Art Appreciation:

Midterm Review
As you read through this review, see
the questions in red and answer
them as part of your review.
1-What is art?
Art is the expression of human creative skill and
imagination.
Artists tell the story of human history through art!

3 Art Questions
2-Why should we appreciate art?
We live in a visual world – it is important to be able to
understand the images we see everyday.
When people change, art changes.
When art changes, people change.

3 Art Questions
3-How can we see God in every
style of art?
Through the beauty of the artists expression and the ways
God reminds us of truth through that beauty.
The creation of art reflects our Creator (God).

3 Art Questions
 Middle Ages (400-1400)
Renaissance (1400-1550)
Mannerism (1520-1600)
Baroque (1600-1700)
Rococo (1700-1775)
Neoclassicism (1765-1850)

Romanticism (1800-1880)
Impressionism (1864-1885)

Art Timeline
Renaissance Art
1400-1550

Annunciation
Leonardo da Vinci, 1475-1480
 A little history...
• Before the Renaissance (during a time called the Middle Ages), most
people were very poor and believed that life was supposed to be really
hard.

• From around 1350

-1450, the “Black
Plague” killed ½ of
the population of
Europe.

• Huge economy
shift that created a
Middle Class.
Middle Ages Art

What are some

things you notice
about art from the
Middle Ages?
 A little history...
• A major shift in thought – in Florence, Italy, people begin to think
differently about life.
• A revival of interest in studies of classical Greek and Roman ideas
on language, philosophy, art, arcitecture & literature.
• Renaissance means “rebirth.” This began the rebirth of ideas and
life for people in Europe.
• Renaissance Humanism: the study of things that promote and
exhault human culture.
– Rather than focusing on the spiritual or eternal ideal, it focused on a worldly
ideal. Living life in the here and now, exploring and enjoying the present.
– This idea did not exclude Christian ideas, however it did focus more on “man”
than God.

...so, Renaissance art became a rebirth of a more classic, natural

and realistic way of art.
 Giotto di Bondone
1266-1377

Giotto was a painter, sculptor

and architect and is considered
the first to heavily contribute to
the Italian Renaissance. His use
of color and perspective (nearly
100 years before the
Renaissance) had a huge
influence on some of the great
Renissance artists.

Lamentation (The Mourning of Christ),

between 1304 and 1306
Leonardo de Vinci
1452-1519

De Vinci is known as a “Renaissance Man”. He

had many talents as an artists – he was a
painter, sculptor, scientist and inventor, with his
most famous paintings being the Mona Lisa
and The Last Supper. His understanding of light
and dark helped to create a more realistic
perspective to his works.
Leonardo de
Vinci

Mona Lisa (1503-1506)

This is one of the most famous

paintings ever painted by de Vinci or
any artist. De Vinci used techniques
that helped define Renassiance art at
the time – a natural, realistic
perspecive using light and shadow in
such a way that the painting looks
more like a photo. He also used a
technique known as sfumato that
blended light and dark colors, again
aiding in the realisic nature of the
painting.
 Michelangelo Buonarroti
1475-1564

Michelangelo was also a sculptor

and painter. His great attention to
detail as well as his poetry,
architecture and engineering ideas
made him one of the great artists of
the Renaissance.

Painted by: Jacopino del Conte,

after 1535
 Michelangelo Buonarroti

Detail: the face of God

Sistine Chapel (1508-1512) is painted on the celing of the large Papal Chapel
within the Vatican. Michelangelo painted 9 scenes from the Book of Genesis.
The School of Athenss (Raphael, 1510-1511) comes from a time when the status of artists had dramatically
risen. This captures so much of what the Renissance was about – the glorification of classical themes (art,
language, mathematics, philosophy) and the glorification of man.
Painted sometime between 330-550 Madonna Enthroned
The Madonna and Child in Majesty
Giotto di Bondone, 1310
Cimabue, 1280
Madonna and Child with two angels
Filipo Lippi, 1465

What differences
do you see between
the 4 paintings of the
Madonna & child?
 Lasting Effects
• Oil on canvas
• Realistic perspective
• Sfumato
• Lighting techniques to create a more
natural look
Mannerism
& Baroque Art

Self-Portrait in a Convex Mirror

Parmigianio, 1524

The Storm on the Sea of Galilee

Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn (1633)
 Recurring Themes in Mannerism
Mannerism – What is it? • Movement
– Awkward or unusual poses
• Distortion of Figures
– Elongated figures (i.e. neck), disproportionate body parts (i.e. small or
large hands)
• Manipulation of Space
– Logical boundaries ignored
• Light
– Manipulated for dramatic effect
• Spiritual Intensity
– New ways of distinguishing between the earthly and divine
• Elegance and sophistication
• Confusing on purpose

Why did Mannerist artists

make their paintings confusing
on purpose?
Mannerism - Pontormo

Joseph in Egypt (1515-1518)

Entombment
Jacopo Carucci (known as Pontormo) 1528

Monsignor della Casa (1544)

 Madonna and Child with St.

Mannerism – El Greco Martina and St. Agnes (1599)

View of Toledo (1596/1600)

Baroque – What is it?
Things to look for in Baroque Art:
• Emotionally intense
• Movement
• Drama
– Use of color
– Light and dark
• Extravagant ornamentation
• Back to a more realistic look

Artists
• Caravaggio, Italy, 1571-1610
• Rembrandt, Dutch, 1606-1669
Baroque – Caravaggio
The Conversion on the way to Damascus (1601)

The Crucifixation of St. Peter (1601)

Baroque – Rembrandt

The Money Lender

 Rococo &
Neoclassicism
Important Charactaristics & Artists
Charactaristics
• Pastel colors
• Lighthearted & playful
• Decorative
• Leisurley pastimes of the aristocracy
• Themes of love
• Ornate elaboration – excess
• Fete Galante
– A type of painting that developed during the Rococo period that depicts a party or
other lighthearted scene taking place outdoors
 Why did
people paint
such frivolous
things during
Francois Boucher

this time
period?

Mademe de Pompadour
1756
Antoine Watteau

Pilgrimage on the Isle of Cythera

1717
 Neoclassicism history
• Age of Enlightenment – people began to question everything.
– i.e. Do Kings get their “power” from God? If no, then who gives them
this power? Can the same thing take that power away?
– Enlighten – to shed light on something; to make it clear.
• The scientific revolution, also happening at this time, was
based on empirical observation, changing the way people
thought and what they decided to believe in.
• There was a return to classical Greek and Roman ideas.
– When have we seen this return to classical thought before??
• A visual expression of the ideas of the Enlightenment
– Art was "to make virtue attractive, vice odious, ridicule forceful; that is
the aim of every honest man who takes up the pen, the brush or the
chisel.” Denis Diderot
• Neoclassical painters rejected both the high drama and murky
atmosphere of Baroque art and the misty-sentimentality of the
Rococo
Important Characteristics & Artists
Characteristics
• Greek or Roman themes.
• People looking polished and posing in the manner of a statue.
• Drawing was more important than painting.
• Smooth – no obvious brushstrokes.
• Serious – art with a purpose.

Artists
• Jacques-Louis David
Jacques-Louis David

The Death of Socrates

How does this painting show

themes of Neo-Classicism?
Jacques-Louis David

Napoleon Crossing the

Alps
 Biblical worldview
• Rococo – very focused on appearance.
– Only the very wealthy seemed to be important or
even exist in the world.
• Neoclassicism – enlightenment. What does it
mean to be an “enlightened” Christian?
Romanticism

"Romanticism is precisely
situated neither in choice of
subject nor in exact truth,
but in a way of feeling.“
Charles Baudeliare (1821-
1867)
 What, When, Who, Where, Why
• They wanted to glorify big ideas and big emotions – survival, hope,
awe, despair. Deep spirituality and freedom of expression were
also very influential ideas during this time.

• Romanticism does not come from the word “romantic” as in

relationships and love, but the idea of glorification (“to give glory,
honor or high praise to”).

• Many paintings captured scenes where nature is in control– a

storm, the ocean, the moon, fog. These scenes also evoked feelings
of fear and despair, awe and horror.

Think about the following

• "Nature never did betray the heart
painting by JMW Turner and
that loved her,“ British Romantic answer the questions on the
poet William Wordsworth. following slide
The Fighting Temeraire, 1839
 Biblical Worldview
• Psalm 139:13-14 “For you created my inmost being; you knit me
together in my mothers womb. I praise you because I am fearfully
and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full
well.”
– We are each created uniquely and carefully by God, both what we look like
and who we are. Romantic artists used their paintings to express their
experiences through the emotions and personality that they were given by the
Lord. We have the privilege to see these unique sets of emotion and
expression in each painting. Conveying emotions can be one of the most
vulnerable things a human can do – and with the knowledge that our Creator
gave us our emotions and personality, we can have even more courage to
share these with other people and to share in the experience of these
Romantic artists.
 Biblical Worldview

• Hebrews 10:24-25 “And let us consider how to stir up one another

to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the
habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as
you see the Day drawing near.”
– There was great importance put on the stirring up of emotions in Romantic
paintings. Artists wanted to convey a feeling; either of something old or
something new that was coming to change the way the world operated. And
while there may have been a specific emotion or message that each painter
had for each specific painting, anyone can look at any painting and assign any
situation or emotion to it. Something originally painted to convey the sadness
of the loss of “simpler days” brought on by the Industrial Revolution can also
stir up sadness for any situation in any viewers life. Or it can stir up awe in the
beauty of nature created by our God. Or the memory of an experience that
the Lord put us through to grow our hearts and understanding of who God is.
These paintings can stir up a greater love for each other, for nature, for our
experiences, for our God.
The Salon de Paris
During the 19th century, the
Académie des Beaux Arts was the
pillar of the French artistic
establishment.

Every year they held an annual

open exhibition at the Salon de Paris.

The jury of the Académie took

control of the paintings that were
accepted into the Salon exhibitions
by their own standard which holding
the artistic traditions of that era.

They rejected any paintings that

challenged their artistic values.

 The Impressionist were excluded by

this mainstream exhibition and
decided to make their own called:
“THE SALON DES REFUSÉES.”
 Sunrise Midday

Sunshine
These are painted by Claude Monet, outside. Sunset
What was this new style of painting called? What
made it possible to paint outside?
If you have any questions, email
me or leave a comment below!

adrienne.williams@uphcollege.com