifestation of God, who encouraged settlers towards "Manifest Destiny."

Rococo

Based in early to late 18th century France. Developed as a reaction against the grandeur, symmetry, and strict regulations of the previous Baroque style, especially at Versailles. Artists used a more ornate, delicate, graceful, playful approach in tune with the excesses of Louis XIV's reign. Criticized for superficiality and degeneracy. Largely replaced by the Neoclassic style by the end of the 18th century.

Realism

Beginning in France in the 1850s after the 1848 Revolution in which the Parisian workers staged an unsuccessful rebellion against the increasingly conservative government. Rejected the exoticism, exaggerated emotionalism, and drama of Romanticism. Sought to portray real, typical, contemporary people of all classes with accuracy and truth, in an equalizing manner, including unpleasant aspects of life. Subjects often reflected the changes brought by the Industrial and Commercial Revolutions. Popularity bolstered by the introduction of photography. Continued through the end of the 19th century.

Neoclassicism

Born in Rome in the mid-18th century and continuing into the early 19th century. With the advent of the Grand Tour undertaken by art students and the trend of collecting antiquities through tourism, the style spread across Europe. Coincided with the 18th-century Age of Enlightenment, which advocated rationality of thought, and continued into the early 19th century, competing with Romanticism. Based on the principles of order, seriousness, idealism, simplicity, and symmetry. Theoretically derived from the Classical tradition but more directly indebted to the Renaissance interpretation of classical ideals, forms, and styles.

Romanticism

Originated in Europe toward the end of the 18th century, peaking from 1800 to 1850 (mid-nineteenth century). Characterized by its emphasis on emotion, authentic experience, spontaneity, aesthetic individualism, exoticism, glorification of the past and nature, and privileging the medieval over the classical. Partly a reaction rising components of modernity, including the Industrial Revolution (a transition to new manufacturing mechanisms, urban crowding and sprawl, and population growth from 1760 to 1840), the aristocratic social and political norms of the Enlightenment, and the scientific rationalization of nature. Increasingly overtly politicized artists began depicting and commenting on current events. In the second half of the 19th century, Realism served as its polar opposite.

Post-Impressionism

Predominantly French, a movement that developed between 1886 and 1905 following the last Impressionist exhibition, and reacting against the Impressionists' concern for the naturalistic depiction of light and color above the traditional elements of composition. Systematically examined the properties and expressive qualities of line, pattern, form, and color. Emphasized abstract qualities and symbolic content. Artists extended Impressionism by continuing use of vivid colors, often thick application of paint, and real-life subject matter while rejecting its limitations by focusing on geometric forms, distorting form for expressive effect, and including unnatural or arbitrary color. They diapered with the triviality of subject matter and loss of structure in Impressionistic paintings. Harmony and structural arrangement took precedence over naturalism. Although they often exhibited together, they disagreed on many points and were not stylistically homogenous.

Flemish Baroque

Seventeenth century art produced in the Catholic, Spanish-controlled Southern Netherlands. Began when the Dutch Republic split from the Hapsburg Spain regions in 1585 and ended when Hapsburg authority of the neighboring region fell upon King Charles II's death in 1700.

Dutch Golden Age

Seventeenth century painting from the new, independent, Protestant, and superlatively prosperous Dutch Republic (United Provinces of the Netherlands) during and after the later part of the Eighty Years' War for Dutch independence (1568 - 1648). The upheavals and large-scale population transfers resulting from the war and the sharp break with the old monarchist and Catholic cultural traditions necessitated the reinvention of the Protestant Dutch identity. Substituted the detailed realism of Early Netherlandish painting for Baroque idealization and splendor.

Enlightenment

Spanning from 1715 when Louis XIV died to the beginning of the French Revolution in 1789, an intellectual and philosophical movement centered on reason as the primary source of authority and legitimacy, as well as individual liberty and religious tolerance in opposition to the absolute monarchy and the fixed dogmas of the Catholic Church. Questioned religious orthodoxy. Cultivated the arts because of the focus on reason over superstition, and expanded acceptable subject matter. Closely associated with the scientific revolution, which began earlier in 1543 with Copernicus's publication.

Modernism

Spurred by the development of modern industrial societies, extensive technological changes, the rapid growth of cities, and increased exposure to other cultures. A development of Romanticism's revolt against the effects of the Industrial Revolution and bourgeois values, alongside a reaction to the certainty of Enlightenment thinking and religious belief and a sense of the world's impermanence. Challenged the idea that history and civilization were inherently progressive, and that progress was always good. Self-conscious and self-referential, transcending the simple depiction of the contemporary world found in Realism to critically examine the premise of art itself. Addressed concerns of art and aesthetics internal to art production.

Symbolism

Starting in the late-nineteenth century, part of a general European movement across disciplines. A revival of some mystical tendencies in the Romantic tradition. Disdaining realism as trivial and believing that absolute truths could only be described indirectly, they aimed not to see things but to see through their superficial appearance to their true significance. They used mythological and dream imagery. Color, line, and shape, divorced from conformity to the optical image, became symbols of emotional reaction. These symbols were not the familiar emblems of mainstream iconography but intensely personal, private, obscure and ambiguous references. Rejected the optical world and the conventionally seen in favor of a fantasy world. Subjects were esoteric, exotic, visionary, dreamlike, and fantastic. Coincided with founder of psychoanalysis Sigmund Freud's 1900 publication of "Interpretation of Dreams" about the world of unconscious experience.