western art history – Flashcards

1517, martin Luther posts the 95 thesis on the witlenburg cathedral
– missionary movement
– emphasis on the experience of the faith through the senses

emphasis on the intense and personal experience of the devine
– spiritual journey

reaffirms images for their didactic and inspirational value
1. should be clear in form
2. realistic
3. true to religious text
4. appeal to emotions
5. involve and persuade
6. reveal the divine beholder which is in our midst

a composition where shadows dominate highlights; demands very high contrast in light/darkness
– biblical movements in everyday concepts

“sun king”
– compared himself with apollo
– absolute monarchy
– everything depends on him
– insignia = sings of authority, position of power

vanitas, not going to last
– not perfectly arranged
– all exotic, imported
– wilting and falling
– bugs eating plants, reminder that material items do not last

a period of philosophical, scientific, economic, political and social change
– wealth centered around aristocrats
– poor worked for the rich
– small middle class
– industrial revolution

prefered style of the aristocracy and established institutions such as the church
– from rocaille = pebbly decoration
– takes the visual vocabulary of baroque and lightens it in both subject matter and form.

sees nature as a model for human society.
– rausseau’s philosophy of the nobel savage
– picturesque landscape
– shift in taste from formal gardens to natural but constructed landscapes
– belveders= beautiful
– picturesque = like a landscape

noble themes and grand means
– revival of classical ideals and forms
– response to the frivolity of the rococo style
– mythological and historical subjects, moral lessons
– crisp, clear and licked styles

expected to save the revolutions, republican ideals, instead made himself emperor

favored historical, mythological and exotic subjects that often became a pretense for presenting the nude
– painting adopted style of neo-classicism
– clear, crisp, licked styles and strong color

positivism = a faith in objectivity and empiricism, from enlightening science
– reaction against french academic art.

very realistic
– bringing the viewer into a close relationship with that they are seeing

england and the u.s.
– return to simpler, more wholesome life style
– dehumanization of labor goods

critics derogatory comment
– celebrates modernity and leisure of the urban populace
– transitory lighting effects plain air
– lush color, broken brush work that blends the eye

a reaction to impressionism
– seeking art of the museums
– stylistic components of impressionism and reintroduce recognizable structure and focus

influence of japanese prints
– colors, strong lines and weird cropping
– rethink standard rules
– contour lines with flat color areas

iconoclasm = rejection of established institutions, structures and standards and the search for their replacements.
– authenticity
– individual experience
– universalism and timelessness
– essence of things
– utopianism, social utopia
– toward abstraction

primacy of expressive properties of the elements and principles of design.
– fauves = pure delight
– the bridge = social critique
– blue rider = spiritual transformation

biggest movement!
– iconoclastic movement = subject, style and craftsmanship
– fragmentation and collage
-forth dimension – time
– mundane objects become subjects
– elements from poplar culture
-analytical = breaking the subjects into parts, looking at them as if from multiple perspectives
– collage = building things up with cut paper
– synthetic = patches of colors and shapes, build broken parts

takes the cubist idiom of facing the subject to represent energy, motion and the celebration of technology

iconoclastic movement that calls into question the very methods and purposes of art in the modern world, largely a philosophy then a work of art

focus on the unconscious, psychological experience, dream reality and free association
– sur reality, beyond concrete reality as we know it
– laws of logic and material existence are subverted

critiques and sometimes celebrates popular, commercial culture, its icons, images and values often by making use of its means of promotion

hyper reality forces a heightened, sometimes encounter with the familiar