Did you know?

Illuminated manuscripts are those produced by European monks during the Middle Ages using bright colored paints and very small ornamental decorations. The Bible and other precious books were made more visually beautiful in this manner.

Pointillism

The technique of painting with dots of color to create an image. The French painter Georges Seurat (1859-1891) used dots of primary colors to execute an enormous painting, Sunday Afternoon on the Island of Grande Jatte.

words in context: The Broadway musical Sunday in the Park with George took as its subject the work of Georges Seurat, whose huge painting done entirely in pointillism hangs in the Art Institute of Chicago.

Mosaic

Art made by setting small colored pieces of glass, stone, or marble in mortar to create a picture.

words in context: Roman artists created mosaics using marble; later Byzantine artists in the sixth century composed pictures using small cubes of colored glass, which, in reflected light, produced a dazzling effect.

genre painting

A realistic style of painting in which everyday life forms the subject matter, as distinguished from religious or historical painting.

words in context: - Dutch painter Jan Vermeer (1632-1675), who painted peasants, women in their kitchens, and other ordinary life scenes, might be called a genre painter because of his choice of subjects. However, his use of light and original interlocking shapes raises his genre work to another level.

Collage

A composition made with cut and pasted pieces of material, sometimes scraps combined with objects painted into a picture.

words in context: - For his beach house, the artist composed a collage of seashells, driftwood, and white pebbles.

After studying the definitions above, use these new words in the sentences below.

1. The gold pictorial wall in the ancient palace was a composed of glittering glass cubes.

2. The painting of farmers along with cows grazing in the fields beyond was an example of .

3. The on her wall was constructed of bits of boot leather, pieces of an old barn door, and several horseshoe nails.

4. The was executed by the artist using small colorful dots to create the image of a house.

Test Yourself: Write the letter next to the number to match word and meaning.

1. mosaic a. artwork created with scraps and bits of materials

2.pointillism b. an image created entirely with dots

3. collage c. a picture composed of colored glass bits

4. genre painting d. a painting depicting realistic life forms

On a separate sheet of paper, write a sentence using each of these new words.

Did you know?

The painting by American artist James McNeill Whistler (1834-1903), popularly known as Whistler's Mother, was actually given the less personal title by the artist of Arrangement in Black and Grey, No, 7. It hangs in the Musée D'Orsay in Paris.

cave paintings

The earliest European painters depicted animals, such as wild boar and buffalo, on the walls of caves more than 20,000 years ago. Two examples of cave paintings are found in Lascaux, France, and Altamira, Spain.

words in context: The cave paintings in Lascaux, in the Dordogne region of southern France, are such a popular attraction that a replica of the cave has been made to preserve the original cave.

byzantine

An art style developed after Byzantium became the capital of the Roman Empire (c. 330). With monumental, stylized, rigid images set on gold backgrounds, this art appears in religious mosaics, panel paintings, and manuscript illuminations.

words in context: Byzantine art was also created in Italy, Syria, Greece, Russia, and other Eastern countries under Byzantine influence.

gothic

A movement begun in France with sculpture (c.1200) followed by Gothic painting (c.1300). These art forms had been preceded by Gothic architecture; the first landmark structure is part of the abbey of Saint-Denis. This is a graceful, linear, elegant style more naturalistic than earlier European forms and far less rigid than Byzantine art.

words in context: Tapestry, sculpture, and stained glass assumed importance in the soaring ribbed vaults of Gothic churches. The Pieta of the Avignon school was noted for its delicacy of expression.

romanesque

A style that emerged in France (c. mid-eleventh century). Ornamental, stylized, and complex in both sculpture and painting. Often used in huge Romanesque churches with massive barrel vaults and few wall openings, which encouraged monumental frescoes—of animal, vegetable, and religious motifs.

words in context: - Roman architecture was the main inspiration for Romanesque design, but Byzantine and Eastern influences were incorporated. The large walls of churches encouraged fresco

After studying the definitions above, use these new words in the sentences below.

1. The first known European paintings depicted animals. Called this art was discovered in France and Spain.

2. churches with massive walls are often decorated with

Monumental frescoes.

3. art created in a graceful, linear style, followed architecture and sculpture of the same style in thirteenth-century France.

4. art has a gold background and is sometimes composed

of mosaics.

Test Yourself: Write the letter next to the number to match word and meaning.

1. Gothic a. characterized by stylized figures on a luminous gold background

2. Romanesque b. French movement characterized by grace and elegance

3. Byzantine c. monumental, complex, and ornamental art and sculpture

4. Cave paintings d. earliest known art, composed of animal figures

On a separate sheet of paper, write a sentence using each of these new words.

DID YOU KNOW?

Hieronymus Bosch (c. 1450-1516) was a Dutch painter of fantasy in the late Middle Ages. He filled a colorful canvas with weird, misshapen figures conducting themselves sinfully in Hell; in Ship of Fools he painted on allegory of humanity's immorality.

classicism

Ancient Greek and Roman art, which emphasized harmony, proportion, balance, and simplicity. Generally, classicism refers to art, architecture, and sculpture based on accepted standards of beauty. The elegance, symmetry, and repose of classical art are usually seen as the opposite of art of the romantic school (see below).

words in context: Classicism in art denotes the absence of emotionalism, subjectivity, and excess enthusiasm. Artists of this school looked back in admiration to Greek and Roman models.

renaissance

European art, c. 1400-1600. Renaissance art began in Italy and stressed the forms of classical antiquity, which emphasized a realistic use of space, scientific perspective, and secular subjects. Early Renaissance artists were Leonardo da Vinci and Donatello; artists of the later or High Renaissance were Michelangelo, Raphael, and Titian.

words in context: Renaissance means rebirth in French and describes the rich development of Western civilization that marked the transition from the Middle Ages to the modern age. It was a period of brilliant accomplishment in all the arts, literature, science, and scholarship. The humanist emphasis on the individual was typified in the Renaissance man — a man of universal genius — represented by Leonardo da Vinci.

baroque

A style developed in Europe and Latin America during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Works in all the arts were produced on a grand scale with a high sense of drama. In painting, deep perspective was developed, chiaroscuro was intensified, color was superbly exploited, and artists often showed a fascination with intense emotional states.

words in context: Some of the artists working in the early (1590-1625), high (1625-1660), and late baroque (1660-1725) periods were Caravaggio, La Tour, Rembrandt, Vermeer, Rubens, and Claude Lorraine. The buildings in Versailles are examples of baroque architecture. In the late baroque, Italy lost its dominant position to France, with painters using lighter colors and softer forms, and baroque gave way to the rococo.

rococo

In reaction to the grandeur and massiveness of the baroque, artists working in the rococo style used highly decorative, refined, and elegant forms. This style spread through eighteenth-century Europe. Parisian tapestries, furniture, and bronze art became delicate. Shells, scrolls, branches, and flowers appeared on furnishings.

words in context: The major French painters of the rococo period were Watteau, Boucher, and Fragonard. In England, the furniture of Chippendale was rococo.

After studying the definitions above, use these new words in the sentences below:

1. is executed on a grand scale and exhibits high drama and emotion using perspective and chiaroscuro.

2. Art that emphasizes the harmony and balance of the art of ancient Greece and Rome is called art, a word that means "rebirth."

3. is the term given to the art of antiquity that set the standards

for beauty and good taste.

4. Highly decorative art featuring refined forms and often incorporating flowers and branches is art of the style.

Test Yourself: Write the letter next to the number to match word and meaning.

1. rococo a. art on a grand scale, with emotional intensity and drama

2. baroque b. art that looked back to ancient Greece and Rome

3. Renaissance c. refined and decorative-delicate flowers and branches

4. classicism d. marked the transition between the Middle Ages and now

On a separate sheet of paper, write a sentence using each of these new words.