Western European Renaissance to Abstract Expressionism: Art Movements & Key Artists

Western European Renaissance dates

~1350-1600 CE

Difference in depth between Gothic and Renaissance painting

Gothic: flat, hierarchical; Renaissance: linear perspective, illusion of depth

Difference in naturalism/realism between Gothic and Renaissance painting

Gothic: stylized figures, symbolic; Renaissance: naturalistic, anatomically accurate

Difference in balance/symmetry/proportion between Gothic and Renaissance painting

Gothic: less concern for proportion; Renaissance: mathematical balance, symmetry, ideal proportions

Artist credited with mastery of foreshortening

Masaccio

Meaning of fresco

"Fresh" - painting onto wet plaster

Appearance of the Holy Spirit in Masaccio's Holy Trinity

As a dove

Memento mori in Masaccio's Holy Trinity

A skeleton at the bottom

Formulator of the law of linear perspective

Filippo Brunelleschi

Term for translating 3D space onto 2D via parallel lines

Linear perspective / single-point perspective

Epitome of a Renaissance Man

Leonardo da Vinci

Writer in mirror script

Leonardo da Vinci

Convergence point in Leonardo's Last Supper

Jesus' head

Details of Leonardo's Last Supper

Six disciples on each side of Jesus, four tapestries, three windows

Announcement made by Jesus in the Last Supper

One of the disciples will betray him

Leonardo's threat to the prior for complaints

By refusing to finish / delay

Painting where eyes follow viewers

Mona Lisa

Term for depth via reduced distinctiveness & color for distant objects

Aerial / atmospheric perspective

Technique in Mona Lisa for smoky, hazy atmosphere

Sfumato

Location of the Sistine Chapel

Vatican City

Three zones of Michelangelo's Sistine Ceiling

Biblical ancestors of Christ, scenes from Genesis, prophets/sibyls

Scene with person in boat clubbing someone trying to board

The Flood

Action of God's index finger in Creation of Adam

Reaching toward Adam, almost touching

Message of Sistine Ceiling

Divine creation and human potential

Painting with Hebrew prophets next to Greek sibyls

Sistine Ceiling

Two central figures in Raphael's School of Athens

Plato and Aristotle

Painter who inspired Pope Julius II in Stanza della Segnatura

Raphael

Painting exemplifying linear perspective, Greco-Roman revival, and philosophical themes

School of Athens

Painting showing a couple getting married, honoring marriage, or business transfer

The Arnolfini Portrait (Jan van Eyck)

Details of a painting with dog, fruit, candelabra, mirror, four reflected figures

The Arnolfini Portrait (Jan van Eyck)

The Arnolfini Portrait

Painting with dog, fruit, candelabra, mirror, four reflected figures?

Impressionism

Movement transitioning from representational to abstract art?

Impressionist artists were more interested in

Perception and subjective experience

Dates of the Impressionist movement

~1860-1890s

Reaction to Pissarro's Gelee Blanche

Confused or dismissive

Reaction to figures in Monet's Boulevard des Capucines

Like "hurrying pedestrians" or indistinct figures

Reaction to Monet's Impression, Sunrise

Derisively called "Impressionist"

Central figure/father of Impressionism

Claude Monet

Artist who used a boat as a floating studio near Argenteuil

Claude Monet

Artist at Giverny capturing water lilies

Claude Monet

Who is called "weatherman of painting"

Claude Monet

Of which artist did Paul Cézanne say, "only an eye, but... what an eye"

Claude Monet

Post-Impressionism

Paul Cézanne

Artist structuring Mont Sainte-Victoire with cones, cubes, slanting angles

Paul Cézanne

Cubism

Movement of Picasso's Man with Violin & Braque's Houses at L'Estaque

Artists showing objects from multiple angles simultaneously

Picasso & Braque

Painting of not-so-friendly ladies in brothel, showing Cubist influence

Les Demoiselles d'Avignon (Picasso)

Painting with African-mask face, showing front & back simultaneously

Les Demoiselles d'Avignon (Picasso)

1937 painting protesting bombing of a town during Spanish Civil War

Guernica (Picasso)

Picasso conveys a world in pieces, full of disintegration

Guernica

Painting showing fragmentation of humans, animals, homes

Guernica

Painting in black, white, grey with stippled print-like markings reporting atrocity

Guernica

Expressionism

Term referring to movement emphasizing emotional response over naturalism

Artist & painting of figure on pier screaming

Edvard Munch, The Scream

Artists called "beasts" due to violent color/form

Fauves

Leader of Fauves

Henri Matisse

Kandinsky: content of abstract paintings

Pure feeling, non-objective content

Blue Rider artist who moved to non-objective art

Wassily Kandinsky

Movement leading to non-objective art for Malevich

Suprematism

Artist limiting to "suprematist elements," ignoring environment

Kazimir Malevich

De Stijl founder using rectangles, primary colors, grid

Piet Mondrian

Why did Mondrian resign from De Stijl

Believed movement had lost original purity of vision

Abstract Expressionists aligned with which 20th-century philosophy

Existentialism

Painter who dripped, poured, splashed paint around canvas

Jackson Pollock

Term for Jackson Pollock's technique

Action painting / drip technique