Renaissance (14th to the 17th century) is a term coined by architect, painter and historian Giorgio Vasari to determine the era in which cultural movement was intended to revive antiquity and open perspectives of development the Western culture (James-Chakraborty, 2014). In the medieval period art was strongly connected with religion, it was full of divine meaning and was usually created for churches. Before the Renaissance, the person was never depicted independently. At the end of the eighteenth century in iconographies by St. Martin, John. Fabriano, Cimabue cheerful images showed the volume and emotions. The cult of beauty is typical for Renaissance, especially the beauty of man. Painters and sculptors sought in their work for natural, realistic reproduction of the world and man. An art enriched linear and aerial perspective, knowledge of anatomy and proportions of the human body, and natural movement.
Leonardo da Vinci, Lady with an Ermine, Year c. 1489–90, Oil on wood panel, Dimensions 54 cm × 39 cm (21 in × 15 in)
Baroque is a style in literature and art of 17-18 centuries, which replaced the Renaissance. The word "baroque" means "irregular pearl". This name was not given by chance. The main features of the Baroque are asymmetry, attraction to contrasts, lush, complicated forms, and ostentation (Guisepi, 2015).
Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio, Conversion on the Way to Damascus, 1600-1601. Oil on canvas. Dimensions, 230 cm × 175 cm (91 in × 69 in). Cerasi Chapel, Santa Maria del Popolo, Rome.
Peter Paul Rubens, Hippopotamus and Crocodile Hunt, 1615–1616, Oil on canvas, 248 cm × 321 cm (98 in × 126 in), Alte Pinakothek, Munich
The term "romanticism" refers to the ideological and artistic movement that emerged in Europe at the turn of the 18th and 19th centuries and reflected in the various fields of science and art. At the heart of romantic art was the opposition of prosaic bourgeois world order and spiritual freedom of the individual hero, his strong feelings and ideal impulses and the poor reality. The romantic painting course in France developed most consistently. It was founded on the principles of unification of all the participants of the plot, including inanimate, into a single moving tangle with the dynamics and amplitude. German technique was based on the melancholy that displayed colors and blurred lines. British, and American painting "enjoyed" the grace of nature or the opposite mystical character of paintings (Mencher, 2014).
John Henry Fuseli, The Nightmare, 1781, Oil on canvas, 101.6 cm × 127 cm (40 in × 50 in), Detroit Institute of Arts
Caspar David Friedrich, Wanderer above the Sea of Fog, 1818, Oil-on-canvas, 98.4 cm × 74.8 cm (37.3 in × 29.4 in), Kunsthalle Hamburg, Hamburg, Germany
Impressionism is an art direction based on the principle of direct fixation impressions, observations, and experiences. It was formed in France in the second half of the XIX century. The definition comes from the painting by Claude Monet "Impression. Sunrise».
Defining features of Impressionism:
- Impressionists represent not object, but the impression of him, impressionists are guided by feelings, not the mind;
- Rejection of idealization;
- The subject of artistic interest is not a succession of events, but fragmentary pieces imprinted in the mind of the character;
- The hero of impressionistic work is interesting for the "passive" ability to perceive and respond to external stimuli, be the bearer and even a collector of impressions (Schapiro, 1997).
Edgar Degas, Woman in the Bath, 1886, Pastell, 70 × 70 cm (27.6 × 27.6 in), Hill-Stead Museum, Farmington, Connecticut
Armand Guillaumin, Sunset at Ivry (Soleil couchant à Ivry), 1873, 81 cm x 65 cm. Oil on canvas. Musee d'Orsay, Paris
Modernism is the common name of the directions of art and literature of the late 19 - early 20 century, reflecting the crisis of bourgeois culture and characterized a break with the traditions of realism and the aesthetics of the past. Common features of modernism:
- Particular attention to the inner world of the individual;
- The declaration of human self-worth and art;
- Preference for creative intuition;
- The search for new resources in the arts (meta-language, symbolism, myth-making, etc.);
- The desire to discover new ideas that will transform the world according to the laws of beauty and art.
Giacomo Balla, Dynamism of a Dog on a Leash, 1912, Oil on canvas, 35 3/8 x 43 1/4 (89.9 x 109.9), Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, New York
Henri Matisse The Joy of Life, Between October 1905 and March 1906, Oil on canvas, 69.5 in × 94.75 in, 176.5 cm × 240.7 cm, Barnes Foundation, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
References
Artmovements.co.uk,. (2015). Modernism. Retrieved 20 February 2016, from http://www.artmovements.co.uk/modernism.htm
Guisepi, R. (2015). The Baroque Era In The Arts. History-world.org. Retrieved 20 February 2016, from http://history-world.org/baroque_era.htm
Mencher, K. (2014). Kenney Mencher: Art History: The Academic and Romantic Movements of the 19th Century. Kenneymencher.com. Retrieved 20 February 2016, from http://www.kenneymencher.com/2014/11/art-history-academic-and-romantic.html
Schapiro, M. (1997). Impressionism. New York: George Braziller. https://rosswolfe.files.wordpress.com/2015/02/meyer-schapiro-impressionism-reflections-and-perceptions1.pdf
James-Chakraborty, K. (2014). Architecture since 1400. Univ Of Minnesota Press. Retrieved from https://books.google.com/books?id=o1uQCwAAQBAJ&pg=PT56&lpg=PT56&dq=giorgio+vasari+coined&source=bl&ots=2-ngZfkDbd&sig=Qzlu-N4cw6KLedPncPJgtFmVdAs&hl=ru&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjU7fTj1IbLAhVLCnMKHSujDPM4ChDoAQguMAQ#v=onepage&q=giorgio%20vasari%20coined&f=false
