european art history review. classical (500 bc – 500 ad) left: roman copy of myron’s diskobolos,...

European Art History Review

Classical (500 BC – 500 AD)

Left: Roman copy of Myron’s Diskobolos, marble sculptureAbove: Pantheon, Rome, ca. 120 AD

Classical (500 BC – 500 AD)

• sculpture, pottery, murals, mosaics• subjects: gods, goddesses, important leaders,

everyday ppl. • idealized figures• nudity, togas• active bodies, emotionless faces• no perspective• architecture: columns, arches, domes

Medieval (500 – 1400 AD)

Left: Cimabue, Madonna and Child in Majesty, tempera paint on wooden panel, c. 1280

Above: Narthex Tympanum, sculpture, 1120


• stained-glass windows, sculptures, illuminated manuscripts, paintings, tapestries

• subject: Christianity• fully clothed• bright colors, gilding• 2-dimensional, flat, stiff• emotionless, no individualization


Above: Salisbury Cathedral, England, 1220-1320

GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE

Above: Notre Dame Cathedral, Paris, 1163-1345

Renaissance (1400 – 1650)

Above: Breaking ground: Giotto’s Last Supper, fresco, 1304-1306

Below: The High Renaissance: Leonardo da Vinci’s Last Supper, fresco, 1498


Raphael, School of Athens, fresco, 1510

Leonardo, Lady with an Ermine, oil on wood, 1483-1490

Renaissance (1400 – 1650)Left: Donatello’s David, bronze sculpture, 5.2 feet tall, ca. 1444-1446

Right: Michelangelo’s David, marble sculpture, 13.5 feet tall, ca. 1504


Bramante, Tempietto, San Pietro in Montorio, Rome, 1508

Northern Renaissance

Jan Van Eyck, The Betrothal of the Arnolfini, OIL on wood, 1434

Dürer, St. Anne with the Virgin and Child, oil and tempura on canvas, 1519


• painting, sculpture• classical revival• Christian + secular themes• portraiture• perspective• scientific naturalism (ex. drawing studies)• natural light

Baroque (17th c.)

Above: Bernini, Ecstasy of St. Teresa, marble sculpture, Rome, 1647-52Right: Rubens, Virgin and Child Enthroned with Saints, sketch for a large altar painting, ca. 1627-28

Baroque (17th c.)

• religious• emotional• dynamic movement• Product of Catholic Reformation & Counter-

Reformation … rekindle faith• propaganda – for CC and secular patrons (ex.

Louis XIV)

French classicism (late 17th c.)

Poussin, The Rape of the Sabine Women, oil on canvas, 1633-1634

French classicism (late 17th c.)

• official style of Louis XIV’s courtw• subject/style: Greco-Roman / Renaissance• discipline, balance, restraint

Rococo (18th c.)

Above: Fragonard, The Swing, oil on canvas, 1766Right: Fragonard, The Progress of Love: The Pursuit, oil on canvas, 1773

Rococo (18th c.)

Left: Basilica at Ottobeuren, Bavaria

Above: Meissonnier, design for a table, Paris, ca. 1730

Rococo (18th c.)

• French … reaction against the much heavier French classicism

• subjects: ornate interiors, sentimental portraits, starry-eyed lovers protected by hovering cupids

• soft pastels• decorative arts … used in urban townhouses,

Enlightenment salons

Neoclassicism (1750-1850)

David, The Death of Socrates, oil on canvas, 1787


David, The Lictors Bring to Brutus the Bodies of His Sons, oil on canvas, 1789


• Enlightenment era: order, reason, discipline• “new” classical (Greco-Roman themes & style)• smooth brushstrokes• spotlight lighting

Romanticism (1800-1850s)

Above: Caspar David Friedrich, Moonrise over the Sea, oil on canvas, 1821

Below: Joseph M.W. Turner, Shipwreck, oil on canvas, 1805


Delacroix, Liberty Leading the People, oil on canvas, 1830


• Reaction against Enlightenment: emotional• nature

– nature as peaceful or powerful– huge skies– man dwarfed by nature– romanticizes the rural life (anti-IR)

• soft, muted colors, natural light• other subjects: the macabre, the Gothic,

nationalism, heroes, family life, religion

Realism (1830s-1900)

Above: Millet, The Gleaners, oil on canvas, 1857Right: Kollwitz, The March of the Weavers, etching, 1897

Realism (1830s-1900)

• IR-era• hardships of daily life• natural lighting

Impressionism (1870s-1880s)

Monet, Bathing at La Grenouillere, oil on canvas, 1869


Renoir, Le Moulin de la Galette, oil on canvas, 1876

Pissarro, Boulevard Montmarte – at various times of day and in various

types of weather, 1897


• France• study of light – capture impression of

light• very obvious brushstrokes• modern painting grew out of a revolt

against French impressionism

Post-Impressionism & Expressionism

(late 19th – early 20th c.)

Van Gogh in 1889Above: Van Gogh's Room at Arles

Right: Wheat Fields and Cypress



GauginAbove: Tahitian Women OR On the Beach, 1891

Right: Self-Portrait with Halo, 1889



Cezanne, Mont Sainte-Victoire, paintings from late 1890s-early 1900s

Matisse, Portrait of Andre Derain, 1905

Matisse, The Jazz Series (cutouts), 1943-1944


(late 19th – early 20th c.)• followed the Impressionists and to some

extent rejected their ideas. They:– considered Impressionism too naturalistic– sought to explore emotion in painting

• Artists include: van Gogh, Gauguin, Cezanne, Seurat, Signac, and Toulouse-Lautrec

Cubism: Works by Picasso

Self-Portrait with Palette, 1906 Guitar and Violin, ca. 1912

Cubism

• Compositions of shapes and forms “abstracted” from the conventionally perceived world

• Picasso

More Expressionism – Extreme Abstraction

Kandinsky:Left: Improvisation 7, 1910Above: Black and Violet, 1923


Kandinsky, Composition X, 1939


• elimination of representational elements• Kandinsky saw abstractions as evolving

blueprints for a more enlightened and liberated society emphasizing spirituality

• Kandinsky & German Expressionist group, Der Blaue Reiter (The Blue Rider)

Dada (1916-1922)

Duchamp, L.H.O.O.Q. (Mona Lisa with Moustache), 1919

Dada (1916-1922)

• attacked all accepted standards of art and behavior … really anti-art

• “Dada” = “hobbyhorse” (nonsensical)• turned into Surrealism, which is an actual art

movement

Surrealism (1920s forward)

Joan Miró, Singing Fish


Dali, The Persistence of Memory, 1931


Dali, Lighted Giraffes, 1936-1937


Magritte, L’art de vivre, 1967


• By 1924, most Dada artists joined the Surrealist movement

• expresses the world of dreams and the unconscious; wanted to bring outer and inner “reality” into single position

• inspired by psychologists Freud and Jung• 2 groups:

– Biomorphic – abstract forms that suggest natural forms– Naturalistic – recognizable scenes metamorphosed into

dream image

european art history review. classical (500 bc – 500 ad) left: roman copy of myron’s diskobolos,...

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