AP Art History Unit 8: Later Europe and Americas

94. Screen with the Siege of Belgrade and Hunting Scene

• 1697–1701 CE

• Circle of the González Family

• Tempera & resin on wood, shell inlay (enconchado)

---

• Folding screen that requires the viewer to walk around it

• Combines global influences: One side depicts European battle scene (Siege of Belgrade) + the other local Mexican hunting imagery.

  • Siege of Belgrade: highly detailed, crowded composition, organized chaos → armies, smoke, architecture; it positions the viewer as powerful and informed, aligns the owner with European military triumph, and reinforces Catholic/Spanish dominance over enemies (Ottomans)

  • Hunting scene: more open, natural composition, figures spread out across landscape, emphasis on movement (dogs, riders, prey); shows elite leisure activity, implies control over nature and land, and connects owner to New World wealth/resources

• Example of enconchado technique (mother-of-pearl inlay → shimmering effect).

• Reflects Spanish colonial elite taste in New Spain (Mexico).

• Shows cross-cultural exchange via trade (Asia → Manila Galleons → Mexico).

• Function: a status object that visually communicates loyalty to the Spanish Empire, participation in a global trade network, and elite identity in colonial Mexico (New Spain)

95. The Virgin of Guadalupe

• 1698 CE

• Miguel González

• Oil + mother-of-pearl inlay

---

• Enconchado technique elevates sacred presence (divine shimmer)

• Central, frontal Virgin → symmetrical, stable, surrounded by radiant mandorla (almond-shaped glow), floating above crescent moon, supported by angel

• Asserts divine authority in New Spain + Creates a unifying religious + cultural identity

• Dark skin tone → connects to Indigenous viewers

• Stars + sunburst → cosmic/divine power

• Moon under feet → triumph over older beliefs

96. Fruits and Insects

• 1711 CE

• Rachel Ruysch

• Oil on wood

---

• Diagonal arrangement → dynamic, not static

• Dark background (tenebrism) → dramatic contrast

• Hyper-detailed foreground

• Vanitas: Insects/decay → inevitability of death; Blooming fruit → life at peak

• Still life was popularized in Northern Baroque period

• Model usage indicate understanding of color theory and shape, which were used to create imaginary (visual) balance

• Beginning of scientific revolution

• The artist’s father was a professor of anatomy and botany as well as an amateur painter.

• Parallels Dutch interest in botany, and the growing of flowers for decorative and medicinal purposes.

97. Spaniard and Indian Produce a Mestizo

•  1715 CE

• Attributed to Juan Rodríguez Juárez

• Oil on canvas

---

• Family grouped tightly → easy to read hierarchy

• Figures arranged in descending social importance

• Reinforces racial hierarchy (caste system) + presents colonial society as “orderly” and controlled

• Clothing → status and race

• Child (mestizo) → product of colonial mixing

  • Visual “proof” of Spanish social control

98. The Tête á Tête (Marriage à la Mode)

• 1743 CE

• William Hogarth

• Oil on canvas

---

• Chaotic interior, cluttered with objects

• Couple physically separated despite shared space

• Function: Critique of aristocratic marriage + moral decay

  • Message of wealth ≠ virtue

• Broken sword → failed masculinity

• Dog sniffing bonnet → infidelity

• Disordered room → moral collapse

• Gaudy decor

• Ruins of Cupid

• Man came home with bonnet, presumably cheating

• Music symbolic of pleasure

• Flirtatious look about

• Foot on painting indicates lewd painting

• Illegal copies made from this, led to first example of copyright being applied to imagery

99. Portrait of Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz

• 1750 CE

• Miguel Cabrera

• Oil on canvas

---

• Seated, surrounded by books

• Direct gaze → intellectual authority

• Became sick and died after being forced to give up her intellectual life

• Nun habit + escudo (medallion) → tension between religion + intellect

• Sor Juana shows that a woman can be both devout and intellectual

• She wears the habit of the religious order of the Hermits of Saint Jerome nuns of Mexico City; the habit includes the escudo—a framed vellum painting.

• Painting may have been inspired by the image of Saint Jerome seated at a desk.

100. A Philosopher Giving a Lecture at the Orrery

• 1763–1765 CE

• Joseph Wright of Derby

• Oil on canvas

  ---

• Circular arrangement around light source

• Light replaces traditional religious illumination

• Tenebrism

• Light → knowledge replacing religion

  • Enlightenment = shift from faith → reason

101. The Swing

• 1767 CE

• Jean-Honoré Fragonard

• Oil on Canvas

---

• Pastel palette; light brushwork → contrast with later Neoclassicism.

• Figures are small in a dominant garden-like setting.

• Use of atmospheric perspective.

• Puffy clouds; rich vegetation; abundant flowers; sinuous curves.

  • Symbolically a dreamlike setting.

• Commissioned by an unnamed “gentleman of the Court:” a painting of his young mistress on a swing → flirtation + scandal

• The patron in the lower left looks up the skirt of a young lady who swings flirtatiously, boldly kicking off her shoe at a sculpture.

• The dog in the lower right corner, generally seen as a symbol of fidelity, barks in disapproval at the scene before him.

• Celebrates (and subtly mocks) elite indulgence

• Cupid statue (finger to lips) → secrecy

  • Love here is playful, secretive, and morally loose

102. Monticello

• 1768–1809 CE

• Thomas Jefferson

• Brick, glass, stone, and wood

---

• Symmetrical, balanced Neoclassical design

• Central dome → authority and order

• Reflects Enlightenment ideals (order, reason).

• Symbol of American identity and democracy.

• Also tied to contradiction: built by enslaved labor.

• Mimics Palladio’s Villa Rotunda (secondary residence) → Jefferson scrapped his first design after going to France

  • Deviation in that he adds wings to “embrace the landscape”

103. The Oath of the Horatii

• 1784 CE

• Jacques-Louis David

• Oil on Canvas

---

• History painting

• Neoclassical style → sharp lines, strong forms, organized into thirds, dramatic lighting

• Vanishing point is at the oath

• Promotes duty, patriotism, sacrifice.

• Men = rigid, heroic; women = emotional → comment on gender roles.

• Prefigures French Revolution values.

• Strong horizontal + vertical lines

• Men rigid, women soft and curved

• Promotes duty over emotion

• Outstretched arms → unity + sacrifice

• Three arches → separation of groups

• State > family

104. George Washington

• 1788–1792 CE

• Jean-Antoine Houdon

• Marble

---

• Combines Roman hero imagery (contrapposto, marble, and dignity) + modern realism (life sized accuracy) → while in Virginia, Houdon made a bust idealizing Washington with ancient garb; Washington quickly made him adjust this

• Fasces (bundle of rods) = authority and unity of 13 colonies

• Washington shown as citizen-leader, not king.

  • Plow → citizen-farmer

  • Power should be restrained and civic-minded

• Reinforces ideals of the American Republic.

105. Self-Portrait

• 1790 CE

• Elisabeth Louise Vigée Le Brun

• Oil on canvas

---

• Female artist asserting professional identity.

• Soft Rococo influence but more natural.

• Promotes image of respectable, skilled woman artist, asserting female artist legitimacy

• Worked for Marie Antoinette → later fled Revolution. Depicts herself at work as a court painter even though Marie was executed 8 years prior

• Informal pose, soft brushwork

• Direct, engaging gaze

• Gentle expression → counters stereotypes: Women can be both professional and feminine

106. Y no hai remedio (And There’s Nothing to Be Done)

• 1810-1823 CE (published 1863)

• Francisco de Goya

• Drypoint Etching

---

• Brutal critique of war and human suffering (context: Napoleon’s invasion of Spain)

• No heroism → only violence and inevitability + human suppression.

• “There’s nothing to be done” = hopelessness.

• Early move toward modern, anti-war imagery.

• Meant to wound and shock the viewer

• Includes captions to share thoughts with the viewer

• Central victim, surrounded by faceless executioners → draws parallels between the former and Jesus Christ

• Stark, empty background

• White color associated with purity and sacrifice

107. La Grande Odalisque

• 1814 CE

• Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres

• Oil on Canvas

---

• Exoticized image of a harem woman → attracted white middle class men particularly

  • A French woman was used as the model, and the painter had never even seen a harem

• Reclining pose invites viewer gaze

• Elongated body = unrealistic → prioritizes beauty over anatomy.

• Reflects Orientalism (Western fantasy of the East).

• Mix of Neoclassicism (in method) + sensuality (in subject matter).

108. Liberty Leading the People

• 1830 CE

• Eugéne Delacroix

• Oil on Canvas

---

• Romanticism → emotion, drama, movement.

• Pyramid composition with allegorical figure = Liberty (Marianne) → visible breasts and stoic face nod to antiquity + raw, natural freedom.

• Based on July Revolution (1830) in France.

• Unites classes (worker, bourgeois, child fighter, all together in the composition).

• Violated rules of the Academy → no regard for line, left w/o a finish, and brightly colored

• Meant to inspire

109. The Oxbow

• 1836 CE

• Thomas Cole

• Oil on canvas

---

• Hudson River School → American landscape painting

  • American Romanticism; vast landscaping (if humans are included, they’re miniscule)

  • Became source of national pride

  • Visual representation of Manifest Destiny

• Contrast: wild nature vs cultivated land.

  • Spiritual matter too: more light (“God”) is on the “civilized” side

110. Still Life in Studio

• 1837 CE

• Louis-Jacques-Mandé Daguerre

• Daguerreotype

---

• Early photography (daguerreotype).

• Required long exposure → only still objects.

  • Stillness → limits of early tech

  • Reality can now be mechanically captured

• Marks shift toward mechanical image-making.

• Raises question: is photography art?

• Carefully arranged objects (no movement)

• Sharp detail due to long exposure

• Photograph reproduces a variety of textures: fabric, wicker, plaster, framed print, etc.

• Inspired by painted still lifes, such as vanitas paintings.

111. Slave Ship (Slavers Throwing Overboard the Dead and Dying)

• 1840 CE

• Joseph Mallord William Turner

• Oil on canvas

---

• JMW had interest in human and elemental violence

• Critique/condemnation of slavery and capitalism.

• Chaotic brushwork → overwhelming emotion.

• Nature (storm) = moral force against humans.

• Slaves were thrown overboard so the colonizers could save themselves

112. Palace of Westminster (Houses of Parliament)

• 1840-1870 CE

• Charles Barry and Augustus W. N. Pugin (architects)

• Limestone masonry and glass

---

• Gothic Revival style → medieval inspiration (seen as the Native style + most harmonious with the original Westminster Hall).

  • Also aligned with Arts and Crafts movement

  • Gothic conventions were deviated from with the plan being axial

• Symbol of British government tradition.

• Combines modern function with historic look.

• Reflects nationalism, specifically via distinction from American and French conventions

• Central tower, ornamental exterior, spires of Westminster: directs attention up

• Westminster Hall: built around 1100, the only original part to survive the 1834 fire

113. The Stone Breakers

• 1849 CE (destroyed in 1945)

• Gustave Courbet

• Oil on canvas

---

• Realism (the first movement of modernism, develops in France under the backdrop of Scientific Revolution)/realism (opposite of idealism) → depiction of what is seen and felt (in this case, everyday laborers).

  • No idealization → harsh working conditions.

• Political statement about class inequality.

  • Anti-academic, anti-elite.

• Two figures, backs turned → anonymity

• Earth tones → harsh realism

• Exposes working-class hardship

• Broken rocks → endless labor

• The sky to landscape ration implies no escape from poverty

114. Nadar Raising Photography to the Height of Art

• 1862 CE

• Honoré Daumier

• Lithograph

---

• Satirical lithograph w/ caricature.

• Shows photographer Nadar in balloon.

• Comments on photography as new art form.

• Blends humor + critique of modernity.

• Balloon → elevation of photography

  • Is it truly “high art”?

115. Olympia

• 1863 CE

• Édouard Manet

• Oil on canvas

---

• Modern reinterpretation of reclining nude

• Bold brush strokes, heavy paint, and simplified forms (beginning of abstraction)

• Woman = prostitute, the model was a known prostitute, confrontational gaze.

• Father of the Impressionists/modernism + The OG shock artist: shocked viewers and broke tradition.

• Marks shift to modern art.

• Black cat → sexuality, independence, sign of an omen

• Servant + flowers → client relationship + acknowledgement of slavery

  • No illusion—this is transactional

• Not set in a luxurious setting

116. The Saint-Lazare Station

• 1877 CE

• Claude Monet

• Oil on canvas

---

• Impressionism → light, atmosphere, movement.

• Modern subject: train station.

  • Industrialization + urban life

• Focus on momentary perception.

• Loose brushstrokes, blurred forms

• Light + steam dominate; no solidity, no contour lines, no layout

• Plein air painting (painted on site)

• Depiction of how light and color changes based on atmosphere and time

117. The Horse in Motion

• 1878 C.E

• Eadweard Muybridge

• Albumen print

---

• Early motion photography.

  • Proved horses lift all hooves off ground.

• Important for science + animation development.

• Intersection of art and technology

• Sequential frames

• Scientific clarity > beauty

• Motion broken into parts

  • Human perception is limited

118. The Valley of Mexico from the Hillside of Santa Isabel

• 1882 CE

• Jose María Velasco

• Oil on canvas

---

• National pride in Mexican landscape.

• Combines scientific accuracy + beauty.

• Shows modernization (railroads).

• Identity-building after independence.

• Expansive, panoramic view

• Balanced natural + human elements

• Mexico as both ancient and modern

• 7 different versions of this

119. The Burghers of Calais

• 1884–1895 CE

• Auguste Rodin

• Bronze

---

• Depicts men sacrificing themselves in war

• .Figures show emotion, individuality.

• Breaks tradition → not simply heroic, but human.

• Viewer placed at same level → more connection.

• Bare feet, ropes → humility + sacrifice

  • True courage includes fear

120. The Starry Night

• 1889 C.E

• Vincent van Gogh

• Oil on canvas

---

• Post-Impressionism → emotional expression.

• Painted from asylum → he was highly critiqued during his lifetime.

• Swirling sky = inner turmoil.

• Not realistic → expressive color + movement.

• Small village below

• Expresses inner emotional state

• Cypress tree → death/spirituality

  • Nature mirrors emotion

121. The Coiffure

• 1890–1891 CE

• Mary Cassatt

• Drypoint and aquatint

---

• Focus on women’s private lives.

• Soft lines influenced by Japanese prints.

• Soft intimacy, everyday moment.

• Feminine perspective in Impressionism

  • Centers female experience

• Grooming = private ritual (nudity is not sexual here)

• Everyday life has artistic value

122. The Scream

• 1893 CE

• Edvard Munch

• Tempera and pastels on cardboard

---

• Expressionism (a type of symbolism) → psychological anxiety.

• Distorted figure + landscape.

• Reflects modern existential fear.

• Icon of emotional distress.

• Distorted perspective

• Echoing lines radiate outward

• Visualizes anxiety and existential fear

• Open mouth → silent scream

  • Emotion overwhelms reality

123. Where Do We Come From? What Are We? Where Are We Going?

• 1897–1898 CE

• Paul Gauguin

• Oil on canvas

---

• Symbolist work → philosophical themes.

• Picking fruit → allusion to Adam/Eve

• Painted in Tahiti → primitivism (problematic).

• Reads right to left → life cycle.

• Artist’s existential crisis.

• Explores life cycle + meaning → Tahitian idol represents tie to eternity

• Different ages → stages of life

  • Existential questioning

124. Carson, Pirie, Scott, and Company

• 1899–1903 CE

• Louis Sullivan (architect)

• Iron, steel, glass, and terra cotta

---

• Early skyscraper → Chicago School.

• “Form follows function.”

• Steel frame allowed for large windows.

• Decorative iron at base (cast iron door w/ vegetal motifs) → attracts shoppers.

  • Supports captialism

• Endoskeleton frame (steel gerter framing), walls are decorative

• Window strips → glazing

• Elevator allowed for more stories

125. Mont Sainte-Victoire

• 1902–1904 CE

• Paul Cézanne

• Oil on canvas

---

• Horizontally divided composition

  • Cool blues/greys up top

  • Brights in the middle

  • Deep greens + browns at the bottom

• Post-impressionism: Bridge between Impressionism & Cubism.

  • Simplified/abstracted objects

  • Reality is constructed, not just seen

• Inspires Picasso to flatten his images

131. Goldfish

• 1912 CE

• Henri Matisse

• Oil on canvas

---

• Matisse claimed that the Moroccan people would daydream/look at goldfish “for hours” → romanticized primitivism (less civilization = better life)

• Matisse was Fauvist → post-Impressionist and Expressionist

  • Indicated by bright colors and contrast to intensify brightness

• Water and vegetation present are from Islamic influence

• Fish seen from two different angles, but are indistinguishable at the bird’s eye

• Table provides spacial ambiguity

• Color and pattern hold the composition together

138. Object (Le Déjeuner en fourrure)

• 1936 CE

• Meret Oppenheim

• Fur-covered cup, saucer, and sppon

---

• Idea was derived from the phenomenon of finding hair in food

  • As well as Picasso joking w/ Meret about covering anything with fur

• Dada/Surrealist combo → challenging reason + strange objects

• Causes weird overlap of touch and taste senses

  • Ordinary domestic objects made deeply uncomfortable

  • Texture turned something genteel into something sensual and animalistic

140. The Two Fridas

• 1939 CE

• Frida Kahlo

• Oil on canvas

---

• She didn’t consider herself a surrealist, as she just “painted her own reality.”

• Her works were created after a life-changing injury

• Costuming depicts her mother and father’s heritage (indigenous Mexican mother (right), Catholic European father(left))

• In the right Frida’s hand lies a portrait of her husband, Diego

• The right Frida’s heart is full, while the left’s is stripped

• The sky is tempestuous

• Cut off artery and blood on dress is a commentary on marriage

142. The Jungle

• 1943 CE

• Wifredo Lam

• Gouache on paper mounted on canvas

---

• Title was not applied by Cuban native Lam but by his significant other

• Depicts Afro-Cuban culture via surrealism → becomes tropical surrealism

• New way of depicting vegetation

  • The sugarcane and coffee leaves being intertwined with the figures may act as commentary on slavery →these were cash crops were harvested by Afro-Cubans

• Sexualized figures are a commentary on contemporary Havana prostitution

• Work is charged with potential meaning

• Human elements are completely abstracted

144. Fountain (second version)

• Dada movement → international reaction of disillusionment to WWI; this work particularly functioned to show the absurdity of the post war world.

• Inspired by Frued’s interpretation of “Dreams,” as well as a plumbing device showing

• Intentionally offensive by rejecting conventions of art

• Example of ready-made art (creating an idea but not a physical work)

• Work was widely rejected, and Duchamp eventually resigned from the board of the Independent Artists

• The name was changed from “Mott” to “Mutt” as a pop culture reference.