AA NOTES 3 TYPES OF SIGNIFIER

INTRODUCTION TO ART APPRECIATION • SIGNIFIER AS ICON

• comes from the ancient Latin, ars which • SIGNIFIER AS SYMBOL
means a “craft or specialized form of • SIGNIFIER AS INDEX
skill, like carpentry or smithying or
SIGNIFIER AS ICON
surgery” (Collingwood, 1938)
• Art is very important in our lives, It • Icons bear a physical resemblance to
constitutes one of the oldest and most what is being represented.
important means of expression
developed by man. Wherever men have SIGNIFIER AS SYMBOL
lived together, art has sprung up among
• Symbols are at the opposite end from
them as a language charged with feeling
and significance. The desire to create icons, the connection between
this language appears to be universal. As signifier and signifies in symbols is
a cultural force, it is pervasive and completely arbitrary and must be
potent. It shows itself even in primitive culturally learned.
societies.
SIGNIFIER AS INDEX
• Art is like love, it is not easy to define. It
concerns itself with the communication • An index describes the connection
of certain ideas and feelings by means of between signifier and signified. With
a sensuous medium – color, sound,
an index , the signifier cannot exist
bronze, marble, words and film. This
without the presence of the signified.
medium is fashioned into a symbolic
language marked by beauty of design
An index is a sign that shows
and coherence of form. evidence of the concept or object
• Humanities and the art have always being represented.
been part of man’s growth and
ART ANALYSIS
civilization.
• Since the dawn of time, man has • A semiotic analysis has three steps:
innermost thoughts and feelings about • Analyze verbal signs (what you hear).
reality through creating art. • Analyze visual signs (what you see).
• Three assumptions on art are its
• Analyze the symbolic message
universality, its not being nature, and its
(interpretation of what you see).
need for experience.
• Without experience, there is no art. The STEPS IN CONDUCTING A BASIC SEMIOTIC
artist has to be foremost, a perceiver ANALYSIS:
who is directly in touch with art.
• Decide what the signs are.
• Decide what they signify ‘in
Art Analysis: Semiotic & Iconic Plane
themselves’.
SEMIOTICS • Consider how they relate to other
signs.
• Ferdinand de Saussure and
• Explore their connections to wider
Charles Sanders Peirce are the
systems of meaning, from codes to
founders of Semiotics.
ideologies.
• Semiotic is the study of signs and
symbols and their use or VISUAL ANALYSIS
interpretation.
DO’S
• The word Semiotics is derived
from the ancient Greek word • Scale
“semeion” which means sign. • Composition * tone
• Pictorial space * texture
Signs can take many forms. They can
• Form * pattern
be word, numbers, sounds,
• Line
photographs, paintings and road
signs and more. • Color
 DONT’S Does art always have to be
• Iconography/symbolism functional?
• Commission/patron • It has been shown that most arts are
• Political/social/economic context functional, still there are some which
are not.
FUNCTIONS AND PHILOSOPHICAL
• The value of a work of art does not
PERSPECTIVES ON ART
depend on function but on the work
Functional Art itself.
• Not all products of art have function.
• refers to art that we use in our daily
This should not disqualify them as art
lives such as tools, architectural
though.
structures, roads, bridges, buildings,
• Nevertheless, a functional object
furniture. Kitchen utensils, coins,
cannot be claimed to be beautiful
bills, dress, weapons, etc
unless it can perform its function
Indirectly Functional Art sufficiently.

• refers to the arts that are “perceived PHILOSOPHICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ART

through the senses “ such as fine arts,
Art as an Imitation
painting, music, sculpture, dance,
• According to Plato, artist are
literary piece, theatrical
imitators and art is just a mere
performances and the like.
imitations.
FUNCTIONS OF ART • The things in this world are only
copies of the original, the eternal
• Personal Function – depends on the
and the true entities that can only
viewer or the artist who created the
be found in the world of forms.
art.
• The theory of Forms or theory of
• Social Function – addresses a
Ideas is Plato's argument that
particular collective interest.
non-physical forms (or ideas)
• Physical Function – art that fulfills
represent the most accurate
and satisfy man’s need
reality.
• Aesthetic Function -An artwork
• A Form is an objective "blueprint"
functions aesthetically when it
of perfection. The Forms are
becomes instrumental for a man to
perfect themselves because they
be cognizant of the beauty of nature
are unchanging. For example, say
and where the real feelings of joy and
we have a triangle drawn on a
appreciation to nature’s beauty are
blackboard. A triangle is a
manifested through appreciation and
polygon with 3 sides. The triangle
enjoyment when in contact with the
as it is on the blackboard is far
artwork.
from perfect.
• Cultural Function -Art serves as an
• However, it is only the
aperture towards skills, knowledge,
intelligibility of the Form
attitudes, customs, and traditions of
"triangle" that allows us to know
different groups of people. The Art
the drawing on the chalkboard is
helps, preserves, shares and
a triangle, and the Form
transmits culture of people from one
"triangle" is perfect and
generation to another.
unchanging. It is exactly the same
• Political Function – campaign art;
whenever anyone chooses to
politician promoting political agenda
consider it.
• Religious Function – almost all forms
of art evolved from religion
• Economic Function – people believe
it does not pay to be an artist
Plato was deeply suspicious of arts and artist SEMIOTIC AND ICONIC PLANE
for 2 reasons:
• The purpose of a visual analysis is to
• They appeal to the emotions rather recognize and understand the visual
than to the rational faculty of men. choices the artist made in creating
• They imitate rather than lead one to the artwork. By observing and writing
reality about separate parts of the art
object, you will come to a better
-Socrates just like Plato claimed that art is
understanding of the art object as a
just an imitation of imitation.
whole. A visual analysis addresses an
-For Plato art is dangerous because it artwork’s formal elements—visual
provides a petty replacement for the real attributes such as color, line, texture,
entities that can be only attained through and size. A visual analysis may also
reason. include historical context or
interpretations of meaning.
Art as a Representation
One way to analyze a piece of art is
➢ Aristotle, Plato’s most important
through the use of semiotics.
student in philosophy, agreed with
his teacher that art is a form of • Semiotics is the study of works of art
imitation. signs and symbols, either individually or
➢ However, in contrast to his mentor’s grouped in sign systems that can give us
disgust, Aristotle conceived of art as more insight from the work source and
representing possible versions of meaning. All painters work in a pictorial
reality. language by following a set of standards,
➢ For Aristotle, all kinds of art do not basics and rules of picture-making. There
aim to represent reality as it is but to is a big resemblance between pictorial
provide a vision of what might be or image making and the creation of written
the many possibilities in reality. language, the study of this nature of
what consists and the individual
Art as a Disinterested Judgment
components of pictorial and written
➢ Immanuel Kant considered the language is known as Semiotics.
judgment of beauty the cornerstone
• Semiotics can translate a picture
of art, as something that can be
from an image into words. Visual
universal despite its subjectivity: and
communication terms and theories
therefore, art is innately
come from linguistics, the study of
autonomous from specific interest.
language, and from semiotics, the
➢ For Kant, every human being, after
science of signs. Signs take the form
perception and the free play of his
of words, images, sounds, odours,
faculties, should recognize the
flavours, acts or objects, but such
beauty that is inherent in a work of
things have no natural meaning and
art.
become signs only when we provide
➢ This is the kind of universality that a
them with meaning.
judgment of beauty is assumed by
Kant to have.
DIVISIONS OF ART STUDY
Art as a Communication of Emotion • The English word genre is derived
directly from the French and Old
• According to Leo Tolstoy, art place a
French, where it means kind, and
huge role in communication to its
from the Latin word genus, which
audience emotions that the artist
means race, stock, kind, and gender.
previously experienced.
• In the world of arts, a genre is a class
• Tolstoy is fighting for the social
or category of artistic works that
dimension of art. This means that art
exhibit certain key aesthetic
serves as a mechanism of cohesion
characteristics. Any work of art that
for everyone.
belongs to a given
 genre belongs to it by virtue of the Visual art is any mode or forms of art
fact that it possesses certain key that has a physical component that
aesthetic characteristics. To name a can be viewed, such as: sculpture,
work's genre is to describe, define, drawing, painting, film, graphic
typify, and tag it with these essential design, printmaking, photography,
aesthetic characteristics. and more.
• Genre is used to group various types • Many artistic disciplines (performing
of art. It provides a rule bound world arts, conceptual art, and textile art)
in which there are a predictable involve aspects of the visual arts as
range of features and expectations. well as arts of other types. Also
included within the visual arts are the
What is a genre in the arts?
applied arts such as industrial design,
• Genres are found in music, literature, graphic design, fashion design,
painting, film, television, or in many interior design and decorative art.
other arts—even in video games! For
Drawing is creating a picture with a
example, in music there are genres of
variety of tools, in most cases pencils,
classical, folk, rock, heavy metal, pop,
crayons, pens or markers. Artists draw
blues, big band, etc.; in literature,
on different types of surfaces, like paper
there are genres of comedy, tragedy,
or canvas. The first were discovered in
history; in fine arts, there are genres
caves, drawings that date back about
of still life, sculpture, portrait,
30,000 years.
landscape, etc.; and in film, there are
genres of documentary, animation, Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni
thriller, horror, etc. known best as simply Michelangelo , was an
Italian sculptor, painter, architect and poet
The Functions of Genre in The Arts
of the High Renaissance born in the Republic
Genres in the arts may be further subdivided of Florence, who exerted an unparalleled
into: influence on the development of Western
art.Michelangelo was the first Western artist
1) subgenres- is an arts genre whose
whose biography was published while he
aesthetic characteristics are a subset of
was alive.
another arts genre.
Painting is often called the most important
For example, sometimes the genre called
form Of visual art. It is about putting colors
speculative fiction is subdivided into
on a canvas or a wall.
subgenres called science fiction, fantasy
fiction, horror fiction, supernatural fiction, • Painters express their ideas through
superhero fiction, alternate history,and a mixture of colors and different
magic realism. The aesthetic characteristics brush strokes . It is also one of the
of each of these subdivisions are a subset of oldest forms of visual art. In old caves
the aesthetic characteristics of speculative prehistoric people painted hunting
fiction. scenes onto walls. Paintings became
important in ancient Egypt, where
2) hybrids- a genre that is derived and bears
tombs of pharaohs were covered
the aesthetic characteristics of two
with scenes of everyday Egyptian life.
heterogeneous, incongruous genres. For
example, a tragicomedy is a fictional work Carlos Modesto Villaluz Francisco or Carlos
that combines aspects of tragedy and “Botong” Francisco was a most distinguished
comedy. practitioner of mural painting for many
decades and best known for his historical
"Visual Arts" is a modern but imprecise
pieces. He was one of the first Filipino
umbrella term for a broad category of art
modernists along with Galo Ocampo and
which includes a number of artistic
Victorio C. Edades who broke away from
disciplines from various sub-categories.
Fernando Amorsolo's romanticism of
Philippine scenes.
 architecture). In any event, it's the
latest type of contemporary art - a
Vincent Willem Van Goghwas a Dutch post-
sort of ultimate postmodernism.
impressionist painter who is among the most
• Lately, curators prefer to
famous and influential figures in the history
refer to it as digital art or new media
of Western art. In just over a decade, he
art that includes computer graphics,
created about 2,100 artworks, including
computer animation, virtual
around 860 oil paintings, most of which date
art, Internet art, interactive art, video
from the last two years of his life.
games, computer robotics, 3D
Printmaking is art that is made by covering a printing, and art as biotechnology.
plate with ink and pressing it on the surface
Types of Computer Art:
of another object. Today prints are mostly
produced on paper today but originally, they
were pressed onto cloth or other objects. Computer Graphics
Plates are often made out of wood or metal. • This is the most lucrative area of
computer art and involves using
Photography is making pictures by letting
specialized software to create
light through the lenses of a camera onto a
computer images.
film. In analogue photography light was
recorded onto a film, which had to be
Digital Installation Art
chemically developed.
• This is the use of computer
• Images could then be printed onto technology to produce large- scale
special paper. Today most public art projects. It can involve
photography is digital. Cameras have projecting film or computer-
no film, the images are recorded generated images onto an object like
onto silicon chips. a wall or even an entire building
front.
Filmmaking (or, in an academic context, film
production) is the process of making a film,
Generative Art
generally in the sense of films intended for
• This is another method of making
extensive theatrical exhibition.
computer art. Generative art means
• Filmmakers make moving images an artwork has been generated in a
that they turn into films. It is a very random automated manner by a
expensive and complicated form of computer program using a
art, involving many tasks, for mathematical algorithm.
example scriptwriting, casting, and • The computer might produce a
editing film sequences before they painting or drawing which can then
can be shown to an audience. A full- be printed onto paper or canvas.
length feature film often takes many
weeks or months to produce. Computer Illustration
Computer art typically refers to any form of • Also called digital illustration, this is
graphic art or digital imagery which is the use of computer software like
produced with the aid of a computer, or any Adobe Illustrator to produce works of
types of art in which the role of the art, similar to traditional fine art.
computer is emphasized. Sculptures are three-dimensional pieces of
art that are created by shaping various kinds
• This wideranging definition also
of material.
includes traditional disciplines that
use computers - for instance, it • Among the most popular are stone,
encompasses computer-controlled steel, plastic, ceramics and wood.
kinetic art (especially sculpture) or Sculpture isoften referred to as
computer-generated painting - as plastic arts. It goes back to ancient
well as equivalent forms of applied Greece. It has been important in
art (computerized designs, various religions of the world over
 many centuries. In the Renaissance or written, presented to a public in a Fine
Michelangelo was one of the masters Arts context, traditionally interdisciplinary.
of the art.
• An art in which the medium is the artists’
• His most famouspiece of work was
own body and the artworks take the form of
David, a marble statue of a naked
actions performed by the artist.
man.
• An art that could not be bought, sold or
Plastic art is a term now largely forgotten,
traded as a commodity.
encompassing art forms which involved
physical manipulation of a plastic medium by Audiovisual art is the exploration of kinetic
molding or modeling. abstract art and music or sound set in
relation to each other.
• The term plastic art includes art
works that are molded and not • It includes visual music, abstract film,
necessarily plastic objects. This audiovisual performances and
category consists of three- installations.
dimensional works like clay, plaster,
ART MOVEMENTS
stone, metals, wood and,
paper(origami). • An art movement is a tendency or a
style of art with a particularly
The term "fine art" refers to an art form
specified objective and philosophy
practiced mainly for its aesthetic value and
that is adopted and followed by a
its beauty ("art for art's sake") rather than its
group of artists during a specific
functional value.
period that may span from a few
• Fine art is rooted in drawing and months to years or maybe even
design-based works such as painting, decades.
printmaking, and sculpture. It is often • The birth of art movements can be
contrasted with "applied art" and traced back to 19th century France.
"crafts" which are both traditionally The 1840s and the industrial
seen as utilitarian activities. revolution rapidly changed the
• Other non-design-based activities established art styles and methods,
regarded as fine arts, include which had remained steadfast for
photography and architecture, centuries with little change.
although the latter is best
“Naturalism" is a term with a vexed and
understood as an applied art.
complex history in art criticism. It has
Literary Art broadly refers to any collection been used since the 17th century to refer
of written or oral work, but it more to any artwork which attempts to render
commonly and narrowly refers to writings the reality of its subject-matter without
specifically considered to be an art form, concern for the constraints of
especially prose, fiction, drama, and poetry, convention, or for notions of the
in contrast to academic writingand 'beautiful’.
newspapers.
• The best-known "proponent of
Literary Genre is a genre type; it is a category naturalism" was the novelist and
of literary composition. It may be French art critic Émile Zola
determined by: (1840–1902); he was one of the
most passionate defenders of
• Literary technique
Taine's theories, putting them to
• Tone
use in his novels.
• Content
• Length “Humanism”- An art during the Early and
High Renaissance periods influenced and
Performance art is an artwork or art informed by the prevalent humanistic ideals
exhibition created through actions executed of the time. Many artists during this time
by the artist or other participants. It may be drew inspiration and knowledge from texts
live, through documentation, spontaneously by Classical writers and philosophers.
 • Petrarch is often considered the or canvas for several centuries, spreading
founder of Humanism. Petrarch's from Europe to the rest of the world.
sonnets were admired and
• During the 15th century, Jan van
imitated throughout Europe
Eyck, a famous Belgian painter
during the Renaissance and
developed oil painting by mixing
became a model for lyrical
linseed oil and oil from nuts with
poetry. In the 16th century,
diverse colors. Some English
Pietro Bembo created the model
artists too made use of oils, and
for the modern Italian language
first advocated the oil painting
based on Petrarch's works.
technique. Antique Oil Paintings
Fresco is a mural painting technique that describe the ancient story in a
involves painting with water-based paint very fascinating way.
directly onto wet plaster so that the paint
MODERN ART is the creative world's
becomes an integral part of the plaster. Sir
response to the rationalist practices and
Edward Poynter. Paul and Apollos (1872)
perspectives of the new lives and ideas
Tate. Developed in Italy from about the
provided by the technological advances of
thirteenth century and fresco was perfected
the industrial age that caused contemporary
during the Renaissance.
society to manifest itself in new ways
• The Italian Renaissance was the compared to the past.
great period of fresco painting,
Impressionism describes a style of painting
as seen in the works of Cimabue,
developed in France during the mid-to-late
Giotto, Masaccio, Fra Angelico,
19th century; characterizations of the style
Correggio—who favored the
include small, visible brushstrokes that offer
sotto in su (“from below to
the bare impression of form, unblended
above”)technique and many
color and an emphasis on the accurate
other painters from the late 13th
depiction of natural light.
to the mid-16th century.
• Camille Pissarro was a French
Tempera (also called egg tempera) was a
Impressionist and Post-
method of painting that superseded the
Impressionist painter. Known as
encaustic painting method, only to be itself
the "Father of Impressionism,"
replaced by oil painting. Its name stems from
he used his own painterly style to
the Latin word temperare, meaning 'to mix
depict urban daily life,
in proportion'. Unlike encaustic paints which
landscapes, and rural scenes.
contain beeswax to bind the color pigments,
or oil paints which use oils, tempera employs Post-Impressionism was a predominantly
an emulsion of water, egg yolks or whole French art movement that developed
eggs (occasionally with a little glue, honey or roughly between 1886 and 1905, from the
milk). last Impressionist exhibition to the birth of
Fauvism. Post-Impressionism emerged as a
• Following the supremacy of the
reaction against Impressionists' concern for
oil medium during succeeding
the naturalistic depiction of light and color.
periods of Western painting, the
20th century saw a revival of • French painter Paul Cézanne is
tempera techniques by such U.S. said to be the father of Post-
artists as Ben Shahn, Andrew Impressionism. With his work he
Wyeth, and Jacob Lawrence and set out to restore a sense of
by the British painters Edward order and structure to painting,
Wadsworth and Lucian Freud. and he achieved this by reducing
objects to their most basic
Oil painting is the process of painting with
shapes while retaining the
pigments with a medium of drying oil as the
saturated colors of
binder. It has been the most common
Impressionism.
technique for artistic painting on wood panel
Cubism was a revolutionary new approach to Dadaist movement included
representing reality invented in around public gatherings,
1907–08 by artists Pablo Picasso and demonstrations, and publication
Georges Braque. They brought different of art/literary journals;
views of subjects (usually objects or figures) passionate coverage of art,
together in the same picture, resulting in politics, and culture were topics
paintings that appear fragmented and often discussed in a variety of
abstracted. media.

• Cubism, highly influential visual Surrealism is a cultural movement that

arts style of the 20th century developed in Europe in the aftermath of
that was created principally by World War I in which artists depicted
the artists Pablo Picasso and unnerving, illogical scenes and developed
Georges Braque in Paris between techniques to allow the unconscious mind to
1907 and 1914. express itself.

Fauvism, style of painting that flourished in • Founded by the poet André

France around the turn of the 20th century. Breton in Paris in 1924,
Fauve artists used pure, brilliant color Surrealism was an artistic and
aggressively applied straight from the paint literary movement. It proposed
tubes to create a sense of an explosion on that the Enlightenment—the
the canvas. influential 17th- and 18th-
century intellectual movement
• The leader of the group was
that championed reason and
Henri Matisse, who had arrived
individualism—had suppressed
at the Fauve style after
the superior qualities of the
experimenting with the various
irrational, unconscious mind.
Post-Impressionist approaches
of Paul Gauguin, Vincent van Pop art is an art movement that emerged in
Gogh, and Georges Seurat. the United Kingdom and the United States
during the mid- to late-1950s. The
Expressionism is a modernist movement,
movement presented a challenge to
initially in poetry and painting, originating in
traditions of fine art by including imagery
Northern Europe around the beginning of
from popular and mass culture, such as
the 20th century. Its typical trait is to present
advertising, comic books and mundane
the world solely from a subjective
mass-produced objects.
perspective, distorting it radically for
emotional effect in order to evoke moods or • Andy Warhol, perhaps a more
ideas. widely referenced proponent of
the movement, used his own
• The roots of the German
celebrity status to spread Pop Art
Expressionist school lay in the
to other artistic spheres,
works of Vincent van Gogh,
especially film. In fact, he is often
Edvard Munch, and James Ensor,
seen as the forefather of
each of whom in the period
Independent Film. Discover
1885–1900 evolved a highly
artworks inspired by Andy
personal painting style.
Warhol's style in our curated
Dadaism Three ideas were basic to the Dada: Warhol collection.
movement—spontaneity, negation, and
absurdity—and those three ideas were
expressed in a vast array of creative chaos.
Spontaneity was an appeal to individuality
and a violent cry against the system.

• The Dada movement's principles

were first collected in Hugo Ball's
Dada Manifesto in 1916. The
ART HISTORY TIMELINE values led to the establishment of
complex rules for how both Gods and
Prehistoric Art (40,000–4,000 B.C.)
humans could be represented by
• Prehistoric art refers artifacts artists.
made before there was a written • Egyptian artists used six colours in
record. their paintings red, green, blue,
• The earliest artifacts come from yellow, white and black.
the Paleolithic era, or the Old
Stone Age, in the form of rock Greek Art (c.650-27 BCE)
carvings, engravings, pictorial • Ancient Greek art proper "emerged"
imagery, sculptures, and stone during the 8th century BCE (700-
arrangements. 800), as things calmed down around
• It was in the Neolithic era (New the Aegean.
Stone Age) that we see the most • About this time, iron was made into
important developments in weapons/tools, people started using
human history an alphabet, the first Olympic Games
• Paleolithic artists have five main took place (776), a complex religion
colors at their disposal: yellow, emerged, and a loose sense of
red, brown, black and white. cultural identity grew up around the
• Works from this prehistoric idea of "Hellas" (Greece).
period are not always simple, but • Early forms of Greek art were largely
can be quite complex. confined to ceramic pottery.
• Prehistoric people often • Greek art is all about images: images
represented their world and of gods, images of heroes, and
beliefs through visual images. images of humans. The self-
• Prehistoric art, in general, can be awareness of the Greeks is reflected
seen as the representation of a in the ways they decided to visualize
symbolic system that is an themselves and the world, both real
integral part of the culture that and imaginary, surrounding them.
creates it. It is therefore not
readily intelligible or accessible Roman Art 500 BC – 500 AD
to other cultures. • Ancient Rome was the most powerful
nation on earth, excelling all others
Egyptian Art (3100 BCE - 395 CE)
at military organization and warfare,
• Ancient Egyptian art, for example, is engineering, and architecture. Its
world famous for the extraordinary unique cultural achievements
Egyptian Pyramids, while other include the invention of the dome
features unique to the art of Ancient and the groin vault, the development
Egypt include its writing script based of concrete and a European-wide
on pictures and symbols network of roads and bridges.
(hieroglyphics), and its meticulous • Despite this, Roman sculptors and
hieratic style of painting and stone painters produced only a limited
carving. amount of outstanding original fine
• The function of Egyptian art was art, preferring instead to recycle
twofold. First, to glorify the gods - designs from Greek art, which they
including the Pharaoh - and facilitate revered as far superior to their own.
human passage into the after-life. • Indeed, many types of art practiced
Second, to assert, propagandize and by the Romans - including, sculpture
preserve the values of the day. (bronze and marble statuary,
• Most Egyptian artworks involve the sarcophagi), fine art painting (murals,
depiction of many gods and portraiture, vase-painting), and
goddesses - of whom the Pharaoh decorative art (including metalwork,
was one. In addition, the Egyptian mosaics, jewelry, ivory carving) had
respect for order and conservative
 already been fully mastered by Baroque (1600–1750)
Ancient Greek artists. • The term Baroque (derived from the
Portuguese 'barocco' meaning,
Medieval Art (500–1400) 'irregular pearl or stone') describes a
• The Middle Ages, often referred to as fairly complex idiom, originating in
the “Dark Ages,” marked a period of Rome, which flowered during the
economic and cultural deterioration period c.1590-1720, and which
following the fall of the Roman embraced painting, and sculpture as
Empire in 476 A.D. well as architecture.
• Much of the artwork produced in the • Baroque paintings were
early years of the period reflects that characterized by drama, as seen in
darkness, characterized by grotesque the iconic works of Italian painter
imagery and brutal scenery. Caravaggio and Dutch painter
• Art produced during this time was Rembrandt.
centered around the Church. • Painters used an intense contrast
• This period was also responsible for between light and dark and had
the emergence of the illuminated energetic compositions matched by
manuscript and Gothic architecture rich color palettes.
style.
• Definitive examples of influential art Rococo (1699–1780)
from this period include the • Rococo originated in Paris,
catacombs in Rome, Hagia Sophia in encompassing decorative art,
Istanbul, the Lindisfarne Gospels, one painting, architecture, and sculpture.
of the best-known examples of the The aesthetic offered a softer style of
illuminated manuscript, and Notre decorative art compared to
Dame, a Parisian cathedral and Baroque’s exuberance.
prominent example of Gothic • Rococo is characterized by lightness
architecture. and elegance, focusing on the use of
natural forms, asymmetrical design,
Renaissance Art (1400–1600) and subtle colors.
• Renaissance art was driven by the • In the world of Rococo, all art forms,
new notion of "Humanism," a including fine art painting,
philosophy which had been the architecture, sculpture, interior
foundation for many of the design, furniture, fabrics, porcelain
achievements (eg. democracy) of and other "objets d'art" are
pagan ancient Greece. subsumed within an ideal of elegant
• Artwork throughout the Renaissance prettiness.
was characterized by realism, • Painters like Antoine Watteau and
attention to detail, and precise study Francois Boucher used lighthearted
of human anatomy. Artists used treatments, rich brushwork, and
linear perspective and created depth fresh colors.
through intense lighting and
shading. Nineteenth Century
• Renaissance era, which lasted from • The 19th Century was a period when
1490 to 1527, produced influential Europe and the world experienced
artists such as da Vinci, rapid and profound changes in all
Michelangelo, and Raphael, each of areas.
whom brought creative power and • The period was also one of huge
spearheaded ideals of emotional social change and urbanization,
expression. which was instigated by the birth of
science as a profession and two huge
Industrial Revolutions, which defined
the period as the age of the machine,
impacting every level of society and
 improving just about every part of emotional depictions, intensely sad
everyday life. and intensely heroic subjects.
• Art, and especially painting, in the • Paintings were defined by bold,
19th Century was no different. The linear drawing and strong
changes over the course of 100 years juxtapositions of light and shade.
were dramatic, transitioning from Many Romantic paintings have a
historic ‘Old Masters’ style works, to sketchy, grainy appearance with a
the dawn of Modernity. certain softness to them, although
• Over the course of the 19th Century this is not true of them all.
many innovative and original art
movements and styles were born. Realism: c. 1850-1900
Some were of these movements • Realism, often referred to as
were short-lived and only flourished Naturalism, originated in France in
within small districts, whilst others the 1850’s in the wake of the 1848
were widespread and had a profound French Revolution.
effect on the evolution of art. • Paintings in the Realist style depicted
scenes of everyday life, seeking to
Neoclassicism: c. 1780-1900 appeal to the general public rather
• At the turn of the 19th Century, than just being aimed at the upper
Neoclassicism was the dominant echelons of society.
style of painting in Europe. • Realism was interested in the realism
• Neoclassical painting is generally a of the subject matter, marking a
form of history painting, a genre departure from Neoclassical history
which traversed many styles but paintings and Romanticism, which
depended on historic subject matter. elevated subjects to monumental
• Painters in the Neoclassical style importance. Realism was interested
attached a great deal of importance in common laborers and normal,
to the art of drawing, and so the everyday people as its subjects.
surface of Neoclassical paintings
were entirely smooth and utterly Impressionism: c. 1870-1920
devoid of any brushstrokes. • Impressionism was a stylistic
• Paintings were well-delineated – movement of painting that emerged
figures were easily distinguishable in the 1870’s in France and became
from shadow and were popular throughout Europe for the
characteristically well-lit. Any next fifty years.
shadows in paintings did not obscure • Impressionism was not just a
or confuse any elements of the movement, but it introduced a whole
composition, and it the focal point of new visual and technical styles for
paintings were made very clear to painting.
the viewer. • The key features of Impressionism
are the fine, light, highly visible
Romanticism: c. 1750-1890 brushstrokes that wash across the
• Romanticism was part of a larger paintings and the importance of the
artistic movement that included attention to the accurate depiction of
literature and architecture as well as the light throughout the day or night.
painting, originating in Britain in the • The Impressionist movement
mid-18th Century. coincided with significant advances
• Romanticism was influenced by made in paint technology – premixed
spiritual beliefs, folk culture and an paints in new, vibrant colours
interest in the medieval era, which became available in tubes, which
characterized some of the painting allowed artists to work more
produced during the period. spontaneously and very easily
• Romantic painting in terms of subject outside.
matter was very broad, favouring
 Post-Impressionism Expressionism (1905–1920)
• Post-Impressionism was the last • Expressionism emerged as a
important European artistic response to increasingly conflicted
movement of the 19th century, world views and the loss of
which took place predominantly in spirituality.
France between the years 1886- • Expressionist art sought to draw from
1905. within the artist, using a distortion of
• Post-Impressionist painting was not form and strong colors to display
unified by one overarching style, and anxieties and raw emotions.
was instead made up of a wide range • Expressionist painters, in a quest for
of techniques and styles that were authenticity, looked for inspiration
associated with the artists that beyond that of Western art and
developed them. frequented ethnographic museums
• most Post-Impressionist paintings to revisit native folk traditions and
were unified by their emotive tribal art.
qualities and rich symbolism. Thick,
painterly brushstrokes characterised Fauvism (1900–1935)
many Post-Impressionist paintings, • Led by Henri Matisse, Fauvism built
and were arranged in orderly, upon examples from Vincent van
directional patterns to make up a Gogh and George Seurat. As the first
composition. avant-garde, 20th-century
• The colours used were bold and vivid, movement, this style was
bordering on unnaturally vibrant, characterized by expressive use of
and subject matter ranged from intense color, line, and brushwork, a
landscape painting to still life bold sense of surface design, and flat
painting, encompassing genre scenes composition.
and social compositions as well.
Cubism (1907–1914)
Twentieth Century • Cubism was established by Pablo
• The 20th century opened new vistas Picasso and Georges Braque, who
and possibilities that expanded rejected the concept that art should
everyday human experience and copy nature. They moved away from
greatly influenced the world of art traditional techniques and
and original painting. From the perspectives; instead, they created
earliest years of the turn of the radically fragmented objects through
century, artists were beginning to abstraction. Many Cubist painters’
experiment with subject matter, works are marked by flat, two-
creating realities reflective more of dimensional surfaces, geometric
their own inner visions than what lay forms or “cubes” of objects, and
before them in nature. Concurrent multiple vantage points. Often, their
with this was a search for new subjects weren’t even discernible.
techniques, materials, and
approaches to support these forays Dadaism
into new terrains. • Dadaism was an art movement born
• 20th century painting movements from a reaction to capitalism,
and trends inspired artists to set out nationalism, and corrupt politics,
in many divergent directions, which many believed resulted in the
resulting in a broad range of styles horrors of World War I. With
and forms. Here are some of the modern, mechanized warfare as the
major movements that defined and backdrop, artists disenfranchised
shaped art in the 20th century and with society’s cold rationality used
which still influence the art being art to protest the establishment.
produced today.
 Surrealism (1916–1950)
• Surrealism emerged from the Dada
art movement in 1916, showcasing
works of art that defied reason.
Surrealists denounced the rationalist
mindset. They blamed this thought
process on events like World War I
and believed it to repress imaginative
thoughts. Surrealists were influenced
by Karl Marx and theories developed
by Sigmund Freud, who explored
psychoanalysis and the power of
imagination.

Pop Art (1950s–1960s)

• Pop art is a movement that emerged
in the mid-20th century in which
artists incorporated commonplace
objects—comic strips, soup cans,
newspapers, and more—into their
work. The Pop art movement aimed
to solidify the idea that art can draw
from any source, and there is no
hierarchy of culture to disrupt this.
• Pop art is easily recognizable due to
its vibrancy and unique
characteristics that are present in
many of the most iconic works of the
movement.