AP European History

Art Work

• Strickland, Carol. The Annotated Mona Lisa: A Crash Course in Art History from Prehistoric to Post Modern. Kansas City: Andrews mcMeel Publishing, 2007.

Italian Renaissance

• Rebirth• Rediscovery of the art and literature of Greece

and Rome, scientific study of the body and natural world, intent to reproduce the forms of nature realistically

• Lifelike art• Shift in interest from the supernatural to the

natural caused this change

• Use of oil on stretch canvas: greater range of rich colors with smooth gradations, texture was represented well and simulated 3-D

• Perspective: giving weight and depth to form• Use of light and shadow

Masaccio

• First since Giotto to paint the human figure as a real human being

The Tribute Moneylines converge behind Christ’s head

Donatello

• Free standing statues• “David” first life size, free standing, nude since

the Classical period• “Mary Magdalen” gaunt, shriveled, stringy

hair and hollowed eyes.• Supposedly was so “real” Donatello shouted

“Speak, speak, or the plague take you!”

Botticelli“Birth of Venus”

• High Renaissance: 1500-1520• Used ideal proportions and perspective

Leonardo da Vinci“Mona Lisa”

“The Last Supper”

MichelangeloThe Sistine Chapel

“The Creation of Adam”

“The Last Judgment”

Raphael“The School of Athens”

Renaissance Architecture

• Recovered the magnificence of ancient Rome

• Alberti• Down played art’s religious purpose and urged

artists to study history, poetry and mathemathics.

• Wrote the first guide to perspective and gave rules for ideal human proportions

• 4 rules to architecture: Rome, rules, reason (use of science and engineering), ‘rithmetic (Golden Ratio)

• Brunelleschi• Father of modern engineering• Central-plan church design

Dome for the Duomo of Florence

Van Eyck“Arnolfini Wedding”

Albrecht Durer“Self Portrait”

high opinion of himself and exalted status of the artist

Mannerism

• Between High Renaissance and Baroque, 1520-1600, art was no as important

• Exaggeration of ideal beauty that was presented by the Ren. Artists

• Style is so predictable• Bodies distorted, elongated, grossly muscular,

unreal lighting

El Greco“Resurrection”

Tintoretto“The Last Supper”

Baroque 1600-1750

• Emotional, drama, intensity• Studied classical antiquity and high

renaissance that included their own personal spin

• Caravaggio• Most original painter of 17th century• Bodies painted in “down and dirty” style• Secularized religious art• Saints looked like ordinary people

“The Calling of St. Matthew”

• Artemisia Gentileschi• First female artist that was widely known and appreciated• Depicted feminist subjects• Was raped at 19, put on humiliating trial where she was

tortured and forced to recant; attacker acquitted• Many paintings show women who wreck violence against

men• Who is Holofernes? General of Nebuchadnezzar

(Babylonian Empire) that unleashed violence on areas that rejected Nebuch, forcing people to accept Nebuch. As their new god.

“Judith and Maidservant with the Head of Holofernes”

Bernini“The Ecstasy of St. Theresa”

Theresa saw visions and believed an angel had pierced her with a dart and infusing her with divine love

Bermini: St. Peter’s Cathedralfour spiral columns, four bronze angels, mix of colors and forms

gives a theatrical effect

Rembrandt: subtle shading implies extraordinary emotional depth

“The Nightwatch”

Vermeer: defined forms through light not lines“The Kitchenmaid”

• Diego Velazquez• No outlines are visible in his portraits, he used

fluid brushstrokes by applying spots of lighting and color

• Precursor to Impressionism• His painting “Las Meninas” or “The Maids of

Honor” was voted world’s greatest painting in 1985 by artists and critics

Rococo architecture 1760-1800

• Playful, alive with energy• Woodwork, painted panels, enormous wall

mirrors• Sinuous (have many turns, bends, winding)

and curves, ribbonlike scrolls• Light graceful and delicate• White, silver, gold, light pinks, blues and

greens

The Mirror Room designed by Francois de Cuvilles, in Amalienburg, Germany (used as hunting lodge for HRE Charles VII)

Pilgrimage Church of St. Peter and St. Paul in Germany

Neoclassicism 1780-1820

• Order, calm, rational• Greek and Roman history, mythology• Drawing with lines, not color, no trace of

brushstrokes• Morally uplifting, inspirational

Jacques-Louis David“The Death of Marat”

Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres“Portrait of the Princesse de Broglie”

Romantic 1800-1850

• Intuition, emotion, imagination• Medieval, middle and Far East• Spontaneous, nonconformist• Unrestrained, deep, rich shades• Legends, nature, violence, heroic struggle,

landscapes, wild animals• Quick brushstrokes, strong light and shade

constrasts• Use of diagonal

Francisco de Goya“The Third of May, 1808”

Realism 1850-1950

• Brought sense of sobriety to art• Visual reality• Precise imitation of visual perceptions without

alteration• Artists limited themselves to facts of the modern

world as they personally experienced them• Gods, goddesses and heroes of antiquity were out• Peasants and urban working class were in

Daumier“The Third Class Carriage”

Vermeer“Girl With Pearl Earring”

Impressionism 1860s-1886A.K.A. Victorian Artwork

• Radically departed from tradition• Immediate visual sensations through color and

light• Goal was to present an impression or initial

sensory perceptions recorded by an artist in a brief glimpse

• Short, choppy brushstrokes• Shows men dominated, social hierarchy

How to tell the artists apart

• Manet: Painted contemporary scenes with hard edge, dark patches against light, used black as accent

• Monet: landscapes, sunny hues, pure primary colors dabbed side by side, soft edges, disolves form into light

• Renoir: Voluptuous, peach-skinned female nudes, people, flowers, rich reds, detested black (liked blues), quick brushstrokes, blurred figures

Manet“The Railway”

Manet“Bar at the Folies-Bergere”

Monet“Water Lilies”

Renoir“La Moulin da la Galette”

Renoir“La Loge”

Degas“The Glass of Absinthe”

Post Impressionism 1880-1905

• French phenomenon• Derived from their forerunners’ breakthroughs• Used rainbow-bright color patches• Wanted art to be more substantial, not

dedicated to capturing a passing moment• Makes their paintings seem slapped together

or unplanned

Van Gogh“The Starry Night”

Seurat“A Sunday on La Grande Jatte”

Expressionism 20th centuryMunch

“The Scream”

Cubism 20th century

• Avant-garde (experimental or innovative) art movement

• Objects are broken up and reassembled• Intersection at random angles

Picasso“Les Demoiselles d’Avignon

Picasso“Guernica”

destruction of the Basque capital of Guernica by Nazi planes by orders of Francisco Franco

Abstract Expressionism post WWII

• Visual perception of object and their relationship with the enveloping space

• Comments on the nature of humankind

Giacometti“Man Pointing”