The development of painting through history - Essay Example

al Affiliation: ID number: The Development of Painting through History Painting is an art that began many years ago and has developed through ages up to where it is now. Some artists developed various forms of styles in order to depict different themes in a more elaborate way. Others developed their works from the preceding works so that they could clearly bring out their ideas. Therefore, painting developed in different styles showing similarities and differences from one style to another. The artistic styles chronologically developed either in relation or in reaction to each other. Among the styles are the emotional Baroque style, the unemotional Neoclassic, the straightforward Realism style, the spontaneous Impressionism, and the less Idyllic Post-Impressionist styles. The Cubism, Geometric abstraction, and Surrealism are also among the styles that developed through ages before paving way for other styles by recent artists. Around 1600, Baroque art developed as a reaction against the formulate and intricate Mannerism of the Late Renaissance. Baroque artistic style is more realistic and more emotional than Mannerism. The style depicts strong emotions and dramatic lighting and colors. However, it is less complicated than Mannerist art. The Catholic Church was the most crucial patron of arts during that time. The church encouraged the development of Baroque painting style since it perceived the movement as a return to spirituality and tradition. Caravaggio was one of the artists during those ages who developed Baroque arts. Among his artistic works, he developed the Lute Player, an art that brings out sharp and vivid emotional images using a high level of color accuracy (Caravaggio, 2009). The art is not sophisticated like those of the Mannerists style. Rococo Art succeeded Baroque Art in Europe during 1715 to 1774. The style was dominant in France and had significant associations with King Louis XV. It was a reaction to the massiveness and grandeur of Baroque. The style was more light, elegant, decorative, and elaborate than the earlier Baroque style. Jean-Honore’ Fragonard developed Blind Man’s Buff. It is an artistic piece of work, which has sharp, vivid images of clouds, a fountain of water, trees, people, and buildings (Fragonard, 2008). Neoclassicism emerged during the mid-18th to early 19th century. It is an unemotional and severe form of art, which harkens back to the grandeur of ancient Rome and Greece. The elegant and balanced works of Neoclassicism revived the harmony of ancient Roman and Greek art. It is a rigid form of art and reacted to the emotionally charged Baroque and the over-bred Rococo styles. The American and French Revolutions desired to revive an interest in classical thought. The revolutions thus encouraged the rise of Neoclassical art of painting. Robert Smirke was one of the most prominent Neoclassicists of that time. One of his pieces of art, the Odysseus and Circe, displays a king that is unemotional to the women’s cries and pleas (Smirke, 2008). In his fury, he grabs a woman and seems to be commanding using a sword. Realism style of painting emerged in the mid-19th century, and it depicts subjects in a straightforward manner. It involves objective representation of subject matters. It tends to avoid idealizing the subjects and does not follow rules of formal artistic theory. The works of the Realistic style were in reaction against the excesses of Romanticism and Neoclassicism. The Children of George III, a painting by John Singleton Copley, is a straightforward depiction of the subjects and does not explicitly bring out the idealistic characteristics of the children. They are just like ordinary children of a wealthy person (Copley, 2009). Impressionism began in France in the 1860s to 1880s. It is a spontaneous and light style of painting. It developed in relation to the realism style and aimed at creating transitory visual impressions by emphasizing on the changing effects of color and light. It was painted directly from nature. Similar to realism, it was a reaction to the conventions and restrictions to the then dominating Academic Art. It portrays a naturalistic and down-to-earth view of its subject matter, mostly landscapes. Its roots are in the French Realism of Camille Corot and others. The Gust of Wind by Camille Corot displays a view of tall trees being blown by wind (Corot, 2007). The artistic work is an honest illustration of a common natural occurrence. The Impressionist style was regarded as the most identifiable and successful painting movement ever, which it is still in practice even today. However, as the 19th century ended, the intellectualistic ideas of Impressionism faded. It instead branched out into a variety of Post-Impressionism movements. The artists under the Post-Impressionism emerged in France in the 18880s and 1890s. The artists were not satisfied by impressionism due to its limitations. There is no well-defined style of the post-impressionism movement since the artists took their works in different directions. However, the artistic works are less idyllic and more emotional than the Impressionist works of painting. A Post-Impressionist artist by the name Paul Gauguin developed The Siesta painting. The picture displays women that seem to discuss an emotional issue while at work (Gauguin, 2008). They are ordinary and realistic women that one can find in any village. Georges Braque and Pablo Picasso collaborated to develop Cubism style somewhere between 1908 and 1912. Although the artistic style failed to last long, it sparked an immense creative explosion. The explosion resonated throughout the 20th-century arts. Cubism attempts to capture the essence of objects by simultaneously depicting them from multiple points of view. It makes use of an analytic vision from various viewpoints and fragmentation. The Cubist Experiment of the two artists portrays the Cubism style (Braque & Picasso, 2010). It collapsed with the termination of World War I, however, it directly influenced many movements such as Futurism, Orphism, Precisionism, Constructivism, and Purism. Geometric abstraction developed in 1915s as a logical conclusion of Cubist destruction and reformulation of form and space conventions. It uses geometric forms placed in non-illusionistic space and put together to form nonobjective compositions. The Cubist practice started the freedom of experimenting with a variety of materials and spatial relationships between various compositional parts. Eventually, it gave birth to the Geometric abstraction. The style stresses on the flatness of the paintings surface and the physical reality of the materials and forms. The Relational Painting by Fritz Glarner typifies the geometric abstractions. The artistic work has a variety of alterations in color and shape that adds a spatial dimension and a sense of movement and vitality. He treated the elements in the painting in a strictly nonobjective manner. In 1924, Andre Breton founded Surrealism style. The method uses fantastical visual images from the subconscious mind without intending to make the work logically impressive. It aimed at revealing the unconscious and reconciling it with the rational life. It is a European movement, which enticed many members of the Dada movement. Its elements closely resembled those of the mystical Symbolist movement of the 19th century. However, Surrealism received significant influence from the psychoanalytic work of Jung and Freud. The Surrealist circle consisted most of the 20th-century artists. A Surrealist called Hans Arp developed the Composition in a Circle, a fantastic piece that does not bring out logical impressions. The artistic styles developed chronologically throughout the ages. Each style had either some sharp differences or similarities when compared to the earlier form. The differences and similarities occurred in their elements of compositions and visual characteristics. As depicted from the few examples, artists in each style wanted to bring out a particular theme that either strengthened or reacted harshly against that of the earlier form(s). Thus, painting is an artistic field that has seen many contributory developments before becoming what it is now. References Arps, H. (2001). Retrieved from http://www.artic.edu/aic/collections/artwork/118650 Braque, G., & Picasso, P. (2010). The Cubist Experiment. Retrieved from http://www.amazon.com/Picasso-Braque-Experiment-1910-1912-Kimbell/dp/030016971X/ref=pd_sim_sbs_b_3 Caravaggio, N. (2009). Lute Player. Retrieved from www.allposters.com/-sp/Lute-Player-c-1600-detail-Posters_i332323_.htm Copley, J. S. (2009). Children of George III. Retrieved from http://www.allposters.com/-sp/Children-of-George-III-Posters_i385526_.htm Corot, J. B. (2007). Gust of Wind. Retrieved from http://www.allposters.com/-sp/Gust-of-Wind-1866-Posters_i1348236_.htm Fragonard, J. H. (2008). Blindmans Buff. Retrieved from http://www.allposters.com/-sp/Blindman-s-Buff-Posters_i126311_.htm Gauguin, P. (2008). the siesta. Retrieved from http://www.artcyclopedia.com/artists/gauguin_paul.html Glarner, F. (2005). Relational Painting. Retrieved from http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/works-of-art/1983.579 Smirke, R. (2008). Odysseus and Circe. Retrieved from http://www.allposters.com/-sp/Odysseus-and-Circe-Posters_i1867508_.html Read More