History of art
History of art |
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The history of art focuses on objects made by humans for any number of spiritual, narrative, philosophical, symbolic, conceptual, documentary, decorative, and even functional and other purposes, but with a primary emphasis on its aesthetic visual form. Visual art can be classified in diverse ways, such as separating fine arts from applied arts; inclusively focusing on human creativity; or focusing on different media such as architecture, sculpture, painting, film, photography, and graphic arts. In recent years, technological advances have led to video art, computer art, performance art, animation, television, and videogames.
The history of art is often told as a chronology of masterpieces created during each civilization. It can thus be framed as a story of high culture, epitomized by the Wonders of the World. On the other hand, vernacular art expressions can also be integrated into art historical narratives, referred to as folk arts or craft. The more closely that an art historian engages with these latter forms of low culture, the more likely it is that they will identify their work as examining visual culture or material culture, or as contributing to fields related to art history, such as anthropology or archaeology. In the latter cases, art objects may be referred to as archeological artifacts.
Prehistory
Prehistoric art includes a broad range of art made by painters and sculptors from illiterate cultures, including some of the earliest human artifacts. Among the first art objects are decorative artifacts from Middle Stone Age Africa.[1][2][3] Containers from that period have also been discovered in South Africa that may have been used to hold paints dating as far back as 100,000 years ago.[4]
A form of prehistoric art found all over the world, especially in Europe, small prehistoric statuettes known as Venus figurines with exaggerated breasts and bellies were made, the most famous ones being the Venus of Hohle Fels and the Venus of Willendorf, found in Germany and Austria. Most have small heads, wide hips, and legs that taper to a point. Arms and feet are often absent, and the head is usually small and faceless.
The Venus of Hohle Fels is one of the numerous objects found at the Caves and Ice Age Art in the Swabian Jura UNESCO World Heritage Site, where the oldest non-stationary works of human art yet discovered were found, in the form of carved animal and humanoid figurines, in addition to the oldest musical instruments unearthed so far, with the artifacts dating between 43,000 and 35,000 BC.[5][6][7][8]
The best-known prehistoric artworks are the large Paleolithic cave paintings that depict animals in continental Europe, particularly the ones at Lascaux in the Dordogne region of France. Several hundred decorated caves are known, spanning the Upper Paleolithic period (c. 38,000–12,000 BC). There are examples in Ukraine, Italy and Great Britain, but most of them are in France and Spain. Many theories have been suggested about the art's purpose, the most accepted being that it was part of religious rituals, possibly to evoke hunting success.
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Giant deer bone of Einhornhöhlec. 49,000 BC; Megaloceros bone; Einhornhöhle, Germany
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Painting of rhinoceroses; c. 32,000–14,000 BC; charcoal on rock; length: c. 2 m; Chauvet Cave (Ardèche, France)[9]
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Venus of Willendorf; c. 25,000 BC; limestone with ochre colouring; height: 11 cm; Natural History Museum (Vienna, Austria)[10]
Antiquity
Ancient Near East
Ancient
The political, economic, artistic and architectural traditions of the Sumerians lead to the foundation of Western civilization. Multiple things appeared for the first time in Sumer: the first city-state (Uruk), ruled by king Gilgamesh; the first organized religion, based on a hierarchical structure of gods, people and rituals; the first known writing, the cuneiforms; the first irrigation system and the first vehicles with wheels. Cylinder seals appeared here as well, engraved with little inscriptions and illustrations. Another civilization that developed here was the Akkadian Empire, the world's first great empire.
During the early 1st millennium BC, after the Akkadians, an empire called Assyria came to dominate the whole of Middle East, stretching from the Persian Gulf to the Mediterranean Sea. Its cities were filled with impressive buildings and art. Assyrian art is best known for its detailed stone reliefs, depicting scenes of court life, religious practice, hunting and epic battles. These reliefs were initially painted in bright colours and placed in palaces. Besides their beauty, they also show us Assyrian life and views of the world, including Assyrian clothing and furniture.
Later, the
In the mid-6th century BC, after a series of military campaigns, the Babylonian Empire fell to the
Besides Mesopotamia and Iran, there were Ancient civilizations who produced art and architecture in other regions as well. In
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Standard of Ur (Sumerian); c.2600-2400 BC; shell, red limestone and lapis lazuli on wood; length: 49.5 cm; British Museum (London)[14]
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Stag rhyton (Hittite); c.1400-1200 BC; silver with gold inlay; height: 13 cm; Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York City)[15]
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Incense burner (Pre-Islamic South Arabian); c. mid-1st millennium BC; bronze; height: 27.6 cm; Metropolitan Museum of Art[16]
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Delegation bearing gifts (Persian Achaemenid); c.490 BC; limestone; c.260 x 150 cm; in situ, Persepolis (Iran)[18]
Egypt
One of the first great civilizations arose in Egypt, which had elaborate and complex works of art produced by professional artists and craftspeople. Egypt's art was religious and symbolic. Given that the culture had a highly centralized power structure and hierarchy, a great deal of art was created to honour the pharaoh, including great monuments. Egyptian art and culture emphasized the religious concept of immortality. Later Egyptian art includes Coptic and Byzantine art.
The
.Painting of the Egyptian era used a juxtaposition of overlapping planes. The images were represented hierarchically, i.e., the Pharaoh is larger than the common subjects or enemies depicted at his side. Egyptians painted the outline of the head and limbs in profile, while the torso, hands, and eyes were painted from the front.
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Nebamun Hunting in the Marshes; c. 1380 BC; paint on plaster; 98 × 83 cm; British Museum (London)[20]
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Akhenaten and Nefertiti with Daughters; c.1345 BC; painted limestone; 32.5 x 39 cm; Egyptian Museum of Berlin (Germany)[21]
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Mask of Tutankhamun; c. 1327 BC; gold, glass and semi-precious stones; height: 54 cm; Egyptian Museum (Cairo)
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Temple ofPhilae (Egypt), 380 BC-117 AD[23]
Indus Valley Civilization
Discovered in 1922, long after the contemporary cultures of Mesopotamia and Egypt, the Indus Valley Civilization, aka the Harappan Civilization (c. 2400–1900 BC) is now recognized as extraordinarily advanced, comparable in some ways with those cultures. Its sites span an area stretching from today's northeast
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Seals withsteatite; various sizes, mostly c.3 cm; British Museum (London)[25]
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Proto-Shiva Stamp Seal; c. 2400-1900 BC; steatite; height: 3.6 cm; National Museum (New Delhi)[24]
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Seal with two-horned bull and inscription; c. 2010 BC; steatite; overall: 3.2 × 3.2 cm; Cleveland Museum of Art (Cleveland, Ohio, US)
China
The first metal objects produced in China were made almost 4000 years ago, during the
One of the most commonly used motifs was the taotie, a stylized face divided centrally into two almost mirror-image halves, with nostrils, eyes, eyebrows, jaws, cheeks and horns, surrounded by incised patterns. Whether taotie represented real, mythological or wholly imaginary creatures cannot be determined.
The enigmatic bronzes of
Succeeding the Shang Dynasty
The Warring States period was ended by
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Bronze water vessel with coiling dragon pattern, late Shang dynasty (c. 14th – mid-11th century BC)
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Rectangular cauldron; 12th–11th century BCE; bronze; Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York City)
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Bronze rhinoceros-shaped wine vessel, 11th century BCE
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Altar set; late 11th century BCE; bronze; Metropolitan Museum of Art
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Drum with and Bird and Tiger Frame, Chu (state) Lacquerware , 8th century BC
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AShang dynasty vessel made of bronze, used to preserve drink; 2nd millennium BC
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"Strongman", from The Acrobats series. Mausoleum of the First Qin Emperor, 210 BCE.
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Lacquer phoenix dou,State of Chuc. 5th Century BCE
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Lacquer dou-vessel from the Tomb of Marquis Yi of Zeng c. 433 BCE
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Lacquerware box from the Jingmen Tomb (荊門楚墓; Jīngmén chǔ mù) of the State of Chu (704–223 BC)
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Openwork lacquered screen with animal designs, Warring States period (c. 4th century BCE)
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Western Han tomb fresco depicting the philosopher Confucius; c. 1st century BCE; from Dongping County, Shandong
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Animalistic guardian spirits of midnight and morning wearingChinese robes, Han dynasty (202 BCE – 220 CE) on ceramic tile
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Two-dragon ring, early Shang dynasty (2nd millennium BCE)
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Jade Openwork Disk, Nanyue (c. 2nd century BCE)
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Qin dynasty twin bronze dragons, found near the Mausoleum of the First Qin Emperor.
Greek
Through harmonious proportion and a focus on aesthetics, ancient Greek and Roman art became the foundation and inspiration of all Western art, being the standard to which most European artists aspired, until the 19th century.[30] The Latin poet Horace, writing in the age of Roman emperor Augustus (1st century BC to 1st century AD), famously remarked that although conquered on the battlefield, "captive Greece overcame its savage conqueror and brought the arts to rustic Rome." The power of Greek art lies in its representation of the human figure and its focus on human beings and the anthropomorphic gods as chief subjects. The artworks of the Greeks were meant to decorate temples and public buildings, to celebrate battle victories and remarkable personalities, and to commemorate the dead. They were also given as offerings to the gods.
Although there was no definitive transition, the art is usually divided stylistically into the four periods of Geometric, Archaic, Classical and Hellenistic. During the Classical period (5th and 4th centuries BC), realism and idealism were delicately balanced. In comparison, the works of the earlier Geometric (9th to 8th centuries BC) and Archaic (7th to 6th centuries BC) ages can seem appear primitive, but these artists had different goals: naturalistic representation was not necessarily their aim. Greek and artists built on the artistic foundations of Egypt, further developing the arts of sculpture, painting, architecture, and ceramics. Among the techniques they perfected include methods of carving and casting sculptures, fresco painting and building magnificent buildings.
Roman art lovers collected ancient Greek originals, Roman replicas of Greek art, or newly created paintings and sculptures fashioned in a variety of Greek styles, thus preserving for posterity works of art otherwise lost. Wall and panel paintings, sculptures and mosaics decorated public spaces and private homes. Greek imagery also appeared on Roman jewellery, vessels of gold, silver, bronze and terracotta, and even on weapons and commercial weights. Rediscovered during the early Renaissance, the arts of ancient Greece, transmitted through the Roman Empire, have served as the foundation of Western art until the 19th century.[31]
Since the advent of the
Looking at the archaeological remains of ancient buildings it is easy to perceive them as limestone and concrete in a grey taupe tone and to make the assumption that ancient buildings were monochromatic. However, architecture was polychromed in much of the Ancient world. One of the most iconic Ancient buildings, the Parthenon (c. 447–432 BC) in Athens, had details painted with vibrant reds, blues and greens. Besides ancient temples, Medieval cathedrals were never completely white. Most had colored highlights on capitals and columns.[33] This practice of coloring buildings and artworks was abandoned during the early Renaissance. This is because Leonardo da Vinci and other Renaissance artists, including Michelangelo, promoted a color palette inspired by the ancient Greco-Roman ruins, which because of neglect and constant decay during the Middle Ages, became white despite being initially colorful. The pigments used in the ancient world were delicate and especially susceptible to weathering. Without necessary care, the colors exposed to rain, snow, dirt, and other factors, vanished over time, and this way Ancient buildings and artworks became white, like they are today and were during the Renaissance.[34]
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Horse figurine (Geometric); c. 800-700 BC; bronze; height: 17.6 cm; Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York City)
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Pedestalled krater (Geometric); c. 750 BC; terracotta; height: 108.3 cm, diameter: 72.4 cm; Metropolitan Museum of Art[35]
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New York Kouros (Archaic); c. 600 BC; marble and pigment; height: 1.95 m; Metropolitan Museum of Art[36]
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Red-figure kylix (Classical); c. 480 BC; ceramic; height: 12.7 cm, diameter: 27.2 cm; Kimbell Art Museum (Fort Worth, Texas, US)[38]
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Zeus of Artemision (Classical); c. 460 BC; bronze; height: 209 cm; National Archaeological Museum (Athens, Greece)[39]
Rome
No civilization has had an impact as enduring and powerful on Western art as the
The Romans were deeply influenced by all aspects of
After the
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Mysteries Fresco; mid-1st century BC; fresco; height: 1.62 m; Villa of the Mysteries (Pompeii, Italy)[49]
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TheMaison Carrée (Nîmes, France), one of the best-preserved Roman temples, c. 2nd century AD
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Marine mosaic (central panel of three panels from a floor); 200–230; mosaic (stone and glass tesserae); 2,915 mm x 2,870 mm; Museum of Fine Arts (Boston, US)
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Arch of Constantine (Rome), that commemorates the triumph of Constantine the Great after his victory over Maxentius in the Battle of the Milvian Bridge, 316[51]
Islamic
Islamic art is well-known since the Middle Ages for the use of elaborate
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Mosque lamp; c. 1285; glass, enamels and gold; height: 26.4 cm; Metropolitan Museum of Art[54]
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Ardabil Carpet; 1539–1540; wool pile on silk; length: 10.51 m; Victoria and Albert Museum (London)[56]
Americas
Mesoamerica
Some of the first great civilizations in the Americas developed in Mesoamerica (meaning 'middle Americas'), the most well known being the Mayans and the Aztecs.
The Olmecs (c.1400–400 BC) were the first major civilization in modern-day Mexico. Many elements of Mesoamerican civilizations, like the practice of building of pyramids, the complex calendar, the pantheon of gods and hieroglyphic writing have origins in Olmec culture. They produced jade and ceramic figurines, colossal heads and pyramids with temples at the top, all without the advantage of metal tools. For them, jadeite was a stone more precious than gold and symbolized divine powers and fertility. 17 Olmec colossal heads have been discovered, each weighing a few tons. Each head, with the flattened nose and thick lips, wears a helmet, similar with the ones worn during official ball games, possibly representing kings of officials.
The
Arising from humble beginnings as a nomadic group, the Aztecs created the largest empire in Mesoamerican history, lasting from 1427 to 1521. They did not call themselves 'Aztecs', but Mexica. The term Aztecs was assigned by historians. They transformed the capital of their empire, Tenochtitlan, into a place where artists of Mesoamerica created impressive artworks for their new masters. The present-day Mexico City was built over the Aztec capital, Tenochtitlan.[57][58][59]
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Seated shaman in ritual pose-shaped pendant (Olmec); 9th-5th century BC; serpentine and cinnabar; height: 18.5 cm; Dallas Museum of Art (Dallas, Texas, US)[60]
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Bat effigy (Zapotec); c.50 BC; jadeite and shell; height: 28 cm; National Museum of Anthropology (Mexico City)[61]
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Vessel with a throne scene (Maya); late 7th–8th century; ceramic; 21.59 cm; Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York City)
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Warrior columns (Toltec); c.1000; basalt; height: c.460 cm; Tula de Allende (Mexico)
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Double-headed serpent (Aztec); c. 1450–1521; cedar, turquoise, shell and traces of gilding; length: 43.3 cm; British Museum[64]
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Coyolxauhqui Stone (Aztec); c. 1469–1481; stone; diameter: 3 m; Templo Mayor Museum (Mexico City)[64]
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Tlāloc effigy vessel (Aztec); c. 1440–1469; painted earthenware; height: 35 cm; Templo Mayor Museum[64]
Colombia
Similarly with Mesoamerica, the present-day territory of
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Animal-headed figure pendant (Yotoco); 1st–7th century; gold; height: 6.35 cm; Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York City)
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Lime container (Quimbaya); 5th–9th century; gold; height: 23 cm; Metropolitan Museum of Art
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Pendant (Tairona); 10th–16th century; gold; height: 14 cm; Metropolitan Museum of Art
Andean Regions
The ancient civilizations of Peru and Bolivia nurtured unique artistic traditions, including one of the world's most aesthetically impressive fibre art traditions. Two of the first important cultures from this land are the Chavín and the Paracas culture.
The Paracas culture of the south coast of Peru is best known for its complex patterned textiles, particularly mantels. The
The Chimú were preceded by a simple ceramic style known as
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Portrait head bottle (Moche); 3rd–6th century; painted ceramic; overall: 26.35 x 16.21 cm; Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York City)
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Mosaic figurine of a noble man (Wari); 7th-9th century; wood, shell, stone and silver; height: 10.2 cm; Kimbell Art Museum (Fort Worth, Texas, US)[70]
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Royal tunic (Inca); 1476–1534; camelid fibre and cotton; height: 91 cm; Dumbarton Oaks (Washington, D.C., US)[71]
Asian
Eastern civilization broadly includes Asia, and it also includes a complex tradition of art making. One approach to Eastern art history divides the field by nation, with foci on Indian art, Chinese art, and Japanese art. Due to the size of the continent, the distinction between Eastern Asia and Southern Asia in the context of arts can be clearly seen. In most of Asia, pottery was a prevalent form of art. The pottery is often decorated with geometric patterns or abstract representations of animals, people or plants. Other very widespread forms of art were, and are, sculpture and painting.
Central Asia
Central Asian art developed in
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Seated figurine (Bactrian); 3rd-2nd millennia BC; chlorite and limestone; height: 9 cm; Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York City)[74]
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Belt buckle; 3rd-1st centuries BC; gold; height: 7.9 cm; Metropolitan Museum of Art[75]
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Goblet showing The Rape of Europa and of Ganymede, part of the Bagram Treasure; 1st century AD; painted glass; height: 16 cm, diameter: 10 cm; Guimet Museum (Paris)[76]
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Goddess and celestial musician (Buddhist); 7th century; pigments on plaster; height: 2.03 m; Museum of Asian Art (Berlin, Germany)[77]
Indian
Early
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Seated Buddha; c. 475; sandstone; height: 1.6 m; Sarnath Museum[84]
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Bodhisattva Padmapani; c. 450–490; pigments on rock; height: c. 1.2 m; Ajanta Caves (India)[84]
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Musée Guimet (Paris)[85]
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argilite; height: 13.5 cm; Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York City)[87]
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Basawan Akbarnama; c. 1590; watercolor on paper; 33 x 20 cm; Victoria and Albert Museum (London)[88]
Chinese
In Eastern Asia, painting was derived from the practice of calligraphy, and portraits and landscapes were painted on silk cloth. Most of the paintings represent landscapes or portraits. The most spectacular sculptures are the ritual bronzes and the bronze sculptures from Sanxingdui. A very well-known example of Chinese art is the Terracotta Army, depicting the armies of Qin Shi Huang, the first Emperor of China. It is a form of funerary art buried with the emperor in 210–209 BC whose purpose was to protect the emperor in his afterlife.
Chinese art is one of the oldest continuous traditional arts in the world, and is marked by an unusual degree of continuity within, and consciousness of, that tradition, lacking an equivalent to the Western collapse and gradual recovery of classical styles. The media that have usually been classified in the West since the
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Yingxian, China), 1056[90]
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Auspicious Cranes painted by Emperor Huizong of a rare scene on top of a city gate on 16th January 1112.
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Early Autumn by Qian Xuan, an example of Chinese bird-and-flower painting (13th century)
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a section of the famous Nine Dragons scroll, completed in 1244 CE
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Snowscape by Ma Yuan(c.1160–1225), Taipei National Palace Museum
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Dancing and Singing (Peasants Returning from Work) c. 1200
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a painting of the Gongbi style by Emperor Huizong
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a still life also of the Gongbi Style from theSouthern Song Dynasty
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Birds in a Bamboo and Plum Tree Thicket, 12th century.
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Mother Hen and Chicks,Song Dynasty. The high contrast brought on by the black background is very rare in Chinese painting.
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Song Duckling in the Gongbi style
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Li Anzhong's Bird on a Branch, late Northern Song c. 1130
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The Yellow River Breaches its CourseSong Dynasty
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Section of Eight Views of Xiaoxiang, an imaginary tour through Xiaoxiang by Li Shi; 12th-century. Tokyo National Museum
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Elegant Rocks and Sparse Trees by Zhao Mengfu (1254–1322)
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Early Spring; by Guo Xi; 1072; hanging scroll, ink on silk; 1.58 x 1.08 m; National Palace Museum (Taipei, Taiwan)[91]
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Statue of the luohan Tamrabhadra, one of the group of glazed pottery luohans from Yixian; 10th–13th century; glazed terracotta; height: 123 cm; Guimet Museum (Paris)
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Ladies Preparing Silk; an 8th century Tang dynasty painting by Zhang Xuan copied and reproduced in the Song dynasty; ink and colours on silk; 0.37 x 1.47 m; Museum of Fine Arts (Boston, US)[93]
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a decorative box from thesouthern Song dynastyc. 13th century
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Cup; early 17th century; rhinoceros horn; height: 10.2 cm; Metropolitan Museum of Art
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Ming dynasty, 1403-24.
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Cloisonné box; 18th century; cloisonné enamels on copper with gilt bronze; 20.5 × 19.8 cm; Walters Art Museum (Baltimore, Maryland, US)
Japanese
Japanese art covers a wide range of art styles and media, including ancient pottery, sculpture, ink painting and calligraphy on silk and paper, ukiyo-e paintings and woodblock prints, ceramics, origami, and more recently manga—modern Japanese cartooning and comics—along with a myriad of other types.
The first settlers of Japan, the
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Female figure; c. 1670–1690; porcelain with overglaze polychrome enamels; height: 39.7 cm; Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York City)
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Katsushika Hokusai; c. 1830–1832; full-colour woodblock print; 25.7 x 37.9 cm; Metropolitan Museum of Art[96]
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Plum Park in Kameido; by Hiroshige; 1857; full-colour woodblock print; 36.4 x 24.4 cm; Rijksmuseum (Amsterdam, the Netherlands)
Sub-Saharan Africa
Sub-Saharan African art includes both
Sub-Saharan Africa is characterized by a high density of cultures. Notable are the,
The myriad forms of African art are components of some of the most vibrant and responsive artistic traditions in the world and are integral to the lives of African people. Created for specific purposes, artworks can reveal their ongoing importance through physical transformations that enhance both their appearance and their potency. Many traditional African art forms are created as conduits to the spirit world and change appearance as materials are added to enhance their beauty and potency. The more a work is used and blessed, the more abstract it becomes with the accretion of sacrificial matter and the wearing down of original details.
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Seated figure; by artists of theMusée du Quai Branly, Paris[97]
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Pot; from Igbo-Ukwu (Nigeria); 9th century; bronze; unknown dimensions; Nigerian National Museum, Lagos
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Head of a king or dignitary; by artists of theIfe (Nigeria); Ethnological Museum of Berlin, Germany
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Seated figure; by artists of the Djenné-Djenno culture (Mali); 13th century; earthenware; width: 29.9 cm; Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City[97]
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Pendant mask; by artists of the Edo people (Nigeria); 16th century (?); ivory and iron; height: 24.5 cm; British Museum, London[98]
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N'dop, king Mishe miShyaang maMbul; by artists of the Kuba Kingdom (Democratic Republic of the Congo); 18th century; wood; 49.5 cm; Brooklyn Museum, New York City[99]
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Mandu Yenu (throne of Nsangu); by artists of the Kingdom of Bamun; c.1870; wood, beads of glass, porcelain and shell; height: 1.75 m; Ethnological Museum of Berlin[100]
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Royal mask; by artists of the Bamum people (Cameroon); before 1880; wood, copper, glass beads, raffia and shells; height: 66 cm; Metropolitan Museum of Art[99]
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Ngaad-A-Mwash mask; by artists of the Kuba people; late 19th-early 20th centuries; wood, shells, glass beads, raffia and pigment; height: 82 cm; Detroit Institute of Arts, Detroit, Michigan, US[99]
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Headrest; by artists of theMusée du quai Branly (Paris)[101]
Oceania
Oceanian art includes the geographic areas of
The art of Oceania is the last great tradition of art to be appreciated by the world at large. Despite being one of the longest continuous traditions of art in the world, dating back at least fifty millennia, it remained relatively unknown until the second half of the 20th century.
The often ephemeral materials of Aboriginal art of Australia makes it difficult to determine the antiquity of the majority of the forms of art practised today. The most durable forms are the multitudes of rock engravings and rock paintings which are found across the continent. In the Arnhem Land escarpment, evidence suggests that paintings were being made fifty thousand years ago, antedating the Palaeolithic rock paintings of Altamira & Lascaux in Europe.
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Hoa Hakananai'a, an example of a moai; c. 1200 AD; flow lava; height: 242 cm; British Museum (London)[102]
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Statue of A'a from Rurutu; probably 18th century; wood; height: 117 cm; British Museum[103]
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Taurapa (Musée du Quai Branly (Paris)[104]
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Australian painting of a kangaroo totemic ancestor; c. 1915; painting on bark; 92.5 × 35.5 cm; Musée du Quai Branly
European
Medieval
With the decline of the
In Byzantine and Gothic art of the Middle Ages, the dominance of the church resulted in a large amount of religious art. There was extensive use of gold in paintings, which presented figures in simplified forms.
Byzantine
Byzantine art consists of the body of Christian Greek artistic products of the
Surviving Byzantine art is mostly religious, and - with exceptions at certain periods - is highly conventionalised, following traditional models that translate carefully controlled church theology into artistic terms. Painting in fresco, in illuminated manuscripts and on wood panels, and (especially in earlier periods) mosaic were the main media, and figurative sculpture occurred very rarely except for small carved ivories. Manuscript painting preserved to the end some of the classical realist tradition that was missing in larger works.[110] Byzantine art was highly prestigious and sought-after in Western Europe, where it maintained a continuous influence on medieval art until near the end of the medieval period. This was especially so in Italy, where Byzantine styles persisted in modified form through the 12th century, and became formative influences on Italian Renaissance art. But few incoming influences affected the Byzantine style. With the expansion of the Eastern Orthodox church, Byzantine forms and styles spread throughout the Orthodox world and beyond.[111] Influences from Byzantine architecture, particularly in religious buildings, can be found in diverse regions from Egypt and Arabia to Russia and Romania.
Byzantine architecture is notorious for the use of
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Christ as the Good Shepherd; c. 425–430; mosaic; width: c. 3 m; Mausoleum of Galla Placidia (Ravenna, Italy)[114]
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Diptych Leaf with a Byzantine Empress; 6th century; ivory with traces of gilding and leaf; height: 26.5 cm; Kunsthistorisches Museum (Vienna, Austria)[115]
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Collier; late 6th–7th century; gold, an
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Page of the Gospel Book with Commentaries: Portrait of Mark; 1000–1100; ink, tempera, gold, vellum and leather binding; sheet: 28 × 23 cm; Cleveland Museum of Art (Cleveland, Ohio, US)
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Ladder of Divine Ascent; late 12th century; tempera and gold leaf on panel; 41 x 29.5 cm; Saint Catherine's Monastery (Sinai Peninsula, Egypt)[117]
Ottonian
Ottonian art is a
After the decline of the 9th-century Carolingian Empire, the Holy Roman Empire was re-established under the Saxon Ottonian dynasty. From this emerged a renewed faith in the idea of Empire and a reformed Church, creating a period of heightened cultural and artistic fervour. In this atmosphere masterpieces were created that fused the traditions from which Ottonian artists derived their inspiration: models of Late Antique, Carolingian, and Byzantine origin. Surviving Ottonian art is very largely religious, in the form of illuminated manuscripts and metalwork, and was produced in a small number of centres for a narrow range of patrons in the circle of the Imperial court, as well as for important figures in the church. However much of it was designed for display to a wider public, especially to pilgrims.[120]
The style is generally grand and heavy, sometimes to excess, and initially less sophisticated than the Carolingian equivalents, with less direct influence from Byzantine art and less understanding of its classical models, but around 1000 a striking intensity and expressiveness emerge in many works, as "a solemn monumentality is combined with a vibrant inwardness, an unworldly, visionary quality with sharp attention to actuality, surface patterns of flowing lines and rich bright colours with passionate emotionalism".[121]
Romanesque
The Romanesque, the first pan-European style to emerge after the Roman Empire, spanned the mid-tenth century to the thirteenth. The period saw a resurgence of monumental stone structures with complex structural programmes.
Romanesque churches are characterized by rigid articulation and geometric clarity, incorporated into a unified volumetric whole. The architecture is austere but enlivened by decorative sculpting of capitals and portals, as well as frescoed interiors. Geometric and foliate patterning gives way to increasingly three-dimensional figurative sculpture.
St. Michael's Church, Hildesheim, Germany, 1001–1030, is seen by some as a Proto-Romanesque church.[122][need quotation to verify]
From the mid-eleventh to the early thirteenth centuries, Romanesque paintings were two-dimensional, defined by bold, linear outlines and geometry, particularly in the handling of drapery; painters emphasised symmetry and frontality. Virtually all Western churches were painted, but probably only a few wall-painters were monks; instead, itinerant artists carried out most of this work. Basic blocking-out was done on wet plaster with earth colours. A limited palette, dominated by white, red, yellow ochres and azure, was employed for maximum visual effect, with dense colouring forming a backdrop of bands, a practice that originated in late Classical art as an attempt to distinguish earth and sky.
During the later eleventh and twelfth centuries, the great age of Western monasticism, Europe experienced unprecedented economic, social and political change, leading to burgeoning wealth among landowners, including monasteries. There was increasing demand for books, and economic wealth encouraged the production of richly illuminated manuscripts.
One of the outstanding artefacts of the age is the 70 m long
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'Holy Face'; 904–1018; wood with polychromy; height: 2.9 m; Sansepolcro Cathedral (Sansepolcro, Italy)[126]
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Head of pope Alexander; 1145; wood, silver, gilt bronze, gems, pearls and champlevé enamel; height: c. 45 cm; Art & History Museum (Brussels, Belgium)[129]
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The stoning of Saint Stephen; 1160s; fresco; height: 1.3 m;Canton of Grisons, Switzerland)[130]
Gothic
Gothic art developed in Northern France out of Romanesque in the 12th century AD, and led by the concurrent development of Gothic architecture. It spread to all of Western Europe, and much of Southern and Central Europe, never quite effacing more classical styles in Italy. In the late 14th century, the sophisticated court style of International Gothic developed, which continued to evolve until the late 15th century.
Brick Gothic was a specific style of Gothic architecture common in Northeast and Central Europe especially in the regions in and around the Baltic Sea, which do not have resources of standing rock. The buildings are essentially built using bricks.
The imposing Gothic cathedrals, with their sculptural programmes and stained glass windows, epitomize the Gothic style.[131] It differs from Romanesque through its rib-shaped vaults, and the use of ogives. Instead of the thick Romanesque walls, Gothic buildings are thin and tall. Spiral stairs in towers are specific to Gothic architecture.[132]
Gothic painting, much of it executed in tempera and, later, oils on panel, as well as fresco, and with an increasingly broad palette of secondary colours, is generally seen as more 'naturalistic' than Romanesque. The humanity of religious narrative was highlighted, and the emotional state of the characters individualized.[133] The increased urbanity of the medieval economy and the rise of the clerical and lay patron saw a change in the nature of the art market, which can be seen in developments in Gothic manuscript illumination. Workshops employed specialists for different elements of the page, such as figures or marginal vine motifs.[134]
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North transept windows; c. 1230–1235; stained glass; diameter (rose window): 10.2 m; Chartres Cathedral (Chartres, France)[135]
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Ekkehard and Uta; attributed to the Master of Namburg; 1245–1260; limestone and polychromy; height: c. 1.9 m; Naumburg Cathedral (Naumburg, Germany)[137]
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Arrest of Christ and Annunciation of the Virgin; by Jean Pucelle; 1324–1328; grisaille and temprea on vellum; 8.9 x 12.4 cm; Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York City)[134]
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The Wilton Diptych; c. 1395–1459; tempera and gold on panel; 53 × 37 cm; National Gallery (London)[133]
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Brick Gothic with some decoration of stone, Old St. John's Hospital, 13th to 15th century, in Bruges, Belgium
Renaissance
Encompassing Early, Northern and High Renaissance, the term Renaissance describes the 'rebirth' in Europe of a new interest for Classical antiquity. For the first time since antiquity, art became convincingly lifelike. Besides the ancient past, Renaissance artists also studied nature, understanding the human body, animals, plants, space, perspective and the qualities of light. The most common theme were religious subjects, but depictions of mythological stories were produced as well. Also, there was no uniform Renaissance style. Each artist developed their own distinct visual language, influenced by their predecessors and contemporaries.
The Early Renaissance was a period of great creative and intellectual activity when artists broke away completely from the parameters of
Despite being highly associated with Italy, particularly with Florence, Rome, and Venice, the rest of Western Europe participated to the Renaissance as well.
The High Renaissance took place in the late 15th-early 16th centuries and was influenced by the fact that as papal power stabilized in Rome, several popes commissioned art and architecture, determined to recreate the city's former glory. Raphael and Michelangelo produced vast and grandiose projects for the popes. The most famous artwork of this part of the Renaissance is probably the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel.
Mannerism broke away from High Renaissance ideals of harmony and a rational approach to art, to embrace exaggerated forms, elongated proportions, and more vibrant colors. It developed in Italy between 1510 and 1520, among artists who prized originality above all. The name of this movement comes from the Italian maniera, meaning 'style or 'manner'. The word was meant to describe the standard of excellence achieved during the High Renaissance, to which all art should now adhere, but in practice it led to stylization and art 'to show art', sometimes with great success, an example being Raphael's pupil Giulio Romano. Mannerism has also been used more generally to describe a period following the Renaissance and preceding the Baroque.[139]
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The Florence Cathedral (Florence, Italy), 1294–1436, by Arnolfo di Cambio, Filippo Brunelleschi and Emilio De Fabris[140]
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Crucifix; by Giotto; c. 1300; tempera on panel; 5.78 x 4.06 m; Santa Maria Novella (Florence, Italy)[141]
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Arnolfini Portrait; by Jan van Eyck; 1434; oil on panel; 82.2 x 60 cm; National Gallery (London)[142]
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Saint George and the Dragon; by Paolo Uccello; c. 1470; oil on canvas; 55.6 x 74.2 cm; National Gallery (London)[144]
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Primavera; by Sandro Botticelli; c. 1478; tempera on panel; 2 x 3.1 m; Uffizi Gallery (Florence)[145]
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The Garden of Earthly Delights; by Hieronymus Bosch; c. 1504; oil on panel; 2.2 x 1.95 m; Museo del Prado (Madrid, Spain)[148]
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Sistine Chapel ceiling; by Michelangelo; 1508–1512; fresco; 13.7 x 39 m; Sistine Chapel (Vatican City)[149]
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The School of Athens; by Raphael; 1509–1510; fresco; 5.8 x 8.2 m; Apostolic Palace (Vatican City)[150]
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The Rhinoceros; by Albrecht Dürer; 1515; woodcut; 23.5 × 29.8 cm; National Gallery of Art (Washington, D.C., US)
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The Tower of Babel; by Pieter Bruegel the Elder; 1563; oil on panel; 1.14 x 1.55 m; Kunsthistorisches Museum (Vienna, Austria)[152]
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Cupboard; c. 1580; walnut and oak, partially gilded and painted; height: 2.06 m, width: 1.50 m; Louvre[153]
Baroque
The 17th century was a period of volatile change, both in science, through inventions and developments, such as the
Succeeding Mannerism, and developing as a result of religious tensions across Europe, Baroque art emerged in the late 16th century. The name may derive from 'barocco', the Portuguese word for misshaped pearl, and it describes art that combined emotion, dynamism and drama with powerful color, realism and strong tonal contrasts. Between 1545 and 1563 at the Council of Trent, it was decided that religious art must encourage piety, realism and accuracy, and, by attracting viewers' attention and empathy, glorify the Catholic Church and strengthen the image of Catholicism. In the next century the radical new styles of Baroque art both embraced and developed High Renaissance models, and broke new ground both in religious art and in new varieties of secular art – above all landscape. The Baroque and its late variant the Rococo were the first truly global styles in the arts, dominating more than two centuries of art and architecture in Europe, Latin America and beyond from circa 1580 to circa 1750. Born in the painting studios of Bologna and Rome in the 1580s and 1590s, and in Roman sculptural and architectural ateliers in the second and third decades of the 17th century, the Baroque spread swiftly throughout Italy, Spain and Portugal, Flanders, France, the Netherlands, England, Scandinavia, and Russia, as well as to central and eastern European centres from Munich (Germany) to Vilnius (Lithuania). The Portuguese, Spanish and French empires and the Dutch treading network had a leading role in spreading the two styles into the Americas and colonial Africa and Asia, to places such as Lima, Mozambique, Goa and the Philippines.
Just like paintings and sculptures, Baroque cathedrals and palaces are characterised by the use of illusion and drama as well. They also frequently use dramatic effects of light and shade, and have sumptuous, highly decorated interiors that blurred the boundaries between architecture, painting and sculpture. Another important characteristic of Baroque architecture was the presence of dynamism, done through curves,
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The Four Continents; by Peter Paul Rubens; c.1615; oil on canvas; 209 x 284 cm; Kunsthistorisches Museum (Vienna, Austria)
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The Rape of the Sabine Women; by Nicolas Poussin; 1634–1635; oil on canvas; 1.55 × 2.1 m; Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York City)[156]
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The Night Watch; by Rembrandt; 1642; oil on canvas; 3.63 × 4.37 m; Rijksmuseum (Amsterdam, the Netherlands)[157]
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Ecstasy of Saint Teresa; by Gian Lorenzo Bernini; 1647–1652; marble; height: 3.5 m; Santa Maria della Vittoria (Rome)[158]
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Las Meninas; by Diego Velázquez; 1656; oil on canvas; 3.18 cm × 2.76 m; Museo del Prado (Madrid, Spain)[159]
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Vanitas Still Life; by Maria van Oosterwijck; 1668; oil on canvas; 73 x 88.5 cm; Kunsthistorisches Museum[160]
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Carpet with fame and fortitude; by the Savonnerie manufactory; 1668–1685; knotted and cut wool pile, woven with about 90 knots per square inch; 909.3 x 459.7 cm; Metropolitan Museum of Art
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Part of aAugustus the Strong, owner of the Meissen factory
Rococo
Originating in c.1720 Paris, Rococo is characterized by natural motifs, soft colours, curving lines, asymmetry and themes including love, nature and light-hearted entertainment. Its ideals were delicacy, gaiety, youthfulness and sensuality.
Beginning in France as a reaction against the heavy Baroque grandeur of
Although there are some important Bavarian churches in this style, such as the
The movement spread quickly throughout Europe and as far as Ottoman Turkey and China thanks to ornament books featuring cartouches, arabesques and shell work, as well as designs for wall panels and fireplaces. The most popular were made by Juste-Aurèle Meissonnier (1695–1750), Jacques-François Blondel (1705–1774), Pierre-Edmé Babel (1720–1775) and François de Cuvilliés (1695–1768).[164]
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Jean-Antoine Watteau; 1718; oil on canvas; 1.29 x 1.94 m; Schloss Charlottenburg[165]
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The Salon Oval de la Princesse of the Hôtel de Soubise (Paris), 1737–1739, by Germain Boffrand, Charles-Joseph Natoire and Jean-Baptiste Lemoyne[167]
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Candelabrum; by Jean Joseph de Saint-Germain; c.1750; gilt bronze; overall: 72.4 x 49.3 x 39.7 cm; Cleveland Museum of Art (Cleveland, Ohio, US)
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Fire; by Jean-Pierre Defrance; c.1750-1760; limestone; height: 223 cm; Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York City)
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Pilgrimage Church of Wies, Steingaden, Germany, by Dominikus and Johann Baptist Zimmermann, 1754[168]
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Side table (commode en console); by Bernard II van Risamburgh; c.1755-1760; Japanese lacquer, gilt-bronze mounts and Sarrancolin marble top; height: 90.2 cm; Metropolitan Museum of Art
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Madame de Pompadour; by François Boucher; 1756; oil on canvas; 2.01 x 1.57 m; Alte Pinakothek (Munich, Germany)[167]
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Coffeepot; 1757; silver; height: 29.5 cm; Metropolitan Museum of Art
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Covered tureen (terrine du roi); by the Manufacture nationale de Sèvres 1756; soft-paste porcelain with enamel and gilt decoration; overall: 24.2 cm; Cleveland Museum of Art
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The Swing; by Jean-Honoré Fragonard; 1767; oil on canvas; 81 x 64 cm; Wallace Collection (London)[167]
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Marie-Antoinette with the Rose; byVersailles, France)
Neoclassicism
Inspired by the excavations of the ancient Roman cities of Pompeii and Herculaneum from 1748, a renewed interest in the arts of antiquity occurred. Neoclassicism dominates Western art from the mid to late 18th century until the 1830s. Embracing order and restraint, it developed in reaction to the perceived frivolity, hedonism and decadence of Rococo and exemplifying the rational thinking of the 'Age of Enlightenment' (aka the 'Age of Reason'). Initially, the movement was developed not by artists, but by Enlightenment philosophers. They requested replacing Rococo with a style of rational art, moral and dedicated to the soul.[170] This fitted well with a perception of Classical art as the embodiment of realism, restraint and order. Inspired by ancient Greek and Roman art, the classical history paintings of the French artist Nicolas Poussin (1594–1665) and the ideas of the German writer Anton Raphael Mengs (1728–1779) and the German archaeologist and art historian Johann Joachim Winckelmann (1717–1768), Neoclassicism began in Rome, but soon spread throughout Europe. Rome had become the main focus of the Grand Tour by the mid-18th century, and aristocratic travellers went there in search of Classical visions to recreate on their country estates, thus spreading the style across Europe, particularly in England and France. The tour was also an opportunity for collecting Classical antiquities. Neoclassical paintings tended to be populated with figures posed like Classical statues or reliefs, set in a locations filled with archaeological details. The style favoured Greek art over Roman, considering it purer and more authentically classical in its aesthetic goal.
In 1789, France was on the brink of its first revolution and Neoclassicism sought to express their patriotic feelings. Politics and art were closely entwined during this period. They believed that art should be serious, and valued drawings above painting; smooth contours and paint with no discernible brushstrokes were the ultimate aim. Both painting and sculpture exerted calmness and restraint and focused on heroic themes, expressing such noble notions as self-sacrifice and nationalism.
This movement paved the way for Romanticism, that appeared when the idealism of the revolution faded away and after the Napoleonic period came to an end in the early 19th century. Neoclassicism should not be seen as the opposite of Romanticism, however, but in some ways an early manifestation of it.[171][172]
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Fantasy View with the Pantheon and other Monuments of Ancient Rome, by Giovanni Paolo Panini, 1737, oil on canvas, Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, US
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The ancient Capitol ascended by approximately one hundred steps . . ., by Giovanni Battista Piranesi, c.1750, etching, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City
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Versailles, France, by Ange-Jacques Gabriel, 1764[174]
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A Philosopher Lecturing on the Orrery, by Joseph Wright of Derby, c.1766, oil on canvas, Derby Museum and Art Gallery, Derby, England[175]
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Washstand (athénienne or lavabo), 1800–1814, legs, base and shelf of yew wood, gilt-bronze mounts, iron plate beneath shelf, Metropolitan Museum of Art
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Portrait of Charlotte du Val d'Ognes, by Marie-Denise Villers, 1801, oil on canvas, Metropolitan Museum of Art[178]
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The Three Graces, by Antonio Canova, 1813–1816, marble, Hermitage Museum, Saint Petersburg, Russia[179]
Western art after 1770
Many art historians place the origins of modern art in the late 18th century, others in the mid 19th century. Art historian H. Harvard Arnason stated "a gradual metamorphosis took place in the course of a hundred years."[180] Events such as the Age of Enlightenment, revolutions and democracies in America and France, and the Industrial Revolution had far reaching affects in western culture. People, commodities, ideas, and information could travel between countries and continents with unprecedented speed and these changes were reflected in the arts. The invention of photography in the 1830s further altered certain aspects of art, particularly painting. By the dawn of the 19th century, a long and gradual paradigm shift was complete, from the Gothic when artists were viewed as craftsmen in the service of the church and monarchies, to the idea of art for art's sake, where the ideas and visions of the individual artist were held in the high regard, with patronage from an increasingly literate, affluent, and urban middle and upper class population that had been emerging for 200 years (particularly in Paris and London). A dichotomy began in the late 18th century between neoclassicism and romanticism that subdivided and continued to run through virtually every new movement in modern art: "Spreading like waves, these "isms" defy national, ethnic, and chronological boundaries; never dominant anywhere for long, they compete or merge with each other in endlessly shifting patterns."[181]
Modern art has consistently moved toward international influences and exchanges, from the exotic curiosity of
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Newton's Cenotaph, exterior by night; byBibliothèque Nationale
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Francisco de Goya; ca. 1819–1823; mural transferred to canvas, 131.5 × 79.3 cm.; Museo del Prado
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Death on a Pale Horse; J. M. W. Turner; c. 1830; oil on canvas, 60 × 76 cm.; Tate Britain
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Toothless Man Laughing, Charles Philipon form Célébrités du Juste milieu; Honoré Daumier; 1832–33; painted clay, 6.12 high; Musée d'Orsay
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Louis Jacques Daguerre; c. 1839; daguerreotype
19th century
Romanticism (c. 1790–1880)
Romanticism emerged in the late 18th century out of the German Sturm und Drang movement and flourished in the first half of the 19th century with significant and international manifestations in music, literature, and architecture, as well as the visual arts. It grew from a disillusionment with the rationalism of 18th century Enlightenment. Despite being often viewed as the opposite of Neoclassicism, there were some stylistic overlapping with both movements, and many Romantic artists were excited by classicism. The movement focused on intense emotions, imagination, and on the impressive power of nature, a bigger and more powerful force than the one of men, with its potential for disaster. "Neoclassicism is a new revival of classical antiquity... while Romanticism refers not to a specific style but to an attitude of mind that may reveal itself in any number of ways."[188]
One of the earliest expressions of romanticism was in the
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Elohim Creating Adam; by William Blake; 1795; color print finished in ink and watercolour on paper; 43.1 × 53.6 cm; Tate Britain (London)[193]
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The Morning, by Philipp Otto Runge, 1808
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The Third of May 1808; by Francisco Goya; 1814; oil on canvas; 2.68 × 3.47 m; Museo del Prado (Madrid, Spain)[194]
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A. Welby Pugin[197]
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Georg Adolf Demmler and Ernst Friedrich Zwirner
Academism
Academism is the codification of art into rules that can be learned in art academies. It promotes the Classical ideals of beauty and artistic perfection. There was also a very strict hierarchy of subjects. At the top, there were paintings that depicted historic events, including the biblical and Classical ones, followed by the portrait and by the landscape. At the bottom of the hierarchy were still life and genre painting. Nicolas Poussin was the artist whose works and theories played the most significant role in the development of academism. The vales of academism were situated in the centre of the Enlightenment project of discovering the basic principles and ideals of art.
During the 18th century, across all Europe, many academies were founded, that will later dominate the art of the 19th century. In order to study at an art academy, young artists had to take an admission exam, and after being admitted, they would study there for multiple years. Most of the 19th century French art movements were exterior or even opposing the values of academism.
Some of the most important artists of the French academy were
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Pollice Verso (Thumbs Down); by Jean-Léon Gérôme; 1872; oil on canvas; height: 96.5 cm; Phoenix Art Museum (Phoenix, Arizona, US)
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The Birth of Venus; by William-Adolphe Bouguereau; 1879; oil on canvas; 300 x 215 cm; Musée d'Orsay (Paris)[201]
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Phaedra; by Alexandre Cabanel; 1880; oil on canvas; 194 x 286 cm; Musée Fabre (Montpellier, France)[202]
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The Roses of Heliogabalus; by Lawrence Alma-Tadema; 1888; oil on canvas; 1.3 x 2.1 m; private collection of Juan Antonio Pérez Simón[203]
Revivalism and Eclecticism
When it comes to architecture and applied arts, the 19th century is best known as the century of revivals. One of the most well-known revivalist styles is the Gothic Revival or Neo-Gothic, which first appeared in the mid-18th century in a few houses in England, like the Strawberry Hill House in London. However, these houses were isolated cases, since the beginning of the 19th century was dominated by Neoclassicism. Later, between 1830 and 1840, a taste and nostalgia for the rediscovery of past styles, ranging from the Middle Ages to the 18th century, developed under the influence of romanticism. Approximatively until World War I, rehashes of the past dominated the world of architecture and applied arts. Associations between styles and building types appeared, for example: Egyptian for prisons, Gothic for churches, or Renaissance Revival for banks and exchanges. These choices were the result of other associations: the pharaohs with death and eternity, the Middle Ages with Christianity, or the Medici family with the rise of banking and modern commerce. Sometimes, these styles were also seen in a nationalistic way, on the idea that architecture might represent the glory of a nation. Some of them were seen as 'national styles', like the Gothic Revival in the UK and the German states or the Romanian Revival in Romania. Augustus Pugin called the Gothic style the 'absolute duty'[204] of the English architect, despite the fact that the style is of French origin. This way, architecture and the applied arts were used to grant the aura of a highly idealized glorious past. Some architects and designers associated historic styles, especially the medieval ones, with an idealized fantasy organic life, which they put in comparison with the reality of their time.[205]
Despite revivalism being so prevalent, this doesn't mean that there was no originality in these works. Architects, ébénistes and other craftsmen, especially during the second half of the 19th century, created mixes of styles, by extracting and interpreting elements specific to certain eras and areas. This practice is known as eclecticism. This stylistic development occurred during a period when the competition of World's Fairs motivated many countries to invent new industrial methods of creation.
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Egyptian Revival - Coin cabinet; 1809–1819; mahogany (probably Swietenia mahagoni), with applied and inlaid silver; 90.2 x 50.2 x 37.5 cm; Metropolitan Museum of Art
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Gothic Revival - Pair of vases; manufactured in 1832, decorated in 1844; hard-paste porcelain; 36.4 x 32.7 x 20 cm; Metropolitan Museum of Art
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Musée des Arts Décoratifs(Paris)
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Rococo Revival - Apartment building no. 8 on Rue de Miromesnil (Paris), 1900, by P. Lobrot
Realism (c. 1830–1890)
Realism emerged in the mid-nineteenth century, c. 1840, and had counterparts in sculpture, literature, and drama, often referred to as Naturalism in literature. In nineteenth-century painting, the term Realism refers more to the subject matter depicted than to the style or technique. Realist paintings typically represent ordinary places and people engaged in everyday activities, as opposed to grand, idealized landscapes, mythological gods, biblical subjects, and historical figures and events that had often dominated painting in western culture. Courbet said "I cannot paint an angel because I have never seen one".[188]
Realism was also in part a reaction to the often dramatic, exotic, and emotionally charged work of romanticism. The term realism is applied relative to the idealized imagery of neo-classicism and the romanticized imagery of romanticism. Artists such as Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot and Honoré Daumier had loose associations with realism, as did members of the Barbizon School, particularly Jean-François Millet, but it was perhaps Gustave Courbet who was the central figure in the movement, self identifying as a realist, advocating realism, and influencing younger artists such as Édouard Manet. One significant aspect of realism was the practice of painting landscapes en plein air and its subsequent influence on impressionism.
Beyond France, realism is exemplified by artists such as Wilhelm Leibl in Germany, Ford Madox Brown in England, and Winslow Homer in the United States. Art historian H. H. Arnason wrote, "The chronological sequence of neo-classicism, romanticism, and realism is, of course, only a convenient stratification of movements or tendencies so inextricably bound up with one another and with the preceding movements that it is impossible to tell where one ended and another began",[206] and this becomes even more pertinent and complex as one follows all of the movements and "isms" into the late 19th and early 20th centuries.[207][208][209][209][210]
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The Painter's Studio; by Gustave Courbet; 1854–1855; oil on canvas; 3.59 x 5.98 m; Musée d'Orsay (Paris)[211]
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The Third-Class Carriage; by Honoré Daumier; c.1862–1864; oil on canvas; 65.4 x 90.2 cm; Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York City)
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The Iron Rolling Mill; by
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The Poor, Picking up Pieces of Coal; by Nikolay Kasatkin; 1894; oil on canvas; 80 x 107 cm; Russian Museum (Saint Petersburg, Russia)[212]
Impressionism (c. 1865–1885)
Impressionism emerged in France, under the influences of
Although not unprecedented, many of the techniques used were in contrast to traditional methods. Paintings were often completed in hours or days with wet paint applied to wet paint (opposed to wet on dry paint, completed in weeks and months). Rather than applying glazes and mixed colors, pure colors were often applied side by side, in thick, opaque, impasto strokes; blending in the eye of the viewer when observed from a distance. Black was used very sparingly, or not at all, and defining lines replaced with nuanced strokes of color forming the subjects, contours, and shapes. Art historian H. W. Janson said "instead of adding to the illusion of real space, it strengthens the unity of the actual painted surface."[188] Impressionist paintings typically depict landscapes, portraits, still lifes, domestic scenes, daily leisure and nightlife, all treated in a realist manner. Compositions were often based on unusual perspectives, appearing spontaneous and candid. The paintings were usually void of didactic, symbolic, or metaphoric meanings, and rarely addressed the biblical, mythological, and historical subjects that were so highly regarded by the academies or the darker and psychological interest explored by the symbolist. The nuances of light, shadow, atmosphere, and reflections of colors from surfaces were examined, sometimes emphasizing changes of these elements in time. The painting itself was the subject of the painting. It was art for art's sake, an idea that had been floating around for a few of decades but it perhaps reached a new high and consistency in impressionism.[184][208][214][215]
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At the Races in the Countryside; by Edgar Degas; 1869; oil on canvas; 36.5 x 56 cm; Museum of Fine Arts (Boston, US)[213]
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Boulevard des Capucines; by Claude Monet; 1873; oil on canvas; 80.5 x 60.2 cm; Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art (Kansas City, Missouri, US)[213]
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Hoarfrost: Old Road to Ennery, Pontoise; by Camille Pissarro; 1873; oil on canvas; 64.7 x 92.6 cm; Musée d'Orsay (Paris)[213]
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Banks of the Seine near Bougival; by Alfred Sisley; 1873; oil on canvas; 46.2 x 62.1 cm; Montreal Museum of Fine Arts (Montreal, Canada)[213]
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Paris Street; Rainy Day; by Gustave Caillebotte; 1877; oil on canvas; 2.12 x 2.76 cm; Art Institute of Chicago[216]
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Summer's Day; by Berthe Morisot; 1879; oil on canvas; 45.7 cm × 75.2 cm; National Portrait Gallery (London)[216]
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A Bar at the Folies-Bergère; by Édouard Manet; 1881–1882; oil on canvas; 0.96 × 1.30 cm.; Courtauld Institute of Art (London)[217]
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Ox-Drawn Cart; by Nicolae Grigorescu; 1899; oil on canvas; 66 x 81 cm; National Museum of Art of Romania (Bucharest, Romania)
Symbolism (c. 1860–1915)
Symbolism emerged in France and Belgium in the 3rd quarter of the nineteenth century and spread throughout Europe in the 1870s, and later to America to a lesser extent. It evolved from romanticism without a clear or defining demarcation point, although poetry, literature, and specifically the publication of
The subjects, themes, and meanings of symbolist art are frequently veiled and obscure, but at its best still manage to resonate deeply on psychological or emotional levels. The subjects are often presented as
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Thracian Girl with Head of Orpheus on his Lyre; by Gustave Moreau; 1865; oil; 154 × 99.5 cm; Musée d'Orsay (Paris)
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Vision After the Sermon (Jacob Wrestling with the Angel); 1888; oil on canvas; 73 x 92 cm; Scottish National Gallery (Edinburgh, Scotland)[221]
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The Scream; by Edvard Munch; 1893; tempera and crayon on cardboard; 91 x 73.5 cm; National Gallery (Oslo, Norway)[221]
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Green Death; by Odilon Redon; c.1905; oil on canvas; 54.9 x 46.3 cm; Museum of Modern Art[222]
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The Cyclops; by Odilon Redon; c.1914; oil on cardboard on panel; 64 x 51 cm; Kröller-Müller Museum (Otterlo, the Netherlands)[221]
Post-Impressionism (c. 1885–1910)
Post-Impressionism is a rather imprecise term applied to a diverse generation of artists. In its strictest sense, it pertains to four highly influential artists: Paul Cézanne,[224][225] Paul Gauguin,[226][227] Georges Seurat,[228][229] and Vincent van Gogh.[230][231] Each passed through an impressionist phase, but ultimately emerged with four very original but different styles. Collectively, their work anticipated, and often directly influenced, much of the avant-garde art that appeared before the First World War including fauvism, cubism, expressionism, and early abstraction. Cézanne (particularly influential on cubism) and Van Gogh worked in relative isolation, away from Paris, at critical points in their careers, while Seurat and Gauguin worked in groups, more collaboratively, at key points in their development. Another important artist of the period is Toulouse-Lautrec, an influential painter as well as graphic artist.[232][233] In a broader sense, post-impressionism includes a generation of predominantly French and Belgian artist who worked in a range of styles and groups. Most had come under the sway of impressionism at some point, but pushed their work beyond it into a number of factions as early as the mid-1880s, sometimes as a logical development of impressionism, other times as a reaction against it. Post-Impressionists typically depicted impressionist subjects, but the work, particularly synthetism, often contained symbolism, spiritualism, and moody atmospheres that rarely appeared in impressionism. Unnatural colors, patterns, flat plains, odd perspectives and viewpoints pushed to extremes, all moved the center of modernism a step closer to abstraction with a standard for experimentation.[206][234][235]
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The Starry Night; by Vincent van Gogh; 1889; oil on canvas; height: 73.7 cm; Museum of Modern Art (New York City)
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Félix Fénéon; by Paul Signac; 1890; oil on canvas; 73.5 x 92.5 cm; Museum of Modern Art (New York City)[223]
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Aha Oe Feii? (Are You Jealous?); by Paul Gauguin; 1892; oil on canvas; 68 x 92 cm; Pushkin Museum (Moscow, Russia)[223]
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At the Moulin Rouge; by Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec; 1892/1895; oil on canvas, 1.23 × 1.41 m; Art Institute of Chicago[223]
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The Bathers; by Paul Cézanne; 1898–1905; oil on canvas; 210.5 cm × 250.8 cm; Philadelphia Museum of Art (Philadelphia, US)
Early 20th century
The history of
Art Nouveau (c. 1890–1914)
Art Nouveau (French: new art) was an international and widespread art and design movement that emerged in the final decades of the 19th century until the First World War in 1914. It was catapulted into international prominence with the 1900 Exposition Universelle in Paris. Developing almost simultaneously in parts of Europe and the US, it was an attempt to create a unique and modern form of expression that evoked the spirit of the new century. It manifested in painting, illustration, sculpture, jewellery, metalwork, glass, ceramics, textiles, graphic design, furniture, architecture, costume design and fashion. Art Nouveau artists aimed to raise the status of craft and design to the level of fine art.
The movement is highly associated with sinuous organic forms, such as flowers, vines and leaves, but also insects and animals, through the works of artists like Alphonse Mucha, Victor Horta, Hector Guimard, Antoni Gaudí, René Lalique Otto Eckmann or Émile Gallé. Art Nouveau designs and buildings can often be asymmetrical. Although there are identifying characteristics, the style also displayed many regional and national interpretations.
Despite being a short-lived fashion, it paved the way for the modern architecture and design of the 20th century. It was the first architectural style without historic precedent, the 19th century being notorious for a practice known as Historicism, which is the use of visual styles that consciously echo the style of a previous artistic era. Between c.1870 and 1900, a crisis of historicism occurred, during which the historicist culture was critiqued, one of the voices being Friedrich Nietzsche in 1874, who diagnosed 'a malignant historical fervour' as one of the crippling symptoms of a modern culture burdened by archaeological study and faith in the laws of historical progression. Despite this, Art Nouveau was also heavily influenced by styles from the past such as Celtic, Gothic and Rococo art, and also by the Arts and Crafts movement, Aestheticism, Symbolism and especially by Japanese art.[241][242]
Fauvism (c. 1898–1909)
Fauvism emerged from post-impressionism, gradually developing into the first major movement of the 20th century. Its genesis was in 1895 when
The fauvist painted landscapes en plein air, interiors, figures, and still lifes, following examples of realism, impressionism, and post-impressionism. They applied paint with loose brushstrokes, in thick, unnatural, often contrasting, vibrant colors, at times straight from the tube. Gauguin's influence, with his exploration of the expressive values and spatial aspects of patterning with flat, pure colors, as well as his interest in primitivism were significant, as was neo-impressionism. Matisse explained – for a long time color served as a complement of design, the painters of the Renaissance constructed the picture by line, adding local color afterwards – writing: "From Delacroix to Van Gogh and chiefly to Gauguin, by way of the Impressionist, who cleared the ground, and Cézanne, who gave the final impulse and introduced colored volumes, we can follow this rehabilitation of color's function, this restoration of its emotive power"[243] Fauvism was the culmination in a shift, from drawing and line as the fundamental foundations of design in painting to color, and they depicted their subjects on the verge of abstraction.[243][245][246][247][248]
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Woman with a Hat; by Henri Matisse; 1905; oil on canvas; 80.7 x 59.7 cm; San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (San Francisco, US)[249]
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Fauve Landscape; by Louis Valtat; 1905–1906; oil on canvas; Speed Art Museum (Louisville, Kentucky, US)
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Charing Cross Bridge, London; by André Derain; 1906; oil on canvas, 80.3 × 100.3 cm.; National Gallery of Art (Washington, D.C., US)
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La Ciotat; by Othon Friesz; 1907; oil on canvas, 65.7 by 81 cm.; unknown collection