Early Modern Period (1500-1700) A Rake's Progress: The Gaming House by William Hogarth (1732-1735) A Rake’s Progress takes us away from France and away from the upper classes. This painting by William Hogarth shows the less refined society of Europe and comes to us from England. The painting was originally an engraving, in a series of eight showing the fall of an immoral man, or rake, into poverty and poor society. In this painting, the rake is in a gambling houe, losing his fortune among other immoral men. The fact that the paintings were engravings allowed them to be printed and widely circulated. This speaks to the growing popular culture that was emerging during the time. The field of early modern art history works on the artistic work of the early Renaissance up to classicism. Architecture, sculpture, and painting form the focus of teaching, especially the art landscape in Italy, France, Germany, and England from the fifteenth to the nineteenth centuries. The beginnings of the Early Modern Period can be seen around 1500 in the reshaping and expansion of the 1 worldview of the Middle Ages that was taking place. Despite symbolic dates such as the discovery of the New World by Christopher Columbus in 1492 and the beginning of the Reformation in 1517, this transformation did not take place abruptly but took the form of cumulative changes throughout the era. The smooth transition from the Middle Ages to the Modern Age is conventionally fixed on such events as the Reformation and the discovery of the "New World," which brought about the emergence of a new image of man and his world. Humanism, which spread out of Italy, also made an essential contribution to this with its promotion of a critical awareness of Christianity and the Church. The Reformation eventually broke the allembracing power of the Church. After the Thirty Years' War, the concept of a universal empire was also nullified. The era of the nation-state began, bringing with it the desire to build up political and economic power far beyond Europe. The Americas, Africa, and Asia provided regions of expansion for the Europeans. Several of the female artists included here, such as Artemisia Gentileschi, Elisabeth Sirani and Maria Sibylla Merian, were daughters of male artists, who trained directly with their fathers. Though female artists in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries were regarded as an exception to the rule, their careers were recognized by their male contemporaries. Modern art begins with the heritage of painters like Vincent van Gogh, Paul Cézanne, Paul Gauguin, Georges Seurat and Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec all of whom were essential for the development of modern art. References: Early modern art history | art history. (n.d.). Retrieved 29 September 2022, from https://kunstgeschichte.philhist.unibas.ch/en/home/divisions/early-modern-art-history/ History of art: Visual history of the world. (n.d.). Retrieved 29 September 2022, from http://www.all-art.org/Visual_History/254.htm Painting, sculpture, and architecture: Art of early modern europe · culture shock: An analysis of early modern europe through arts and literature · art in early modern europe: 1450— 1789. (n.d.). Retrieved 30 September 2022, from https://histangelproject.omeka.net/exhibits/show/cultureshock/art The early modern period. (n.d.). Retrieved 30 September 2022, from https://www.rct.uk/collection/themes/Trails/women-artists/the-early-modern-period
