COLOR IN ART HISTORY JosĂŠ Luis CAIVANO caivano@fadu.uba.ar
University of Buenos Aires and National Council for Research Argentine Color Group
circa 20 000 BC - Bison, Altamira cave, Spain
2660 BC - Ur, Mesopotamian memorial plate
Egypt - glazed brick lion from the wall of Nebuchadnezzar’s palace
Egypt one of the first major civilizations to codify design elements in art. The wall paintings followed a rigid code of visual rules and meanings.
circa 2500 BC - Egypt hippopotamus hunt, Tomb of Ti, Saqqarah
Egypt circa 1300 BC bust of Nephertiti polychrome sculpture
Greece red and black pottery 500 BC
chryselephantine sculptures Greece, 5th century BC polychromy with the use of different materials
chryselephantine sculptures Greece Athena Parthenos Phidias, circa 440 BC polychromy with the use of different materials
circa 500 BC Greece, polychrome painted sculpture (reconstruction)
circa 80 BC Pompeii, wall painting in a villa
1st century Rome, polychrome painted sculpture
1st century Rome, polychrome sculpture
medieval polychrome sculpture
12th century Byzantin mosaic
circa 1100 medieval stained glass windows
circa 1140 Cathedral of St. Denis medieval stained glass windows
Medieval painting
circa 1285 Cimabue Madonna and child image and color codified representation
Medieval painting
1340 Pietro Lorenzetti Madonna and child codified blue on the Virgin
circa 1300 miniature painting, manuscript
circa 1400 illuminated manuscripts
1325 Giotto Last supper errors in perspective (parallel lines do not met in a vanishing point)
Renaissance
codified blue on the Virgin correct perspective with central vanishing point for parallel lines
before 1470 - Botticelli, Madonna and child
Renaissance
circa 1439 Jan van Eyck Madonna and child early stages of aerial perspective
Renaissance
circa 1474 Piero della Francesca Federico da Montefeltro aerial perspective
Renaissance
circa 1490 Jean Hay Margaret of Austria aerial perspective
Renaissance
circa 1495 Lorenzo di Credi Annunciation aerial perspective
High Renaissance
circa 1510 Raphael Madonna
High Renaissance
1510 Leonardo Virgin and child with St. Anne developed stage of aerial perspective
Manierism
circa 1530 Parmigianino Madonna and child developed stage of aerial perspective; starting of chiaroscuro
1598 - Federico Barocci, Aeneas flees burning Troy
Baroque
1606 - Caravaggio, St. Jerome - chiaroscuro
Baroque
circa 1609 Rubens, Samson and Delilah - chiaroscuro
Baroque
1640 Georges de la Tour St. Joseph, the carpenter chiaroscuro
Baroque
17th century trompe l’oeil in mural painting perspective and illussions of 3D space
1767 Tiepolo ceiling in Villa Pisani
1648 - Nicolas Poussin, Holy family - 3 primary colors
Neoclassicism
1784 - Jacques-L. David, Oath of the Horatii
Romanticism
1822 - Delacroix, The barque of Dante
1835 - William Turner, The burning of the Houses of Lords‌
circa 1835 - William Turner, Surge of sea in a storm
circa 1845 - William Turner, Europe and the bull
Chevreul The principles of harmony and contrast of colors “Two adjacent colours, when seen by the eye, will appear as dissimilar as possible.� influence on impressionist painters
1886 - Georges Seurat, La grande jatte - pointillism
1887 - Georges Seurat, Sitting model - pointillism
1888 - Georges Seurat, The dock of Port-en-Bessin with hight tide – pointillism, divisionism, partitive color mixture
1887 Vincent Van Gogh, Interior of a restaurant - pointillism
1887 Vincent Van Gogh Self portrait
Impressionism
1892-1894 Monet, Cathedral of Rouen
1904 Henri Matisse, Light, calm and voluptuous
Fauvism
1905 Henri Matisse, Portrait of Madame Matisse arbitrary use of color
Fauvism
1906 AndrĂŠ Derian pure colors without mixing, painting withouth shades or nuances, subjective representation
Abstraction
1913 - Kandisnky, Composition Nr. 4
Abstraction suprematism
1915 Malevich Black square
Abstraction suprematism
Malevitch White on white
Ostwald, Harmonie der Farben (Harmony of colors) influences on Paul Klee and the neoplasticist painters (De Stijl), including Mondrian
Abstraction
1929 Paul Klee Fire in the evening
Abstraction neoplasticism De Stijl
1921 Piet Mondrian Composition
Abstraction neoplasticism De Stijl
1942 Piet Mondrian Brodway boogie boogie
Abstraction
1926 Josef Albers Structure in blue sandblasted glass
1950 Henri Matisse, Zulma gouache on paper cut-out use of plane color
1950-1960 - Yves Klein – monochrome paintings
conceptual art
1950-1960 Yves Klein monochrome paintings IKB
(International Klein Blue)
reminiscent of the lapis lazuli used to paint the Madonna's robes in medieval paintings
Yves Klein – anthropometries – using the human body to paint
color field painting abstract expressionism Keneth Noland 1958
Clyfford Still 1957
1960 Mark Rothko Red over black on red
abstract expressionism 1960’s - Jackson Pollock
Pop art reminiscent of comics
1965 Roy Lichtenstein Head with black shadow
cinetic art
1960-1990 Jesus Soto light, color, space, moires, interferences
cinetic art
1960-2000 Carlos Cruz Diez light, color, space, moires, interferences
Association Internationale de la Couleur International Color Association Internationale Vereinigung f端r die Farbe
www.aic-color.org