Art History

What are the primary visual characteristics of Baroque art and architecture in Catholic countries (i.e., France, Italy, and Spain)?

Characterized by dynamic composition, had more of a colorful style, more dramatic and experimental. Influenced by developments in science, geometry, and astronomy. Baroque Art is a response to the reformation. Impasto brushwork-thick and very visible appl

How did Baroque artists and architects respond to the needs of the Catholic Church through their compositions? How did they respond to the needs of Absolutist Monarchs?

The needs of Absolute Monarchs was shown through portraits of monarch rulers. By painting them at the center of the composition, with elbows shooting out, they are seen as powerful and masculine figures. Violence against women were also painted to emphasi

Discuss the rise of genre painting and still-life in 17th century Spain. Why were these genres popular? What are the defining visual characteristics of these traditions?

Ecstatic religiosity combined with realistic surface detail that emerges from the deep shadows of tenebrism. It also showed the wealth of what someone owned. Influenced by Carravagio's powerfully dramatic art, was characterized by an ecstatic religiosity.

How may Diego Velasquez's Las Meninas be understood to have served the interests of both the artist and the king?

Las Meninas is both a royal portrait and a self-portrait of Velazquez. While the painting shows the royal family as the main subjects, Velasquez proclaims his dignity and importance by painting himself dressed as a courtier, the Order of Santiago on his c

Describe the visual interests of the Protestant Dutch world. How are Dutch religious, social, and political values articulated through their art? What new genres are developed in the Dutch Republic? How did the Dutch view portraiture? Landscape?

In the Dutch Republic, however, the home was the primary cell; the home was used as a metaphor for the soul. Artists stressed the sanctity of the ordinary and humble. Collectors preferred images of daily life and their immediate environment. But no scenes

What visual characteristics typify the Rococo style? Whose aesthetic preferences was this art intended to appeal to?

Rococo paintings and sculptures were instrumental in creating an atmosphere of sensuality and luxury. Pictorial themes were often taken from Classical love stories, and both pictures and sculpted ornament were typically filled with playful putti, lush fol

Why did Diderot encourage artists to work for the common good?

Diderot believed that it was art's proper function to "inspire virtue and purify manners" .

What role did the Royal Academy play in the development of art in France? In England?

In both France and England, the church answers to the kind, and art proposed the interests of the ruler. Art: standardized and controlled by the government.

What is Neoclassicism? What is its relationship to Rococo? Where did Neoclassicism start? What is Neoclassicism's relationship to Enlightenment thought?

A form of art to present classical ideals and subject matter in a style derived from Classical Roman and Greek sources. Neoclassical paintings reflected frozen forms, tight composition, and shallow space on relief sculpture. Neoclassical paintings and scu

What was the Grand Tour? What was its relationship to Neoclassicism?

The Grand Tour was an extended visit to the major cultural sites of Southern Europe. The tour began in Paris, then shifted to Southern France to visit numerous well preserved Roman buildings and monuments and monuments. The tour then headed to Venice, Flo

Why did the French people revolt in 1789? How did the art of Jacques-Louis David embody the values of the revolutionaries?

The French revolted because they believed all men should have liberal freedom and that there should be no taxation without representation. The French wanted a republic rather than a monarchy government. The French believed it is right to to take up arms a

How did Napoleon Bonaparte use art to solidify his power in France?

Napoleon Bonaparte commissioned Jacque-Louis David and other artists to document/paint the deeds and accomplishments he had done while in power. One artwork to represent this was David's painting "Napolean crossing the Saint Bernard" because David was abl

What is Romanticism? How did artists of the 19th century use landscape painting to convey ideas associated with Romanticism? How is Romanticism related to the notion of the Sublime?

Romanticism was a new intellectual trend that started as a literary movement in the 1790's and served as the counterpoint to Enlightenment idealism. It critiqued the idea that the world was knowable and ruled by reason alone. The central premise of Romant

How did the Industrial Revolution influence the development of art? What new subjects developed in response to the Industrial Revolution?

New subject matter, emphasizes on countryside and landscape, elevation of the focus of peasants and reproductions of art forms were easily shipped and produced. Increase focus on working class. Photography was also developed.

What is meant by the term "avant-garde" in art?

Translates meaning "advance guard" or "vanguard". Traditionally used to describe any artist, group or style, which is considered to be significantly ahead of the majority in its technique, subject matter, or application. Being avant-garde involves explori

What is Realism? What are the primary themes treated by Realist artists?

In the modern world of paris at mid-century, a world plagued by violence, social unrest, overcrowding, and poverty- the grand abstract themes of academic art seemed irrelevant to those thinkers that came to represent avant-garde. Realism is less of a styl

How did Manet break with conventions in his paintings? How does his Olympia challenge aesthetic and social expectations for art?

In his Le Dejeuner Sur L' Herbe was the most scandalous aspect of the painting was the "immortality" of Manet's theme: a suburban picnic featuring to fully naked women assumed to be prostates. He presented a seamier side of city life under a flimsy guise

How did Impressionism develop? What is Impressionism's relationship to Realism? How do the works of Mary Cassatt and Berthe Morisot compare to their male colleagues in Impressionism?

Instead of challenging social commentary, these younger artists painted pretty pictures of the upper middle class at leisure in the countryside and the city, and their point of view tented to be of a city person on holiday. In 1874, a group of artists wer

Salon:

A large room to entertain guests, and were known to be intimate, fashionable, and intellectual. Included entertainments that mimicked rituals of the Versailles court. Hosted on a weekly basis by accomplished, educated, upper class women such as: Mesdames

Josiah Wedgewood:

Most successful producer of Neoclassical decorative art. Opened a pottery factory called Etruria. Perfected a fine-grained, unglazed, colored pottery called jasperware. The Apotheosis of Homer was his most popular jasperware.

Industrial Revolution:

A revolution that replaced the land based power of the aristocracy with the financial power of capitalists, who were able to use new sources of energy to mechanize manufacturing and greatly increase the quantity and profitability of saleable goods.

Denis Diderot:

Leading detractor of the Rococo era. With the help of Jean le Rond d'Alembert, they produced the Encyclopedie that served as an archive of Enlightenment thought in France. Considered to be the founder of Modern Art criticism and began to write official Sa

Nationalism:

Having great pride for one's nation

Enlightenment:

A form of enlightenment through philosophy and science during the 18th century. This form of thinking is marked by a conviction that humans are not superstitious beings ruled by God or the aristocracy and that all men, and women should have equal rights a

The Seven Years War:

1756 - 1763; resulted in the Treaty of Paris which ceded almost all French colonies in North America and India to Great Britain which made Britain the main Euro colonial empire and master of sea.

Palladianism:

A return to austerity and simplicity of the architecture of Andrea Palladio in 1720s particularly his country house. Palladio was inspired by buildings of ancient Rome. Palladianism was advocated by a group of professional architects and wealthy amateurs

Sublime:

a concept defined by philosopher Edmund Burke (1729 1797) as something that strikes awe and terror into the heart of the viewer. adjective describing a concept, thing, or state of greatness or vastness with high spiritual, moral, intellectual or emotional

Daguerreotype:

An early photographic process that makes a positive print on a light-sensitized copperplate; invented and marketed in 1839 by Louis-Jacques-Mand� Daguerre.

Salon des Refus�s:

Translates to "Salon of the Rejected Ones". In 1863, the Salon jury rejected more than 3k+ of artworks. This lead to many protests. Napoleon III mediated the dispute by ordering an exhibition showcasing rejected artworks called the Salon des Refus�s.

Paris Commune:

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en plein air:

outdoors" in open air in an effort to record directly the fleeting effect of light and atmopsphere by applying flat expanses of pure color directly on the canvas. Greatly facilitated by the invention of 1841 of collapsible metal tubes of oil paint that a

Genre Paintings

Scenes from everyday life, still life (paintings or an inanimate objects such as fruit, foods, or flowers).