Renaissance The Renaissance (French:Renaissance "re-birth", Italian: "to be reborn") was a cultural movement that spanned the period roughly from the 14th to the 17th century, beginning in Italy in the Late Middle Ages and later spreading to the rest of Europe.
Fig 38. David, by Michelangelo www.wikipedia.org
Fig 39. Vitruvian Man by Leonardo da Vinci (1st century BC) www.wikipedia.org
o The Renaissance was a cultural movement that profoundly affected European intellectual life in the early modern period. Beginning in Italy, and spreading to the rest of Europe by the 16th century, its influence was felt in literature, philosophy, art, music, politics, science, religion, and other aspects of intellectual inquiry. o Renaissance scholars employed the humanist method in study, and searched for realism and human emotion in art.
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o Many of the Renaissance's greatest works were devoted to it, and the Church patronized many works of Renaissance art.
Fig 40. The Creation of Adam by Michelangelo www.wikipedia.org
Fig 41. Mona Lisa by Leonardo da Vinci www.wikipedia.org
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Baroque o The Baroque is often thought of as a period of artistic style that used exaggerated motion and clear, easily interpreted detail to produce drama, tension, exuberance, and grandeur in sculpture, painting, architecture, literature, dance, and music. o The style began around 1600 in Rome, Italy and spread to most of Europe. o The popularity and success of the Baroque style was encouraged by the Catholic Church, which had decided at the time of the Council of Trent, in response to the Protestant Reformation, that the arts should communicate religious themes in direct and emotional involvement.
Fig 42. The Triumph of the Immaculate by Paolo de Matteis www.wikipedia.org
Fig 44. Stanislas Kostka on his deathbed by Pierre Le Gros the Younger www.wikipedia.org
Fig 43. Bernini's Ecstasy of St. Teresa www.wikipedia.org
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Rococo o Rococo or "Late Baroque�, is an 18th-century artistic movement and style, affecting many aspects of the arts including painting, sculpture, architecture, interior design, decoration, literature, music, and theatre. o It developed in the early 18th century in Paris, France as a reaction against the grandeur, symmetry, and strict regulations of the Baroque, especially of the Palace of Versailles. o Rococo artists and architects used a more jocular, florid, and graceful approach to the Baroque. Their style was ornate and used light colours, asymmetrical designs, curves, and gold. Unlike the political Baroque, the Rococo had playful and witty themes. o The interior decoration of Rococo rooms was designed as a total work of art with elegant and ornate furniture, small sculptures, ornamental mirrors, and tapestry complementing architecture, reliefs, and wall paintings. The Rococo was also important in theatre.
Fig 45. The Rococo Basilica at Ottobeuren
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Fig 46. Pilgrimage on the Isle of Cythera (1717) by Antoine Watteau www.wikipedia.org
Fig 47. Jean-HonorĂŠ Fragonard, The Swing, 1767 www.wikipedia.org
Fig 48. Rococo mirror and stuccowork in Schloss Ludwigsburg www.wikipedia.org
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Romanticism o Romanticism was an artistic, literary, and intellectual movement that originated in Europe toward the end of the 18th century and in most areas was at its peak in the approximate period from 1800 to 1850. o Partly a reaction to the Industrial Revolution, it was also a revolt against the aristocratic social and political norms of the Age of Enlightenment and a reaction against the scientific rationalization of nature. o In the visual arts, Romanticism first showed itself in landscape painting.
Fig 49. Thomas Jones, The Bard, 1774 www.wikipedia.org
Fig 50. Ludwig van Beethoven by Joseph Karl Stieler, 1820 www.wikipedia.org
o Several romantic authors, such as Edgar Allan Poe and Nathaniel Hawthorne, based their writings on the supernatural/occult and human psychology.
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Fig 51. Henry Wallis, The Death of Chatterton 1856 www.wikipedia.org
Fig 52. Death of Sardanapalus, 1827 by Lord Byron www.wikipedia.org
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Realism Realism (or naturalism) in the arts is the attempt to represent subject matter truthfully, without artificiality and avoiding artistic conventions, implausible, exotic and supernatural elements. Realism has been prevalent in the arts at many periods, and is in large part a matter of technique and training, and the avoidance of stylization. In the visual arts, illusionistic realism is the accurate depiction of lifeforms, perspective, and the details of light and colour. The realism art movement in painting began in France in the 1850s, after the 1848 Revolution. The realist painters rejected Romanticism, which had come to dominate French literature and art, with roots in the late 18th century.
Fig 53. Bonjour, Monsieur Courbet, 1854. A by Gustave Courbet. www.wikipedia.org
Fig 54. Woodcutting, miniature from a set ofLabours of the Months by Simon Bening, c. 33 1550 www.wikipedia.org
 The accurate depiction of landscape in painting had also been developing in Early Netherlandish and Renaissance painting, and was then brought to a very high level in 17th-century Dutch Golden Age painting, with very subtle techniques for depicting a range of weather conditions and degrees of natural light.
Fig 55. Baptism of Christ, "Hand G" (Jan van Eyck?),Turin-Milan Hours (c. 1425) www.wikipedia.org
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Modern Art o Modern art includes artistic works produced during the period extending roughly from the 1860s to the 1970s, and denotes the style and philosophy of the art produced during that era. o The term is usually associated with art in which the traditions of the past have been thrown aside in a spirit of experimentation. o Modern artists experimented with new ways of seeing and with fresh ideas about the nature of materials and functions of art. A tendency away from the narrative, which was characteristic for the traditional arts, toward abstraction is characteristic of much modern art. More recent artistic production is often called Contemporary art or Post-modern art.
Fig 56. Édouard Manet, The Luncheon on the Grass (1863) www.wikipedia.org
Fig 57. Paul Cézanne, The Large Bathers(1898–1905) www.wikipedia.org
Among the movements which flowered in the first decade of the 20th century were Fauvism, Cubism, Expressionism, and Futurism.
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Fauvism Fauvism is the style of les Fauves (French for "the wild beasts"), a loose group of early twentieth-century Modern artists whose works emphasized painterly qualities and strong color over the representational or realistic values retained by Impressionism. While Fauvism as a style began around 1900 and continued beyond 1910, the movement as such lasted only a few years, 1904–1908, and had three exhibitions. The leaders of the movement were Henri Matisse and André Derain
Fig 58. Henri Matisse, Portrait of Madame Matisse (The Green Stripe), 1906 www.wikipedia.org
Fig 59. André Derain, Charing Cross Bridge, London, 1906 www.wikipedia.org
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Cubism Cubism is an early-20th-century avant-garde art movement that revolutionized European painting and sculpture, and inspired related movements in music, literature and architecture. Cubism has been considered the most influential art movement of the 20th century. The movement was pioneered by Georges Braque and Pablo Picasso, joined by Jean Metzinger, Albert Gleizes, Robert Delaunay,Henri Le Fauconnier, Fernand Léger and Juan Gris. In Cubist artwork, objects are analyzed, broken up and reassembled in an abstracted form—instead of depicting objects from one viewpoint, the artist depicts the subject from a multitude of viewpoints to represent the subject in a greater context.
Fig 60. Violin and Candlestick by Georges Braque, (1910) www.wikipedia.org
Fig 61. Les Demoiselles d'Avignon, by Pablo Picasso (1907) www.wikipedia.org
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Expressionism o Expressionism was a modernist movement, initially in poetry and painting, originating in Germany at the beginning of the 20th century. Its typical trait is to present the world solely from a subjective perspective, distorting it radically for emotional effect in order to evoke moods or ideas. o Expressionist artists sought to express meaning or emotional experience rather than physical reality. o Expressionism was developed as an avant-garde style before the First World War. It remained popular during the Weimar Republic, particularly in Berlin. The style extended to a wide range of the arts, including expressionist architecture, painting, literature, theatre, dance, film and music. o The Expressionist emphasis on individual perspective has been characterized as a reaction to positivism and other artistic styles such as Naturalism and Impressionism.
Fig 62. The Scream by Edvard Munch, 1893 www.wikipedia.org
Fig 63. The Large Blue Horses by Franz Marc (1911) www.wikipedia.org
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Futurism
o Futurism was an artistic and social movement that originated in Italy in the early 20th century. It emphasized and glorified themes associated with contemporary concepts of the future, including speed, technology, youth and violence, and objects such as the car, the aeroplane and the industrial city. o The Futurists practised in every medium of art, including painting, sculpture, ceramics, graphic design, industrial design, interior design, urban design, theatre, film, fashion, textiles,literature, music, architecture and even gastronomy. o Its members aimed to liberate Italy from the weight of its past, to glorify modernity. Important works include its seminal piece of the literature, Marinetti's Manifesto of Futurism, as well as Boccioni's sculpture, Unique Forms of Continuity in Space, and Balla's painting, Abstract Speed + Sound (pictured). o Futurism influenced art movements such as Art Deco, Constructivism, Surrealism, Dada, and to a greater degree, Precisionism, Rayonism, and Vorticism.
Fig 64. Giacomo Balla, Abstract Speed + Sound, 1913–1914 www.wikipedia.org
Fig 65. Umberto Boccioni, sketch of The City Rises (1910) www.wikipedia.org
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Dadaism Dadaism was an art movement of the European avant-garde in the early 20th century. Dada activities included public gatherings, demonstrations, and publication of art/literary journals; passionate coverage of art, politics, and culture were topics often discussed in a variety of media. It was a protest against the barbarism of the war and an oppressive intelluctual rigidity in both art and and everyday society. Its works were characterized by a deliberate irrationality and the rejection of the prevailing standards of art.
Fig 66. Harlequin's Carnival by Joan Miro www.miro.net
Fig 68. The Fountain by Duchamp in 1917 www.peterandjoan.edu
Fig 67. L H O O Q(1919) by Marcel Duchamp www.gwu.edu
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Surrealism Surrealism is a cultural movement that began in the early 1920s, and is best known for its visual artworks and writings. The aim was to "resolve the previously contradictory conditions of dream and reality." Artists painted unnerving, illogical scenes with photographic precision, created strange creatures from everyday objects and developed painting techniques that allowed the unconscious to express itself and/or an idea/concept. Surrealist works feature the element of surprise, unexpected juxtapositions and non sequitur; however, many Surrealist artists and writers regard their work as an expression of the philosophical movement first and foremost, with the works being an artifact. Leader AndrĂŠ Breton was explicit in his assertion that Surrealism was, above all, a revolutionary movement. Surrealism developed out of the Dada activities during World War I and the most important center of the movement was Paris.
Fig 69. Max Ernst, The Elephant Celebes (1921) www.wikipedia.org
Fig 70. Woman with Her Throat Cut, 1932 www.wikipedia.org
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Minimalism In the visual arts and music, minimalism is a style that uses pared-down design elements. Minimalism in the arts began in post–World War II Western Art, most strongly with American visual arts in the 1960s and early 1970s. Prominent artists associated with minimalism include Donald Judd, John McCracken, Agnes Martin, Dan Flavin, Robert Morris, Anne Truitt, and Frank Stella.It derives from the reductive aspects of Modernism and is often interpreted as a reaction against Abstract expressionism and a bridge to Postminimal art practices. Minimalism in music features repetition and iteration such as those of the compositions of La Monte Young, Terry Riley, Steve Reich,Philip Glass, and John Adams. The term "minimalist" often colloquially refers to anything that is spare or stripped to its essentials. Minimalist architecture became popular in the late 1980s in London and New York, where architects and fashion designers worked together in the boutiques to achieve simplicity, using white elements, cold lighting, large space with minimum objects and furniture. Minimalist architecture simplifies living space to reveal the essential quality of buildings and conveys simplicity in attitudes toward life.
Fig 71. The reconstruction of Ludwig Mies van der Rohe's German Pavilion in Barcelona www.wikipedia.org
Fig 72. Yves Klein, 1962,Monochrome painting. www.wikipedia.org
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Impressionism o Impressionism is a 19th-century art movement that originated with a group of Paris-based artists. o Impressionist painting characteristics include relatively small, thin, yet visible brush strokes, open composition, emphasis on accurate depiction of light in its changing qualities (often accentuating the effects of the passage of time), ordinary subject matter, inclusion of movement as a crucial element of human perception and experience, and unusual visual angles.
Fig 73. Claude Monet, Haystacks, (sunset), 1890–1891 www.wikipedia.org
Fig 75. Camille Pissarro, Hay Harvest at Éragny, 1901 www.wikipedia.org
Fig 74. Édouard Manet, The Luncheon on the Grass www.wikipedia.org
Fig 76. Edgar Degas, Dancer with a Bouquet of Flowers, 1878 www.wikipedia.org 43
Pop-Art o Pop art is an art movement that emerged in the mid-1950s in Britain and in the late 1950s in the United States. Pop art presented a challenge to traditions of fine art by including imagery from popular culture such as advertising, news, etc. o In pop art, material is sometimes visually removed from its known context, isolated, and/or combined with unrelated material. The concept of pop art refers not as much to the art itself as to the attitudes that led to it.
Fig 77. Richard Hamilton's collage Just what is it that makes today's homes so different, so appealing?(1956) www.wikipedia.org
Fig 78. Andy Warhol, Campbell's Tomato Juice Box, 1964) www.wikipedia.org
o Pop art employs aspects of mass culture, such as advertising, comic books and mundane cultural objects. It is widely interpreted as a reaction to the then-dominant ideas of abstract expressionism, as well as an expansion upon them.
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o Pop art and minimalism are considered to be art movements that precede postmodern art, or are some of the earliest examples of Post-modern Art themselves.
United Kingdom: The Independent Group o The Independent Group (IG), founded in London in 1952, is regarded as the precursor to the pop art movement. They were a gathering of young painters, sculptors, architects, writers and critics who were challenging prevailing modernist approaches to culture as well as traditional views of Fine Art. o The group discussions centered on popular culture implications from such elements as mass advertising, movies, product design, comic strips, science fiction and technology.
Fig 79. Eduardo Paolozzi. I was a Rich Man's Plaything (1947) www.wikipedia.org
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United States Although Pop Art began in the late 1950s, Pop Art in America was given its greatest impetus during the 1960s. Two important painters in the establishment of America's pop art vocabulary were Jasper Johns and Robert Rauschenberg.
Fig 80. Roy Lichtenstein's Drowning Girl (1963) www.wikipedia.org
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Op-Art Op art, also known as optical art, is a style of visual art that makes use of optical illusions. Op art works are abstract, with many of the better known pieces made in black and white. When the viewer looks at them, the impression is given of movement, hidden images, flashing and vibrations, patterns, or alternatively, of swelling or warping. Op Art (a term coined in 1964 by Time magazine) is a form of abstract art (specifically non-objective art) which relies on optical illusions in order to fool the eye of the viewer.
5.Fig 81. Movement in Squares, by Bridget Riley (1961) www.wikipedia.org
Fig 83. An optical illusion by the Hungarian-born artist Victor Vasarely in PĂŠcs. www.wikipedia.org
Fig 82. ntrinsic Harmony, by Richard Anuszkiewicz, (1965) www.wikipedia.org
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