This document provides an overview of the history and characteristics of art movements from Ancient Greece to the early 20th century. It discusses the key periods and styles of ancient Greek and Roman art, medieval art, Renaissance art, Baroque and Rococo art, Neoclassicism, Romanticism, Realism, Impressionism, Post-Impressionism, Neo-Impressionism, Art Nouveau, Fauvism, Cubism, and Futurism. The document emphasizes the defining features, subject matter, techniques, and influential artists associated with each movement.

1. ART OF
EMERGING
EUROPE

2. ANCIENT GREECE
• Greeks were known to place prime importance in the
use of reason.
• Man was at the center of society
• Greeks were passionate about natural phenomenon
and believed that nature should be in perfect order.
• The development of Greek art can be divided into
four periods: Geometric, Archaic, Classical, and
Hellenistic.

3. “Lacoon and His
Sons”
This is an example of
work wherein the Greeks
emphasized the details of
the body. Most subjects
of their work included
that of the gods from
Greek mythology

4. Ancient Rome:
• The Romans were fond of the
Greeks and their achievements in
the arts. The fusion of Greek and
Roman cultures can be seen in
most Roman artworks.

5. MIDDLE AGES:
• Period characterized by ignorance and darkness
• Church was the central figure and authority of
the period.
• Since the Church was the most important figure,
the most important products of the early Middle
Ages would have to be copies of the Christian
scriptures.
• Great cathedrals were also built during this time:
Romanesque and Gothic.

6. “Poseidon and
Medusa”
Just like the Greeks,
the Romans valued
their gods and this
was evident with
their sculptures and
artworks.

7. Renaissance Art:
•During the Renaissance Period, artists valued the
“individual” as a subject of arts. The influence of
humanism shifted the focus of some artworks during
the Renaissance Period to empower the “individual.”
Most artworks emphasized naturalism, which was also
an influence of humanism since there was a great
emphasis on the proportionality of the human body.

8. Mannerism:
•Mannerism was a period in art history, which was a
product of the Renaissance Period. During the
Renaissance, artists would observe nature and try
their best to emulate it based on their observations.
As the Renaissance ended, artists started directly
copying subjects from existing works of art. Most
artworks during this period displayed distorted
figures, two-dimensional spaces, discordant hues and
colors, and lack of defined focal point.

9. Michelangelo,
“David.”
This sculpture is an example
of how humanism was a
dominant belief system
during the Renaissance.
There is emphasis on the
details of the body of the
human being.

10. BAROQUE AND ROCOCO:
• The term “baroque” is derived from the Portuguese
term barocco which is translated as “irregularly
shaped pearl.” This is a suitable description that
Rome was the birthplace of the Baroque Period,
which according to some historians was a response
to Protestantism.

11. BAROQUE AND ROCOCO
The term “Baroque” is thought to have
emerged from the Italian word barocco,
which was used by Medieval philosophers
to refer to an “obstacle in schematic
logic.” Barocco later became a term for any
contorted idea or complex thought process.

12. BAROQUE ART
CHARACTERISTICS
• Compared to the more classicist motifs and
passive space in Renaissance works, Baroque art
was perhaps “contorted” in that it was
shockingly different. Baroque paintings were
illusionistic (sharing physical space with the
viewer, and providing multiple, changing views),
while sculptures and architecture were adorned
with illustrations. Together, Baroque works
created a decorative unity in the churches and
other spaces in which they were commonly
seen.

13. BAROQUE ART
DEFINITION
• Active dates: c. 1600-1750
• Stemmed from Italian word for “contorted idea”
• Arose mainly as a means to promote the Catholic Church during the Protestant Reformation
• Emphasizes faith in church and power in state
• Dramatic contrasts of lights and darks
• Emotional, often religious depictions
• Feelings of grandeur, awe, movement and tension
• Hidden sources of light
• Various contrasting textures
• All encompassing works (illusionistic)
• Materials: bronzes, gildings, plaster, marble, stucco
• Focal point in architecture: entrance axis, pavilion

14. Caravaggio (1571-1610) “Saint Jerome Writing,”
•Italian painter
•Known for: dramatic use of lighting in Baroque
paintings

15. Gian Lorenzo Bernini (1598-1680)
•Italian sculptor and architect
•Known for: creating the Baroque style of sculpture

16. “The
Assumption of
the Virgin”
The Biblical event in the
painting shows how the
Baroque Period reverted
to having religious
subjects in their works.

17. ROCOCO
• The term “Rococo” likely stemmed
from the French word rocaille, which
means “pebbles” and refers to the
stones and shells that were used to
decorate interiors of caves. Shells
and similar forms eventually
became the primary Rococo motif.

18. ROCOCO ART CHARACTERISTICS
• Though Rococo emerged from Baroque
art, Rococo artists turned away from
Baroque’s dramatic symbolism of the
church’s power. Instead, they honed in
on elegantly elevating the power and
class of French aristocrats. Rococo
represented “secular high fashion.”

19. • The Rococo art movement, which primarily came about
through interior decoration, saw pastels replacing
Baroque’s vivid light and shadow; light became present
and scattered, not hidden. Rococo paintings often
show jovial scenes of society’s elite, whether at home
or out frolicking in open green pastures. Symbols of
play, romance, beauty, sex and mythology are often
apparent in artworks of the period.

20. ROCOCO DEFINITION
• Active dates: c. 1715-1789
• Stemmed from French word for shells and pebbles
• Often characterized by shell motifs
• Emerged during the Enlightenment
• Emphasizes goals of knowledge, freedom, happiness
• Pastel, light, soft colors
• Ethereal, delicate, graceful scenes of elite
• Feelings of playfulness, happiness, romance
• Scattered light
• Typically non-religious
• Symbols of sex, beauty, courtship, mythology
• Materials: bronzes, gildings, marble, carved wood, stucco
• Asymmetrical, curved forms and shapes

21. Jean Antoine Watteau (1684-1721) “The Feast of Love,” 1718-19
•French painter
•Known for: founding the French Rococo style

22. NEOCLASSICISM
• Neoclassicism was a movement in Europe
that transpired during the late 18th and early
19th centuries. It was the dominant art
movement that time which basically aimed to
revive and rekindle the influences of Greek
and Roman into art and architecture.

23. • Neoclassicism is the 18th and 19th century movement that
developed in Europe as a reaction to the excesses of
Baroque and Rococo. The movement sought to return to
the classical beauty and magnificence of the Ancient Greece
and the Roman Empire. Neoclassical art is based on
simplicity and symmetry and takes its inspiration from the
German art historian Johann Joachim Winckelmann who
believed that art should aim at the ideal forms and beauty
of Greek art. As he wrote:
• “The one way for us to become great, perhaps inimitable, is by
imitating the ancients.”

24. Antonio Canova, “Paolina
Borghese as Venus
Victrix”

25. NEOCLASSICISM
• Neoclassical painters wanted to depict the beauty and the
harmony of a subject. They combine an idealistic style,
using perspective with drama and forcefulness according
to Winckelmann's definition of the movement as "noble
simplicity and calm grandeur". Neoclassical works, therefore,
are serious, unemotional and heroic. Restraint and
simplicity, along with precise depiction and close
congruence of clear form and noble content, are the main
characteristics of Neoclassicism.

26. ROMANTICISM
• Romanticism, as an art movement, used
the central themes of Neoclassicist
artworks as a springboard. Romanticists
have highlighted heroic elements into
their work.

27. ROMANTICISM
- One of the major revolutions in history would be the
French Revolution. Such revolutionary movements
became the focal point of most Romantic works.
- The major and central themes of Romanticism
movement include the emphasis on the goodness of
mankind. Most works also promoted justice,
equality, and social order. Artists also emphasized
emotions and feelings of man, which was a deviation
from the humanist principles of rationalism.

28. The Raft of Medusa

29. REALISM
• Realism as a style of work focuses on the accuracy
of details that depicts and somehow mirrors
reality. There is little room for imagination in this
movement since emphasis is placed in observable
traits that can concretize through artworks.
Realism was heavily influenced by Hellenistic
Greek culture since most artworks during that
period placed emphasis on the human body.

30. • Realism as a modern movement in art veered away
from traditional forms of art.
• Since artists worked within the context of revolutions
and social change, artistic works began to depict real
life events. Idealistic concepts and images were
replaced by real manifestations of society. There is a
move to combine both art and life in artistic works
since the modern world were suitable subjects of art.
This movement also re-examined existing belief
systems and traditions.

31. Gustave Courbet, “Burial
at Ornans”

32. Impressionism:
• The Impressionism movement started in
France, which led to a break from the
tradition in European painting.
Impressionism is a style of painting that
emerged in the mid- to late 1800s.
Impressionist artists incorporated scientific
principles to achieve a more distinct
representation of color.

33. Impressionism:
The distinctive characteristic of this style is that it
allows the artist to emphasize the immediate
impression he has of a particular event or scene. The
said impression is communicated by the artist through
his work and can be seen through the brushstrokes,
distinction of colors, and the lights and shadows used
by the artist.
- capture natural light’s affect on tonality
- hazy forms

34. Berthe Morisot, “The
Harbor at Lorient” (1869)
Impressionist artists started moving art outdoors
which aimed to include the shifting light they
wanted to capture in their works.

37. Post-Impressionism:
•It is an art movement that
emerged in France, which is a
result of both the influence and
rejection of Impressionism.

38. Post-Impressionism is an art movement that
developed in the 1890s. It is characterized by a
subjective approach to painting, as artists opted to
evoke emotion rather than realism in their work.
While their styles, therefore, wildly varied, paintings
completed in the Post-Impressionist manner share
some similar qualities. These include symbolic motifs,
unnatural color, and painterly brushstrokes.

39. Vincent van Gogh, ‘The Starry Night’ (1889)

40. DEFINING
CHARACTERISTICS OF
POST-IMPRESSIONISM
EMOTIONAL SYMBOLISM
•Post-Impressionists believed that a work of art should not revolve
around style, process, or aesthetic approach. Instead, it should place
emphasis on symbolism, communicating messages from the artist’s own
subconscious. Rather than employ subject matter as a visual tool or means
to an end, Post-Impressionists perceived it as a way to convey feelings.
According to Paul Cézanne, “a work of art which did not begin in emotion is
not a work of art.”

41. Paul Cézanne, ‘Pyramid of Skulls’ (1901)

42. EVOCATIVE COLOR
• “Color! What a deep and mysterious language, the language of
dreams.” -Paul Gauguin
• Unlike the Impressionists who strived to capture natural light’s
affect on tonality, Post-Impressionists purposely employed an
artificial color palette as a way to portray their emotion-drive
perceptions of the world around them. Saturated hues,
multicolored shadows, and rich ranges of color are evident in
most Post-Impressionist paintings, proving the artists’ innovative
and imaginative approach to representation.

43. Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, ‘At the Moulin Rouge’
(1892–1895)

44. DISTINCTIVE BRUSHSTROKES
Like works completed in the Impressionist style,
most Post-Impressionist pieces feature discernible,
broad brushstrokes. In addition to adding texture
and a sense of depth to a work of art,
these marks also point to the painterly qualities of
the piece, making it clear that it is not intended to
be a realistic representation of its subject.

45. Vincent van Gogh, ‘Undergrowth with Two
Figures’ (1890)

46. Neo-Impressionism:
• As an art movement, neo-impressionism is
considered as a response to empirical
realism of impressionism. Most painters
who subscribe to such movement rely on a
systematic and scientific techniques that
have a predetermined visual effects not only
on the artwork itself but also how the
audience perceive the art.

47. • The term Neo-Impressionism refers to a pictorial technique where
color pigments are no longer mixed either on the palette or directly on
canvas, but instead placed as small dots side by side. Mixing of
colors takes place from a suitable distance, in the observor's eye, as
an "optical mixture".
• In the early 1880s, French painter Georges Seurat studied writings
on color theory by French chemists Eugène Chevreul (1786-1889),
Charles Henry, and American physicist Ogden Rood, and invented a
new painting technique that he named "separation of color" or
"Divisionism", the main advantage of which is to give a
greater vibrancy of color.
• Seurat's first large painting (206x305cm) "A Sunday Afternoon on
the Island of La Grande Jatte" - 1884-1886 may be considered as
the founding masterpiece of Divisionism.

48. A Sunday Afternoon
on the Island of La Grande Jatte
Georges SEURAT, 1884-86

49. • The terms divisionismand pointillismoriginated in descriptions
of Seurat’s painting technique, in which paint was applied to
the canvas in dots of contrasting pigment. A calculated
arrangement of coloured dots, based on optical science, was
intended to be perceived by the retina as a single hue. The
entire canvas was covered with these dots, which defined
form without the use of lines and bathed all objects in an
intense, vibrating light. In each picture the dots were of a
uniform size, calculated to harmonize with the overall size of
the painting. In place of the hazy forms of Impressionism,
those of Neo-Impressionism had solidity and clarity and
were simplified to reveal the carefully composed
relationships between them. Though the light quality was as
brilliant as that of Impressionism, the general effect was of
immobile, harmonious monumentality, a crystallization of
the fleeting light of Impressionism.

50. Art Nouveau:
•Between 1890 and 1910, countries from Europe and the United
States witnessed the emergence and flourishing of a new art style.
This ornamental style of art was a break from the conservative
historicism, which was the prevailing and dominant theme of most
Western artworks.
•This ornamental style uses long and organic lines that are concretely
manifested in architecture, jewelry, glass design, among others.
•In most works, the defining characteristic of Art Nouveau is the
asymmetrical line that usually is in the form of insect wings or flower
stalks. The line is done in such a graceful and elegant manner that
somehow evokes a certain power to it.

52. Fauvism:
• This is a style of painting that
emerged in France around the turn of
the 20th century. What makes fauvists
revolutionary is that they used pure
and vibrant colors by applying straight
from the paint tubes directly to the
canvas.

54. CUBISM:
• Between 1907 and 1914, French artists Pablo
Picasso and Georges Braque introduced a new
visual arts style called cubism. This style would
later on have a huge influence on artists during
the 20th century. Cubists highlighted the two-
dimensional surface of the picture plane.

56. FUTURISM:
• It is an early 20th century art movement that
started in Italy, which highlighted the
speed, energy, dynamism, and power of
machines. In addition, common themes for
works in this movement are restlessness and
the fast-pace of modern life.

57. • The Geometric Period was when geometric shapes and
patterns have taken the spotlight in most of the artworks.
• The Archaic Period, on the other hand, placed importance
on human figures. This was primarily a result of Greece’s
trading activities with other civilizations.
• The peak of Greek sculpture and architecture was during
the Classical Period.
• The time of Alexander the Great was called the Hellenistic
Period. During this time, art was primarily focused on
showcasing emotions and depicting reality.