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20,000 BCE
Cave Art / Prehistoric Art 20,000 b.c -2500 b.c.
Characteristics:Cave art, fertility goddesses, megalithic structures. Cave art originated in Africa.Paintings were done on walls and ceilings. Many theories involving the purpose of the art includes communication between people, religious or ceremonial purposes. Historical events:Ice age ending (10,000 b.c-8,000 bc) ,New stone age and permanent settlements (8000 b.c- 2500 b.c).The image attached is called the "Hall of Bulls" discovered in September 1940 in Lascaux, France. -
3500 BCE
Mesopotamian (3500 b.c.- 539 b.c.)
Characteristics: Warrior art, narration in stone, ancient pottery, sculpture, metalwork. Major works: Standard of Ur, Gate of Ishtar, Stele of Hammurabi's Code. Historical events: Sumerians invent writing (3400 b.c.) Hammurabi writes his law code (1780 b.c.). The image below is the " Ram In The Thicket" (c.2650-2550 BCE)
Found in the Great Death Pit in Ur, it is 18 inches tall. Made of gold, silver, copper,lapis lazuli, red limestone, shellsand bitumen. -
3100 BCE
Egyptian (3100 b.c.- 30 b.c.)
Characteristics: Art that involved an afterlife focus, pyramids and tomb painting. Artists and major works: Imhotep, Step Pyramid, Great Pyramids, Bust of Nefertiti. Historical Events: Narmer unites Upper/lower Egypt (3100 b.c.) Cleopatra dies (30 b.c). Image is the painted sunk relief of the king being embraced by a goddess. Tomb of Amenherkhepshef. -
850 BCE
Greek and Hellenistic (850 b.c.- 31 b.c.)
Characteristics: Greek idealism; balance, perfect proportions and the architectural orders ( Doric, Ionic, Corinthian). Artists and major works: Parthenon, Myron, Phidias, Polykleitos, Praxiteles. Historical Events: Athens defeats Persia at Marathon (490 b.c.), Peloponnesian Wars (431 b.c.-404 b.c.). Archaic period- Kouros a type of statue of a male figure made out of marble. Image is " The Strangford Apollo" ,c. 500-490. From the Cyclades, Aegean Sea and 101 cm high. -
653 BCE
Indian/Chinese/Japanese (653 b.c.- a.d 1900)
Characteristics: Serene, meditative art and Art of the Floating world. Artists and major works: Gu Kaizhi, Li Cheng, Guo Xi, Hokusai, Hiroshige. Historical events: Birth of Buddha (563 b.c) Silk Road opens (1st century b.c), Buddhism spreads to China (1st and 2nd)centuries a.d and Japan (5th century a.d). Image- Li Cheng created many landscape paintings with diluted ink, known as "treating ink like gold" to create a foggy effect.One of these images is the " Luxuriant Forest among Distant Peaks". -
500 BCE
Roman (500 b.c.- a.d 476)
Characteristics: Roman realism; practical and down to earth; the arch, realistic aspects of a persons appearance. Artists and major works: Augustus of Primaporta,,Colosseum, Trajan's Colum, Pantheon. Historical events- Julius Caesar assonated (44 b.c.), Agustus made Emperor (27 b.c.), Rome falls (a.d 476). Image- "Head of a Woman" 95/99 CE, Unidentified Roman Maker. She was made out of marble and is 11 inches high. -
476
Byzantine/Islamic (a.d 476- a.d 1453)
Characteristics: Byzantine Mosaics, Islamic architecture and maze-like designs.Artists and major work: Hagia Sophia, Andrei Rublev, Moseque of Cordoba, The Alhambra. Historical events- Justinian restores Western Roman Empire( a.d 533- a.d 562), Birth of Islam (a.d 610) and Muslim Conquests ( a.d 632- a.d 732). Image- Icon of the Trinity, the only work of art that was authenticated as entirely Andrei's .In the work of art he used asceticism and Byzantine mannerism. -
500
Middle Ages ( 500-1400)
Characteristics: Celtic art, Carolingian Renaissance, Romanesque, Gothic. Artists and major works: St. Sernin, Durham Cathedral, Notre Dame, Chartres, Cimabue, Duccio, Giotto. Historical Events: Black Death (1347-1351), Hundred Year's War (1337-1453). Image- Roman de la Rose ( Morgan Library and Museum, New York) -
Jan 1, 1400
Early/ High Renaissance (1400-1550)
Characteristics: Rebirth of classical culture. painting, sculptures and decorative art. Known for capturing the beauty, mystery and experiences of an individual of the natural world ( humanism). Artists and major works: Ghiberti's Doors, Brunelleschi, Donatello, Botticelli, Leonardo, Michelangelo, Raphael. Historical events: Gutenberg invents moveable type (1447), Martin Luther starts Reformation (1453). Image- Jan and Hubert van Eyck's " Ghent Altarpiece, 1432. -
Jan 1, 1430
Venetian/Nothern Renaissance (1430-1550)
Characteristics- Renaissance spreads north to France, the Low Countries, Poland, Germany and England. Artists and major works- Bellini, Giorgione, Titan, Durer, Bruegel, Bosch, Jan van Eyck, Rogier van der Weyden. Historical events: Copernicus proves the Earth revolves around the Sun (1543). Image- The Arnolfini Portrait. Made from tempera and oil on wood, 1434. This painting included many different clues and symbolism. -
Jan 1, 1527
Mannerism (1527-1580)
Characteristics: European art, Art that breaks the rules; artifice over nature. Artists and major works: Tintoretto, El Greco, Pontormo, Bronzino, Cellini. Historical event- Magellan circumnavigates the globe (1520-15220). Image- Madonna with Child and Donor a religious painting by Tintoretto. -
Baroque (1600-1750)
Characteristics: Art used as a weapon in religious wars, visual art used to guide the faithful; religious art being able to persuade and inspire people, genre painting. Artists and major works: Reubens, Rembrandt, Caravaggio, Palace of Versailles. Historical events: Thirty Years' War between Catholics and Protestants (1618-1648). Image: The Triumph of the Name of Jesus, Gesu ceiling fresco by Giovanni Battista Gaulli (1672-1685) -
Neoclassical (1750-1850)
Characteristics- Order, symmetry, architecture, theater, music. Art that recaptures Greco-Roman grace and beauty. A revival in literature. Artists and major works: Ingres, Greuze, Canova. Historical Events: Enlightenment (18th century), Industrial Revolution (1760-1850) Image-.Jacques-Louis David, Oath of the Horatii, 1784 (salon of 1785) oil on canvas. -
Romanticism (1780-1850)
Characteristics-imagination and individuality, capitalism, urban culture ,technology, secularism, optimism. Artists and major works: Francisco Goya,Casper Friedrich, Gericault, Delacroix, Turner, Benjamin West. Historical events: American Revolution (1775-1783), French Revolution ( 1789-1799), Napoleon crowned emperor of France (1803). Image-(Romanticism in Spain) Goya, Plate 43, " Los Caprichos" The sleep of reason produces monsters, 1799. -
Realism (1848-1900)
Characteristics:Modernization; light, food, heat, clothing. Working class and peasants were celebrated/recognized, work became about the artists personal life and their own perceptions, modern art, contemporary environment. Artists and major work: Corot, Courbet, Daumier, Millet. Historical events: European democratic revolutions of 1848, Modern Era; Industrial Revolution. Image- Les Demoiselles du bord de la Seine ( Young Ladies on the Bans of the Seine) oil on canvas ,1856 by Gustave Courbet. -
Impressionism (1865-1885)
Characteristics: Artists establish their own exhibitions ,capturing fleeting effects of natural light, Salons, vivid colors,brushstrokes Impressionists held eight exhibitions from 1874 through 1886. Artists and major work: Monet, Manet, Renoir, Pissarro, Cassatt, Morisot, Degas. Historical events :Franco-Prussiar War (1870-1871), Unification of Germany (1871). Image-Impression Sunrise, 1872, oil on canvas by Claude Monet. This painting was exhibited at the first Impressionist exhibition in 1874. -
Post Impressionism ( 1885-1910)
Characteristics-extended Impressionists, geometric forms, thick application of paint, real-life subject matter, unnatural or arbitrary color. Artists and major work: Van Gogh, Gauguin, Cezanne, Seurat. Historical events: Belle Epoque (late 19th century Golden Age), Japan defeats Russia ( 1905). Image-The Starry Night by Vincent van Gogh, 1889, oil on canvas which can be found in the Museum of Modern Art. -
Fauvism /Expressionism (1900-1935)
Characteristics: flat surfaces, harsh colors Fauvism; emotion distorting form, textures, patterns. Artists and major work: Matisse, Kirchner, Kandinsky, Marc. Historical event: Boxer Rebellion in China (1900), World War (1914-1918). Image- The Red Room, 1908-1909 by Henri Matisse. -
Cubism/ Futerism / Supremativism/ Constructivism (1905-1920)
Characteristics- new forms to express modern life, pre and post World War 1 art, avant-garde, sculpture, inspiration from music, literature and architecture, ideas developed by Cezanne. Artists and major works: Picasso, Braque, Leger, Boccioni, Severini, Malevich. Historical events: Russian Revolution (1917), American Women franchised (1920). Image- Les Demoiselles d'Avignon, 1907 by Pablo Picasso. Picasso used African culture for the first time with the two figures on the right. -
Dada and Surealism (1917-1950)
Characteristics- "ridiculous art", painting dreams, exploring the unconscious, cultural movement, photographic precision, cut-up technique, element of surprise. Artists and major works- Duchamp, Dali, Ernst, Magritte, de Chirico, Kahlo. Historical Events: The Great Depression (1929- 1938), World war 11 (1939-1945). Image - Max Ernst, The Elephant Celebes (1921), Tate, London.
