ART APPRECIATION

Unit – III
The birth of modernism and modern art can be traced to the Industrial
Revolution. This period of rapid changes in manufacturing, transportation, and
technology began around the mid-18th century and lasted through the 19th century,
profoundly affecting the social, economic, and cultural conditions of life in
Western Europe, North America, and eventually the world. New forms of
transportation, including the railroad, the steam engine, and the subway, changed
the way people lived, worked, and traveled, expanding their worldview and access
to new ideas. As urban centers prospered, workers flocked to cities for industrial
jobs and urban populations boomed.

Before the 19th century, artists were most often commissioned to make artwork by
wealthy patrons or institutions like the church. Much of this art depicted religious
or mythological scenes that told stories intended to instruct the viewer. During the
19th century, many artists started to make art based in their own, personal
experiences and about topics that they chose. With the of psychologist Sigmund
Freud’s The Interpretation of Dreams (1899) and the popularization of the idea of
a subconscious mind, many artists began exploring dreams, symbolism, and
personal iconography as avenues for the depiction of their subjective experiences.
Challenging the notion that art must realistically depict the world, some artists
experimented with the expressive use of color, non-traditional materials, and
new techniques and mediums. Among these new mediums was photography,
whose invention in 1839 offered radical possibilities for depicting and interpreting
the world.

Definitions: Form, Content and Context

__________________________________________________________________
__

FORM-

The form of a work of art or design refers to all of its visible elements and
the particular way these come together as a whole. These include

1. the material or medium used to construct the work, eg marble, bronze, found
objects, oil paint, video, wood, steel, mixed media, photography etc;

2. the colour of the work and the way colour has been used in terms of tonal
variation, contrast, harmony, coolness, warmth, opacity, translucence etc;
3. the use of line in the work and whether or not it is curved, angular, directional,
repetitive, flowing, irregular etc;

4. the texture or surface of the work and whether it is rough, smooth, tactile,
repellant, viscous, fluid etc;

5. the composition of the work ie the way the space is organized or how the
elements are put together, eg. one point perspective, close up, viewed from above,
depth of field, chaotic, symmetrical, grid-like;

6. the scale or dimensions of a work and whether it is monumental, miniature,

intimate, imposing etc;

7. the duration of a work and the length of time the viewer is expected to engage
with it - particularly significant for timed-based work such as video and
performance.

CONTENT

Content is the subject matter of a work of art or design. It is revealed

though the formal properties of the work and may be evident on a number of
levels. There is the immediate or obvious content of the work, eg. it may be an
historical scene, a landscape, a portrait, an interior, a functional object or an
abstraction. Beyond this the content may become more complex. It is about what is
happening in the works, what meaning you derive from them, and whether or not
they create a particular mood or reaction. Sometimes content can be difficult to
assess because it may be ambiguous or obscure. The formal elements of the work
and its title can often help to read the content, as can recurring patterns, motifs or
symbols that may have special significance.

CONTEXT

Context helps us to understand the meaning of a work of art. The context

in which a work is made and displayed will impact on its formal resolution. So an
artist will select particular materials and use them in a particular way depending on
their social, cultural and personal background and the particular era they are
working in.

1. the social and historical milieu within which the works were produced;

2. the movement or period to which the artwork belongs;

 3. sources referenced in the work such as the work of other artists, literature,
ancient mythology and popular culture;

4. where and how the work is exhibited or performed, eg. in a museum or gallery,
indoors or outdoors, in public or private;

5. the cultural and personal background of the artist.

CHRONOLOGY OF WESTERN ART

Prehistory: 30,000 BC - 3,000 BC

 30,000- 15,000 BC: "Venus" Figures

 20,000-10,000 BC: Cave Paintings

o 14,000-10,000 BC: Altamira Cave Paintings

The Art of the Classical Civilizations: 3,000 BC- AD 500

8000-600 BC: Mesopotamia3,000-270 BC: Egypt

1230-100 BC: Greece

700 BC-AD 325: Rome

325-1453: Byzantium

The Art of the Middle Ages: 475-1500

475-1000: The Dark Ages

1000-1350: The High Middle Ages

1350-1500: The Late Middle Ages

The Art of the Modern Period: 1500-present

1400-1550: Renaissance

1550-1700: Baroque

1700-1800: Rococo and Classical

1790-1850: Romantic
1850-1910: Realism, Impressionism, Expressionism

1910-1950: Cubism, Abstraction, Modernism, Dada

1950-present: Recent

Petroglyphs
Petroglyphs (also called rock engravings) are pictogram and logogram images
created by removing part of a rock surface by incising, picking, carving, and
abrading. Outside North America, scholars often use terms such as "carving",
"engraving", or other descriptions of the technique to refer to such images

Petroglyphs in Gobustan, Azerbaijan dating back to 10,000 BC indicating a

thriving culture

Cave paintings are paintings on cave walls and ceilings, and the term is used
especially for those dating to prehistoric times. The earliest European cave
paintings date to Aurignacian, some 32,000 years ago. The purpose of the
paleolithic cave paintings is not known. The evidence suggests that they were not
merely decorations of living areas, since the caves in which they have been found
do not have signs of ongoing habitation. Also, they are often in areas of caves that
are not easily accessed. Some theories hold that they may have been a way of
communicating with others, while other theories ascribe them a religious or
ceremonial purpose.

Venus Figurines

Venus figurines is an umbrella term for a number of prehistoric statuettes of

women portrayed with similar physical attributes from the Upper Palaeolithic,
mostly found in Europe.

These figurines were carved from soft stone (such as steatite, calcite or limestone),
bone or ivory, or formed of clay and fired. The latter are among the oldest ceramics
known. In total, over a hundred such figurines are known; virtually all of modest
size, between 4 cm and 25 cm in height. They are some of the earliest works of
prehistoric art.
 The Venus of Brassempouy

WESTERN ART

EGYPTIAN ART

Egypt in north – east Africa had one of the oldest great civilizations, which
developed a magnificent art.

Egypt can be divided into three periods.

1. Old kingdom (about 4000-2280 B.C)

- Capital was Memphis

- Remarkable for the building of the pyramids and achievements in

early sculpture.

2. Middle kingdom (about 2065-1783 B.C)

- Capital was Thebes

- Excelled in building temples

- Sculpture flourished

3. New kingdom or empire (from 1580-1085 B.C)

Out of the complicated aspects of Egyptian religion one point had the
greatest bearing on art namely their idea of the future life. Therefore
they considered it as an extension of earthly existence, with all its
requirements. They preserved the body by mummification so that the
ka, its spiritual double could re-enter it.

Architecture
 Mainly one kind of monument, imposing tomb the Egyptians
lavished all their energy, engineering skill and artistic talent on
creating safe abiding places for their dead. The most impressive
example by its combination of massive grandeur and simple form is
the pyramid, or royal tomb, the climax of a long evolution.

The Egyptians first buried their dead in pits on which they

heaped sand and stones slowly they built solid masonry over it, in the
form of a truncated pyramid. This kind is called a Mastaba, a modern
Arab word – meaning ‘bench’.

MASTABA

- The top is flat

- The sides slop over a grave or burial chamber deep under the ground.

- The mummified body is already lowered and then walled up.

- The shaft leading down to it was filled with rubble and carefully concealed to
make it as inaccessible as possible.

- Contains the serdab – a chamber with one or several statues of the deceased.

- It was inaccessible from the outside, but according to Egyptian belief the ka,
being spiritual could pass through solid masses.

- There was a mortuary chapel in the mastaba, which could be entered from the
outside.

- Inside there was a false or imitation door for the ka, who could pass through it
to fetch the offerings put there.

- The walls of these and other accessory rooms were covered with painted reliefs
with ritual scenes or people doing everyday work.

- The mastaba was not only an early form of the pyramid, but even in later times
it remained the burial place of the nobles, sometimes surrounding the
great pyramids reserved for pharophs.

PYRAMID

- The Pyramid is the most characteristic of the Egyptian tomb buildings during
the old kingdom.

- Massive form in a simple geometrical pattern,

- Four triangular sloping sides stand on a square base and unite in a point at the
top.

- Has the same parts as the

mastaba but placed in a
different way.

- The pyramid conceals no more

than the burial chamber,
which is no longer deep
under the ground but in the
center at a certain height.

- Galleries or corridors lead there from the entrance, which faces north.

- After the funeral, this opening was carefully hidden.

- A mortuary temple for statues and offerings was at the eastern side of the
pyramid.

THE PYRAMID OF KHUFU

Largest structure man ever erected.

Measurements – square base – 236 meters on each side and it covers some 5 ¼
hectares, Height – 147 meters.

The whole is a solid bulk composed of some 2,300,000 blocks of limestone,

each weighing about 2,540 kgm.

Limestone – from the eastern cliffs – first roughly hewn, then floated across the
river at the time of high Nile, to the building site on the western plateau.
There the cutting was finished with great precision by means of very
primitive instruments such as knotted ropes, this was done entirely by
human labor, (slaves)

Huge blocks were raised on temporal ramps made of sand heaps and putting
them into place in decreasing courses of layers, thus forming or step
pyramid.
After reaching the top, the angles were filled in and the whole was covered
with sheets of polished marble for the double purpose of decorating the
whole and of completely hiding the entrance.

The interior of the pyramid of khufu can be reached from the northern
entrance.

Passages, of which the last one is called the great gallery because of its size,
lead up to the king’s burial chamber.

Here the mummy or embalmed body of the pharaoh was placed in a sycamore
coffin(Athi tree) within a granite sarcophagus.

The place is ventilated by two airshafts, on opposite side, leading to the outer
face of the pyramid.

The ceiling is elaborately constructed of stone slabs one above the other,
separated by blocks and resting on the solid masonry, to support the
enormous weight above.

Under this room is the queen’s chamber.

SCULPTURE

Egyptian sculpture, like its architecture was also concerned with life after death.

- Materials used: stone – limestone, sandstone – obtained from the clefts

bordering the Nile valley.

Granite – was found at the cataract or waterfalls.

Diorite – found in the desert.

- Occasionally wood, clay and bronze were also used.

- During the old kingdom sculpture can be divided into two groups – statues in
the round – relief sculpture.

Egyptian law of formality.

The Egyptian artist, whether he represented figures in a standing, sitting or

kneeling position, had to conform to the strictest geometrical rules, which
meant a symmetrical arrangement of limbs and body on both sides of an
imaginary vertical central line called the axis, neither of which bend or
turn as in the case of moving figures in real life. This rigid symmetrical
facing forward is called the Egyptian law of formality.
E.g. 1. Ranofer.

- A good example of royal statues to illustrate the rigidity

- Belongs to the 5th dynasty (2565 – 2420 B.C).

- Pharaoh standing in a strictly frontal position so that the

body could be divided into two equal parts by a central
line.

- Head erect.

- Looking forward.

- His hanging arms press closely to the body.

- His feet rest flat on the ground with the left one somewhat
advanced.

- He wears a wig.

- His dress consists only of a linen kilt around his loins – usual dress during the
old kingdom

- The whole statue has an intense vitality.

- The erect head and the stiff bearing confer stateliness and royal dignity.

2. Seated Statue of Khafre.

- Khafre was an ancient Egyptian king of 4th dynasty(2680 – 2565 B.C) during
the Old Kingdom. He was the son of Khufu and the throne successor of
Djedefre.

- It is a life – sized and carved out of diorite, an extremely hard stone.

- Pharaoh is seated on a throne decorated with lotus and papyrus plants

intertwined a symbol of united Egypt, and the head of a sphinx on each
side.
- His posture is erect with shoulders against the back of the seat. Hands rest on
his lap.

- Knees and legs are pressed firmly together, without the slightest movement.

- Garment consists of the simple kilt around his loins, leaving the upper part of
the body bare.

- The soft linen headgear falls on both shoulders.

- The long ceremonial beard, which the pharaohs used

- to wear, is partly broken away.

- Perched on his shoulders is a hawk, enveloping his head with its wings in
taken of protection, to show that he is a semi – divine being

- Excellent piece of portraiture.

- Shows majesty, dignity and power.

3. Nefertiti

- Nefertiti was the Great Royal Wife of Akhenaten, an Egyptian Pharaoh

- Nefertiti and her husband were known for a religious revolution, in which they
worshiped one god only, Athen, or the sun disc. And her sculpture known
for its beauty and extreme delicacy.
- The refined face rests on a slender curving neck.

- The big conventional headdress of a geometrical form helps to set off, by well-
balanced contrast.

- The rich necklace is in a geometrical pattern which harmonizes with the

headgear.

- Her eyebrows, eyes and lips are painted on the sandstone out of which the
figure was chiseled.

GREEK ART

 Greek or Hellenic art developed in the Greek peninsula, on the islands of the
Aegean Sea and on the shores of Asia Minor. Greek art lies at the
foundations of roman and Byzantine art. The inhabitants of Greece called
the meshes Hellenes and their country Hellas. The Romans gave them the
name Greeks. They were a mixture of different races.

 The Greek gods were generally nature personifications, who assumed

human forms. Although the gods were supposed to be guardians of justice,
the mythological stories about them are often immoral.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gtKgfS1QwLk&t=91s
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6_SG-efH88A
Architecture

- The Greeks developed a simple but splendid architect

- Excellent building material, a simple but logical system of

construction, refinement of proportions and details being the
keynotes.

- Building materials were in abundance.

Timber – from numerous forests

Marble – from mountains

Other materials used were ivory and metals especially bronze.

These were imported.

- They used the simplest of the building methods the post and lintel,
also called trabeated (beam) system.

- The column, both for support and beauty was given importance.

- Unlike the Egyptians who had them inside their buildings, the
Greeks used them on the exterior thus obtaining the most splendid
effects.

- The purpose of the column was to support the roof.

- This arrangement of columns supporting a horizontal

superstructure is called an order.

- The Greeks have developed two main orders, the Doric and Ionic
named after the Dorian’s and Ionians, who developed them.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yGPevxwITBE

THE DORIC ORDER

- The Doric order was the first to be developed.

- It began chiefly on the mainland.

- In this order, the temples stand on a triple platform of diminishing

levels, the topmost being – called the stylobate.

- Since they are higher than ordinary steps, supplements ones had to
be added in the front to give access to the building.
- The Doric columns stand directly on the stylobate without an
individual base.

- They consist of a shaft, which tapers towards the summit.

- Near the middle there is a slight bulge (entasis), which can barely
be seen.

- The shaft is not carved from a single stone (not a monolith) but is
built up of separate drums joined together with wooden or metal
pivots.

- Usually it is fluted – it has 16 to 20 shallow grooves or channels

rising parallel with the shaft. They meet in sharp edges called
arris.

- Several horizontal grooves form the necking, on which resets the

capital consisting of the echinus and the abacus.

- The Echinus is a round, cushion like member, resembling the shell

of a sea – urchin.

- On it rests the abacus, a plain square slab.

- The purpose of the capital is to form the transition from the shaft to
the entablature, in other words, from the vertical supporting
column to the horizontal supported lintel.

- The entablature or superstructure consists of three horizontal parts.

- The architrave is entirely plain. It is formed of closely – joined

beams, of which each bridges the span between two columns (inter
– columniation).

- The frieze is composed of triglyphs (three vertical grooves), with

metopes (square stone slabs) in between. These are often carved.

- Roughly two triglyphs correspond to one column.

- The boldly projecting cornice, called corona, completes the design

and serves as a protection against rain.

- Over the slopes of the gable is the racking cornice or eymatium,

which is a gutter – mouldings.
 - The triangular field of the gable is called the pediment, or
tympanum or tympanon.

- Ornament plays an important part in the architectural design and is

concentrated on the upper part of the building especially in the
metopes and pediment.

- Decoration is basically sculptural.

IONIC ORDER

- In general, the Ionic order has more slender proportions greater

elegance and grace, and more richly carved decorations than the
Doric.

- It has the same triple platform, but the columns do not stand
directly on the stylobate.

- Each one has an individual base, made of concave and convex

mouldings.

- The shaft is more slender, and has little or no Enthasis.

- It has some twenty-four grooves or channels, which do not meet in

sharp edges, but have a narrow strip in between, which is called
fillet.

- The capital is the most conspicuous part of the Ionic order.

- It is composed of an echinus decorated with bead and reel, and egg

and dart mouldings.

- On this rests a band which ends on both sides in scrolls called

Volutes.

- The grace and beauty of the capital depends on the form of the
volutes and the sweep of the connecting band.

- Over this is a narrow abacus.

- The architrave consists of three plain beams and above it the frieze
is continuous, not interrupted with triglyphs and metopes.
Sometimes decorated with relief sculpture.

- The cornice has great beauty.

PARTHENON

- The Parthenon or temple of Athens is the culmination of the Doric

order.

- In less than ten years, between about 447 B.C to 438 it was erected
all in white marble.

- It measures 60 meters 50 cm by 30 meters 78 cm, on top of the

stylobate.

- The plan of the Parthenon is double celled.

- The bigger and more important one facing east, was given the
same size and name as the old sanctuary, namely hekatompedon.
 - Here stood the famous gold and ivory statue of Athena.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I6Wl4vyRqvw

- The other smaller room facing west, was called Parthenon (the
maiden’s room).

- Its use is not very clear but it gave its name to the whole building.

- Both cells are prostyle, that is they have a row of columns in front
of them.

- In addition, the columns completely surrounds the building,

forming a peripheral plan.

- On the two narrow sides, the ends of the sloping roof form the
pediment.

- There are 8 columns on each side of the narrow side and 17 on the
long ones.

- The proportions between the height and width of the columns, and
the proportions of all the details between each other are perfect.

- The Parthenon though it was maintained in more or less good

condition for few centuries, when Greece became Christian, it was
used as a Church. In 1456, after the invasion of the Turkish, it was
changed into a mosque.

Sculpture https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gyWeksAo8VM
 - It was in sculpture that the Greeks excelled.

- First to attain perfection in carving statues of the human body, both

in relief and in round, at rest and in motion.

- Their ideal of perfection of physical qualities was achieved by

athletic exercises for the full development of bodily beauty.

Materials Used:

- In the beginning they used wood, then limestone and tufa (poros)
but later used marble, which was suitable for carving.

- Metal sculpture, especially bronze was practices.

- Gold was combined with irony for Chryselephantine statues.

 These were hollow.

 Had an inner framework of iron.

 Had an outer shell of wood.

 On these thin plates of ivory, covering the exposed parts

of the flesh and finely beat plates of gold covering the
draped parts were.

Themes of Greek Sculpture:

- Varied and not limited to any one aspect of local life

- Religious – connected with temple architecture.

- Civil.

- Domestic.

The Greeks attained perfection in sculpture only after a long period of

experimentation and slow development. During the archaic period (650 B.C to
480 B.C) the interest centered mainly on two subjects.

1. Male Athlete type.

- Developed by the Dorian.

- Gradually gave them the knowledge of human anatomy.

 2. Robed Feminine type.

- Originated in Ionia.

- Discovered the beauty of drapery.

These two experiences combined and formed in the 5th C the beautiful Attic Style.

E.g.: - 1. Discobolos.

- Or the discuss thrower.

- Done by the sculptor Myron.

- Made of bronze but marble copies remain.

- It shows the athlete in the typical position of

balancing his quoit before hurling it.

- This right hand, which holds the discuss is

raised up backwards.

- The whole body bent for this action, forms and

S – Curve.

- The Face shows no emotions, no efforts.

- It is impersonal and generalized.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OhJKDqZgNXg&t=38s
 2. Hermes with Infant Dionysus.

- Done by Sculptor Praxiteles who has an Athenian he was the central

figure of Greek Sculpture in the 4thC B.C.

- The excelled in portraying the grace of youth.

- The statue of Hermes carrying the Dionysus is shown leaning

nonchantly on a short stump with his left arm.

- This posture gives as easy curve to the body.

- On this leaning arm from which his mantle falls in rich folds sits the
infant Dionysus, who stretches out his little hands for something that
Hermes raises high in his right hand.

- Dionysus is the god of wine.

- The marble is finished with the utmost delicacy and the statue shows a
masterly expression of individual character.

- Very life like – softness of the flesh, gloss of the hair, moisture of the
eyes is done mastery by Praxiteles in marble.

- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qlWusv5YDeg

3. Aproxiomenos https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=REeBUSYRzRo

- Done by Lysippos

- It is so called because it represents and athlete

scraping himself.

- The Greeks used to oil their bodies before

contest.

- Naturally it became caked with sand during the

fight; so after the combat, they cleaned
themselves with the wooden scraper, called
strigel, before they took a bath.

- This one represents an individual performing a

common place action an unimportant passing
moment in life.
 ROMAN ART

The early development of the Hellenes and Romans started about the
same time, but the former progressed more quickly because Greece was
closer to the cultured Near East. The Romans lagged far behind because of
its suffering from many internal struggles. But they rose in power where the
brilliant civilization of classical Greece began to decline, after the 5th B.C.

From a village, Rome slowly grew into a city – state. Although

Roman art kept its strongly native character, Hellenic influence on it is quite
obvious. The Romans were a practical, earthly-minded people, whose
interests were centered chiefly in the family and home.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RM2D7iJHWXQ&t=120s&ab_channel=Philin
thecircle

ARCHITECTURE:

The glorious period of Roman architecture began under Augustus, the

first emperor who is quoted as saying, “I found Rome a city of bricks, and
I shall leave it a city of marble”. The vast number of constructions that
sprang up throughout the extensive empire was the result of a long period of
peace and security, increasing wealth from commerce, the government
concern for the welfare of the citizens, and their own love of comfort and
magnificence.

Building Materials:

Travertine and white marble. Good clay for bricks, for concrete they
used pozzolana (a clear sandy earth) and lava, of volcanic origin. They
imported colored marbles and alabaster.

Arch System:

The arch system is an architectural device in which a number of

separate tapering or wedge-shaped stones (called voussoirs) are so fitted
together that they bridge the space between two supports, usually in the form
of an arc, curve or semi-circle. The central block (the keystone) is the last to
be inserted. It holds all the pieces together once it has been firmly put into
place. To build an arch, a rounded woods Scaffolding called Centering is
needed in order to hold the voussoirs in place until the keystones has been
put in position and the mortar has set. Until then it cannot be removed.

The arch permits the spanning of wide distances with small blocks.
The arch can cover a space of many meters. Its power to bear great weight
is another advantage.

Vault System

A vault is an arched roofing of stone or brick. If an arch is extended

in its depth, it resent a tunnel. This is called the Barrel or Wagon Vault.

- Since it is an extended arch, it exerts an outward pressure throughout

its length.

- The walls on which it rests must therefore be very thick to resist both
the downward and outward pressure.

- Another disadvantage is that the window opening must be cut below

the beginning of the vault, which reduces the inner lighting.

- With regard to beauty – it looks monotonous – because it is long,

uninterrupted, arched ceiling.

The Groin or Cross Vault – was developed by the Romans to overcome

some of these disadvantages.

- This type is formed by the intersection of two-barrel vaults at right

angles.
- The line of crossing is called a groin.

- The advantage of such vaulting is that the pressure is exerted only at

the points where the groins meet.

- Thus the wall can be thinner and lighter.

 - The windows can also be cut even as high as the vault itself.

- It is much more pleasing to the eye because of its varied aspect.

Colosseum

- Greatest example, In spite of its

ruined condition it is one of the
most monumental landmarks of
Romans.

- Elliptical in shape, its external

circumference is 537 meters

- The huge surrounding wall, more

than 46 meters high is built of
travertine, the best and hardest
building stone of Rome and the
inner vaults are of concrete and tufa(a type of limestone).

- They were divided by horizontal passage ways, to which led

numerous stairways hidden under the high vaulting which supported
the upper tiers of seats.

- The outer wall is divided into four storey.

- Three of them are arcades, the arches alternating with wide piers.
 - In front of them are engaged columns carrying a separate entablature
for each storey.

- This combination of the lintel and arch system is one of the most
outstanding characteristics of Roman architecture.

- The sturdiest looking – the Doric Tuscan is on the ground floor, as if

carrying the whole building.

- The slender Ionic on the storey above carries less weight.

- The delicate Corinthian is the highest of the three.

- The fourth level has a plain wall decorated with Corinthian pilasters.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e-x74MFiWkg&ab_channel=FreeSchool

Emperor Vespasian.

The head of the Emperor Vespasian in the Thermae Museum,Rome, shows a

hardened solider with keen, sharp eyes, tight lips and firm chin. Fleshy shoulders
and arms, the head turned slightly sideways, the hair roughly massed over the
smooth face, the grim lines of the mouth, and the deep-set eyes shadowed by heavy
frowning brows, give an impression of cunning, merciless brutality and cold
cruelty.
Painting:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BqLuhNTUYek&ab_channel=TheTelegra
ph

Wall-frescoes, like those found at Pompeii and Herculaneum, as well as in Rome,

were the principal kind of painting. Some of these consisted of painted architecture
with picture panels inserted, showing windows and pillars in perspective, thus
giving an appearance of depth. Those at villa Item, near Pompeii, depict only a
shallow space, but the light figures against a dark background looks like reliefs, so
cleverly are volumes and structure suggested by means of shading.

Generally the figures represent mythological or literary scenes or genre. Portraits

from real life are rare, but a striking example of these is Paquius proculus and his
wife on the walls of villa livia in Rome is a naturalistic painting of a garden with
different tints of green and blue, with brightly coloured birds and flowers. It seems
to be separated from the room by low fence. These are more proofs of the Roman
love of reality in art.
 Neoclassicism

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aR86ja-
RcSA&t=2s&ab_channel=Philinthecircle

After the Renaissance--a period of exploration and expansiveness--came a

reaction in the direction of order and restraint. Generally speaking, this reaction
developed in France in the mid-seventeenth century and in England thirty
years later; and it dominated European literature until the last part of the
eighteenth century.

The period is called neoclassical because its writers looked back to the ideals and
art forms of classical times, emphasizing even more than their Renaissance
predecessors the classical ideals of order and rational control.

In this period they draw inspiration from the "classical" art and culture of Ancient
Greece or Ancient Rome. The main Neoclassical movement coincided with the
18th century Age of Enlightenment, and continued into the early 19th century,
latterly competing with Romanticism.
Jacques-LouisDavid:

Neoclassicism in painting gained a new sense of direction with the sensational

success of Jacques-Louis David's Oath of the Horatii at the Paris Salon of 1785.
Despite its evocation of republican virtues, this was a commission by the royal
government, which David insisted on painting in Rome. David managed to
combine an idealist style with drama and forcefulness. The central perspective is
perpendicular to the picture plane, made more emphatic by the dim arcade behind,
against which the heroic figures are disposed, with a hint of the artificial lighting,
staging of opera, and the classical colouring. David rapidly became the leader of
French art, and after the French Revolution became a politician with control of
much government patronage in art. He managed to retain his influence in the
Napoleonic period, turning to frankly propagandistic works, but had to leave
France for exile in Brussels at the Bourbon Restoration.

Print of a drawing by John Flaxman of a scene in Homer's Iliad, 1795:

It is hard to recapture the radical and exciting nature of early neo-classical painting
for contemporary audiences; The drawings, subsequently turned into prints, of
John Flaxman used very simple line drawing (thought to be the purest classical
medium) and figures mostly in profile to depict The Odyssey and other subjects.
One of the seminal figures of Neoclassicism, John Flaxman (1755–1826) identified
himself first and foremost as a sculptor, and yet his greatest fame and most lasting
influence rest with his drawings. While commissions for sculpture were difficult to
obtain and expensive to fulfill, Flaxman’s illustrations to the classical epics of
Homer, Aeschylus, Dante, and Hesiod were less cumbersome and provided more
immediate financial reward. These drawings became his most celebrated work
during his lifetime, and although they were not the work of which he was most
proud, they encapsulate his philosophy and style.

According to Flaxman’s first biographer, he spent much of his youth drawing in

the studio of his father, an eminent plaster-cast maker in Covent Garden. The
precocious child did not limit himself to copying the casts around him, but read
Homer and attempted to think and design for himself. The young Flaxman entered
the Royal Academy Schools in 1770 and was awarded a silver medal, but was not
the recipient of the coveted Prix de Rome. From the mid-1770s, he worked as a
designer for Josiah Wedgwood, modeling portrait medallions of illustrious
personages of the eighteenth century and creating original jasperware bas-reliefs
that decorated mantelpieces and vases. This commercial work helped Flaxman
achieve financial independence and gave him access to Wedgwood’s lavish, four-
volume set of books on Sir William Hamilton’s Neapolitan collection of Greek
vases that was sold to the British Museum in 1772.
 John Flaxman, The Judgment of Paris or Paris and Oenone, 1791. Gray
ink wash with pale black-gray ink line, graphite, and brown ink. The Cleveland
Museum of Art.

John Flaxman, The Judgment of Paris, from the Iliad, 1804 edition.
Engraving.

Sculptur Hebe by Canova (1800–05), in the appropriately neoclassical

surroundings of the Hermitage Museum
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gomObFKLXA4

Antonio Canova's Psyche Revived by Love's Kiss

Dimensions:
H. 1.55 m (5 ft. 1 in.), W. 1.68 m (5 ft. 6 in.), D. 1.01 m (3 ft. 3 ¾
in.)

If Neoclassical painting suffered from a lack of ancient models, Neoclassical

sculpture tended to suffer from an excess of them, although examples of actual
Greek sculpture of the "classical period" beginning in about 500 BC were then
very few; the most highly regarded works were mostly Roman copies. The leading
Neoclassical sculptors enjoyed huge reputations in their own day, but are now less
regarded, with the exception of Jean-Antoine Houdon, whose work was mainly
portraits, very often as busts, which do not sacrifice a strong impression of the
sitter's personality to idealism. His style became more classical as his long career
continued, and represents a rather smooth progression from Rococo charm to
classical dignity. Unlike some Neoclassical sculptors he did not insist on his sitters
wearing Roman dress, or being unclothed. He portrayed most of the great figures
of the Enlightenment, and travelled to America to produce a statue of George
Washington, as well as busts of Thomas Jefferson, Ben Franklinand other
luminaries of the new republic.

Antonio Canova and the Dane Bertel Thorvaldsen were both based in Rome, and
as well as portraits produced many ambitious life-size figures and groups; both
represented the strongly idealizing tendency in neoclassical sculpture. Canova has
a lightness and grace, where Thorvaldsen is more severe; the difference is
exemplified in their respective groups of the Three Graces. All these, and
Flaxman, were still active in the 1820s, and Romanticism was slow to impact
sculpture, where versions of Neoclassicism remained the dominant style for most
of the 19th century.

Realism:

Bonjour, Monsieur Courbet, 1854. A Realist painting by Gustave Courbet.

Realism in the arts may be generally defined as the attempt to represent subject
matter truthfully, without artificiality and avoiding artistic conventions,
implausible, exotic and supernatural elements. The term originated in the 19th
century, and was used to describe the work of Gustave Courbet and a group of
painters who rejected idealization, focusing instead on everyday life.[1]

, after the 1848 Revolution. Realists rejected Romanticism, which had dominated
French literature and art since the late 18th century. Realism revolted against the
exotic subject matter and exaggerated emotionalism and drama of the Romantic
movement. Instead it sought to portray real and typical contemporary people and
situations with truth and accuracy, and not In its most specific sense, Realism was
an artistic movement that began in France in the 1850s avoiding unpleasant or
sordid aspects of life. Realist works depicted people of all classes in situations that
arise in ordinary life, and often reflected the changes wrought by the Industrial and
Commercial Revolutions. The popularity of such 'realistic' works grew with the
introduction of photography — a new visual source that created a desire for people
to produce representations which look “objectively real.”
Honoré Daumier (French, Marseilles 1808–1879 Valmondois) - The Third-
Class Carriage:

Brooklyn Museum - Fin du travail (The End of the Working Day) - Jules
Breton
Important Realist Artists

Gustave Courbet, “The Stone Breakers” (1849) (Photo: The Yorck Project
via Wikimedia Commons Public Domain)

GUSTAVE COURBET
Gustave Courbet is often considered the leading figure of Realism. He laid the
groundwork for the movement in the 1840s, when he began portraying peasants
and laborers on a grand scale typically reserved for religious, historical, or
allegorical subjects.

Prior to Courbet's radical emergence, painters did not depict scenes as they saw
them; instead, they idealized them, virtually erasing any flaws or imperfections. To
Courbet, this approach was detrimental to painting, as it eliminated any sense of
individuality. “It is society at its best, its worst, its average,” he said of his practice.
“In short, it's my way of seeing society with all its interests and passions. It's the
whole world coming to me to be painted

Rosa Bonheur, “Ploughing in Nevers” (1849) (Photo: Google Arts &

Culture via Wikimedia Commons Public Domain)

ROSA BONHEUR
Rosa Bonheur specialized in animal depictions. Given this interest, many of her
paintings are set in farms, fields, and other countryside settings.

Today, Bonheur is often considered the most prolific female painter of the 19th
century. One of her most well-known paintings, Ploughing in the Nivernais, won
first prize at the French Salon of 1848 and has since been praised as a key piece of
the Realist movement

ROMANTICISM:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=agK-qvtb6Mc b

 Artists, who felt limited by Neoclassicism, began creating more emotional

artwork giving rise to Romanticism.
 Named after the revival of interest in medieval stories like King Arthur-
heroic stories referred to as “romances”
 Sometimes inspired by current events, particularly tragedies.
 Shows a respect for nature and a desire for a simpler time, before
industrialism.
 Characterized by colour, emotion, content and passion.
 This movement is also in poetry (eg. Wordsworth and Keats) and Music (eg.
Beethoven and Schubert).

Joseph Tuner (1775-1851) is the greatest English landscape painter. Through his
influence , Landscape painting was accepted by the public as an art equal to the
highest achievements in portraits and historical representations.
Tuner was born in the London slum, where his father was a barber. Early in life he
was deprived of the care of his mother. The boy’s artistic talent showed itself while
he was still young. Two of his father’s customers were painters, and when they
saw the boy’s drawings, they argued with the father to let his son study art.
At the age of eleven he was sent to the soho-Academy, where he got a good
training in drawing and perspective. At fifteen he joined the school of Royal
Academy, where he stayed four years. From the start, he could exhibit his works
there, in order to help support himself during his studies, he was asked by
architects to paint landscape backgrounds to enhance their drawings. This gave
him practice in the techniques of water colour.
During his earliest period, his colours were cool and his drawings minutely careful.
In his search, he turned not only to nature but to older masters like Claude Lorrin,
Watteau, and the Dutch painters. In his last period, Tuner showed his own genius
most perfectly. He changed his technique in 1819 after his return from Italy, he
said “ Now I am going to begin to be Tuner”.
His aim was to produce atmospheric effects. For this reason he studied light and
colours more closely.
His popularity, in the beginning, was due to the fact that he started with
watercolours, used in the eighteenth century technique. Once he was known,
people continued to accept his highest achievements. But when he reached his
highest perfection, the public could not understand him any longer and even his
believed him mad.
When he died, he left to the country 362 oil paintings, 900 drawings and a large
sum of money, partly to be used for the education of poor students in the Academy.

The Fighting Temeraire towed to her last berth to be broken is a good example of
Tuner’s romanticism. The Temeraire was a heroic relic of the battle of Trafalgar in
1805. Some thirty years later, it was towed to its last anchor-age in order to be
broken up. The once tall and stately ship, whose billowing white sails were driven
by the clean sea breezes, is shown stripped of its beauty, and emptied of its valiant
crew. A puny steam-tug, black and smoky, is towing it along. Tuner painted the
picture around 1838 or 1839 to show the contrast between the beauty of the
elemental forces, which were beginning to be displaced by the ugliness of the
machine or industrial age
Rain, steam and speed(National gallery, London)

THEODORE GERICAULT(1791-1827) is generally considered to be the first

Romantic painter of France. After a short stay in Paris, he went to Italy in 1816,
where for three years studied the old masters and antique art. He returned to Paris
just when the wreck of the ship Medusa was causing great criticism. He
immortalized the tragedy in his master piece, the raft of the Medusa (Louvre
Museum, Paris). From the bottom to the top of the picture, there is created an
impression of a crescendo of emotion from the terrible despair of the dying, lying
amongst their dead comrades, to the frantic hope and excitement of the men who
are holding up a negro to wave at a ship which they have seen in the distance. The
dramatic effect is heightened by means of highlights and dark shadows.
Gericault managed to get this painting exhibited in the Salon of 1819,
without its having passed the jury. Otherwise, it would never have been accepted.
The fictional title, a nautical scene, deceived nobody. It aroused great excitement
in the academic circles, and it is considered as the beginning of the Romantic
revolt. There was nothing in the technical aspect of the picture which could offend
the contemporary standards and tradition of the Academy, except for the border
and darker shadows. The cause of the indignation was the theme. Instead of a
classical subject of the past, it depicted not only a contemporary event, but a
tragedy due to official neglect. Its vivid portrayal of violence and suffering, which
appealed strongly to the emotions, was at variance with the demands of the
Academy which insisted upon restraint, upon a subject which appealed rather to
the mind than to the heart.
 He went for a time to England where he was successful as an artist,
especially with his painting of horses and their riders. He himself had a great love
of horses, and died at the age of Thirty-three as a result of fall from one. His career
as an artist lasted for only fifteen years only, but the quality of his works was
remarkable-though many of them were left unfinished.

Mesopotamian Art: A Long History of Skilled Craftsmen

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J1GF_8l97xU&ab_channel=Philinthecircle

A Mesopotamian carved relief depicting hunting a lion.

Mesopotamia—a historical region of Western Asia situated within the

Tigris–Euphrates river system—housed the world’s first urban civilization with a
sophisticated cultural sphere which included music, art, and literature. The
Sumerians of lower Mesopotamia founded the first cities, invented writing,
developed poetry, and created vast architectural structures.
The artwork to come out of this civilization is reflective of its rich history, whose
subject matter was heavily influenced by its sociopolitical structure, military
conquests, organized religion, and natural environment. We look into
Mesopotamian art, specifically architecture and sculpture, to better understand the
craftsmanship of the people who inhabited the land at this time and how it
influenced cultures to follow.

A Brief History of Mesopotamia

The Euphrates River in Kemaliye, Turkey.

The word Mesopotamia derives from the ancient words “mesos,”

meaning between, and “potamos,” meaning river. The name is fitting given the
area was situated within the fertile valleys between the Tigris and Euphrates
Rivers, a region now occupied by modern-day Iraq, Kuwait, Turkey, and Syria.
Much of the history of this civilization is marked by its changing succession of
ruling bodies.
The first humans settled in this region in the Paleolithic era. By 14,000 B.C.,
people lived in small settlements. Within the five thousand years that followed,
these settlements turned into large farming communities, following the
development of agriculture and the domestication of animals. In particular, they
developed irrigation techniques that capitalized on the proximity of the rivers.

As these communities grew, they turned into larger cities (the Sumer are largely
credited with creating the earliest examples). Uruk was the first to be built around
3200 B.C. With a population of about 50,000 citizens, it featured a wealth of
public art, large columns, and temples. By 3000 B.C., the Sumerian people had
firm control over Mesopotamia under several city-states. The area was ruled by
many kings, one of which was Gilgamesh, believed to be born around 2700
B.C. The Epic of Gilgamesh, an ancient epic poem, is considered the earliest great
work of literature.
 The tablet of the Epic of Gilgamesh in the Sulaymaniyah Museum, Iraq.

From 2234 to 2154 B.C., the Akkadian Empire, the first multicultural empire with
a central government, was established under Sargon the Great. By 2100 B.C., the
Sumerians gained back control, which is when they established the first code of
law under Ur-Namma. What followed was a swath of conquests and invasions with
different rulers seizing power at various times.

The Assyrian Empire emerged around 1365 B.C. and expanded considerably over
the next two centuries. Though there were various attempts to keep the peace in the
years that followed, Babylonian public official Nabopolassar seized the throne in
626 B.C. His son Nebuchadnezzar reigned over the Babylonian Empire beginning
in 614 B.C., and was known for his ornate architecture, specifically the Hanging
Gardens of Babylon. Mesopotamian culture ended under Persian Rule around 550
B.C.

Mesopotamian Art and Architecture

The act of creating art predates the civilization of Mesopotamia; however, their
innovations and advances are significant. The Mesopotamians began creating art
on a larger scale, often in the form of grandiose architecture and metalwork.
Because Mesopotamia covered such a vast amount of time and featured many
leaders, it is commonly divided into three distinct cultural periods: Sumerian,
Babylonian, and Assyrian.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J1GF_8l97xU&t=154s

Renaissance Art and Architecture

Introduction

Fra Angelico: Annunciation(c. 1440–45), fresco, north corridor, monastery of

S Marco, Florence; photo credit: Erich Lessing/Art Resource, NY

The Renaissance refers to the era in Europe from the 14th to the 16th century in
which a new style in painting, sculpture and architecture developed after the
Gothic. Although a religious view of the world continued to play an important role
in the lives of Europeans, a growing awareness of the natural world, the individual
and collective humanity’s worldly existence characterize the Renaissance period.
Derived from the French word, renaissance, and the Italian word rinascità, both
meaning ‘rebirth’, the Renaissance was a period when scholars and artists began to
investigate what they believed to be a revival of classical learning, literature and
art. For example, the followers of the 14th-century author Petrarch began to study
texts from Greece and Rome for their moral content and literary style. Having its
roots in the medieval university, this study called Humanism centered on rhetoric,
literature, history and moral philosophy.
During the Renaissance, many features of the medieval persisted, including the
heritage of the artistic techniques used in books, manuscripts, precious objects and
oil painting. The paintings of Jan van Eyck and Rogier van der Weyden record the
exquisite details of the natural world in order to facilitate the viewer’s religious and
spiritual experience. North of the Alps, Renaissance ideals culminated in the work
of Albrecht Dürer in the early 16th century, and Germany became a dominant
artistic centre. With the Reformation and the absence of the Catholic church in
German speaking lands of the 16th century, prints in the form of woodcuts and
engravings helped to disseminate the spread of Protestant ideals. As a result, artists
such as Pieter Bruegel I in the Netherlands and Hans Holbein in England
specialized in more secular subjects, such as landscape and portraiture.
Finally, the pinnacle of the period, referred to as the High Renaissance, is best
known for some of Western art’s greatest masters: Leonardo da Vinci,
Michelangelo and Raphael. Renowned works like Leonardo’s Mona Lisa,
Michelangelo’s ceiling frescoes of the Sistine Chapel, and Raphael’s famous
Madonnas continue to marvel viewers with their naturalism. Following the High
Renaissance, Mannerism developed from c. 1510–20 to 1600. Works of this style
often emphasized the artifice and adroit skill of the artist. Major works such as the
Palazzo del Te by Giulio Romano and Parmigianino’s Madonna of the Long Neck
reflect Mannerist innovations. In France, the presence of Italian Mannerist painters
at Fontainebleau established the courtly taste. For many, the artistic creations of
the Renaissance still represent the highest of achievements in the history of art.
RENAISSANCE ART

1. A distinctive style in Italy

2. Renaissance is a transition period from medieval art to early modern art.
3. It is perceived as the rebirth of ancient traditions with its foundation in
classical antiquity, but transformed that tradition by the absorption of recent
developments in the art of Northern Europe and by application of
contemporary scientific knowledge.
4. Renaissance humanist philosophy was the core of Renaissance art.
5. People had lost faith in the church and had began to put more focus on
human beings.
6. Medieval art and literature focused on the church and salvation. Renaissance
art focused on individuals and worldly matters along with christianity.
7. Renaissance artists wanted their subjects to be realistic focused on humanity
and emotion.

LEONARDO DA VINCI
An embodiment of the “Renaissance man”
 The most praiseworthy form of painting is one that most resembles what it imitates
- Leonard

Definition: What is Baroque Art?

In fine art, the term Baroque (derived from the Portuguese 'barocco' meaning, 'irregular pearl or
stone') describes a fairly complex idiom, originating in Rome, which flowered during the period
c.1590-1720, and which embraced painting, and sculpture as well as architecture. After the
idealism of the Renaissance (c.1400-1530), and the slightly 'forced' nature of Mannerism (c.1530-
1600), Baroque art above all reflected the religious tensions of the age - notably the desire of the
Catholic Church in Rome (as annunciated at the Council of Trent, 1545-63) to reassert itself in the
wake of the Protestant Reformation. Thus it is almost synonymous with Catholic Counter-
Reformation Art of the period.

Many Catholic Emperors and monarchs across Europe had an important stake in the Catholic
Church's success, hence a large number of architectural designs, paintings and sculptures were
commissioned by the Royal Courts of Spain, France, and elsewhere - in parallel to the overall
campaign of Catholic Christian art, pursued by the Vatican - in order to glorify their own divine
grandeur, and in the process strengthen their political position. By comparison, Baroque art in
Protestant areas like Holland had far less religious content, and instead was designed essentially to
appeal to the growing aspirations of the merchant and middle classes.

Styles/Types of Baroque Art

In order to fulfill its propagandist role, Catholic-inspired Baroque art

tended to be large-scale works of public art, such as monumental
wall-paintings and huge frescoes for the ceilings and vaults of
palaces and churches. Baroque painting illustrated key elements of
Catholic dogma, either directly in Biblical works or indirectly in
mythological or allegorical compositions. Along with this
monumental, high-minded approach, painters typically portrayed a
strong sense of movement, using swirling spirals and upward
diagonals, and strong sumptuous colour schemes, in order to dazzle
and surprise. New techniques of tenebrism and chiaroscuro were
developed to enhance atmosphere. Brushwork is creamy and broad,
often resulting in thick impasto. However, the theatricality and
melodrama of Baroque painting was not well received by later
critics, like the influential John Ruskin (1819-1900), who considered
it insincere. Baroque sculpture, typically larger-than-life size, is
marked by a similar sense of dynamic movement, along with an
active use of space.

Baroque architecture was designed to create spectacle and illusion.

Thus the straight lines of the Renaissance were replaced with
flowing curves, while domes/roofs were enlarged, and interiors
carefully constructed to produce spectacular effects of light and
shade. It was an emotional style, which, wherever possible, exploited
the theatrical potential of the urban landscape - as illustrated by St
Peter's Square (1656-67) in Rome, leading up to St Peter's Basilica.
Its designer, Bernini, one of the greatest Baroque architects, ringed
the square with colonnades, to convey the impression to visitors that
they are being embraced by the arms of the Catholic Church.

As is evident, although most of the architecture, painting and

sculpture produced during the 17th century is known as Baroque, it
is by no means a monolithic style. There are at least three different
strands of Baroque, as follows:

History of Baroque Art

Following the pronouncements made by the Council of Trent on how

art might serve religion, together with the upsurge in confidence in
the Roman Catholic Church, it became clear that a new style
of Biblical art was necessary in order to support the Catholic
Counter Reformation and fully convey the miracles and sufferings
of the Saints to the congregation of Europe. This style had to be
more forceful, more emotional and imbued with a greater realism.
Strongly influenced by the views of the Jesuits (the Baroque is
sometimes referred to as 'the Jesuit Style'), architecture, painting and
sculpture were to work together to create a unified effect. The initial
impetus came from the arrival in Rome during the 1590s of Annibale
Carracci and Carravaggio (1571-1610). Their presence sparked a
new interest in realism as well as antique forms, both of which
were taken up and developed (in sculpture) by Alessandro Algardi
(in sculpture) and Bernini (in sculpture and architecture). Peter Paul
Rubens, who remained in Rome until 1608, was the only great
Catholic painter in the Baroque idiom, although Rembrandt and
other Dutch artists were influenced by both Caravaggism and
Bernini. France had its own (more secular) relationship with the
Baroque, which was closest in architecture, notably the Palace of
Versailles. The key figure in French Baroque art of the 17th century
was Charles Le Brun (1619-90) who exerted an influence far beyond
his own metier. See, for instance, the Gobelins tapestry factory, of
which he was director. Spain and Portugal embraced it more
enthusiastically, as did the Catholic areas of Germany, Austria,
Hungary and the Spanish Netherlands. The culmination of the
movement was the High Baroque (c.1625-75), while the apogee of
the movement's grandiosity was marked by the
phenomenal quadratura known as Apotheosis of St Ignatius (1688-
94, S. Ignazio, Rome), by the illusionist ceiling painter Andrea
Pozzo (1642-1709). Surely one of the best Baroque paintings of the
17th century.

Naples, in 1600 the second largest city in Europe after Paris, was an
important centre of Counter-Reformation Baroque art. The
Neapolitan School was developed by Caravaggio, Ribera, Artemesia
Gentileschi, Mattia Preti (1613-99) Luca Giordano (1634-
1705), Francesco Solimena (1657-1747) and others. For more,
see: Painting in Naples (1600-1700) and Caravaggio in
Naples (1607, 1609-10). For the early 17th century, see: Neapolitan
School of Painting (1600-56); for later developments see: Neapolitan
Baroque Painting (c.1650-1700).

Note: It took longer for the Baroque style to reach Russia. Indeed, it
wasn't until the period of Petrine art in St Petersburg under Peter the
Great (1686-1725), that architects like Rastrelli, Domenico Trezzini,
Andreas Schluter, Gottfried Schadel, Leblond, Michetti, and
Matarnovi began designing in the style of Russian Baroque.

For details of the development of Baroque art outside Italy,

see: Flemish Baroque (c.1600-80), Dutch Baroque (c.1600-80)
and Spanish Baroque (1600-1700).

By the end of the 17th century the grand Baroque style was in
decline, as was its principal sponsor, Italy. The coming European
power was France, where a new and contrasting style of decorative
 art was beginning to emerge. This light-hearted style soon enveloped
architecture, all forms of interior decoration, furniture, painting,
sculpture and porcelain design. It was known as Rococo.

Famous Baroque Painters (and Paintings)

Here is a short list of the greatest Old Masters of the Baroque Period,
together with some of their works:

• Annibale Carracci (1560-1609) of the Bolognese School (1590-

1630)
- Christ Wearing the Crown of Thorns (1585-7, Gemaldegalerie,
Dresden)
- Farnese Gallery fresco paintings (1590s, Rome)
- Flight into Egypt (1604, Doria Gallery, Rome)

• Peter Paul Rubens (1577-1640)

- Descent from the Cross (Rubens) (1612-14) Cathedral, Antwerp.
- The Rape of the Daughters of Leucippus (1618) Alte Pinakothek,
Munich.
- Judgement of Paris (1632-5) National Gallery, London.

• Carravaggio (1571-1610)
- The Calling of Saint Matthew (1600) Contarelli Chapel, Rome.
- The Martyrdom of Saint Matthew (1600) Contarelli Chapel, Rome.
- Conversion on the way to Damascus (1601) Cerasi Chapel, Rome.
- Supper at Emmaus (1601) National Gallery, London.
- Crucifixion of Saint Peter (1601) Cerasi Chapel, Rome.
- Death of the Virgin (1601-6) Louvre, Paris.
- The Entombment of Christ (1601-3) Vatican Museums, Rome.

• Domenichino (1581-1641)
- The Last Communion of St Jerome (1614) Pinacoteca, Vatican.
- Scenes from the Life of St Andrew (1622-7) Frescoes, S. Andrea
della Valle.

Medieval Art
Introduction

Ravenna, S Apollinare Nuovo, mosaic showing the Betrayal of Christ, c. 500;

photo credit: Erich Lessing/Art Resource, NY

The thousand plus years between the division of the Roman Empire into Eastern
and Western empires around the 4th century AD and the beginnings of the
Renaissance in Europe are known as the medieval period. The era encompasses
many artistic styles and periods, including early Christian and Byzantine, Anglo-
Saxon and Viking, Insular, Carolingian, Ottonian, Romanesque, and Gothic.
During the medieval period, the various secular arts were unified by the Christian
church and the sacred arts associated with it.
This fascinating artistic period includes painted decorations from the catacombs in
Rome, grand Byzantine monuments such as the Hagia Sophia in Constantinople,
famed mosaics in Ravenna, illuminated manuscripts and metalwork of the Insular
art of Ireland and Britain such as the Lindisfarne Gospels and the Book of Kells. It
also includes ivories, manuscripts and building projects of the Carolingian and
Ottonian dynasties that produced such monuments as Charlemagne’s Palatine
chapel at Aachen. Additional prominent works of this period include Romanesque
architecture, such as the cathedral at Santiago de Compostela in Spain, and the
great Gothic cathedrals at Amiens, Reims and Notre-Dame in Paris with their
façade sculpture, stained glass, altarpieces, and treasuries of enamels, reliquaries
and embroidered vestments. The sophisticated visual culture encompassed
numerous media—architecture, sculpture, painting, textiles, shrines and ivories.
The works of the medieval period remain a rich area of study for scholars
interested in diverse interdisciplinary topics such as economic history, political and
religious studies and the status of women in medieval society.
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. In the Middle Ages, art
evolves as humans continue addressing the traditional and the new, including
Biblical subjects, Christian dogma, and Classical mythology. This article
introduces a few concepts of three periods—Early Christian, Romanesque, and
Gothic.

During the Early Middle Ages, the Catholic Church financed many projects, and
the oldest examples of Christian art survive in the Roman catacombs, or burial
crypts beneath the city. By 350 AD, the Church had two power centers, Rome in
the West and Constantinople (the capital of the Byzantine Empire) in the East.
Medieval artists decorated churches and works for public appreciation using
classical themes. For example, Roman mosaics made of small stone cubes called
tesserae offered Christian scenery. In about 350 AD, Rome’s Santa Costanza, a
mausoleum built for Constantine’s daughter, included a vault decorated with
mosaics. Nearby, in Santa Maria Maggiore, the mosaic called Melchizedek
Offering Bread and Wine to Abraham was constructed 80 years later. Early
Christian mosaics used muted colors like classical mosaics, but in the fourth
century, mosaicists moved to brighter colors and patterns.

At the beginning of the eleventh century, Romanesque architecture symbolized the

growing wealth of European cities and the power of Church monasteries. For
example, Romanesque buildings, especially monasteries and churches, were
marked by semi-circular arches, thick stone walls, and stable construction. In 1070
or 1077 AD, St. Sernin, located in Toulouse, France, was built with a stone barrel
vault ceiling. St. Sernin is remembered as a model of the Romanesque “pilgrimage
church.”

The Gothic style developed in the middle of the twelfth century and is named after
the Goths who ruled France. Some contemporaries of the Goths thought the use of
figures such as gargoyles was hideous, but Gothic cathedrals represent the most
beautiful and timeless accomplishments of the period. For example, Notre Dame
Cathedral in Paris has been added to many times since the twelfth century, but it
still bears important Gothic features such as gargoyles and flying buttresses.

There are plenty of ways to analyze 900 years of medieval art, including
examining decorations inside churches. Human forms such as the Madonna and
Baby Jesus evolve from large heads on small bodies in Early Christianity to
abstract forms in the Romanesque era. In the Gothic era, the Madonna and Child
are more naturalistic with tall, bony figures. Even the facial features of the
Madonna and Child changed over 900 years. By the Gothic era in France, Mary
had an approachable, warm countenance, signaling the Church’s recognition that
images should attract people instead of intimidating them. In the Renaissance,
artists would become bolder about exploring the themes of Christianity even in
works commissioned by the Church

UNIT – IV

CUBISM
Cubism was a revolutionary new approach to representing reality invented in
around 1907–08 by artists Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque. They brought
different views of subjects (usually objects or figures) together in the same
picture, resulting in paintings that appear fragmented and abstracted

Pablo Picasso
Bowl of Fruit, Violin and Bottle 1914
Lent by the National Gallery 1997
© Succession Picasso/DACS 2020

Cubism was one of the most influential styles of the twentieth century. It is
generally agreed to have begun around 1907 with Picasso’s celebrated
painting Demoiselles D’Avignon which included elements of cubist style. The
name ‘cubism’ seems to have derived from a comment made by the critic Louis
Vauxcelles who, on seeing some of Georges Braque’s paintings exhibited in Paris
in 1908, described them as reducing everything to ‘geometric outlines, to cubes’.
Cubism opened up almost infinite new possibilities for the treatment of visual
reality in art and was the starting point for many later abstract styles
including constructivism and neo-plasticism.

By breaking objects and figures down into distinct areas – or planes – the artists
aimed to show different viewpoints at the same time and within the same space
and so suggest their three dimensional form. In doing so they also emphasized the
two-dimensional flatness of the canvas instead of creating the illusion of depth.
This marked a revolutionary break with the European tradition of creating the
illusion of real space from a fixed viewpoint using devices such as
linear perspective, which had dominated representation from
the Renaissance onwards.

WHAT INSPIRED CUBIST STYLE?

Cubism was partly influenced by the late work of artist Paul Cézanne in which he
can be seen to be painting things from slightly different points of view. Pablo
Picasso was also inspired by African tribal masks which are highly stylised, or
non-naturalistic, but nevertheless present a vivid human image. ‘A head’, said
Picasso, ‘is a matter of eyes, nose, mouth, which can be distributed in any way
you like’.

Georges Braque
Mandora 1909–10
Tate
 Pablo Picasso
Bottle of Vieux Marc, Glass, Guitar and Newspaper 1913
Tate

TYPES OF CUBISM: ANALYTICAL VS. SYNTHETIC

Cubism can be seen to have developed in two distinct phases: the initial and more
austere analytical cubism, and a later phase of cubism known as synthetic cubism.

 Analytical cubism ran from 1908–12. Its artworks look more severe and are made
up of an interweaving of planes and lines in muted tones of blacks, greys and
ochres.

 Synthetic cubism is the later phase of cubism, generally considered to date from
about 1912 to 1914, and characterised by simpler shapes and brighter colours.
Synthetic cubist works also often include collaged real elements such as
newspapers. The inclusion of real objects directly in art was the start of one of the
most important ideas in modern art

Expressionism :

Expressionism, artistic style in which the artist seeks to depict not objective reality
but rather the subjective emotions and responses that objects and events arouse
within a person. The artist accomplishes this aim through distortion,
exaggeration, primitivism, and fantasy and through the vivid, jarring, violent,
or dynamic application of formal elements. In a broader sense Expressionism is
one of the main currents of art in the later 19th and the 20th centuries, and its
qualities of highly subjective, personal, spontaneous self-expression are typical of
a wide range of modern artists and art movements. Expressionism can also be seen
as a permanent tendency in Germanic and Nordic art from at least the European
Middle Ages, particularly in times of social change or spiritual crisis, and in this
sense it forms the converse of the rationalist and classicizing tendencies of Italy
and later of France.

Edvard Munch: The ScreamThe Scream, tempera and

casein on cardboard by Edvard Munch, 1893; in the National Gallery,
Oslo.National Gallery, Oslo, Norway/Bridgeman Art Library, London/SuperStock

Birth And Development

The roots of the German Expressionist school lay in the works of Vincent van
Gogh, Edvard Munch, and James Ensor, each of whom in the period 1885–1900
evolved a highly personal painting style. These artists used the expressive
possibilities of colour and line to explore dramatic and emotion-laden themes, to
convey the qualities of fear, horror, and the grotesque, or simply to celebrate nature
with hallucinatory intensity. They broke away from the literal representation of
nature in order to express more subjective outlooks or states of mind.

The second and principal wave of Expressionism began about 1905, when a group
of German artists led by Ernst Ludwig Kirchner formed a loose association
called Die Brücke (“The Bridge”). The group included Erich Heckel, Karl
Schmidt-Rottluff, and Fritz Bleyl. These painters were in revolt against what they
saw as the superficial naturalism of academic Impressionism. They wanted to
reinfuse German art with a spiritual vigour they felt it lacked, and they sought to
do this through an elemental, primitive, highly personal and spontaneous
expression. Die Brücke’s original members were soon joined by the Germans Emil
Nolde, Max Pechstein, and Otto Müller. The Expressionists were influenced by
their predecessors of the 1890s and were also interested in African wood carvings
and the works of such Northern European medieval and Renaissance artists
as Albrecht Dürer, Matthias Grünewald, and Albrecht Altdorfer. They were also
aware of Neo-Impressionism, Fauvism, and other recent movements.

Dance Around the Golden Calf, oil painting by Emil Nolde, 1910