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The Annotated Mona Lisa: Notes

INTRO: HOW TO LOOK AT A PAINTING:


In order to create their intended effects, artists use: -composition -movement -unity and balance -color and light/dark contrast -mood

The Birth of Art: Prehistoric through Medieval


-Neanderthal--> Cro-Magnon Man -architecture: build ritual monuments .... spiritual purposes Prehistoric Art -art invented 25,000 years ago -control natural forces -sculpture: bone, ivory, stone, antlers; engraved/carved/3D -Venus of Willendorf (c. 25,000-20,000) : fetish for abundance -cave painting: 15,000 y. a. ; remote corners of caves; animals- successful hunt -architecture: Paleolithic (old stone)--> Neolithic (herdsmen, farmers) -5,000 B.C. massive, upright stones -dolmen (giant table) , menhir (1 vertical), cromlech (circular arrangement) -Stonehenge: accurate astronomical calendar -Easter Island megaliths (picks, levers, volcano) Mesopotamia: The Architects -grandiose -Tower of Babel- trying to reach heaven -Hanging Gardens -urban planning (compartmentalized) -Palace of Sargon II; ziggurat = gods dwelled on high, pyramid= magic powers -bas-relief sculpture: +cuneiform = military achievements, kings hunting Egypt: The Art of Immortality -main goal: acquiring desired after-life for rulers (ka=life force=immortal) : info from their tombs -front view of body and eyes, with head in profile; size by rank -unimportant in life, King Tutankhamens tomb was found in almost perfect condition -gold Greece: Classical -golden age: 480-430 B.C., aka Age of Pericles -human figure, balance, moderation, democracy, reason -painting: breakthrough in realism (none survive) , Winged Victory -vase painting: Archaic Period: black forms on red clay; told stories --> 530 B.C.= red-figured -Geometric: (800-700 B.C) simplified

-Archaic: kouros/kore: nude male youths and clothed maidens, frontal, left foot forward, archaic smile/grimace, clenched fist -Geometric>Severe(expressionless faces)>Archiac>Classical(idealizes, harmony)>Hellenistic: Asia Minor, Egypt, Mesopotamia- more dramatic -sculpture: nude, ideal proportions, colored (not white marble), contrapposto: weight shift -architecture: parthenon- barely perceptible departures from straight lines -Doric- mainland; Corinthian: lRoman; Ionic: settlements -Phidias: drapery; Polykleitos: Hera; Praxiteles: sensual, natural Rome: The Organizers -cultural mix, secular, functional, practical -architecture: arch, vault, dome, concrete (creative usage); Baths of Caracalla: opulence -Basilica: meeting place, oblong building, high clerestory windows; Barrel Vault: semicircular roof, deep arch; Groin Vault: 2 intersecting barrel vaults form right angle -sculpture: realistic, except for rulers and politicians (until Romes decline); Column of Trajan: 650 ft of military scenes -Colosseum: blood shows for the masses, red powder on floor to disguise blood, perfume, led to modern stadiums -Pompeii: resort town; Mt. Vesuvius ash and pumice preserved artifacts -fake windows, mosaics New World Art -gift-giving -abstract, pictographs sans background/foreground, inspired by shamans visions -Mound art: unity with nature -Navaho: geometric, healing, sand painters -Hopi: dolls to represent gods, ceremonial -Kwakiutl: totem poles (exaggerated expressions, denoted status), masks, canoes -Eskimo: masks with moving parts for shamans -Mayan: stepped pyramid temples -Aztec: gold work, huge statues of gods -Incan: masonry temples and metallurgy African Art: The First Cubists -wood carvings, ritualistic, supernatural powers -masks: unrealistic on purpose to conceal wearers face, dances/costumes, sharply cut for dramatic effect -sculpture: cylindrical, stretched out forms -tribal art affected: Gauguin, Fauves, Cubists, Surrealists, Mexican Muralists, Modernists, Abstract Expressionists, and Contemporary artists The Middle Ages: The Reign of Religion -Cultural Leadership shifts northward, Christianity dominates, focus on the after-life and view of the human body as corrupt Golden Age of Byzantine Art -art: mosaics: depicts Christ as teacher and omnipotent ruler -architecture: central-dome church: Hagia Sofia: Roman married with the mystical east -Icons: wood panel painting thought to posses powers Romanesque Art: Stories in Stone -art: frescoes, stylized sculpture used to teach church doctrine, moralism -architecture: barrel-vaulted church: cruciform, housed relics>pilgrimages -manuscripts were copied and ornamented (lavishly) by monks Gothic Art: Hight and Light -art: stained glass; more natural sculpture (due to Aristotle), thin drapery; tapestries -architecture: Chartres Cathedral; pointed-arch cathedral, centuries to build, pride of area, ribbed vaults & flying buttresses

COMPLETED JUNE 22

The Renaissance: The Beginning of Modern Painting -15th and 16th centuries: science(anatomy)/exploration, Protestant Reformation -Greco-Roman tradition of accuracy -Florence>Rome>North -Top Four Breakthroughs 1)oil on stretched canvas (3D, texture) 2)perspective 3)light and shadow- chiaroscuro 4)pyramidal configuration (focal point) -Early Renaissance: -Masaccio: realism, painter, perspective, accurate shadow -Donatello: realism, sculptor -Boticelli: Byzantine, nudes Italian -16th century, composition, ideal proportions, perspective, patrons -Leonardo Da Vinci: Mona Lisa, Las Supper- apostles emotions -Michelangelo: artists are divinely inspired, sculptors are closest to God, Sistine Chapel, as an architect wanted the symmetry similar to human form, St. Peters Cathedral -Raphael: most loved of the three, rated master at 17, adopted style of the two aforementioned -Titian: established oil on canvas as typical medium, very colorful, complicated method of layering paints -Venetian School: color, texture, mood; -architecture: Rome, Rules, Reason, Rithmetic Northern -not a rebirth, but break from Gothic>nature -detailed, realistic -religious, domestic Low Countries -Jan Van Eyck: his brother Hubert invented oil painting, portrait painting, minute details -Bosch: forerunner of surrealism, moralistic, punishment for sinners -Bruegel: satiric, peasants, illustrated proverbs German -16th century, mix North and South -Holbein: portraitist, detail, faces with neutral expression -Drer: Leonardo of the North, intense expression, portraitist, woodcuts, printmaking -Printmaking: woodcuts> engraving Mannerism and the Late Renaissance -1520-1600 -dissonance, emotion, imagination, distortion, writhing -Rome sacked by Germans Spanish

The Rebirth of Art: Renaissance and Baroque

-Counter Reformation and Inquisition -El Greco: intense, surreal, eerie light, elongation Baroque: The Ornate Age -1600-1750 -Renaissance + Mannerism -sensitivity to and absolute master of light to achieve maximum emotional impact Italian: religious, dynamic, drama, intensity, movement -Caravaggio: (painter) [portrayed] holy figures as common people dark background -Bernini: (sculptor) burst physical confines - The Ecstasy of St. Theresa designed chapel to showcase it -Borromini: (architect) dynamic, alternating concave and convex to make it look like movement Flemish: altarpieces, Florid, Sensuality -Rubens: well-traveled, diplomat - massive rounded human figures, usually in motion, expressive method of applying paint -van Dyck: informal portraits Dutch: virtuoso -1610-1670 -religious art banned (Protestants) & Middle Class patrons -specialized in texture, still life: focused on light on different textures, landscapes. -Ruisdael: open stretches (landscape) -Hals: brushstrokes, fleeting moment -Rembrandt: early: famous portraitist and baroque painter; late style: deep; self portraits -Vermeer: light, bright colors English: upheaval, Cromwell destroys church art, portraits only sell, Restrained, Elegance. -Hogarth: social critic, invented comic strip -Gainsborough: nature -Reynolds: idealized Rome -St. Pauls Cathedral: Wren Spanish: court portraits, monarch patrons, realistic, Dignity -Velzquez: simplicity, realism, French: classical landscapes, decorative architecture, Pretentious, Order and Ornament; glorify monarchs, center of art -Poussin: worked in Rome, institutionalized Catholicism -Claude: idealized nature -Versailles: Louis XIV, environt of luxury, geometric gardens with immense amount of water Rococo: begat in Paris, interior decorating, curves; nobility -frothy and superficial light graceful, delicate -lovers, youth FINISHED JULY 16

odalisque: nude, reclining female

The 19th Century: Birth of the -isms


-monarchies give way to democracies= loss of tradition -predominately Neoclassicism, Romanticism, & Realism ---> flurry toward end Neoclassicism (1780-1820) -calm tone, lines not color, invisible brushstrokes, inspirational -logic, natural -archeology as a fad

French -David: propaganda for revolution (stoic) --> prop for Nap -Ingres: student of David, champion of technical skill, drawn to exotic American -Thomas Jefferson (University of Virginia) -not in a state conducive for art: portraitists and sign makers -Copley: focused on distinctness in the individual -Stuart: unique way of painting flesh, court painter

artists no longer mix their paints, have many more colors, dont need multiple layers, & can paint outside

Goya -painted royalty with mockery -social critic (French invasion of Spain) -1792 went deaf--> seclusion -late black paintings, dark, satirical works about the Spanish church and court Romanticism (1800-50) -intuition and emotion; deep, rich shades; legends, violence, nature; use of diagonal -inspiration in medieval romance stories... (macabre & occult) French -Gricault: The Raft of Medusa --> modern event, from then on French art stressed emotion -Delacroix: violence, harem themes, capture essence English: nature -Constable: painted East Anglia, serene view of homeland, 1st outdoor oil sketches, observation not what one wanted to see -Turner: focused on color, dramatic, airy, etherial American -cheery -wilderness, panoramic -Cole: leader of Hudson River School, real & ideal, -Bierdstadt (the westward expansion, large scale canvas) & Church: painted variety of landscapes, explored cast iron Genre Painting -Bingham: scenes of frontier life, noble Realism -only what artists themselves saw, peasants & urban working class, sobriety French -Courbet: father of movement -Barbizon School: landscape -Corot: pearly tones & olive, wispy American -Homer: marine watercolorist -Eakins: anatomy, mathematical; teaching method of live nude models -Whistler: art in the design itself -Sargent: inspiration in Velzquez, high society portraitist -Harnett: super-realistic still -lifes Architecture -mostly neoclassic -1850 Crystal Palace in London: Worlds fair (Paxton) Arts & Crafts Movement -stressed return to handmade textiles -inspired by 1848 Pre-Rafaelites Art Nouveau

-1890 to WWI, flowery, tendrils, sinuous; interior decor -wrought-iron, jewelry, glass, typography -Beardsley: graphic art without shading -Tiffany: glasswork, vine motif Photography dark times -Nipce: first surviving photo; Daguerre: 15 min exposure portrait on glass 1839--> 1858 for Paris handheld cameras (commune) -Types: ~Travel: dangerous ~War: Matthew Brady- Civil War ~Documentary: Riis- city slums ~Portrait: Nadar- photographed Frances artists ~Art: Cameron- shot out of focus to convey atmosphere -artists used photos for portraits instead of sitters Impressionism -first break since Renaissance; French -color & light to present initial sensation -early: 1862-86 Monet, Renoir, Bazille, & Sisley: outdoors (entirely) seaside, cafs, uncomposed -Manet: modernized forms, didnt get the acceptance he wanted, classically trained, treated as leader but never exhibited with, 2D ~late 70s: freer strokes -Salon: conservative- declined in 1800s, Salon des Refuss; --> art dealer ~art dealer: French Royal Academy forbid painters to sell their work without a middle man -Monet: light= color, obsessed, complementary colors -Renoir: cheery, went away from impressionism in 1881; sharply styled nudes -Degas: idolized Ingres; ballerinas, arrested motion, unbalanced composition, utilitarian nudes, pastels later in life -Cassat: influenced by Japanese prints, mothers& children, -Morisot: domestic (women couldn't draw from models) -Pissaro: father figure -color prints popular in France, lithographs, silk screen prints- US Andy Warhol Rodin -revived sculpture as a medium -bodily movement to portray personality Post-Impressionism -French, 1880-1905 -not all about capturing a single moment: organized impressionism -Seurat: pointillism -Toulouse-Lautrec: mini Degas poster art, lithography -Czanne: reduced to more geometric shapes, underlying structure (precursor to cubism) -Gaugin: colorful, exotic, flat -van Gogh: convet motion, suffering, therapeutic value of nature, Early Expressionism -Munch: portraying extreme emotions by means of distorting form and color Symbolism -1890-1900, precursor to surealists -Rousseau: French, classically painted, yet w/out perspective -Redon: French, mystical& ghostlike; delicate flowers; Alice in Wonderland -Ryder: American, seascapes, ill-prepared paint= all cracked Modern Architecture -city buildings still neoclassical

-design new structures (e.g. factories and suspension bridges) -Sullivan: form follows function invented skyscraper, Art Nouveau COMPLETED AUGUST 1ST

Fauvism -intense colors, France, distorted, linear, Matisse, inspiration in van Gogh Industrialis -Vlaminck: expressive brushwork, bold colors, excess m, WWI -Derain: dots and dashes, movement, Cubist, went to academic art -Dufy: movement, jovial -Rouault: pain, religious heavy black lines -blue people, color purely for emotion, 4 years, influential- brief stint careers that panned out into cubism, expressionism, ect. Sculpture -Brancusi: essence: egg, smooth pebble, blade of grass Matisse & Picasso -Matisse: color, minimalist, cheerful, paper cutouts -Picasso: form, abandoned his styles once they became accepted, women Hitler ~blue period: starving artist, indigo and cobalt blue shades, suffering beggars ~rose period: sentimental, romantic, pinks and earth colors organized a ~negro period: influenced by African masks mock art - Les Demoiselles DAvignon first entire break from Renaissance show -found objects to create his sculptures Cubism -about creating something new; Braque and Picasso ~analytic: fragmenting subject, limited use of color ~synthetic: collage, reassemble Outside of France Futurism- Italy -Motion, speed, Fauve colors, lines to signify velocity, overthrow tradition Constructivism- Russia -geometric (technology) -recreate art and society from scratch: technological utopia -1924 Communist Party declared art had to be functional, for the masses, propagandistic Precisionism-United States -sleek, urban, industrial -OKeefe: close up of flowers, broad, simplified Expressionism-Germany automatism -Die Brcke: bridge to the future, woodcut, commune, harshly distorted ~Kirchner: founder, large simple forms, angular, frenzied after WWI : painting ~Nolde: tribal masks for faces, evil of pre-War Germany w/out -Der Blaue Reiter: ended in 1914 control ~Kandinsky: purely abstract, bright color patches ~Klee: color and line, childrens art, rune-like, subconscious Mondrian -emotionless, the order the world lacked, lines & rectangles `De Stijl movement Dutch (Calvanist) Architecture- International Style- 20s

The 20th Century: Modern Art

-glass/steel boxes, Geometry, clean, high-tech -Gropius: mentor -Mies: less is more- Seagram Building -Le Corbusier: machine -Frank Lloyd Wright: influence on modern homes, open, boxy floor plans, buildings growing out of location, nature Dada & Surrealism -Dada: protested the madness of war (WWI) - in neutral Zurich ~Arp& Schwitters: chance collages -fell to anarchy- against everything, even Dada -Surrealism: unconscious, 20s and 30s America and Europe, Freud ~Mir: spontaneously,biomorphic signs -Ernst: ambiguous titles, claimed could stare until into psychic netherworld ~Dal: critical paranoia realistically represented hallucinations ~Magritte: irrational juxtaposition Photography -stopped trying to mimic paintings -Cartier-Bresson: intense timing, photojournalist, odd croppings -Man Ray rayographs objects on photo-sensitive paper -Atget: clarity, haunting pictures of the mundane -Weston: sensuality of simple objects, simplified ornate objects -Stieglitz: unretouched photography The Steerage documentary photo to be conscious art -Lange: Depression portraits of the poor American Art 1908-40 -Ashcan School (the eight):ordinary, realism, sketch-like ~Sloan: at-the-scene, dramatic ~Bellows: vigor of sport -art as activism -American Scene: life on the plains, can-do ~Benton: sinuous, idealized american past ~Wood: American Gothic -Social Realism: semi-realistic, for working class, anti-capitolism Abstract Expressionism -late 40s early 50s, northeast usa, free application of paint -unpremeditated, frenetic -Gorky: oval splotches in primary colors -Pollock: energy, mural-sized, inner source of inspiration, drip paintings -FDRs Federal Art Project Figural Expressionism -bended figure to their will -Dubuffet: LArt Brut overthrew European influence, raw/ crude art, used crushed up natural materials, Outsider Art of insane and criminals -Bacon: melting monsters we are carcasses Post-War Sculpture -scrap metal, welding, mobiles -Moore: biomorphic, shells, pebbles, bones, holes -Calder: invented mobiles -Smith: semiabstract, suggest human form -Bourgeois: carved wood, relationships -Nevelson: cubicle wall painted wood filled with cast-offs Color Field

-huge canvases of color boxes, patches -Rothko: soft-edged, stacked rectangles -Newman: flat, pure color with small zips or lines of color -Frankehthaler: Pollock +Marin, stain paintings went into canvas -Louis: Frankehthaler + florals (scallops) veils, stripes veil- overlapping color COMPLETED AUGUST 6

The 20th Century and Beyond: Contemporary Art


-opposition to Abstract Expressionism -New York--> 1980 Europe---> international Hard Edge - expressionism out of abstract expressionism -Albers: colors effect on one another, squares -Noland: bulls-eye center, shaped canvases, Pre-Pop Art -brings back recognizable imagery -Rauschenberg: Combines- half sculpture, half painting, recycled before it was cool, emotional -Johns: reality/art, cooler Pop Art -comic-book and pop culture inspired, -Warhol: machine-like, loss of identity in industrial society repetitive -Op Art (optical illusions) -Segal: casts of people, portray loneliness -Oldenburg: metamorphosis, soft sculpture, power of objects, much larger scale Minimalism -US, 60s-70s -geometric, clean, bare, machine made Conceptual Art -idea is most important, words more than images Contemporary Architecture -pluralism, more ornate, advice from history, post-modernism, color -unassuming materials Photography -plurality, photo-essay (Bourke-White) -snapshot photography -Uelsmann: superimposed negatives Photo-Realism -looks like photographs (no chiaroscuro) Neo-Expressionism -80s, Germany, revitalized Post-Modern Art -unsettling -appropriation art: mythology + pop media, mixed pre-existing with their own, combine photographs -Kruger: feminist, blown up confrontational words, -Longo: billboard sized paintings of cinematic/commercial images to portray the violence of the cities -Sherman: dressed up as Old Masters/Hollywood and photographed herself -narrative art, graffiti art, political art -Scultpure: barbie dolls, old sign, etc., installations -more questions than answers

Contemporary Art Video & New-Media -global mindset, versatile Photo-Based Imagery -Dsseldorf: straight - truthiness : simulated reality Young British Artists -group of artists, freak-show 90s -Hirst: cadavers in formaldehyde -Jake & Dinos Chapman: fiberglass mannequins that were mutilated Conceptual Art -living sculptures New Wave of African Art -scenarios Installations -involve audience, narrative Collaborative Art -many faces behind movement & cause, many required to build the large works Latin-American -past & present, poly, Contemporary Sculpture -found Figurative Art -personal (rather than sleek) no ism , social injustice Craft-Derived Cartoon-Influenced New Leipzig School of Painting -East Germany -academic, but modern, surreal angst reinvent realism

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