Edouard Manet - The Balcony - Google Art Project

The history of Western painting represents a continuous, though disrupted, tradition from

antiquity Antiquity or Antiquities may refer to: Historical objects or periods Artifacts *Antiquities, objects or artifacts surviving from ancient cultures Eras Any period before the European Middle Ages (5th to 15th centuries) but still within the histo ...

until the present time. Until the mid-19th century it was primarily concerned with representational and Classical modes of production, after which time more

modern Modern may refer to: History *Modern history ** Early Modern period ** Late Modern period *** 18th century *** 19th century *** 20th century ** Contemporary history * Moderns, a faction of Freemasonry that existed in the 18th century Philosophy ...

, abstract and conceptual forms gained favor. Initially serving imperial, private, civic, and religious patronage, Western painting later found audiences in the

aristocracy Aristocracy (, ) is a form of government that places strength in the hands of a small, privileged ruling class, the aristocrats. The term derives from the el, αριστοκρατία (), meaning 'rule of the best'. At the time of the word' ...

and the middle class. From the

Middle Ages In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the late 5th to the late 15th centuries, similar to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire ...

through the

Renaissance The Renaissance ( , ) , from , with the same meanings. is a period in European history marking the transition from the Middle Ages to modernity and covering the 15th and 16th centuries, characterized by an effort to revive and surpass ide ...

painters worked for the church and a wealthy aristocracy. Beginning with the

Baroque The Baroque (, ; ) is a style of architecture, music, dance, painting, sculpture, poetry, and other arts that flourished in Europe from the early 17th century until the 1750s. In the territories of the Spanish and Portuguese empires including ...

era artists received private commissions from a more educated and prosperous middle class. The idea of "

art for art's sake Art for art's sake—the usual English rendering of ''l'art pour l'art'' (), a French slogan from the latter part of the 19th century—is a phrase that expresses the philosophy that the intrinsic value of art, and the only 'true' art, is divorce ...

" began to find expression in the work of the Romantic painters like

Francisco de Goya Francisco José de Goya y Lucientes (; ; 30 March 174616 April 1828) was a Spanish romantic painter and printmaker. He is considered the most important Spanish artist of the late 18th and early 19th centuries. His paintings, drawings, and e ...

John Constable John Constable (; 11 June 1776 – 31 March 1837) was an English landscape painter in the Romantic tradition. Born in Suffolk, he is known principally for revolutionising the genre of landscape painting with his pictures of Dedham Vale, th ...

, and

J. M. W. Turner Joseph Mallord William Turner (23 April 177519 December 1851), known in his time as William Turner, was an English Romantic painter, printmaker and watercolourist. He is known for his expressive colouring, imaginative landscapes and turbul ...

. During the 19th century commercial galleries became established and continued to provide patronage in the 20th century. Western painting reached its zenith in Europe during the Renaissance, in conjunction with the refinement of drawing, use of perspective, ambitious architecture,

tapestry Tapestry is a form of textile art, traditionally woven by hand on a loom. Tapestry is weft-faced weaving, in which all the warp threads are hidden in the completed work, unlike most woven textiles, where both the warp and the weft threads ma ...

stained glass Stained glass is coloured glass as a material or works created from it. Throughout its thousand-year history, the term has been applied almost exclusively to the windows of churches and other significant religious buildings. Although tradition ...

, sculpture, and the period before and after the advent of the

printing press A printing press is a mechanical device for applying pressure to an inked surface resting upon a print medium (such as paper or cloth), thereby transferring the ink. It marked a dramatic improvement on earlier printing methods in which the ...

. Following the depth of discovery and the complexity of innovations of the Renaissance, the rich heritage of Western painting continued from the

period to

Contemporary art Contemporary art is the art of today, produced in the second half of the 20th century or in the 21st century. Contemporary artists work in a globally influenced, culturally diverse, and technologically advancing world. Their art is a dynamic ...

Pre-history

File:Lascaux 04.jpg, ''

Aurochs The aurochs (''Bos primigenius'') ( or ) is an extinct cattle species, considered to be the wild ancestor of modern domestic cattle. With a shoulder height of up to in bulls and in cows, it was one of the largest herbivores in the Holocene ...

Cave painting In archaeology, Cave paintings are a type of parietal art (which category also includes petroglyphs, or engravings), found on the wall or ceilings of caves. The term usually implies prehistoric origin, and the oldest known are more than 40,000 ye ...

Lascaux Lascaux ( , ; french: Grotte de Lascaux , "Lascaux Cave") is a network of caves near the village of Montignac, in the department of Dordogne in southwestern France. Over 600 parietal wall paintings cover the interior walls and ceilings of t ...

, France File:lascaux2.jpg, Lascaux, ''horse'' File:Lascaux painting.jpg, Lascaux, ''Bulls and Horses'' File:Haljesta.jpg,

Petroglyphs A petroglyph is an image created by removing part of a rock surface by incising, picking, carving, or abrading, as a form of rock art. Outside North America, scholars often use terms such as "carving", "engraving", or other descriptions ...

, from Sweden,

Nordic Bronze Age The Nordic Bronze Age (also Northern Bronze Age, or Scandinavian Bronze Age) is a period of Scandinavian prehistory from c. 2000/1750–500 BC. The Nordic Bronze Age culture emerged about 1750 BC as a continuation of the Battle Axe culture (th ...

(painted) File:GreatGalleryedit.jpg, Pictographs from the Great Gallery, Canyonlands National Park, Horseshoe Canyon,

Utah Utah ( , ) is a state in the Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. Utah is a landlocked U.S. state bordered to its east by Colorado, to its northeast by Wyoming, to its north by Idaho, to its south by Arizona, and to its ...

, c. 1500 BCE File:SantaCruz-CuevaManos-P2210651b.jpg,

Cueva de las Manos Cueva de las Manos (Spanish for Cave of the Hands or Cave of Hands) is a cave and complex of rock art sites in the province of Santa Cruz, Argentina, south of the town of Perito Moreno. It is named for the hundreds of paintings of hands ste ...

(Spanish for Cave of the Hands) in the Santa Cruz province in Argentina, c. 550 BC The

history of painting The history of painting reaches back in time to artifacts and artwork created by pre-historic artists, and spans all cultures. It represents a continuous, though periodically disrupted, tradition from Antiquity. Across cultures, continents, and ...

reaches back in time to artifacts from pre-historic artists, and spans all cultures. The oldest known paintings are at the Grotte Chauvet in France, claimed by some historians to be about 32,000 years old. They are engraved and painted using

red ochre Ochre ( ; , ), or ocher in American English, is a natural clay earth pigment, a mixture of ferric oxide and varying amounts of clay and sand. It ranges in colour from yellow to deep orange or brown. It is also the name of the colours produced ...

and black pigment and show horses, rhinoceros, lions, buffalo, mammoth, or humans often hunting. There are examples of

cave painting In archaeology, Cave paintings are a type of parietal art (which category also includes petroglyphs, or engravings), found on the wall or ceilings of caves. The term usually implies prehistoric origin, and the oldest known are more than 40,000 ye ...

s all over the world—in France, India, Spain, Portugal, China, Australia etc. There are many common themes throughout the different places that the paintings have been found; implying the universality of purpose and similarity of the impulses that might have inspired the artists to create the imagery. Various conjectures have been made as to the meaning these paintings had to the artists who made them. Prehistoric men may have painted animals to "catch" their

soul In many religious and philosophical traditions, there is a belief that a soul is "the immaterial aspect or essence of a human being". Etymology The Modern English noun '' soul'' is derived from Old English ''sāwol, sāwel''. The earliest att ...

or spirit in order to hunt them more easily, or the paintings may represent an

animistic Animism (from Latin: ' meaning 'breath, spirit, life') is the belief that objects, places, and creatures all possess a distinct spiritual essence. Potentially, animism perceives all things—animals, plants, rocks, rivers, weather systems, h ...

vision and homage to surrounding

nature Nature, in the broadest sense, is the physical world or universe. "Nature" can refer to the phenomena of the physical world, and also to life in general. The study of nature is a large, if not the only, part of science. Although humans are ...

, or they may be the result of a basic need of

expression Expression may refer to: Linguistics * Expression (linguistics), a word, phrase, or sentence * Fixed expression, a form of words with a specific meaning * Idiom, a type of fixed expression * Metaphorical expression, a particular word, phrase, o ...

that is

innate {{Short pages monitor Throughout the 20th century and into the 21st century, with the advent of Modernist art, Modern and Postmodern art, Postmodern art forms, distinctions between what is generally regarded as the fine arts and the low culture, low arts have started to fade, as contemporary high art continues to challenge these concepts by mixing with popular culture. Mainstream painting has been rejected by artists of the postmodern era in favor of Cultural pluralism, artistic pluralism. According to art critic Arthur Danto there is an ''anything goes'' attitude that prevails; an "everything going on", and consequently "nothing going on" syndrome; this creates an aesthetic traffic jam with no firm and clear direction and with every lane on the artistic superhighway filled to capacity. As quoted by Professor David W. Cloweny on his website

References

Sources

* Clement Greenberg, ''Art and Culture,'' Beacon Press, 1961 * * ''The Triumph of Modernism'': The Art World, 1985–2005, Hilton Kramer, 2006, * ''Pictures of Nothing: Abstract Art since Pollock'' (A.W. Mellon Lectures in the Fine Arts), Kirk Varnedoe, 2003 * O'Connor, Francis V. ''Jackson Pollock'' Exhibition Catalogue, (New York, Museum of Modern Art, [1967]) OCLC 165852 * ''Lyrical Abstraction'', Exhibition Catalogue, Whitney Museum of American Art, NYC, 1971. * David Piper, The Illustrated Library of Art, Portland House, New York, 1986, * Agee, William C.; Rose, Barbara, 1979, ''Patrick Henry Bruce: American Modernist'' (exhibition catalogue), Houston: Museum of Fine Arts On the effects of Gutenberg's printing * Elizabeth L. Eisenstein, ''The Printing Press as an Agent of Change'', Cambridge University Press, September 1980, Paperback, 832 pages, * More recent, abridged version: Elizabeth L. Eisenstein, ''The Printing Revolution in Early Modern Europe'', Cambridge University Press, 2Rev ed, 12 September 2005, Paperback, * Marshall McLuhan, ''The Gutenberg Galaxy: The Making of Typographic Man'' (1962) University of Toronto Press (1st ed.); reissued by Routledge & Kegan Paul . * Briggs & Burke, ''A Social History of the Media: The Print Revolution in Context'' (2002)

External links

History of Painting

History of Art: From Paleolithic Age to Contemporary Art

, Wassily Kandinsky, Kandinsky Concerning the Spiritual in Art, accessed online 28 May 2007 {{DEFAULTSORT:Western Painting Art history, Painting Painting Western art, Painting Western culture pt:Pintura ocidental

Pre-history

See also

References

Sources

External links