Q1 Exam - Notes for Test PDF

Prehistoric art produced in preliterate cultures. The actual beginning of prehistoric art is up to debate. The earliest known drawing by Homo sapiens is estimated to be 73,000 years old. Prehistoric art did not function as an artistic expression, but instead as historical, spiritual, or social purpo...

Prehistoric art produced in preliterate cultures. The actual beginning of prehistoric art is up to debate. The earliest known drawing by Homo sapiens is estimated to be 73,000 years old. Prehistoric art did not function as an artistic expression, but instead as historical, spiritual, or social purposes. The preference for aesthetics wasn’t actually a thing till 100,000 to 50,000 years ago. The common mediums were: - Engravings on stone, mineral, wood, and other solids - Fine detail on weapons and tools - Clay and stone sculptures - Cave paintings using natural pigments In the Archaic period, weapons, cave paintings, and tools– were made around 80,000 to 8,000 BCE. Anything made of fiber, hideskin, and other plants did not survive. In the Archaic period, we commonly had pictographs (painted image) and petroglyphs (carved image). Native American art derives from five main regions: Arctic, Northwest Coast, Eastern Woodlands, The West, and Southwest. Native American decorative styles differ up and down the continent.The West favored geometric designs, whereas the Arctic leaned towards organic. Mesoamerican groups were typically divided, more variety in the west, with Teotihuacan, Mixtec, and Aztec taking lead, and the Maya being prominent downwards east. The Olmec were the first to fully develop and establish traditions. In South America, the Andean region had a more ornamental approach. This region consists of modern day countries such as Peru, Colombia, Chile, Bolivia, Argentina, and Ecuador. They were highly praised for its intricate gold jewelry and headwear. Ancient Greek art revolved around pottery, sculpture, and architecture, most inspired by their daily lives. The common pose of their sculptures is known as contrapposto, italian for “counterpoise”. Ancient Greek art is divided stylistically into three periods: the Archaic, the Classical and the Hellenistic. The Archaic period was the most simplified of all three - it lacks realism and subjects were drawn mostly in profile. The Classical period is based on idealism and personal ideas of beauty, with the Golden Ratio is introduced and used in artwork. The Hellenistic period’s art style became complex and ornamental. No more idealism, only reality and emotion. It is commonly said that Roman art was derivative from Greek - that’s all true. Roman artists sought to memorialize events of their state and to glorify their emperors. The most prestigious form of art besides sculpture was panel painting. Ancient China mostly created amateur artists who attended school. These scholars frequented other arts, such as poetry, calligraphy, and ceramics. Their art was meant to express the artist's good character. Ancient Japan contained calligraphy and pottery– their collection is one of the oldest on Earth. Their art stands out due its solitary behavior and lack of influence from foreign cultures. Their preferred medium was painting and woodblock art. It is hard to know when Early Christian art began, since they began as a persecuted group. Eventually, the Roman Empire finally accepted them as a legit religious group, and they could start producing durable works. The figures in their artwork remain frontal. The Byzantine art period was highly ornamental. The capital, Constantinople, was adorned with a large number of classical sculptures. One of their important genres was the icon, an image of a religious identity, used to bless a church or home. The illumination of manuscripts was another major genre; decorations frame book pages. Gothic art came in mainly as architecture and developed in France. Its critics saw this type of art as unrefined and too inaccurate; exaggerated in length and detail. In Italy, during the High Renaissance, Italy went from religious symbolism to academic themes. They returned to achieving accuracy in the human body. Like Ancient Greece, they prioritized their ideas of beauty. In the Mannerism period, artists begin to experiment with fluid figures and gradations. They aimed to create porcelain-like subjects in dynamic poses. They used dark backgrounds to emphasize the outline of the main subjects. Baroque art moved on from elegance and into dramatism. They enforced the shading technique, chiaroscuro, to promote high contrast. By increasing the darkness in their paintings, artists practiced tenebrism. The word ‘Rococo’ came from the word rocaille, which was originally a method of decoration. Rococo art is a reaction against the use of simple, balanced designs. Its trompe-l'œil, “to fool the eye”, murals created a dynamic illusion. Neoclassicism art coincided with the Age of Enlightenment. Despite its similarities with the Renaissance, it aimed for balance. Their sculptures and architecture imitated Ancient Greek artwork. Blooming out of Neoclassicism, Romanticism is a reaction against industrialization. It had a mystic influence over paintings of historical events. Artists intended to represent historical events in a chaotic fantasy. The goal of Realist art was to capture reality with absolute truth. Its artists placed emphasis on the mundanity of surviving. They also wanted to succeed in linear perspective and Ancient Roman techniques. Impressionism came out of France in the 19th century, containing groups of artists who shared a set of related approaches and techniques. Painting methods included small yet visible brush strokes and a focus on accurate depiction of light and color.