History of Art.

Part one:

Prehistoric Art
Romanesque Art
Gothic Art
Renaissance Art
Baroque Art
Rococo Art
Neoclassicism Art
Romanticism Art

Part two:

Art of the 20th Century

Part three:

Disciplines: Dance, Music, Theater and Visual Arts.

Part four:

Benefits

Part one

"Prehistoric Art"

Prehistoric people often represented their world and perhaps their beliefs through visual images. Art emerged with the appearance and dispersion of fully modern people through Africa, Europe, Asia, Australasia and the Americas. Paintings, sculptures, engravings and later pottery reveal not only a quest for beauty beauty but also complex social systems and spiritual concepts.

Works from this prehistoric period are not always simple, but can be quite complex. The Lascaux Cave paintings for example were made with brushes made from animal fur. Because the people who made these art pieces were amateurs there is evidence of their desire to show both realism and to use abstraction in an effort to make the art more portable.

The art produced are the products of minds as intellectually capable and sophisticated as our own. In Europe and Africa, early works of art depict animals, humans and include archaic symbols. The former may be drawn or sculpted realistically or represented by the clever emphasis of a distinctive characteristic, such as the tusks of the mammoth or the horn of a rhinoceros. Paintings, low relief sculptures, and engravings adorned areas of caves and rock shelters where hunter-foragers lived.They also covered dark caverns and recesses visited less frequently where light from fires and lamps illuminated occasions which probably had special social and spiritual significance. With the spread of farming as a way of life, people began to settle in villages, and territories were defined. Drawings like maps and landscapes appeared, along with domesticated animals and more human figures. Changing styles of decorated pottery became the designer labels of successive generations of prehistoric peoples.

"Romanesque Art"

Refers to the art of Europe from approximately 1000 A.D to the rise of the Gothic style in the 13th Century.

As the name indicates Romanesque is ultimately inspired by Roman architecture. Similarities between Roman and Romanesque include round arches, stone materials, and the basilica-style plan (used for secular purposes by the Romans).But the influences that led to the Romanesque style are far more complex than that. Romanesque architecture also shows influences from Visigothic, Carolingian, Byzantine and Islamic architecture.

The art of the period was characterised by a very vigorous style in both sculpture and painting, the latter continued to follow essentially "Byzantine iconography" models for the most common subjects in churches, which remained Christ in Majesty the last judgement and others.

Many castles were built during this period, but they are greatly outnumbered by churches. The most significant are the great abbey churches, many of which are still standing, more or less complete and frequently in use.

Regional Variations of Romanesque.

Romanesque architecture was employed all across Europe in the early Middle Ages, from the German north to the Spanish and Italian south. Not surprisingly, the availability of materials, aesthetic tastes, and practical needs led to significant regional variations within the Romanesque style.

Burgundian Romanesque:

Burgundian Romanesque flourished from about 1075 to 1125 and in many ways anticipated the Gothic style.Distinctive features include tall proportions, elaborate sculptured decoration, pointed arches in the barrel vaults, grouped piers, and early forms of rib vaulting and flying buttresses. Burgundian Romanesque art is also distinctive, with a "majestic severity" achieved by the elongation, angularity, drastic flattening, and hierarchical size of figures and by the swirling lines of extensive drapery.

Cistercian Romanesque:

A diametric opposite to the Burgundian Cluniac style is Cistercian Romanesque. The austere Cistercian order strongly disapproved of the time and money spent on decoration that would only be a distraction to monks and worshipers.Cistercian abbey churches are therefore very simple, with round arches, shorter ceilings, and no sculptures at all. It might be plain but this simplicity has a beauty of its own, allowing the purity and harmony of the Romanesque architecture to shine through.

Norman:

The Norman style of Romanesque architecture developed almost simultaneously in the Normandy region of northern France and in England, which was conquered by the Normans in 1066. Before long, however, Anglo-Norman architecture took on characteristics of its own, while architecture back in Normandy increasingly conformed to the typical French Romanesque style.Norman churches in England are characterized by exceptionally long plans, a massive scale (especially in great round columns in the nave), use of carved geometric decoration.Figurative sculpture is fairly uncommon in Norman churches, but where it appears it is a fascinating fusion of typical Romanesque art with Anglo-Saxon and Celtic elements.

Gothic Art:

Gothic Art is concerned with the painting, sculpture, architecture, and music characteristic of the second of two great international eras that flourished in western and central Europe during the Middle Ages.

Gothic art evolved from Romanesque art and lasted from the mid-12th century to as late as the end of the 16th century in some areas. The term Gothic was coined by classicizing Italian writers of the Renaissance, who attributed the invention (and what to them was the nonclassical ugliness) of medieval architecture to the barbarian Gothic tribes that had destroyed the Roman Empire and its classical culture in the 5th century A.D.

The principal structural characteristics of Gothic architecture arose out of medieval masons' efforts to solve the problems associated with supporting heavy masonry ceiling vaults over wide spans. The problem was that the heavy stonework of the traditional arched barrel vault and the groin vault exerted a tremendous downward and outward pressure that tended to push the walls upon which the vault rested outward, thus collapsing them. A building's vertical supporting walls thus had to be made extremely thick and heavy in order to contain the barrel vault's outward thrust.

Gothic sculpture was closely tied to architecture, since it was used primarily to decorate the exteriors of cathedrals and other religious buildings. The earliest Gothic sculptures were stone figures of saints and the Holy Family used to decorate the doorways, or portals, of cathedrals in France and elsewhere.

Renaissance Art:

Known as the Renaissance, the period immediately following the Middle Ages in Europe saw a great revival of interest in the classical learning and values of ancient Greece and Rome. Against a backdrop of political stability and growing prosperity, the development of new technologies–including the printing press, a new system of astronomy and the discovery and exploration of new continents–was accompanied by a flowering of philosophy, literature and especially art. The style of painting, sculpture and decorative arts identified with the Renaissance emerged in Italy in the late 14th century; it reached its zenith in the late 15th and early 16th centuries, in the work of Italian masters such as Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo and Raphael. In addition to its expression of classical Greco-Roman traditions, Renaissance art sought to capture the experience of the individual and the beauty and mystery of the natural world.

Many works of Renaissance art depicted religious images, including subjects such as the Virgin Mary, or Madonna, and were encountered by contemporary audiences of the period in the context of religious rituals. Today, they are viewed as great works of art, but at the time they were seen and used mostly as devotional objects. Many Renaissance works were painted as altarpieces for incorporation into rituals associated with Catholic Mass and donated by patrons who sponsored the Mass itself. Renaissance artists came from all strata of society; they usually studied as apprentices before being admitted to a professional guild and working under the tutelage of an older master. Far from being starving bohemians, these artists worked on commission and were hired by patrons of the arts because they were steady and reliable. Italy's rising middle class sought to imitate the aristocracy and elevate their own status by purchasing art for their homes. In addition to sacred images, many of these works portrayed domestic themes such as marriage, birth and the everyday life of the family.

Baroque Art:

In fine art, the term Baroque (derived from the Portuguese 'barocco' meaning, 'irregular pearl or stone') describes a fairly complex idiom, originating in Rome, which flowered during the period c.1590-1720, and which embraced painting, and sculpture as well as architecture. After the idealism of the Renaissance (c.1400-1530), and the slightly 'forced' nature of Mannerism (c.1530-1600), Baroque art above all reflected the religious tensions of the age - notably the desire of the Catholic Church in Rome (as annunciated at the Council of Trent, 1545-63) to reassert itself in the wake of the Protestant Reformation. Thus it is almost synonymous with Catholic Counter-Reformation Art of the period.

Many Catholic Emperors and monarchs across Europe had an important stake in the Catholic Church's success, hence a large number of architectural designs, paintings and sculptures were commissioned by the Royal Courts of Spain, France, and elsewhere - in parallel to the overall campaign of Catholic Christian art, pursued by the Vatican - in order to glorify their own divine grandeur, and in the process strengthen their political position. By comparison, Baroque art in Protestant areas like Holland had far less religious content, and instead was designed essentially to appeal to the growing aspirations of the merchant and middle classes.

The Baroque Era began at the end of the 16th century and lasted to about 1750. It reflects a period of time when great changes occurred in music and culture, and bridges the gap between the music of the renaissance and the music of the classical era. The music of the early baroque was composed in a style that was very similar that of the renaissance era.

The word Baroque was initially used to imply strangeness and abnormality. During this period, most music was written as ordered and requested by aristocratic courts, churches, and opera houses in which all patrons and musicians demanded new music. Composers were an integral part of the baroque society and even though they wrote their music for specific purpose for their patrons, its quality was so high that much of it has become standard today. The baroque style of music represented a complete departure from that of the renaissance era.

Rococo Art:

The term rococo style, or the rococo, refers to a style of decoration current in Europe, particularly France, during the 18th century.

It applies both to interior decoration and to ornaments. By extension it may also be applied to some sculpture, paintings, furniture, and architectural details, although hardly to architecture as such. It was a style of high fashion and had few popular forms.Rococo is derived from the French word rocaille, originally meaning the bits of rocky decoration sometimes found in 16th-century architectural schemes. It was first used in its modern sense around 1800, at about the same time as baroque, and, like baroque, was initially apejorative term.

Rococo art is associated with Louis XV and Madame de Pompadour, as they became purveyors of style. She turned herself into an arbiter of fashion, a connoisseur, and a patron of the arts.

This art style perfectly exemplifies the French high society’s taste at the time,The taste of aristocrats dictated the artistic style of Rococo. As the way of life in France evolved, more elegant homes were built. A demand arose to decorate the walls and interiors of spacious mansions and châteaux.

Serious Baroque art of days past is not fit to decorate the intimate and casual homes. House owners, as always, competed in decorating their houses, and that included commissioning paintings representing themselves flaunting their wealth, for example, garments are painted in a manner to emphasize their affluence. Hence, the pre-revolutionary art of Rococo, with its shallow subject matter, offers a unique glimpse at life of the French upper class. Because trouble had been brewing, these are the last decades of the grand life for French aristocracy. Rococo, mainly for interior decor, became a fad with the French aristocracy and the market expanded for paintings featuring pastoral fairylands and courtship scenes.

Neoclassicism Art:

Neoclassical art is a period in artistic expression believed to have reached dominance between 1770 AD and 1830 AD. It replaced the earlier art movements of Rococo and Baroque styles, where Rococo art was seen as excessively elaborate and shallow, and Baroque art was seen as emotionally grandiose. The expression of neoclassicism was carried out through paintings, literature, architecture, and performance art such as theater and music, and was considered of a primarily bland or unemotional form as compared to earlier periods. The movement in neoclassical art was an attempt to recapture the spirit of classical Greek and Roman lifestyles in architecture, culture, and thought.

At the heart of Neoclassical art was a intense consciousness of ancient Roman and Greek art. The technique, style, and overall intent was a direct derivation of this antique aesthetic, particularly with the classical idea that art should be serious and unemotional. Neoclassicists believed in the importance of the objective viewpoint, and in the artist’s duty to approach his or her work in a controlled uninvolved manner.

Neoclassicism represented a shift in philosophical inquiry, questioning the fundamentals of art that had governed artists since the Renaissance. These artists believed that the dominant aesthetics frivolously indulged themselves in lifeless reproductions and subjective expression, producing pieces that were devoid of any real meaning or value. The Neoclassicists called for a new austerity, a strict adherence to form and technique, believing that a return to the past could pave a new way to the future.

Neoclassical art is characterized by its classical form and structure, clarity, and to an degree, realism. More than just a classical revival, Neo-Classicism was directly connected to contemporary political events. Neo-Classical artists at first wanted to supplant the eroticism and frivolity of the Rococo style with a style that was orderly and serious in character. French Neoclassism painters emphasis's patriotism, as well as a sense of civility and honorableness. The movement was particularly connected with the beliefs of the French Revolution and was seen as anti-aristocratic.

Romanticism Art:

"Romanticism is precisely situated neither in choice of subject nor in exact truth, but in a way of feeling." - Charles Baudelaire (1821-1867)

Romanticism, first defined as an aesthetic in literary criticism around 1800, gained momentum as an artistic movement in France and Britain in the early decades of 19th century and flourished until mid-century.

Artists of the Romantic Period tried to capture these ideals in their work. They rejected the rationalism and rules-driven orderliness that characterized the Neoclassical style of the Enlightenment. Like Baroque artists, Romantic artists hoped to inspire an emotional response in those who viewed their art; but instead of seeking to inspire faith as their predecesors had, most sought to evoke a nostalgic yearning for rural, pastoral life, the stirrings of life’s mysteries, and a sense of the power and grandeur of nature. Art of this period also depicted the romantic ideal of nationalism, but for reasons of length, we will focus on landscapes in this post.

In Romantic art, nature with its uncontrollable power, unpredictability, and potential for cataclysmic extremes offered an alternative to the ordered world of Enlightenment thought. The violent and terrifying images of nature conjured by Romantic artists recall the eighteenth-century aesthetic of the Sublime.

Example of Romantic Art:

The Chancel and Crossing of Tintern Abbey, Looking Towards the East Window, by JMW Turner, 1794. Tintern Abbey was a monastery founded in 1131 and rebuilt in the 13th century. Abandoned in 1536, it was left to decay for two centuries. Artist Joseph Mallord William Turner paid two visits to the site, and it inspired him to paint this piece which juxtaposes the smallness of man alongside and wildness of nature, the unstoppable power of which has reclaimed this man-made edifice. The haunting abbey was a popular muse for many Romantics.

Part Two

Art of the 20th Century:

It has been calculated that there are more artists practising today than were alive in the whole Renaissance, all three centuries of it. But we are no longer following one storyline: we are in a new situation, where there is now no mainstream. The stream has flowed into the sea and all we can do now is to trace some of the main currents.20th-century art is almost indefinable, and ironically we can consider that as its definition. This makes sense, as we live in a world that is in a constant state of flux. Not only is science changing the outward forms of life, but we are beginning to discover the strange centrality of our subconscious desires and fears. All this is completely new and unsettling, and art naturally reflects it.

We have dates in the 20th century, and pictures to attach to them, but there is no longer a coherent time sequence. This can be irritating to the tidy-minded, but it is in fact exciting in its adventurous freedom. With so many interesting artists, some of whom time may vindicate as of great importance, there is only space to touch briefly on those who seem to many observers to be part of the story, and not just footnotes.

Here are some styles of the 20th Century:

Fauvism

Matisse, Master of Color

Expressionism

Artistic Emigres

Picasso and Cubism

The Age of Machinery

Towards Abstraction

Paul Klee

Pure Abstraction

Art of the Fantastic

Pre-War American Painting

Abstract Expressionism

Pop Art

Part Three

Dance:

Dance is a type of art that generally involves movement of the body, often rhythmic and to music. It is performed in many cultures as a form of emotional expression, social interaction, or exercise, in a spiritual or performance setting, and is sometimes used to express ideas or tell a story.

Music:

Music is an art form whose medium is sound and silence. Its common elements are pitch (which governs melody and harmony), rhythm (and it's associated concepts tempo,

meter, and articulation), dynamics, and the sonic qualities of timbre and texture.

An art of sound in time that expresses ideas and emotions in significant forms through the elements ofrhythm, melody, harmony, and color.

Theater:

Is a collaborative form of fine art that uses live performers to present the experience of a real or imagined event before a live audience in a specific place. The performers may communicate this experience to the audience through combinations of gesture, speech, song, music, and dance. Elements of design and

stagecraft are used to enhance the physicality, presence and immediacy of the experience.The specific place of the performance is also named by the word "theatre" as derived from the Ancient Greek

Visual Arts:

Are art forms that create works that are primarily visual in nature, such as ceramics, drawing, painting, sculpture,printmaking, design, crafts, photography, video, filmmaking and architecture.

The current usage of the term "visual arts" includes fine art as well as the applied, decorative arts and crafts, but this was not always the case. Before the Arts and Crafts Movement in Britain and elsewhere at the turn of the 20th century, the term 'artist' was often restricted to a person working in the fine arts (such as painting, sculpture, or printmaking) and not the handicraft, craft, or applied art media.

Part Four

Benefits

Dance: Is a form of art that can be taught to students. Dance helps promote physical fitness and helps to develop motor skills and coordination.
Music: Is also a form of art that can be taught to students. Music teaches discipline and mathematics skills, music can be used to teach students how to play an instrument. By teaching students to play an instrument they are larning how to master a skill, they are learning to complete skills by completing one step at a time.
Theater: Is also a form of art that students can be taught. Theater teaches students to express their thoughts, feelings and opinions. By teaching students theater they act out emotions. By doing tis students learn to control their emotions and respect others.
Visual Arts: Is a form that should be taught to students as well. Visual arts provides creativity in students, students are given the chance to do what ever they want. Students are given the opportunity to create anything they want, therefore, they become confident in themselves.