Early Art
Approx. 20,000BC
Southern France,
20,000 years ago,
Lascaux France,
Hall of Bulls Cave Art
Priest paintings of animals they did not hunt, but watched, wanting to be like them.
Ice age for 15,000 years
Ancient Egyptian Art
Afterlife was topic of art
1370 BC Tomb paintings promoted success in afterlife
Messages have to be clear
Each part of figures are painted in clearest view (eyes from front, face from profile, body from
front, feet from profile)
Ancient Greece, 500BC
Human body is center of artists’ focus.
Last Greek paintings are on vases, like Achilles killing Penthelisea, Queen of the Amazons
Achilles fell in love with her as he killed her.
Roman Art
Pompeii covered by Vesuvius
Romans not quite as convincing as Greeks in painting figures
(The Baker and his Wife)
Scotland 800 AD
Dark Ages
Monks lived in fear of Vikings raids
Book of Quells
Book was cut down by a restorer, people signed it, business transactions recorded
France 1400 AD
Middle Ages, International Styles, Castles and battlements
Non-religious art reappears after dark ages. Castle grounds and peasants
Paintings for rich people and of their lives
(break)
Italy 1300
Giotto (Florence)
Shepherd boy painting Christian story on church walls (concerned with the people on
Earth)
The Resurrection
Medieval Europe
Duccio
Sienna’s champion painter who painted for victory
Gothic artist (which means heaven takes precedent of earth)
Ambosio Lawerenzeti
Painted in council room good and bad government in Sienna
Basilica De Francesco in Assisi
Gothic art of “who’s who” in Italy
Jan Van Eyck
First master of oils, on wood rather than the damp walls.
Portrait of the married couple exemplified wealth and success through
The swelling stomach, show bed, oranges, dress
Van der Weyden
Last Judgment
Painting in the hospital for sick to view for faith
Good at evoking emotion in the painting
Gothic paintings evoke fears of people for not having pure faith
Religious warnings and depictions of suffering
Gargoyles and devils