How Many Pieces Are Needed to Know for the Art History

As long as we humans have been able to apply our hands, we have been creating fine art. From early cave paintings to the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel, human artistic expression can tell us a lot about the lives of the people who create information technology. To fully capeesh the cultural, social, and historical significance of different artworks, you need to be aware of the broad art history timeline. This commodity presents an overview of many significant eras of art creation and the historical contexts out of which they take risen.

Table of Contents

i Art Eras: Where to Begin?
ii A Brief Overview of the Art Periods Timeline
3 A Comprehensive Fine art Movement Timeline
- 3.1 The Romanesque Menstruation (1000-1300): Sharing Information Through Art
- 3.2 The Gothic Era (1100-1500): Freedom and Fear Come Together
- iii.3 The Renaissance Era (1420-1520): The Reawakening of an Art Era That Never Really Existed
- 3.four Mannerism (1520-1600): A Window into the Future of Kitsch
- three.five The Baroque Era (1590-1760): The Glorification of Power and the Deception of the Middle
- three.six The Rococo Art Menses (1725-1780): Lite and Airy, a French Fancy
- 3.vii Classicism (1770-1840): Throwing It Back to Classic Times
- 3.8 Romanticism (1790-1850): A Break from the Severity of it All
- 3.9 Realism (1850-1925): Objectivity over Subjectivity
- 3.10 Impressionism (1850-1895): Heralding the Era of Mod Art
- 3.xi Symbolism (1890-1920): At that place is Always More Than Meets the Eye
- 3.12 Fine art Nouveau (1890-1910): The Pure Gold of Gustav Klimt
- 3.xiii Expressionism (1890-1914): Bringing a Political Border to the Debate
- three.14 Cubism (1906-1914): Breaking Things Apart and Putting Them Back Together Again
- three.15 Futurism (1909-1945): Artistic Riot
- 3.sixteen Dadaism (1912-1920): The True Reality That Life is Nonsense
- iii.17 Surrealism (1920-1930): Things Just Get More Bizzare
- iii.18 The New Objectivity (1925-1965): Cold and Technical
- 3.xix Abstract Expressionism (1948-1962): Stepping Away from Europe
- 3.20 Pop-Fine art (1955-1969): Fine art is Everything
- 3.21 Neo-Expressionism (1980-1989): Modern Art

Fine art Eras: Where to Begin?

Every bit long as humankind has been conscious of itself, it has been creating art to represent this self. The earliest cave paintings that we are aware of were created roughly 40,000 years ago. Nosotros have found paintings and drawings of human being activity from the Paleolithic Era under rocks and in caves. We cannot truly know the reason why these early humans began to produce art. Perhaps painting and drawing were a way to record their lived experiences, to tell stories to immature children, or to pass down wisdom from one generation to the side by side.

These prehistoric rock paintings are in Manda Guéli Cave in the Ennedi Mountains, Chad, Central Africa. Camels have been painted over earlier images of cattle, perhaps reflecting climatic changes;David Stanley from Nanaimo, Canada, CC By 2.0, via Wikimedia Eatables

Although nosotros have these exquisite examples of early artistic expression, the official history of art periods just begins with the Romanesque Era. Official art era timelines exercise not include cave paintings, sculptures, and other works of art from the stone historic period or the beautiful frescos produced in Arab republic of egypt and Crete in around 2000 BC. The reason behind this decision is that these early eras of artistic expression were spring to a relatively modest geographical infinite. The official art eras that we will exist discussing today, in contrast, span across many countries, often all of Europe and sometimes Northward and South America.

Despite their lack of official recognition, these primeval examples of human being artistic flair enhance a lot of interesting questions. Why is information technology that the animals depicted in cave paintings are so much more realistic and vivid than the animals represented in later eras?

This article hopes to requite you some insight into the ever-changing artistic style of the human creative heed as nosotros explore the complexities of the unlike art periods.

A Cursory Overview of the Art Periods Timeline

As with many areas of man history, it is impossible to delineate the different art periods with precision. The dates presented in the brackets beneath are approximations based on the progression of each movement beyond several countries. Many of the fine art periods overlap considerably, with some of the more than recent eras occurring at the same fourth dimension. Some eras last for a few 1000 years while others span less than 10. Art is a continuous process of exploration, where more recent periods grow out of existing ones.

Fine art Period	Years
Romanesque	g – 1150
Gothic	1140 – 1600
Renaissance	1495 – 1527
Mannerism	1520 – 1600
Baroque	1600 – 1725
Rococo	1720 – 1760
Neoclassicism	1770 – 1840
Romanticism	1800 – 1850
Realism	1840 – 1870
Pre-Raphaelite	1848 – 1854
Impressionism	1870 – 1900
Naturalism	1880 – 1900
Mail-Impressionism	1880 – 1920
Symbolism	1880 – 1910
Expressionism	1890 – 1939
Fine art Noveau	1895 – 1915
Cubism	1905 – 1939
Futurism	1909 – 1918
Dadaism	1912 – 1923
New Objectivity	1918 – 1933
Precisionism	1920 – 1950
Art Deco	1920 – 1935
Bauhaus	1920 – 1925
Surrealism	1924 – 1945
Abstruse Expressionism	1945 – 1960
Pop-Fine art / Op Fine art	1956 – 1969
Arte Povera	1960 – 1969
Minimalism	1960 – 1975
Photorealism	1968 – now
Lowbrow Popular Surrealism	1970 – now
Contemporary Art	1978 – now

It may seem strange for our account of the art flow timeline to cease 30 years agone. The concept of an fine art era seems inadequate to capture the variety of artistic styles that have grown since the turn of the 21st Century. There is a feeling amidst some art historians that the traditional concept of painting has died in our era of fast-track living. We do non have this stance. Instead, we continue to share our unique human experiences through the medium of fine art, just as the cavern people did, outside of our modern system of classification.

Biergarten (c. 1915) by Max Liebermann;Max Liebermann, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

A Comprehensive Art Movement Timeline

It is time to dive a little deeper into the social, cultural, and historical contexts of each of the singled-out art eras we presented above. You will see how many eras take influence from those before them. Art, similar human consciousness, is continuously evolving. It is as well of import to annotation that this fine art timeline is a history of Western and predominantly European fine art.

The Romanesque Menstruum (m-1300): Sharing Data Through Fine art

Art historians typically consider the Romanesque art era to be the start of the art history timeline. Romanesque art developed during the rise of Christianity ca. 1000 AD. During this time, merely a modest percentage of the European population were literate. The ministers of the Christian church building were typically part of this minority, and to spread the message of the bible, they needed an culling method.

Christian objects, stories, deities, saints, and ceremonies were the exclusive subject of near Romanesque paintings. Intended to teach the masses about the values and beliefs of the Christian Church building, Romanesque paintings had to be unproblematic and easy to read.

As a result, Romanesque works of fine art are simple, with bold contours and clean areas of color. Romanesque paintings lack any depth of perspective, and the imagery is rarely of natural scenes. There were several different forms that Romanesque paintings could take, including wall paintings, mosaics, panel paintings, and book paintings.

Due to the Christian purpose behind Romanesque paintings, they are almost always symbolic. The relative importance of the figures within the paintings is shown by the size, with the more important figures appearing much larger. Yous can see that human faces are oft distorted, and the stories depicted in these paintings tend to accept a high emotional value. Romanesque paintings often include mythological creatures like dragons and angels, and almost always appear in churches.

At the most fundamental level, paintings of the Romanesque period serve the purpose of spreading the discussion of the bible and Christianity. The name of this art era stems from round arches used in Roman architecture, oft institute in churches of the time.

Altar frontal from Avià, c. 1200; Museu Nacional d'Art de Catalunya, Public domain, via Wikimedia Eatables

The Gothic Era (1100-1500): Liberty and Fear Come up Together

One of the most famous eras, Gothic art grew out of the Romanesque menstruum in French republic and is an expression of ii contrasting feelings of the age. On the one mitt, people were experiencing and celebrating a new level of freedom of thought and religious understanding. On the other, there was a fearfulness that the world was coming to an end. You lot tin can conspicuously see the expression of these two contrasting tensions inside the fine art of the Gothic period.

Merely every bit in the Romanesque period, Christianity lay at the heart of the tensions of the Gothic era. Every bit more freedom of thought emerged, and many pushed against conformity, the subjects of paintings became more various. The stronghold of the church began to dissipate.

Gothic paintings portrayed scenes of real homo life, such every bit working in the fields and hunting. The focus moved away from divine beings and mystical creatures as more focus was given to the intricacies of what it meant to be man.

Human figures received a lot more attention during the Gothic period. Gothic artists fleshed out more than realistic human faces as they became more than individual, less 2-dimensional, and less inanimate. The evolution of a three-dimensional perspective is idea to have facilitated this change. Painters as well paid more attention to things of personal value like clothing, which they painted realistically with cute folds.

The Raising of Lazarus(1310-1311) by Duccio di Buoninsegna;Duccio di Buoninsegna, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Many historians believe that role of the reason why the subjects of art became more diverse during the Gothic era was due to the increased surface expanse for painting within churches. Gothic churches were more expansive than those of the Romanesque menses, which is idea to represent the increased feelings of freedom at this time.

Alongside the newfound freedom of artistic expression, there was a deep fear that the end of the globe was coming. It is suggested that this was accompanied past a gradual reject in faith in the church, and this in turn may accept spurred the expansion of art outside of the church. In fact, towards the end of the Gothic era, works by Hieronymus von Bosch, Breughel, and others were unsuitable for placement within a church.

We practise not know many individual artists who painted in the Romanesque period, as fine art was not well-nigh who painted it but rather the bulletin information technology carried. Thus, the motion abroad from the church can also be seen in the enormous increment in known artists from the Gothic catamenia, including Giotto di Bondone. Schools of art began to sally throughout French republic, Italy, Germany, the Netherlands, and other parts of Europe.

The Renaissance Era (1420-1520): The Reawakening of an Art Era That Never Really Existed

The Renaissance era is possibly one of the most well-known, featuring artists similar Michelangelo and Leonardo da Vinci. This era continued to focus on the private human as its inspiration and took influence from the art and philosophy of the ancient Romans and Greeks. The Renaissance can be seen equally a cultural rebirth.

A role of this cultural rebirth was the returned focus on the natural and realistic globe in which humans lived. The three-dimensional perspective became fifty-fifty more of import to the art of the Renaissance, as is aptly demonstrated by Michelangelo's statue ofDavid.This statue harkened back to the works of the ancient Greeks as it was consciously created to exist seen from all angles. Statues of the last two eras had been two-dimensional, intended to be viewed merely from the front.

Michelangelo's David (1501-1504); Livioandronico2013, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

The aforementioned three-dimensional perspective carried over into the paintings of the Renaissance era. Frescos that were invented around 3000 years prior were given new life past Renaissance painters. Scenes became more complex, and the representation of humans became much more nuanced. Renaissance artists painted man bodies and faces in three dimensions with a strong accent on realism. The paint used during the Renaissance period too represented a shift from tempera paints to oil paints. The Renaissance period is often credited as the very beginning of great Dutch mural paintings.

Mannerism (1520-1600): A Window into the Future of Kitsch

Of class, this heading is partly in jest. Not all of the fine art produced in this era is what we would understand today as "kitsch". What we understand kitsch to mean today is often bogus, cheaply fabricated, and without much 'archetype' gustation. Instead, the reason we draw the art of this period as beingness kitsch is due to the relative over-exaggeration that characterized it. Stemming from the newfound freedom of homo expression in the Renaissance flow, artists began to explore their own unique and individual creative fashion, or manner.

Michelangelo himself, in fact, is non costless from the exaggeration that distinguishes this era. Some art historians practice not consider some of his afterwards paintings to exist works of the Renaissance flow. The expression of feelings and human being gestures, even items of clothing, is exaggerated deliberately in mannerist paintings.

The small S-curve of the human body that characterizes the Renaissance way is transformed into an unnatural bending of the body. This is the outset European fashion that attracted artists from beyond Europe to its birthplace in Italy.

Madonna with Long Neck (1534-1540) past Parmigianino;Parmigianino, Public domain, via Wikimedia Eatables

The Bizarre Era (1590-1760): The Glorification of Power and the Deception of the Centre

The progression of art celebrating the lives of humans over the ability of the divine continued into the Baroque era. Kings, princes, and even popes began to prefer to see their own ability and prestige celebrated through art than that of God. The over-exaggeration that classified Mannerism also connected into the Baroque period, with the scenes of paintings condign increasingly unrealistic and magnificent.

Bizarre paintings often showed scenes where Kings would be ascending into the heavens, mingling with the angels, and reaching ever closer to the divinity and ability of God. Here, nosotros actually tin can see the progression of man self-importance, and although the subject affair does not move away entirely from religious symbolism, man is increasingly the key ability within the compositions.

New materials that glorify wealth and condition like gold and marble go the prized materials for sculptures. Opposites of light and dark, warm and cold colors, and symbols of good and evil are emphasized beyond what is naturally occurring. Art academies increased in their numbers, as art became a mode to display your wealth, power, and condition.

Baroque ceiling frescoes of Cathedral in Ljubljana, Slovenia. Work of Italian master Giulio Quaglio in 1703–1706 and later 1721–1723;Petar Milošević, CC By-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

The Rococo Fine art Menses (1725-1780): Light and Airy, a French Fancy

The paintings from the Rococo era are typical of the French elite of the time. The name stems from the French word rocaille which means "shellwork". The solid forms which characterized the Baroque period softened into lite, air, and desire. Paintings of this era were no longer strong and powerful, but low-cal and playful.

The colors were lighter and brighter, almost transparent in some instances. Many pieces of art from this period neglected religious themes, although some artists like Tiepolo did create frescos in many churches.

Much like the attitude of the French aristocracy of the time, the art of the Rococo catamenia is totally removed from the social reality. The shepherd'southward idyll became the theme of this menstruation, representing life as light and carefree, without the constraints of economic or social hardship.

Classicism (1770-1840): Throwing Information technology Back to Classic Times

Classicism, like the Rococo era, began in France in effectually 1770. In contrast to the Rococo era, however, Classism reverted to earlier, more serious styles of artistic expression. Much like the Renaissance menstruum, Classisim took inspiration from classic Roman and Greek art.

The art created in the Classicism era reverted to strict forms, 2-dimensional colors, and human figures. The tone of these paintings was undoubtedly strict. Colors lost their symbolism. The fine art produced in this era was used internationally to instill feelings of patriotism in the people of each nation. Parts of Classicism include Louis-Sieze, Empire, and Biedermeier.

A Babyhood Idyll (1900) by William Bouguereau;William-Adolphe Bouguereau, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Romanticism (1790-1850): A Intermission from the Severity of information technology All

You lot can run into from the dates that this fine art era occurred at around the same time as Classicism. Romanticism is often seen equally an emotionally charged reaction to the stern nature of Classicism. In contrast to the strict and realistic nature of the Classicism era, the paintings of the Romantic era were much more sentimental.

The exploration of the intangible; emotions and the subconscious, took center-stage. Around this fourth dimension, people began to go hiking in an effort to explore the natural world. It was non, however, the true reality of the natural world which they intended to notice, simply the way it made them feel.

There is no tangible or precisely determinable style to the art of the Romanticism period. English language and French painters tended to focus on the effects of shadows and lights, while the art produced past German painters tended to take more gravity of idea to them. The Romantic painters were often criticized and even mocked for their estimation of the world around them.

Realism (1850-1925): Objectivity over Subjectivity

As the Romanticism era was a reactionary motion to the Classicism menses earlier it, and so is Realism a reaction to Romanticism. In contrast to the beautiful and deeply emotional content of Romantic paintings, Realist artists presented both the good and beautiful, the ugly and evil. The reality of the world is presented in an unembellished mode past Realism painters.

These artists endeavour to show the world, people, nature, and animals, as they truly are. There is a focus on the "obligation of art into truth" every bit Gustave Courbet puts it.

Merely as with Romanticism, Realism was not pop with everyone. The paintings are not particularly pleasing to the eye and some critics accept commented that despite the creative person's claims of realism, erotic scenes somehow miss the real eroticism. Goethe criticizes Realism, proverb that fine art should be ideal, not realistic. Schiller likewise calls Realism "mean," indicating the harshness that many of the paintings portray.

Proudhon and His Children(1865) past Gustave Courbet; Gustave Courbet, Public domain, via Wikimedia Eatables

Impressionism (1850-1895): Heralding the Era of Modern Art

Historians oftentimes paint the Impressionist movement as the start of the modern historic period. Impressionist art is said to have airtight the volume on classical music and other classical forms of art. Impressionism is also maybe, after Cubism, ane of the about hands recognizable art periods. Featuring artists like Claude Monet and Vincent van Gough, Impressionism broke away from the smooth castor strokes and areas of solid colour that characterized many art periods before it.

Initially, the discussion Impressionism was like a swear word in the art world, with critics believing that these artists did not paint with technique, but rather simply smeared paint onto a sheet. The brushstrokes indeed were a significant departure from those that came earlier them, sometimes condign furiously wild. Distinct shapes and lines disappeared into a whirlwind of colors. Individual dots of completely new colors were put together, particularly in the pointillism variety of Impressionist paintings. The subjects of Impressionist paintings could often only be recognized from a distance.

View of Vetheuil sur Seine(1880) by Claude Monet;Claude Monet, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

A significant change that occurred during the Impressionist era was that painting began to take place "en-plein-air," or outside. Much of the Impressionist artist'southward power to capture the complex and ever-changing colors of the natural world were a result of this shift.

Impressionist artists also began to motion away from the desire to lecture and teach, preferring to create fine art for art'south sake. Galleries and international exhibitions became increasingly important.

Symbolism (1890-1920): At that place is Always More Meets the Eye

During this period, the era of Symbolism began to take hold in France. Artists became preoccupied with the representation of feelings and thoughts through objects. The favorite themes of the Symbolism movement were death, sickness, sin, and passion. The forms were generally clear, a fact which art historians believe was anticipating the Art Nouveau era.

Art Nouveau (1890-1910): The Pure Gold of Gustav Klimt

Although Gustav Klimt was by no means the about important artist in the Fine art Nouveau motility, he is one of the most well-known. His fashion perfectly encapsulates the Art Nouveau movement with soft, curved lines, lots of florals, and the stylistic characterization of human being figures. In many countries, this fashion is known as the Secession way.

The Buss (1907-1908) by Gustav Klimt;Gustav Klimt, Public domain, via Wikimedia Eatables

The art produced in the Art Nouveau period includes a lot of symmetry and is characterized by playfulness and youthfulness. Art Nouveau has a lot of political content, although many critics ignore this and hold the decorative aspects against it. Through the art of the Art Nouveau menstruum, artists attempted to bring nature back into industrial cities.

Expressionism (1890-1914): Bringing a Political Edge to the Debate

In the Expressionism fine art era, we again see a resurgence of the importance of the expression of subjective feelings. The artists within this movement were not interested in naturalism or what things look like on the outside. As a outcome, there is a certain tinge of aggression in some Expressionist paintings, which are often archaic and slightly wild.

Expressionism originated in Germany and is intended to contrast Impressionism. Towards the beginning of the Get-go World War, Expressionist paintings had a agonizing intensity virtually them. Intended to criticize power and the standing social society, Expressionism spread these political ideas through the medium of paint. Art was beginning to go political.

Cubism (1906-1914): Breaking Things Apart and Putting Them Back Together Again

First with 2 artists, Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque, the Cubist movement was all about fragmentation, geometric shapes, and multiple perspectives. The dimensional planes of everyday objects were broken down into different geometric segments and put back together in a way that presented the object from multiple sides simultaneously.

Cubism was a rejection of all the rules of traditional western painting and has had a strong influence on the styles of art that accept followed it.

Guitar and Glasses (1912) past Juan Gris;Juan Gris, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Futurism (1909-1945): Artistic Riot

Futurism is less of an creative mode and more of an artistically inspired political movement. Founded by Tommaso Marinetti'sFuturist Manifesto, which rejected social organization and Christian morality, the Futurist era was total of chaos, hostility, aggression, and acrimony. Although Marinetti was non a painter himself, painting became the most prominent class of art inside the Futurist movement.

These artists vehemently rejected the rules of Classical painting, believing that everything that was passed through generations (beliefs, traditions, religion) was suspicious and dangerous. The militant nature of the Futurist movement has resulted in many people believing that it was likewise shut to fascism.

Dadaism (1912-1920): The Truthful Reality That Life is Nonsense

Dada means a keen many things and cypher at all. The author Hugo Brawl discovered that this small give-and-take has several dissimilar meanings in dissimilar languages and at the aforementioned time, equally a discussion, information technology meant nothing at all. The Dadaism movement is based on the concepts of illogic and provocation and was seen as not only an art movement, but an anti-war motion.

The illogic of existing rules, norms, traditions, and values was called into question by the Dadaist movement. The art movement encompassed several art forms including writing, poesy, trip the light fantastic toe, and operation art. Part of the movement was to call into question what could exist classified as "art".

Dadaism represents the ancestry of action fine art in which painting becomes more but a portrait of reality, but rather an amalgamation of the social, cultural, and subjective parts of being homo.

Surrealism (1920-1930): Things Just Get More Bizzare

As if the pure illogic nature of the Dadaism movement was not outlandish enough, the Surrealists took the dream globe to be the fountain of all truth. I of the most famous Surrealist artists is Salvador Dali, and yous are leap to know his painting Melting Picket (1954).

Surrealism is fundamentally psychoanalytical, and many Surrealist artists would paint straight from their dreams. Sometimes dealing with uncomfortable concepts, subconscious desires, and taboos, Surrealism was a straight critique of the ingrained ideas and beliefs of the bourgeoise. As you tin imagine, this style of fine art was not pop when it began, simply it has greatly influenced the globe of modern fine art.

Space and time (in homage to 50.Five. Beethoven) (1974) by Italian painter William Girometti;William Girometti, CC Past-SA iii.0, via Wikimedia Eatables

The New Objectivity (1925-1965): Common cold and Technical

As the surrealists were attempting to movement abroad from the world of concrete, physical, and visible objects, the New Objectivity move turned towards these ideas. Many of the themes within New Objective fine art were social critiques. The turbulence of the state of war left many people searching for some kind of order to hold onto, and this tin can be seen clearly in the fine art of New Objectivity.

The images represented in New Objectivity were often cold, unemotional, and technical, with some favorite subjects being the radio and lightbulbs. As is the case with many modernistic movements in art, at that place were several different wings to the New Objectivity movement.

Abstract Expressionism (1948-1962): Stepping Away from Europe

Abstruse Expressionism is said to be the first art movement to originate exterior of Europe. Emerging from North America, Abstract Expressionism focused on color-field painting and action paintings. Rather than using a canvas and a brush, buckets of paint would be poured on the ground, and artists used their fingers to create images.

With well-known artists similar Marc Tobey and Jackson Pollock, this art movement was singled-out from whatsoever that came before it. The application of the paint was sometimes so thick that the finished slice would take on a form unlike whatever painting before it. Abstruse Expressionism spread throughout Europe. Every bit with all art, there are always critics, with conservative Americans during the common cold war calling it "united nations-American."

Pop-Art (1955-1969): Art is Everything

For the artists of Popular-Art, everything in the world was art. From advertisements, tin can cans, toothpaste, and toilets,everythingis art. Pop-Fine art developed simultaneously in the United States and England and is characterized past compatible blocks of color and clear lines and contours. Painting and graphic art became influenced past photorealism and serial prints. One of the about famous English Pop artists is David Hockney, although merely a few of his lifetime paintings were in this motion.

A item of Roy Lichtenstein's Wall Explosion 2, 1965; Colin McLaughlin, CC By-SA iv.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Neo-Expressionism (1980-1989): Modern Art

Starting in the 1980s, Neo-Expressionism emerged with big-format representational and life-affirming paintings. Berlin was a cardinal point for this new move, and the designs typically featured cities and big-city life. The proper noun Neo-Expressionism emerged from Fauvism, and although the artists in Berlin disbanded in 1989, some artists continued to paint in this fashion in New York.

Fine art is a fundamental function of what it means to exist human. Many of the troubles and joys nosotros feel tin only be captured accurately through creative expression. Nosotros promise that this brusk summary of the fine art periods timeline has helped yous proceeds some more insight into the contexts surrounding some of the about famous works of art created by the human race.

We've also created a spider web story most fine art periods.

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Source: https://artincontext.org/art-periods/