The era and location where a work of art was created often determine the formal and stylistic aspects of the piece. In this unit, we study the evolution of art in time and place in the Western world. We will help you develop the tools you need to identify major formal and stylistic trends that punctuate the timeline of Western art history. This approach will allow you to witness the relationship between works of art and their specific social-historical contexts. You will also see a certain continuum that runs through Western art from Ancient Greece to modern times.
Completing this unit should take you approximately 14 hours.
We can trace the oldest human artworks back tens of thousands of years, where we find examples of art that humans wore, handled as objects of ritual, or used to create immersive spaces or environments, such as in painted caves. However, art-making practices probably extend far beyond what we have discovered in the archaeological record. Every few years, new discoveries reset our horizons of the earliest known art. Interpreting the meaning of these objects beyond simple decorative items is often unknowable since their connections to the cultural and symbolic systems are absent. We can only guess by comparing them to other objects we have discovered that are accompanied by additional explanations.
This article will give you a sense of how art and representation have been an inherent part of human activity since the Paleolithic period. Note that many of the paintings we have recovered from this time tend to revolve around the themes of game, hunting, and fertility.
The art of Egypt and the Ancient Near East is often associated with the first recorded civilizations. This history depends on the writing systems that have preserved our knowledge of the past. Writing – which we see in tablets, papyrus walls, temple walls, and other media – provides a rich background for helping us interpret the meaning of the artworks from these times.
Read this article on the significance of the Ancient Near East in the development of the written word and the emergence of figural representation. How did writing technologies change our society and culture?
Read this essay on the art associated with Sumer's oldest known cities, Ur and Uruk. What do these works say about the importance and role of administrative organizations in these early societies, as is reflected in their artifacts?
Watch this video, which describes an important military victory commemorated in the Victory Stele of Naram-Sin. Why do you think military victories were such an important topic in the sculpture of this time?
Read this article, which describes Hammurabi's rise to power and the stele on which his legal code was inscribed. Pay attention to the new ideas that began to emerge during this time and the role this new medium played in shaping society.
Read this article, which discusses the emergence and longevity of ancient Egyptian society and culture. Why do you think Egyptian artistic styles were so long-lasting, given what you know about their society and its history?
Read about the aesthetics and social function of Egyptian art. What were the main social roles of art in Egypt?
Read about the methods and materials for producing Egyptian sculpture. Make sure you can describe the different processes involved.
The societies and cultures of Greece and Rome provide the origins of what we consider Western civilization. In Greece, we find elements of science, philosophy, and theories of democracy. The Greeks developed ways of thinking about the world that surpassed mythology toward more abstract beliefs about the world. The Romans built on this Greek tradition and created their own conception of a republican form of government. These democratic processes were more indirect and tied to the expansion of one of the world's largest empires. To sustain empire building, the Romans produced innovations in roads, viaducts, and architecture, which often incorporated Greek artistic elements.
This article and video introduce the 900-year period of antiquity. They discuss the emergence of Greece and Rome and their respective arts. Notice how classical themes from antiquity emerged during later eras, such as the Renaissance, Romanticism, and Academicism.
Watch this video on the Greek krater vase, one of this period's most abundant and well-documented artifacts. Note the different styles of these vases as they evolved over time and their many uses in daily life.
Watch this video on the Greek kouros sculptures, which represented ideas of male beauty. What was new in the development of this art form?
Watch this video on Roman sculpture and its relationship to its Greek precedents. We often compare Greek and Roman art due to the strong influence of Greek artists in Rome. What is similar and different in the styles of the Greeks and Romans?
Watch this video on the sculpture Nike of Samothrace and its reconstruction. How much would a major reconstruction of the art change the original experience and meaning?
This video and article discuss the sculpture Augustus of Primaporta, its connection to Greek aesthetics, and the Roman political context. What ideas about Roman political culture are manifest in the artwork?
Empires wax and wane throughout time. We call the period between the Fall of the Roman Empire and the rise of science the Middle Ages (500 to 1500). These are useful bookends on the historical timeline, but we can also interpret the Fall of the Roman Empire as the relative decline of its Western capital in Rome and the rise of its Eastern capital in Constantinople (present-day Istanbul), which was the center of Byzantine art. It also refers to the period when Christianity had spread throughout all of Europe and many other areas of the world, including Africa, the Middle East, and further.
Read this excellent introduction to the art that was created during this time of early Christianity. Can you explain the main difference between the art of this era and the preceding ones?
Read this article, which discusses the importance of the legalization of Christianity by Constantine for the development of Christian art. Note the impact of the political realities on developments in art.
Watch this video, which describes a mosaic in the church of San Vitale in Ravenna. Byzantine art refers to art that bears the influence of the Byzantine Empire's Christian art style. Mosaic was one of the preferred mediums of Byzantine art. What are the formal qualities of this art form? Why do you think it was a medium of choice during the early stages of Christianity?
Read this article on the different populations in Europe during the Middle Ages. What did the word Barbarian refer to?
A fibula (the plural is fibulae) is a brooch or pin used to fasten garments, typically on the right shoulder. Read this article on the formal qualities associated with Barbarian art through examples of one of its common artistic objects.
This article explores the cultural and artistic developments during the Saxon Empire. What forms remind you of Barbarian art, and what forms remind you of Roman art? What historical background can help explain the varied elements of style present in Ottonian art and architecture?
The name gives it away: Romanesque architecture is based on Roman architectural elements. The rounded Roman arch is the literal basis for structures built in this style.
Read this article to understand the role that some forms of sculpture played in Gothic architecture. How does the sculpture of this period differ from earlier ones?
This article discusses the architectural innovations associated with the Gothic style of architecture. Many of the advances in building techniques that took place during the Gothic period were achieved with the goals of building higher structures and creating brighter interiors.
The word renaissance means revival. In the context of art history, the Renaissance period (the transition period between the Middle Ages and modernity during the 14th and 16th centuries) marked a return to the dominance of classical (Greek and Roman) styles in art, literature, and architecture. Mimesis – the accurate, even scientific, representation of form we discussed in Unit 1 – became increasingly important in the visual arts while the architectural styles of the Greeks and Romans were revitalized. Many factors led to this resurrection, including the rediscovery of classic works, new technological innovations, and increased interactions among different areas of Europe.
Watch this video to understand the new formal qualities that characterized art during this transitional phase between the Middle Ages and the Renaissance.
Read this to learn about the intellectual climate of the Renaissance.
Masaccio's painting Holy Trinity exemplifies the ideals of the Early Renaissance in Florence, Italy.
Read this short article about Flanders (an area in Europe that includes today's Belgium and parts of the Netherlands), which was the site of another "renaissance" in European art.
Watch this video to get a sense of how the ideas and ideals of the Renaissance influenced the artists who lived in Northern Europe.
Read this introduction to the art of the High Renaissance. What distinguishes the art of this time period from that created during the earlier Renaissance? What new ideas were the artists expressing during this time?
Raphael was one of the masters of the High Renaissance. This article explains why his work is considered so emblematic of this period.
Read this article and watch the embedded video describing Leonardo Da Vinci's famous painting The Last Supper. How does this artwork exemplify High Renaissance values?
Watch this video which describes Michelangelo's sculpture David. How does Michelangelo's work differ from that of Leonardo da Vinci and Raphael, two famous Italian painters of this time?
We associate Baroque art with an increase in intricacy and complexity in the arts, while the Rococo style added to these Baroque tendencies toward pleasure, delight, and playfulness. Both are notable for their great attention to detail and decorative elaborations. Baroque originated in the Catholic Church – it was intended to contrast with the seriousness of Protestant art during the Reformation and was meant to play up a stronger sense of life and emotion. Rococo art was often meant for indoor domestic spaces and was generally more secular in its themes compared to Baroque art.
Watch this video, which discusses and compares artworks from Protestant Holland and Catholic Flanders. How did the different religious contexts of these two regions affect the form and content of their artworks?
This article explains the historical forces at play in the creation of the exuberant Baroque style in Italy during the 17th century.
Watch this video to get a sense of the distinctive classicizing style of French art during the 17th century.
During the 18th and 19th centuries, we saw a more rapid progression of several different styles and schools of creative thought. They ultimately created a background for abstraction, formalism, and conceptualism in the 20th century. This period began with continuances of various neo-classic traditions, but rebellion against the Industrial Revolution began to emerge with Romanticism. The final major art movements of the 19th century, including Impressionism, began by producing highly abstract imagery where light effects were of greater interest than the representation of objects and people.
Rococo is characterized by a light, erotic, exuberant style that emerged in 18th-century France. Watch this video and read the text to review an example, The Swing by Jean Honoré Fragonard (1732–1806).
In contrast to Rococo, Neoclassical art is stark, classicizing, and idealistic.
Watch this video for a discussion of the Romantic style as it emerged in 19th-century Europe. Pay attention to the distinction between the Romantic style and the Neoclassical style.
This video describes various art styles associated with the rapidly-changing European societies of the second half of the 19th century. Note the innovations associated with Realist, Impressionist, and Post-Impressionist art.
Read this article, which discusses the forces that helped shape what we call Modernism and some of its characteristics.
With the rise of denser, industrialized, and heavily populated urban centers, we saw the emergence of subject matter that is "grittier" in its realism compared to traditional mimetic approaches. Instead of using an accurate representation of figures, forms, and spaces to embody classic ideals and values, artists began presenting reality as they experienced it every day. However, in academic salons, classical values continued to dominate the application of mimetic techniques.
Read this article to learn why, how, and when Realism emerged as an artistic movement.
Watch this video on an important Realist work by Gustave Courbet (1819–1877). What makes this work an especially good example of the Realist movement in art?
Read this article to get a sense of why we consider Realism a socially-conscious artistic movement.
After Courbet, Édouard Manet (1832–1883) is historically the most significant Realist painter. Watch this video about one of his works.
Watch this video and read the accompanying article, which discusses an
important artwork by the Realist painter Manet. Pay attention to the
painting's modern characteristics and how its contemporary audience
reacted.
Impressionism set the stage for greater degrees of abstraction in art, followed by Cubism and the New Objectivity art periods. It is hard to understand Impressionism without appreciating the effects photography had on painting. Once the camera allowed anyone to produce accurate imagery, artists began looking for new realms of creativity to expand their craft. Photography competed with the skills painters had for producing portraits and landscapes. Impressionism emerged just a few decades after photography came into widespread use. While photographs operated on the scientific, objective principles of light, Impressionism manifested the subjective, personal experience of light as its subject matter.
Read this article on Impressionism, the movement that emerged after Realism. What were the main ideas that drove the development of this new artistic movement?
Watch this video, which discusses a series of paintings done by artist Claude Monet (1840–1926) that are good representatives of the Impressionist movement as a whole.
Watch this video about a historically-significant painting by Pierre-Auguste Renoir (1841–1919). A still image of Moulin de la Galette is provided so you can study the points the video makes more closely.
Watch this video, which discusses the artist Berthe Morisot (1841–1895) and her painting The Cradle, which she painted in 1872.
Watch this video, which discusses the American painter and printmaker Mary Cassatt (1844–1926) and her painting In the Loge, which she painted in 1878.
The Post-Impressionists pushed the tendencies toward abstraction even further than the Impressionists. They created a naturalistic sensibility in their rendering of light and separated color from form as an object of artistic concern. Like the Impressionists, they emphasized the artificiality of painting as a construct. They often tied emotional and symbolic meanings to their use of color, which often produced a sense of form's disintegration. Post-Impressionists often used much bolder (and thus less natural) colors in their art, aiming for a more expressive impact.
Watch this video and read the article, which discusses a painting by the Post-Impressionist painter Paul Cézanne (1839–1906). Note Cézanne's relationship to older artistic traditions and how he reflected on visual traditions (including Impressionism) and innovated through form.
Watch this video, which describes the structure and color in Vincent Van Gogh's (1853–1890) painting Portrait of Joseph Roulin.
Watch this video, which discusses artwork by Post-Impressionist painter Paul Gauguin (1848–1903). How is Gauguin's use of color innovative, according to the authors?
Watch this video, which discusses artwork by Georges Seurat (1859–1891). What characteristics of his famous painting A Sunday on La Grande Jatte (1884) were a reaction to Impressionism?
The 20th century witnessed more distinct periods of art and style compared to any previous period in the history of art. This was a time of unprecedented technological and social change. The world experienced two world wars, the development of nuclear weapons, revolutionary paradigm shifts in the sciences (including relativity and systems theory), and an explosion of new representational media, including film, television, and radio.
There was an increasing acceptance that "anything goes", as exemplified by Marcel Duchamp's urinal, which was presented as a sculptural artifact in 1817. By the 1950s, visual art had been entirely emancipated from mimesis of any kind of connection to reality in its embrace of pure form. Figurative art was not entirely replaced by abstract art. Rather, what we see happening in the early 20th century are processes of continuous transformation of approaches to figurative art as new art movements recontextualize expectations around the role of representational techniques with each new artistic movement.
This article introduces Fauvism, whose painters believed art had become too gloomy and needed a lighter and brighter emotional spirit.
Watch this video, which discusses Dali's famous surrealist painting The Persistence of Memory.
At the end of the Mexican Revolution, the government commissioned artists to create art to educate their population about Mexican history. Between the 1920s and 1950s, David Alfaro Siqueiros (1896–1974), Diego Rivera (1886–1957), and José Clemente Orozco (1883–1949) – "los tres grandes" – created elaborate Mexican murals to celebrate the Mexican people's potential to craft the nation's history.
Read this article on geometric abstraction from South American artists.
Read this text on American Realism, a style we see in the art, music, and literature of the time that conveyed social realities and the lives of ordinary people.
Winslow Homer (1836–1910) was an American landscape painter and printmaker. Watch this video analyzes the message and technique of his painting The Life Line.
Thomas Eakins (1844–1916) was an American realist painter, photographer, sculptor, and educator. Read this essay which examines his painting The Champion Single Sculls (Max Schmitt in a Single Scull).
Read this text on Henry Ossawa Tanner (1859–1937), one of the first African-American painters to gain international acclaim.
Let's explore the Ashcan School, a movement that featured art that was populist, expansive, and committed to documentary realism during this period. These artists focused on the newly-arrived immigrants, dockworkers, nightclub performers, saloonkeepers, boxers, and average workers who lived in New York City's Lower East Side and the Bowery. Read this text which offers an introduction.
Watch this video which details the work of George Benjamin Luks (1867–1933), an American painter.
Read this text on the American painter George Bellows (1882–1925). Bellows became famous for his bold depictions of urban life in New York City. He was one of the leading young members of the Ashcan School. The Metropolitan Museum of Art states that "although Bellow's Art was rooted in realism, the variety of his subjects and his experiments with many color and compositional theories, and his loose brushwork, aligned him with modernism".
This article describes the gallery of American photographers Alfred Stieglitz (1864–1946) and Edward Steichen (1879–1973) that opened at 291 Fifth Avenue in New York City. According to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, these artists created "energized and powerful pictures reflective of a new and exciting modern world". They responded to the "avant-garde art of Europe and stimulating developments in skyscraper construction, industry, machines, transatlantic travel, and widespread urbanization in New York".
Watch this video, which describes the unique perspective Stieglitz brought to his work.
Watch this video, which describes how a powerful photograph by the American photographer Dorothea Lange (1895–1965), Migrant Mother, changed how Americans viewed the Great Depression.
Lange was best known for her work during the Depression era for the Farm Security Administration, which documented and humanized the hardships Americans experienced during this period.
Watch this video on the American painter Georgia O'Keefe (1887–1986), who painted The Lawrence Tree in 1929 when she was visiting the British author D.H. Lawrence at his Kiowa Ranch in New Mexico.
Read this text on Franklin Carmicheal (1890–1945), a Canadian artist who was famous for the bold colors of his watercolors.
Read this essay on Robert Henri (1865–1929), an American painter and teacher who was a leader in the Ashcan movement.
Watch this video on Jacob Lawrence (1917–2000). Lawrence was one of the first African-American artists to gain broad recognition in the segregated art world of the 1940s. He is renowned for his serialized projects, including The Migration of the Negro (1940–41) and War Series (1946–47), among other works.
The rapid expansion of various art movements, including conceptualism, minimalism, and postmodernism, continued after World War II. Nazi Germany's attempt to reject 20th-century art by calling it "decadent" proved to be a brief reactionary moment. However, this rejection did continue in Soviet and communist societies, which officialized "socialist realism" as the only state-legitimized aesthetic. In free societies, artists continued to experiment and push the boundaries of what we consider art. They incorporated multiple media, popular culture, new technologies, and conceptualism. They even presented ideas about art rather than actual artwork.
Read this article on how Nazi Germany influenced the art world and how concepts of decadent art promoted a state-sanctioned view of art.
Let's explore Abstract Expressionism and the New York School. Make sure you focus on the ideas that informed the artists associated with this movement.
Read this article on Robert Rauschenberg (1925–2008), an American painter and graphic artist.
Read this article on Jackson Pollock (1912–1956), an American painter who became a central figure in the abstract expressionist movement.
Watch this video, which demonstrates the drip-style painting technique Pollock created and championed. He was one of America's most iconic and influential painters.
Read this article on Robert Motherwell (1915–1991), an American abstract expressionist painter, printmaker, and editor.
Watch this video interview of the Canadian abstract painter Dorothea Rockburne (1932– ), where she discusses her art, mathematics, magic, and the materials she uses. She was part of an artistic movement called Minimalism.
Watch this video on the American painter Thelma Johnson Streat (1912–1959), who painted Girl with Bird in 1950. Streat was an African-American artist, dancer, and educator who was known for her art, performance, and work to foster intercultural understanding and appreciation during the 1940s.
In these final sections of our course, we explore some famous architectural achievements before World War II. Pay attention to the historical periods and geographic contexts. This article describes the Chicago School, which was responsible for the early skyscrapers that graced the Chicago skyline.
Read this article on the Villa Savoye, which Charles-Édouard Jeanneret (1887–1965), the Swiss-French architect known as Le Corbusier, designed and built in Poissy, France, in 1929.
Read this essay on the home Fallingwater, which Frank Lloyd Wright (1867–1959), the famous American architect, designed in Mill Run, Pennsylvania, in 1937.
Watch this video on the architectural history of the Seagram Building, which Mies van der Rohe (1886–1969), the German-American architect, designed in New York City in 1958.
The following materials explore architecture after World War II. Pay attention to the historical periods and geographic contexts. Let's begin by watching this video on the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C., which Maya Lin (1959– ), an American designer and sculptor, designed in 1982.
Read this essay on the Vanna Venturi House, which Robert Venturi (1925–2018) designed for his wife in 1964 in Chestnut Hill, Pennsylvania.
Read this essay on the Guggenheim Bilbao, which you can visit in Bilbao, Spain. Frank Gehry (1929– ), the Canadian-American architect, designed this famous museum which opened to the public in 1997.
Finally, read this essay on the MAXXI National Museum of XXI Century Arts in Rome, Italy. Zaha Hadid (1950– ), a British-Iraqi architect, designed this museum that opened in 2010.
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