History of Art
Guide to the Development of Western Painting and Sculpture.
Visual Arts

Prehistory

Primitive man-made artworks first appeared during the Stone Age. Most archeologists date ancient art from the late Paleolithic era (35,000-10,000 BCE), in the form of cave paintings from the Grotte Chauvet in Ardeche (France), the Lascaux caves (France), and the Spanish caves at Altamira. Mesolithic and Neolithic art extends cave painting to include stone carvings and precious artifacts, followed by more portable artworks including the remarkable Romanian sculpture 'The Thinker From Cernavoda'.

The Bronze Age (c.3500-1100 BCE) witnessed the awakening of Mediterranean arts, crafts and architectural art, in Egyptian, Minoan, Mycenean, and Persian cultures. This early period of prehistory also saw the first examples of Chinese art, calligraphy, ceramics and the Terracotta Army, although Chinese painting such as Ink and Wash did not develop until later. Early artworks in India from this period include the Bhimbetka petroglyphs (c.5,500 BCE) and sculpture from the Indus Valley civilization of 2500-1800 BCE.

First Civilization

Notwithstanding the creation of the Egyptian Pyramids and other striking examples of public culture during the Bronze Age, most art historians consider the Iron Age (c.1100-200 BCE) to be the first era of general 'civilization'. It saw the spectacular rise of Greek art during the Classical and Hellenistic periods (500-31 BCE), as well as the emergence of Etruscan artworks, as trade and writing became more widespread. This was followed by Roman art, to which we are indebted for its reproduction of the great examples of Greek sculpture.

Dark Ages

After the sack of Rome (c.450 CE), Europe was plunged into cultural darkness, lit only by the flame of early Christian art with its illuminated manuscripts and High Cross Sculpture. Indeed, Irish monastic culture, was the sole preserver of the traditions of Graeco-Roman art during these bleak medieval times (c.450-750) - at least until the arrival of King Charlemagne (c.770), whose Carolingian scholars and scriptoriums were largely founded by Irish monks - and by 1100 there was hardly a Royal Court in Europe without an Irish adviser. Western Civilization was also indebted to the Byzantine religious mosaics, murals and panel paintings of the Eastern Roman capital of Byzantium (Constantinople, now Istanbul), which provided a continuing link with the culture of Greece and Rome. Unfortunately, with the advent of the Vikings (c.800-1000), the unique Irish contribution to Western Civilization in general and Christianity in particular, began to fade. Thereafter, Roman culture - encapsulated by the Church of Rome - began to reassert itself across the continent of Europe in the growth of Medieval Christian art.

Development of Asian Art

In contrast to Christianity which permits figurative representation of Prophets, Saints and the Holy family, Islam forbids all forms of human iconography. Thus Islamic art focused instead on the development of complex geometric patterns, illuminated texts and calligraphy. In East Asia, the visual arts of India and Tibet incorporated the use of highly coloured figures (due to their wide range of pigments) and strong outlines. Painting styles in India were extremely diverse, as were materials (textiles being more durable often replaced paper) and size (Indian miniatures were a specialty). In China, highly developed Chinese visual arts included bronze sculpture, jade carving, fine art pottery, calligraphic and brush painting, to name but a few.

Gothic Renaissance

The history of Western art speaks of the Italian Renaissance (c.1400-1530) and its counterpart the Northern Renaissance (1430-1580), but few historians talk of a Gothic Renaissance. Yet in many ways the latter was a far more dramatic rebirth. Within 200 years (c.1100-1300), after a period of Romanesque imitation, Western Europe saw the appearance of unparalleled religious architecture in the form of the great Gothic cathedrals of St Denis, Augsburg, Chartres, Amien, Rheims and Notre Dame de Paris, to name but a few. These overpowering buildings with their awe-inspiring stained glass windows and soaring arches, were tangible evidence that European culture was on the rise. And so it proved.

Proto And Early Renaissance in Italy (c.1300-1490)

Borrowing heavily from the traditions of both Byzantine and Gothic art forms, Italian artists, such as Giotto di Bondone (1267-1337), initiated the Proto-Renaissance - the start of the movement we now call the Italian Renaissance. Largely financed by the church or by religiously inspired secular patrons, this Classical Greek-inspired Early Renaissance movement took hold in Florence, Rome, Venice and other important cities across Italy, creating a prodigious number of architectural and artistic masterpieces in the process, including drawings, murals, panel-paintings, sculpture, and statues. After Giotto, artists of the early Renaissance period included virtuoso painters such as Andrea Mantegna (1431-1506) and Sandro Botticelli (1445-1510), as well as master sculptors like Donatello (1386-1466) and Andrea del Verrocchio (1435-1488).

High Renaissance in Italy (1490-1530) and Mannerism

The high point of the Italian rinascimento (1490-1530), known as the High Renaissance, which ended with the sack of Rome, saw the three geniuses Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519), Michelangelo Buonarroti (1475-1564), and Raphael (1483-1520) at the peak of their powers. Other leading artists of the High Renaissance included Giorgione (1477-1510), and Titian (1485-1576). After 1530, Italian art continued in the more contrived Mannerist style. Leading Mannerist artists included the painters El Greco, and Jacopo Robusti Tintoretto, and the sculptor Giambologna.

The Northern Renaissance in Holland, Flanders, Germany (1430-1580)

Roughly coinciding with artistic events in Italy, the Northern Renaissance took hold in Flanders (Belgium), Holland, Germany and the UK, although it developed media (oils) and types of painting (genre-paintings, still life and portraiture) which were less popular in Southern Europe. Leading artists of the Northern Renaissance included the painters Albrecht Durer (1471-1528), Jan Van Eyck (1395-1441), Rogier van der Weyden (1400-1464), Hieronymous Bosch (1450-1516), Pieter Bruegel the Elder (1525-1569), and the sculptor Tilman Riemenschneider (1460-1531).

Baroque (c.1600-1700)

The Baroque style of art encompassed both the divine grandeur of Roman Catholicism as well as the down-to-earth realism of Protestant Northern Europe. Leading Baroque artists included the sculptor Giovanni Bernini (1598-1680), and the painters Peter Paul Rubens (1577-1640), Carravaggio, Velazquez (1599-1660), Rembrandt (1606-69), and Jan Vermeer (1632-75).

Rococo (c.1715-1774)

The Rococo style of art, promoted by the French Court of King Louis XV, was whimsical and decorative. Leading exponents included Jean-Antoine Watteau (1684-1721), Jean-Honore Fragonard (1732-1806) and François Boucher (1703-70).

Neo-Classicism (c.1750-1815) Versus Romanticism (c.1780-1830)

These two schools of art often depicted similar subjects, but in different ways. While the Renaissance-inspired Neo-Classical movement employed an Academic style of art which was serious, unemotional, and sternly heroic, Romantics let loose with colour and emotion. Following in the wake of Baroque classicist Nicolas Poussin (1594-1665), foremost Neo-classical artists included the painters Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres (1780-1867), Jacques-Louis David (1748-1825), Sir Joshua Reynolds (1723-92), the great Cork artist James Barry (1741-1806) and the sculptor Antonio Canova (1757-1822). Great Romanticists included William Blake (1757-1827), Francisco Goya (1746-1828), and the landscape artists John Constable (1776-1837), JMW Turner (1775-1851), and Caspar David Friedrich (1774-1840). In France, the chief exponent of Romanticism was Eugene Delacroix (1798-63).

Realism (19th Century)

Influenced by the Industrial Revolution, the Realism movement focused on depicting life as it really was, rather than an idealistic version of it. Leading Realists included Gustave Courbet (1819-77),Jean-Francois Millet (1814-75) and Auguste Rodin (1840-1917). During the 20th century, this so-called 'truthful' style of art re-emerged in various forms including: Italian Verismo (1890s/1900s), The New York Ashcan School (c.1908-1913), American Social Realism (1920s/1930s), Socialist Realism (c.1925-35), Surrealism (see Salvador Dali) (1920s/1930s), Magic Realism, The Euston Road School, The Kitchen Sink Painters (1952-5), American Contemporary Realism (1960s/Early 1970s), Photorealism (1960s to 1970s) and Hyper-Realism.

Impressionism, Post-Impressionism, Fauves (c.1870-1905)

French Impressionism, the world-famous colourful spontaneous style of painting popularized by the works of Claude Monet (1840-1926), Pierre-Auguste Renoir (1841-1919) and Edgar Degas (1834-1917), to name but three, was the starting point for the later style of Post Impressionism. Post Impressionism encompassed the expressionist canvases of Van Gogh, the colourist movements of Divisionism and Pointillism advocated by Georges Seurat (1859-1891), the individualistic colourwork of Paul Cezanne (1839-1906) and the classical colour compositions of Paul Gauguin (1848-1903). Fauvism was personnified by Henri Matisse (1869-1954).

Expressionism (20th Century)

In contrast to Impressionism, which aimed to capture fleeting observations of Nature, Expressionism sought to convey personal feelings about the object painted. This was exemplified in the 1900s by the German Expressionist groups Der Blaue Reiter, Die Brucke, and Die Neue Sachlichkeit - whose leading members included Wassily Kandinsky (1844-1944), Otto Dix (1891-1969), Egon Schiele (1890-1918), and Max Beckmann (1884-1950). Other leading expressionists included Edvard Munch (1863-1944), Amedeo Modigliani (1884-1920), most of the work of Picasso (1881-1973), Henry Moore (1898-1986) and Francis Bacon (1909-1992). The term expressionism was also used to describe later modern styles including, Abstract Expressionism and Neo-Expressionism.

Cubism (Flourished c.1907-1913)

The revolutionary style of art known as Cubism was invented by Georges Braque (1882-1963) and Pablo Picasso (1881-1973) during the late 1900s. Early Cubist paintings (which gave the style its name) were followed by two different Cubist styles: Analytical Cubism and Synthetic Cubism. Other Cubist painters included Juan Gris (1887-1927), Fernand Léger (1881-1955), and Albert Gleizes (1881-1953) - who taught the Irish artists Evie Hone and Mainie Jellet. Cubism influenced numerous other styles, including Constructivism, Futurism, Orphism, and Purism.

Abstract Art (1900-70), Modernism, Post-Modernism (1970-now)

Modern art movements (from roughly Cubism to Pop-Art) which arose during the period c.1900-1970, all shared one thing in common: they claimed a complete break from the past, and defied all traditional artistic conventions: a stance exemplified in particular by abstract art. This Modernistic approach - exemplified by iconic artists like Jackson Pollock and Any Warhol - has latterly been superceded by a general trend, which art historians refer to as Post-Modernism. In simple terms, post-modernism asserts that modernism has proved no more successful than traditional art forms and must therefore be dispensed with. Post-modernistic movements now emphasize style over substance (eg. not 'what' but 'how'; not 'art for art's sake', but 'style for stye's sake'), and stress the importance of communication to the audience. All this is reflected in contemporary art forms such as Assemblage, Installation, Video, Performance, Happenings - all of which derive from Conceptual Art - and land art. Even so, modern art still finds room for unique individuals like Fernando Botero. While the ephemeral nature of many modern 'artworks' is fully consistent with global trends of instant gratification, one wonders whether today's artists will be remembered 50, 100 or 500 years from now, and if not, whether this reflects on the nature of art in the twenty-first century.

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