Renaissance to
Impressionism
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Renaissance → Mannerism→
16th Century Printmaking and
Painting→ Baroque→ Rococo→
American Painting→
Neoclassicism→ Romanticism→
Realism→ Impressionism
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Early Renaissance
1. Spiritual mysticism of Gothic era challenged
by logical thought
2. Humanism revived
3. Scientific naturalism
4. Individualism
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High Renaissance
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Cultural center moves from Florence to Rome
Stable without being static/dull
Varied without being confused
Harmony, order, clarity
Lucidity, proportion, balance
Calm, rational, idealized
Set standards that were followed in
European art for almost 400 years
 Donatello
(Early)
 Leonardo da Vinci (High)
 Michelangelo Buanarroti (High)
 Raphael Sanzio (High)
 Titian (High/Venetian)
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Characteristics
 Sophistication, elegance, poise
 Art of the human figure, almost exclusively
Emphasis on hands and feet
Compositions with numerous figures: crowded, intricate
Figures willfully distorted and elongated
Elegant, complex, twisted (strained) poses, juxtaposition
Positions and actions have little to do with subject matter
(emotional affect)
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Discrepancies of scale; unusual spatial effects
Unnatural color: vivid, pastel, often harsh
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Sudden awareness of advances made by Italian
Renaissance
Desire to assimilate this new style as rapidly as
possible
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Taste for dramatic action and violent narrative
scenes
Color and light dramatically contrasted and
surfaces are richly textured
Compositions are usually asymmetrical, sharp
diagonals
Landscape, genre, and still life become more
numerous
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Age of Enlightenment
Style expression of wit and frivolity, with
somber and satirical under currents
Typical picture depicts the aristocracy gathered
in parks and gardens.
Classical gods and goddess in amorous
pursuits
World of fantasy and grace
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New (neo) investigation of classical art of Rome
and Greece
Correctness: following the rules established by the
academics
Message of high moral order
Sharpness of drawing, crisp lines, firm outlines
Formal, restrained compositions
Style and subject matter: Classical Greece and
Rome
Reaction to earlier art styles( and courtly life-style)
Time of revolutions, American and French
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Subject matter: biblical and literary themes, the exotic
and remote
Emphasis on:
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Emotion (not reason)
Drama turbulent emotion
Complex compositions, asymmetry
Individual interpretations
Color
First artists to totally reject servitude to a patron of any
kind, influenced by themes from literature and or far
away places, including escapism, exciting-subjective
color, swirling diagonals, intense and sometimes
violent and unpredictable, aggressive-painterly
brushstrokes, hazy outlines
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Time of conflicts between the classes
Time of Industrial Revolution in England
Urban areas and their social ills
Time of Marx and Engels
Realist movement in art reaction against exotic
escapism of Romantics
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They preferred genre subjects, like leisure
activities, entertainment, landscape and cityscapes
They were influenced by Japanese prints and
photography more so than political events
They were more concerned with optical realism
and the natural properties of light
Watched light and how it changed with time of
day and during different weather conditions, and
seasons
They also studied artificial light
They were at first rejected by the French Academy
and the public. In response, held their own eight
exhibitions between 1874-1886
Georgia O’Keeffe: Early Abstraction
Pablo Picasso: Cubism and between
the wars
Vincent Van Gogh: PostImpressionism
Salvador Dali: Surrealism