THE HISTORICAL

DEVELOPMENT OF ART
Pre-Historic Western Arts
(20,000-8,00 B.C.E)
⮚ Historically, human nature to create art is common. Art is an approach of a
human being to communicate his or her beliefs and express ideas about
his or her experience. It also provides valuable insights into the past
existing cultures. It helps to understand how others lived and what they
valued( Annenberg Foundation, 2017).
⮚ The history of art reflects the remnant of the civilization, the study of
artworks, and the lives of the artist’s illuminate much about our shared
past. It helps to discover, authenticate, who made a particular art
object(Meyer, 2019). It also helped to appreciate the stylistic and
recognized development of artistic practices on a large scale and within a
broad historical viewpoint.
⮚The history of art also covers the entire history of humankind since
prehistoric times. Art is a product of man’s emotional and intellectual
connection with the world.
⮚Ancient art has four main periods, namely, Stone Age(Neolithic or
Paleolithic), Bronze Age, and Iron Age. During prehistoric periods, the
remaining artifacts are small sculptures and cave paintings. Various forms
of art were created and performed as way of communication to the deity.
⮚Ancient people represented their worldviews through images. Animals are
the favorite subjects in the creation of Art. Engravings, paintings,
sculptures, and potteries are expressions for beauty and complex socio-
spiritual systems.
• Prehistoric Arts are artworks done by ancient people before the
invention of writing. It is a symbolic practice that is an integral segment
of the culture that originates from it (Hounour and Fleming, 2005).
• Scientist like archaeologist have identified Stone Age art, such ancient
sculpture(totemic status, ivory carvings); petroglyphs (cave rock
carvings and wall engravings); pictographs (graphic imagery, symbols);
and megalithic arts (works associated with the formation of stones).
• More prehistoric cave paintings
were created in different figures.
Abstract designs, markings and
symbols were also common inside
the caves. Prehistoric Arts are
artworks done by ancient people
before the invention of writing. It
is a symbolic practice that is an
integral segment of the culture
that originates from it (Hounour
and Fleming, 2005)
Some archeologist that artwork inside this cave is possibly a creation of Homo
Neanderthalensis. Several hand stencils and disks made by blowing paint in the
cave wall were found inside the cave that dates back at least 40,000 years. These
arts were older than those of Chauvet Cave in central France, which dated
around 39,000 years (kwongs, 2012)

Venus of Willendorf The Horse of Lascaux

 Stone Tools for Art Making
• European art history started with primitive
mobile anthropomorphic carvings in the
Paleolithic era, as well a cave paintings
reflecting the natural world. Stone is molded
based on the composition of metals on it. It
classified as mineral growth, sedimentary,
metamorphic, and volcanic. Sedimentary
rocks shaped through the deposition and
compression of particulate matter. On the
other hand, metamorphic rocks changed from
the result of extreme temperature and
pressure. Volcanic rocks are from molten
igneous magma. Human culture is practiced
based on the creativity of ancestors in
producing sophisticated tools that enable
them survive.
Four Types of Tools used by Paleolithic
Man
• Bifacial Tools. It is a hand axe
prehistoric stone tool flake with two
faces or sides. These tools maybe
oval, triangular, or almond-shaped in
form and characterized by axial
symmetry. The cutting could be
straight or jagged and is used as a
knife, pick, scrapper, or weapon. The
technique was distinctive of the
hand-ax tradition of the Lower
Paleolithic Period and the Acheulian
culture.
• Flake tools. The are hand tools used
during the Stone Age. They are
usually formed by crushing of small
or large fragment then used as the
tool. Both cores and flakes could be
as stone tools. New flakes were very
sharp, but quickly became blunt
during use and hand to be sharpened
again by further flaking, a process
called” retouch”
• Blade Tools. These are a stone tool
created by striking a long narrow
flake from a stone core. This
procedure of cutting the stone and
creating the blades is called lithic
reduction. After chipping the tables,
they integrated into more extensive
tool, such as spears.
 • 1.Kersh Vase Painting. This red-
Most Common
Paintings in
Classical Greek
During the old Period, most
paintings were in panel, tombs, and
vases. IT depicts symbols with
dynamic masterpieces about
everyday scenes, fight scenes, and
mythological figures. It also
discloses a grasp of linear
perspective and naturalist design.
figured pottery is named after the
place where it discovered(Kerch, the
ancient Pantikapaion on The Black
Sea). The most common motifs were
scenes from the life of women,
mythological technique known as
polychromy, which combined
different colors, especially the brilliant
one in an artistic manner.
 Most Common Paintings in Classical
Greek
2. Panel Painting. Panel Painting was
especially famous for making beautiful
altarpieces. This type of paintings is on
plane small board of wood or metals
that are together. The primitive known
old panel painting is the Pitsa Panel,
which is between 540 and 530 B.C.E
Most Common Paintings in Classical
Greek
• Tom/Wall Painting. Popular tomb or
wall painting during ancient time use
either encaustic(wax) or
tempera(water-based) as a method
of fresco. Colors in this type are made
with grind powder stains in clean
water and set with the plaster to
became a stable part of the wall.
Medieval Arts in Europe (843 B.C.E)
• The Medieval Period, known as the Middle Ages, it eh millennium coverage of the
fall of the Roman Empire in 476 C.E to the Renaissance. Most of the surviving
artwork from this period is religious in nature, commissioned by the Catholic
Church to facilitate devotion and worship. The Primitive art of the Western world
covers an extensive range of time and place over 1000 years.
• Specifically, Medieval art in Europe grew out of the artistic culture of the Roman
Empire and iconographic practices in the church of the early Christian(Oliquiano,
2012). These sources were mixed the influential “barbarian culture of Northern
Europe to make an extraordinary legacy. Medieval art portrayed in Piestic painting
(religious art)displayed in a ceramic, fresco and mosaic painting, goldsmith and
silversmith, stained glass, illuminated manuscripts, metalwork, tapestry and
heraldry churches.
Medieval Arts in Europe (843 B.C.E)
• Ceramics. They were hand-shaped
cooking pots, jars, and pitches
Medieval Arts in Europe (843 B.C.E)
• Fresco. It is a method of painting in
water-based pigments on applied
plaster on wall surfaces.
 Medieval Arts in Europe (843 B.C.E)
• Mosaics. It is the arts of crafting
figures with small pieces of colored
glass, stone, or other materials. The
early Christians used ceiling and wall
mosaics in their churches and
cathedrals.
Medieval Arts in Europe (843 B.C.E)
• Goldsmith and silversmith. They were
excellent artists who created new
shapes of jewerly. The medieval
church demanded to employ
silversmiths and goldsmiths in the
church to produce religious items
with precious materials that are
worthy of the divine service.
Medieval Arts in Europe (843 B.C.E)
• Stained glass. It is applied solely to
the windows of medieval castles,
churches, and cathedrals. It creates
the primary form of art where small
pieces of glass are arranged to form
pictures of patterns which are held
together by strips of lead and
supported by a hard frame.
Medieval Arts in Europe (843 B.C.E)
• Illuminated
manuscripts(Illumination). They were
colorful religious texts which often
use gold and silver as its main
features.
Medieval Arts in Europe (843 B.C.E)
• Metalwork. Metalworkers were very
skilled in creating religious objects for
church decorations.
Medieval Arts in Europe (843 B.C.E)
• Bayeux Tapestry. It is embroidery in
colored wool. It consists of eight long
strips of unbleached linen, sewn
together to form a continuous panel
of 230 feet long and 20 inches high.
Medieval Arts in Europe (843 B.C.E)
• Heraldry. It is the manner of
designing or creating coats of arms
and insignia. Specimens of coats of
arms were worked using embroidery,
paper, painted wood, stonework, and
stained glass.
Gothic Architecture(1100)
• It was established after the
Romanesque, in the 12th century. This
style of artwork continued to be used
in the 16th century in Europe,while
giving way to the Renaissance style,
more especially in Northern France
due to socio-economic,political, and
theological reasons.It experiments
with innovations to build wider
buildings in stone such as the pointed
arch and flying buttresses, as
architects compete across to build
ever-taller cathedrals.
The Renaissance Arts (1400)
• It began during 14th century and
remained the dominant style in Europe
and Italy until the 16th century. The term
renaissance was developed during the
late 1300 to 1600s to describe its
accompanying artistic style. However,
people during this period did see
themselves as different from their
medieval predecessors. Through a
variety of text that survived, people
living during the Renaissance saw
themselves different, because they were
deliberately trying to replicate ancients
Greeks and Roman art and architecture.
Baroque Arts (1600)
• It started in Italy and Rome around
1600 and spread throughout the
majority of Europe during the 17th and
18th centuries. Baroque arts describe
something that is detailed,
elaborated and characterized by
exaggerated motion and clear detail.
It is used to produce architecture,
sculpture, painting, literature, dance,
and music.Baroque iconography was
direct, dramatic and obvious,
intending to appeal emotions.
Rococo Arts (1730)
• Rococo art is characterized by curvy
lines, soft colors, and portrays
romantic encounters such as scene of
love, nature, light-hearted
entertainment, and youth. The word
“rococo” derives from rocaille which
is French for rock.
Neoclassicism (1770-1830)
• It refers to movements in the arts
that draw inspiration from classical
art and culture of Greece and Rome
during ancient times. This type of art
grew to encompass all of the arts,
including architecture, decorative
arts, literature, painting, sculpture,
theatre, and music. The style is
identified by its use of straight
lines ,minimal use of color, simplicity
of form, and its adherence to classical
techniques and values.
Romanticism(1770-1850)
• It is creative, musical, and scholarly
movement that originated in Europe
to the end of 18th century. It
emphasizes emotion, glorification ,
and individualism of all the past and
nature, preferring the medieval
rather than the classical.
 Realism (1850-1900)
• It is an artistic movement that began
in France in the 1850s, following the
1848 revolution. The realist depicted
everyday subjects and situations in
contemporary settings and
attempted to portray individuals of
all classes of society in a similar way.
Impressionism
• It is a French 19th century art
movement that marked a
momentous break from tradition in
European painting. It is an art style in
which the artist takes the image an
objects as someone would see it if
they just caught a glimpse of it.
Fauvism (1905)
• It is a style of painting that began in
France around 20th century. Fauve
artist used brilliant, pure color,
aggressively applied straight from the
paint tubes to create a sense of an
explosion on the flat surface to depict
their responses to nature, in a break
with Impression.
Famous Artists in Western Europe
• Giovanni Cimabue
• Giotto de Bondone
• Flippo Brunelleschi
• Lorenzo Ghiberti
• Donatello
• Fra Angelico
• Leon Battista Alberti