Discuss the Specific Cultural Context in Which the Art Object Was Produced

As long as we humans accept been able to employ our hands, nosotros have been creating fine art. From early cave paintings to the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel, man artistic expression can tell usa a lot nigh the lives of the people who create it. To fully appreciate the cultural, social, and historical significance of different artworks, you lot need to exist aware of the broad art history timeline. This article presents an overview of many significant eras of fine art creation and the historical contexts out of which they accept risen.

Table of Contents

one Art Eras: Where to Begin?
ii A Brief Overview of the Art Periods Timeline
3 A Comprehensive Art Movement Timeline
- 3.1 The Romanesque Period (1000-1300): Sharing Information Through Art
- 3.two The Gothic Era (1100-1500): Liberty and Fright Come up Together
- 3.3 The Renaissance Era (1420-1520): The Reawakening of an Art Era That Never Actually Existed
- 3.four Mannerism (1520-1600): A Window into the Future of Kitsch
- three.v The Baroque Era (1590-1760): The Glorification of Power and the Deception of the Heart
- 3.6 The Rococo Art Menstruation (1725-1780): Light and Blusterous, a French Fancy
- 3.7 Classicism (1770-1840): Throwing It Back to Classic Times
- 3.8 Romanticism (1790-1850): A Intermission from the Severity of it All
- 3.nine Realism (1850-1925): Objectivity over Subjectivity
- three.10 Impressionism (1850-1895): Heralding the Era of Modern Fine art
- 3.11 Symbolism (1890-1920): In that location is Always More Meets the Eye
- iii.12 Art Nouveau (1890-1910): The Pure Gold of Gustav Klimt
- iii.thirteen Expressionism (1890-1914): Bringing a Political Edge to the Fence
- 3.14 Cubism (1906-1914): Breaking Things Apart and Putting Them Dorsum Together Over again
- 3.15 Futurism (1909-1945): Creative Anarchism
- 3.xvi Dadaism (1912-1920): The True Reality That Life is Nonsense
- three.17 Surrealism (1920-1930): Things Just Get More Bizzare
- 3.18 The New Objectivity (1925-1965): Common cold and Technical
- 3.xix Abstract Expressionism (1948-1962): Stepping Away from Europe
- 3.20 Pop-Art (1955-1969): Art is Everything
- 3.21 Neo-Expressionism (1980-1989): Mod Art

Art Eras: Where to Begin?

As long as humankind has been conscious of itself, information technology has been creating fine art to correspond this self. The earliest cave paintings that we are aware of were created roughly 40,000 years agone. We have constitute paintings and drawings of human activity from the Paleolithic Era under rocks and in caves. We cannot truly know the reason why these early humans began to produce art. Perhaps painting and drawing were a fashion to record their lived experiences, to tell stories to young children, or to pass downwards wisdom from 1 generation to the next.

These prehistoric rock paintings are in Manda Guéli Cave in the Ennedi Mountains, Chad, Central Africa. Camels have been painted over before images of cattle, peradventure reflecting climatic changes;David Stanley from Nanaimo, Canada, CC Past 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Although we take these exquisite examples of early artistic expression, the official history of art periods only begins with the Romanesque Era. Official art era timelines practice not include cave paintings, sculptures, and other works of fine art from the stone historic period or the beautiful frescos produced in Egypt and Crete in around 2000 BC. The reason backside this determination is that these early eras of artistic expression were spring to a relatively small geographical space. The official fine art eras that we volition be discussing today, in dissimilarity, span beyond many countries, frequently all of Europe and sometimes Northward and South America.

Despite their lack of official recognition, these primeval examples of man artistic flair raise a lot of interesting questions. Why is it that the animals depicted in cavern paintings are so much more than realistic and vivid than the animals represented in later eras?

This article hopes to give yous some insight into the ever-irresolute creative style of the human creative mind as we explore the complexities of the different art periods.

A Brief Overview of the Art Periods Timeline

Equally with many areas of human history, it is impossible to delineate the different art periods with precision. The dates presented in the brackets below are approximations based on the progression of each motility beyond several countries. Many of the art periods overlap considerably, with some of the more than recent eras occurring at the same time. Some eras last for a few thousand years while others bridge less than ten. Art is a continuous process of exploration, where more recent periods grow out of existing ones.

Fine art Flow	Years
Romanesque	100 – 1150
Gothic	1140 – 1600
Renaissance	1495 – 1527
Mannerism	1520 – 1600
Bizarre	1600 – 1725
Rococo	1720 – 1760
Neoclassicism	1770 – 1840
Romanticism	1800 – 1850
Realism	1840 – 1870
Pre-Raphaelite	1848 – 1854
Impressionism	1870 – 1900
Naturalism	1880 – 1900
Postal service-Impressionism	1880 – 1920
Symbolism	1880 – 1910
Expressionism	1890 – 1939
Art Noveau	1895 – 1915
Cubism	1905 – 1939
Futurism	1909 – 1918
Dadaism	1912 – 1923
New Objectivity	1918 – 1933
Precisionism	1920 – 1950
Art Deco	1920 – 1935
Bauhaus	1920 – 1925
Surrealism	1924 – 1945
Abstract Expressionism	1945 – 1960
Popular-Art / Op Art	1956 – 1969
Arte Povera	1960 – 1969
Minimalism	1960 – 1975
Photorealism	1968 – now
Lowbrow Pop Surrealism	1970 – now
Contemporary Art	1978 – now

Information technology may seem strange for our account of the art period timeline to terminate 30 years agone. The concept of an art era seems inadequate to capture the diversity of artistic styles that accept grown since the turn of the 21st Century. At that place is a feeling among some art historians that the traditional concept of painting has died in our era of fast-track living. We do not take this stance. Instead, we continue to share our unique human experiences through the medium of art, simply as the cave people did, outside of our modern arrangement of classification.

Biergarten (c. 1915) by Max Liebermann;Max Liebermann, Public domain, via Wikimedia Eatables

A Comprehensive Art Movement Timeline

Information technology is time to dive a piddling deeper into the social, cultural, and historical contexts of each of the distinct art eras nosotros presented to a higher place. You will come across how many eras take influence from those before them. Art, like man consciousness, is continuously evolving. It is too of import to annotation that this art timeline is a history of Western and predominantly European art.

The Romanesque Period (one thousand-1300): Sharing Information Through Art

Art historians typically consider the Romanesque fine art era to be the start of the art history timeline. Romanesque art developed during the ascent of Christianity ca. thou Advertisement. During this time, but a small percent of the European population were literate. The ministers of the Christian church were typically function of this minority, and to spread the message of the bible, they needed an alternative method.

Christian objects, stories, deities, saints, and ceremonies were the exclusive subject of virtually Romanesque paintings. Intended to teach the masses about the values and beliefs of the Christian Church building, Romanesque paintings had to be unproblematic and piece of cake to read.

Equally a result, Romanesque works of art are uncomplicated, with assuming contours and clean areas of colour. Romanesque paintings lack whatsoever depth of perspective, and the imagery is rarely of natural scenes. In that location were several different forms that Romanesque paintings could take, including wall paintings, mosaics, panel paintings, and volume paintings.

Due to the Christian purpose backside Romanesque paintings, they are almost always symbolic. The relative importance of the figures within the paintings is shown past the size, with the more important figures appearing much larger. You can encounter that homo faces are ofttimes distorted, and the stories depicted in these paintings tend to have a high emotional value. Romanesque paintings often include mythological creatures like dragons and angels, and nigh always appear in churches.

At the almost fundamental level, paintings of the Romanesque flow serve the purpose of spreading the word of the bible and Christianity. The name of this art era stems from round arches used in Roman architecture, often found in churches of the time.

Chantry frontal from Avià, c. 1200; Museu Nacional d'Art de Catalunya, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

The Gothic Era (1100-1500): Freedom and Fear Come up Together

One of the almost famous eras, Gothic art grew out of the Romanesque period in French republic and is an expression of two contrasting feelings of the age. On the i hand, people were experiencing and jubilant a new level of freedom of thought and religious agreement. On the other, there was a fear that the globe was coming to an terminate. You can clearly see the expression of these ii contrasting tensions within the fine art of the Gothic period.

Only every bit in the Romanesque period, Christianity lay at the heart of the tensions of the Gothic era. As more freedom of idea emerged, and many pushed against conformity, the subjects of paintings became more various. The stronghold of the church began to dissipate.

Gothic paintings portrayed scenes of existent human life, such as working in the fields and hunting. The focus moved abroad from divine beings and mystical creatures as more focus was given to the intricacies of what information technology meant to be human.

Human figures received a lot more attention during the Gothic period. Gothic artists fleshed out more than realistic human being faces every bit they became more private, less two-dimensional, and less inanimate. The development of a three-dimensional perspective is thought to have facilitated this change. Painters as well paid more than attention to things of personal value like clothing, which they painted realistically with beautiful folds.

The Raising of Lazarus(1310-1311) by Duccio di Buoninsegna;Duccio di Buoninsegna, Public domain, via Wikimedia Eatables

Many historians believe that part of the reason why the subjects of art became more diverse during the Gothic era was due to the increased surface area for painting within churches. Gothic churches were more than expansive than those of the Romanesque period, which is thought to correspond the increased feelings of liberty at this time.

Aslope the newfound freedom of creative expression, there was a deep fear that the finish of the globe was coming. Information technology is suggested that this was accompanied by a gradual decline in faith in the church, and this in turn may take spurred the expansion of art outside of the church building. In fact, towards the end of the Gothic era, works by Hieronymus von Bosch, Breughel, and others were unsuitable for placement inside a church.

Nosotros do non know many private artists who painted in the Romanesque flow, as art was not most who painted it merely rather the message it carried. Thus, the move abroad from the church can also be seen in the enormous increase in known artists from the Gothic period, including Giotto di Bondone. Schools of art began to emerge throughout France, Italy, Germany, the Netherlands, and other parts of Europe.

The Renaissance Era (1420-1520): The Reawakening of an Art Era That Never Really Existed

The Renaissance era is possibly ane of the near well-known, featuring artists like Michelangelo and Leonardo da Vinci. This era continued to focus on the private human as its inspiration and took influence from the art and philosophy of the ancient Romans and Greeks. The Renaissance tin be seen as a cultural rebirth.

A part of this cultural rebirth was the returned focus on the natural and realistic world in which humans lived. The three-dimensional perspective became fifty-fifty more important to the art of the Renaissance, as is aptly demonstrated past Michelangelo's statue ofDavid.This statue harkened back to the works of the ancient Greeks as it was consciously created to be seen from all angles. Statues of the last two eras had been two-dimensional, intended to be viewed only from the front end.

Michelangelo's David (1501-1504); Livioandronico2013, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

The same three-dimensional perspective carried over into the paintings of the Renaissance era. Frescos that were invented around 3000 years prior were given new life by Renaissance painters. Scenes became more complex, and the representation of humans became much more nuanced. Renaissance artists painted human bodies and faces in three dimensions with a strong emphasis on realism. The paint used during the Renaissance period besides represented a shift from tempera paints to oil paints. The Renaissance period is oft credited as the very start of great Dutch mural paintings.

Mannerism (1520-1600): A Window into the Future of Kitsch

Of form, this heading is partly in jest. Non all of the art produced in this era is what we would understand today equally "kitsch". What we sympathize kitsch to mean today is often artificial, cheaply fabricated, and without much 'classic' taste. Instead, the reason we depict the fine art of this period as being kitsch is due to the relative over-exaggeration that characterized it. Stemming from the newfound liberty of human expression in the Renaissance menses, artists began to explore their own unique and private creative mode, or manner.

Michelangelo himself, in fact, is not complimentary from the exaggeration that distinguishes this era. Some fine art historians do not consider some of his later paintings to be works of the Renaissance menstruation. The expression of feelings and human gestures, even items of wear, is exaggerated deliberately in mannerist paintings.

The small-scale S-curve of the human torso that characterizes the Renaissance fashion is transformed into an unnatural bending of the body. This is the first European style that attracted artists from across Europe to its birthplace in Italy.

Madonna with Long Neck (1534-1540) past Parmigianino;Parmigianino, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

The Baroque Era (1590-1760): The Glorification of Power and the Deception of the Eye

The progression of fine art jubilant the lives of humans over the ability of the divine continued into the Baroque era. Kings, princes, and even popes began to prefer to see their ain power and prestige celebrated through fine art than that of God. The over-exaggeration that classified Mannerism likewise continued into the Baroque catamenia, with the scenes of paintings becoming increasingly unrealistic and magnificent.

Bizarre paintings frequently showed scenes where Kings would be ascending into the heavens, mingling with the angels, and reaching ever closer to the divinity and power of God. Hither, we actually can run across the progression of human being cocky-importance, and although the subject affair does non move away entirely from religious symbolism, man is increasingly the central power within the compositions.

New materials that glorify wealth and condition like gold and marble become the prized materials for sculptures. Opposites of light and dark, warm and cold colors, and symbols of skillful and evil are emphasized beyond what is naturally occurring. Fine art academies increased in their numbers, as art became a mode to display your wealth, power, and status.

Baroque ceiling frescoes of Cathedral in Ljubljana, Slovenia. Work of Italian master Giulio Quaglio in 1703–1706 and after 1721–1723;Petar Milošević, CC BY-SA four.0, via Wikimedia Commons

The Rococo Fine art Period (1725-1780): Lite and Airy, a French Fancy

The paintings from the Rococo era are typical of the French elite of the fourth dimension. The proper name stems from the French word rocaille which ways "shellwork". The solid forms which characterized the Baroque menstruum softened into low-cal, air, and desire. Paintings of this era were no longer strong and powerful, just light and playful.

The colors were lighter and brighter, almost transparent in some instances. Many pieces of art from this menstruation neglected religious themes, although some artists like Tiepolo did create frescos in many churches.

Much like the attitude of the French aristocracy of the time, the fine art of the Rococo period is totally removed from the social reality. The shepherd'south idyll became the theme of this period, representing life as light and carefree, without the constraints of economic or social hardship.

Classicism (1770-1840): Throwing Information technology Back to Classic Times

Classicism, like the Rococo era, began in France in around 1770. In contrast to the Rococo era, notwithstanding, Classism reverted to earlier, more serious styles of creative expression. Much like the Renaissance menses, Classisim took inspiration from classic Roman and Greek fine art.

The art created in the Classicism era reverted to strict forms, two-dimensional colors, and man figures. The tone of these paintings was undoubtedly strict. Colors lost their symbolism. The art produced in this era was used internationally to instill feelings of patriotism in the people of each nation. Parts of Classicism include Louis-Sieze, Empire, and Biedermeier.

A Babyhood Idyll (1900) by William Bouguereau;William-Adolphe Bouguereau, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Romanticism (1790-1850): A Interruption from the Severity of it All

Y'all can see from the dates that this art era occurred at around the same time as Classicism. Romanticism is often seen as an emotionally charged reaction to the stern nature of Classicism. In dissimilarity to the strict and realistic nature of the Classicism era, the paintings of the Romantic era were much more than sentimental.

The exploration of the intangible; emotions and the hidden, took center-stage. Around this time, people began to go hiking in an attempt to explore the natural earth. Information technology was non, notwithstanding, the true reality of the natural world which they intended to find, but the way it made them feel.

There is no tangible or precisely determinable manner to the fine art of the Romanticism period. English and French painters tended to focus on the effects of shadows and lights, while the art produced past German painters tended to have more than gravity of thought to them. The Romantic painters were frequently criticized and even mocked for their estimation of the world around them.

Realism (1850-1925): Objectivity over Subjectivity

As the Romanticism era was a reactionary movement to the Classicism period before it, so is Realism a reaction to Romanticism. In contrast to the beautiful and securely emotional content of Romantic paintings, Realist artists presented both the skillful and beautiful, the ugly and evil. The reality of the world is presented in an unembellished manner by Realism painters.

These artists attempt to testify the globe, people, nature, and animals, as they truly are. There is a focus on the "obligation of art into truth" as Gustave Courbet puts it.

Only as with Romanticism, Realism was not popular with everyone. The paintings are not particularly pleasing to the eye and some critics have commented that despite the artist'due south claims of realism, erotic scenes somehow miss the existent eroticism. Goethe criticizes Realism, saying that art should be ideal, not realistic. Schiller too calls Realism "mean," indicating the harshness that many of the paintings portray.

Proudhon and His Children(1865) by Gustave Courbet; Gustave Courbet, Public domain, via Wikimedia Eatables

Impressionism (1850-1895): Heralding the Era of Mod Art

Historians often paint the Impressionist motion as the commencement of the mod historic period. Impressionist art is said to take airtight the volume on classical music and other classical forms of art. Impressionism is also perhaps, subsequently Cubism, 1 of the nigh easily recognizable art periods. Featuring artists similar Claude Monet and Vincent van Gough, Impressionism broke away from the smooth brush strokes and areas of solid colour that characterized many art periods before information technology.

Initially, the discussion Impressionism was like a swear word in the art globe, with critics believing that these artists did not pigment with technique, but rather simply smeared paint onto a sail. The brushstrokes indeed were a significant departure from those that came before them, sometimes becoming furiously wild. Distinct shapes and lines disappeared into a cyclone of colors. Individual dots of completely new colors were put together, particularly in the pointillism variety of Impressionist paintings. The subjects of Impressionist paintings could often only be recognized from a distance.

View of Vetheuil sur Seine(1880) by Claude Monet;Claude Monet, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

A significant change that occurred during the Impressionist era was that painting began to take place "en-plein-air," or outside. Much of the Impressionist artist's power to capture the circuitous and ever-changing colors of the natural world were a event of this shift.

Impressionist artists besides began to move away from the desire to lecture and teach, preferring to create art for art's sake. Galleries and international exhibitions became increasingly important.

Symbolism (1890-1920): There is Ever More Than Meets the Eye

During this period, the era of Symbolism began to accept hold in France. Artists became preoccupied with the representation of feelings and thoughts through objects. The favorite themes of the Symbolism movement were expiry, sickness, sin, and passion. The forms were generally clear, a fact which art historians believe was anticipating the Art Nouveau era.

Art Nouveau (1890-1910): The Pure Gold of Gustav Klimt

Although Gustav Klimt was by no means the most important artist in the Fine art Nouveau motion, he is i of the most well-known. His style perfectly encapsulates the Art Nouveau motion with soft, curved lines, lots of florals, and the stylistic characterization of human figures. In many countries, this style is known equally the Secession manner.

The Kiss (1907-1908) by Gustav Klimt;Gustav Klimt, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

The art produced in the Art Nouveau menstruum includes a lot of symmetry and is characterized by playfulness and youthfulness. Art Nouveau has a lot of political content, although many critics ignore this and hold the decorative aspects against it. Through the art of the Art Nouveau period, artists attempted to bring nature back into industrial cities.

Expressionism (1890-1914): Bringing a Political Edge to the Debate

In the Expressionism fine art era, we over again see a resurgence of the importance of the expression of subjective feelings. The artists within this movement were non interested in naturalism or what things look like on the outside. As a outcome, there is a certain tinge of assailment in some Expressionist paintings, which are ofttimes archaic and slightly wild.

Expressionism originated in Germany and is intended to contrast Impressionism. Towards the commencement of the First World War, Expressionist paintings had a disturbing intensity near them. Intended to criticize power and the standing social lodge, Expressionism spread these political ideas through the medium of pigment. Fine art was beginning to become political.

Cubism (1906-1914): Breaking Things Autonomously and Putting Them Back Together Once again

Get-go with two artists, Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque, the Cubist movement was all most fragmentation, geometric shapes, and multiple perspectives. The dimensional planes of everyday objects were cleaved down into different geometric segments and put back together in a way that presented the object from multiple sides simultaneously.

Cubism was a rejection of all the rules of traditional western painting and has had a strong influence on the styles of fine art that accept followed it.

Guitar and Glasses (1912) past Juan Gris;Juan Gris, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Futurism (1909-1945): Artistic Anarchism

Futurism is less of an artistic style and more of an artistically inspired political motion. Founded by Tommaso Marinetti'sFuturist Manifesto, which rejected social organization and Christian morality, the Futurist era was full of chaos, hostility, assailment, and anger. Although Marinetti was not a painter himself, painting became the virtually prominent form of art within the Futurist movement.

These artists vehemently rejected the rules of Classical painting, believing that everything that was passed through generations (beliefs, traditions, organized religion) was suspicious and unsafe. The militant nature of the Futurist move has resulted in many people assertive that it was besides shut to fascism.

Dadaism (1912-1920): The True Reality That Life is Nonsense

Dada ways a cracking many things and nothing at all. The writer Hugo Ball discovered that this small give-and-take has several different meanings in different languages and at the aforementioned time, as a give-and-take, it meant nothing at all. The Dadaism movement is based on the concepts of illogic and provocation and was seen as not only an art movement, merely an anti-war movement.

The illogic of existing rules, norms, traditions, and values was chosen into question by the Dadaist motility. The fine art movement encompassed several art forms including writing, poetry, dance, and performance art. Part of the motility was to call into question what could be classified every bit "art".

Dadaism represents the beginnings of action art in which painting becomes more than merely a portrait of reality, but rather an amalgamation of the social, cultural, and subjective parts of being human.

Surrealism (1920-1930): Things Just Get More Bizzare

Every bit if the pure illogic nature of the Dadaism move was not outlandish enough, the Surrealists took the dream world to be the fountain of all truth. I of the nearly famous Surrealist artists is Salvador Dali, and you are bound to know his painting Melting Lookout man (1954).

Surrealism is fundamentally psychoanalytical, and many Surrealist artists would pigment direct from their dreams. Sometimes dealing with uncomfortable concepts, hidden desires, and taboos, Surrealism was a direct critique of the ingrained ideas and beliefs of the bourgeoise. As you can imagine, this style of art was not popular when it began, just it has greatly influenced the world of modern art.

Space and time (in homage to L.V. Beethoven) (1974) by Italian painter William Girometti;William Girometti, CC Past-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

The New Objectivity (1925-1965): Cold and Technical

Every bit the surrealists were attempting to move away from the earth of physical, concrete, and visible objects, the New Objectivity movement turned towards these ideas. Many of the themes within New Objective art were social critiques. The turbulence of the war left many people searching for some kind of gild to agree onto, and this can be seen clearly in the fine art of New Objectivity.

The images represented in New Objectivity were ofttimes cold, unemotional, and technical, with some favorite subjects being the radio and lightbulbs. As is the instance with many modern movements in art, there were several different wings to the New Objectivity movement.

Abstract Expressionism (1948-1962): Stepping Away from Europe

Abstract Expressionism is said to be the first fine art motility to originate outside of Europe. Emerging from North America, Abstract Expressionism focused on color-field painting and action paintings. Rather than using a sheet and a castor, buckets of pigment would be poured on the ground, and artists used their fingers to create images.

With well-known artists like Marc Tobey and Jackson Pollock, this art motility was distinct from any that came before it. The awarding of the paint was sometimes so thick that the finished piece would take on a form different any painting before it. Abstract Expressionism spread throughout Europe. Equally with all art, there are ever critics, with conservative Americans during the cold state of war calling it "un-American."

Pop-Art (1955-1969): Art is Everything

For the artists of Pop-Art, everything in the world was art. From advertisements, tin cans, toothpaste, and toilets,everythingis art. Popular-Art developed simultaneously in the United States and England and is characterized by uniform blocks of color and clear lines and contours. Painting and graphic art became influenced by photorealism and serial prints. One of the virtually famous English Pop artists is David Hockney, although just a few of his lifetime paintings were in this move.

A particular of Roy Lichtenstein'southward Wall Explosion II, 1965; Colin McLaughlin, CC BY-SA four.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Neo-Expressionism (1980-1989): Mod Art

Starting in the 1980s, Neo-Expressionism emerged with large-format representational and life-affirming paintings. Berlin was a central signal for this new motion, and the designs typically featured cities and big-urban center life. The name Neo-Expressionism emerged from Fauvism, and although the artists in Berlin disbanded in 1989, some artists continued to paint in this way in New York.

Fine art is a fundamental part of what information technology ways to exist human. Many of the troubles and joys nosotros experience can only be captured accurately through artistic expression. We promise that this short summary of the art periods timeline has helped you gain some more insight into the contexts surrounding some of the most famous works of art created by the homo race.

We've besides created a web story about art periods.

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Source: https://artincontext.org/art-periods/