Prehistoric Art
Paleolithic: Until about 10,000 BCE
Neolithic: About 10,000-3000 BCE
Key Subjects:
*Fertility
*Spiritual Figures/Deities
*Animals
Venus of Willendorf, 25,000 BCE
Cave wall painting, Lascaux, France, 15,000-13,000 BCE
Egypt
Old kingdom: 2940-2134 BCE
Middle kingdom: 2040-1640 BCE
New kingdom: 1550-1070 BCE
Major Themes:
*Monuments
*The Afterlife
*The Pharaoh
Pyramids at Giza, 2530-2570 BCE
Palette of Kind Narmer, 3000-2920 BCE
Mesopotamia
Major Themes:
*Cuneiform—”Wedge-shaped” writing system
*Royalty
*Religion
Ziggurat, Ur, 2100 BCE (Neo-Sumerian)
Victory Stele of Naram-Sin,
2254-2218 BCE
Stele with Law Code of
Hammurabi, 1780 BCE
Cycladic Art
Figures of musicians, Syros (Cyclades)
2500-2300 BCE
Greece
Mycenae: 2300-1100 BCE
Geometric period: 1100-700 BCE
Orientalizing Phase: 735-650 BCE
Archaic: 700-400 BCE
Classical:480-325 BCE
Hellenistic:323-330 BCE
Kouros, 575-550 BCE
“Archaic Smile”
2800-100 BCE
Exekias
“Achilles and ajax playing a dice game”
Black-figure amphora, 540-530 BCE
Myron, “Discus thrower,”
450 BCE
Polykleitos, “Spear
Bearer,” 450-440 BCE
Parthenon, Acropolis, Athens, Greece, 447-448 BCE
Republic of Rome:
200-27 BCE
Rome
750 BCE- 476 CE
Roman Empire:
until 476 CE
Augustus as general,
20 BCE
Portrait head of a Roman
patrician, 75-50 BCE
Equestrian Statue of Marcus
Aurelius, 175 CE
Pantheon, 118-125 CE
Colosseum, 72-80 CE
Basilica Nova (Basilica of Maxentius and Constantine,) 306-312 CE
Byzantine Art
Byzantine Empire: 500-1435 CE
Hagia Sophia, Constantinople (Now it’s Istanbul )
532-537
Mosaic details from the
interior of San Vitale,
Ravenna, Italy, 526-247
ICONS!
Japan
Jomon: 10, 500-300 BCE
Yayoi: 300 BCE-300 CE
Yayoi period Dotaku (cast-bronze bell)
Jomon cord-marked coil pottery
Other terms:
Ukiyo-e
Kami
India
Great Stupa, Sanchi, India
3rd century BCE--1st Century CE
Mandala—sacred diagram of the
universe
Vishvanatha Temple,
Khajuraho, India, 1000 CE
China
Army of the First Emperor of Qin, Lintong, China, 210 BCE
Yangshao culture (northeastern China)– 5000-3000 BCE
Earthenware and Stoneware pottery—
patterned slip decoration
Examples of Chinese painting,
calligraphy, and poetry—the three
are closely connected
Medieval Art and
Architecture
Romanesque: 1000-1150 CE
Gothic: 1100-1400 CE
Major themes:
Light
Monastic
traditions
The quest for
HEIGHT
Relics &
Pilgrimages
Illumination
Bayeux tapestry detail, 1073-1083 CE
Abbey Church of Ste. Foy—
Romanesque pilgrimage church
Reims Cathedral—Gothic cathedral
Islamic Art &
Architecture
Terms:
*Minaret
*Mihrab
Cordoba Mezquita, Spain
Stylized, flowing imagery from
nature; calligraphic words and
poetry
Decorations without human
figures!
The Italian
Renaissance
Early Renaissance: 1400-1450
High Renaissance: 1495-1520
Major Themes:
*Humanism
*Greek influence
*Naturalism; art and
architecture informed by
math and science
Madonna and Child Enthroned, Giotto, 1310
“David,” Michelangelo, 1504
“The Last Supper,” Leonardo da Vinci, 1495-97
The Northern
Renaissance
1350-1600
Major Themes:
*Emerging merchant class
*Oil paint
*Genre painting
“Arnolfini portrait,” Jan van Eyck,
1434
Mannerism
1525-1600
A departure from the naturalism
of the renaissance—Stylized,
elongated figures and vivid,
emotional colors.
“The Holy Trinity,”
El Greco, 1577-79
“Madonna of the Long Neck,”
Parmigianino, 1534-40
The Baroque
1590-1750
A response to the Protestant
reformation.
Characterized by strong
diagonals, tenebrism,
emotional intensity, and high
DRAMA.
“The Calling of St. Matthew,” Caravaggio, 1599-1600
Rococo Art
18th Century France
Delicate, playful, frivolous art
and interior design.
“The Swing,” Jean-Honore
Fragonard, 1767
Romanticism
1800-1850
Exploration of “The Sublime”
“Youth” from The Voyage of
Life, Thomas Cole, 1842
“Saturn Devouring one of his
Children,” Goya, 1819-23
Realism
Mid-19th Century
A reaction to romanticism—
commonplace scenes without
exaggerated emotion.
“The Stone-Breakers,” Gustave Courbet, 1849-50
Impressionism
Late 19th, Early 20th Century
Interested in
capturing the ‘feel’ of
a moment in time,
not the finer details
of a scene.
“Impression, Sunrise,” Claude Monet, 1872
Post-Impressionism
Late 19th, Early 20th Century
Expands upon and employs
Impressionist techniques, but
with different goals in mind—
Emphasis on unnatural colors,
geometric forms, and more
expressive content.
“Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La
Grande Jatte,” Georges Seurat, 1884-86
“Vision After the Sermon,” Paul
Gauguin, 1888
African Art
7000 BCE—earliest tribal rock drawings and
carvings, showing hunters and animals
Key
Characteristics:
*Emphasis on the
human figure
*Sculptural art
*Functional/Ritual
artworks
*Visual Abstraction
Terra Cotta sculptures
Nok culture: 500BCE-200CE
(Nigeria)
Wooden mask
Dogon culture, Mali
Cast bronze head
Yoruba culture, Nigeria
12th century CE
Cubism
1907-1920
“Violin and Candlestick,”
Georges Braque, 1910
Analytic vs. Synthetic
“Les Demoiselles d’Avignon,”
Pablo Picasso, 1907
Representation of multiple surfaces
and views of a subject in one image.
Dada
1916-1922
An anti-war movement that rejected and
mocked the standards of art through
multi-media, ‘anti-art’ productions.
“Fountain,” Marcel Duchamp, 1917
“Cut with the Dada Kitchen Knife through the
Last Weimar Beer-Belly Cultural Epoch in
Germany,” Hannah Hoch, 1919
Social Realism
1920-1940
Unglamorous images of social
injustice, poverty, and the
struggles of the working class.
(Not to be confused with
“Socialist Realism,”
institutionalized by Josef Stalin
at around the same time.)
“Migrant Mother,” Dorothea
Lange, 1936
Abstract Expressionism
1945-1960
*Color Field & Action Painting
*Emotionally charged, nonobjective work
“Red, Orange, tan, and Purple,” Mark
Rothko, 1954
“No. 5,” Jackson Pollock, 1948
Pop Art
“Drowning Girl,” Roy Lichtenstein, 1953
1950-1960’s
“One Hundred Cans,” Andy Warhol, 1962
Ironically employs imagery and
techniques from popular mass
culture, rather than the ‘elitist’
imagery associated with fine art.
Postmodern and
Contemporary Art
1960’s--present
“Postmodern” is used for
contemporary artworks that
arise from, or react to, trends in
modern art movements.
*Installation Art
*Conceptual Art
*Neo-Expressionism
*New Classicism
“One and Three Chairs,” Joseph Kosuth, 1965