WESTERN ART HISTORY
A Survey Course Study Guide.

Jodi Patterson, Assistant Professor, author of "Brave Art & Teens:  A Primer for the New High School Art Teacher."  www.braveart.info

SEE CONTEMPORARY ART STUDY GUIDE HERE!
            

Test #1
Circa 35,000 - 6,000 YA
ERA:  Paleolithic (Paleo)

Cave Art:
  Lascaux
  Chauvet Cave
  Altamira
     Characteristics of:
     Deep inside caves
     Animals and hands (rare humans)
       Revisited
       Use of natural contours
       Over 200 caves with same
       Natural minerals for paint
       Shaman
       Nomad

Portable Object Art:
  Woman of Willendorf
     Characteristics of:
       Unable to stand
       In-the-round
       Carved
       Exaggerated female anatomy
       Little to no facial features

MAP:
Spain
France
Austria

ERA:  Upper Paleolithic/Meso

Characteristics:
   Housing becoming more permanent
   Population growing

SEE IMAGES HERE

Architecture:
  Mammoth Huts
  Characteristics of:
     Used hundreds of bones
     Circular
     Pelts over doors/huts
     Approx. 15 ft. square

MAP:
Ukraine

ERA:  Neolithic (Neo)

Characteristics:
  Ice-Age melt
  Domestic Animals
  Wheats/grasses/nuts
  Communities/specialization
  Anchored to land
  Anchored to ancestors

Architecture:
Post-Lintel
Megalithic (Mega)
Hagar Qim (HA-jar eem)
  Clover floor plan
  Apse
  Libation
  Fertility
  One of over 40 temples in area

MAP:
Malta

Monuments and Memorials:

Megalithic
Dolmen
Standing Stone
Hendge
Barrow  (West Kennet Long Barrow)
Stone Circle

Specifics:
Stonehenge
Avebury Circle

MAP:
United Kingdom

RANDOM VOCABULARY:
Circa
YA
BCE
CE


WHAT WAS HAPPENING IN AFRICA?

TEST #2
11,000 YA - 3,000 YA

Neolithic
JERICHO -- 7,000 YA
CATAL HUYUK
Plaster Skulls
Mud Brick
Dead Sea
"Image of Hunter"
World's first landscape on
    human-made walls

**END NEOLITHIC**
Mesopotamia
Euphrates/Tiger
Sumeria
URUK - 3,000 BCE
    Ianna (Ishtar)
    Gilgamesh
    White Temple
    Cone Mosaics

* CLICK HERE TO SEE MAP WITH
PREHISTORIC SITE LOCATIONS.

*CLICK HERE TO SEE MAP OF
JERICHO, CATAL, ERIDU, URUK


(FYI:  WHAT WAS HAPPENING IN the AMERICAS?)



TEST #3
Sumeria 3500-2300 BCE
Ur - Eridu - Uruk
Ianna/Enki

Tokens - Cuneiforms - Epic
Ziggurats
    Sun brick
    Temple to gods/goddess
    Solid
    N/S/E/W
    Approx. 32
    White Temple
    Ur
"The Great Death Pit"
Votive Figures  - Tel/l Asmar

AKKADIAN c. 2300 - 2150 BCE
empire - Sargon - Stele/Steele

BABYLON c. 2150 - 1770 BCE
ASSYRIA c. 1400 - 600 BCE
Ashurbanipal; palace reliefs; library at Nineveh
NEO-BABYLON c. 600 - 538 BCE
Ishtar Gate

Map:  Iraq, Iran

TEST #4
EGYPTIAN ART

Nile River
Nilometer
Old/Middle/New Kingdoms
Hieroglyphics
Papyrys
Grid System of Illustration
"Convention of Proportion"
    Philosophy of balance/order
Polytheistic
Pharaoh
Evolution of a pyramid:
    Mastaba 
    Step Pyramid (King Zoser)
    Bent Pyramid
    Great Pyramid -->(Cheops/Giza)
Imhotep
Sphinx
Necropolis
Sarcophagus
Karnack
"The Great Hypostyle Hall:
"King Tut" - find/treasures
Canopic jars
Tomb of Tai/Ti
Bas Relief
Ramses II tomb @ abu Simbel
Pharaoh Akhenaten
Queen Nefertiti
Funerary Temple Vs. Pyramid
Temple of Hatshepsut
Valley of the Kings
Colossal
Gold Death Mask

Minoan
Crete
Palace at Knossis - style/images paintings
Red =?  White =?
Amphora
Minos/Minotar
Snake Goddess
Mycenae - Royal Palace/Grave Circle
Megaron
Lions Gate

TEST #5
GREEK ART

polytheistic
Athena
Zeus
Archaic:   Black figure  Amphora
Red Figure       
          White Ground
"Ajax and Achilles Playing a Dice Game"

"A View of Painters and Assistants"
                  
Kourous   (Characteristics of)
Kore
Early Classical:
Classical:
"Zeus"
"Charioteer of Delphi"
"Riace Warrior"
"Discus Thrower"
Contrapossto


Late Classical:  Venus di Milo
Hellenistic: 
"Nike"
"Sleeping Hermaphordite"
"Laocoon"
"Barberini Faun"


Doric
Parthenon, Athens, Greece, Acropolis,Athena, 447, 12 years, marble, Golden Mean, Metope, East/West Pediment,
British Museum, Elgin Marbles, Porch of the Maidens
Capital
Column
Base
Pediment
Frieze
Ionic

Delphi
Temple of Apollo, sacred, oracle, Navel Stone, "Know Thyself," theater/sports



WHAT WAS HAPPENING IN ASIA?

TEST  #6
ROME
Romulus and Remus
Religion of the state
Breadth of reach of empire
Judaism ---> Jesus Movement
"The Wailing Wall"
Titus
"Arch of Titus"
Mt. Vesuvius/Pompeii
Colosseum
"Trajan's Column"
Diocletian Split
Engaged column
Bath
Forum
Pantheon
Oculus
Constantine 330
Edict of Milan
393 - End of Vestals; Olympics
Byzantium
Justinian
Haiga Sophia
Ravenna:  San Vitale, St. Appollinaire
Icons
800 CE/iconoclast


QUIZ
Romanesque characteristics
Tympanum
Western Roman Art:
    Basilicas
    Bibles
    Illuminations
    Nave, clerestory, apse
Notre Dame, of Paris
Reims Cathedral
Chartes Cathedral
Elements of Gothic architecture
Codex
Beehive huts
Book of Kells
Carpet Pages
Late Gothic/Proto-Renaissance
   - Giotto
Arena Chapel

The Duomo
"Gates of Paradise"


TEST #7

Renaissance Art


Boticelli
   "Birth of Venus"
   "Primavera"
Donatello
   "David"

Renaissance
Leonardo da Vinci
   "Mona Lisa"
   "Madonna of the Rocks"
   Codex
           sfumato
           tondo
           chiaroscuro
Michelangelo
   "The Pieta"
   "The David"
   "Sistine Ceiling"
    - "God Giving Adam Life"
    - "Creation of the Sun and Moon"
    - "Creation of Eve"
   St. Pete's Basilica/dome
   "The Last Judgment"
   "The Last Supper"

Raphael
"School of Athens"
"Sistine Madonna"

BAROQUE
Bernini
    "Rape of Proserpine"
    "Daphne and Apollo"
    "Ecstasy of St. Teresa"
Artisima Gentileschi
   "Judith"
Carvaggio
   "Conversion of St. Paul"
   "Judith Beheading              Holofernes"


St. Pete's Basilica

French Art
   Rococco (Fragonard "The                Swing)



FINAL EXAM Questions:

Name the type of architecture shown Paleolithic or Neolithic?


Archaic, Classical or Hellenistic?


Name the most famous of the famous architectural structures and their  
locations (city AND country).

Name the artist.

What art term is being depicted?
What art style is being shown?
Which religion is affiliated with the image?
Which country is being shown?






Art History 101 - A Brisk Walk Through the Eras
By Shelley Esaak
Art From the Stone Age to the Fall of Rome - 30,000 BC - 400 AD
Prehistoric Eras
30,000-10,000 BC - Paleolithic peoples were strictly hunter-gatherers, and life was tough. Humans made a gigantic leap in abstract thinking and began creating art. Subject matter concentrated on two things: food, as seen in Cave Art, and the necessity to create more humans.

10,000-8000 BC - The ice began retreating and life got a little easier. The Mesolithic period (which lasted longer in northern Europe than it did in the Middle East) saw painting move out of the caves and onto the rocks. Painting also became more symbolic and abstract.

8000-3000 BC - Fast forward to the Neolithic age, complete with agriculture and domesticated animals. Now that food was more plentiful, people had time to invent useful tools like writing and measuring. The measuring part must have come in handy for the megalith builders.

Ethnographic Art - It should be noted that “stone age” art continued to flourish around the world for a number of cultures, right up to the present. “Ethnographic” is a handy term that here means: “Not going the way of Western art.”





















































Ancient Civilizations
3500-331 BC - Mesopotamia - The “land between the rivers” saw an amazing number of cultures rise to - and fall from - power. The Sumerians gave us ziggurats, temples and lots of sculptures of gods. More importantly, they unified natural and formal elements in art. The Akkadians introduced the victory stele, whose carvings forever remind us of their prowess in battle. The Babylonians improved upon the stele, using it to record the first uniform code of law. The Assyrians ran wild with architecture and sculpture, both in relief and in-the-round. Eventually, it was the Persians who put the whole area - and its art - on the map, as they conquered adjacent lands.





















































































3200-1340 BC - Egypt - Art in ancient Egypt was art for the dead. The Egyptians built tombs, pyramids (elaborate tombs), the Sphinx (a tomb) and decorated tombs with colorful pictures of the gods they believed ruled in the afterlife.
3000-1100 BC - The Aegean - The Minoan culture, on Crete, and the Mycenaeans in Greece brought us frescos, open and airy architecture, and marble idols.














Classical Civilizations
800-323 BC - Greece - The Greeks introduced humanistic education, which is reflected in their art. Ceramics, painting, architecture and sculpture evolved into elaborate, highly crafted and decorated objects which glorified the greatest creation of all: humans.

6th-5th centuries BC - The Etruscans - On the Italian peninsula, the Etruscans embraced the Bronze Age in a big way, producing sculptures notable for being stylized, ornamental and full of implied motion. They were also enthusiastic producers of tombs and sarcophagi, not unlike the Egyptians.

800-323BCE Era of Greek art. (Fresco murals, encaustic panel paintings, sculpture, ceramics flourish)
Greek sculpture (the main surviving artform) is usually divided into these styles: Daedalic (650-600), Archaic (600-500); Early Classical (500-450), High Classical (450-400), Late Classical (400-323) Hellenistic Period (323-27). Also: Archaic Painting, Greek Classical Painting and Hellenistic Painting.

Foundation of ancient Rome. Etruscan Kings rule.
Etruscan civilization.
First use of Greek alphabet.
Famous Romanian wood sculpture: Thinker from Cernavoda.
Ancient Persians conquer Mesopotamia. Build Persepolis.
High point of Greek black-figure style of ceramic pottery. Soon followed by red-figure.
Democracy in Athens. Celtic La Tène art style begins. Roman Republic starts.
Greek sculptor Polykleitos creates Doryphoros statue.
Construction of the Parthenon begins. Finished 432.
Famous Greek bronze sculpture: Discus Thrower (by Myron).
Famous Etruscan works: Capitoline Wolf and Chimera of Arezzo.
Greek sculptor Praxiteles produces Aphrodite of Knidos and Hermes.
Famous Greek sculpture: Boy From Antikythera.

Rise of Alexander the Great (d.323)
Era of Roman art. Heavily influenced by Hellenistic (Greek) painting & sculpture.
Creation of Chinese Terracotta Army Warriors.
Famous Greek sculpture: Dying Gaul.
Start of Chinese Han Dynasty (ends 220 CE) during which the first porcelain was made.
Famous Greek sculpted frieze: Altar of Zeusat Pergamon.
Famous Greek statue: Venus di Milo(by Alexandros of Antioch).
Famous Greek sculpture: Laocoon (by sculptors Hagesandrus, Polydorus, Athenodorus)















509 BC-337 AD - The Romans - As they rose to prominence, the Romans first attempted to wipe out Etruscan art, followed by numerous attacks on Greek art. Borrowing freely from these two conquered cultures, the Romans created their own style, one which increasingly stood for power. Architecture became monumental, sculptures depicted re-named gods, goddesses and prominent Citizens and, in painting, the landscape was introduced and frescos became enormous.


Beginning of Roman Empire.
Vesuvius errupts, destroying Pompeii.
Famous Roman relief sculpture monument, Trajan's Column.
Christian mural paintings in catacombs of Rome. Period of Late Roman Art.
Colossal Head of Constantine. Edict of Milan legitimizes Christianity.
St Peter's Basilica in Rome completed.
Roman Empire officially splits into West (Rome/Ravenna) and East (Byzantium).
Fall of Rome to repeated invasions by Visigoths and Vandals.










Medieval to Early Renaissance Art - 400-1400
1st century-c. 526 - Early Christian Art
Early Christian art falls into two categories: that of the Period of Persecution (up to the year 323) and that which came after Constantine the Great recognized Christianity: the Period of Recognition. The first is known primarily for construction of catacombs, and portable art which could be hidden. The second period is marked by the active construction of churches, mosaics, and the rise of book-making. Sculpture was demoted to works in relief only (anything else would have been deemed “graven images”).
c. 526-1390 - Byzantine Art
Not an abrupt transition, as the dates imply, the Byzantine style gradually diverged from Early Christian art, just as the Eastern Church grew farther apart form the Western. Byzantine art is characterized by being more abstract and symbolic, and less concerned with any pretense of depth - or the force of gravity - being apparent in paintings or mosaics. Architecture became quite complicated and domes predominated.
622-1492 - Islamic Art
To this day, Islamic art is known for being highly decorative. Its motifs translate beautifully from a chalice, to a rug, to the Alhambra. Islam has prohibitions against idolatry, and we’ve little pictorial history as a result.



Era of Byzantine art. Panel painting, Orthodox icon painting and mosaic art flourish.
Construction of Hagia Sophia in Byzantium/Constantinople.

Era of Irish monastic art. Celtic/Saxon Illuminated Gospel Manuscripts.
Cathach of Colmcille (560 CE), Book of Durrow (670), Book of Kells (c.800).
Oils (walnut, linseed) first used for oil-resin varnishes, and for painting on stone & glass.


1000-1150 - Romanesque Art
For the first time in history, art is described by a term other than the name of a culture or civilization. Europe was becoming more of a cohesive entity, being held together by Christianity and feudalism. The invention of the barrel vault allowed churches to become cathedrals, sculpture became an integral part of architecture, and painting continued mainly in illuminated manuscripts.


1050 - 1150 Height of Romanesque art. Religious murals, stained glass. Cathedrals built at Angoulême, Essen, Mainz, Worms; Pisa (leaning tower) plus Cluny Abbey Church.
Bayeaux Tapestry, most famous piece of tapestry art commissioned by Odo of Bayeaux.

1140-1600 - Gothic Art
“Gothic” was first coined to (derogatorily) describe this era’s style of architecture, which chugged on long after sculpture and painting had left its company. The gothic arch allowed great, soaring cathedrals to be built, which were then decorated with the new technology of stained glass. During this period, too, we begin to learn more individual names of painters and sculptors - most of whom seem anxious to put all things Gothic behind them. In fact, beginning around 1200, all sorts of wild artistic innovations started taking place in Italy.


Era of Gothic art and Gothic architecture. Many Gothic cathedrals designed: (eg. St. Denis (1140), Notre Dame (1160), Chartres (1194), Reims (1211), Canterbury (1100), Westminster Abbey (1245), Cologne, w. pointed arches, flying buttresses, huge stained glass windows. New panel paintings (tempera on wood), and illuminated texts (opaque paint on vellum). 

Era of Proto-Renaissance art/architecture, influenced by International Gothic style.
Giotto paints Scrovegni Chapel frescoes at Padua.

Arrival of the Black Death plague. Wipes out one third of European population.
Medici Family Bank founded in Florence.


The High Renaissance 1495 - 1527
1400-1500 - Fifteenth-Century Italian Art
This was the Golden Age of Florence. Its most powerful family, the Medici (bankers and benevolent dictators), lavishly spent endless funds for the glory and beautification of their Republic.   All of the recognized masterpieces from the lump term “Renaissance” were created during these years. Leonardo, Michelangelo, Raphael and company made such surpassing masterpieces, in fact, that nearly every artist, forever after, didn’t even try to paint in this style. The good news was that, because of these Renaissance Greats, being an artist was now considered acceptable.

Italian Early Renaissance (1400-90);
The three main centres of the Italian Renaissance, were Florence, Rome and Venice.
Famous painting: The Expulsion of Adam and Eve from Paradise by Masaccio.
Dome of Florence cathedral designed by Filippo Brunellesci.
Famous bronze sculpture: David by sculptor Donatello.
Famous mythological painting: The Birth of Venus by Sandro Botticelli.
Famous example of linear perspective: Lamentation Over the Dead Christ by Mantegna.

• Italian High Renaissance (1490-1530)
First masterpiece of High Renaissance painting: The Last Supper by Leonardo Da Vinci.
Michelangelo, greatest sculptor in the history of sculpture, creates David in Florence.
Leonardo paints the Mona Lisa.
Vatican Museums open with a display of the sculpture, Laocoon and His Sons. Work begins on redesign and rebuilding of St. Peter's Basilica, Rome.
Michelangelo paints the Genesis Old Testament Sistine Chapel frescoes.
Raphael works on paintings for the papal apartments. 

1520-1600 - Mannerism
Here we have another first: an abstract term for an artistic era. Renaissance artists, after the death of Raphael, continued to refine painting and sculpture but they did not seek a new style of their own. Instead, they created in the technical manner of their predecessors.
1325-1600 - The Renaissance in Northern Europe
It did occur, but not in clearly defined steps as was the case in Italy. Countries and kingdoms were busy jockeying for prominence (fighting), and there was that notable break with the Catholic Church. Art took a back seat to these other happenings, and styles moved from Gothic to Renaissance to Baroque in sort of a non-cohesive, artist-by-artist basis.


• Northern Renaissance
Differences in climate, religion, geography and culture between Italy and Northern Europe leads to differences in how the Renaissance develops north of Italy.

FLANDERS and HOLLAND (1430-1580)
Technical improvements in oil paints hasten their adoption by Dutch Old Masters. The technique then spreads to Italy, and is taken up by Leonardo Da Vinci and others.
Golden Age of Flemish painting: Jan Van Eyck paints The Ghent Altarpiece.
Jan Van Eyck paints masterpieces: The Arnolfini Wedding; Man in a Red Turban (1433)
Moralizing fantasy paintings by Hieronymus Bosch. (eg. The Garden of Earthly Delights). 

GERMANY (1450-1550)
Invention of the screw printing press by the German Johann Gutenberg.
Tilman Riemenschneider creates greatest religious wood sculpture.
Albrecht Durer, great artist & printmaker of Northern Renaissance, flourishes.

Michelangelo paints The Last Judgement biblical frescoes in the Sistine Chapel.
Council of Trent: Church in Rome launches Counter-Reformation. Fine arts and architecture used by Catholic religion to promote its authority and public appeal.
The artists Titian and Tintoretto both active in Mannerist Venice Renaissance.
The eminent Renaissance art critic Giorgio Vasari, publishes his Lives of the Artists.

Foundation of the Academy of Art in Florence (Accademia dell'Arte del Disegno) the first official school of drawing in Europe to promote what is now called Academic Art.
Greek mannerist artist El Greco establishes himself in Spain as religious painter.

Foundation of the Academy of Art in Rome (Accademia di San Luca).
Foundation of the Uffizi Gallery in Florence.

1600-1750 - Baroque Art
Humanism, the Renaissance and the Reformation (among other factors) worked together to leave the Middle Ages forever behind, and art became accepted by the masses. Artists of the Baroque period introduced human emotions, passion and new scientific understanding to their works - many of which retained religious themes, regardless of which Church the artists held dear.

Era of Baroque Art and Baroque Architecture, noted for its grandeur. Its bold dramatic and often colourful Baroque Painting (by Caravaggio, Rubens, Velazquez) and portraits (by Van Dyck), as well as sculpture by Bernini, are used by secular rulers to buttress their absolutism, and by the Catholic Church as a form of propaganda. Baroque art in Protestant countries takes a more middle-class down-to-earth style, focusing on highly realistic portable artworks enhancing the status of the owner: such as personal portraits, still life & landscape, of the Dutch Realist School led by Jan Vermeer, and by Rembrandt.


1700-1750 - The Rococo
In what some would deem an ill-advised move, Rococo took Baroque art from “feast for the eyes” to outright visual gluttony. If art or architecture could be gilded, embellished or otherwise taken over the “top”, Rococo ferociously added these elements. As a period, it was (mercifully) brief.

Era of Rococo Art and interior architectural design. Light, whimsical, decorative style reflecting the decadence of the French Kings, and reaction against Baroque gravity. Tiepolo, Watteau, Boucher & Fragonard are the main artists. 

Era of Neoclassicism, a reaction against the frivolity of the French court. Promoted a return to the values and steadfast nobility of Classical Greece and Rome. Neoclassical artists included painters Goya, Ingres and Jacques-Louis David, sculptors Houdon, Canova and Thorvaldsen. Neoclassical architecture (buildings decorated by columns of Greek-style pillars, and topped with classical Renaissance domes) dominate Europe and spread to America (eg. US Capitol building).
Catherine the Great establishes The Hermitage Museum in St Petersburg.
Foundation of Christie's art auctioneers by James Christie the Elder, in London.
Foundation of the Royal Academy of Arts in London.
Beginning of the French Revolution.
Opening of the Louvre Museum, one of the world's greatest art museums.
Napoleon seizes power in France.

THS CLASS ENDS HERE.








Map of prehistoric locations.
See a Western Art Timeline   circa 1100 - 1880

RANDOM (not required) READING LIST:

"Guns, Germs and
Steel" by Jared Diamond



















































































"The Secret Life of Bees," by Sue Monk Kidd







































"The Epic of Gilgamesh," by Anonymous




















































"The Edifice Complex," by Deyan Sudjic







































"The Complete Persepolis," graphic novel by Marjane Satrapi








"Book of Greek Myths," by Ingri D'Aulaire









"The Illiad," by Homer


























































"Art and Beauty of the Middle Ages," Umberto Eco






























"The Hunchback of Notre-Dame," by Victor Hugo


"Book of Kells"





"Brunelleschi's Dome:  How a Renaissance
Genius Reinvented
Architecture," by Ross King













"Secret Knowledge:  Rediscovering the Lost Techniiques of the Old Masters," by David Hockney

"Rembrandt's Eyes," Simon Schama












"Beuys is Boys:  A Pronunciation Guide," by Susan Ford







































"The History of Salt," by Mark Kurlansky

As many artist biographies as you can muster!

"The Lives of Artists," by Giorgio Vasari










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