Historical Development of Art

REPORT PREPARED BY GROUP 9:

MEQUIN, Maryrose
DOÑA, Kristal Mae
MOLINA, Dianna Lynn
NARVASA, Al

INTRODUCTION
History shows the intrinsic value of art as a language that narrates the knowledge, belief, and experience
of each generation of mankind, it shows the foundation of civilization through art, where humanity from the
past to the present stipulates their desire for a better life.
The foundation of art history can be traced back tens of thousands of years to when ancient civilizations
used available techniques and media to depict culturally significant subject matter. Since these early
examples, a plethora of art movements have followed, each bearing their own distinct styles and
characteristics that reflect the political and social influences of the period from which they emerged. Whether
you’re an aspiring collector or simply appreciate the work of history’s great artists, studying the major
movements of the art history timeline is a worthwhile place to start.

Cave art Cave paintings of Lascaux, France

It refers to the numerous paintings and engravings found in
European caves and shelters dating back to the Ice Age,
approximately between 40,000 and 14,000 years ago. The first
painted cave acknowledged as being Paleolithic, meaning from
the Stone Age, was Altamira in Spain. Experts say that the art
discovered there was the work of modern humans (Homo
sapiens). Cave art is generally considered to have a symbolic
or 1 religious function, sometimes both. The exact meanings of
the images remain unknown, but some experts think they may
have been created within the framework of shamanic beliefs
and practices. One such practice involved going into a deep
cave for a ceremony during which a shaman would enter a
trance state and send his or her soul into the otherworld to It is famous for its Paleolithic cave
make contact with the spirits and try to obtain their paintings, found in a complex of caves 1
benevolence. Most cave art consists of paintings made with in the Dordogne region of southwestern
either red or black pigment. The reds were made with iron France, because of their exceptional
oxides (hematite), whereas manganese dioxide and charcoal quality, size, sophistication and antiquity.
were used for the blacks. Engravings were made with fingers
on soft walls or with flint tools on hard surfaces in a number of
other caves and shelters.

EGYPTIAN ART
Ancient Egyptian art must be viewed from the standpoint of the ancient Egyptians to understand it. The
somewhat static, usually formal, strangely abstract, and often blocky nature of much Egyptian imagery has, at
times, led to unfavorable comparisons with later, and much more 'naturalistic,' Greek or Renaissance art.
However, the art of the Egyptians 1 served a vastly different purpose than that of these later cultures.
GREEK ART
The ancient Greeks lived in many lands around the Mediterranean Sea, from Turkey to the south of
France. They had close contacts with other 1 people such as the Egyptians, Syrians and Persians. The
Greeks lived in separate city-states, but shared the same language and religious beliefs.

ROMAN ART
The first Roman art can be dated back to 509 B.C.E., with the legendary founding of the Roman Republic,
and lasted until 330 C.E. (or much longer, if you include Byzantine art). Roman art also encompasses a broad
spectrum of media including marble, painting, mosaic, gems, silver and bronze work, and terracotta’s, just to
name a few. The city of Rome was a melting pot, and the Romans had no qualms about adapting artistic
influences from the other Mediterranean cultures that surrounded and preceded them. For this reason it is
common to see Greek, Etruscan and Egyptian influences throughout Roman art. This is not to say that all of
Roman art is derivative, though, and one of the challenges for specialists is to define what is "Roman" about
Roman art.

MEDIEVAL ART

The medieval period of art history spans from the fall of the Roman Empire
in 300 AD to the beginning of the Renaissance in 1400 AD. Medieval art during
the Middle Ages saw many changes up to the emergence of the early
Renaissance period. Early art subjects were initially restricted to the production
of Pietistic painting (religious art or Christian art) in the form of illuminated
manuscripts, mosaics and fresco paintings in churches. There n were no portrait
paintings in the art of the Middle Ages. The colors were generally somewhat
muted.

CHINESE PAINTING
The history of Chinese painting can be compared to a symphony. The styles and
traditions in figure, landscape, and bird-and-flower painting have formed themes that
continue to blend to this day into a single piece of music. Painters through the ages
have made up this "orchestra," composing and performing many movements and
variations within this tradition. It was from the Six Dynasties (222-589) to the Tang
dynasty (618- 907) that the foundations of figure painting were gradually established
by such major artists as Gu Kaizhi and Wu Daozi. Landscape painting started to
become popular in the Sui (581- 618) and Tang dynasties by the effort of Zhan Ziqian,
Li Sixun, and Wang Wei. Variations based on geographic o distinctions then took
shape in the Five Dynasties period (907-960). For example, Jing Hao and Guan Tong depicted the drier and
monumental peaks to the north while Dong Yuan and Juran represented the lush and rolling hills to the south
in Jiangnan (south of the Yangtze River). In bird-and-flower painting, the noble Tang court decorative manner
was passed down in Sichuan through Huang Quan's style, which contrasts with the more relaxed style of Xu
Xi in the Jiangnan area.

UKIYO-E (Japanese print)

Ukiyo-e, often translated as "pictures of the floating world,"

refers to Japanese paintings and woodblock prints that originally
depicted the cities' pleasure districts during the Edo Period, when the
sensual attributes of life were encouraged among a tranquil existence
under the peaceful rule of the Shoguns. These idyllic narratives not
only document the leisure activities and climate of the era, they also
 depict the decidedly Japanese aesthetics of beauty, poetry, nature, spirituality, love, and sex. The people and
environments in which the higher classes emerged themselves became the popular subjects for ukiyo-e
works. This included sumo wrestlers, courtesans, the actors of kabuki theatre, geishas and teahouse
mistresses, warriors, and other characters from the literature and folklore of the time. By combining uki for
sadness and yo for life, the word ukiyoe originally reflected the Buddhist concept of life as a transitory illusion,
involving a cycle of birth, suffering, death, and rebirth. But ironically, during the early Edo period, another
ideograph which meant "to float," similarly pronounced as uki, came into usage, and the term became
associated with wafting on life's worldly pleasures.

RENAISSANCE
It means a "rebirth" suggesting that the 15th and 16th centuries marked an awakening from the "dark
ages". During this period, some of history's greatest intellectuals, authors, statesmen, scientists, and artists
flourished, as global discovery opened up new places and civilizations to European trade. And in this period,
the classical arts of Greece and Rome and its classical standards of paintings, architecture, and structures
were revived.

The most famous person in this period is Leonardo da Vinci. He was an Italian
polymath of the High Renaissance who was active as a painter, draftsman, engineer,
scientist, theorist, sculptor, and architect. He painted the Virgin and Child with Saint John
the Baptist. It depicts the Virgin Mary seated on the knees of her mother, Saint Anne, while
holding the Christ Child as Christ's young cousin, John the Baptist, stands to the right. The
figures are all shown with absolutely perfect ratios and proportions, reflecting a Renaissance
obsession with Classical ideas about beauty from symmetry. Mary and St. Anne is idealized,
but obviously very realistic, shown with incredible emotion and natural poses.

MANNERISM
It is derived from the Italian term maniera which means "style" or "manner" and it emphasizes
"self-conscious artifice above genuine portrayal". Mannerism was born as a reaction to the harmonious
classicism and naturalism of the Renaissance. Whereas High Renaissance art emphasized proportion,
balance and classical beauty, Mannerism was inclined to exaggerate these qualities with paintings that
present asymmetrical or unnaturally elegant compositions.

Girolamo Francesco Maria Mazzola, also known as Francesco Mazzola or, more
commonly, as Parmigianino is one of the artists in this period. He was an Italian Mannerist
painter and printmaker active in Florence, Rome, Bologna, and his native city of Parma. He
painted the Madonna with the Long Neck showing a beautiful scene of intimate emotion
between mother and child. But, this is pretty different from Leonardo's artwork. For one, Mary
is no longer shown in perfect classical proportions.

BAROQUE
It is derived from the Portuguese ‘barocco’ meaning ‘irregular pearl or stone’. This word refers to
something that is detailed and sophisticated. This term was first applied to arts in 15th century Italy,
specifically from 1595 to 1750. This form of art is known to have emerged as a reaction of the Catholic artists
to the newly emerged Protestant movement. Baroque art is often viewed as a form of art which depicts
violence and darkness.

One of the artists in this period is Johannes Vermeer. He painted the Girl with a Pearl
Earring, which represents a young woman in a dark shallow space, an intimate setting that
draws the viewer's attention exclusively on her. In this painting, Vermeer used a technique
known as camera obscura to create patterns of light and dark in this painting.

ROCOCO
It is derived from the Latin word shell. It was an 18th century artistic style and is sometimes called the 'late
Baroque style'. Rococo style is considered to be a revolt against the dull and solemn Baroque designs of the
 royal courts of France in Versailles. The Rococo style of art is always distinguished by its elegant refinement
which involves different materials like shells, to give away a delicate touch to art.

François Boucher is one of the artists of this period. He painted the Triumph of
Venus. This painting is a celebration of love and lust, the sensuous flesh of the
figures rendered in modulations of creams and pinks. It possesses all of the
defining qualities of the Rococo style of the eighteenth century, cool color palette,
the energetic composition, and the erotic mythological subject matter.

NEOCLASSICISM
It is the 18th and 19th century movement that developed in Europe as a reaction to the excesses of
Baroque and Rococo. It is the movement sought to return to the classical beauty and magnificence of Ancient
Greece and the Roman Empire.

One of the artists of this period is Benjamin West. He painted the Death of
General Wolfe that shows the death of Major-General James Wolfe on the Plains of
Abraham at the Battle of Quebec in 1759 during the Seven Years' War, known in the
United States as the French and Indian War. A sense of drama is conveyed as the
battle ends with a singular heroic sacrifice.

ROMANTICISM
It is a movement in the arts and literature that originated in the late 18th century, emphasizing inspiration,
subjectivity, and the primacy of the individual. Romanticism is in general words the opposite of Neoclassicism,
it is romantic, passionate, sensitive, emotional, imaginative, fantastic, and so on. It reflected the revolutionary
spirit of the times, favorite theme was nature as unpredictable and uncontrollable, emphasized emotional
restraint, purity of form and subjects that inspired morality, sought extremes of emotion.

Example artwork in this period is the Liberty Leading the People by Eugene. It is
a painting usually associated with the July Revolution of 1830 in France. It
represents the struggle of the common people for freedom, but at the same time, she
shows the energy and excitement that was part of a revolution.

REALISM
It is a movement begun in the mid-19th century as a reaction to Romanticism and History painting. It is a
movement against the ideas of Romanticism. Realism wants to represent things as they are, without artificial
or imaginative items. It avoids idealistic, exotic or paradisiacal places.

For example, the painting Christina's World by Andrew Wyeth, which depicts a
woman sprawled in a field of withering grass. It belongs to a genre of realism, as it
portrays the countryside landscape in a realistic way, with attention to detail.

IMPRESSIONISM
It is an art movement that originated in France during the late 19th century as an
artistic reaction to the rapidly changing urban environment. It was an art style that
rejected conventional art styles such as realism and naturalism and introduced a new
form of painting to Europe. Impressionist artists painted contemporary landscapes and
scenes of modern life, especially of bourgeois leisure and recreation, instead of drawing
on past art or historical and mythological narrative for their inspiration. The name
impressionism comes from the title of Claude Monet’s painting Impression, Soleil levant
(Impression, Sunrise) which depicts the port of Le Havre, Monet's hometown.
POST-IMPRESSIONISM
It is an art movement that originated in the same century in France as a reaction to impressionism.
Accordingly, post-impressionists rejected impressionism’s concern with the spontaneous and naturalistic
portrayal of light and color. On the contrary, they emphasized on the symbolical depiction of their subject’s
emotions along with proper order and structure of their painting styles.
One pioneering artist is Vincent van Gogh. He was a Dutch Post-Impressionist
painter who posthumously became one of the most famous and influential figures in
Western art history. He painted the Starry Night. It depicts the view from the
east-facing window of his asylum room at Saint-Rémy-de-Provence, just before
sunrise, with the addition of an imaginary village. It is dominated by a night sky roiling
with chromatic blue swirls, a glowing yellow crescent moon, and stars rendered as
radiating orbs.

NEO-IMPRESSIONISM

Neo-impressionism is the name given to the post-impressionist work of Georges

Seurat, Paul Signac and their followers who, inspired by optical theory, painted using
tiny adjacent dabs of primary colour to create the effect of light
Neo-impressionism is characterised by the use of the divisionist technique (often
popularly but incorrectly called pointillism, a term Paul Signac repudiated).
Divisionism attempted to put impressionist painting of light and colour on a scientific
basis by using an optical mixture of colours. Instead of mixing colours on the palette,
which reduces intensity, the primary-colour components of each colour were placed
separately on the canvas in tiny dabs so they would mix in the spectator’s eye.
Optically mixed colours move towards white so this method gave greater luminosity.
This technique was based on the colour theories of M-E Chevreul, whose De la
loi du contraste simultanée des couleurs (On the law of the simultaneous contrast of
colours) was published in Paris in 1839 and had an increasing impact on French painters from then on,
particularly the impressionists and post-impressionists generally, as well as the neo-impressionists.

SYMBOLISM

Symbolism initially developed as a French literary movement in the 1880s, gaining

popular credence with the publication in 1886 of Jean Moréas’ manifesto in Le Figaro.
Reacting against the rationalism and materialism that had come to dominate Western
European culture, Moréas proclaimed the validity of pure subjectivity and the
expression of an idea over a realistic description of the natural world.

ART NOUVEAU (1890–1910)

Art Nouveau, which translates to “New Art,” attempted to create an entirely authentic
movement free from any imitation of styles that preceded it. This movement heavily
influenced applied arts, graphics, and illustration. It focused on the natural world,
characterized by long, sinuous lines and curves.
Influential Art Nouveau artists worked in a variety of media, including architecture, graphic
and interior design, jewelry-making, and painting. Czechoslovakian graphic designer
Alphonse Mucha is best-known for his theatrical posters of French actress Sarah Bernhardt.
Spanish architect and sculptor Antoni Gaudi went beyond focusing on lines to create
curving, brightly-colored constructions like that of the Basilica de la Sagrada Familia in
Barcelona.

FAUVISM (1900–1935)

Led by Henri Matisse, Fauvism built upon examples from Vincent van Gogh and George
Seurat. As the first avant-garde, 20th-century movement, this style was characterized by
expressive use of intense color, line, and brushwork, a bold sense of surface design, and
flat composition.
 As seen in many of the works of Matisse himself, the separation of color from its descriptive,
representational purpose was one of the core elements that shaped this movement. Fauvism was an
important precursor of Cubism and Expressionism.

EXPRESSIONISM (1905–1920)

Expressionism emerged as a response to increasingly conflicted world views and the

loss of spirituality. Expressionist art sought to draw from within the artist, using a distortion
of form and strong colors to display anxieties and raw emotions. Expressionist painters, in
a quest for authenticity, looked for inspiration beyond that of Western art and frequented
ethnographic museums to revisit native folk traditions and tribal art.
The roots of Expressionism can be traced to Vincent van Gogh, Edvard Munch, and
James Ensor. Prominent groups including Die Brücke (The Bridge) and Der Blaue Reiter
(The Blue Rider) formed so artists could publish works and express their ideals
collectively.

CUBISM (1907–1914)

Cubism was established by Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque, who rejected the
concept that art should copy nature. They moved away from traditional techniques and
perspectives; instead, they created radically fragmented objects through abstraction. Many
Cubist painters’ works are marked by flat, two-dimensional surfaces, geometric forms or
“cubes” of objects, and multiple vantage points. Often, their subjects weren’t even discernible.

FUTURISM

Futurism was a modern art movement which started in Italy in the early 20th century.
Futurism celebrated technology, progress, and dynamism of the modern life. The founder of
Futurism was Italian poet Filippo Tommaso Marinetti (1876 – 1944) who announced the birth
of the movement in his Futurist Manifesto published in 1909. Futurist painters called for art
that would capture dynamism, change, and energy of the modern world.

ABSTRACT OR NON-OBJECTIVE

Existing in thought or as an idea but not having a physical or concrete

existence. is art that does not attempt to represent an accurate depiction of a
visual reality but instead use shapes, colours, forms and gestural marks to achieve
its effect.
Abstract and non-objective art have existed as long as art itself. Cave
paintings like those from Lascaux, France are abstract. These flat, simplified
animal shapes would inspire artist thousand of years later, during the twentieth
century. The abstraction lies in the earliest and oldest forms of art are works of
abstraction.
To understand abstract and non-objective art, one must first consider
representational art attempts to copy the natural experience of seeing. In the early
twentieth century, abstract art was a response to representational art. Abstraction us changing the natural
way of seeing something. Distorted proportions, unnatural colors and the simplification of shapes are just a
few ways an artist might change how a certain subject is depicted.

DADAISM
It is a movement in art and literature founded on deliberate irrationality and
rejection of traditional artistic values. Dadaism as a movement began during the
early hours of the 1910s. The word “Dada” in dadaism is a colloquial French word
which means “hobby-horse. Dada was an art movement formed during the First
World War in Zurich in negative reaction to the horrors and folly of the war.
SURREALISM
It is a cultural movement that developed in Europe in the aftermath of World War I in which artists depicted
unnerving, illogical scenes and developed techniques to allow the unconscious mind to express itself.
Surrealism defies logic. Dreams and the working of the subconscious mind inspire surrealistic (French for
“super-realism”) filled with the strange image andbizarre juxtapositions. Creative thinkers have always toyed
with reality but in the early 20th century surrealism as a philosophic and cultural movement.

● Features of Surrealistic Art

● Dream-like scenes and symbolic images.
● Unexpected, illogical juxtapositions.
● Bizarre assemblages of ordinary objects.
● Automatism and a spirit of spontaneity
● Games and technical to create ramdom effects.
● Personal iconography
● Visual puns
● Distorted figures and biomorphic shapes
● Uninhibited sexuality and taboo subjects
● Primitive or child—like designs

CONSTRUCTIVISM

It was a Russian avant-garde art movement that used geometric shapes and industrial
materials. The movement emphasized building and science, rather than artistic expression,
and its goals went far beyond the realm of art. The Constructivists sought to influence
architecture, design, fashion, and all mass-produced objects.

ABSTRACT EXPRESSIONISM

It is often characterized by gestural brushstrokes or mark-making, and the

impression of spontaneity. It Monumental in scale and ambition, Abstract Expressionist
painting evokes the distinctly American spirit of rugged individualism. Valuing freedom,
spontaneity and personal expression, the movement naturally produced a variety of
technical and aesthetic innovations.
Leo Tolstoy is called a father of abstract expressionism and the expressionist
movements of the 19th and 20th centuries.

OPTICAL ART
The word optical is used to describe things that relate to how we see. Artists use shapes, colours and
patterns in special ways to create images that look as if they are moving or blurring.
It help you to make your brain sharper. They make you think hard about how a certain thing is possible,
lead you to understand the working of a human brain, and how interesting it is.

● Op Art exists to fool the eye. ...

● Op Art is not meant to represent reality. ...
● Op Art is not created by chance. ...
● Op Art relies on two specific techniques. ...
● Op Art typically does not include the blending of colors. ...
● Op Art embraces negative space.
POP ART

Art based on modern popular culture and the mass media, especially as a critical or
ironic comment on traditional fine art values. It calls pop art In reference to its intended
popular appeal and its engagement with popular culture, it was called Pop art. The three
(3) characteristics of it are “appropriating image from mass media elevating the ordinary,
repetition”.

THE FIVE FAMOUS POP ARTIST

1. Andy Warhol
2. Roy Lichtenstein
3. James Rosenquist
4. Claes Oldenburg
5. Ed Ruscha

MINIMALISM

It is an extreme type of abstract art that usually is depicted through simplistic shapes
and hard edges, all while exposing the essence of the forms and materials used. It
focuses in geometry, line, and color. Minimalist artwork uses precise, hard-edged forms,
often squares and rectangles, to create nonhierarchical, mathematically regular
compositions.
Describe movements in carious forms of art and design, especially visual art and
music, where the work is stripped down to its most fundamental form. It is identifies with
development in post World War II Western Art. Most strongly with American visual arts in
the late 1960’s and early 1970’s.

CONCEPTUAL ART

It is an art for which the idea (or concept) behind the work is more important than
the finished art object. It emerged as an art movement in the 1960s and the term
usually refers to art made from the mid 1960s to the mid-1970s. It is characterized by
its use of text, as well as imagery, along with a variety of ephemeral, typically everyday
materials and "found objects.
Conceptual art is a movement that prizes ideas over the formal or visual
components of artworks. An amalgam of various tendencies rather than a tightly
cohesive movement, Conceptualism took myriad forms, such as performances,
happenings, and ephemera.
In conceptual art the idea or concept is the most important aspects of the work.
When artist uses a conceptual form of art, it means that all of the planning and
decisions are made beforehand and the execution is a perfunctory affair. That planning
is, essentially, a set of strategies.

PHOTO REALISM

It is a genre of art that encompasses painting, drawing and other graphic media, in
which an artist studies a photograph and then attempts to reproduce the image as
realistically as possible in another medium. Also an artwork so realistic that the
boundaries between reality and imagination. Although the term can be used broadly to
describe artworks in many different media, it is also used to refer specifically to a group of
paintings and painters of the American art movement that began in the late 1960’s and
early 70’s.
INSTALLATION ART

It is a mode of production and display of artwork rather than a movement or style.

Typically characterized by three-dimensional (3D) objects, the art movement known as
installation art includes everything from life-size sculptures made of recycled materials
and room-sized displays to light and sound experiences inside an art gallery.
Installation Art can comprise traditional and non-traditional Media, such as Painting,
Sculpture, Ready-mades, Found Objects, Drawing and Text.

● BODY ART

The installation involving body painting is a meeting point of different art directions and
visual aspects. It could be a combination of assemblage art, land art, fashion, stage design,
costumes, props, objects, sculptures, plants, performance, and painted bodies.

● EARTH AND LAND ART

Land art is made directly in the landscape by sculpting the land itself or by making
structures in the landscape with natural materials. Land art, also known as earth art, was
part of the wider conceptual art movement in the 1960s and 1970s.

Types of Earth and land art

➢ Environmental art. Environmental art is art that addresses social and political issues relating to
the natural and urban environment.
➢ Conceptual art.
➢ Psychogeography. Psychogeography describes the effect of a geographical location on the
emotions and behaviour of individuals.
➢ Landscape.

● PERFORMANCE ART

Artworks that are created through actions performed by the artist or other
participants, which may be live or recorded, spontaneous or scripted. Performing arts
may include dance, music, opera, theatre and musical theatre, magic, illusion, mime,
spoken word, puppetry, circus arts, professional wrestling and performance art.

CONCLUSION
A wide range of distinctive, important styles, techniques, and media have been made available by art
movements throughout the history of Western art. Each movement illuminated notable pieces of architecture,
sculpture, painting, and other art. Building a wise, well-rounded collection requires a thorough understanding
of the course of art history and how each movement inspired later ones.