HISTORY OF VISUAL ARTS NEOCLASSICISM, MODERN AND CONTEMPORARY

ART OF THE MODERN

AGE (15th to 18th centuries)

RENAISSANCE
The Renaissance is the name given to the great artistic and philosophical movement that took
place in Europe, first of all in Italy, at the end of the 15th century, and which shows as its main
characteristic, which is particularly evident in the arts, its admiration for classical antiquity,
which it takes as a model. The name Renaissance alludes to what this movement wanted to be:
a rebirth or rebirth of Greco-Latin culture.
The Renaissance began as a movement led by artists and intellectuals in Italy, under the sign of
Humanism; it is a rebirth of the arts where the issues represented, from an ethical and
aesthetic point of view, were freed from the bonds of the Christian concept of life. For them, art
was no longer an anonymous service offered to God and the Church, but a personal hymn in
praise of beauty; thus, drawing was perfected and used as a basis for painting. The cradle of
the Renaissance was Florence.
In the 15th century, portraiture became more popular; wealthy people liked to have their
portraits taken in busts or in medallions, and so a multitude of people emerged whose features
were carved in wood. It is rare to see a nude among the profusion of virgins and saints, only
with great discretion it is hinted at the mundane
sensuality in certain representations of ecclesiastical art, by For example, those referring to
martyrs and
sinners.
Among the most significant representatives of the
Renaissance, we can highlight for their majestic pictorial
works Sandro Botticeli, Michelangelo Buonarroti, Dürer,
Tintoretto, El Greco, Leonardo de Vinci and Raphael
Sanzio; of them, some like Leonardo de Vinci, for
example, stood out more as a draftsman, since through
drawing he carried out his famous anatomical studies;
his drawings are full of fine but firm features,
highlighting human expressions and it can also be
appreciated that they are wrapped in a subtle and fine
halo of diffused light.
GENERAL CHARACTERISTICS OF RENAISSANCE ART
• Imitation of the architecture and sculpture of Greece and Rome.
• Realization of an ideal beauty, adjusted to canons dictated by reason.
• Search for serenity and balance that come from the harmony of the whole.
• Creation of works whose clarity and perfection, attributes required by universal reason, give
them permanent validity.

16TH CENTURY. BAROQUE PERIOD

This style began in Italy in the 16th century and lasted until the end of the 18th century,
spreading throughout all European countries, developing its own characteristics in each
country. In Italy there were two pictorial currents, or styles: the Eclectic and the Classicist. In
this country the figure of Michelangelo Merisi de Caravaggio stood out; and Michelangelo
Buonarroti, who produced numerous works with very unique characteristics, which
distinguished him from other sculptors of the same period. The work of Benvenuto Cellini also
stands out, among others.
Among the main characteristics of these works we have:
Expressive force, dynamism, drama.
Anatomical domain.
Figures full of abundant vitality.
Demonstration of gestures and attitudes in their figures.
Strong classical influence.
Materials: bronze and marble preferably.

ARCHITECTURE: The two types of architectural work that the Baroque develops are the
Church and the Palace. The church, as is typical of the style, has two robust side towers that
frame the large lantern with its dome. The palace, modeled on that of Versailles, consists of a
long, multi-storey building, the central body of which contains the greatest density of
decorative elements and forms a façade of great artistic value.

PAINTING: In this art there is a marked

predilection for naturalism, dynamism and optical
effects; compositions of still life, animals, life of
saints and of Christ appear, framed within
asymmetrical schemes. The representations of
people or townspeople appear in their normal
clothing, but in the portraits of the upper social
class, the clothing, wigs, lace, stylized shoes, hats,
etc. are more ornate; however, what most
characterizes Baroque painting is the use of light
and shadow, the dramatic intensity and the use of
color.

THE ROCOCO

Characteristic style of the European 18th century,

which followed the Baroque and preceded the
Neoclassical. The term comes from the French Rocaille, which in the 17th century designated
the decoration of Renaissance grottoes and gardens using shells.
ARCHITECTURE: The ornaments that, representing false rocks, adhere to the architecture of
caves and waterfalls, called rocailles, were the main new element, introduced to replace the
rigid system of classical orders.
SCULPTURE: A great sculptor of the Rococo century was Andrea Schluter, author of the
equestrian effigy of the Elector Frederick William, in which one can observe the movement of
masses and lines

PAINTING: The character of the Rococo era, in love with intimacy, favoured the cultivation of
portraiture in painting, as well as in sculpture. He was found among the nobles and wealthy
bourgeois who have lost interest in historical and mythological compositions, although they
often still enjoy having their portraits portrayed as characters from fables.
 ART OF NEOCLASTICISM

The birth of the cultural and artistic movement known as Neoclassicism arose in the 18th
century. It covers a period from approximately 1760 to 1830. In this context, classical antiquity
becomes the model to follow. Artists and amateurs will travel to Rome to take models of Roman
imperial antiquity, and Rome becomes the international center (Although it is true that many
models are taken from the Renaissance rather than directly observing the buildings of
antiquity). It corresponds to a very profound review of social, economic and political models
that took place in Europe during those decades.
In this review of Greco-Roman culture, the discoveries of Pompeii and Herculaneum, the
drawings of artists and the theories of the encyclopedists (Voltaire, Rousseau, etc.) were
important.
One of the characteristics of neoclassicism is that it is inspired by the works of the classical era,
which are considered perfect and definitive.
Aspiration to beauty, there is talk of a new style, treated as a resurgence and emergence of
"true art". Hence its name: neoclassicism

ARCHITECTURE
It was characterized by symmetry, elegance and sobriety, the use of a single order (Doric, Ionic
or Corinthian, instead of Baroque superposition), the elimination of color, and a taste for
triumphal arches and commemorative columns.
The need to create a building in which all its parts had an essential and practical function and in
which the architectural orders were constructive elements and not just decorative, all
in order to create true architecture: one built with logic.
All architects start from common assumptions such as rationality in construction and a return to
the past. The models of buildings from Greece and Rome and even Egypt and Asia Minor
become references that everyone uses, albeit from different points of view.
Other architects, the so-called utopian, revolutionary or visionary, designed buildings based
on geometric shapes. They did not disregard the heritage of the classical past and, although
they respected the rules of symmetry and monumentality, their buildings are sometimes the
result of the capricious combination of geometric forms. Between these two groups, a third
category appears: picturesque architecture, based on the creation of English gardens in the
18th century, arranged in a natural way, far from the geometric nature of the French garden.

SCULPTURE
The memory of the past also had an impact on neoclassical sculpture, with sculptors focusing
their interest on the aesthetic ideals and technical procedures of ancient statuary.
Neoclassical sculptures were mostly made of white marble, without polychrome, since that was
what ancient sculptures were thought to be like, with a predominance of the noble simplicity
and serene beauty that Winckelmann had found in Greek statuary.
Thus, the sculptors of the late 18th and early 19th centuries created works in which a simplicity
and purity of lines prevailed, setting them apart from the curvilinear taste of the Baroque. In all
of them the nude has a notable presence, as a desire to surround the works with a certain
timelessness. Greek and Roman models, themes taken from classical mythology and allegories
on civic virtues filled the reliefs of buildings, the pediments of porticos and monuments, such as
triumphal arches or commemorative columns.
The portrait also occupied an important place in neoclassical sculpture; Antonio (1757-1822)
represented Napoleon as Mars (1810, Milan) and his sister Paulina as Venus Victrix (1807,
Rome), thus taking the models of the classical gods. However, others preferred an idealized but
at the same time realistic portrait that captured the feelings of the subject, such as Jean-
Antoine Houdon (1741-1828) with his old Voltaire (Hermitage Museum) or the beautiful bust of
the Empress Josephine (1806, Malmaison Castle) by Joseph Chinard (1756-1813).
Representatives:
The Italian Canova was the most prominent,
The Dane Thorvaldsen, educated in Rome
Jean-Antoine Houdon
Joseph Chinard, Bartolini, Rude, Pradler, Flaxman, among others

PAINT
He took as a model the ancient statuary and the Italian 16th century (Raphael). The artist who
made a definitive contribution to establishing the new style was David, who influenced French
artists such as Ingres, Gerard and Prud'hon. In the USA Italian and English influences merged.
Among its characteristics we have: impeccable drawing, closed contours, modeled volumes in
such a way that it gives the illusion of roundness of the bodies; soft colors and symmetrical and
static composition. Works such as the Oath of the Horatii pose a precise space in which the
characters are placed in the foreground; the predominance of drawing. Jean Auguste Dominique
Ingres (1839-1867) although he was not a neoclassical painter, has works - such as The
Fountain - that represent this artistic movement.
The painters, among whom Jacques-Louis David stood out, reproduced the main events of the
revolution and exalted the Roman myths, which were identified with the values of the
revolution.

CONTEMPORARY AGE

Contemporary art, also known as modern art, in the literal sense, is that which has been
produced in our time: current art. However, the fact that the concept was established
historically at a certain moment, the passage of time makes it move further and further into the
past of the contemporary viewer. The concept of contemporaneity applied to art can be
understood in different ways:
• Extended to the art of the entire Contemporary Age (which begins at the end of the 18th
century)
• Limited:
• 20th century art (characterized by artistic avant-gardes).
•
was
The art of the modern world, which at the time it was defined as a historiographical term
understood to be the one after the Second World War -1945- (most art museums usually
call contemporary art the collections from that period) and currently it is understood to be
the one that emerged from the fall of the Berlin Wall -1989-,
• Art that emerged in the immediate history of the closest present, taking as a milestone, for
example, the attack on the Twin Towers in New York -2001-.
• In 20th century art, as in all areas of contemporary life, the break with traditional modules is
one of the essential characteristics. The constant questioning of conventions makes
transgression a value in itself by the very fact of being provocative (épater le bourgeoise),
with which provocation ends up being established as one more convention, and therefore,
generating opposition from both a subversive and conservative perspective (everything that
is not tradition is plagiarism -Eugenio D'Ors-).
• Constant scientific advances accustom individuals and society to take for granted that the
possibilities for the development of ever higher levels of well-being and consumption are
only held back by social and political obstacles that make less and less sense; or at least are
tolerated with less patience, are denounced and are constantly removed, either by social
and institutional reformism, or by revolutions of very different kinds, mass mobilizations and
the most violent and deadly wars in history.

Contemporary art movements

1. Romanticism
In art, a European artistic and intellectual movement that extends approximately from 1800 to
1850. Romanticism cannot be identified with a singular style, with a technique or with an
attitude, but romantic painting is nevertheless characterized by a very imaginative and
subjective approach, emotional intensity and a visionary or dreamlike character.

2. Impressionism
French pictorial movement of the late 19th century that appeared as a reaction against
academic art. The impressionist movement is considered the starting point of contemporary art.

3. Neo-impressionism
Artistic movement of the late 19th century, founded by the French painter Georges Seurat.
Seurat's aim was to systematize a theory of color that had been intuited casually and without
scientific rigor by the Impressionists. Using the technique he called divisionism (known today as
pointillism), Seurat applied paint to the canvas in tiny spots of pure pigment, with strong color
contrasts. When viewed from a distance, these small spots merge into a single field of colour
and brilliantly reproduce the lighting effects.
4. Realism
Movement that began in the mid-19th century as a reaction to romanticism. In art and
literature, it is the attempt to describe human behavior and one's environment, or to represent
figures and objects as they act or appear in everyday life.

5. Surrealism
Artistic and literary movement founded by the French poet and critic André Breton.
Breton published the Surrealist Manifesto in Paris in 1924 and immediately became the leader
of the group. Surrealism emerged from the movement called Dada, which reflected in both art
and literature the nihilistic protest against all aspects of Western culture.

6. Expressionism
Artistic movement that sought to express the author's feelings and emotions, rather than the
representation of objective reality. The expressionist movement emerged in the late 19th
century and early 20th century as a reaction against the models that had prevailed in Europe
since the Renaissance, particularly in the stagnant Fine Arts academies.

7. Abstract expressionism
Pictorial movement from the mid-20th century whose main characteristic consists of the
spontaneous affirmation of the individual through the act of painting. As its name suggests,
Abstract Expressionism is a non-figurative art and generally does not conform to the limits of
conventional representation.

8. Fauvism
In 1905 a group of young painters exhibited their works and to designate their style, critics
coined the name Fauvism because they thought those artists were fauves (beasts). As an art
movement it lasted no more than five years, but as a style it exerted a greater and more
persistent influence in the use of drawing and colour than any other school of the twentieth
century; it derived from the strong colours of simplified forms and bold decorative schemes.
Representatives: Henri Matisse, Van Gogh, Gauguin

9. Futurism
Artistic movement from the beginning of the 20th century that rejected traditional aesthetics
and attempted to exalt contemporary life, based on its two dominant themes: the machine and
movement. Futurism was characterized by the attempt to capture the sensation of movement.

10. Cubism
Artistic movement that manifested itself above all in painting, whose main objective was to
move away from naturalistic representation and to simultaneously capture on the surface of the
painting an object seen from multiple angles. Developed primarily by Georges Braque and Pablo
Picasso around 1907, it reached its peak around 1914 and continued to evolve throughout the
1920s. By rejecting the realistic representation followed since the Renaissance, Cubism
represented a crucial change in the history of art, becoming the precursor of abstraction and
artistic subjectivity. The Cubists reject perspective and movement and give primacy to line and
form. He was fundamentally inspired by the art of the tribes of Africa and Oceania.

11. Constructivism
Russian artistic movement of the early 20th century that exerted an important influence on
European art and was founded by the Russian sculptor and painter Vladimir Tatlin. The name
refers to the construction of abstract sculptures from a wide variety of industrial materials, such
as metal, wire and pieces of plastic.

12. Abstraction
This art consisted of extracting the essential elements from a figurative image, deforming or
modifying them; it tends to impress the psychic over the purely visual, seeking a new
expression of reality, oscillating between two poles: approaching reality in order to understand
it and distancing oneself from it in order to interpret it.

ACTIVITY TO BE DEVELOPED

QUESTIONNAIRE
Fill in the blanks 2pts each
1. Neoclassicism is a…………………………………………………………………… that emerged in the
………………… and its model to follow was………………………………………
2. The artists considered beasts belong to the………………………
3. The compositions of still life, animals, lives of saints belong to
……………………………………………………………….
4. In the ………………………………………neoclassical, the……………………….is eliminated and
they use a single order…………………………………………………………………………..instead of
the baroque superposition.
5. Contemporary art known as……………………………………………………has been produced in
our time under the name of……………………………………….

Answer the following questions 1 point each

6. What is the name of the movement that appears as a reaction to romanticism?

7. Mention three artistic movements of the 20th century.
8. What is Neo-Impressionism known as today?
9. Mention the characteristics of neoclassical sculpture
10. When does the contemporary age begin and how is it known?
11. Mention the most representative figures of the Baroque
12. What are the styles of the Renaissance?
13. Who inspired cubism?
14. What is the characteristic of Leonardo Da Vinci's drawings? Example of a work
15. What does neoclassicism mean?

Task
Research and exhibit the following periods of visual art: Modern Age, Neoclassicism and
Contemporary
Make a visual organizer for each period studied (modern, neoclassicism, contemporary)
It illustrates each of the eras of art in sculpture, painting and architecture.
Draw a modern age painting composition with tempera and colors on cardboard.
35 by 40