0b. History of art

Classic Art: 500 BC – 400 AD

Focuses on harmony, balance, and the idealized human form, driven by Greek democracy and Roman imperial expansion. Key works include Polykleitos's Doryphoros and the Laocoön sculpture.

Medieval & Byzantine Art: 400 – 1400

Shunted realistic anatomy aside for flat, gold-heavy religious symbolism to focus minds on the spiritual world, backed by the political power of the Catholic Church.

The Renaissance: 1400 – 1600

A rebirth of classical ideals paired with scientific discovery, linear perspective, and humanism in Italian city-states. Key works include Leonardo's Mona Lisa and Michelangelo's David.

Baroque Art: 1600 – 1750

Championed high drama, tension, and intense chiaroscuro contrast to stir up religious fervor during the Catholic Counter-Reformation. Anchored by Caravaggio, Bernini, and Rembrandt.

Neoclassicism: 1750 – 1850

Looked back to Greece and Rome to champion civic duty, rational order, and clean lines as the visual style of the Enlightenment and French Revolution. Exemplified by David's The Oath of the Horatii.

Romanticism: 1750 – 1850

Rebelled against Enlightenment logic and industrialization to celebrate raw emotion, individualism, and the terrifying beauty of nature. Anchored by Friedrich and Turner.

Realism: 1840 – 1880

Rejected grand drama to paint ordinary, working-class people and everyday grit exactly as it was, influenced by early photography and socialism. Key works include Courbet's A Burial at Ornans.

Impressionism: 1872 – 1910

Moved outdoors (en plein air) to capture the fleeting optical effects of light and color using rapid, visible brushstrokes. Launched by Monet's Impression, Sunrise.

Post-Impressionism: 1872 – 1910

Took the free brushwork of Impressionism and pushed it toward subjective, unnatural colors and distorted forms to express psychological depth, as seen in Van Gogh's The Starry Night.

The Avant-Garde Explosion: 1905 – 1945

Shattered traditional representation following the trauma of WWI; included Cubism (deconstructing space), Dadaism (anti-art absurdity), and Surrealism (dreamscapes like Dalí's The Persistence of Memory).

Abstract Expressionism: 1945 – 1970

Shifted the art capital to New York after WWII, abandoning recognizable subjects for pure, individualistic emotional gesture on massive canvases, pioneered by Pollock and Rothko.

Pop Art: 1945 – 1970

Reacted against high-brow abstraction by using commercial printing and mass-media imagery to ironize and celebrate consumer culture, epitomized by Warhol's Marilyn Diptych.

Contemporary Art: 1970 – Present

A global, decentralized era defined by the idea that anything can be art, emphasizing conceptual meaning, institutional critique, and pluralism over traditional physical materials