ART HISTORY

          Surrealism originated in the late 1910s and early ’20s as a literary movement that experimented with a new mode of expression called automatic writing, or automatism. It proposed that the Enlightenment—the influential 17th- and 18th-century intellectual movement that championed reason and individualism—had suppressed the superior qualities of the irrational, unconscious mind. Surrealism’s goal was to liberate thought, language, and human experience from the oppressive boundaries of rationalism.  Officially consecrated in Paris in 1924 with the publication of the Manifesto of Surrealism by the poet and critic André Breton (1896–1966), Surrealism became an international intellectual and political movement. The visual artists who first worked with Surrealist techniques and imagery were the German Max Ernst (1891–1976), the Frenchman André Masson (1896–1987), the Spaniard Joan Miró (1893–1983), and the American Man Ray (1890–1976).  The ...

          Cubism was one of the revolutionary art styles of the 20th century. It began around 1907 with Pablo Picasso’s painting titled Demoiselles D’Avignon which included elements of cubist style. The name ‘cubism’ derived from a comment made by a critic named Louis Vauxcelles who described Georges Braque's paintings as reducing everything to ‘geometric outlines, to cubes’. Cubism artists aimed to show different viewpoints at the same time and within the same space by breaking objects and figures down into distinct areas or planes and so suggest their three dimensional form. In doing so they were emphasizing the two-dimensional flatness of the canvas instead of creating the illusion of depth.            The Cubists saw the constraints of perspective as a challenge to advance. The fact that a picture drawn in perspentive could work from only one point of view limits their choices. As the picture was drawn from a settled position...

          Romantic period was an artistic, literary, musical and intellectual movement that originated in Europe toward the end of the 18th century, and was at its peak in the approximate period from 1800 to 1850. With its emphasis on the imagination and emotion, Romanticism emerged as a response to the disillusionment with the Enlightenment values of reason and order in the aftermath of the French Revolution of 1789. In Romantic art, nature – with its uncontrollable power, unpredictability, and potential for cataclysmic extremes – offered an alternative to the ordered world of Enlightenment thought. The movement emphasized intense emotion as an authentic source of aesthetic experience, placing new emphasis on such emotions as apprehension, horror and terror, and awe – especially that experienced in confronting the new aesthetic categories of the sublimity and beauty of nature.           In 1808, Spanish painter Francisco Goya ...

          Baroque art began around 1600 in Rome and Italy, and spread to most of Europe. This movement serves as a reaction against the intricate and formulaic Mannerist style which dominated the Late Renaissance. Baroque Art is less complex, more realistic and more emotionally affecting than Mannerism. This movement was encouraged by the Catholic Church in response to the Protestant Reformation, and that the arts should communicate religious themes with direct and emotional involvement. On the other hand, the aristocracy viewed the dramatic style of Baroque art and architecture as a means of impressing visitors by projecting triumph, power, and control. Ecstasy of Saint Teresa By Gian Lorenzo Bernini 1647 - 1652            The Ecstasy of Saint Teresa is the central sculptural group in white marble set in an elevated altar in the Cornaro Chapel, Santa Maria della Vittoria, Rome. It was designed and completed by Gian...

          The Renaissance was a period in European history, from the 14th to the 17th century, regarded as the cultural bridge between the Middle Ages and modern history. It started as a cultural movement in Italy in the Medieval period and later spread to the rest of Europe, marking the beginning of the Modern age . Renaissance period saw a great revival of interest in the classical learning and values of ancient Greece and Rome. The two main periods in Renaissance Age are Early Renaissance and High Renaissance.              By the end of the 15th century, Rome had displaced Florence as the principal center of Renaissance art, reaching a high point under the powerful and ambitious Pope Leo X (a son of Lorenzo de’ Medici). Three great masters – Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo and Raphael – dominated the period known as the High Renaissance, which lasted roughly from the early 1490s until the sack of Rome by the troops of t...

          The Medieval Period also called the Middle Ages of Europe history spans from the fall of the Roman Empire in 300 CE to the beginning of the Renaissance in 1400 CE. The Medieval Period is the middle period of the three traditional divisions of Western history: classical antiquity, the medieval period, and the modern period. The Medieval Period is itself subdivided into the Early, High, and Late Middle Ages. There are many art styles in the Medieval Period such as Early Christian, Romanesque, Gothic and others.           The Gothic style developed in the middle of the 12 th century and is named after the Goths who ruled France. Primary media in the Gothic period included sculpture, panel painting, stained glass, fresco and illuminated manuscripts. Some contemporaries of the Goths thought the use of figures such as gargoyles was hideous, but Gothic cathedrals represent the most beautiful and timeless accomplishments of the p...