Key art movements
Stone age
The Stone Age is a broad prehistoric period during which stone was widely used in the manufacture of implements with a sharp edge, a point, or a percussion surface. The period lasted roughly 3.4 million years, and ended between 4500 BCE to 2000 BCE with the advent of metalworking. Stone Age artifacts include tools used by humans and by their predecessor species in the genus Homo, as well as the earlier partly contemporaneous genera Australopithecus and Paranthropus. Bone tools were used during this period as well, but are more rarely preserved in the archaeological record.
The symbols and drawings which were carved into the stone always involved things such as hunting, animals and people. The animals painted and carved are thought to represent strength and are thought to have been painted to impress the women. Not much is known about the symbols, as no language was used.
Mesopotamian
Art of Mesopotamia has remained in the archaeological records from early hunter-gatherer societies, such as the bronze age, iron age etc. Mesopotamia brought significant differences in cultural developments, including the oldest example of writing. The charactoristic art form was the polychrome carved stone that decorated imperial monuments. The carvings showed images such as chiefly hunting, war making and animals. The animals shown, particularly horses and lions are represented in great detail. Human figures are ridgid and static but are also carefully detailed, and are included in scenes of sieges, battles and individual combat.
As well as paintings and carvings, the Mesopotamian period brought the introduction of sculpture to the art world. The sculptures were carved ivorie and bronze. Animals such as Lions and winged beasts with bearded human heads were sculpted.
Egyptian
In a more narrow sense, Ancient Egyptian art refers to the canonical 2nd and 3rd Dynasty art developed in Egypt from 3000 BC and used until the 3rd century. Most elements of Egyptian art remained remarkably stable over that 3,000 year period with relatively little outside influence. The quality of observation and execution started at a high level and remained near that level throughout the period.
Ancient Egyptian art is the painting, sculpture, architecture and other arts produced by the civilization in the lower Nile Valley from 5000 BC to 300 AD.Ancient Egyptian art reached a high level in painting and sculpture, and was both highly stylized and symbolic. Much of the surviving art comes from tombs and monuments and thus there is an emphasis on life after death and the preservation of knowledge of the past.
The art forms are detailed images of gods, human beings, heroic battles and nature which were intended to provide solace to the deceased in the afterlife.
The art was created using mediums ranging from papyrus drawings to pictographs and include sculpture carved in sandstone and granite. The art clearly shows the strong religious beliefs, and always represented Pharaohs, gods, man, nature and the enviroment.
Greek and Hellenistic
Hellenistic art is the art of the Hellenistic period and dating from 323 BC to 146 BC. A number of the best-known works of Greek sculpture belong to this period, including Laocoön and his Sons,Venus de Milo, and the Winged Victory of Samothrace. This art movement is quite like Mannerism.
The greek sculptures were always technically perfect, making the heroic people in the scultures flawlessly symmetrical which gave the viewer a sense of excapism, as no real person could look that beautiful in real life.
Hellenistic art experimented with how the body moves and how it looks in action- how torsos twist, muscles bulge, etc. Hellenistic art is also highly dramatic, filled with humor, agony, anger, and other emotions. The Dying Gaul by Epigonos and Leocoon and His Sons by Athanadoros, Hagesandros, and Polydoros are good examples of Hellenistic art.
Roman
Traditional Roman sculpture is divided into five categories: portraiture, historical relief, funerary reliefs, sarcophagi, and copies of ancient Greek works. Roman sculpture was heavily influenced by Greek examples, in particular their bronzes. It is only thanks to some Roman copies that a knowledge of Greek originals is preserved. One example of this is at the British Museum, where an intact 2nd century AD. Roman copy of a statue of Venus is displayed, while a similar original 500 BC. Greek statue at the Louvre is missing her arms.
In Greece and Rome, wall painting was not considered as high art. The most prestigious form of art besides sculpture was panel painting, i.e. tempera or encaustic painting on wooden panels. Unfortunately, since wood is a perishable material, only a very few examples of such paintings have survived, namely the Severan Tondo from circa 200 AD, a very routine official portrait from some provincial government office, and the well-known Fayum mummy portraits, all from Roman Egypt, and almost certainly not of the highest contemporary quality. The portraits were attached to burial mummies at the face, from which almost all have now been detached. They usually depict a single person, showing the head, or head and upper chest, viewed frontally. The background is always monochrome, sometimes with decorative elements. In terms of artistic tradition, the images clearly derive more from Greco-Roman traditions than Egyptian ones. They are remarkably realistic, though variable in artistic quality, and may indicate the similar art which was widespread elsewhere but did not survive. A few portraits painted on glass and medals from the later empire have survived, as have coin portraits, some of which are considered very realistic as well.
Pliny, Ancient Rome’s most important historian concerning the arts, recorded that nearly all the forms of art — sculpture, landscape, portrait painting, even genre painting — were advanced in Greek times, and in some cases, more advanced than in Rome. Though very little remains of Greek wall art and portraiture, certainly Greek sculpture and vase painting bears this out. These forms were not likely surpassed by Roman artists in fineness of design or execution. As another example of the lost “Golden Age”, he singled out Peiraikos, “whose artistry is surpassed by only a very few… He painted barbershops and shoemakers’ stalls, donkeys, vegetables, and such, and for that reason came to be called the ‘painter of vulgar subjects’; yet these works are altogether delightful, and they were sold at higher prices than the greatest [paintings] of many other artists.” The adjective "vulgar" is used here in its original meaning, which means "common".
Middle ages
Art during the Middle Ages saw many changes and the emergence of the early Renaissance period. Byzantine Art was the name given to the style of art used in very early Middle Ages Art. This period was also known as the Dark Ages ( 410 AD - 1066 AD ). The Dark Ages were followed by the Medieval era of the Middle Ages (1066 - 1485) and changes in Middle Ages Art which saw the emergence of the early Renaissance Art. To appreciate the full extent of the changes in Middle Ages Art and the Early Renaissance it is helpful to understand its fore-runner - Byzantium Art and its effects on art during the Middle Ages.
The art forms are charactorized by:
- Pietisic painting (religious art)
- Sombre tones
- One dimensional, No perspective
- No shadows
- front faced figures
- long, narrow faces
- No attempt to show realism
Cubism, futurism, supremativism
Cubism was a truly revolutionary style of modern art developed by Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque. It was the first style of abstract art which evolved at the beginning of the 20th century in response to a world that was changing with unprecedented speed. Cubism was an attempt by artists to revitalise the tired traditions of Western art which they believed had run their course. The Cubists challenged conventional forms of representation, such as perspective, which had been the rule since the Renaissance. Their aim was to develop a new way of seeing which reflected the modern age.
Futurism was an avant-garde movement which was launched in Italy, in 1909, although parallel movements arose in Russia, England and elsewhere. It was one of the first important modern art movements not centred in Paris - one reason why it is not taken seriously in France. Futurist ideology influenced all types of art. It began in literature but spread to every medium, including painting, sculpture, industrial design, architecture, cinema and music. However, most of its major exponents were painters. It ceased to be an aesthetic force in 1915, shortly after the start of the First World War, but lingered in Italy until the 1930s.
.jpg)