Art Periods Flashcards
Stone Age (30,000 - 2,500 B.C.)
Cave painting, fertility goddesses, and megalithic structures.
Mesopotamian (3,500 - 539 B.C.)
Warrior art and narration in stone relief
Egyptian (3,100 - 30 B.C.)
Art with an afterlife focus: pyramids and tomb painting.
Greek and Hellenistic (850 - 31 B.C.)
Greek idealism: balance, perfect proportions; architectural orders.
Roman (500 B.C. - A.D. 476)
Roman realism: practical and down to earth; the arch.
Indian, Chinese, and Japanese (653 B.C. - A.D. 1900)
Serene, meditative art, and Arts of the Floating World.
Byzantine and Islamic (476 - 1453 A.D.)
Heavenly Byzantine mosaics; Islamic architecture and amazing maze-like design.
Middle Ages (500 - 1400 A.D.)
Celtic art, Carolingian Renaissance, Romanesque, Gothic.
Early and High Renaissance (1400 - 1550 A.D.)
Rebirth of classical culture.
Venetian and Northern Renaissance (1430 - 1550 A.D.)
The Renaissance spreads northward to France, the Low Countries, Poland, Germany, and England.
Mannerism (1527 - 1580 A.D.)
Art that breaks the rules; artifice over nature.
Baroque (1600 - 1750 A.D.)
Splendor and flourish for God; art as a weapon in the religious wars.
Neoclassical (1750 - 1850 A.D.)
Art that recaptures Greco-Roman grace and grandeur.
Romanticism (1780 - 1850 A.D.)
The triumph of imagination and individuality.
Realism (1848 - 1900 A.D.)
Celebrating working class and peasants; en plein air rustic painting.
Impressionism (1865 - 1885 A.D.)
Capturing fleeting effects of natural light.
Post-Impressionism (1885 - 1910 A.D.)
A soft revolt against Impressionism.
Fauvism and Expressionism (1900 - 1935 A.D.)
Harsh colors and flat surfaces (Fauvism); emotion distorting form.
Cubism, Futurism, Supremativism, Constructivism, De Stijl (1905 - 1920 A.D.)
Pre- and Post-World War 1 art experiments: new forms to express modern life.
Dada and Surrealism (1917 - 1950 A.D.)
Ridiculous art; painting dreams and exploring the unconscious.
Abstract Expressionism (1940s-1950s) and Pop Art (1960’s)
Post-World War II: pure abstraction and expression without form; popular art absorbs consumerism.
Postmodernism and Deconstructivism (1970- )
Art without a center and reworking and mixing past styles.