Art Movements Reviewer

Vocabulary flashcards covering the key art movements, their time periods, identifying visual characteristics, and associated artists based on the Art Movements Reviewer.

Renaissance Art

A European art movement from roughly the 14th to 16th centuries that revived interest in ancient Greek and Roman ideas and focused on human life, learning, and the natural world, characterized by realistic anatomy, perspective, and balanced compositions (e.g., Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo, Raphael).

Gothic Art

A medieval style developing from the 12th century, especially in churches and cathedrals, aiming to create a sense of height, light, and spirituality through tall pointed arches, soaring structures, and stained-glass windows (e.g., Chartres Cathedral, Notre-Dame de Paris).

Baroque

A 17th-century style known for drama and strong emotion, often used by churches and royal courts to impress viewers, featuring chiaroscuro, dynamic movement, dramatic gestures, and intense emotion (e.g., Caravaggio, Peter Paul Rubens, Gian Lorenzo Bernini).

Chiaroscuro

A technique featuring a strong contrast between light and dark, highlighted as a key visual characteristic of the Baroque movement.

Rococo

An 18th-century style that grew from Baroque but became lighter, more playful, and decorative, depicting aristocratic leisure through pastel colors, delicate details, curved forms, and romantic settings (e.g., Jean-Honoré Fragonard, François Boucher).

Neoclassicism

An 18th- to early 19th-century movement inspired by ancient Greek and Roman art, emphasizing order, reason, and civic virtue through clean lines, balanced composition, controlled emotion, classical columns, and idealized figures (e.g., Jacques-Louis David, Antonio Canova).

Impressionism

A 19th-century movement that captured the feeling of a moment, especially changing light and everyday outdoor scenes, using visible, loose brushstrokes, bright colors, and atmospheric effects (e.g., Claude Monet, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Edgar Degas).

Symbolism

A late 19th-century movement that used images and symbols to express ideas, dreams, emotions, or spiritual themes rather than reality, placing mood, imagination, and inner feelings over realistic detail (e.g., Odilon Redon, Gustave Moreau).

Art Nouveau

An international decorative art style from around 1890–1910 seen in architecture, posters, furniture, and design, featuring flowing, curving lines inspired by plants and flowers (e.g., Alphonse Mucha, Hector Guimard).

Cubism

An early 20th-century movement that broke objects into geometric shapes and depicted multiple viewpoints or angles simultaneously within flattened pictorial space (e.g., Pablo Picasso, Georges Braque).

Dadaism

An anti-establishment movement originating during World War I that questioned traditional ideas about art, logic, and society through absurdity, playful or shocking combinations, collage, found objects, and chance (e.g., Marcel Duchamp, Hannah Höch, Tristan Tzara).

Surrealism

A 20th-century movement influenced by dreams and the unconscious mind, presenting dreamlike scenes, unexpected combinations, and realistically painted objects placed in impossible or illogical situations (e.g., Salvador Dalí, René Magritte, Max Ernst).

Abstract Expressionism

A mid-20th-century movement, centered especially in the United States, that used abstraction, energetic brushwork, drips, or gestural marks on large canvases to communicate emotion and personal expression (e.g., Jackson Pollock, Mark Rothko, Willem de Kooning).

Pop Art

A mid-20th-century movement that incorporated images from popular culture, advertising, comics, and consumer products, characterized by bright colors, bold outlines, and repeated commercial imagery treated with humor or criticism (e.g., Andy Warhol, Roy Lichtenstein).