Cave Art - 15 000 – 13 000 B.C.

Animals served as food sources that also may have had religious
significance. Influences: Materials in the area and the images in the nature. Toward the end of
Paleolithic period, 15 000 B.C., there was a major breakthrough. The human desire for self-expression
resulted to the invention of visual arts. Lines are concentrated but immensely expressive. The
combination of natural observation and abstraction can only be described as sophisticated.

Hall of the Bulls, France, 15 000 – 13 000 B.C. – the significance of the painting to the creators is they will
believe that they will gain control of the animals painted.

Egyptian Art - The most striking feature of Egyptian Culture is its unity and consistency. Due to its
resistance to change its art, in particular, remained conservative and rooted in the past. Their obsession
in immortality is their most striking characteristic. Artist primary function in the ancient period was
required to create visible forms of their gods so the people will be able to worship them.

Early Greek Art - The impression of the first 300 years of Greek art is largely based from painted
pottery. Painted vases were the major sources of information about artistic developments. The
decorated pots with abstract geometric designs did not have the quality of their literature; vividness
and realism.

Classical Greece - This was after Greece was colonized by the Macedonian and Romans. Order is
the pervading spirit of this period. It is calm and restrained. Clarity and balance is shown in the scenes of
violence. Classical Period had been produced for the state, with the result that the principal themes and
inspirations were religious and political. Start of growing interest in realism and emotion.

Hellenistic Period It was after the death of Alexander the Great. Alexander’s bold conquests
inspired the artists to be more adventurous and experimental. Chief Hellenistic characteristics were:
virtuosity and drama. The realistic portraiture dates to this period. Hellenistic artists allow themselves
to depict riotous confusions involving strong contrast of light and shade and the appearance of
perpetual motion.

Roman Period - The translation of Greek Style to new Roman forms. The discovery of the use of
physical appearance that can convey something about the character. Realistic details like the lines at the
corner of the eyes and mouth are used to express both outer appearances and inner character.

Late Roman Period - Classical Form and styles were increasingly abandoned. Realistic portraiture
were neglected. There is lack of perspective and precision. Emergence of Christianity brought an end to
the classical era.

Early Christianity - Bible contribution

Byzantine - Start of the waning of the power of Rome. Byzantium took after the downfall of Rome as
the center of culture. The blending of their political power with the Christian Church, so the church and
the state become a whole. Christianity becomes the official religion of the state. Their art was
otherworldly, formal and profoundly sacred. Art during this period was not merely decorative but
theology in color.

The Gothic Period - Barbaric or rude. Monstrous, barbarous and disastrous art. Light Mysticism
Renaissance - First period of the history to name itself. The artist were self-conscious, aware that
their artwork is different from that of the past. Renaissance means rebirth of the era they most admired:
“the Classical Period of Greek and Roman”. The age of painting.

Masaccio - Early Renaissance Artist. He used the continuous narrative voice.

Sandro Botticelli – he was fascinated with painting women
Michelangelo Simoni – established sculptor by the age of 25. Finished the Sistine Chapel.
Leonardo Da Vinci – embodies the term “Renaissance Man” the most. The greatest genius who
ever lived.

Baroque vs Renaissance
Renaissance is classic simplicity, stressed calm of reason and enlightenment.
Baroque – colors are more vivid with great contrast between colors and light and dark.
Michelangelo Caravaggio – Italian artist whose paintings combine a realistic observation of the
human state, both physical and emotional. Dramatic use of lighting which became influential during the
Baroque period. Realistic Naturalist.

Gian Lorenzo Bernini – Italian sculptor who likes to put light, smoke and water in his creations.
Dynamic, sometimes even theatrical. Taste for drama and overstatement, a flair for grand gesture.
Background in theater, in stage and scene design. Liked to incorporate light, smoke, and water in his
creations.

Jean – Antoine Watteau - His style reflects the joy and optimism of his period. Pursued themes of
amusement and interest.

Neoclassical Art - To bring back symmetry and simplicity of the Classical period. Artists of this time
became the great propagandist for the anti-aristocracy. Emotions are restrained, outlines are clear,
colors are cool, and figures have full-bodied muscularity. Works appear to the viewer’s reason, logic, and
high moral principles.
Jacques Louis David - Pioneer of the neoclassical period. He went against the corrupt aristocracy
in France. Most of his art are politically aware. Liberty, equality, fraternity, and participation by all levels
of society in the government and economy of France.

Romantic Period - The ideal was to stress drama, turbulent emotions, and complex composition.
Scenes of everyday life with emphasis on detail and texture. Influences: Understanding nature and
natural themes. First paintings done outdoors on location. Eugene Delacroix

Realist Movement - Sought to depict every day and the ordinary, rather than the heroic of the
exotic. Attempt to represent subject matter truthfully, without artificiality and avoiding artistic
conventions, implausible, exotic and supernatural elements. They emphasize on the mundane, ugly or
sordid. Their concerns were rooted in the present.

Impressionism - Attempted to paint what the eye actually sees, rather than what the brain
interprets from visual cues. Capturing the effects if light on objects. They were after the true visual
impression, not the version that is filtered through the knowing brain. They painted outside the studio
and painted street scenes. Paintings often associate the passing of time.

Claude Monet - Preferred to work outdoors, in day light. He expressed his perceptions of nature.
Tried to record the exact “impression” created by the light striking on the surface.

Paul Cezanne - Father of Post-Impressionism. Interested in the simplification of naturally occurring

forms to their geometric essentials. He treated nature by the cylinder, the sphere, the cone. His search
was for a solidity and a geometric order in the visual world. He felt that Impressionism needed more
substance, more solidity of form than could be found in optical perception of light.

Rococo Art – extension of the Baroque Style. French term of rocks and shell. It is more intimate
suitable for the aristocratic home.

Vincent Van Gogh – his work is characterized by intense, high key colors; loose brushwork, often
with a heavy impasto; a swirling, agitated composition, which contributed to the foundations of Modern
Art.

Paul Gaugin – influenced primitivism or borrowing from primitive art.

Fauvism – wild beast. Images painted in purely arbitrary colors, or colors unnatural of his subject.
Cubism – inclusion of non-traditional elements, merging of figure and ground, reflecting the
assumption that all proportions of the work participate in its expression and there is fragmenting of the
figures and other elements into flat planes.

Expressionism – early 20th century. Cultural movement to express the meaning of “being alive”.
Dadaism – a reaction against the unprecedented carnage of World War I. They believed that any
civilization that could tolerate such brutality must be swept away, and all institutions, including the
traditional art, along with it. Rejected logic, reason, and aestheticism of modern capitalism. Expressed
nonsense, irrationality, and anti-bourgeoisie protest works. Collage and Assemblage

Surrealism- An art based in the unconscious, often taking its subject matter and its imagery from
dreams to fantasies. Pure psychic automation by which one intends to express verbally, in writing, or by
other method, the real functioning of the mind. Allowed the unconscious to express itself. Illogical
scenes with photographic precision.

Abstract Expressionism - The act of creating art is what’s important. Non-objective art.
Pop Art - Exploration of the relationship between artistic expression and, celebrity culture, and
advertising. Pop Culture—everyone or anything deserves it’s 15 minutes of fame.