Art Time Line

Medieval Art and Culture

Period: 476 to Dec 31, 1460

This period of European art is categorized by the religious and pessimistic art created during the time. These themes reveal the poor quality of life caused by famines, disease, and war, that people experienced during the middle ages.

Saint Apollinaris Classe

547

This mosaic shows the religiousness of society at the time simply because it contains religious references and symbols.

Duccio Maesta- Duccio di Buoninsegna

Mar 17, 1311

This painting exemplifies the religious aspect of the Middle Ages because of the images of people gathering around to worship.

Totentanz Blockbook

Mar 17, 1458

This piece of art and literature shows the pessimistic attitude of the society at that time because it shows how death will always exist within society, and how death affects everyone.

Renaissance Art

Period: Jan 1, 1460 to Dec 31, 1600

The Renaissance movement was largely sparked by educational reform and the improvement in the quality of life. It was seen as a major transition from the dark, pessimistic, unintelligent Middle Ages. New inventions, schools of thought, and a strong optimism marked this area vital to human development. The art of this time was largely influenced by the new ideologies of the renaissance such as Humanism.

Delivery of the Keys to Saint Peter- Pietro Perugino

Mar 17, 1482

The optimism of the Renaissance is shown in this painting because of the playful people in the background and the happy expressions on the people's faces.

David

Mar 17, 1503

This sculpture created by Michelangelo demonstrates the pride in mankind that people felt during the Renaissance because of the powerful and heroic appearance of the man.

Utopia- Thomas More

Mar 17, 1516

This literary work shows the optimism of the Renaissance because it shows that people believed in the idea that a utopia, a perfect society, was possible. In addition, it contains early liberal ideas because this idea of a utopia in the book was a republic.

Baroque

Period: Jan 1, 1580 to Dec 31, 1725

Baroque was an artistic movement with a primary goal of producing grandeur and exuberance through emotional and exaggerated detail. This movement became involved in religion because it was supported by the Roman Catholic church, who had several buildings built in this style.

Façade of the Church of the Gesù

Mar 18, 1584

This building shows its uniquely baroque characteristics because of its very extravagant yet geometrical and bold appearance.

Northern Realism

Period: Jan 1, 1600 to Dec 31, 1700

This art movement was related to the Enlightenment in its very scientific view. It sought geometric or mathematical values in everyday scenes and in portraits.

The Harvesters

Mar 18, 1651

This work shows realist ideologies by depicting the harsh realities of the world, like the poor condition peasants in this painting.

Still Life with Fruit, Glassware, and a Wan–li Bowl- Willem Kalf

Mar 18, 1659

The geometric princples and symmetry of this painting reflect the Northern Realist values of the importance of science and Mathematics.

Neoclassical art

Period: Jan 1, 1660 to Dec 31, 1798

This artistic movement appeared a little before the beginning of the Rococo period, and began to phase Rococo out around its end. This art style was very popular at the time because it contained Enlightenment themes and coincided with the Enlightenment. It displayed the ideas of the Greek and Roman ancients, and their superiority. Much like Rococo was a reaction against Baroque, Neoclassicism was a reaction against Rococo, and other more loose ideologies originating from the Renaissance.

Nativity- Josefa de Óbidos

Mar 18, 1669

This painting shows the Baroque style in its religious themes, but it also shows them in its use of lighting to create emphasis on the characters.

Rococo Art

Period: Jan 1, 1700 to Dec 31, 1760

This form of art appeared first in Paris, and derived from the Baroque art style. This art style was different from Baroque because it was more graceful and fluid, while Baroque was very regualated and symmetrical. This transitition from Baroque to Rococo occurred in France at the end of the reign of Louis XIV, because there was a change in the court artists as well as the general mood of France, and artists came to experiment with more natural elements.

Pilgrimage to Cythera- Jean-Antoine Watteau

Mar 17, 1721

Although Rococo was most commonly used in architecture, it was also displayed strongly in paintings, such as this one. This painting shows the Rococo style in its use of curves and delicate colors.

Gulliver’s Travels- Johnathon Swift

Mar 18, 1726

This book belongs to the Neoclassical era because of its support of sense and order, and criticism of adventure and illogical goals.

Wieskirche- Dominikus Zimmermann- Rococo

Mar 17, 1754

The extravagant and graceful design of this German church indubitably shows that it was inspired by Rococo.

Oath of the Horatii- Jacques-Louis David

Mar 18, 1784

The notion of the superiority of the ancients that exists within Neoclassicalism is shown in this painting. The three brothers in the painting are giving their lives for the good of Rome, because the city was warring with another city and they were agreeing to battle with 3 people from the city to end the war.

Romanticism

Period: Jan 1, 1790 to Dec 31, 1900

This artistic movement was a reaction against the strict, rational values of the Enlightenment, and favored emotion and adventure. It also revealed the desire to escape from industrialized life and enjoy the beauty of nature. Many themes of Romantic art included horror, awe, and nature.

Liberty Leading the People- Eugène Delacroix

Mar 18, 1830

This painting is Romantic because of the exhaggerated display of heroism in the people and the abstract idea of liberty.

Impressionism

Period: Jan 1, 1850 to Dec 31, 1910

This was a very realistic style of art that was rational and related to modern life. Impressionists often used light in their art and made very short thick brush strokes to make the surface more vibrant.

Bonaparte Crossing the Alps- Hippolyte Delaroche

Mar 18, 1850

Romanticism is shown in this painting with the exhaggerated depiction of Napoleon being a glorious, majestic hero.

Woman with a Parasol - Madame Monet and Her Son- Claude Monet

Mar 18, 1875

The energetic, lively, and bright colors of this painting are what give it the impressionist style.

Expressionism

Period: Jan 1, 1890 to Mar 17, 2014

This movement orginated in Germany, and was very modernistic in its nature. It took an extremely subjective view rather than a plain, realistic one. Its main purpose was simply to give artists the ability to express their point of view and their emotions very strongly. Expressionism was a very broad movement because it also included several other art forms such as Surrealism and Cubism.

Haystacks- Claude Monet

Mar 18, 1891

The use of bright colors, short, thick brush strokes and light in this painting create a vibrancy that defines most impressionist paintings.

The Scream- Edvard Munch

Mar 18, 1893

This painting is very expressionistic in its subject matter and its use of a distortion of reality to add a certain emotional and physcological effect.

Cubism

Period: Jan 1, 1900 to Mar 17, 2014

This was another art movement that originated from expressionism. This form of art was very abstract, and involved the artist displaying a certain view or emotion using a vague arrangment of colorful geometrical shapes.

Factory, Horta de Ebbo- Pablo Picasso

Mar 18, 1909

The abstract depiction of the factory using geometric shapes allows us to more easily see the artist's point of view and makes this piece cubist.

Simultaneous Windows on the City- Robert Delaunay

Mar 18, 1912

This is a cubist painting because of its use of abstract geometrical shapes to depict an image of a window looking down on a city.

Surrealism

Period: Jan 1, 1920 to Mar 17, 2014

This art style emerged from expressionism, and focuses more on the bizarre side of it. Much of this art is very dream-like, irrational, and related to the ideas of pyschoanalysis.

The Elephant Celebes- Max Ernst

Mar 18, 1921

This piece is very surrealistic because of its use of household objects to create a bizarre creature, a common feature of surrealistic paintings.

Elbe Bridge I- Rolf Nesch

Mar 18, 1932

This expressionist piece, like the Scream, uses a distortion of reality as well as a change in color, like this one uses only yellow and black, to create a certain mood.

Indefinite Divisibility- Yves Tanguy

Mar 18, 1942

The surrealism is shown in this painting in the bizarre placement of the unrealistic objects in a strangely empty environment.