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Painting: Western Painting Periods and Styles

Resources for ART 111, 123, 223

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Selected Art History Surveys

Gothic/Medieval (1150-1400)

The Arrest of Christ (Kiss of Judas), Giotto, c.1305-1306, tempera

Date: 500-1400 CE

Locations: Great Britain, France, Italy, Germany, Spain

Historical Events: Fall of the Roman Empire (476); Viking Raids (793–1066); Battle of Hastings (1066); Crusades I–IV (1095–1204); Black Death (1347–1351); Hundred Years’ War (1337–1453)

Characteristics: biblical subjects and classical mythology; darkness

Artists: St. Sernin, Durham Cathedral, Notre Dame, Chartres, Cimabue, Duccio, Giotto

Search Terms: Celtic art, Carolingian, Byzantine, Islamic painting, Romanesque, Gothic; illuminated manuscripts

Call Numbers:

  • ND137 -  Painting history - Early Christian 
  • ND137 - Medieval and modern paitning 
  • ND140-146 - Painting history - Medieval
  • ND453 - Painting-History-Europe -Medievl
  • N5315 Visual Arts - Ancient and medieval art
  • N5925 - Celtic art
  • N5950-6320 Medieval art

 

Italian Renaissance (1400-1600)

"Primavera," (1477-82) Sandro Botticelli, Uffizi

Early Renaissance (1400-1450)

High Renaissance (1480-1520)

Location: Italy 

Historical Events: Gutenberg invents movable type (1447); Turks conquer Constantinople (1453); Columbus lands in the Americas (1492); Martin Luther starts the Reformation (1517)

Characteristics: Rebirth of classical culture (Greek, Roman)

Artists: Brunelleschi, Donatello, Botticelli, da Vinci, Raphael, Michelangelo

Call Numbers:

  • ND170-172 - Painting History - Renaissance. 15th-16th centuries.

Northern Renaissance (1430-1580)

"Young Hare," (1502) Albrecht Dürer, watercolor and body color, Albertina (Vienna)

Date: 1430-1580

Locations: France, Germany, Switzerland, Austria, England

Historical Events: Gutenberg invents movable type (1447); Martin Luther starts the Protestant Reformation (1517); Council of Trent and Counter Reformation (1545-1563)

Characteristics: The Renaissance spreads northward; Rather than draw upon Classical Greek and Roman aesthetics, Northern artists retained a Gothic sensibility; noted for somber moods and darker psychological undertones; Humanism

Artists: Jan van Eyck, Albrecht Dürer, Hans Holbein, Hieronymus Bosch, Pieter Bruegel the Elder, Jean Fouquet

Mannerism (1520-1600)

"Christ healing the blind" (1570) El Greco, oil on canvas, The Met 

Date: 1520-1600

Locations: Italy

Historical Events: Magellan circumnavigates the globe (1520–1522)

Characteristics: Art that breaks the rules; artifice over nature; sometimes referred to as late Renaissance

Artists: Visari, Salviati, Beccafumi, Tintoretto, El Greco, Pontormo, Bronzino, Cellini

Baroque Art (1600-1750)

"The adolescent Bacchus," (1595-1597) Caravaggio Merisi, oil on canvas, Uffizi

Date: 1600-1750 CE

Locations: France, Italy, Netherlands

Historical Events: Thirty Years’ War between Catholics and Protestants (1618–1648)

Characteristics: Splendor and flourish for God; art as a weapon in the religious wars; ornate; grandeur; contrast of light and rich color palettes

Artists: Artemesia Gentileschi, Velazquez, Reubens, Rembrandt, Caravaggio, Rembrandt van Rijn, Vermeer

Search Terms: Dutch Golden Age; Flemish Baroque painting; Caravaggisti

Call Number: 

  • ND180-182 Painting - History- 17th cenutry
  • ND450-955 Painting - History - Europe

Rococo (1700-1775)

"The blue boy," (1770) Thomas Gainsborough, oil on canvas, Huntington Museum and Library (CA, USA)

Date: 1770-1775

Locations: France, northern Italy, southern Germany, Britain, Russia

Historical Events: Reign of Louis XV of France (1723-1759)

Characteristics: lightness and elegance; softer style of decorative art compared to the exuberance of Baroque; floral designs and use of gilt; exceptionally ornamental

Differences between Baroque and Rococo: Partial abandonment of symmetry, composition of graceful lines and asymmetrical curves; Chinese and Japanese motifs; warm pastels

Artists: Boucher, Watteau, Gainsborough, Jean-Baptiste Pater; Nicolas Lancret, van Loo family, Giovanni Tiepolo, 

 

Neoclassicism (1750-1880)

The Death of Marat, Jacques-Louis David, 1793, oil on canvas

Date: 1750-1850

Locations: France

Historical Events: Enlightenment (18th century); Industrial Revolution (1760–1850)

Characteristics: Art that recaptures Greco-Roman grace and grandeur; renewed interest in the classical ideals of harmony, simplicity, and proportion

Artists: David, Ingres, Greuze, Canova

 

Romanticism (1780-1850)

Wanderer above the Sea of Fog, Caspar David Friedrich, 1818, oil on canvas

Date: 1780-1850

Locations: Great Britain, Spain, France

Historical Events: American Revolution (1775–1783); French Revolution (1789–1799); Napoleon crowned emperor of France (1803)

Characteristics: The triumph of imagination and individuality; emotion

Artists: Caspar Friedrich, Gericault, Delacroix, Turner, Benjamin West, Goya, Blake, Fuseli

Search Terms: Nazaraene movement; Purismo; Dusseldorf school; Hudson River school; Luminism

Realism (1840-1880)

The Gleaners, Jean-François Millet, 1857, oil on canvas

Date: 1840-1880

Locations: Germany, France, USA

Historical Events: European democratic revolutions of 1848; Westward expansion of the Unites States, California Gold Rush (1849)

Characteristics: Celebrating working class and peasants; en plein air, rustic painting; detailed depiction of everyday life

Artists: Corot, Courbet, Daumier, Millet, Rossetti, Millais, Tarbell, Sloan, Luks

Search Terms: Hudson River School, Pre-Raphaelites, The Ten, Ashcan School

Impressionism (1870-1890)

Woman with a Parasol - Madame Monet and Her Son, Claude Monet, 1875, oil on canvas, National Gallery of Art, USA

Date: 1860-1890

Locations: France, Britain, USA 

Historical Events: Franco-Prussian War (1870–1871); Unification of Germany (1871)

Characteristics: Capturing fleeting effects of natural light

Artists: Monet, Manet, Renoir, Pissarro, Cassatt, Morisot, Degas

Search Terms: "en plein air",  neo-impressionism (pointillism)

Post-Impressionism (1885-1910)

"Country road by night in Provence," (1890) Vincent Van Gogh, Oil on canvas, Kroller Muller Museum, NE

Date: 1885-1910

Locations: France

Historical Events: Belle Époque (late-19th-century Golden Age); Japan defeats Russia (1905)

Characteristics: A soft revolt against Impressionism; personal, subjective, and symbolic visions of the world rather than direct observation

Artists: Van Gogh, Gauguin, Cézanne, Seurat, Toulouse-Lautrec

Art Nouveau (1890-1910)

Judith and the Head of Holofernes, Gustav Klimt, 1901, oil on canvas

Date: 1890-1910

Locations: Czech Republic, Austria, France, Spain

Characteristics: Organic ornamentation, long lines and curves

Artists: Gustav Klimt, Anotoni Gaudi, Alphonse Mucha

Search Terms: Vienna Secession, Mir iskusstva, Jugendstil, Modernisme (Spain)

Fauvism (1904-1908)

Portrait of Madame Matisse (The Green Stripe), Henri Matisse, 1906, oil on canvas

Date: 1905-1910

Locations: France

Historical Events: Boxer Rebellion in China (1900)

Characteristics: Use of bold, non-natural colors (often applied directly to the canvas from the tube), and loose dabs of paint. Subject forms are simplified appearing abstract. Flat composition. Built off the works of van Gogh and Seraut.

Artist keywords: Matisse, Derain, Rouault, de Vlaminck, Braque, Dufy

Expressionism (1905-1920)

The Scream, Edvard Munch, 1893, oil, tempura, pastel and crayon, National Gallery, Oslo

Date: 1905-1920

Locations: 

Historical Events: World War I (1914-1918); Russian Revolution (1917)

Characteristics: Distortion of form, strong use of color; emerged as a response to conflicting world views and the loss of spirituality; use of distortion of form and strong colors to convey emotions and anxieties; quest for authenticity beyond Western art heavily influenced by "tribal art."

Artists: Edvard Munch, Wassily Kandinsky, Egon Shiele; Emil Nolde, Kirchner, Gros, Otto Dix

Search Terms: Die Brucke; Der Blaude Reiter; Neue Sachlichkeit

Cubism (1907-1920)

Les Demoiselles d'Avignon, Pablo Picasso, 1907, oil on canvas

Date: 1907- 1920s

Locations: France

Historical Events: ; World War I (1914-1918); Russian Revolution (1917); Suffrage of American women (1920)

Characteristics: Abstract, flat, two-dimensional surfaces; geometric forms, contrasting vantage points; rejection of the concept that art should copy nature; moved away from traditional techniques and perspectives creating fragmentation and abstraction

Artists: Picasso, Braque, Delaunay, Gris, Metzinger, Gleizes, Leger 

Search Terms: Section d'OR

Dada/Surrealism (1917-1950)

The Disquieting Muses, Giorgio de Chirico, 1918, oil on canvas

Date:

Locations:

Historical Events: Disillusionment after World War I; The Great Depression (1929–1938); World War II (1939–1945) and Nazi horrors; atomic bombs dropped on Japan (1945)

Characteristics: painting dreams and exploring the unconscious; denunciation of rationalist mindset; tapping into the subconscious and exploration of psychoanalysis theories developed by Sigmund Freud.

Artists: Duchamp, Dalí, Ernst, Magritte, de Chirico, Kahlo

Abstract Expressionism (1940-1950s)

"One: Number 31, 1950" (1950) Jackson Pollock, oil and enamel paint on canvas, MoMA

Date: 1940-1960

Location: New York/USA

Historical Events: Cold War and Vietnam War (U.S. enters 1965); U.S.S.R. suppresses Hungarian revolt (1956) Czechoslovakian revolt (1968)

Characteristics: Post–World War II: pure abstraction and expression without form; spontaneity and improvisation; complete break with the conventional.

Artists: Pollock, de Kooning, Gorky, Rothko, Newman, Still, Jasper Johns, Rauschenberg

Search Terms: color field painting, actin painters, New York School

Op Art (1950-1960s)

"Blaze," (1964) Bridget Riley, National Galleries Scotland

Dates: 1950-1960s

Locations: France

Historical Events: Cold War and Vietnam War (U.S. enters 1965); U.S.S.R. suppresses Hungarian revolt (1956) Czechoslovakian revolt (1968)

Characteristics: Interested in optical effects; Creating images that appear to be moving or blurring by using contrasts of colors, patterns, and shapes; Inspired by advances in science and technology

Artists: Bridget Riley, Jean-Pierre Yvaral, Victor Vasarely

 

 

Pop Art (1950-1970)

F -111 [detail], James Rosenquist, 1964, oil on canvas with aluminum, twenty-three sections

Date: 1950-1970

Locations: USA, UK

Historical Events: Vietnam War, rise of Communism, economic and political growth of the USA, Cold War, social upheaval in the USA

Characteristics: popular art absorbs consumerism; art inspired by and critiquing popular and commercial culture

Artists: Warhol, Lichtenstein, Hamilton, Rosenquist, Rauschenberg, Oldenburg 

Search Terms: popular culture AND art; mass-production AND art

Minimalism (1960-1970)

Hyena Stomp, Frank Stella, 1962, alkyd paint on canvas

Date: 1960

Locations: New York / USA

Characteristics: Reaction against the overly expressive works of Abstract Expressionists artists; Focus on anonymity and materiality of works; artists urged viewers to focus on what is in front on them rather than draw parallels to ouside reality and emotive throughts; purified forms, order, simplicity, and harmony.

Artists: Frank Stella, Donald Judd, Sol LeWitt, Robert Morris, Carl Andre, Dan Flavin

Conceptual Art (1960-1970)

"Corner Piece No.2" (2001) Sol LeWitt

Date: 1960-1970

Locations: Simultaneous across Europe, North and South America

Historical Events: Nuclear freeze movement; Cold War fizzles

Characteristics: "In the 1960s, many artists experimented with art that emphasized ideas over objects and materials traditionally associated with art making. In 1967, Sol LeWitt wrote in his essay “Paragraphs on Conceptual Art” that “the idea itself, even if it is not made visual, is as much of a work of art as any finished product.” Conceptual artists used their work to question the notion of what art is, and to critique the underlying ideological structures of artistic production, distribution, and display." -- MoMA; Conceptual art is art for which the idea (or concept) behind the work is more important than the finished art object. 

Artists: Baldessari, Robert Morris, Sol LeWitt, Joseph Kosuth, 

 

Contemporary Art (1970-present)

"Betty," (1988) Gerhard Richter, oil on canvas, Saint Louis Art Museum.

Date: 1980-Present

Locations: International

Historical Events: Nuclear freeze movement; Cold War fizzles; Communism collapses in Eastern Europe and U.S.S.R. (1989–1991), Iraq wars, climate change, rise of populism and autocracies

Characteristics: "Contemporary art is the art of today, produced in the second half of the 20th century or in the 21st century. Contemporary artists work in a globally influenced, culturally diverse, and technologically advancing world." - Google Arts & Culture

Artists: Jeff Koons, Barbara Kruger, Claes Oldenburg

Search Terms: Postmodernism; Feminist art; Neo Expressionism; Street art; Pictures Generation; Appropriation art; Young British Artists (YBA); Digital art

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