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:
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"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:
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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 |
"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 |
"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:
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"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,
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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
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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 |
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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 |
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) |
"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 |
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) |
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 |
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 |
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 |
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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 |
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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 |
"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
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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 |
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 |
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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,
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"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 |