GE 6: ART APPRECIATION A.

L Pericon

Module 2: History of Art

PRE-HISTORIC ART

In the history of art, prehistoric art is all art produced in preliterate, prehistorical cultures beginning
somewhere in very very late geological history, and generally continuing until that culture either develops
writing or other methods of record-keeping or makes significant contact with other culture that has made
some record of major historical events. The earliest artifacts showing evidence of workmanship with an
artistic purpose existed 40,000 years ago.

ANCIENT ART

Refers to the many types of art produced by the advanced cultures of ancient societies with some form of
writing, such as those of ancient China, India, Mesopotamia, Persia, Palestine, Egypt, Greece, and Rome.

MEDIEVAL ART

The medieval period of art history spans from the fall of the Roman Empire in 300 AD to the beginning of the
Renaissance in 1400 AD. In the Middle Ages, art evolves as humans continue addressing the traditional and
the new, including Biblical subjects, Christian dogma, and classical mythology. This article introduces a few
concepts of three periods – Early Christian, Romanesque, and Gothic.

RENAISSANCE ART

Painting, sculpture, architecture, music, and literature were produced during the 14th, 15th, and 16th
centuries in Europe under the combined influences of an increased awareness of nature, a revival of
classical learning, and a more individualistic view of man.

Scholars no longer believe that the Renaissance marked an abrupt break with medieval values as is
suggested by the French word renaissance, literally “rebirth”.

MANNERISM

The term mannerism comes from the Italian word “maniera” referring to personal style, the term was
derived from mano, meaning hand, because style was considered inseparable from personal touch,
or hand of the artist. It was almost a hundred years after its introduction that the term maniera was
first applied to describe this period the style of art, and at the time it was not meant as a compliment.
Instead it implied, that these artists had valued style over substance, indulging personal quirks at the
expense of the universal vision of the High Renaissance.
Also known as Late Renaissance
Known artist Da Vinci, Michaelangelo, and Raphael

Baroque and Rococo

Baroque and late Baroque or Rococo are loosely defined terms, generally applied by common
consent to European art of the period from the early 17th century to the mid-18th century.
Baroque was first undisguised term of abuse, probably derived from the Italian word, barocco, which
was a term used by philosophers during the middle ages to describe an obstacle in schematic logic.
Subsequently, this became a description for any contorted idea or involuted process of thought.
The derivation of the word Rococo is equally uncertain, though its source is most probably to be
found in the French word rocaille used to describe shell and pebble in the 16th century.

ROCCO

An ornamental and theatrical style of architecture, art, and decoration which combines asymmetry, scrolling
curves, gliding white and pastel colors, sculpted molding, and frescoes to create surprise and the illusion of
motion and drama. It was known as style rocaille (Hopkins, 2014)
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Neoclassicism Romanticism

was a Western cultural movement in the decorative attitude or intellectual orientation that characterizes
and visual arts, literature, theatre, music, and many works of literature, painting, music,
architecture that drew inspiration from the art and architecture, criticism, and historiography in Western
culture of classical antiquity. civilization over a period from the late 18th to the
mid-19th century. Romanticism can be seen as a
Neoclassicism was born in Rome. The main rejection of the precepts of order, calm, harmony,
neoclassical movement coincided with the 18th balance idealization, and the rationality that typified
century Age of Enlightenment and continued to the Classicism in general and late 18th-century
early 19th, 20th, and up to 21st century. Neoclassicism in particular. It was also to some
extent a reaction against the Enlightenment and
against 18th-century rationalism and physical
materialism in general.

Emphasized the individual, the subjective, the

Realism Impressionism

Sometimes called naturalism, in the arts is generally Is a 19th-century art movement characterized by
the attempt to present the subject truthfully, without relatively small, thin, yet visible brush strokes, open
artificiality, and avoiding speculative fiction and composition, emphasis on the accurate depiction of
supernatural elements. Realism has been prevalent light in its changing qualities often accentuating the
in the arts for many periods and can be in large part effects of the passage of time, ordinary subject
a matter of technique and training and the avoidance matter, the inclusion of movement as a crucial
of stylization. element of human perception and experience, and
unusual visual angles? It originated with a group of
In the visual arts, illusionistic realism is the accurate Paris based artists whose independent exhibitions
depiction of life forms, perspective, and the details of brought them to prominence during the 1870s and
light and color. But realist or naturalist works of art 1880s.
may, as well, or instead of illusionist realism be
“realist” in their subject matter, and emphasize the
mundane, ugly, or sordid.

Began in France in the 1850s after the 1848

Realism, sometimes called naturalism, in the arts is

Post-Impressionism Neo-Impressionism

Is a predominantly French art movement that The term Neo–Impressionism refers to a pictorial
developed roughly between 1886 and 1905, from the technique where color pigments are no longer mixed
last Impressionist exhibition to the birth of Fauvism. either on the palette or directly on the canvas, but
Post-Impressionism emerged as a reaction against instead placed as small dots side by side. The
Impressionist concern for the naturalistic depiction of mixing of colors takes place from a suitable distance,
light and color. The Impressionist movement is led by in the observer’s eye as an optical mixture.
Paul Cezanne (father of post-impressionism), Paul
Gauguin, Vincent van Gogh, and Georges Seurat. Georges Seurat founded Neo-Impressionism.
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Symbolism Art Noveau

Symbolism was a late 19th-century movement Between 1890 and 1910, countries from Europe and
whose artists communicated ideas through symbols the United States witnessed the emergence and
instead of bluntly depicting reality. It was created as flourishing of a new art style. This ornamental style
a reaction to art movements that depicted the natural of art was a break from conservative historicism,
world realistically such as Impressionism, Realism, which was the prevailing and dominant theme of
and Naturalism. most Western artworks.

An art movement of French, Russian, and Belgian

Fauvism Expressionism

This is a style of painting that emerged in France Is a modernist movement that originated in Germany
around the turn of the 20th century. What makes at the beginning of the 20th century. Its typical trait is
Fauvists revolutionary is that they used pure vibrant to present the world solely from a subjective
colors by applying straight from the paint tubes perspective, distorting it radically for emotional effect
directly to the canvas. in order to evoke moods or ideas. Expressionist
artists have sought to express the meaning of
emotional experience rather than physical reality.

Cubism Futurism

Between 1907 and 1914 French artists Pablo It is an early 20th-century art movement that started
Picasso and Georges Braque introduced new visual in Italy, and highlighted the speed, energy
arts style called cubism. This style would later on dynamism, and power of machines. In addition,
have a huge influence on artists during the 20th common themes for works in this movement are
century. Cubists highlighted the two-dimensional restlessness and the fast–paced of modern life.
surface of the picture plane.