Gecart

Historical views of Art

1. Prehistoric times
• Prehistoric is the time before written records appeared.
• Art appeared to be one of the earliest activities as early as prehistoric period.
• Man, even before he knew how to read and write, was already an artist.

1.1 Stone Age

• The earliest known period of prehistoric, human culture was
marked by the creation and use of stone tools and weapons.
• The sophistication of the art found on cave walls suggests
that people of this time already have the ability to
communicate using words.
• Stone Age is divided into three periods: Paleolithic (Old Stone
Age), Mesolithic (Middle Stone Age) and Neolithic (New
Stone Age).

1.2 Old Stone Age Art

• Old Stone Age Art was first accepted in 1960’s through the
discovery of small decorated objects in a lean of figurines,
small carvings, engravings on piece of stone, bone or ivory.
• These objects were called portable art as they can be easily
transported from one place to another.
• Later in 1895, cave paintings were also recognized as a
number of these were discovered in France and Spain.
• Cave on rock art consists of engraved or painted works on
open air rocks or on the floors, walls and ceilings of the
caves.
1.3 Middle Stone Age Art
• Otherwise known as “Mesolithic” the Middle Stone Age covered a brief span of
around 2,000 years.
• It is an archaeological concept used to refer to specific groups of archaeological
cultures defined as failing between the Paleolithic and the Neolithic.
• Cave paintings of this period were usually of human groupings whereas in Old
Stone Age art focused mainly on animals.
• The painted human or appear more as pictographs than pictures, and some
historians feel they represent the primitive beginnings of writing.

1.4 New Stone Age Art

• New Stone Age or Neolithic period is characterized by the development of
agriculture and the making of polished stone implements.
• This period ended with the discovery of bronze.
• The Neolithic Era is generally associated as a period when people began to settle
into small agriculture communities and eventually formed cities.
• Humans were settling themselves down into agrarian societies, which left them
enough spare time to explore some key concepts of civilization, namely: religion,
measurement, the rudiments of architecture and writing and art.
• Megalithic monuments are found in the Neolithic period from Spain to the British
Isles and Poland.
• Many of these monuments were megalithic tombs and archaeologists speculate
that most have religious significance.

1.5 Bronze Age Art

• The Bronze Age is characterized by the use of copper and its alloy bronze is the
chief hard materials.
• Historians have identified three distinct civilizations to identify the people of this
time. These civilizations overlap in time but share common characteristics.
• These are the Cycladic civilization, Minoans and Helladic.
• Ancient artistic images become a kind of “an imaginative language”, sign
system, familiar to family groups of population. Because of the increased wealth
of society, luxury goods began to be created, especially decorated weapons.
• Examples include ceremonial bronze helmets, ornamental ax-heads and swords,
elaborate instruments, and other ceremonial objects without a practical purpose.

Classical Art
• Classical Art refers to the ancient art and architecture in Greece and Rome.
• It is also term for a long period of cultural history centered on the
Mediterranean Sea, comprising the interlocking civilizations of ancient Greece
and ancient Rome, collectively known as the Greco-Roman world.
• It is the period in which Greek and Roman society flourished and wielded great
influence throughout Europe.
• The artists at this time attained a manner of representation that conveys a
vitality of life as well as a sense of permanence, clarity and harmony.
1.1 Greek Art
• Ancient Greeks became interested in a naturalism that is portraying the human
form in a realistic and anatomically correct manner.
• Greek sculptors developed mathematical systems for showing the human body in
correct proportions, and sculptors prided themselves on showing how the muscles
of the body appeared under the skin when the body was positioned asymmetrical
with weight shifted to one hip or the other (Harrison).
• In architecture, the Greeks developed three styles or orders of columns namely
Doric, Ionic and Corinthian.
• These columns were used all over ancient Greece to support a building.
1.2 Roman Art
• About 2000 B.C., the Romans conquered the Greeks. During their conquered
of Greece, the Romans looted the towns and captured sculptors and brought
them to Rome as slaves.
• Greek artists relied upon to design and repair monumental buildings.
• The Romans greatly admired the art and architecture of Greece, as well as
many of their ideas.
• However, the Romans often used marble to create copies of sculptures that the
Greeks had originally made in bronze.
• Both the ancient Greeks and the ancient Romans were humanists with
enormous respect for human beings, and what they could accomplish with their
minds and bodies.
• This frame of mind was reborn in the Renaissance period.
2. MEDIEVAL PERIOD
• Also known as Middle Age.
• The Medieval era is the period in European history that look place between 350
AD to 1450 AD.
• Medieval art is an account of history of an integration of technique between the
elements of classical, early Christian and “barbarian” that were produced in
different media and style.
• Art historians have difficulty in classifying medieval art into major periods and
styles.
• The general accepted scheme in this era is classified into (1) Early Christian; (2)
Byzantine; (3) Romanesque; and (4) Gothic. Each of this style was expressed
distinctly in different countries, and covers a vast scope of time and place.

• Islamic art was also developed in the Middle Ages in a form of illustrated
manuscript, textiles, ceramics, metalwork and glass.
• Muslim artists worked in the early formative stage of the period and then diverged
in a variety of styles depending on the region in which the artist worked.
2.1 Medieval Architecture
• Medieval Architecture is symbolic in nature, with little regard for the functional
design of other eras.
• It also has a great variety of buildings like synagogues, halls and barns that
testify to the diverse communities and interests in the western Europe during the
Middle ages.
• The most extra ordinary buildings during this period were the churches.
• Toward the end of the 11th century, a style of church building Romanesque was
prevalent.
• Beginning in the mid-12th century and becoming more and more popular in the
next few centuries was the Gothic style.

2.2 Types of Arts Produced in the Medieval Period

1. Ceramic art- Early Medieval ceramics were hand shaped rather than wheel-
turned producing cooking pots and jars, jugs and pitchers and crucibles.
2. Heraldry
• is the practice of designing and recording coals of arms and badges. The
origins of heraldry stretch back since the ancient times.
• Warriors often decorated their shields with patterns and mythological motifs.

3. Illuminated manuscripts
• were religious texts embellished with rich colors which often featured the use of
gold and silver.
4. Ivory carving
• is the carving of ivory by using sharp cutting tools either mechanically or
manually.
5. Mosaic
• mosaic is the art of creating images with small pieces of colored glass, stone
or other material.

6. Sculpture
• Gothic sculpture evolved from the early stiff and elongated style of statues
used in Romanesque art.
7. Stained glass
• small pieces of glass arranged to form patterns or pictures which are held
together by strips of lea and supported by rigid frame.
8. Tapestry
• is a form of textile art, traditionally woven on a vertical loom with rich colored
designs or scenes usually hung on walls for decoration.
9. Fresco wall-paintings
• Fresco is a painting type which is executed in plaster on walls and ceilings.
• Frescoes are paintings made directly onto a wall or ceiling while the plaster is still
wet plaster and with this setting, the painting becomes an integral part of the wall.
10. Panel Painting
• a painting on a panel made of a single or several pieces of wood joined together.
• Panel painting was the normal form of support for painting until canvas became
popular in the 16th century.

3. RENAISSANCE
• Renaissance is a series of literary and cultural movement that began in Italy and
eventually expanded into Germany, France, England and other parts of Europe.
• It means ‘rebirth’ or ‘revival’ and a time of new discoveries in the fine arts, music,
literature, philosophy, science and technology, architecture, religion and
spirituality.

Evolution of Renaissance art took place in three stages:

1. Early Renaissance (1400-1475 AD)
2. High Renaissance (1475-1525 AD)
3. Late Renaissance or Mannerism (1525-1600 AD)
3.1 Early Renaissance (1400-1475 AD)
• The Early Renaissance period began in Florence towards the end of 14th
century.
• During this period, a revolution in philosophy, science and mathematics
dramatically changed composition and representation in the arts.
• While the subject matter remained primarily Christian, a variety of additional
symbols and themes were introduced along with ideas from classical mythology.

3.2 High Renaissance (1475-1525 AD)

• The High Renaissance produces the most, the best and the art that epitomize
the movement.
• It includes the big names like Da Vinci, Michelangelo and Raphael.
• Many artists during this time were excelled in many different things, the origin
of the phrase ‘renaissance man’.
• Artists such as Michelangelo and Brunelleschi reached their peak during this
era.
• Thus, there was such a concentration of talent in Italy at the time and people
were so interested in cultivating these talents.

3.3 Late Renaissance /Mannerism (1525-1600 AD)

• While technically masterful, Mannerist compositors were full of clashing colors,
disquieting figures with abnormally elongated limbs, (often torturous-looking)
emotion and bizarre themes that combined Classicism, Christianity and
mythology.
1. THE FINE ART (17th-19th CENTURY)
• Fine art or the fine arts, from the 17th century on, denote art forms developed
primarily for aesthetics and/or concept, distinguishing them from applied arts that
also serve some practical function.
• Some artists gained freedom by at the courts of monarchs and the nobility, while
others made art to sell directly to individual working collectors.
• As a result, art academies became increasingly important as a way to enter into
the profession without conforming to guild regulations (Encarta 2009).

1.1 Baroque Period (1600-1750 AD)

• It was an era in the history of the Western arts that started around 1600 in
Rome, Italy and spread mostly to Europe.
• The term Baroque was derived from a Portuguese word meaning “a pearl of
irregular shape”.
• Its qualities were mostly associated with grandeur, extravagance, and sensuous
richness.
1.2 Rococo (1700-1750 AD)
• Rococo also referred to as “Late Baroque”, is an artistic movement that
developed in the early part of the 18th century in Paris.
• The movement was formed as reaction against the grandeur, symmetry and strict
regulations of the Baroque style in art.
• Rococo is marked by elaborate ornamentation, as with an abundance of scrolls,
greenery and animal forms while the Baroque theme is politically focused.

1.3 Neo Classicism (1750-1830 AD)

• Neoclassicism started in 1760 as a reaction against Baroque and Rococo styles.
• It is a revival of the styles and spirit.
1.4 Romanticism (1790-1880 AD)
• Romanticism began as a literary and philosophical movement.
• The term comes from ‘romance’, a prose or poetic narrative favouring heroism
that originated in medieval times.
• In contrast to Neo-Classicism, Romanticism favoured wildness and expression,
individuality and unbridled creativity.
• It was full of raw emotions, ranging from longing and awe to fear and horror,
and an uprising against rationalism (Hodge, 2008:87)
2. MODERNISM IN THE 19TH CENTURY
• Art in the 19th century began with the continuation of Neo- classicism and
Romanticism into the mid-century.
• After that, a new classification of art became popular: modernism.
• The term Modernism applied retrospectively to the wide range of experimental and
avant-garde trends in the arts that emerge from the middle of the 19th century,
as artists rebelled against traditional Historians, and later through 20th century
as the necessity of an individual rejecting previous tradition, and by creating
individual, original techniques.

2.1 Impressionism (1860s-1880 AD)

• The movement away from art as imitation, or representation, probably started in
France with the work of the impressionists in the 19th century.
• The word impressionist is itself suggestive.
• The artist is not just painting a representation, because the artwork is giving a
personal impression of what is seen.
• The artist is not trying to be a photographic artist.
2.2 Post-Impressionism (1880-1905 AD)
• It denotes the phase of modern art wherein artists sought to progress
beyond the narrow imitative style of impressionism.
• The title wasn’t a movement, but a group (Cezanne, Van Gogh, Seurat, and
Gauguin, primarily) who moved past Impressionism and on to other,
separate endeavours (Esaak).
• The work of these painters formed a basis for several contemporary
movements to early 20th-century modernism.
• The Post-Impressionists often exhibited together, but, unlike the
Impressionists, they wanted to work alone.

2.3 Pointillism /Neo-Impressionism (1880s-1900 AD)

• Pointillism /Neo-Impressionism describes a technique of painting in which
hundreds of small dots or dashes of pure colour are applied to the canvas or
other ground in order to create maximum luminosity.
• The term was first used to describe the paintings of Georges Seurat and Paul
Signac who developed the technique in 1886.
3. NEW MEDIA, NEW ART FORMS (20TH-21ST CENTURY)
• The artists in this period used new materials, new techniques of painting and
developed new theories about how art should reflect the perceived world.
• They abandoned strict adherence to traditional hierarchies of mediums and
embraced any means, including technological, which best served their purposes.

3.1 Fauvism and Expressionism (1890-1993 AD)

• The Fauvism was the first twentieth –century movement in the modern art led by
Matisse and Rouault.
• The group called ‘Les Fauves’ or the “The Wild Beast’ used wild colors and
depictions of primitive objects and people.
• This movement became known as Expressionism and spread, notably, to
Germany.
• Comparing the two art movements of Fauvism and German Expressionism is like
looking at two sides of a coin. Both rest on the value of color as applied in
painting, but where Fauvist used color to express joy, the artists of the German
Expressionist movement manipulated it to convey the darker side of human
emotions, ending up with a much different result.
3.2 Cubism (1907-1914 AD)
• Cubism was the first abstract art developed by Pablo Picasso andGeorges
Braque.
• Cubism has been considered the most influential art movement of the 20th
century.
• The Cubist artwork, organic forms were broken down into series of geometric
shapes and reassembled in the abstract form.
• Instead of depicting objects form one viewpoint, cubist artists view it from many
angles selected from sight, memory, and movement.
Cubism had two distinct stage:
• The Analytic Cubism and Synthetic Cubism, the artist reduced natural forms to
their basic geometric parts and reconstructed it with a geometric framework in
a two-dimensional picture plane.
• Synthetic Cubism explores the use of foreign objects as abstract signs. The use
of collage on a painting is one good example of a “Synthetic Cubism”.

3.3 Dada (1916-1923 AD)

• Dada was an artistic and literary movement that began in Zurich Switzerland
in the early twentieth century.
• It emerged out of negative reaction to the horrors of World War I and
rationalism, which many thoughts had brought was about.
• Dada was a sort of revolution against the very concept of art that rejected
reason and logic, irrationally and intuition.
• Marcel Duchamp, one of the leading dada artists, used ready-mades or mass-
produced objects.
• One of his well- known works is the “Fountain”, a urinal, turned upside down
to which he submitted to an exhibition in 1917.
3.4 Surrealism (1922-1939 AD)
• Surrealism is a movement in art and literature that began which developed out of
Dadaism in the mid-1920s.
• The movement spread around the globe, eventually affecting other art forms in
many countries and languages, as well as philosophy and social theory.
• The works feature the element of surprise, evocative juxtaposition of strange
images in order to include unconscious dream elements in painting.
• It is expressed in two techniques: The Naturalistic technique in the works of
Salvador Dali and the Abstract technique in the works of Joan Miro.
3.5 Abstract Expressionism (1940-1960s)
• Abstract expressionism was an American post-World War II art
movement that emerged in the 1940s and flourished in the Fifties.
• Abstract expressionism is regarded by many as the golden age of
American art and the first American movement to achieve international
influence.
• Although artists in this movement vary greatly in style, yet they all share
the same outlook in the freedom of individual expression.

3.6 Pop Art (1950-1960s)

• Pop art is an art movement that emerged in
the mid-1950s in United Kingdom and became
prevalent in the late 1950s in the United
States.
• It depicts methods, styles, and themes of
popular culture and employs techniques of
commercial art or popular illustration such as
comic strips and advertising.
3.7 Optical Art (1960s)
• Also known as Op Art, a style of visual art popularized in 1960s.
• The term is used to describe artworks which seem to swell and vibrate through the
use of optical illusion.
• This method of painting concerns with the interaction between illusion and picture
plane that produces dramatic visual effects that are difficult for the eye to resolve.
• Most of the known Optical Art were created only in black and white.
• Op art is a dynamic visual art, stemming from a discordant figure-ground
relationship that causes the two planes to be in contradictory and the creation of
effect through the use of pattern and line.

3.8 Photorealism (1960s-1970s)

• A figurative movement that is primarily applied
to paintings from the United States art
movement that began in the late 1960s and
early 1970s.
• The subject matter, usually everyday scenes, is
portrayed in an extremely detailed, exacting
style.
• It is also called super realism, especially when
referring to sculpture.
• It is the genre of painting using camera and
photographs to gather visual information and to
create a painting that appears to be
photographic.
3.9 Minimalism (1960s- 1970s)
• Also called ABC Art, Minimal Art, Reductivism, and Rejective Art.
• It is a school of abstract painting and sculpture that emphasizes extreme
simplification of form –Mainly from American movement in the visual arts
and music originating in New York City during the late 1960s and
displaying extreme simplicity to form and a literal objective approach.
• Minimal sculpture is composed of extremely simple, monumental geometric
forms made of fiberglass, plastic, sheet metal, or aluminum, either left raw
or solidity painted with bright industrial colors.
• Like the painters, minimalist sculptors attempted to make their works totally
objective, unexpressive and non-referential.