AP Art History Final Exam Review



AP Art History Final Exam Review

Prehistoric

Altamira, Chauvet, and Lascaux are sites where cave paintings were discovered

Venus of Willendorf

• Paleolithic statue of a female figure

• Sculpture in the round

• May represent fertility

Ancient Near East

Ziggurats

Votive figures

Standard of Ur

Stele

Assyrian relief sculpture

• Lion hunts

Ancient Egypt

Mastaba

Step Pyramid

• Step Pyramid of Djoser – created by history’s first recorded architect - Imhotep

Pyramid

Ti Watching a Hippopotamus Hunt

• Old Kingdom

• Discovered in a tomb

• Entertained his ka

• Shows his status (hierarchical scale)

Akhenaton

• New Kingdom pharaoh

• Major impact on Egyptian culture (changed Egyptian religion to worshipping only one god)

• Moved capital to a site known as Tell-el-Amarna today

• Art style changed to show figures with elongated necks and heads, potbellies, and wide hips

• Short impact – after his death, Egyptian culture returned back to polytheism and traditional Egyptian figural depictions returned

Pylon Temples

• Pylon – monumental entrance into the temple

• Contained a hypostyle hall

Howard Carter – discovered King Tut’s tomb

Aegean (islands and civilizations of the Aegean Sea off the coast of Greece)

Lion’s Gate

• Entrance to citadel of Mycenae

• Used corbelled construction

Ancient Greece

Much of what we know as Greek sculpture is based on Roman copies

Four phases of Greek art

• Geometric, Archaic, Classical, Hellenistic

Archaic

• Used kouros statues to mark graves of young men

• Kouros statues show influence of Egyptian art – figures are upright, have a rigid stance, and one foot striding forward

• Greek kouros is NUDE – difference from Egyptian

• Kore – statue of a draped female figure

Archaic vase painting

• Major Greek industry and form of art – only surviving Greek painting can be seen on vases

• Black figure

• Red figure

Classical

• HAIR – Heroic, Aloof, Idealized, and Restrained

Warrior of Riace

• Heroic warrior stands in contrapposto

• Made out of hollow-cast bronze

• Idealized body

Athenian Acropolis

• Fortified hilltop in Athens that contained the holy structures of Athens

• Parthenon was the most important temple, dedicated to Athena Parthenos (Athena the Virgin); Parthenon is a Doric temple

• Other buildings include the Propylaia (gatehouse), Erectheion, Temple of Athena Nike (Athena the Victorious)

Hellenistic – Greek art after the death of Alexander the Great

Winged Victory

• Dramatic statue of Nike, goddess of victory, landing on the prow of a ship

• Found in the Louvre

Venus de Milo

• Partially nude statue of Venus; demonstrates erotic side of Hellenistic art

• Found in the Louvre

Laocoon and his Sons

• Statue depicting the death of a Trojan priest (Gods sent snakes to kill him and his sons after he warned the Trojans not to accept the horse left by the Greeks during the Trojan War)

• Very expressionistic – typical of Hellenistic period

• Sculpted by Hegesandros, Polydoros, and Ahtanadoros of Rhodes

Ancient Rome

Etruscans

• Predecessors to the Romans in central Italy

• Had a thriving civilization that traded with ancient Greece (collected Archaic vases)

• Reclining couple sarcophagus – shows a husband and wife reclining; demonstrates the elevated status women enjoyed in the Etruscan civilization; made out of terracotta (clay)

Republican Roman portrait busts

• Before the Caesars became the rulers of the Roman Empire

• Aristocratic Roman families kept portrait busts of deceased loved ones

• Portrait busts were a record of their lineage and were brought out during funeral processions

• Made from marble, show gravitas (seriousness) and are veristic (very truthful) in appearance – unidealized realism

Alexander Mosaic aka Battle of Issus

• Depicts climactic moment in famous battle in which Alexander the Great defeated King Darius III of Persia

• Based on a well known Hellenistic painting that no longer exists but was written about by Roman historians

Arch of Titus

• Dedicated to Emperor Titus, who led the conquest of Jerusalem in 70 CE

• Relief on the inside of the arch shows the Roman soldiers plundering Jerusalem (one soldier carries a menorah)

• Example of historical narrative – Romans recorded their achievements

Late Roman Empire

• Rome began to decline in power

• Christianity became a major religion in the Roman Empire

Old Saint Peter’s Basilica

• Built during the reign of Constantine – one of the last Roman emperors and first emperor to accept and legalize Christianity

• Located in Rome

• A basilica – a long rectangular building; basilicas became the main form for churches in Western Europe

• Basilicas had a central nave, wooden roof, and clerestory windows

Sarcophagus of Junius Bassus

• Coffin of Junius Bassus, prefect (mayor) of Rome ca. 350 CE

• Junius Bassus became a Christian and wanted his sarcophagus to reflect his new religious beliefs

• Niches on the side of sarcophagus show figures from the Bible

• Contains Christian figures but still has some Roman features

Early Christian art often shows Christ as the Good Shepherd

Byzantine Art

When Constantine came to power he moved the capital of the Roman Empire from Rome to Byzantium, which he renamed Constantinople

• Rome was conquered by the barbarians

• Constantinople still stood

• Byzantine Empire viewed itself as what was left of the eastern part of Roman Empire

• Christianity was the dominant religion

Byzantine churches

• Often central plan (circular or square) with a dome in the ceiling

• Hagia Sophia – dome supported by PENDENTIVES – concanve, triangular stone supports that transfer the weight from dome to the corner piers, helped create light inside the church

Byzantine mosaics

• Found in Byzantine churches

• Teach about Christianity, show biblical figures

• Flat, floating, and frontal with golden backgrounds

Icons and iconoclasm

• Small wooden panels with images of holy figures

• Iconoclasm – period during which icons were being destroyed

Islamic Art

• Focused on Islamic religion, worshipping Allah

• No images of people or animals allowed in Islamic holy structures; therefore, there are no narrative works of art in mosques

• Parts of a mosque include: a hypostyle hall (used for communal prayer), qibla (wall that shows the direction of Mecca), and minaret (a tower from which someone calls people to pray)

Early Medieval Art

Western Europe after the fall of the Roman Empire but before the Romanesque period (1000 CE0

Art of the Warrior Lords aka Animal Style

• Christianity had not really spread through Europe yet

Sutton-Hoo purse cover

• Purse cover was discovered at the Sutton-Hoo ship burial in England

• Made using the technique of cloisonné

• Contains abstract animal imagery in the design

Hiberno-Saxon

• Art created in the British Isles

• Shows the influence of Christianity

• Celtic crosses become popular

Illuminated Manuscripts

• Produced by monks in scriptoria, part of Hiberno-Saxon tradition

• Lindisfarne Gospels – the gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, also contains carpet pages – pages that are extensively decorated with interlace designs

Carolingian art

• 800s in France and Germany

• Charlemagne and the revival of the Roman empire; called the Holy Roman Emperor

• Revival of learning – illuminated manuscripts spread

Ottonian art

• 900s in Germany

• Bishop Bernward and the bronze doors of Saint Michael’s at Hildesheim

Romanesque

Style popular in Western Europe from 1000 – 1150, a time of many religious pilgrimages to visit the relics of various churches in Europe

Key elements

• Round arches, barrel vaults – when the ceiling looks like a row of round arches resembling a barrel, heavy stone construction, use of columns

• Use of exterior stone sculpture – had not been done since the Late Roman Empire

• Different from Roman architecture – Romanesque architects adapted Roman elements to fit their interests – Christianity. Romanesque churches are ornately decorated with sculpture on the exterior and often have towers on the corners

• Oriented toward the east – the holy city of Jerusalem – the apse, ambulatory, and choir are oriented toward the east

Romanesque basilicas

• Churches often are long and rectangular but have a cruciform shape made up of the nave and transept

• Crossing square – where nave and transept intersect, is the main unit of measurement for the size of other parts of the church

• Three-dimensional sections/modules of the church are called bays

• Nave covered by a barrel vault

• Built in response to the rise of pilgrimages

Saint Lazare at Autun

• Famous tympanum (lunette-shaped area above the door) depicting the Last Judgment

Leaning Tower of Pisa

• Actually a campanile or bell tower

Gothic

Became popular in the late 1100’s through the 1300’s; based on recommendations for church architecture made by Abbot Suger and his remodeling of Saint-Denis cathedral

Key characteristics

• Greater height with multiple levels (nave arcade, triforium, clerestory)

• Large areas of stained glass windows in the clerestory

• Pointed arches

• Ribbed groin vaults in the ceiling

• Use of flying buttresses on the exterior of the building for support

Gothic sculpture

• Figures often stand in a position called the Gothic S-curve – an attempt by the artist to show greater naturalism but still conceals the anatomy of the people under their clothing – Gothic S-curve is different from contrapposto used by Greeks, Romans, and Renaissance artists

• Example: Virgin of Jeanne d’Evreux – famous small, golden reliquary statue that shows Mary holding baby Jesus; statue conveys a feeling of spirituality

Illuminated manuscripts

Stained-glass windows – along with illuminated manuscripts was one of the main forms of two-dimensional art during the Gothic period

Precursors of the Renaissance – 1300’s

Artists who began to show glimpses of the rise of realism and naturalism that would be realized 100 years later during the Renaissance

• Figures appear to have more body mass and artists use more realistic shading

• Greater sense of depth, illusion of a three-dimensional space

Main precursors of Renaissance

• Pisano – famous sculptor who sculpted a pulpit for baptistery in Pisa

• Giotto – painted famous fresco cycle in Arena Chapel

• Duccio – famous Sienese painter who painted La Maesta

Giotto’s Lamentation

• Famous scene from Arena Chapel of Christ laying on the ground after Crucifixion surrounded by mourners

• Figures look realistic in both body proportions and sense of emotion

• Bodies have sculpturesque form

Duccio’s La Maesta

• Famous altarpiece produced for Siena Cathedral

• Shows strong Byzantine influence

• Painted in tempera (using egg yolks)

Renaissance

Basic characteristics of Renaissance painting

• Influence of humanism aka classical Greco-Roman culture – includes elements of mythology as well as realistic but also idealized human figures

• Compositions are balanced and orderly often relying on a careful geometric plan such as a pyramid composition

• Three-dimensional illusionism – Renaissance painters wanted to create the illusion of a three-dimensional world on a two-dimensional space; that’s why they used chiaroscuro and linear perspective

Early Renaissance – 1400s or 15th century

• Florence is the main center

Donatello-famous sculptor of early 1400s

• Created the first free-standing nude statue since antiquity (classical) time – David

• Created the first monumental equestrian statue – Gattamelata – which depicts a famous Italian warlord

Brunelleschi-famous architect of early 1400s

• Discovered rules of linear perspective

Masaccio-famous painter of early 1400s

• Painted Tribute Money fresco – part of a series of frescoes in a chapel

• Saint Peter is the focal point; he is shown three times aka continuous narration

Alberti

• Famous architect, painter, and writer of the Renaissance

• Wrote books on painting, sculpture, and architecture

• Wrote about rules for linear perspective

Botticelli-famous painter of later 1400s

• Painted Birth of Venus and La Primavera for the Medici family

• Tempera painting

• Based on a neoplatonist poem (show interest in humanism aka study of classical culture)

Pollaiullo – famous painter who also became famous for producing one of the earliest engravings called Battle of the Ten Nudes

Perugino

• Painted Delivery of the Keys of the Kingdom to Saint Peter in the Sistine Chapel

• It is a fresco on one of the side walls along with several other frescoes by Renaissance artists

• Figures look balanced and solid – bodies look natural

• Besides Jesus, Saint Peter is the focal point

• It contains the techniques of chiaroscuro and linear perspective

High Renaissance – early 1500s or 16th century

• Rome becomes the center of the arts with patronage from the Renaissance Popes such as Julius II

Leonardo

• Great artist, scientist, and inventor of the High Renaissance

• Born in Vinci, a small town near Florence

• Painted the Mona Lisa, which brings together some of the greatest Renaissance painting techniques

• Mona Lisa has a great sense of depth through the use of linear and atmospheric perspective

• Leonardo used sfumato to blend the forms together and make the painting look more realistic

• Leonardo painted Mona Lisa in a three-quarters pose, which was innovative for the time

Michelangelo

• David – symbol of Florence; Michelangelo was a proud Florentine; the city of Florence commissioned him to make David which was displayed in the town square

• Carved Moses for Tomb of Julius II

• Created a series of unfinished slave statues

• Fresco cycle in the Sistine Chapel

Raphael

• Famous for his Madonna paintings

• Combined elements of Leonardo and Michelangelo to create his own style

• Painted Galatea – part of fresco cycle based on mythology – Galatea is trying to get away from the Cyclops Poylphemus by riding away on a shell pulled by dolphins; Cupid sends putti to shoot her with arrows to make her fall in love

Isabella d’Este – greatest female patron of the arts during the Renaissance period

Venice during the High Renaissance

• Became a major artistic center

• First area in Italy to embrace oil painting

• Giorgione, Bellini, and Titian were three famous Venetian artists

Palladio

• Great 16th century Venetian architect

• Famous for his villas on the Venetian mainland

Northern Renaissance

Began in Flanders during the 15th century aka Flemish Renaissance

Pioneers of oil painting who shared the painting technique with Italian artists

Basic characteristics

• Tremendous detail in surface textures and backgrounds

• Vibrant and rich colors because of the use of oil paint

• Use of symbols – hidden meanings in the guise of everyday objects

• More Gothic style proportions – different from Italian Renaissance because not influenced by classical sculpture

• Later during the Northern Renaissance, artists such as Durer were influenced by the Protestant Reformation

Jan van Eyck – famous 15th century Flemish painter

• Painted the Arnolfini Marriage portrait

Bosch

• Fantastical scenes that are enigmatic

• Influenced the Surrealists of the 20th century

Albrecht Durer

• Multi-talented artist of Germany called the “Leonardo of the North”

• Famous for his engravings ex. Fall of Man (Adam and Eve committing Original Sin)

Mannerism

1530s through 1600 – period of art that came after High Renaissance but before Baroque

Basic characteristics

• Figures are twisted in figura serpentinata

• Unusual lighting effects

• Elongated body parts especially the hands

• Exaggerated and asymmetrical compositions

El Greco

• Famous painter who spent most of his career in Spain

• His paintings exhibit stylistic qualities similar to Mannerism

Baroque

Major artistic period of the 1600s or 17th century; swept through Western Europe; took different forms depending on the region of Europe

Italy, Spain, and Flanders

• Baroque art was influenced by the Catholic Counter-Reformation Church – art was used to attract people to come to Catholic Church

• Leaders of the Catholic Church such as popes and cardinals as well as monarchs are the main patrons of the arts

Caravaggio

• Italian Baroque painter

• Made tenebrism – shadowy background with dramatic spotlight effect – popular

• Focused on the most dramatic moments of a story – made his paintings popular with the Catholic Church

• Used everyday people as models for the characters in his paintings

• Inspired many followers called the Caravaggisti – Such as Artemesia Gentileschi (painted Judith Beheading Holofernes)

Bernini

• Famous sculptor and architect of Italian Baroque period

• Created a statue of David – very dynamic and twisting, shows the moment of dramatic tension as he is about to release the stone that will kill Goliath – similar to the expressionistic qualities of Hellenistic art

• Bernini also created the baldacchino (bronze canopy) that is under the dome of Saint Peter’s Basilica in Rome

Velazquez

• Spanish Baroque painter

• Painted Las Meninas

• Contains lighting effects that are similar to Caravaggio – tenebrism

• Spanish Royal family (Philip IV) was Velazquez’ main patron

Dutch Baroque

• Some differences from Italian Baroque

• Dutch were Protestants who disapproved of religious art in churches

• Dutch were successful merchants and businesspeople – they became the major patrons of art

• Dutch liked vanitas still-lifes, portraits and group portraits, and landscapes (Dutch were proud of their land)

Famous Dutch Masters

• Frans Hals

• Rembrandt van Rijn

• Vermeer

• Jacob van Ruisdael

Judith Leyster

• Studied with Frans Hals

• Painted famous self-portrait – concerned with showing her skill and status

Versailles

• Commissioned by Louis XIV

• Famous Hall of Mirrors

• Architects: Louis Le Vau, Jules Hardouin-Mansart, Charles Le Brun

Louis XIV

• Greatest patron of the arts in Europe during late 17th century – early 18th century

• Commissioned work from Rigaud (portraits), Bernini, as well as the building of Versailles

Rococo

Popular style in Spain and France during the early 1700s or 18th century

Popular with noble and wealthy families – “nobles at play”

Basic characteristics

• Playfully erotic, light-hearted, lack deep meaning

• Use of pastel colors and soft brushwork

• Fete galantes – outdoor festive gatherings

• Rococo buildings are known for their ornate decorations

Neoclassical

People grew tired of the frivolity (meaninglessness) of Rococo; they wanted to be inspired; they wanted paintings that had rationality and order to them not playful, erotic paintings

William Hogarth – not really a Neoclassical painter but a good example of how people grew tired of aristocrats aka the nobles

• Painted Marriage a la Mode, a satirical series of paintings that poked fun at the behavior of the nobles

Pompeii and Herculaneum was discovered in 1748 – interest in the classical world was rekindled

Neoclassical art and architecture was popular in the later part of the 1700s-early 1800s or late 18th-early19th centuries

Basic characteristics:

• Moralizing messages – paintings and sculpture that inspire people to want to sacrifice themselves for the state Ex. David’s Oath of the Horatii

• Idealized, classical looking body-types

• Rational, orderly compositions

• Classical architecture references – round arches, columns, and temple-like buildings

• Highly finished appearance

Jacques-Louis David

• Most famous Neoclassical painter of the late 18th century

• Interested in political revolution – Remember that during the late 1700s France was experience the French Revolution

• Oath of the Horatii – based on a Roman play, morally uplifting message – self-sacrifice

Antonio Canova – sculpted Cupid and Psyche

• Famous Neoclassical sculptor of the early 1800s

Napoleon Bonaparte

• Major patron of David

• Most frequently depicted figure by Neoclassical artists

Jean-August-Dominique Ingres

• Student of David

• Last great champion of Neoclassical values in art – continued painting in a Neoclassical style into the mid-19th century

• Painted the famous Princesse de Broglie in the Met (the woman with the blue dress)

Romanticism

Early 1800s until 1840s or the first half of the 19th century

Romantics despised the Age of Reason and the Enlightenment; Romantics believed that life and art should be inspired by feeling and emotion

Neoclassical art was too rational and orderly for Romantics

Basic characteristics:

• Emotional

• Interest in nature – nature doesn’t follow the rule of reason; it’s raw and untamed

• Heroic struggles against the odds

• The brushwork is less finished aka there is more emphasis on color – expresses the emotion of the artist

• Exotic places – Turkey, Morocco, India

Theodore Gericault – Painted Raft of the Medusa

• An real event: survivors of a shipwreck were abandoned by the government and had to struggle to survive at sea; most of them died

• Gericault challenged the government for appointing an incapable captain and then minimizing the incident (only 15 people were rescued out of 150 people)

• Gericault used Baroque lighting effects to heighten the drama and used a composition that created a sense of immediacy

Eugene Delacroix

• Most famous French Romantic painter

• His paintings such as Death of Sardanapalus, Liberty Leading the People, and Tiger Hunt express the values of Romantic art

Caspar David Friedrich – painted Wanderer Above a Sea of Mist

• Famous for his landscapes that show a solitary figure from behind trying to be at one with nature

J.M.W. Turner

• Famous English Romantic painter

• Paintings have very expressive brushwork and are considered precursors of modern abstract art

• The Slave Ship – a painting based on an actual event in which a slave ship captain ordered that his sick and dying slaves be thrown overboard; the painting shows the sublime force of nature aka the power of the sea

Realism

Popular in the 1850s, rejected Neoclassical and Romantic art

Basic characteristics:

• Interested in real people and real events of their time

• Use drab or muted colors to express their time

• Interest in the struggles of the working class and peasants

• Criticized the government and the establishment

Gustave Courbet

• Quoted as saying: “I cannot paint and angel because I have never seen one.”

Francois Millet

• Painted realistic scenes of peasants at work in the countryside

Honore Daumier

• Painted Third Class Carriage and did lithographs for the popular press; his lithographs challenged the government and he was famous for doing caricatures of leaders of his time

Photography

Invented during the 19th century

Created both a challenge as well as an aid for painting

• Photographs can accurately capture the appearance of a person – challenge to traditional portraiture

• Photography could be used to help artists paint more realistic pictures – wouldn’t need to have a person sit for many hours while painting a portrait – artist could use the photograph

Impressionism

Inspired by Realism – direct observation of the world and nature; popular during the 1870s – 1880s

Basic characteristics:

• Interest in the fleeting effects of natural light on color; avoided using black; often juxtaposed complimentary colors

• Liked to paint outdoors to capture natural sunlight; painted several versions of the same location to show the effects of light on color

• Interest in bourgeois aka middle-class life

• Use of short, choppy brushstrokes – painters had to work quickly to capture the moment; shows the influence of Romantic painting

• Edges are cropped – shows the influence of photography (capturing a moment in time/ a slice of life) and Japanese woodblock prints (ex. Great Wave off Kanagawa)

Monet

Degas

Renoir

Post-Impressionism – 1890s

Period after Impressionism; artists were influenced by Impressionism but dissatisfied with it

Vincent Van Gogh

• Used color and swirling and choppy brushstrokes as well as thick application of paint to express his unique view of the world around him

• Different from Impressionists who wanted to record the fleeting effects of light during a specific moment; Van Gogh did observe the world around him but brought his own personality into his paintings

20th century art

Dorothea Lange

• 20th century American photographer

• Famous for her photography Migrant Mother

• Took many photographs of poor migrant workers out west during the Great Depression

Abstract Expressionism

• 1950s

• Artists use paint to express their inner selves without thoroughly planning out their works; let their inner selves come out onto the canvas

• Jackson Pollock

• Chromatic abstraction – a different type of Abstract Expressionism from Pollock and de Kooning in which artists use abstract blocks of color to express their inner feelings

• Chromatic abstraction is also known as “color fields”

• Mark Rothko – big blocks of color on monochromatic backgrounds

• Helen Frankenthaler – “color stain” paintings

Hard Edge art

• 1960s

• Reaction against all the expressive qualities of Abstract Expressionism

• Abstract art that has very straight lines and flat application of color; basic geometric forms

• Hard Edge artists wanted to demonstrate the basic elements of art – color and line – removing the feelings of the artist

Pop Art

• 1960s

• Used images of everyday society such as comic books, advertisements, movies, and television

• Andy Warhol – best known for doing multiple copies of the same image whether it was Campbell’s Soup, Coca Cola, Marilyn Monroe, or Elvis

• Roy Lichtenstein – best known for comic strip style paintings; to make his paintings look even more like comic strips, Lichtenstein painted with tiny dots called benday dots

• Claes Oldenburg – best known for enlarged sculptures of everyday objects such as food items

Environmental Art

• 1960s and 1970s

• Often site-specific – works of art that have to exist in a certain environment to have meaning

• Robert Smithson and Spiral Jetty

• Nancy Holt and Sun Tunnels

• Christo and Jeanne-Claude – using fabrics in nature; wrapping up structures in fabric

Key Terms

Encaustic – a painting medium that uses melted wax applied while still hot

Sarcophagus – a large stone or terracotta coffin popular with the Egyptians, Etruscans, and Romans

Repousse – a metal-working technique that involves hammering a design from one side of the metal, punching out the design to the other side of the metal; Mycenaean and the Death Mask of King Tut used repousse

Hypostyle Hall – a room filled with columns; Egyptian pylon temples had them, the Palace of Knossos in Crete had one, and mosques have hypostyle halls used for communal prayer

Cartoon – a preliminary drawing or painting done as a rough draft before a major finished painting; Renaissance and Neoclassical painters often created cartoons

Grisaille – painting with grayish tones to simulate sculpture and architecture

Triptych – a three-paneled work of art

Genre painting – paintings of everyday life; genre paintings were popular with both 17th century Dutch Baroque artists and Realists of the 19th century

Benday dots – tiny dots of color used in comic books; instead of using colors like pink, comic strip printers use red benday dots on white to make it look pink; Roy Lichtenstein, the famous Pop Artist used benday dots in his paintings

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