Art History Flashcards
Renaissance
Revival or rebirth of cultural awareness and learning that took place during the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, particularly in Italy.
Mannerism
Artists chose to depart from the faithfulness to nature that
characterized the Renaissance, and instead elongated and distorted the human figure, using harsh, vivid colour for emotional impact.
Baroque
Developed as almost a reaction to the discipline of Renaissance art, and was intended to appeal to the emotions of the viewer. Baroque paintings were notable for swirling intensity, strong diagonals, brilliant coloration, dramatic contrasts, and an emotional intensity.
Rococo
Applies to the decorative arts of the time of Louis XV of France. It
featured designs based on naturalistic forms such as rocks, shells, and flowers. It has come to mean the excessive use of ornament in the decorative arts.
Neo-classicism
Emphasized patriotism to the French Revolution through imagery based on Greek and Roman mythology
Romanticism
Reflected intense, emotional, expressive themes from literature and current history events. (For example: hopeless love and heroism)
Realism
Portrayed their subjects true to life and free from idealization of any sort.
Impressionism
Recorded nature through colour and light.
Post Impressionism
Were composed of artists that emphasized an emotional/expressive or formal classical style.
Vanitas
genre of art that uses symbolism to show the transience of life, the futility of pleasure, and the certainty of death. involved still life imagery of transitory items. began in 16th century and continued into the 17th century. Vanitas art is a type of allegorical art representing a higher ideal.
Genre painting
a form of genre art, depicts aspects of everyday life by portraying ordinary people engaged in common activities. A work would often be considered as a genre work even if it could be shown that the artist had used a known person—a member of his family, say—as a model.
Contrapposto
Italian term that means “counterpoise”. used to describe a human figure standing with most of its weight on one foot, so that its shoulders and arms twist off-axis from the hips and legs in the axial plane.
Chiaroscuro
the use of strong contrasts between light and dark, usually bold contrasts affecting a whole composition.
Elements of renaissance
Naturalism, Classical Humanism, perspective drawing, and the development of oil painting
Key breakthroughs of renaissance
sfumato, chiaroscuro, perspective, foreshortening and proportion
