AP Art History Time Periods and Movements

Paleolithic Period

30,000-8,000 B.C.E.

Neolithic Era

8,000-3,000 B.C.E.

Paleolithic

• Hunter-gatherer society

• Smaller, portable

Neolithic

• Cultivation of crops and raising livestock

• Larger pieces

• First settlements and occupations

Sumerian Period

c. 3,500–2,340 B.C.E.

Babylonian Era

1792–1750 B.C.E.

Assyrian Period

883–612 B.C.E.

Persian Art

c. 559–331 B.C.E.

Sumerian

• Negative space between arms in figures

• Nudity is a sign of debasement

• Hierarchy of scale

Babylonian

• Strict laws

Assyrian

• Greatly praised king

• Stoic figures, emotional animals

Persian

• First great empire

• Huge architecture

• Bull-shaped capitals holding up a wooden roof.

Old Kingdom Period

2575–2134 B.C.E.

New Kingdom

1550–1070 B.C.E.

Predynasty

• Begins with unification of the country

Old Kingdom

• Massive monuments

Middle Kingdom

• Small, rock-cut tombs

New Kingdom

• Asian influence from invaders

• Amarna - shift to monotheism of the god Aten.

Archaic Greek Period

600-480 B.C.E.

Classical Greek Period

480–323 B.C.E.

Hellenistic Greek

323–30 B.C.E.

Archaic Greek

• Grave monuments

• Cire Perdue

• Frontal, upright, squarish stature

Classical Greek

• Contrapposto

• Canon of proportions

Hellenistic Greek

• More dynamic

• More expression

• More negative space

Etruscan Period

10th century B.C.E. to c. 270 B.C.E.

Height of Etruscan Period

7th-6th centuries B.C.E.

Founding of Rome

753 B.C.E.

Roman Republic

509–27 B.C.E.

Roman Empire

27 B.C.E.—410 C.E.

Roman Architecture

• Ashlar masonry

• Greek but with arches, domes, and vaults

• Barrel vaults, groin vaults

• piers

• spandrels

• coffers

• concrete

• peristyle; Greek columns

Roman Republican

• Veristic; realistic

Imperial Roman

• Inspiration from Classical Greek

• Divine iconography

• Later ignores antiquity

• Military leaders

Etruscan

• Necropoli, funerary

• Mudbrick and wood for sculpture

• Bright colors

• Firing with a kiln; modeling as opposed to carving

• Dynamic

Late Antique Period

200–500 C.E.

Early Christian

• Intense religious narrative from the New Testament

• Christ becomes god-like after recognized by the Romanempire

• Spoila

• Underground

• Centrally or axially planned

Early Byzantine Period

500-726

Iconoclastic Controversy

726-843

Middle and Late Byzantine Period

843-1453

Byzantine

• Pendentive and squinch

• Not known for size minus the Hagia Sophia

  • Plain exterior, colorful interiors with low domes

• Icons

• Mix of medieval and classical antiquity

  • Frontal, symmetrical; flattened backgrounds

Islamic Period

630 C.E.

Islamic Art

• Calligraphy

• Arabesque: leaves, vines, spirals, zigzags, etc.

• Treasured rugs

• Tesselations

• Mosque architecture

Persian Manuscripts

• Easier to read

• Gives a picture to read with!

• Shadowless, decorative environment

• Colorful and geometrical patterns

Merovingian Period

481-714

Hiberno-Saxon Art

6th-8th centuries

Hiberno-Saxon

• Horror vacui

• Animal style borders

• Illuminated manuscripts

Romanesque Period

1050-1150

Romanesque

• Cathedrals

• Painted stone

• Small windows

• Rib vault

• Illuminated manuscripts

• Exaggerated gestures and emotions—heads and hands are largest

Gothic Period

1140-1400

Gothic

• Influence from Roman, Early Medieval, and Islamic

• Emphasized height

• Religious or judicial

• Rib vault, bays, rose windows, ogee arches, flying buttress

• Sculpture in architecture

• Stained glass and illuminated manuscripts

Jewish

• Illuminated manuscripts

Italian Gothic Art

1250–1400

Italian Gothic

• Same as Gothic

• Sculpture not in architecture

• Byzantine acceptance

• Expressiveness and meaningful gestures

• 3-D shading

Northern Renaissance Period

1400-1600

Northern Renaissance

• Prints in woodcut, engraving, and etching

Early Renaissance Period

1400-1500

Early Renaissance

• Order, clarity, and light

• Gothic was barbaric

• Geometric buildings, linear perspective

• Humanism through mythology

High Renaissance Period

1495–1520

Mannerism

1520–1600

High Renaissance

• Canvases!

• Sfumato and chiaroscuro

• Glazes

Mannerism

• Classical elements

• Still lives and genre paintings

• Exaggeration, obscure imagery, refinement in unusual compositions and settings

• Defies classical order and rationality

Baroque Period

1600–1700

Baroque

• Long views

• Movement of architecture—lot’s of curves, concaves, and convexes

• Rich interior: frescoes, sculpture, gilding—large architecture

• Humble subject matter

  • Brevity of life

• Sketches on site and finished in studio

• Tenebrism and tenebroso

• Movement—caught mid-motion; impasto

New Spain Period

c. 1500–1820

New Spain

• Mix of Old and New World

  • Native artists favored flatten surface and earthen tones

  • Asian materials

Rococo Period

1700-1750

Rococo

• Straight lines are a no-no

• Erotic, sensual; domestic and private

• Pastels

Neoclassical Period

1750–1815

Neoclassical

• Roman exterior

  • Balance, coordination, order, and capitals also in interior

• Marble is more appealing than metal since the latter was more expensive

• Unpainted, white marble

• Classicism but with up to date clothes

Romantic Period

1789–1848

Romanticism

• Follows French Revolution

• Revival of like every style; Middle Ages’ faith is romanticized

• Influenced by medieval, Egyptian, Islamic, and Baroque

• Iron in architecture

• Opposite of Enlightenment subjects; fantastic, unconscious, haunted, and the insane

• Photography is huge

• Crap ton of revolts and political functions

Realistic Period

1848–1860s

Impressionistic Period

1872-1880s

Post-Impressionistic Period

1880s-1890s

Symbolic Period

1890s

Art Nouveau Period

1890s-1914

Realism

• Inspired by positivism

• Engages with five senses

• Lower classes are often the subject

• Honest, sincere; brown and ochre

Impressionism

• Quick brush strokes

• Shadows contain color

• Plein-air

• Landscapes and still-lives with urban viewpoint

• Japanese influence

Post-Impressionism

• Moved towards abstraction

• Maintained perspective and solid forms

Symbolism

• Unseen forces of life

• It’s about those feelings, man

• Psychodynamic

Art Nouveau

• Eliminates separation from artistic media

• Projects are done by one artist or team for consistency

• Floral patterns

• Curvilinear

• Ironwork

Fauvism Period

c. 1905

Expressionistic Period

1905-1930s

Cubistic Period

1907–1930s

Constructivistic Period

1914–1920s

Dada Period

1916-1925

De Stijl Period

1917-1930s

Mexican Murals and International Style Period

1920s-1930s

Surrealistic Period

1924–1930s

Harlem Renaissance Period

1930s

Abstract Expressionistic Period

Late 1940s—1950s

Pop Art Period

1955–1960s

Color Field Painting Period

1960s

Happenings Period

1960s

Site Art Period

1970s—1990s

Postmodern Period

1975–today

Fauvism

• “Created by wild beasts”

• Inspired by Post-Impressionism

• Broad strokes of violently contrasting color

Expressionism

• Inspired by Fauvism

• Abstraction

• Bold colors

• Natural world beyond representation

Cubism

• Simple geometries

• Perhaps influenced by African masks

• Multiple views

Analytical Cubism

• Highly experimental

• Jagged edges and sharp, multifaceted lines

Synthetic Cubism

Inspired by collages and found objects and featured flattened forms