AP Euro types of art

Italian Renaissance

• 1300s to 1500s

• Individualism, idealized man, humanism, perfection, perfect humans

• shows shift back to classical realism with humanistic ideals, medieval symbolism →Renaissance realism

• Medicis and Papacy, patrons of the arts

• e.g. Michelangelo, Raphael, Da Vinci

Example of Italian Renaissance Art

David- Michaelangelo: showed the perfection of the idealized human body

Northern Renaissance

• 1400s and 1500s

• Realism, started using oil paints, more religious subjects, Naturalism (not ideal man like Italian Renaissance), lots of focus on textures, intricate light, religious iconography

• Scenes of everyday life

• Medicis and Papacy, patrons of the arts

• Jan Van Eyck

Northern Renaissance Example

Arnolfini Portrait - Jan van Eyck: shows detailed textures and light, used oil paint

Mannerism

• 1540-1600

• distortion, elongated forms, imitating nature’s imperfection, more emotions

• More chaotic and emotional than Renaissance cuz of the rise of Protestantism and the tension from that

• Time of Protestant Reformation

• El Greco

Mannerism Example

Madonna with the Long Neck - Parmigianino: elongated neck and distortion (in the name)

Baroque

• 1600-1750

• Highly dramatic (baroque works from one piece), emotional, ornate, extreme darks and lights in the painting

• Commissioned and used to show power of rising Absolute monarchs and returning Catholic Church with the Counter Reformation at the time (king louis XIV), dramatic feeling helped show immense power

• Bernini, Rembrandt

Baroque Example

The Ecstasy of St. Teresa - Bernini: shows drama through pose, dynamic movement, emotional (sculpture)

Palace of Versailles - Louis XIV: supposed to show the absolute power of the monarch through its dramatic architecture

Rococo

• 1720-1760

• Soft pastels, playful and romantic themes

• Made after Louis XIV’s death, big serious, dramatic vibe was done →comfort, intimacy, time of Enlightenment

  • Shows the idealized, peaceful, playful ideals that the French elite want, kinda shows an insight into what becomes the French Rev

• Its giving Studio Ghibli vibes

• Jean-Antoine Watteau, Francois Bouche

Rococo Examples

Pilgrimage to Cythera - Watteau: shows aristocrats in a dreamy area, pastel colors

Neoclassicalism

• 1760-1820

• Revival of Ancient Greco-roman style,imitation of classic style, formal and imperial style, kinda serious and realistic looking

• Time Period: Rise of Napoleon, Enlightenment thinkers were showing the important of reason, rococo was about the aristocracies whimsy, but now it was about how the citizens viewed the world

  • Napoleon used it as propaganda, linking him to greatness of Roman Empire

• David

Neoclassical Examples

Death of Marat - David: shows Marat’s heroism, simple composition, martyrdom for French rev

Romanticism

• 1780-1850

• Emotion, individualism, power of nature, dramatic themes, vivid colors, no orderly or calm scenes

• Lots of reason to express emotion: Industrialization brought urban struggle, post-French Revolution had people looking back at all the death, nationalism with the nationalistic revolutions

  • Supposed to be imaginative, messy (neoclassicism was clean lines), often shows heroes failing, underdogs, passion, beauty of death

• Delacroix

Romanticism example

Liberty Leading the People - Delacroix: shows the emotion and nationalism of the french people

Realism

• 1850-1880

• Went against Romanticism, depicted everyday life, ordinary people, and social realities, showed harsh lived of working class in urban industrialized lived, poverty, no idealized subjects

• Rise of Socialism: working class and lower class was tired of being overlooked by art and society, Karl Marx’s influence

• 1848 Revolutions had workers fighting for their rights and independence

• Invention of the Camera made art feel like it had to be more real

• Courbet, Haussmann(Paris)

Realism Examples

The Eiffel Tower or Crystal Palace (great exhibition) both rejected Romanticism and showed the world of tech, engineering etc.

The Stone Breakers - Courbet: showed the daily lives of two laborers, one too old and the other two young to be working

Impressionism

• 1860-1900

• Captures a moment in time, shows lighting, modern life, short choppy brush strokes

• Emergence of Plein Air since photography became popular

• Cities were modernized in mid 1800s (Paris and Vienna) so they became places for people to be seen and more beautiful

• Monet

Impressionism examples

Impression, Sunrise - Monet: very chopped water scene with sky and boat, lots of things implied, light

Dadaism

• 1916-1923

• Ridiculed society by creating absurd art, reaction to WW1, people felt like things were pointless cuz of all the death from WW1 (entire generation of men)

  • So much reason → tech→WW1 and so much death, so Dadaism threw reason out of the window

• Duchamp

Cubism

• Early 1900s

• Showed multiple viewpoints by using geometry, overlapping planes, fragmented subjects,

• Lots of scientific advancements (Einstein), and rise of film and theatre, so Cubism took a flat canvas and gave it multiple viewpoints

• Picasso

Surrealism

• 1900s

• After WWI, people wanted to explore the human subconscious since people struggled a lot more with mental health after the war

  • Sigmund Freud: the ppl we are is just a thin crust of our repressed memories and experience

  • PTSD from WW1 veterans

• Showed things that were impossible or unrealistic (kinda just hallucinations), melting objects, captured dreams to look like photos, capture the raw soul someone had before the brain could fix it

• Dali (made melting rocks and clocks and stuff)