Art Styles AP European History

Renaissance (1400-1600)

• Based on rationality, admiration of classicism,

a secular approach to the world.

• Innovations include oil paint, use of point

perspective, shading, use of an outside source

of light. Topics for paintings often were subjects found in nature. There was a strong focus on geometry and math as a tool to have correct proportions and scale for the works of art in this period.

Mannerism (1520-1580)

• More subjective and emotional.

• Mannerism reflects the

troubled time of the

reformation vs. Catholic

counter reformation

• Abandonment of perspective, or

very elongated exaggerated

limbs, dark shadows.

• El Greco, Titian, late

Michelangelo.

Baroque (1590-1725)

• More realistic than mannerism.

• Grand, elaborate, formal, and emotional.

• Tied to grandeur of the church or monarchs.

• Rubens, Velazquez, Bach, Handel, Opera,

Milton, late Shakespeare, Cervantes.

Rococo (1699-1785)

• Elaborate but lighter,

almost dainty.

* The style was ornate and used light colors, asymmetrical designs, curves, and gold. Unlike the political Baroque, the Rococo had playful and witty themes and used soft lines while painting its subjects.

• Mainly the 1700s.

• Watteau, Fragonard

• Great patron was

Louis XV's mistress,

Madame de

Pompadour.

Neoclassicism (1770-1830)

* It reflected a desire to rekindle the spirit and forms of classical art from ancient Greece and Rome, whose principles of order and reason were entirely in keeping with the European Age of Enlightenment.

Realism (1830-1900)

• Netherlands

• Fans Hals, Jan Vermeer,

Rembrandt.

• Still life, everyday scenes,

spiritual side of life reflected in

faces.

* Realists portrayed real people not idealized types. From now on, artists felt increasingly free to depict real-life situations stripped of aesthetics and universal truths. (No more cute-looking child beggars, picturesque streets and views, healthy-looking contented peasants and so on.)

Romanticism (1770-1920)

• Objections to the Enlightenment's emphasis

on reason, form, and the classics.

• Themes of nature, simple life.

*The tenets of romanticism included: a return to nature - exemplified by an emphasis on spontaneous plain-air painting - a belief in the goodness of humanity, the promotion of justice for all, and a strong belief in the senses and emotions, rather than reason and intellect.

• Gothic images or exotic images.

• Music: ballads, folk songs

• Writers: Keats, Shelley, Lord Byron.

Impressionism (1870-1886)

• Pleasant scenes rather than social

comment, abandon line, perspective, and

studio light.

• Attempt to capture a fleeting moment in

time.

* Its guiding principle was the realistic depiction of light; Impressionist artists sought to capture fleeting moments, and if, during these moments, an object appeared orange - due to the falling light or its reflection - then the artist painted the object orange. Or if the sun turned the surface of a pond pink, then pink it would be.

• Monet, Degas, Renoir.

Post-Impression (1880-1905)

• Turning away from impressionism

because it lacked form and discipline.

• This movement was only united in

rejecting impressionism.

• Expressed chaos and complexity of the

machine age.

• Importance of line.

• Beginnings of the modern art movement.

• Cezanne, Seurat, Gaugin, Van Gogh,

Toulouse-Latrec.

Cubism (1907-1914)

• Use of shape to suggest reality.

• Movement toward abstraction.

* the Cubist style focused on the flat, two-dimensional surface of the picture plane, and rejected the traditional conventions and techniques of linear perspective, chiaroscuro (use of shading to show light and shadow) and the traditional idea of imitating nature. Instead of creating natural-looking 3-D objects, Cubist painters offered a brand new set of images reassembled from 2-D fragments which showed the objects from several sides simultaneously.

• Picasso, Braque.

Expressionism (1890-Present)

• Use of strong color and line to show

emotion and lack of order in the human

mind.

* Expressionism is an intensely personal art form. The expressionist artist strives to convey his personal feelings about the object painted, rather than merely record his observation of it. Thus, in order to achieve maximum impact on the viewer, representational accuracy is sacrificed (distorted) in favour of (eg) strong outlines and bold colours.

• Influence of African masks and images

(and influence of Imperialism)

• Matisse, Munch, Van Gogh.

Abstract Expressionism (1947-1965)

• Purely abstract, emotionally associative

design of shapes and colors.

• Kandinsky, New York school.

• Reflection of modern times—post World

War I

* Is a vague term which refers to a general movement of largely non-representative painting, which flourished in the United States during the 1940s and 1950s. Spearheaded by a generation of American artists - strongly influenced by European expatriates - who had grown up during the Depression and were influenced both by World War II and its Cold War aftermath, abstract expressionist painting was neither wholly abstract nor expressionist and encompassed several quite different styles.

Dada (1916-1924)

The first major anti-art movement, Dada was a revolt against the culture and values which - it was believed - had caused and supported the carnage of The First World War (1914-18).

Surrealism (1924-2004)

• Psychological paintings, sometimes very

realistic, that reveal the inner mind.

• Dali, Klee, Miro, Chagall.

• Again, reflection of Freudian concepts and

the scars that World War I and II have on

the world psyche.