2018
EXAM DATE:
MAY 8
CONTENT AND FORMAT OF THE EXAM
10 Content Areas per College Board
(Keep in mind my course contains the same areas but are broken down into various units and lessons)
Exam Format- 2 parts each worth 50%
80 multiple choice - 1 hour
4 - 15 minute essay questions - 1 hour
* The essay section is 2 hours- YOU manage your own time!
EXAM DATE:
MAY 8
CONTENT AND FORMAT OF THE EXAM
10 Content Areas per College Board
(Keep in mind my course contains the same areas but are broken down into various units and lessons)
- Global Prehistory (4%, 11 works)
- Ancient Mediterranean (15%, 36 works)
- Early Europe and Colonial Americas (20%, 51 works)
- Later Europe and Americas (22%, 54 works)
- Indigenous Americas (6%, 14 works)
- Africa (6%, 14 works)
- West and Central Asia (4%, 11 works)
- South, East, and SE Asia (8%, 21 works)
- The Pacific (4%, 11 works)
- Global Contemporary (11%, 27 works)
Exam Format- 2 parts each worth 50%
80 multiple choice - 1 hour
- Part A: Approximately 8 sets of questions (3 to 6 questions each) based on color images
- Part B: Approximately 35 individual multiple-choice questions
4 - 15 minute essay questions - 1 hour
* The essay section is 2 hours- YOU manage your own time!
50 VOCAB WORDS THAT YOU SHOULD KNOW* From REA's AP Art History
1. Pylon
2. Hypostyle
3. Hierarchical scale
4. Register
5. Repousse
6. Corbelled Vault
7. Kouros
8. Kore
9. Caryatid
10. Pediment
11. Entablature
12. Contrapposto
13. Frieze
14. Mosaic
15. Voussoir
16. Pendentive
17. Iconoclasm
18. Encaustic
19. Enamel
20. Mihrab
21. Westwork
22. Ambulatory
23. Tympanum
24. Clerestory
25. Barrel vault
26. Groin vault
27. Crypt
28. Vellum
29. Diptych
30. Triptych
31. Predella
32. Chiraroscuro
33. Cartoon
34. Enconchado
35. Orthagonal
36. Intaglio
37. Impasto
38. Avante-garde
39. Bauhaus
40. Ready-made
41. Cantilever
42. Biomorphic
43. Assemblage
44. Phototype
45. Daguerreotype
46. Stupa
47. Pagoda
48. Pueblo
49. Mudhra
50. Ukiyo-e
APAH Sample Themes and Subthemes
You will not be required to identify specific themes and subthemes on the AP Art History Exam. This is by no means a complete list and many of these are interconnected. A single work of art may embody multiple themes and subthemes. For example, a Mexican feather headdress may involve themes that relate to form, function, content, and context of the work, and a focus might be on subthemes like, display, identity, inner visions, and power. Understanding this is especially helpful in answering the free response essays on the APAH exam.
Themes- expansive categories by which works of art can be described, organized, and/or interpreted
Natural World-surroundings
Individual and Society-how we behave independently and in relation to others
Human Body-physicality
Knowledge and Belief- intellectual and metaphysical concerns
Subthemes- highlight commonalities, differences, and nuances in form, function, and content of works from diverse times, locals, and peoples; these can be viewed through the lens of themes, for example, a thematic investigation of the natural world can lead to exploration of humans’ role within it, including the subtheme of performance-rituals and ceremonies to celebrate, control, or appease nature-as well as subthemes of life cycles, conflict/harmony, or power
Conflict/Harmony
Life Cycles
Converging Cultures
Inner Visions
Display
Private/Public
Domestic Life
Text and Image
History/Memory
Performance (includes ritual and ceremony)
Identity (includes race, gender, class, status, ethnicity)
Urban Experience
Power-authority; images of the Divine
Other possible categories-
Abstraction
Allegory
Animals in art
Appropriation
Challenges traditions
Children in art
Current events
Family
Funerary
Genre-everyday life
Myth
Narrative
Nonobjective art
Patronage
Portraiture
Propaganda
Sacred Spaces
Site-specific
Social criticism
Still life
Symbolism
Use of light, space, etc.
You will not be required to identify specific themes and subthemes on the AP Art History Exam. This is by no means a complete list and many of these are interconnected. A single work of art may embody multiple themes and subthemes. For example, a Mexican feather headdress may involve themes that relate to form, function, content, and context of the work, and a focus might be on subthemes like, display, identity, inner visions, and power. Understanding this is especially helpful in answering the free response essays on the APAH exam.
Themes- expansive categories by which works of art can be described, organized, and/or interpreted
Natural World-surroundings
Individual and Society-how we behave independently and in relation to others
Human Body-physicality
Knowledge and Belief- intellectual and metaphysical concerns
Subthemes- highlight commonalities, differences, and nuances in form, function, and content of works from diverse times, locals, and peoples; these can be viewed through the lens of themes, for example, a thematic investigation of the natural world can lead to exploration of humans’ role within it, including the subtheme of performance-rituals and ceremonies to celebrate, control, or appease nature-as well as subthemes of life cycles, conflict/harmony, or power
Conflict/Harmony
Life Cycles
Converging Cultures
Inner Visions
Display
Private/Public
Domestic Life
Text and Image
History/Memory
Performance (includes ritual and ceremony)
Identity (includes race, gender, class, status, ethnicity)
Urban Experience
Power-authority; images of the Divine
Other possible categories-
Abstraction
Allegory
Animals in art
Appropriation
Challenges traditions
Children in art
Current events
Family
Funerary
Genre-everyday life
Myth
Narrative
Nonobjective art
Patronage
Portraiture
Propaganda
Sacred Spaces
Site-specific
Social criticism
Still life
Symbolism
Use of light, space, etc.
AP Art History Final Exam Review
Prehistoric
Altamira, Chauvet, and Lascaux are sites where cave paintings were discovered
Venus of Willendorf
Ancient Near East
Ziggurats
Votive figures
Standard of Ur
Stele
Assyrian relief sculpture
Ancient Egypt
Mastaba
Step Pyramid
Ti Watching a Hippopotamus Hunt
Aegean (islands and civilizations of the Aegean Sea off the coast of Greece)
Lion’s Gate
Ancient Greece
Much of what we know as Greek sculpture is based on Roman copies
Four phases of Greek art
Hellenistic – Greek art after the death of Alexander the Great
Winged Victory
Ancient Rome
Etruscans
Byzantine Art
When Constantine came to power he moved the capital of the Roman Empire from Rome to Byzantium, which he renamed Constantinople
Islamic Art
Early Medieval Art
Western Europe after the fall of the Roman Empire but before the Romanesque period (1000 CE0
Art of the Warrior Lords aka Animal Style
Romanesque
Style popular in Western Europe from 1000 – 1150, a time of many religious pilgrimages to visit the relics of various churches in Europe
Key elements
Gothic
Became popular in the late 1100’s through the 1300’s; based on recommendations for church architecture made by Abbot Suger and his remodeling of Saint-Denis cathedral
Key characteristics
Stained-glass windows – along with illuminated manuscripts was one of the main forms of two-dimensional art during the Gothic period
Precursors of the Renaissance – 1300’s
Artists who began to show glimpses of the rise of realism and naturalism that would be realized 100 years later during the Renaissance
Renaissance
Basic characteristics of Renaissance painting
Perugino
Raphael
Venice during the High Renaissance
Began in Flanders during the 15th century aka Flemish Renaissance
Pioneers of oil painting who shared the painting technique with Italian artists
Basic characteristics
Mannerism
1530s through 1600 – period of art that came after High Renaissance but before Baroque
Basic characteristics
Baroque
Major artistic period of the 1600s or 17th century; swept through Western Europe; took different forms depending on the region of Europe
Italy, Spain, and Flanders
Velazquez
Rococo
Popular style in Spain and France during the early 1700s or 18th century
Popular with noble and wealthy families – “nobles at play”
Basic characteristics
Neoclassical
People grew tired of the frivolity (meaninglessness) of Rococo; they wanted to be inspired; they wanted paintings that had rationality and order to them not playful, erotic paintings
William Hogarth – not really a Neoclassical painter but a good example of how people grew tired of aristocrats aka the nobles
Neoclassical art and architecture was popular in the later part of the 1700s-early 1800s or late 18th-early19th centuries
Basic characteristics:
Romanticism
Early 1800s until 1840s or the first half of the 19th century
Romantics despised the Age of Reason and the Enlightenment; Romantics believed that life and art should be inspired by feeling and emotion
Neoclassical art was too rational and orderly for Romantics
Basic characteristics:
Realism
Popular in the 1850s, rejected Neoclassical and Romantic art
Basic characteristics:
Photography
Invented during the 19th century
Created both a challenge as well as an aid for painting
Impressionism
Inspired by Realism – direct observation of the world and nature; popular during the 1870s – 1880s
Basic characteristics:
Degas
Renoir
Post-Impressionism – 1890s
Period after Impressionism; artists were influenced by Impressionism but dissatisfied with it
Vincent Van Gogh
20th century art
Dorothea Lange
Pop Art
Environmental Art
Key Terms
Encaustic – a painting medium that uses melted wax applied while still hot
Sarcophagus – a large stone or terracotta coffin popular with the Egyptians, Etruscans, and Romans
Repousse – a metal-working technique that involves hammering a design from one side of the metal, punching out the design to the other side of the metal; Mycenaean and the Death Mask of King Tut used repousse
Hypostyle Hall – a room filled with columns; Egyptian pylon temples had them, the Palace of Knossos in Crete had one, and mosques have hypostyle halls used for communal prayer
Cartoon – a preliminary drawing or painting done as a rough draft before a major finished painting; Renaissance and Neoclassical painters often created cartoons
Grisaille – painting with grayish tones to simulate sculpture and architecture
Triptych – a three-paneled work of art
Genre painting – paintings of everyday life; genre paintings were popular with both 17th century Dutch Baroque artists and Realists of the 19th century
Benday dots – tiny dots of color used in comic books; instead of using colors like pink, comic strip printers use red benday dots on white to make it look pink; Roy Lichtenstein, the famous Pop Artist used benday dots in his paintings
Prehistoric
Altamira, Chauvet, and Lascaux are sites where cave paintings were discovered
Venus of Willendorf
- Paleolithic statue of a female figure
- Sculpture in the round
- May represent fertility
Ancient Near East
Ziggurats
Votive figures
Standard of Ur
Stele
Assyrian relief sculpture
- Lion hunts
Ancient Egypt
Mastaba
Step Pyramid
- Step Pyramid of Djoser – created by history’s first recorded architect - Imhotep
Ti Watching a Hippopotamus Hunt
- Old Kingdom
- Discovered in a tomb
- Entertained his ka
- Shows his status (hierarchical scale)
- New Kingdom pharaoh
- Major impact on Egyptian culture (changed Egyptian religion to worshipping only one god)
- Moved capital to a site known as Tell-el-Amarna today
- Art style changed to show figures with elongated necks and heads, potbellies, and wide hips
- Short impact – after his death, Egyptian culture returned back to polytheism and traditional Egyptian figural depictions returned
- Pylon – monumental entrance into the temple
- Contained a hypostyle hall
Aegean (islands and civilizations of the Aegean Sea off the coast of Greece)
Lion’s Gate
- Entrance to citadel of Mycenae
- Used corbelled construction
Ancient Greece
Much of what we know as Greek sculpture is based on Roman copies
Four phases of Greek art
- Geometric, Archaic, Classical, Hellenistic
- Used kouros statues to mark graves of young men
- Kouros statues show influence of Egyptian art – figures are upright, have a rigid stance, and one foot striding forward
- Greek kouros is NUDE – difference from Egyptian
- Kore – statue of a draped female figure
- Major Greek industry and form of art – only surviving Greek painting can be seen on vases
- Black figure
- Red figure
- HAIR – Heroic, Aloof, Idealized, and Restrained
- Heroic warrior stands in contrapposto
- Made out of hollow-cast bronze
- Idealized body
- Fortified hilltop in Athens that contained the holy structures of Athens
- Parthenon was the most important temple, dedicated to Athena Parthenos (Athena the Virgin); Parthenon is a Doric temple
- Other buildings include the Propylaia (gatehouse), Erectheion, Temple of Athena Nike (Athena the Victorious)
Hellenistic – Greek art after the death of Alexander the Great
Winged Victory
- Dramatic statue of Nike, goddess of victory, landing on the prow of a ship
- Found in the Louvre
- Partially nude statue of Venus; demonstrates erotic side of Hellenistic art
- Found in the Louvre
- Statue depicting the death of a Trojan priest (Gods sent snakes to kill him and his sons after he warned the Trojans not to accept the horse left by the Greeks during the Trojan War)
- Very expressionistic – typical of Hellenistic period
- Sculpted by Hegesandros, Polydoros, and Ahtanadoros of Rhodes
Ancient Rome
Etruscans
- Predecessors to the Romans in central Italy
- Had a thriving civilization that traded with ancient Greece (collected Archaic vases)
- Reclining couple sarcophagus – shows a husband and wife reclining; demonstrates the elevated status women enjoyed in the Etruscan civilization; made out of terracotta (clay)
- Before the Caesars became the rulers of the Roman Empire
- Aristocratic Roman families kept portrait busts of deceased loved ones
- Portrait busts were a record of their lineage and were brought out during funeral processions
- Made from marble, show gravitas (seriousness) and are veristic (very truthful) in appearance – unidealized realism
- Depicts climactic moment in famous battle in which Alexander the Great defeated King Darius III of Persia
- Based on a well known Hellenistic painting that no longer exists but was written about by Roman historians
- Dedicated to Emperor Titus, who led the conquest of Jerusalem in 70 CE
- Relief on the inside of the arch shows the Roman soldiers plundering Jerusalem (one soldier carries a menorah)
- Example of historical narrative – Romans recorded their achievements
- Rome began to decline in power
- Christianity became a major religion in the Roman Empire
- Built during the reign of Constantine – one of the last Roman emperors and first emperor to accept and legalize Christianity
- Located in Rome
- A basilica – a long rectangular building; basilicas became the main form for churches in Western Europe
- Basilicas had a central nave, wooden roof, and clerestory windows
- Coffin of Junius Bassus, prefect (mayor) of Rome ca. 350 CE
- Junius Bassus became a Christian and wanted his sarcophagus to reflect his new religious beliefs
- Niches on the side of sarcophagus show figures from the Bible
- Contains Christian figures but still has some Roman features
Byzantine Art
When Constantine came to power he moved the capital of the Roman Empire from Rome to Byzantium, which he renamed Constantinople
- Rome was conquered by the barbarians
- Constantinople still stood
- Byzantine Empire viewed itself as what was left of the eastern part of Roman Empire
- Christianity was the dominant religion
- Often central plan (circular or square) with a dome in the ceiling
- Hagia Sophia – dome supported by PENDENTIVES – concanve, triangular stone supports that transfer the weight from dome to the corner piers, helped create light inside the church
- Found in Byzantine churches
- Teach about Christianity, show biblical figures
- Flat, floating, and frontal with golden backgrounds
- Small wooden panels with images of holy figures
- Iconoclasm – period during which icons were being destroyed
Islamic Art
- Focused on Islamic religion, worshipping Allah
- No images of people or animals allowed in Islamic holy structures; therefore, there are no narrative works of art in mosques
- Parts of a mosque include: a hypostyle hall (used for communal prayer), qibla (wall that shows the direction of Mecca), and minaret (a tower from which someone calls people to pray)
Early Medieval Art
Western Europe after the fall of the Roman Empire but before the Romanesque period (1000 CE0
Art of the Warrior Lords aka Animal Style
- Christianity had not really spread through Europe yet
- Purse cover was discovered at the Sutton-Hoo ship burial in England
- Made using the technique of cloisonné
- Contains abstract animal imagery in the design
- Art created in the British Isles
- Shows the influence of Christianity
- Celtic crosses become popular
- Produced by monks in scriptoria, part of Hiberno-Saxon tradition
- Lindisfarne Gospels – the gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, also contains carpet pages – pages that are extensively decorated with interlace designs
- 800s in France and Germany
- Charlemagne and the revival of the Roman empire; called the Holy Roman Emperor
- Revival of learning – illuminated manuscripts spread
- 900s in Germany
- Bishop Bernward and the bronze doors of Saint Michael’s at Hildesheim
Romanesque
Style popular in Western Europe from 1000 – 1150, a time of many religious pilgrimages to visit the relics of various churches in Europe
Key elements
- Round arches, barrel vaults – when the ceiling looks like a row of round arches resembling a barrel, heavy stone construction, use of columns
- Use of exterior stone sculpture – had not been done since the Late Roman Empire
- Different from Roman architecture – Romanesque architects adapted Roman elements to fit their interests – Christianity. Romanesque churches are ornately decorated with sculpture on the exterior and often have towers on the corners
- Oriented toward the east – the holy city of Jerusalem – the apse, ambulatory, and choir are oriented toward the east
- Churches often are long and rectangular but have a cruciform shape made up of the nave and transept
- Crossing square – where nave and transept intersect, is the main unit of measurement for the size of other parts of the church
- Three-dimensional sections/modules of the church are called bays
- Nave covered by a barrel vault
- Built in response to the rise of pilgrimages
- Famous tympanum (lunette-shaped area above the door) depicting the Last Judgment
- Actually a campanile or bell tower
Gothic
Became popular in the late 1100’s through the 1300’s; based on recommendations for church architecture made by Abbot Suger and his remodeling of Saint-Denis cathedral
Key characteristics
- Greater height with multiple levels (nave arcade, triforium, clerestory)
- Large areas of stained glass windows in the clerestory
- Pointed arches
- Ribbed groin vaults in the ceiling
- Use of flying buttresses on the exterior of the building for support
- Figures often stand in a position called the Gothic S-curve – an attempt by the artist to show greater naturalism but still conceals the anatomy of the people under their clothing – Gothic S-curve is different from contrapposto used by Greeks, Romans, and Renaissance artists
- Example: Virgin of Jeanne d’Evreux – famous small, golden reliquary statue that shows Mary holding baby Jesus; statue conveys a feeling of spirituality
Stained-glass windows – along with illuminated manuscripts was one of the main forms of two-dimensional art during the Gothic period
Precursors of the Renaissance – 1300’s
Artists who began to show glimpses of the rise of realism and naturalism that would be realized 100 years later during the Renaissance
- Figures appear to have more body mass and artists use more realistic shading
- Greater sense of depth, illusion of a three-dimensional space
- Pisano – famous sculptor who sculpted a pulpit for baptistery in Pisa
- Giotto – painted famous fresco cycle in Arena Chapel
- Duccio – famous Sienese painter who painted La Maesta
- Famous scene from Arena Chapel of Christ laying on the ground after Crucifixion surrounded by mourners
- Figures look realistic in both body proportions and sense of emotion
- Bodies have sculpturesque form
- Famous altarpiece produced for Siena Cathedral
- Shows strong Byzantine influence
- Painted in tempera (using egg yolks)
Renaissance
Basic characteristics of Renaissance painting
- Influence of humanism aka classical Greco-Roman culture – includes elements of mythology as well as realistic but also idealized human figures
- Compositions are balanced and orderly often relying on a careful geometric plan such as a pyramid composition
- Three-dimensional illusionism – Renaissance painters wanted to create the illusion of a three-dimensional world on a two-dimensional space; that’s why they used chiaroscuro and linear perspective
- Florence is the main center
- Created the first free-standing nude statue since antiquity (classical) time – David
- Created the first monumental equestrian statue – Gattamelata – which depicts a famous Italian warlord
- Discovered rules of linear perspective
- Painted Tribute Money fresco – part of a series of frescoes in a chapel
- Saint Peter is the focal point; he is shown three times aka continuous narration
- Famous architect, painter, and writer of the Renaissance
- Wrote books on painting, sculpture, and architecture
- Wrote about rules for linear perspective
- Painted Birth of Venus and La Primavera for the Medici family
- Tempera painting
- Based on a neoplatonist poem (show interest in humanism aka study of classical culture)
Perugino
- Painted Delivery of the Keys of the Kingdom to Saint Peter in the Sistine Chapel
- It is a fresco on one of the side walls along with several other frescoes by Renaissance artists
- Figures look balanced and solid – bodies look natural
- Besides Jesus, Saint Peter is the focal point
- It contains the techniques of chiaroscuro and linear perspective
- Rome becomes the center of the arts with patronage from the Renaissance Popes such as Julius II
- Great artist, scientist, and inventor of the High Renaissance
- Born in Vinci, a small town near Florence
- Painted the Mona Lisa, which brings together some of the greatest Renaissance painting techniques
- Mona Lisa has a great sense of depth through the use of linear and atmospheric perspective
- Leonardo used sfumato to blend the forms together and make the painting look more realistic
- Leonardo painted Mona Lisa in a three-quarters pose, which was innovative for the time
- David – symbol of Florence; Michelangelo was a proud Florentine; the city of Florence commissioned him to make David which was displayed in the town square
- Carved Moses for Tomb of Julius II
- Created a series of unfinished slave statues
- Fresco cycle in the Sistine Chapel
Raphael
- Famous for his Madonna paintings
- Combined elements of Leonardo and Michelangelo to create his own style
- Painted Galatea – part of fresco cycle based on mythology – Galatea is trying to get away from the Cyclops Poylphemus by riding away on a shell pulled by dolphins; Cupid sends putti to shoot her with arrows to make her fall in love
Venice during the High Renaissance
- Became a major artistic center
- First area in Italy to embrace oil painting
- Giorgione, Bellini, and Titian were three famous Venetian artists
- Great 16th century Venetian architect
- Famous for his villas on the Venetian mainland
Began in Flanders during the 15th century aka Flemish Renaissance
Pioneers of oil painting who shared the painting technique with Italian artists
Basic characteristics
- Tremendous detail in surface textures and backgrounds
- Vibrant and rich colors because of the use of oil paint
- Use of symbols – hidden meanings in the guise of everyday objects
- More Gothic style proportions – different from Italian Renaissance because not influenced by classical sculpture
- Later during the Northern Renaissance, artists such as Durer were influenced by the Protestant Reformation
- Painted the Arnolfini Marriage portrait
- Fantastical scenes that are enigmatic
- Influenced the Surrealists of the 20th century
- Multi-talented artist of Germany called the “Leonardo of the North”
- Famous for his engravings ex. Fall of Man (Adam and Eve committing Original Sin)
Mannerism
1530s through 1600 – period of art that came after High Renaissance but before Baroque
Basic characteristics
- Figures are twisted in figura serpentinata
- Unusual lighting effects
- Elongated body parts especially the hands
- Exaggerated and asymmetrical compositions
- Famous painter who spent most of his career in Spain
- His paintings exhibit stylistic qualities similar to Mannerism
Baroque
Major artistic period of the 1600s or 17th century; swept through Western Europe; took different forms depending on the region of Europe
Italy, Spain, and Flanders
- Baroque art was influenced by the Catholic Counter-Reformation Church – art was used to attract people to come to Catholic Church
- Leaders of the Catholic Church such as popes and cardinals as well as monarchs are the main patrons of the arts
- Italian Baroque painter
- Made tenebrism – shadowy background with dramatic spotlight effect – popular
- Focused on the most dramatic moments of a story – made his paintings popular with the Catholic Church
- Used everyday people as models for the characters in his paintings
- Inspired many followers called the Caravaggisti – Such as Artemesia Gentileschi (painted Judith Beheading Holofernes)
- Famous sculptor and architect of Italian Baroque period
- Created a statue of David – very dynamic and twisting, shows the moment of dramatic tension as he is about to release the stone that will kill Goliath – similar to the expressionistic qualities of Hellenistic art
- Bernini also created the baldacchino (bronze canopy) that is under the dome of Saint Peter’s Basilica in Rome
Velazquez
- Spanish Baroque painter
- Painted Las Meninas
- Contains lighting effects that are similar to Caravaggio – tenebrism
- Spanish Royal family (Philip IV) was Velazquez’ main patron
- Some differences from Italian Baroque
- Dutch were Protestants who disapproved of religious art in churches
- Dutch were successful merchants and businesspeople – they became the major patrons of art
- Dutch liked vanitas still-lifes, portraits and group portraits, and landscapes (Dutch were proud of their land)
- Frans Hals
- Rembrandt van Rijn
- Vermeer
- Jacob van Ruisdael
- Studied with Frans Hals
- Painted famous self-portrait – concerned with showing her skill and status
- Commissioned by Louis XIV
- Famous Hall of Mirrors
- Architects: Louis Le Vau, Jules Hardouin-Mansart, Charles Le Brun
- Greatest patron of the arts in Europe during late 17th century – early 18th century
- Commissioned work from Rigaud (portraits), Bernini, as well as the building of Versailles
Rococo
Popular style in Spain and France during the early 1700s or 18th century
Popular with noble and wealthy families – “nobles at play”
Basic characteristics
- Playfully erotic, light-hearted, lack deep meaning
- Use of pastel colors and soft brushwork
- Fete galantes – outdoor festive gatherings
- Rococo buildings are known for their ornate decorations
Neoclassical
People grew tired of the frivolity (meaninglessness) of Rococo; they wanted to be inspired; they wanted paintings that had rationality and order to them not playful, erotic paintings
William Hogarth – not really a Neoclassical painter but a good example of how people grew tired of aristocrats aka the nobles
- Painted Marriage a la Mode, a satirical series of paintings that poked fun at the behavior of the nobles
Neoclassical art and architecture was popular in the later part of the 1700s-early 1800s or late 18th-early19th centuries
Basic characteristics:
- Moralizing messages – paintings and sculpture that inspire people to want to sacrifice themselves for the state Ex. David’s Oath of the Horatii
- Idealized, classical looking body-types
- Rational, orderly compositions
- Classical architecture references – round arches, columns, and temple-like buildings
- Highly finished appearance
- Most famous Neoclassical painter of the late 18th century
- Interested in political revolution – Remember that during the late 1700s France was experience the French Revolution
- Oath of the Horatii – based on a Roman play, morally uplifting message – self-sacrifice
- Famous Neoclassical sculptor of the early 1800s
- Major patron of David
- Most frequently depicted figure by Neoclassical artists
- Student of David
- Last great champion of Neoclassical values in art – continued painting in a Neoclassical style into the mid-19th century
- Painted the famous Princesse de Broglie in the Met (the woman with the blue dress)
Romanticism
Early 1800s until 1840s or the first half of the 19th century
Romantics despised the Age of Reason and the Enlightenment; Romantics believed that life and art should be inspired by feeling and emotion
Neoclassical art was too rational and orderly for Romantics
Basic characteristics:
- Emotional
- Interest in nature – nature doesn’t follow the rule of reason; it’s raw and untamed
- Heroic struggles against the odds
- The brushwork is less finished aka there is more emphasis on color – expresses the emotion of the artist
- Exotic places – Turkey, Morocco, India
- An real event: survivors of a shipwreck were abandoned by the government and had to struggle to survive at sea; most of them died
- Gericault challenged the government for appointing an incapable captain and then minimizing the incident (only 15 people were rescued out of 150 people)
- Gericault used Baroque lighting effects to heighten the drama and used a composition that created a sense of immediacy
- Most famous French Romantic painter
- His paintings such as Death of Sardanapalus, Liberty Leading the People, and Tiger Hunt express the values of Romantic art
- Famous for his landscapes that show a solitary figure from behind trying to be at one with nature
- Famous English Romantic painter
- Paintings have very expressive brushwork and are considered precursors of modern abstract art
- The Slave Ship – a painting based on an actual event in which a slave ship captain ordered that his sick and dying slaves be thrown overboard; the painting shows the sublime force of nature aka the power of the sea
Realism
Popular in the 1850s, rejected Neoclassical and Romantic art
Basic characteristics:
- Interested in real people and real events of their time
- Use drab or muted colors to express their time
- Interest in the struggles of the working class and peasants
- Criticized the government and the establishment
- Quoted as saying: “I cannot paint and angel because I have never seen one.”
- Painted realistic scenes of peasants at work in the countryside
- Painted Third Class Carriage and did lithographs for the popular press; his lithographs challenged the government and he was famous for doing caricatures of leaders of his time
Photography
Invented during the 19th century
Created both a challenge as well as an aid for painting
- Photographs can accurately capture the appearance of a person – challenge to traditional portraiture
- Photography could be used to help artists paint more realistic pictures – wouldn’t need to have a person sit for many hours while painting a portrait – artist could use the photograph
Impressionism
Inspired by Realism – direct observation of the world and nature; popular during the 1870s – 1880s
Basic characteristics:
- Interest in the fleeting effects of natural light on color; avoided using black; often juxtaposed complimentary colors
- Liked to paint outdoors to capture natural sunlight; painted several versions of the same location to show the effects of light on color
- Interest in bourgeois aka middle-class life
- Use of short, choppy brushstrokes – painters had to work quickly to capture the moment; shows the influence of Romantic painting
- Edges are cropped – shows the influence of photography (capturing a moment in time/ a slice of life) and Japanese woodblock prints (ex. Great Wave off Kanagawa)
Degas
Renoir
Post-Impressionism – 1890s
Period after Impressionism; artists were influenced by Impressionism but dissatisfied with it
Vincent Van Gogh
- Used color and swirling and choppy brushstrokes as well as thick application of paint to express his unique view of the world around him
- Different from Impressionists who wanted to record the fleeting effects of light during a specific moment; Van Gogh did observe the world around him but brought his own personality into his paintings
20th century art
Dorothea Lange
- 20th century American photographer
- Famous for her photography Migrant Mother
- Took many photographs of poor migrant workers out west during the Great Depression
- 1950s
- Artists use paint to express their inner selves without thoroughly planning out their works; let their inner selves come out onto the canvas
- Jackson Pollock
- Chromatic abstraction – a different type of Abstract Expressionism from Pollock and de Kooning in which artists use abstract blocks of color to express their inner feelings
- Chromatic abstraction is also known as “color fields”
- Mark Rothko – big blocks of color on monochromatic backgrounds
- Helen Frankenthaler – “color stain” paintings
- 1960s
- Reaction against all the expressive qualities of Abstract Expressionism
- Abstract art that has very straight lines and flat application of color; basic geometric forms
- Hard Edge artists wanted to demonstrate the basic elements of art – color and line – removing the feelings of the artist
Pop Art
- 1960s
- Used images of everyday society such as comic books, advertisements, movies, and television
- Andy Warhol – best known for doing multiple copies of the same image whether it was Campbell’s Soup, Coca Cola, Marilyn Monroe, or Elvis
- Roy Lichtenstein – best known for comic strip style paintings; to make his paintings look even more like comic strips, Lichtenstein painted with tiny dots called benday dots
- Claes Oldenburg – best known for enlarged sculptures of everyday objects such as food items
Environmental Art
- 1960s and 1970s
- Often site-specific – works of art that have to exist in a certain environment to have meaning
- Robert Smithson and Spiral Jetty
- Nancy Holt and Sun Tunnels
- Christo and Jeanne-Claude – using fabrics in nature; wrapping up structures in fabric
Key Terms
Encaustic – a painting medium that uses melted wax applied while still hot
Sarcophagus – a large stone or terracotta coffin popular with the Egyptians, Etruscans, and Romans
Repousse – a metal-working technique that involves hammering a design from one side of the metal, punching out the design to the other side of the metal; Mycenaean and the Death Mask of King Tut used repousse
Hypostyle Hall – a room filled with columns; Egyptian pylon temples had them, the Palace of Knossos in Crete had one, and mosques have hypostyle halls used for communal prayer
Cartoon – a preliminary drawing or painting done as a rough draft before a major finished painting; Renaissance and Neoclassical painters often created cartoons
Grisaille – painting with grayish tones to simulate sculpture and architecture
Triptych – a three-paneled work of art
Genre painting – paintings of everyday life; genre paintings were popular with both 17th century Dutch Baroque artists and Realists of the 19th century
Benday dots – tiny dots of color used in comic books; instead of using colors like pink, comic strip printers use red benday dots on white to make it look pink; Roy Lichtenstein, the famous Pop Artist used benday dots in his paintings