HISTORY OF ARTS

• Art history


  Encompasses the entire history of humanity from prehistoric times to the twenty-first century
• Art history


  • Teaches people how to analyze and understand works of art out of their own standpoint in current times
  • Has been chastised for its subjectivity as the concept of what is beautiful changes from person to person
• Design elements in art history

  Line, color, shape, texture, and value
• You can compare one artwork to another once you've written a response to it
• An option is to make direct comparisons among artists and their creative expression with the mind's gaze
• Characteristics of Baroque style


  • Exaggerated motion
  • Clear detail
  • Drama, exuberance, and grandeur in sculpture, painting, architecture, literature, dance, and music
  • Direct, obvious, and dramatic iconography intending to appeal to the senses and emotions
• Characteristics of Classicism


  • Aesthetic attitude dependent on principles based in the culture, art and literature of ancient Greece and Rome
  • Emphasis on form, simplicity, proportion, clarity of structure, perfection, restrained emotion, and explicit appeal to the intellect
• Characteristics of Contemporary art


  • Often about ideas and concerns, rather than solely the aesthetic or the look of the work
  • Artists try different ways of experimenting with ideas and materials
• Characteristics of Prehistoric art


  • Artifacts made before there was a written record
  • People had become expert at creating forms that were both practical and beautiful
• Characteristics of Renaissance art


  • Painting, sculpture, architecture, music, and literature produced during the 14th, 15th, and 16th centuries in Europe
  • Influenced by increased awareness of nature, a revival of classical learning, and a more individualistic view of man
• Characteristics of Rococo


  • Lightness, elegance, and an exuberant use of curving natural forms in ornamentation
  • Derived from the French word rocaille, which denoted the shell-covered rock work used to decorate artificial grottoes
• Characteristics of Medieval art


  • Iconographic painting illustrations of Biblical scenes
  • Emerged from the early Christian church influence as well as the Roman Empire heritage
• Characteristics of Gothic art


  • Evolved from Romanesque art and lasted from the mid-12th century to as late as the end of the 16th century
  • Sculpture was closely tied to architecture, used primarily to decorate the exteriors of cathedrals and other religious buildings
  • Earliest sculptures were stone figures of saints and the Holy Family used to decorate the doorways, or portals, of cathedrals
• Characteristics of Mannerism


  • Emotionalism
  • Elongated human figures
  • Strained poses
  • Unusual effects of scale, lighting or perspective
  • Vivid often garish colors
• Churches used Romanesque art, largely painting and sculpture, to communicate important things and teach the faith to an illiterate population
• The Renaissance was the period when art, literature, science, philosophy, politics, religion, and other aspects of culture flourished.
• Renaissance means "rebirth" or "revival."
• “It’s on the strength of observation and reflection that one finds a way. So, we must dig and delve unceasingly.”- Calude Monet
• Petrarch had us assume that the Middle Ages were as dismal as he would have us believe. It was an age of thrilling artistic interchange, with the emergence of modern universities and cities.
• Prehistoric Art

  As long as humankind has been conscious of itself, it has been creating art to represent his self.
• Prehistoric Art

  The earliest cave paintings that we are aware of were created roughly 40,000 years ago. We have found paintings and drawings of human activity from the Paleolithic Era under rocks and in caves.
• Prehistoric Art

  We cannot truly know the reason why these early humans began to produce art. Perhaps painting and drawing were a way to record their lived experiences, to tell stories to young children, or to pass down wisdom from one generation to the next.
• Romanesque Period (1000-1300)

  Romanesque art developed during the rise of Christianity 1000 AD. During this time, only a small percentage of the European population were literate. The ministers of the Christian church were typically part of this minority, and to spread the message of the bible, they needed an alternative method.
• Romanesque Period (1000-1300)

  Christian objects, stories, deities, saints, and ceremonies were the exclusive subject of most Romanesque paintings.
• Romanesque paintings


  • Intended to teach the masses about the values and beliefs of the Christian Church
  • Simple and easy to read
• Romanesque paintings


  • Serve the purpose of spreading the word of the bible and Christianity
  • Name stems from round arches used in Roman architecture, often found in churches of the time
• Gothic Era

  One of the most famous eras, Gothic art grew out of the Romanesque period in France and is an expression of two contrasting feelings of the age.
• Gothic Era

  On one hand, people were experiencing and celebrating a new level of freedom of thought and religious understanding. On the other, there was a fear that the world was coming to an end. You can clearly see the expression of these two contrasting tensions within the art
• Gothic Era

  Just as in the Romanesque period, Christianity lay at the heart of the tensions of the Gothic era. As more freedom of thought emerged, and many pushed against conformity, the subjects of paintings became more diverse. The stronghold of the church began to dissipate.
• Medieval Art (5th century- 1400)

  A highly religious art beginning in the 5th Century in Western Europe.
• Medieval Art (5th century- 1400)

  It was characterized by iconographic paintings illustrating scenes from the bible.
• Medieval Art (5th century- 1400)

  Religious themes, topic resemblance, symbolism instead of realism, storytelling, and larger sizes of art works are all characteristics of this style.
• As early as the 14th century, the early Medieval period was alluded to as the "Dark Ages" by Petrarch (1304-1374), an Italian poet and scholar who saw no redeeming features in cultures after the loss of the classical world in knowledge and training until the Renaissance.
• Renaissance (1300-1600)

  This is a word that signifies "rebirth" or "revival."
• The Ottoman Turks captured Constantinople in 1453, and the restoration of Graeco-Roman knowledge promoted rationalism, which sparked the Renaissance movement.
• Renaissance

  As a result, a scientific mindset and a passion for inquiry developed. This encouraged a spirit of exploration and discovery.
• Mannerism (1520- 1600)

  Not all of the art produced in this era is what we would understand today as “kitsch”. What we understand kitsch to mean today is often artificial, cheaply made, and without much ‘classic’ taste.
• Mannerism

  Instead, the reason we describe the art of this period as being kitsch is due to the relative over-exaggeration that characterized it.
• Mannerism

  Stemming from the newfound freedom of human expression in the Renaissance period, artists began to explore their own unique and individual artistic style, or manner.
• Baroque (1590-1760)

  The progression of art celebrating the lives of humans over the power of the divine continued into the Baroque era.