Balela, Mark Angelo C.

BSED English 2101

Types Definition
Painting The application of pigment to a two-dimensional surface (usually). Need not
be contained within a frame.

Sculpture The art of making two- or three-dimensional representative or abstract forms,

especially by carving stone or wood or by casting metal or plaster.

Architecture The built environment; could include non-built or unfinished projects;

structures like bridges, towers etc.

Performance Performance art is presented to an audience within a fine art context, and is
traditionally interdisciplinary.

Installation An art object designed for a particular space; often site-specific and designed
to transform the perception of a space.

Video An event captured and manipulated through technology.

Conceptual Art in which the idea or concept presented by the artist is considered more
important than the finished product, if any such product exists.

Land art/ In land art, landscape and artwork are inextricably linked; site-specific art is
created to exist in a certain place.
Site-specific art

Art Historical Definition Relevant terms and concepts

Periods/Movements (including styles)
Greek Greek idealism: balance, The Classical style: harmony, balance,
perfect proportions; post- symmetry, architectural orders (Doric,
(850–31 BCE) and-lintel construction; Ionic, Corinthian); sculpture: Archaic,
idealised forms (both in Classical to Hellenistic; ceramics:
students study from 500
sculpture and architecture). Geometric to black/red vase figure
BCE
wares.

Roman Roman realism: structural use Verism: psychological penetration in

of the arch/barrel vault and sculpture; borrowings from the Greeks;
(300 BCE–476) concrete. interior decoration and en-caustic
portraits; stadia and propaganda.

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 Art Historical Definition Relevant terms and concepts
Periods/Movements (including styles)
Byzantine Art of the Eastern Roman Christian art form (although derived
Empire from 4th Century CE to from forms of Greek and Egyptian).
(330–1453) the Fall of the Roman Empire. Hieratic/other-worldly.

Mosaics (tesserae); icons, panel painting,

architectural terminology specific to
Byzantine structures.

Middle Ages (500–1400) Celtic art Carolingian
Renaissance
Romanesque Gothic.
Celtic: asymmetrical, curvilinear abstract
ornament, zoomorphic.
Carolingian: Emperor Charlemagne and
successors - first conscious attempt to
revive the Classical Greek and Roman
heritage; illuminated manuscripts; large-
scale architecture.

Romanesque: muscular architectural

style, rounded headed arches, linear
sculpture, distorted to convey religious
emotion.

Gothic structures: flying buttresses, rib

vaults, pointed arches, stained glass.
Sculptural ‘S’ curves, tapestries, Books
of Hours.

Early and High Rebirth of classical culture. Intellectual influence from Humanism,
Renaissance
Neo-Platonism; greater command of
(1400–1550) anatomy (in visual arts); linear and
atmospheric perspective; increasing
secular subjects as well as
history/mythological works in painting
and sculpture. For architecture: a
classical revival – harmony, clarity and
repose.

Venetian and The Renaissance spreads Northern: Rapid developments in oil

Northern northward to France, the Low painting (glazes); woodcuts; altarpieces;
Renaissance Countries, Germany, and panel paintings in Flanders; empirical
England. perspective (rather than mathematically

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 Art Historical Definition Relevant terms and concepts
Periods/Movements (including styles)
(1430–1550) calculated linear perspective) and direct
observation; non-idealised.

Venice: influences from Northern

Europe; brilliant colour; religious and
secular (sometimes erotic) painting.

Mannerism (1527–1600) Art that breaks the rules;
artifice over nature.
Elegant distortions and stylistic trickery
for bizarre effects.
Disquieting paintings – triumph of style
over content; virtuoso decorative arts.
Mannerist buildings – antithetical to the
principles of the High Renaissance;
complex and novel.

Baroque Splendour and flourish for Religious impulse of the Counter-

God; art as a weapon in the
(1600–1750) religious wars. Exuberant
Counter-Reformation art that
progresses to more secular
Rococo throughout the period.
Reformation – dynamic movement,
synthesis of architecture, painting and
sculpture acceptable/appealing to the
masses; later Baroque (Rococo) –
lighter and more playful; asymmetrical.

Neoclassical (1750– Art that recaptures Greco- Classical revival – Palladianism (in
Roman grace and grandeur. architecture); preference for the linear and
1850) symmetrical in painting.

Romanticism (1780– The triumph of imagination Literary influences; sublime and

and individuality. picturesque, Nature dominates –
1850) insistence on the rights of imagination.

Realism Celebrating the working class Rejects idealistic tendencies of

and peasants; en plein air rustic Romanticism; social realism.
(1848–1900) painting.

Impressionism (1865– Capturing fleeting effects of Colour applied in small touches (rather
natural light. than broad brush-stokes) to create
1885) brighter/more immediate paintings;
painting in front of the

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 Art Historical Definition Relevant terms and concepts
Periods/Movements (including styles)
motif.

Post-Impressionism A soft revolt against Post-Impressionism: Pointillism,

Impressionism. divisionism, use optical mixtures of
(1885–1910) colour.

Art Nouveau (1890– Stylised forms based on Art Nouveau: exaggerated asymmetrical
nature/geometry. decorative style; undulating forms;
1914) rejects historicism; offshoot of
Symbolism and Arts & Crafts.

Fauvism and German Non-naturalistic colours to Fauvism: loosely formed ‘group’

Expressionism produce emotional effects; working in the south of France:
abstraction. experimental paint handling and use of
(1900–1939) colour alone to evoke a sensation in the
viewer.

German Expressionism: general

concept of democratising art;
techniques vary: no formal stylistic
intentions – but anti-Impressionist;
anti-naturalistic subjectivism.

Futurism, Pre- and Post-World War I art Futurism: celebrating machines and
Suprematism, experiments: new forms to speed; anarchic attitudes to predecessors.
express modern life.
De Stijl and Suprematism and De Stijl: simple
Constructivism geometric forms; primary colors
appropriate to the modern world.
(1905–1920)
Constructivism: iconoclastic, based in
Marxist ideology – architectonic forms;
the unification of art and society.

Cubism An early 20th-century style and Experiments with form; repudiation of

movement in art, especially subject; flattening of the canvas;
(1907–1914) painting, in which perspective fragmentation (analytical Cubism)
with a single elimination of space (in synthetic

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 viewpoint was abandoned, and Cubism): collage; Cubist sculpture takes
use was made of simple similar approaches.
geometric shapes, interlocking
planes, and (later) collage.

Dada and Surrealism Dada: various interventions, Dada: retaliation to art being bound with
depending on location. bourgeois capitalism; theatrical;
(1917–1950) nonsensical; provocative.
Surrealism: painting dreams and
exploring the unconscious. Surrealism: Freud’s Interpretation of
Dreams; Automatism; frottage, Dalí’s
Veristic Surrealism.

Bauhaus Bauhaus: German 20th- Bauhaus: aimed to bring together all arts
century school of design, the under the primacy of architecture. While
(1919–1933) aesthetic of which was it combines them, it also favours
influenced by and derived from functionality over ornamentation, and
International Modernism
techniques and materials asymmetry and regularity over
(1920s–1960) employed especially in symmetry. Bauhaus architecture rejects
industrial fabrication and decorative details and aimed to use
manufacture. classical architecture and its
scientific, geometric aesthetic without
ornamentation of any kind.

International Modernism: avant-garde

International Modernism: an
architectural style; worked from the
influential modernist style in
inside (‘form ever follows function’),
architecture characterized
logical planning (rather than axial
chiefly by regular, unadorned
symmetry).
geometric forms, open interiors,
and the use of glass, steel, and
reinforced concrete.

Abstract Post-World War II: pure Consciously American; gestural painting

Expressionism abstraction and expression borrows from Surrealism (automatism)
without form; no obvious calligraphic and colour field. Formal and
(1940s–1950s) subject. technical innovations – flat, hard-edged,
colour relationships and space.

Non-figurative.

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 Pop Art Art responds to and absorbs Socially democratic; more like
consumerism. commercial design/advertising; style-
(1960s) less; responds to popular culture.

Postmodernism and Art that challenges Postmodernism: free, often ironic,

Deconstructivism conventional categories appropriation of past styles; new
reworking and mixing past materials; new audiences and new sites
(1970–present) styles. for display.

Deconstructivism is influenced by the

theory of ‘Deconstruction’, which is a
form of semiotic analysis and is
characterized by unpredictability and
controlled chaos.

Unless otherwise stated, dates are within the Common Era (CE).

2. The past is revealed through the artwork of the past. We can discover information about the civilization that
created a piece of art by examining the symbols, colors, and materials used in it. For instance, the symbolism
in the two images shown above refers to characteristics of the ideal marriage in the fourteenth century. The
unicorn and rabbits in the young woman's image are representations of virginity and fecundity, two qualities
that a Renaissance woman was expected to have. We can discover what was essential to these people and how
they wished to be remembered by deciphering the symbolism in these portraits.
Additionally, we may contrast works of art, which offers many viewpoints and gives us a well-
rounded perspective on things, people, and circumstances. We can travel back in time and experience a new
time period by examining historical artworks in depth and evaluating them. Analyzing old works of art helps
shape who we are as individuals. We learn from and are inspired by what has been done before, which
influences how we think, feel, and perceive the world.