UNIT 5: ART HISTORY

THE BEGINNINGS
OF ART, WESTERN
AND ASIAN ART
LESSON 1
 LEARNING
OBJECTIVES
At the end of this unit, the students are expected to:
Identify the underlying history, philosophy of the
different era or art movements.
Classify the various art movements according to their
historical background, factors, influential persons,
socio-political issues, prevalent artists, art form
and media.
Present the history and movements of arts through a
timeline.
 LEARNING
OBJECTIVES
At the end of this unit, the students are expected to:
Make a creative interpretation of different music
genres.

Trace and summarize the development of the arts, art

appreciation and aesthetics in
contemporary art practice.

Categorize national and GAMABA artists with their art

genre and famous works of art.
 QUOTE OF THE
DAY

“Art is the signature of

civilizations” – Beverley
Sills.
 THE BEGINNINGS OF
ART
Art history, a timeline of various movements, periods,
and styles, reflects the era of each artwork's creation.
Starting over 44,000 years ago with the first known cave
paintings in Sulawesi, Indonesia, it predates written
history, offering insights into humanity's journey. Art
plays a crucial role in history as a surviving narrative,
sharing stories, expressing beliefs, and connecting us to
those who came before us. By exploring art from
Prehistoric to Contemporary periods, we can understand
how it shapes the future and preserves the past.
 PREHISTORIC &
ANCIENT ART
Prehistoric and ancient art were around 44,000 B.C.E. to
400 BCE. It can be considered as the art period that
includes cave paintings, fertility statues and bone
flutes to approximately the end of the Roman empire. A
variety of art styles were produced over this lasting
period. This Art period includes those of prehistory to
the ancient civilizations of Mesopotamia, Egypt, and the
nomadic tribes.
 PREHISTORIC ART

Prehistoric cave art in Sulawesi, Indonesia was

discovered in the 1950's. This art is of indigenous
mammals; a small water buffalo, a warty pig, and a pig-
deer, and hand stencils. Archeologists discovered their
age to be around forty thousand years, at least same
age as the oldest known art in Europe. It would mean
that art was developed much earlier than what humans
thought, in Africa, and that men carried the tradition
with them as they move.
 PREHISTORIC ART

Seventeen thousand years ago, humans painted on the

walls of the caves of Lascaux, in France the realistic
images of bison, bulls, horses, stags, and other
animals. They made stencils of their hands, too. There
were also several cave arts found in Europe. These cave
paintings from Indonesia and Europe have similar
characteristics which appear to be prevalent in
prehistoric times.
 PREHISTORIC ART

Lascaux, France Sulawesi, Indonesia

 PREHISTORIC ART

Venus of Willendorf, Stonehenge, Northern

Austria England
 PREHISTORIC ART
CHARACTERISTICS
Cave paintings, fertility goddesses, megalithic structures

LEADING CONTRIBUTORS
Civilizations from Mesopotamia, Egypt, Greece, and the Romans

INFLUENTIAL WORKS
Sulawesi Cave Paintings, Lascaux Cave Paintings, Venus of
Willendorf, Stonehenge
 PREHISTORIC ART
SIGNIFICANT HISTORICAL EVENTS
Ice Age ends 910,000BCE-8,000BCE); new Stone Age and first
permanent settlements (8000BCE-2500BCE)
 ANCIENT ART

Ancient Art period includes the works found in classical

civilizations like the Greeks and Celts as well as that of
the early Chinese dynasties.
 PREHISTORIC ART
CHARACTERISTICS
Religious and symbolic imagery, decorations for utilitarian
objects, mythological stories

Mesopotamian -warrior art and narration in stone

Egyptian - Afterlife focus: pyramids and tomb paintings;
massive, monumental structures
Greek and Hellenistic - Greek idealism; perfect proportions;
architectural orders (Doric, Ionic, Corinthians)
Romans- Roman realism: practical and down to earth; the arch
 ANCIENT ART

LEADING CONTRIBUTORS
Civilizations from Mesopotamia, Egypt, Greece, and the
Romans
INFLUENTIAL WORKS
Mesopotamian
Code of Hammurabi; Standard of Ur; Gate of Ishtar
Egyptian
Imhotep’s pyramid; Great pyramids; Temple of Rameses; The
Great Sphinx
Greek and Hellenistic
Parthenon; Myron; Phidias; Polykeitos; Praxiteles
Roman
Augustus of Primaporta; Colosseum; Trajan’s Column;
Pantheon
 ANCIENT ART

SIGNIFICANT HISTORICAL EVENTS

Mesopotamian
Sumerians invent writing (3400 BC); Hammurabi writes his law
code (1780 BCE); Abraham founds monotheism
Greek and Hellenistic
Athens defeats Persia at marathon (490 BCE); Peloponnesian
Roman
Julius Caesar was assassinated (44BCE); Augustus proclaimed
emperor (27 BCE); Diocletian splits Empire (CE 292)
Rome falls (CE 476)
 ANCIENT ART

The artwork of this time is as varying as the cultures that

created it. What relates them together is their purpose. Most of
the time, art was made to narrate stories in a time when oral
tradition predominates. Art was also utilized to decorate
utilitarian objects like bowls, pitchers, and weapons. At times,
it was also used to show the status of its owner, a concept that
art has used since time immemorial.
 ANCIENT ART

A sculpture depicts Pyramids of Giza

Babylonian king Hammurabi
and the deity Shamash.
ANCIENT ART
 ANCIENT ART

Parthenon Colosseum
 MEDIEVAL ART
To some, it was considered as the Dark Ages.

In this period, the art were depicted as grotesque

or brutal scenes while others were focused on
formalized religion.

Most art created were melancholy.

 MEDIEVAL ART
Medieval European art saw a transition from the
Byzantine period to the Early Christian period. Within
that, from about 300 to 900, we also saw Migration
Period Art as Germanic people migrated across the
continent. This Barbarian art was outboard by necessity
and more of it was understandably lost.
 MEDIEVAL ART
As the millennium passed, more and more Christian
and Catholic art appeared. The period centered around
elaborate churches and artwork to adorn this
architecture. It also saw the rise of Gothic and
Romanesque styles of art and architecture.
CHARACTERISTICS OF
MEDIEVAL ART
Dark Imagery
Biblical Subjects
Classic Mythology
Gothic Architecture
Romanesque
Celtic Art
Carolingian Renaissance
EXAMPLES:
 EARLY AND HIGH
RENAISSANCE

This movement covers the period from 1400 through 1500.

Renaissance literally means rebirth and describes the

resurgence of curiosity in the artistic achievements
of Greece and Rome. Most known paintings emerged from
this period.
 EARLY AND HIGH
RENAISSANCE
The increasing edification of society, through
political stability, economic growth and cosmopolitanism
brought about the high renaissance. Education at its time
took center stage, with libraries and academies that
allowed empirical studies and research to be conducted
into the cultures of the ancient world. The arts
benefited from the patronage of influential families and
individuals.
MONALISA
BY DA VINCI CHARACTERISTIC
Rebirth of Classical Culture

LEADING CONTRIBUTORS
Ghiberti, Brunelleschi
Donatello
Boticelli
Leanardo
Michaelangelo
Rapahael
THE BIRTH OF VENUS PRIMAVERA
BY SANDRO BOTTICELLI BY SANDRO BOTTICELLI
 VENETIAN AND NORTHERN
RENAISSANCE

Famous due to advance technique in oil painting,

realistic, vivid altarpiece art, wooden panel
paintings, woodcuts, and printmaking.

Stone sculpture was not extremely popular, but the

Germans boost up their wood carving techniques.

The painters learned from direct observation and their

knowledge of the consistency of things.
 PORTRAIT OF A YOUNG MAN
ALLENDALE NATIVITY IN RED
BY GIORGIONE BY GIOVANNI BELLINI
 MANNERISM
(1527-1580) introduced a highly imaginative period in art
after the climax of excellence that naturalistic painting had
attained in Renaissance Italy.
Mannerist artwork seeks instability and restlessness with
fondness for allegories that have lascivious undertones.
New discoveries in science had led society away from Humanist
ideals and paintings no longer conceived man as the center of
the universe, but rather as isolated, incidental partakers in
the great mysteries of life.
VENUS CUPID FOLLY
AND TIME
BRONZINO
CHARACTERISTIC
art that break the rules,
artifices over nature

LEADING CONTRIBUTORS
tintorreto
el Greco
Pontormo
Bronzino
Cellini
 BAROQUE ART
The word baroque means something that is elaborate and highly
detailed. Baroque style (1600-1750) is characterized by
exaggerated motion and clear detail used to produce drama,
exuberance, and grandeur in sculpture, painting, architecture,
literature, dance,and music.

The defining characteristics of the Baroque style were real or

implied movement, an attempt to represent infinity, an
emphasis on light and its effects, and focus on the
theatrical.
THE CALLING OF ST
MATTHEW
CARAVAGGIO
CHARACTERISTIC
Splendour and flourish for God; art
as a weapon in the religious
wars

LEADING CONTRIBUTORS
Reubens,
Rembrandt,
Caravaggio,
 NEOCLASSICAL
The Neoclassical Period is considered a period of
enlightenment. The movement started in Europe in the 1700's
and spread into the colonies.

Neoclassical art has a cleaner style, sculpted forms,a shallow

depth of background and a more realistic approach.

Neoclassical painting and sculpture involved emphasis on

austere linear design in the depiction of classical event,
characters and themes, using historically correct settings and
costumes.
 CHARACTERISTIC
Art that recaptures Greco-Roman
grace and grandeur

LEADING CONTRIBUTORS
David,
Ingres,
Greuze,
Canova
 ROMANTICISM
Romanticism (1750-1850) rapidly spread all over Europe and the
United States at the end of the 18th century to the 19th. The
period extolled abstract, complex ideas like despair, hoper
heroism, liberty, peace, survival, and other impressions that
nature evokes in human beings.
The subject matter varied widely including landscapes,
religion, revolution, and serene beauty.
Its ideals of the creative, subjective powers of the artist
fueled avant-garde movements well into the 20th century.
FISHERMAN AT SEA,
TURNER CHARACTERISTIC
The triumph of imagination and
individuality

LEADING CONTRIBUTORS
Caspar Friedrich,
Gericault,
Delacroix,
Turner,
Benjamin West
 REALISM
Realism (1848-1900) is also called naturalism. The accurate,
detailed, straightforward depiction of nature or of
contemporary life.

Realists rejected romanticism which had dominated French

literature and art late 18th century.

They depicted people of all classes in ordinary life

situations which reflected the changes brought on by the
industrial and commercial revolutions.
THE GLEANERS,
MILLET CHARACTERISTIC
Celebrating working class and
peasants; air rustic painting

LEADING CONTRIBUTORS
Corot,
Courbet,
Daumier,
Millet
 CONTEMPORARY ART
Art of today that is created by 21st century
artists

provides a chance to reflect on contemporary

civilization and the matters relevant to us, and
the world around us.

Most art created were melancholy.

 MODERN ART
The modern art refers to late 19th and early-to-mid
20th century art. Works produced during this time
showcase artists’ interest in re-imagining,
reinterpreting, and even rejecting traditional
aesthetic values of preceding styles. Starting with
light and airy Impressionism and ending with energetic
Abstract Expressionism, the modern art genre is
composed of several major movements.
 IMPRESSIONISM

This is style of painting that emerged in the mid

and late 1800s the movement emphasize on art
artist immediately impression of a movement or
scene
 POST-
IMPRESSIONISM

1885-1910 bridge the gap between the restrictive

techniques found in the impressionist period and
the emphasis on geometry found in modern art
 POST-
IMPRESSIONISM
 FAUVISM AND
EXPRESSIONISM
(1900-1935)
Fauvism is a term to denote the use of distortion
and exaggeration for emotional etc, which first
surface in the art literature if the early
twentieth century
Expressionism Is an artistic style in which the
artist attempts to portray not objective reality
but rather the subjective emotions and responses
that object and events awakein him
 FAUVISM AND
EXPRESSIONISM
(1900-1935)
 CUBISM, FUTURISM,
SUPREMATIVISM, CONSTRUCTIVISM,
DE STILL (1905-1920)

Cubism An artistic movement created by Paolo

Picasso and George Braque. It employes geometric
shapes in depictions of human and other forms

Futurism Italian art movement that took speed,

technology,modernity as in inspiration
 CUBISM, FUTURISM,
SUPREMATIVISM, CONSTRUCTIVISM,
DE STILL (1905-1920)
 DADAISM AND SURREALISM (1917-
1950)

Dadaism First conceptual art movement where the

focus of the artist was not to craft aesthetically
pleasing object but create works that unpended
bourgeois sensibility
Surrealism Intends to channel the unconscious
means to unlock the power of imagination.strongly
influenced by phycoananlysis the surrealism
consider the rational mind repressed the power
imagination
DADAISM AND SURREALISM (1917-
1950)
 ABSTRACT EXPRESSIONISM AND POP
ART

Abstract expressionism 1940-1950 is an art

movement of mostly non representative painting it
was neither wholly nor expressionist and comprised
several fairly various styles
Pop art 1960s a movement marked by a fascination
with popular culture reflecting the uence in post-
war society. It was most prominent in American art
but soon spread to britain
ABSTRACT EXPRESSIONISM AND POP
ART