Ap Art History Timeline

Apollo 11 Stones

25,500 BCE

Approximately 25,000 years ago, in a rock shelter in the Huns Mountains of Namibia on the southwest coast of Africa (today part of the Ai-Ais Richtersveld Transfrontier Park), an animal was drawn in charcoal on a hand-sized slab of stone. The stone was left behind, over time becoming buried on the floor of the cave by layers of sediment and debris until 1969.

Global PreHistory (30,000 BCE - 2500 BCE)

Period: 25,000 BCE to 2500 BCE

• cave painting
• fertility goddesses
• megalithic structures

Running Horned Woman

6000 BCE

The Running Horned Woman, the title by which the painting is commonly known today, was found in a massif so secluded and so difficult to access that Lhote’s team concluded that the collection of shelters was likely a sanctuary and the female figure—“the most beautiful, the most finished and the most original”—a goddess.

Ancient Near East (Mesopotamian and Sumerian Art)

Period: 3500 BCE to 539 BCE

• Law and Order represented
• warrior art
• narration / story
• gateway figures called lamassus were prominent important parts of
life (& art)

Sumerians invent Cuneiform

3400 BCE

Ancient Egypt

Period: 3100 BCE to 30 BCE

symbolic representative of divine power (sculptural or bas relief)
• Gods portrayed as combinations of animal forms or natural elements
• hieroglyphs were incorporated into art
• figures were rigid with one foot forward and hands clenched by the side
• often made to show permanence and forever-ness
• over time art begins to portray more emotion
• elongated forms and rounded features start to be portrayed
• use of cannon of proportions based on a grid
units to top of head)

Palette of King Narmer

3000 BCE

The beautifully carved palette, 63.5 cm (more than 2 feet) in height and made of smooth greyish-green siltstone, is decorated on both faces with detailed low relief. These scenes show a king, identified by name as Narmer, uniting upper and lower Egypt

Aegean Art (Cycladic, Minoan, Mycenaean)

Period: 3000 BCE to 1100 BCE

• Cycladic -
• geometrically shaped statues / use of geometry on pottery
• Minoan -
• fluid figures and dynamic movement
• delicate figures where gender is easy to recognize
• men - darker; women - lighter
• overall mood is cheerful and light and draws inspiration from nature
• Mycenaean -
• more sturdy figures
• realistic depictions of the world
• portraiture aimed to capture a likeness
• architecture was massive and strong

Pyramid of Khafre and the Great Sphinx

2520 BCE

The second great pyramid of Giza, that was built by Khufu’s second son Khafre, has a section of the outer casing that still survives at the very top. Right next to the causeway leading from Khafre’s valley temple to the mortuary temple sits the first truly colossal sculpture in Egyptian history: the Great Sphinx. This close association indicates that this massive depiction of a recumbent lion with the head of a king was carved for Khafre.

The Law Code Stele of King Hammurabi

1754 BCE

Ambum Stone

1500 BCE

The Ambum Stone is a masterfully crafted stone carving, created around 3,500 years ago in the highlands of the island we now know as New Guinea. Who actually carved it and for what original purpose is not known. Nevertheless, the Ambum Stone had a life as a religious object for a group of people in Papua New Guinea before becoming an aesthetically beautiful and intriguing artifact of exotica in a Western gallery.

The Death Mask of Tutankhamun

1323 BCE

Terracotta fragments by the Lapita people

1000 BCE

Archaeologists now believe that, somewhere between 4,000 and 3,500 years ago, a group of people who had sailed from the area around Taiwan in South East Asia arrived by canoe to the beaches of the Bismarck Archipelago. The new arrivals, who we now know as the Lapita people (named for the beach on the island of New Caledonia where a large number of pottery sherds were found), spoke a different language than the people they would have encountered there. These people lived on the island New Guinea.

Etruscan

Period: 950 BCE to 300 BCE

highly animated and fluid
• sophisticated culture who enjoyed wealth and expensive tastes

Olmec Stone Mask

900 BCE

This mask was probably worn around the neck as a pendant and may have given the wearer a new identity, perhaps that of an ancestor or a god. It was made by the Olmecs, the earliest known settled civilization of Central America.These and the other Olmec centers were well planned and included many of the features that would be associated with later civilization in Central America including the Mexica (Aztecs) and Maya.

Ancient Rome

Period: 753 BCE to 476

• greatly improved infrastructure and architecture including roads,
aqueducts, arches, vaults, columns and civic buildings
• mythological scenes, landscapes and city plazas
• use of linear perspective & vanishing points
• use of foreshortening and atmospheric perspective
• idealized figures (according to the Greeks cannon of proportions)
• examples of what Roman citizens should aim to be like
• use of contrapposto stance
• heroic subjects and poses
• use of iconography instead of naturalism

Lamassu from the citadel of Sargon II

720 BCE

Lamassu (winged human-headed bulls possibly lamassu or shedu) from the citadel of Sargon II; the protector of the palace gates with godlike implications

Indian, Chinese, and Japanese

Period: 653 BCE to 1900

Serene, meditative art, and Arts of the Floating World

Archaic Greece

Period: 600 BCE to 480 BCE

Archaic -
• starts to break the mold and show movement
• reflection of willingness to show mortal humans instead of divine
figures
• expression is also shown
• first hint of “reverence for the beauty of mankind”

Buddha is born

563 BCE

Among the founders of the world's major religions, the Buddha was the only teacher who did not claim to be other than an ordinary human being. Other teachers were either God or directly inspired by God. The Buddha was simply a human being and he claimed no inspiration from any God or external power. He attributed all his realization, attainments and achievements to human endeavor and human intelligence. A man and only a man can become a Buddha.

Apadana, Persepolis

520 BCE

Famous for monumental architecture, Persian kings established numerous monumental centers, among those is Persepolis (today, in Iran). The great audience hall of the Persian kings Darius and Xerxes present a visual microcosm of the Achaemenid empire—making clear, through sculptural decoration, that the Persian king ruled over all of the subjugated ambassadors and vassals (who are shown bringing tribute in an endless eternal procession).

Sarcophagus of the Spouses

520 BCE

The sarcophagus depicts a reclining man and woman on its lid. The pair rests on highly stylized cushions, just as they would have done at an actual banquet. The body of the sarcophagus is styled so as to resemble a kline (dining couch). Both figures have highly stylized hair, in each case plaited with the stylized braids hanging rather stiffly at the sides of the neck. In the female’s case the plaits are arranged so as to hang down in front of each shoulder. Uses the Greek Archaic smile.

Athens defeat Persia at Marathon

490 BCE

Classical Greece

Period: 490 BCE to 323 BCE

known for use of contrapposto
• cannon of proportions was developed that reflected the “ideal” human
form (head = 1/8th of total body height)
• math was used to define perfection in all forms (architecture and art)
• focus on beauty, symmetry and balance

Niobid Krater

470 BCE

Used to hold water and wine and depicts a scene involving the Greek hero Herakles

Doryphoros, or the Spear Bearer

450 BCE

Classical Greek art with the use of contrapposto. Originally bronze. Used Greek canon, or the rule for a standard of beauty developed for artists to follow. Sculpted by Polykleitos.

The Parthenon

438 BCE

The temple known as the Parthenon was built on the Acropolis of Athens between 447 and 438 B.CE. It was part of a vast building program masterminded by the Athenian statesman Pericles. Inside the temple stood a colossal statue representing Athena, patron goddess of the city. The statue, which no longer exists, was made of gold and ivory and was the work of the celebrated sculptor Pheidias.

Byzantine, Medieval & Islamic

Period: 395 BCE to 1050

• mosaics were very popular and used instead of carved decor (esp. inchurches)
• buildings used more complex geometry
• complex domes were built, but not very high (use of pendentives & squinches)
• central plan churches were introduced
• formal, severe, abstract, otherworldly
• figures were floating, not standing on the ground
• elongated, unnatural and stylized
• little representation of emotions
• curved body
• limited range of gestures
• lack of modeling, depth or perspective

Hellenistic Greece

Period: 323 BCE to 31 BCE

• more developed emotion
• dramatic in representation
• lots of movement and contortion
• very realistic with use of negative space (sculpture in the round)
• environment is shown through visual elements

Terracotta Warriors from Qin Shihuang's tomb

221 BCE

In order to achieve immortality, he built himself a tomb—a vast underground city guarded by a life-size terracotta army including warriors, infantrymen, horses, chariots and all their attendant armor and weaponry. These 7,000+ statues were believed to protect the emperor in the afterlife; the stone statues ended a hundred-year-old tradition of human sacrifice. Before terracotta statues were built, people would be buried alive with the king to serve him in the afterlife.

Great Altar of Zeus and Athena at Pergamon

200 BCE

Column of Trajan

113 BCE

The iconographic scheme of the column illustrates Trajan’s wars in Dacia. The lower half of the column corresponds to the first Dacian War (c. 101-102 C.E.), while the top half depicts the second Dacian War (c. 105-106 C.E.). The first narrative event shows Roman soldiers marching off to Dacia, while the final sequence of events portrays the suicide of the enemy leader, Decebalus, and the mopping up of Dacian prisoners by the Romans. Many scholars believe the frieze was initially painted.

The Colosseum (or Flavian Amphitheater)

70 BCE

Built of travertine, tuff, and brick-faced concrete,[1] it is the largest amphitheater ever built. The Colosseum is situated just east of the Roman Forum. The Colosseum could hold, it is estimated, between 50,000 and 80,000 spectators; it was used for gladiatorial contests and public spectacles such as mock sea battles, animal hunts, executions, re-enactments of famous battles, and dramas based on Classical mythology.

Augustus of Primaporta

20 BCE

In this portrait, Augustus shows himself as a great military victor and a staunch supporter of Roman religion. The statue also foretells the 200 year period of peace that Augustus initiated, called the Pax Romana; Augustus stands in a contrapposto pose; resembles Doryphoros; the message of the Augustus of Primaporta is clear: he is an excellent orator and military victor with the youthful and perfect body of a Greek athlete.

The Birth of Jesus

4 BCE

The Messiah of the Jews was born out of miraculous conception from Mother Mary.

The Death of Jesus

30

The death of Jesus, the most influential event in history, sparks a new religion known as Christianity

The Pantheon

113

The building is circular with a portico of large granite Corinthian columns (eight in the first rank and two groups of four behind) under a pediment. A rectangular vestibule links the porch to the rotunda, which is under a coffered concrete dome, with a central opening (oculus) to the sky. Almost two thousand years after it was built, the Pantheon's dome is still the world's largest unreinforced concrete dome. Inspired by the Greek Parthenon

The Catacombs of Priscilla

190

Originally dug out from the second to fifth centuries, it began as a series of underground burial chambers, of which the most important are the “arenarium” or sand-quarry, the cryptoporticus, (an underground area to get away from the summer heat), and the hypogeum with the tombs of the Acilius Glabrio family. The noblewoman Priscilla, who granted the Church use of the property, was a member of this family

Hagia Sophia

537

Hagia Sophia combines a basilica and a centralized building in a wholly original manner, with a huge main dome supported on pendentives and two semidomes. In plan, the building is almost square. There are three aisles separated by columns with galleries above and great marble piers rising up to support the dome. The walls above the galleries and the base of the dome are pierced by windows, which in the glare of daylight obscure the supports and give the impression that the canopy floats on air.

Basilica of San Vitale

547

The building combines Roman elements: the dome, shape of doorways, and stepped towers; with Byzantine elements: polygonal apse, capitals, narrow bricks, and an early example of flying buttresses. The church is most famous for its wealth of Byzantine mosaics, the largest and best preserved outside of Constantinople. The belltower has four bells, the tenor one dating from the 16th century. According to legends, the church was erected on the site of the martyrdom of Saint Vitalis.

The Kaaba

631

The Kaaba, meaning cube in Arabic, is a square building elegantly draped in a silk and cotton veil. Located in Mecca, Saudi Arabia, it is the holiest shrine in Islam. All Muslims aspire to undertake the hajj, or the annual pilgrimage, to the Kaaba once in their lives if they are able. Prayer five times a day and the hajj are two of the five pillars of Islam, the most fundamental principles of the faith. Upon arriving in Mecca, pilgrims gather in the courtyard around the Kaaba.

Bamiyan Buddhas

650

Known collectively as the Bamiyan Buddhas, the two monumental sculptures have amazed both Buddhist and non-Buddhist visitors for more than a thousand years. Like many of the world’s great ancient monuments, little is known about who commissioned the Bamiyan Buddhas or the sculptors who carved them. However, their very existence points to the importance of the Buddhist faith and the Bamiyan Valley during this period. Located in Bamiyan, Afghanistan.

Dome of the Rock

691

This remarkable building is not a mosque, as is commonly assumed and scholars still debate its original function and meaning. The Dome is located on the Haram al-Sharif, an enormous open-air platform. Few places are as holy for Christians, Jews, and Muslims as the Haram al-Sharif. It is the Temple Mount, the site of the Jewish second temple. At the center of the Dome of the Rock sits a large rock, which is believed to be the location where Abraham was prepared to sacrifice his son Ismail

The Lindisfarne Gospels

715

The book is a spectacular example of Insular or Hiberno-Saxon artworks produced in the British Isles between 500-900 C.E., a time of devastating invasions and political upheavals. Monks read from it during rituals at their Lindisfarne Priory on Holy Island, a Christian community. Extremely expensive as materials were hard to come by and artists had to work for long periods to complete. Geometric patterns of snakes and other animal life fill Matthews page.

Todai-ji

743

When completed in the 740s, Todai-ji (or “Great Eastern Temple”) was the largest building project ever on Japanese soil. Its creation reflects the complex intermingling of Buddhism and politics in early Japan. When it was rebuilt in the 12th century, it ushered in a new era of Shoguns and helped to found Japan’s most celebrated school of sculpture. The roots of Todai-ji are found in the arrival of Buddhism in Japan in the 6th century. Buddhism made its way from India along the Silk Route.

Yaxchilán Lintel 16

752

Commissioned by Bird Jaguar IV, the lintel depicts Bird Jaguar IV as he dominates a captive. Scenes representing the public display of captives occur frequently in Maya art. The capture of sacrificial victims was an essential aspect of Maya warfare, as they were necessary for many rituals. Accession rituals, for example, entailed the offering of dedicatory human sacrifices to mark the enthronement of a new ruling lord.

Lakshmi temple, Sculpture of a woman removing a thorn from her foot

954

Images of beautiful women like this one from the northwest exterior wall of the Lakshmana Temple at Khajuraho in India have captivated viewers for centuries. Depicting idealized female beauty was important for temple architecture and considered auspicious, even protective. Texts written for temple builders describe different “types” of women to include within a temple’s sculptural program, and emphasize their roles as symbols of fertility, growth, and prosperity.

Travelers by Streams and Mountains by Fan Kuan

1000

Long before Western artists considered landscape anything more than a setting for figures, Chinese painters had elevated landscape as a subject in its own right. China’s natural landscape has played an important role in the shaping of the Chinese mind and character. From very early times, the Chinese viewed mountains as sacred and imagined them as the abode of immortals. The term for landscape painting (shanshui hua) in Chinese is translated as “mountain water painting.”

Shiva as Lord of the Dance

1000

Its important to keep in mind that the bronze Shiva as Lord of the Dancei s a sacred object that has been taken out of its original context—in fact, we don't even know where this particular sculpture was originally venerated. It is important to remember that this particular statue was intended to be movable, which explains its moderate size and sizeable circular base, ideal for lifting and hoisting onto a shoulder.

Mesa Verde cliff dwellings

1000

Beginning after 1000-1100 CE, they built more than 600 structures into the cliff faces of the Four Corners region of the United States: the southwestern corner of Colorado, northwestern corner of New Mexico, northeastern corner of Arizona, and the southeastern corner of Utah. These structures were mostly residential but some were used for storage and ritual. Ancestral Puebloans occupied the Mesa Verde region from about 450 CE to 1300 CE.

Romanesque

Period: 1050 to 1201

• first style to spread across all of Catholic EU
• Massive quality, very thick walls, rounded arches, groin vaults, large towers and regular/symmetrical plans, use of piers, introduction of bays and ambulatory chapels to host large groups of pilgrims
• followed Byzantine iconographic models for subject matter
• illuminated manuscripts (included bibles)
• scenes from the life of Christ, the Last Judgement and other biblical subject matter

Great Serpent Mound

1070

The Great Serpent Mound in rural, southwestern Ohio is the largest serpent effigy in the world. Numerous mounds were made by the ancient Native American cultures that flourished along the fertile valleys of the Mississippi, Ohio, Illinois, and Missouri Rivers a thousand years ago, though many were destroyed as farms spread across this region during the modern era. They invite us to contemplate the rich spiritual beliefs of the ancient Native American cultures that created them.

Angkor Wat

1116

Angkor Wat in Siem Reap, Cambodia is the largest religious monument in the world. Angkor Wat, translated from Khmer (the official language of Cambodia) literally means “City Temple.” Angkor Wat is the greatest religious construction project in Southeast Asia. Angkor Wat is dedicated to the Hindu god Vishnu who is one of the three principal gods in the Hindu pantheon (Shiva and Brahma are the others). Hindu temples are not a place for religious congregation; instead; they are homes of the god.

Chartres Cathedral

1145

The building's exterior is dominated by heavy flying buttresses which allowed the architects to increase the window size significantly, while the west end is dominated by two contrasting spires – a 105-meter (349 ft) plain pyramid completed around 1160 and a 113-meter early 16th-century Flamboyant spire on top of an older tower. Equally notable are the three great façades, each adorned with hundreds of sculpted figures illustrating key theological themes and narratives.

Nan Madol

1200

Once the political and ceremonial center for the ruling chiefs of the Sau Deleur dynasty, Nan Madol is a complex of close to 100 artificial rectilinear islets spread over 200 acres that are thought to have housed up to 1000 people. Its basalt and coral rock structures were built from the 13th to the 17th century by a population of fewer than 30,000 people and their total weight is estimated at 750,000 metric tons. (12th-17th century)

Easter Island Moai Statues

1200

The island is known to its inhabitants as Rapa Nui. The moai were probably carved to commemorate important ancestors and were made from around 1000 C.E. until the second half of the seventeenth century. Over a few hundred years the inhabitants of this remote island quarried, carved and erected around 887 moai. The size and complexity of the moai increased over time, and it is believed that Hoa Hakananai'a (below) dates to around 1200 C.E. Made of basalt and soft volcanic tuff.

Gothic

Period: 1200 to 1400

change from heaviness, confined spaces (Romanesque) to lighter, airy
spaces
* flying buttress was developed that helped “lessen the load” of thick
walls
* walls could house windows because of the lack of massive weight of
walls; introduction of rose windows
* maintained traditional plan of a basilica (central nave flanked by aisles;
with use of ambulatory chapels)
* Use of pointed arches, rib vaults, use of more sculpture on the façade

Night Attack on the Sanjô Palace

1350

Appears on a hand scroll and is an example of otoko-e (men's paintings). Designed to be unrolled in sections for close‐up viewing, it shows the basic features of this pictorial form: a bird’s eye view of action moves right‐to‐left (between a written introduction and conclusion). In vibrant outline and washes of color, the story (one event in an insurrection—more on this below) unfolds sequentially, so the main characters appear multiple times.

Italian Renaissance (Early 1400-1500) (High 1500-1520)

Period: 1400 to 1520

HIGHLY influenced by classical styles in literature, philosophy, art & architecture
* Humanism emerges
* Liner perspective is developed and widely used
* developments in the study of human anatomy allows for artists to realistically render them in work
* symmetry and balance are stressed in architecture
* Patrons drive the art scene
* mathematics is HUGELY important (golden ratio, geometric designs, symmetry, engineering)

The Forbidden City

1420

The Forbidden City is a large precinct of red walls and yellow glazed roof tiles located in the heart of China’s capital, Beijing. As its name suggests, the precinct is a micro-city in its own right. Measuring 961 meters in length and 753 meters in width, the Forbidden City is composed of more than 90 palace compounds including 98 buildings and surrounded by a moat as wide as 52 meters. The Forbidden City was the political and ritual center of China for over 500 years.

Northern Renaissance & Spain (1420-1600)

Period: 1420 to 1600

secular (non-religious) works of art and architecture inspired by Gothic
architecture become prominent toward the end of this period
* printmaking is highly developed and used to mass-produce art
printing allows for mass production of bibles and other books that are
hand embellished
* Woodcut, engravings, etching, etc. all developed
* oil paint is developed and is used widely (spreads to Italy eventually)
* Triptych and altarpieces are common commissions for artists

David by Donatello

1440

Only 5 feet tall. The intimacy of David is not simply a result of the nudity, but also of the emotional experience, Donatello renders through the face and even the stance of the body. One would expect rather a triumphal victorious figure, maybe holding the sword and the enemy's severed head aloft... Instead, here is a thoughtful, quiet, contemplative face. The subject of this sculpture is David and Goliath, from the Old Testament. Made of Bronze.

Gutenberg invents the movable type

1447

Machu Picchu

1450

It was built as a royal estate for the first Inka emperor, Pachacuti Inka Yupanqui. The location was approximately three days’ walk from the Inka capital of Cusco, with a pleasant climate. It was intended as a place where the Inka emperor and his family could host feasts, perform religious ceremonies, and administer the affairs of the empire. The site was chosen for its relationship to the Andean landscape, including sight lines to other mountain peaks which are considered ancestral deities.

All-T’oqapu Tunic

1450

One of the engines that drove the empire was the exchange of high-status goods. Precious materials gold from remote mountain mines were shaped into high-status objects. These were given to local leaders as part of a system of imposed obligations that gave the Inka the right to claim portions of local produce and labor as their due. Along with jewels, political feasts and gifts of finely-made textiles would also cement these unequal relationships.

Columbus discovers the Americas

1492

The Last Supper by Leonardo da Vinci

1498

Leonardo’s Last Supper is dense with symbolic references. Attributes identify each apostle. Judas Iscariot is recognized both as he reaches to toward a plate beside Christ and because he clutches a purse containing his reward for identifying Christ to the authorities the following day. Peter, who sits beside Judas, holds a knife in his right hand, foreshadowing that Peter will sever the ear of a soldier as he attempts to protect Christ from arrest. Made of tempera and oil on plaster.

The Coyolxauhqui Stone

1500

School of Athens by Raphael

1511

The painting represents the greatest mathematicians, philosophers and scientists from classical antiquity together sharing their ideas and learning from each other. These figures all lived at different times, but here they are gathered together under one roof. The two thinkers in the center, Aristotle (on the right) and Plato (on the left, pointing up) have been enormously important to Western thinking generally, and in different ways, their philosophies were incorporated into Christianity.

Mannerism

Period: 1520 to 1600

• very complex, crowded images
• no order or organization (eye travels around the picture plane)
• intellectual (using perspective to play with illusion)
• exaggeration of forms and lots of symbolism
• ambiguous and puzzling (figures stacked up in a pile)
• sculpture is in the round - showing dramatic movement
• use of negative space

Venus of Urbino by Titian

1534

The painting depicts a nude young woman, traditionally identified with the goddess Venus, reclining on a couch or bed in the sumptuous surroundings of a Renaissance palace. Here, Titian has domesticated Venus by moving her to an indoor setting, engaging her with the viewer, making her sensuality explicit. Devoid as it is of any classical trappings – Venus displays none of the attributes of the goddess she is supposed to represent – the painting is sensual and unapologetically erotic.

Frontispiece of the Codex Mendoza

1541

Around 1541, the first viceroy of New Spain, Antonio de Mendoza, commissioned a codex to record information about the Aztec empire. The codex, now known as the Codex Mendoza, contained information about the lords of Tenochtitlan, the tribute paid to the Aztecs, and an account of life. The artist or artists were indigenous, and the images were often annotated in Spanish by a priest that spoke Nahuatl, the language spoken by the Nahuas (the ethnic group to whom the Aztecs belonged).

Benin Plaque: Equestrian Oba and Attendants

1550

This remarkable brass plaque, dated between 1550-1680, depicts an Oba (or king) and his attendants from the Benin Empire—a powerful kingdom located in present-day Nigeria. We know that the central figure is an Oba because of his distinctive coral beaded regalia. Also, attendants hold shields above his head, either to protect him from attack or possibly from the hot, tropical sun. This was a privilege only afforded to an Oba. The figures around him are in a hieratic scale.

The Calling of Saint Matthew by Carvaggio

1600

Depicts the moment at which Jesus Christ inspires Matthew to follow him. Christ is walking in on the right, Saint Peter is in the front. Christ is the younger, noble one with his arms outstretched. It is important to note Christ is not shown in heaven, not showing him in an elevated, plasticized environment but in a normal setting: a tavern or bar. Manipulates light to signify Christ's importance. Uses tenebrism.

Baroque

Period: 1600 to 1750

• complex, lots of movement, interaction with the viewer
• frilly and use of a lot of complex details
• used curved lines and in architecture undulating facades to “play” with the way light interacts and bounces off surfaces
• Church is still in charge (still a lot of religious work)
• Counter-reformation pushes flashy, in-your-face art that interacts with the viewer
• things are not contained within the frame / and protrudes into the viewer’s space
• tenebrism

The Taj Mahal

1623

Shah Jahan was the fifth ruler of the Mughal dynasty. During his third regnal year, his wife, known as Mumtaz Mahal, died due to complications arising from the birth of their fourteenth child. Deeply saddened, the emperor started planning the construction of a suitable, permanent resting place for his beloved wife almost immediately. The result of his efforts and resources was the creation of what was called the Luminous Tomb and is what the world knows today as the Taj Mahal.

The Ecstasy of Saint Teresa

1647

Depicts St. Teresa being stabbed by an angel multiple times with a golden spear. One the angel removed the spear, she was "consumed by the great love of God. The pain was so severe that it made me [St. Teresa] utter several moans." When we walk toward the chapel, we see what look like theater boxes on the walls on either side. In these boxes, seated figures appear to be talking and gesturing to each other. Perhaps they are kneeling in prayer as they watch the scene displayed before them.

Chateu de Versailles

1682

Over and above all, Versailles was meant to emphasize Louis’s importance. After all, this is the guy that called himself The Sun King; as in, everything revolves around me. “L’état, c’est moi” (I am the state), he said, famously. By building Versailles, Louis shifted the seat of French government away from the feuding, gossiping noble families in Paris. He had the whole palace and its massive gardens built along an East/West axis so the sun would rise and set in alignment with his home.

The Virgin of Guadalupe by Miguel González

1698

Devotion to the Virgin of Guadalupe increased dramatically in Mexico during the seventeenth century with the publication of books printed in her honor and greater support from the Creole population. One of the earliest books recording the apparitions was the Nican mopohua, written in Nahuatl in the sixteenth century and widely distributed in the following century. Creoles began to identify with an “American” or Mexican identity and supported the Virgin of Guadalupe as a unique americano miracle.

Rococo

Period: 1723 to 1774

French for “pebble / shell” - looks overly frilly and flowery
* no straight lines used, even greater focus on undulating curves and
dynamic movement and LOTS OF STUFF EVERYWHERE
* REALLY brings together painting, architecture and sculpture
* lots of gold and pastel colors used, overly decorative
* reflects interest in aristocratic society (elite)
* tries to incorporate many styles into one
* “fête galante” term used to describe typical Rococo paintings - meaning
elegant feast in French

Industrial Revolution begins

1760

Neoclassical

Period: 1780 to 1820

replaces Rococo as the Enlightenment makes people reject the portrayal
of aristocrats and royal people
* very dramatic and inspired by the ruins in Pompeii
* Industrial Revolution introduces new technology to cast iron, medicine
and science advances and population explodes
* art academies become popular (study art in the classical “proper”
tradition)
* Use of classical art and architecture for inspiration, but is considered

Oath of the Horatii by David

1785

It depicts three men, brothers, saluting toward three swords held up by their father as the women behind him grieve. Similar subjects had always been seen in the Salons before but the physicality and intense emotion of the painting was new and undeniable. The revolutionary painting changed French art. The story of Oath of the Horatii came from a Roman legend first recounted by the Roman historian Livy involving a conflict between the Romans and a rival group from nearby Alba.

George Washington by Houdon

1792

While in Virginia, Houdon created a slightly idealized and classicized bust portrait of the future first president. Unfortunately, Washington disliked this classicized aesthetic and insisted on being shown wearing contemporary attire rather than the garments of a hero from ancient Greece or Rome. With clear instructions from the sitter to be depicted in contemporary dress, Houdon returned to Paris in December 1785 and set to work on a standing full-length statue carved from Carrara marble.

Romanticism

Period: 1800 to 1850

• glorification of spirituality over science (very dramatic)
• irrational (celebrates emotions, the unconscious, dreams and fantasies)
• focus on “feeling” rather than “knowing”
• glorified the conceptual
• extreme emotions (love, hate, anger, pain, glory…)
• extreme natural conditions (blizzards, storms, fires are all portrayed)
• photography becomes a useful tool for artists (but remains separate art form)

Realism

Period: 1800 to 1900

• Inspired by positivism
• focused on art that represented things you could experience with the five senses
• peasants depicted within their daily life (lower class) as dignified (upper-class was missing something )
• one with the earth
• lots of browns and ochre are used

Fauvism and Expressionism

Period: 1800 to 1900

• distinct groups are formed (The Bridge, Blue Rider, and other independent expressionists)
• art that expresses feelings instead of concrete objects
• exaggerated forms and colors to evoke specific emotions
• Started in the North of Europe (Germany)
• The Bridge: saw themselves as a bridge from traditional to modern painting and used the same ideas as fauvists (contrasting color); liked nudes & nature; for style; belief that non-western art gave access to a more authentic state of being

Monticello by Jefferson

1806

Thus, when Jefferson began to design his own home, he turned not to the architecture then in vogue around the Williamsburg area, but instead to the classically inspired architecture of Antonio Palladio and James Gibbs. Rather than place his plantation house along the bank of a river—as was the norm for Virginia's landed gentry during the eighteenth century—Jefferson decided instead to place his home, which he named Monticello atop a solitary hill just outside Charlottesville, Virginia.

Liberty Leading the People by Delacroix

1830

Delacroix’s painting, Liberty Leading the People, at first seems to be overpowered by chaos, but on closer inspection, it is a composition filled with subtle order. The first thing a viewer may notice is the monumental—and nude to the waist—female figure. Her yellow dress has fallen from her shoulders, as she holds a bayonetted musket in her left hand and raises the tricolor—the French national flag—with her right.

Under the Wave off Kanagawa by Hokusai

1830

Under the Wave off Kanagawa is part of a series of prints titled Thirty-six views of Mount Fuji, which Hokusai made between 1830 and 1833. It is a polychrome woodblock print. All of the images in the series feature a glimpse of the mountain. The threatening wave is pictured just moments before crashing down on to three fishing boats below. The mountain, made tiny by the use of perspective, appears as if it too will be swallowed up by the wave.

Phoyography

Period: 1839 to 2019

Camera Obscura was used as early as 1600s, but photography wasn't
developed until late 1800’s with the Daguerreotype.
* Wasn’t considered art for a very long time, but was experimented with as a means to document and record news, life, scientific developments and a variety of other uses.

Impressionism

Period: 1862 to 1886

started by avant-garde artists (a true modern movement)
* looked to capture the way light played off the surface of things
* realization that shadows too contained color and times of the day and
seasons changed the appearance of things
* worked in plein-air
* focus on still-life and landscapes (some had figures)
* influenced by Japanese art (use of solid blocks of color, flatness, and
off-center compositions)
* proud of being “anti-academic”

Olympia, Manet

1863

Olympia's confrontational gaze caused shock and astonishment when the painting was first exhibited because a number of details in the picture identified her as a prostitute. The painting is modeled after Titian's Venus of Urbino. Whereas the left hand of Titian's Venus is curled and appears to entice, Olympia's left hand appears to block, which is symbolic of her sexual independence from men and her role as a prostitute, granting or restricting access to her body in return for payment.

The Gare Saint-Lazare by Claude Monet

1877

Light—the dominant formal element in so many Impressionist paintings—is given particularly close attention in The Gare Saint-Lazare, the Auteuil Line. Here, as in many of the Impressionists’ most celebrated paintings, Monet shows a bright day and labors to reproduce the closely observed effects of pure sunlight. The billowing clouds of steam add to the effect, creating layers of light that fill the canvas.

Power Figure (Nkisi n’kondi) [Kongo peoples]

1880

A nkisi (plural: minkisi) is loosely translated as a "spirit" yet it is represented as a container of sacred substances which are activated by supernatural forces that can be summoned into the physical world. Visually, these minkisi can be as simple as pottery or vessels containing medicinal herbs and other elements determined to be beneficial in curing physical illness or alleviating social ills.

PostImpressionism/Symbolism Movement

Period: 1880 to 1905

Post Impression:
combined impressionism’s use of color, light, shading with analysis of the structure
* more “solid & durable” impressionism
* move toward abstraction, but keeping with solid forms (exploration of structure)
* impasto technique (heavily applied paint to create texture that is seen)
Symbolism:
wanted to depict the unseen forces of life (things that are deeply felt more than seen)
* embraced a mystical philosophy (dreams and inner experiences =inspiration)

The Starry Night by Van Gogh

1889

The curving, swirling lines of hills, mountains, and sky, the brilliantly contrasting blues and yellows, the large, flame-like cypress trees, and the thickly layered brushstrokes of The Starry Night are engrained in the minds of many as an expression of the artist’s turbulent state-of-mind. Evidence suggests that his Starry Night was created largely if not exclusively in the studio. Painted from the room inside his asylum room.

Bundu / Sowei Helmet Mask (Mende peoples)

1900

Dark, painted wood material forms a head that resembles a thimble.
A very small face with small features is central and towards the bottom of the head. A sharp point extends up from the face, possibly forming the forehead. Geometric designs surround the pointed forehead on either side.Folds extend from the face to the back of the head. A ring separates the geometric designs from the top of the head.

Great Mosque of Djenné

1907

Made of mud, The Great Mosque that we see today is its third reconstruction, completed in 1907. According to legend, the original Great Mosque was probably erected in the 13th century, when King Koi Konboro—Djenné’s twenty-sixth ruler and its first Muslim sultan (king)—decided to use local materials and traditional designs to build a place of Muslim worship in town. King Konboro’s successors and the town’s rulers added two towers to the mosque and surrounded the main building with a wall.

Les Demoiselles d'Avignon by Picasso

1907

The work portrays five nude female prostitutes in a brothel on a street in Barcelona. Each figure is depicted in a disconcerting confrontational manner and none is conventionally feminine. The women appear slightly menacing and are rendered with angular and disjointed body shapes. The three figures on the left exhibit facial features in the Iberian style of Picasso's native Spain, while the two on the right are shown with African mask-like features. Cubism.

Cubism

Period: 1908 to 1914

• Pablo Picasso & Georges Braques developed this
• inspired by African art (want to break down the human form into shapes and angles to achieve a new way of looking at things from many sides)
• multiple views of the same object in the same painting
• three phases (analytical, synthetic and curvilinear)
• Analytical : highly experimental; jagged edges and sharp multifaceted lines
• Synthetic: inspired by collages and found objects; flattened forms

The Scream by Munch

1910

Its androgynous, skull-shaped head, elongated hands, wide eyes, flaring nostrils, and ovoid mouth have been engrained in our collective cultural consciousness; the swirling blue landscape and fiery orange and yellow sky inspire awe. Conceived as part of Munch’s semi-autobiographical cycle. The Scream’s composition exists in four forms: the first painting, done in oil, tempera, and pastel on cardboard, two pastel examples, and a final tempera painting.

World War 1 Begins

1914

Self-Portrait As a Soldier by Kirchner

1915

Ernst Ludwig Kirchner’s Self-Portrait As a Soldier is a masterpiece of psychological drama. The painting shows Kirchner dressed in a uniform but instead of standing on a battlefield (or another military context), he is standing in his studio with an amputated, bloody arm and a nude model behind him. It is in this contrast between the artist’s clothing and studio space that we can read a complicated coming of age for an idealistic young artist.

The Bolshevik Revolution

1917

Russia becomes a ruthless dictatorship under Communism

Surrealism

Period: 1924 to 2019

also opposed rationalism and postwar art and architecture
* came from “Freudian free-association and dream analysis”
* use of automatism (creating works of art without “conscious control”

The Results of the First Five-Year Plan by Stepanova

1932

Have you ever wondered what came before Photoshop? After the First World War, artists in Germany and the Soviet Union began to experiment with photomontage, the process of making a composite image by juxtaposing or two or more photographs in order to give the illusion of a single image. A photomontage can include photographs, text, and even newspaper clippings. As its title suggests, this photomontage is an ode to the success of the First Five-Year Plan, an initiative started by Stalin in 1928.

Fallingwater by Frank Lloyd Wright

1935

Perched above a mountain cataract on a rocky hillside deep in the rugged forest of Southwestern Pennsylvania, 90 minutes from Pittsburgh, is America’s most famous house. The commission for Fallingwater was a personal milestone for the American architect Frank Lloyd Wright since it clearly marked a turning point in his career. After this late-career triumph, the 67-year-old would go on to create a series of highly original designs that would validate his claim as The world’s greatest architect.

World War 2 Begins

1939

Abstract Expressionism

Period: 1946 to 1956

philosophy of the definition of art and how to define it
* “encompassing ‘art’ as not just the product of artistic creation but the
active process of creating it.”
* energy and action were a huge focus
* improvisation and experimentation with materials
* color field paintings

Dream of a Sunday Afternoon in Alameda Central Park by Rivera

1947

In the work, hundreds of characters from 400 years of Mexican history gather for a stroll through Mexico City’s largest park. But the colorful balloons, impeccably dressed visitors, and vendors with diverse wares cannot conceal the darker side of this dream: a confrontation between an indigenous family and a police officer; a man shooting into the face of someone being trampled by a horse in the midst of a skirmish; a sinister skeleton smiling at the viewer.

Pop Art

Period: 1960 to 2019

drew from popular culture like comic books, celebrity, advertisements,
movies and TV, media culture, and mass-produced objects and foods)
* originated in London by a group who rejected modernist design which
focused more on mass production
* satirical / often intellectual
* used any multitude of materials (mix media works were popular)
* extra large scale sculptures in a variety of media (paper mache, iron,
steel, bronze)

Marilyn Diptych by Warhol

1962

Andy Warhol's Marilyn Diptych is made of two silver canvases on which the artist silkscreened a photograph of Marilyn Monroe fifty times. At first glance, the work—which explicitly references a form of Christian painting (see below) in its title—invites us to worship the legendary icon, whose image Warhol plucked from popular culture and immortalized as art.

The Bay by Helen Frankenthaler

1963

We see an imposing fluid blue promontory suspended in front of us. Its colors ranging from violet to indigo run into one another with a clear zone of navy near the top of the canvas that draw our eyes up to it. The blurring of the colors gives an immediate sense of the artist’s process: paint poured onto the canvas when it was wet. We can almost watch as the blues meld into one another during this early stage giving the image its blurred and smooth finish.

Lipstick (Ascending) on Caterpillar Tracks by Oldenburg

1969

A monumental tube of lipstick sprouting from a military vehicle appeared, uninvited, on the campus of Yale University amidst the 1969 student protests against the Vietnam War. While the sculpture may have seemed like a playful, if elaborate artistic joke, Claes Oldenburg’s Lipstick (Ascending) on Caterpillar Tracks was also deeply critical. Oldenburg made the 24-foot-high sculpture in collaboration with architecture students at his alma mater and then surreptitiously delivered it to Yale.

Horn Players by Basquiat

1983

In addition to half-length portraits on the left and right panels of this triptych (a painting consisting of three joined panels), the artist has included several drawings and words—many of which Basquiat drew and then crossed out. On each panel we also notice large swaths of white paint, which seem to simultaneously highlight the black background and obscure the drawings and/or words beneath.

Pink Panther by Jeff Koons

1988

It depicts a smiling, bare-breasted, blond woman scantily clad in a mint-green dress, head tilted back and to the left as if addressing a crowd of onlookers. The figure is based on the 1960s B-list Hollywood star Jayne Mansfield—here she clutches a limp pink panther in her left hand, while her right hand covers an exposed breast. . Postmodern art attacked Greenberg’s influential theory of modern art, creating images in direct opposition to modernism.

Post Modernism & Contemporary

Period: 1990 to 2019

focus on conceptual, performance art, installation, and video art
* challenges the ideas of “art”
* about the experience of art - and how the viewer responds (sometimes is
more important that the piece or work itself)
* “Although the Conceptualists always produced something physical, it
was often only a printed statement, a set of directions, or a documentary
photograph.”
* move away from any focus on aesthetic values - more about the
statement or meaning.

Dancing at the Louvre by Faith Ringgold

1991

Faith Ringgold’s Dancing at the Louvre is all about breaking the rules, and having lots of fun while doing it. Combining representational painting and African-American quilting techniques with the written word, Dancing at the Louvre is the first in Ringgold’s series of twelve “story quilts” called The French Collection. The series tells the fictional story of Willia Marie Simone, a young black woman who moves to Paris in the 20th century. Told through text written around the margin of each quilt

Pure Land by Mariko Mori

1997

Set within a golden landscape, a female figure serenely floats above a lotus blossom while six alien musicians whirl by on bubbly clouds. Her pink robes mirror the predominantly pale orange, yellow and pink of the water, land and sky—firmly embedding her within the tranquil scene. Pure Land, a photograph set within glass, is the counterpart of Mori's 3D video installation, Nirvana, 1997. Nirvana animates the imagery we see in Pure Land.

Stadia II by Julie Mehretu

2004

When looking at Stadia II, first try to isolate the black lines from the rest of the composition. Does this centrifugal structure remind you of a sports arena, an amphitheater or opera house? Perhaps a political chamber? It could denote all of these, broadly invoking our experiences as individuals and collective bodies in such spaces. The built environment, for Mehretu, provides a setting in which people can gather, protest, pray, and riot in mass numbers.

Preying Mantra by Mutu

2006

Using the medium of collage, the artist Wangechi Mutu creates new worlds that re-imagine culture through the realm of fantasy. Mutu was born in Nairobi, Kenya and educated in Europe and the United States. Her art is global in nature and she clearly relishes complicating both Western and non-Western cultural norms; questioning how we see gender, sexuality, and even cultural identity.

The Shibboleth

2007

Salcedo has offered few explanations beyond stating how the fissure represents the immigrant experience in Europe. Though this theme is apparent in the work, it is by no means the only issue raised. As photographs of the installation demonstrate, visitors contorted their bodies in infinite ways as they tried to see below the crack. In Shibboleth, Salcedo elaborates a complex socio-political topic in a work with a tremendous formal presence.

Camelid sacrum in the shape of a canine

14,000

This fascinating and unique prehistoric sculpture of a dog-like animal was discovered accidentally in 1870 in Tequixquiac, Mexico—in the Valley of Mexico (where Mexico City is located). The carving likely dates to sometime between 14,000–7000 B.C.E. The sculpture was made from the now fossilized remains of the sacrum of an extinct camelid. A camelid is a member of the Camelidae family—think camels, llamas, and alpacas.

The Hall of Bulls

16,000

The animals are rendered in what has come to be called "twisted perspective," in which their bodies are depicted in profile while we see the horns from a more frontal viewpoint. The images are sometimes entirely linear—line drawn to define the animal's contour. In many other cases, the animals are described in solid and blended colors blown by mouth onto the wall. In other portions of the Lascaux cave, artists carved lines into the soft calcite surface. Some of these are infilled with color.