Historia del arte

La historia del arte se centra en los objetos creados por los seres humanos con diversos fines espirituales, narrativos, filosóficos, simbólicos, conceptuales, documentales, decorativos e incluso funcionales, entre otros, pero con un énfasis principal en su forma visual estética . Las artes visuales se pueden clasificar de diversas maneras , como separar las bellas artes de las artes aplicadas ; centrarse de forma inclusiva en la creatividad humana; o centrarse en diferentes medios como la arquitectura , la escultura , la pintura , el cine , la fotografía y las artes gráficas . En los últimos años, los avances tecnológicos han dado lugar al videoarte , el arte informático , el arte escénico , la animación , la televisión y los videojuegos .

La historia del arte se suele contar como una cronología de obras maestras creadas durante cada civilización . Por lo tanto, puede enmarcarse como una historia de alta cultura , personificada por las Maravillas del Mundo . Por otro lado, las expresiones de arte vernáculo también pueden integrarse en las narrativas históricas del arte, denominadas artes o artesanías populares . Cuanto más de cerca se involucre un historiador del arte con estas últimas formas de cultura baja , más probable es que identifique su trabajo como un examen de la cultura visual o la cultura material , o como una contribución a campos relacionados con la historia del arte, como la antropología o la arqueología . En estos últimos casos, los objetos de arte pueden denominarse artefactos arqueológicos .

El arte prehistórico incluye una amplia gama de obras de arte realizadas por pintores y escultores de culturas analfabetas, incluidos algunos de los primeros artefactos humanos. Entre los primeros objetos de arte se encuentran artefactos decorativos de la Edad de Piedra Media en África. ^{[1] [2] [3]} También se han descubierto en Sudáfrica recipientes de ese período que pueden haber sido utilizados para guardar pinturas que datan de hace 100.000 años. ^[4]

Una forma de arte prehistórico que se encuentra en todo el mundo, especialmente en Europa, se hicieron pequeñas estatuillas prehistóricas conocidas como figurillas de Venus con pechos y vientres exagerados, siendo las más famosas la Venus de Hohle Fels y la Venus de Willendorf , encontradas en Alemania y Austria . La mayoría tienen cabezas pequeñas, caderas anchas y piernas que se estrechan hasta terminar en punta. Los brazos y los pies suelen estar ausentes, y la cabeza suele ser pequeña y sin rostro.

La Venus de Hohle Fels es uno de los numerosos objetos encontrados en las Cuevas y el Arte de la Edad de Hielo en el Jura de Suabia , Sitio del Patrimonio Mundial de la UNESCO , donde se encontraron las obras de arte humano no estacionarias más antiguas descubiertas hasta ahora, en forma de figuras de animales y humanoides talladas, además de los instrumentos musicales más antiguos desenterrados hasta ahora, con artefactos que datan de entre 43.000 y 35.000 a. C. ^{[5] [6] [7] [8]}

Las obras de arte prehistóricas más conocidas son las grandes pinturas rupestres del Paleolítico que representan animales en la Europa continental, en particular las de Lascaux , en la región de Dordoña , en Francia. Se conocen varios cientos de cuevas decoradas, que abarcan el período Paleolítico superior ( c. 38.000-12.000 a. C.). Hay ejemplos en Ucrania , Italia y Gran Bretaña , pero la mayoría de ellos se encuentran en Francia y España . Se han sugerido muchas teorías sobre el propósito del arte, siendo la más aceptada la de que formaba parte de rituales religiosos, posiblemente para evocar el éxito en la caza.

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  Hueso de ciervo gigante de Einhornhöhle, c. 49.000 a. C.; hueso de Megaloceros; Einhornhöhle, Alemania
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  Löwenmensch ;do.41.000-35.000 a. C.;Cuevasde Hohlenstein-StadelJura de Suabia, Alemania
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  Pintura de rinocerontes ; c. 32.000–14.000 a. C.; carbón sobre roca; longitud: c. 2 m; cueva de Chauvet ( Ardèche , Francia) ^[9]
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  Venus de Willendorf ; c. 25.000 a. C.; piedra caliza con coloración ocre ; altura: 11 cm; Museo de Historia Natural ( Viena , Austria ) ^[10]

El antiguo Oriente Próximo se extendía desde Turquía y la costa mediterránea en el oeste hasta Irán y la península Arábiga en el este. Con el tiempo, aparecieron, vivieron y desaparecieron aquí múltiples civilizaciones. Una de las regiones clave fue Mesopotamia , que presenció durante el cuarto milenio a. C. el surgimiento de las primeras ciudades y la forma más antigua de escritura. La antigua Mesopotamia cubre el actual Irak y partes de Siria y Turquía . Su mitad norte forma parte del llamado Creciente Fértil , donde aparecieron por primera vez importantes desarrollos neolíticos como la agricultura temprana y el establecimiento de asentamientos aldeanos permanentes. Debido a que la región está situada dentro del delta del río Tigris-Éufrates , numerosas civilizaciones vivieron aquí, en particular Sumeria , Acad , Asiria y Babilonia . La arquitectura mesopotámica se caracterizó por el uso de ladrillos , dinteles y mosaicos cónicos . Ejemplos notables son los zigurats , grandes templos en forma de pirámides escalonadas .

Las tradiciones políticas, económicas, artísticas y arquitectónicas de los sumerios dieron origen a la fundación de la civilización occidental . En Sumer aparecieron por primera vez múltiples cosas: la primera ciudad-estado ( Uruk ), gobernada por el rey Gilgamesh ; la primera religión organizada, basada en una estructura jerárquica de dioses, personas y rituales; la primera escritura conocida, la cuneiforme ; el primer sistema de irrigación y los primeros vehículos con ruedas. También aparecieron aquí los sellos cilíndricos , grabados con pequeñas inscripciones e ilustraciones. Otra civilización que se desarrolló aquí fue el Imperio acadio , el primer gran imperio del mundo.

A principios del primer milenio a. C., después de los acadios, un imperio llamado Asiria llegó a dominar todo Oriente Medio, extendiéndose desde el Golfo Pérsico hasta el Mar Mediterráneo . Sus ciudades estaban llenas de impresionantes edificios y arte. El arte asirio es más conocido por sus detallados relieves en piedra, que representan escenas de la vida cortesana, la práctica religiosa, la caza y las batallas épicas. Estos relieves fueron pintados inicialmente en colores brillantes y colocados en palacios. Además de su belleza, también nos muestran la vida asiria y sus visiones del mundo, incluyendo la ropa y el mobiliario asirios.

Más tarde, los babilonios conquistaron el Imperio asirio. Durante el siglo VI a. C., Babilonia se convirtió en la ciudad más grande del mundo. Al entrar en Babilonia, los visitantes eran recibidos por la impresionante Puerta de Ishtar , con sus paredes cubiertas de ladrillos vidriados de un azul intenso y relieves que mostraban dragones, toros y leones. Esta puerta recibe el nombre de Ishtar , la diosa de la guerra y el amor.

A mediados del siglo VI a. C., tras una serie de campañas militares, el Imperio babilónico cayó ante el Imperio aqueménida , gobernado por el rey Ciro II , que se extendía por Oriente Medio y Asia Central , desde Egipto hasta el valle del Indo . Su arte incorpora elementos de todo el imperio, celebrando su riqueza y poder. Persépolis ( Irán ) fue la capital del imperio, y está llena de impresionantes esculturas que muestran imágenes religiosas y personajes del imperio. También hay aquí las ruinas de un palacio, con una gran sala de audiencias para recibir a los invitados.

Además de Mesopotamia e Irán, hubo civilizaciones antiguas que produjeron arte y arquitectura también en otras regiones. En Anatolia (actual Turquía ), apareció el Imperio hitita . Durante la Antigüedad, el sur de Arabia fue importante en la producción y comercio de aromáticos, aportando riqueza a los reinos que se encontraban en esta región. Antes de aproximadamente el 4000 a. C., el clima de Arabia era más húmedo que hoy. En el suroeste aparecieron varios reinos, como Saba' . La figura humana del sur de Arabia suele ser estilizada, basada en formas rectangulares, pero con finos detalles. ^{[11] [12] [13]}

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  Estandarte de Ur (sumerio); c. 2600-2400 a. C.; concha, piedra caliza roja y lapislázuli sobre madera; longitud: 49,5 cm; Museo Británico (Londres) ^[14]
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  Rey de Akkad ( acadio ); c. 2250 a. C.; aleación de cobre; altura: 30 cm; Museo de Irak ^[14]
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  Ritón de ciervo ( hitita ); c. 1400-1200 a. C.; plata con incrustaciones de oro; altura: 13 cm; Museo Metropolitano de Arte (Nueva York) ^[15]
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  Quemador de incienso ( preislámico del sur de Arabia ); mediados del primer milenio a. C .; bronce; altura: 27,6 cm; Museo Metropolitano de Arte ^[16]
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  Toros alados ( neoasirios ); c. 710 a. C.; alabastro ; altura (máx.): 4,2 m; Louvre ^[17]
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  Delegación con regalos ( Persia aqueménida ); c. 490 a. C.; piedra caliza; c. 260 x 150 cm; in situ, Persépolis ( Irán ) ^[18]

Una de las primeras grandes civilizaciones surgió en Egipto , que contaba con obras de arte elaboradas y complejas producidas por artistas y artesanos profesionales. El arte egipcio era religioso y simbólico. Dado que la cultura tenía una estructura de poder y una jerarquía muy centralizadas, se creó una gran cantidad de arte para honrar al faraón , incluidos grandes monumentos. El arte y la cultura egipcios enfatizaban el concepto religioso de la inmortalidad. El arte egipcio posterior incluye el arte copto y bizantino .

La arquitectura se caracteriza por estructuras monumentales, construidas con grandes bloques de piedra, dinteles y columnas sólidas . Los monumentos funerarios incluían mastabas , tumbas de forma rectangular; pirámides , que incluían pirámides escalonadas ( Saqqarah ) o pirámides de lados lisos ( Giza ); y el hipogeo , tumbas subterráneas ( Valle de los Reyes ). Otros grandes edificios eran el templo , que tendían a ser complejos monumentales precedidos por una avenida de esfinges y obeliscos . Los templos utilizaban pilonos y muros trapezoidales con hipetros y salas hipóstilas y santuarios . Los templos de Karnak , Luxor , Philae y Edfu son buenos ejemplos. Otro tipo de templo es el templo de roca , en forma de hipogeo , hallado en Abu Simbel y Deir el-Bahari .

La pintura de la época egipcia utilizaba una yuxtaposición de planos superpuestos. Las imágenes se representaban jerárquicamente, es decir, el faraón es más grande que los sujetos o enemigos comunes representados a su lado. Los egipcios pintaban el contorno de la cabeza y las extremidades de perfil, mientras que el torso, las manos y los ojos se pintaban de frente. En Egipto se desarrollaron las artes aplicadas , en particular la ebanistería y la metalistería . Hay magníficos ejemplos como los muebles de cedro con incrustaciones de ébano y marfil que se pueden ver en las tumbas del Museo Egipcio . Otros ejemplos incluyen las piezas encontradas en la tumba de Tutankamón , que son de gran valor artístico. ^[19]

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  Nebamun cazando en las marismas; c. 1380 a. C.; pintura sobre yeso ; 98 × 83 cm; Museo Británico (Londres) ^[20]
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  Akenatón y Nefertiti con sus hijas; c. 1345 a. C.; piedra caliza pintada ; 32,5 x 39 cm; Museo Egipcio de Berlín (Alemania) ^[21]
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  Máscara de Tutankamón ; c.  1327 a. C.; oro, vidrio y piedras semipreciosas; altura: 54 cm; Museo Egipcio ( El Cairo )
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  Busto de Nefertiti ; 1352–1336 a. C.; piedra caliza pintada ; altura: 50 cm; Neues Museum ( Berlín , Alemania) ^[22]
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  Templo de Philae (Egipto), 380 a. C.-117 d. C. ^[23]

Descubierta en 1922, mucho después de las culturas contemporáneas de Mesopotamia y Egipto, la Civilización del Valle del Indo, también conocida como Civilización Harappa ( c. 2400-1900 a. C.) ahora se reconoce como extraordinariamente avanzada, comparable en algunos aspectos con esas culturas. Sus sitios abarcan un área que se extiende desde el noreste de Afganistán actual , a través de gran parte de Pakistán , y hacia el oeste y noroeste de la India . Las principales ciudades de la cultura incluyen Harappa y Mohenjo-daro , ubicadas respectivamente en Punjab y en la provincia de Sindh en el norte de Pakistán, y la ciudad portuaria de Lothal , en el estado de Gujarat ( India ). Los artefactos más numerosos son sellos de estampillas cuadrados y rectangulares e impresiones de sellos, que presentan animales, generalmente toros, textos Harappa muy breves . También se han encontrado muchas figurillas de terracota estilizadas en sitios Harappa, y algunas esculturas de piedra y bronce, más naturalistas que las de cerámica. ^[24]

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  Sellos con escritura e impresiones del Indo; 2500-2000 a. C.; esteatita ; varios tamaños, en su mayoría de unos 3 cm; Museo Británico (Londres) ^[25]
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  Bailarina ; c. 2400–1900 a. C.; bronce; altura: 10,8 cm; Museo Nacional ( Nueva Delhi , India) ^[24]
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  Sello de Proto-Shiva ; c. 2400–1900 a. C.; esteatita; altura: 3,6 cm; Museo Nacional (Nueva Delhi) ^[24]
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  Rey sacerdote ; c. 2400–1900 a. C.; esteatita; altura: 17,5 cm; Museo Nacional de Pakistán ( Karachi ) ^[24]
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  Sello con toro de dos cuernos e inscripción; c. 2010 a. C.; esteatita; tamaño total: 3,2 × 3,2 cm; Museo de Arte de Cleveland ( Cleveland , Ohio , EE. UU.)

Los primeros objetos de metal producidos en China se fabricaron hace casi 4000 años, durante la dinastía Xia ( c. 2100-1700 a. C.). Durante la Edad del Bronce china (las dinastías Shang y Zhou ) las intercesiones de la corte y la comunicación con el mundo de los espíritus eran llevadas a cabo por un chamán (posiblemente el propio rey). En la dinastía Shang ( c. 1600-1050 a. C.), la deidad suprema era Shangdi , pero las familias aristocráticas preferían contactar con los espíritus de sus antepasados. Preparaban para ellos elaborados banquetes de comida y bebida, calentados y servidos en vasijas rituales de bronce . Estas vasijas de bronce tenían muchas formas, dependiendo de su propósito: para vino, agua, cereales o carne, y algunas de ellas estaban marcadas con caracteres legibles, lo que demuestra el desarrollo de la escritura. Este tipo de vasijas, de una calidad y complejidad muy altas, fueron descubiertas en el valle del río Amarillo en la provincia de Henan , en yacimientos como Erlitou , Anyang o Zhengzhou . Se utilizaban en rituales religiosos para consolidar la autoridad de los Dhang y, cuando la capital Shang cayó, alrededor de 1050 a. C., sus conquistadores, los Zhou ( c. 1050-156 a. C.), continuaron utilizando estos recipientes en rituales religiosos, pero principalmente para comida en lugar de bebida. La corte Shang había sido acusada de embriaguez excesiva, y los Zhou, que promovían el Tian imperial ("Cielo") como la principal fuerza espiritual, en lugar de los antepasados, limitaron el vino en los ritos religiosos, en favor de la comida. El uso de bronces rituales continuó hasta principios de la dinastía Han (206 a. C.-220 d. C.).

Uno de los motivos más utilizados era el taotie , un rostro estilizado dividido en dos mitades casi idénticas, con fosas nasales, ojos, cejas, mandíbulas, mejillas y cuernos, rodeados de dibujos incisos. No se puede determinar si el taotie representaba criaturas reales, mitológicas o totalmente imaginarias.

Los enigmáticos bronces de Sanxingdui , cerca de Guanghan (en la provincia de Sichuan ), son evidencia de un misterioso sistema religioso sacrificial diferente a todo lo demás en la antigua China y bastante diferente del arte de los Shang contemporáneos en Anyang . Las excavaciones en Sanxingdui desde 1986 han revelado cuatro fosas que contienen artefactos de bronce , jade y oro . Se encontró una gran estatua de bronce de una figura humana que se encuentra de pie sobre un pedestal decorado con cabezas de elefantes abstractas. Además de la figura de pie, las dos primeras fosas contenían más de 50 cabezas de bronce, algunas con tocado y tres con una cubierta frontal de pan de oro . Aquí también se descubrieron fragmentos de bronce tubulares con pequeñas ramas, probablemente representando árboles, y también hojas de bronce, frutas y pájaros. Más de 4000 objetos fueron encontrados en Sanxingdui en 1986.

Tras la dinastía Shang, la dinastía Zhou (1050-221 a. C.) fue la que gobernó más que cualquier otra dinastía en la historia de China. Sus últimos siglos se caracterizaron por la violencia, y la época se conoce como el período de los Reinos Combatientes . Durante esta época problemática, aparecieron algunos movimientos filosóficos: el confucianismo , el taoísmo y el legalismo .

El período de los Reinos Combatientes terminó con Qinshi Huangdi , quien unificó China en 221 a. C. Ordenó construir una enorme tumba, custodiada por el Ejército de Terracota . Otro gran proyecto fue un predecesor de la Gran Muralla , erigido para rechazar a las tribus saqueadoras del norte. Después de la muerte del emperador, su dinastía, la Qin (221-206 a. C.), duró solo tres años. A Qinshi Huangdi le siguió la dinastía Han (202 a. C. - 220 d. C.), durante la cual la Ruta de la Seda se desarrolló considerablemente, trayendo nuevas influencias culturales a China. ^{[27] [28]}

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  Recipiente de bronce para agua con diseño de dragón enroscado, finales de la dinastía Shang ( c.  XIV – mediados del siglo XI a. C.)
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  Caldero rectangular; siglos XII-XI a. C.; bronce; Museo Metropolitano de Arte (Nueva York)
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  Vasija de vino de bronce con forma de rinoceronte, siglo XI a. C.
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  Conjunto de altar; finales del siglo XI a. C.; bronce; Museo Metropolitano de Arte
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  Tambor con marco de pájaro y tigre, lacado de Chu (estado) , siglo VIII a. C.
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  Fang Lei; c.  925–875 a. C .; bronce; altura: 22,8 cm; Museo Nacional de China ( Pekín , China) ^[27]
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  Vasija de bronce de la dinastía Shang , utilizada para conservar bebidas; II milenio a. C.
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  "El hombre fuerte", de la serie Los acróbatas. Mausoleo del primer emperador Qin , 210 a. C.
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  Fénix dou lacado, estado de Chu , siglo V a. C.
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  Vasija doble lacada de la tumba del marqués Yi de Zeng, c. 433 a. C.
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  Caja de laca de la Tumba Jingmen (荊門楚墓; Jīngmén chǔ mù) del estado de Chu (704-223 a. C.)
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  Biombo lacado calado con motivos animales, periodo de los Reinos Combatientes (c. siglo IV a. C.)
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  Fresco de una tumba de la dinastía Han occidental que representa al filósofo Confucio ; siglo I a. C. aproximadamente; del condado de Dongping, Shandong
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  Espíritus guardianes animales de la medianoche y la mañana vestidos con túnicas chinas , dinastía Han (202 a. C. – 220 d. C.) sobre baldosas de cerámica
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  Anillo de dos dragones, principios de la dinastía Shang (II milenio a. C.)
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  Disco de jade calado, Nanyue (siglo II a. C.)
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  Dragones gemelos de bronce de la dinastía Qin, encontrados cerca del Mausoleo del Primer Emperador Qin.

Gracias a la proporción armoniosa y a la atención a la estética, el arte griego y romano antiguo se convirtió en la base e inspiración de todo el arte occidental, siendo el estándar al que aspiraban la mayoría de los artistas europeos hasta el siglo XIX. ^[30] El poeta latino Horacio , que escribió en la época del emperador romano Augusto (siglo I a. C. al siglo I d. C.), comentó que, aunque conquistada en el campo de batalla, "la Grecia cautiva venció a su salvaje conquistador y trajo las artes a la rústica Roma". El poder del arte griego reside en su representación de la figura humana y su enfoque en los seres humanos y los dioses antropomórficos como temas principales. Las obras de arte de los griegos estaban destinadas a decorar templos y edificios públicos, celebrar victorias en batallas y personalidades notables y conmemorar a los muertos. También se entregaban como ofrendas a los dioses.

Aunque no hubo una transición definitiva, el arte suele dividirse estilísticamente en los cuatro períodos: geométrico, arcaico, clásico y helenístico. Durante el período clásico (siglos V y IV a. C.), el realismo y el idealismo se equilibraron delicadamente. En comparación, las obras de las épocas geométricas (siglos IX a VIII a. C.) y arcaica (siglos VII a VI a. C.) anteriores pueden parecer primitivas, pero estos artistas tenían objetivos diferentes: la representación naturalista no era necesariamente su objetivo. Los artistas griegos y romanos se basaron en los cimientos artísticos de Egipto, desarrollando aún más las artes de la escultura, la pintura, la arquitectura y la cerámica. Entre las técnicas que perfeccionaron se incluyen métodos de tallado y fundición de esculturas, pintura al fresco y construcción de magníficos edificios.

Los amantes del arte romano coleccionaban originales griegos antiguos, réplicas romanas de arte griego o pinturas y esculturas de nueva creación realizadas en una variedad de estilos griegos, preservando así para la posteridad obras de arte que de otro modo se perderían. Pinturas murales y sobre tabla, esculturas y mosaicos decoraban espacios públicos y hogares privados. Las imágenes griegas también aparecían en joyas romanas, vasijas de oro, plata, bronce y terracota, e incluso en armas y pesas comerciales. Redescubiertas durante el Renacimiento temprano , las artes de la antigua Grecia, transmitidas a través del Imperio Romano , han servido como base del arte occidental hasta el siglo XIX. ^[31]

Desde la llegada de la Edad Clásica en Atenas , en el siglo V a. C., la forma clásica de construir ha estado profundamente entretejida en la comprensión occidental de la arquitectura y, de hecho, de la civilización misma. ^[32] Desde alrededor del 850 a. C. hasta alrededor del 300 d. C., la cultura griega antigua floreció en el continente griego , en el Peloponeso y en las islas del Egeo . Cinco de las Maravillas del Mundo eran griegas: el Templo de Artemisa en Éfeso , la Estatua de Zeus en Olimpia , el Mausoleo de Halicarnaso , el Coloso de Rodas y el Faro de Alejandría . Sin embargo, la arquitectura griega antigua es más conocida por sus templos , muchos de los cuales se encuentran en toda la región, y el Partenón es un excelente ejemplo de esto. Más tarde, servirán de inspiración para los arquitectos neoclásicos durante finales del siglo XVIII y el siglo XIX. Los templos más conocidos son el Partenón y el Erecteión , ambos en la Acrópolis de Atenas . Otro tipo de edificios importantes de la Antigua Grecia eran los teatros. Tanto los templos como los teatros utilizaban una compleja mezcla de ilusiones ópticas y proporciones equilibradas.

Al observar los restos arqueológicos de edificios antiguos, es fácil percibirlos como piedra caliza y hormigón en un tono gris topo y suponer que los edificios antiguos eran monocromáticos. Sin embargo, la arquitectura estaba policromada en gran parte del mundo antiguo. Uno de los edificios antiguos más emblemáticos, el Partenón ( c. 447–432 a. C.) en Atenas , tenía detalles pintados con rojos, azules y verdes vibrantes. Además de los templos antiguos, las catedrales medievales nunca fueron completamente blancas. La mayoría tenían reflejos de colores en capiteles y columnas . ^[33] Esta práctica de colorear edificios y obras de arte se abandonó durante el Renacimiento temprano. Esto se debe a que Leonardo da Vinci y otros artistas renacentistas, incluido Miguel Ángel , promovieron una paleta de colores inspirada en las antiguas ruinas grecorromanas, que debido al abandono y la decadencia constante durante la Edad Media, se volvieron blancas a pesar de ser inicialmente coloridas. Los pigmentos utilizados en el mundo antiguo eran delicados y especialmente susceptibles a la intemperie. Sin el cuidado necesario, los colores expuestos a la lluvia, la nieve, la suciedad y otros factores, se desvanecieron con el tiempo, y de esta manera los edificios y obras de arte antiguas se volvieron blancos, como lo son hoy y durante el Renacimiento. ^[34]

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  Figura de caballo ( geométrica ); c.  800-700 a. C .; bronce; altura: 17,6 cm; Museo Metropolitano de Arte (Nueva York)
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  Crátera con pedestal (geométrica); c.  750 a. C .; terracota; altura: 108,3 cm, diámetro: 72,4 cm; Museo Metropolitano de Arte ^[35]
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  Kouros de Nueva York ( arcaico ); c.  600 a. C.; mármol y pigmento; altura: 1,95 m; Museo Metropolitano de Arte ^[36]
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  Ánfora Panatenea (arcaica); c.  530 a. C .; cerámica; altura: 62,2 cm; Museo Metropolitano de Arte ^[37]
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  Kylix de figuras rojas ( Clásica ); c.  480 a. C .; cerámica; altura: 12,7 cm, diámetro: 27,2 cm; Museo de Arte Kimbell ( Fort Worth , Texas , EE. UU.) ^[38]
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  Zeus de Artemisia (clásico); c.  460 a. C .; bronce; altura: 209 cm; Museo Arqueológico Nacional ( Atenas , Grecia) ^[39]
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  Templo de Segesta ( Calatafimi-Segesta , actual Italia), siglo V a.C. ^[40]
• 
  Erecteión (Atenas), con sus columnas jónicas y pórtico cariátide , 421-405 a. C. ^[40]
• 
  Vaso Centuripe ( helenístico ); c. 300-100 a. C.; cerámica; altura: 9,4 cm; Museo Metropolitano de Arte ^[41]

Ninguna civilización ha tenido un impacto tan duradero y poderoso en el arte occidental como el Imperio Romano . El legado de la antigua Roma es evidente a través de los períodos medieval y moderno temprano , y el arte romano continúa reutilizándose en la era moderna tanto en obras de arte tradicionalistas como posmodernas . ^[43] A veces se lo ve como derivado de precedentes griegos, pero también tiene sus propias características distintivas, algunas de ellas heredadas del arte etrusco . La escultura romana a menudo es menos idealizada que sus precedentes griegos, siendo muy realista. La arquitectura romana a menudo usaba hormigón , y se inventaron características como el arco de medio punto y la cúpula . Los objetos de lujo en metalistería , grabado de gemas , tallas de marfil y vidrio a veces se consideran en términos modernos como formas menores del arte romano, ^[44] aunque este no necesariamente habría sido el caso de los contemporáneos. Una innovación que fue posible gracias al desarrollo romano del soplado de vidrio fue el vidrio camafeo . Primero se creó una "cáscara" blanca, en la que luego se sopló vidrio coloreado para producir un revestimiento interior. La concha blanca se cortaba entonces para crear patrones en relieve de color blanco sobre un fondo más oscuro. También hacían mosaicos , produciendo así arte pictórico duradero con cubos de piedra tallada ( teselas ) y/o trozos de terracota y vidrio de colores. Algunas villas de romanos adinerados tenían sus paredes cubiertas de frescos , destinados a deslumbrar y entretener a los invitados. Gran parte de la pintura mural romana que sobrevive proviene de sitios alrededor de la Bahía de Nápoles , en particular Pompeya y Herculano , ciudades prósperas que se conservaron bajo metros de escombros volcánicos cuando el Monte Vesubio entró en erupción en el 79 d. C. Como resultado, la pintura mural romana a menudo se analiza en términos de cuatro "estilos pompeianos". ^[45]

Los romanos estuvieron profundamente influenciados por todos los aspectos de la cultura helenística . En arquitectura, al igual que en otros medios artísticos , adoptaron esencialmente el lenguaje clásico y lo adaptaron a nuevas situaciones y usos. Los romanos también aportaron sus propias innovaciones a la arquitectura clásica. Utilizaron los órdenes dórico , jónico y corintio de una manera mucho más libre que los griegos, creando su propia versión del dórico y utilizando el corintio con mucha más frecuencia. También añadieron dos nuevos órdenes al repertorio: el toscano , una versión más simple y masiva del dórico derivada de la arquitectura etrusca ; y el compuesto , una combinación de las volutas en forma de rollo del jónico con las hojas de acanto del corintio. Otras innovaciones importantes incluyen el arco y la cúpula . Utilizando arcos, construyeron acueductos y arcos de triunfo monumentales . Los emperadores romanos se enorgullecían de sus conquistas y las conmemoraban en sus casas y en los territorios conquistados mediante arcos de triunfo, siendo un buen ejemplo de ello el Arco de Constantino en Roma. Entre el 30 y el 15 a. C., el arquitecto e ingeniero civil y militar Marco Vitruvio Pollio publicó un importante tratado, De Architectura , que influyó en arquitectos de todo el mundo durante siglos. ^{[46] [47]}

Después de la Edad Media , con el Renacimiento que se inició en Florencia ( Italia ), comenzó un creciente interés por la antigua Roma. Durante ella, por primera vez desde la Antigüedad Clásica , el arte se volvió convincentemente realista. El Renacimiento también despertó el interés por la literatura griega y romana antigua, no solo por el arte y la arquitectura. ^[48]

• 
  Fresco de los Misterios; mediados del siglo I a.C.; fresco ; altura: 1,62 m; Villa de los Misterios ( Pompeya , Italia ) ^[49]
• 
  Jarrón Portland ; finales del siglo I a.C.; vidrio; altura: 24 cm; Museo Británico ( Londres ) ^[50]
• 
  La Maison Carrée ( Nimes , Francia), uno de los templos romanos mejor conservados , siglo II  d.C.
• 
  Mosaico marino (panel central de tres paneles de un suelo); 200–230; mosaico (teselas de piedra y vidrio); 2915 mm x 2870 mm; Museo de Bellas Artes ( Boston , EE. UU.)
• 
  Arco de Constantino (Roma), que conmemora el triunfo de Constantino el Grande tras su victoria sobre Majencio en la Batalla del Puente Milvio , 316 ^[51]

El arte islámico es conocido desde la Edad Media por el uso de elaborados patrones geométricos , azulejos coloridos, motivos naturales estilizados y caligrafía detallada. Pocas veces las letras han tenido un impacto tan profundo en las artes aplicadas y la arquitectura. El Islam apareció en Arabia occidental en el siglo VII d. C. a través de revelaciones entregadas al profeta Mahoma en La Meca . Un siglo después de la muerte de Mahoma, los imperios islámicos controlaban Oriente Medio , España y partes de Asia y África. Debido a esto, de manera similar al arte romano , el arte y la arquitectura islámicos tuvieron versiones regionales. A medida que el mundo islámico se extendió a los centros de la cultura de la Antigüedad tardía, se enriqueció con movimientos filosóficos e intelectuales. La traducción de obras griegas al árabe y los avances en matemáticas y ciencia fueron alentados por los primeros califatos. Esto contrasta con la percepción moderna de que el arte islámico es dogmático e inmutable. La representación humana y animal no era rara. Solo ciertos períodos la restringieron (similar a la iconoclasia bizantina ). ^[52]

• 
  Caja de perfumes; 950–975; marfil ; altura: 11,7 cm; Museo Metropolitano de Arte (Nueva York) ^[53]
• 
  Mihrab ; 961–976; estuco y mosaico de vidrio; diámetro (arco interior): c.  2,3 m ; Mezquita-Catedral de Córdoba ( Córdoba , España ) ^[53]
• 
  Lámpara de mezquita; c.  1285 ; vidrio, esmaltes y oro; altura: 26,4 cm; Museo Metropolitano de Arte ^[54]
• 
  Patio de los Leones ( Alhambra , Granada , España ), 1362-1391 ^[55]
• 
  Alfombra Ardabil ; 1539–1540; pelo de lana sobre seda; longitud: 10,51 m; Victoria and Albert Museum ( Londres ) ^[56]

Algunas de las primeras grandes civilizaciones de América se desarrollaron en Mesoamérica (que significa 'América central'), siendo las más conocidas los mayas y los aztecas .

Los olmecas ( c. 1400–400 a. C.) fueron la primera civilización importante en el México actual. Muchos elementos de las civilizaciones mesoamericanas, como la práctica de la construcción de pirámides, el calendario complejo, el panteón de dioses y la escritura jeroglífica tienen su origen en la cultura olmeca. Producían figurillas de jade y cerámica, cabezas colosales y pirámides con templos en la parte superior, todo ello sin la ventaja de las herramientas de metal. Para ellos, la jadeíta era una piedra más preciosa que el oro y simbolizaba los poderes divinos y la fertilidad. Se han descubierto 17 cabezas colosales olmecas , cada una de ellas con un peso de unas pocas toneladas. Cada cabeza, con la nariz aplanada y los labios gruesos, lleva un casco, similar a los que se usan durante los juegos de pelota oficiales, que posiblemente representan a los reyes de los oficiales.

La civilización maya comenzó alrededor de 1800 a. C. y creció hasta la llegada de los colonizadores españoles en el siglo XVI. Ocuparon el sureste de México, Guatemala , Belice y partes de Honduras y El Salvador . Los mayas comerciaban con ciudades, como Teotihuacán , pero también con muchas civilizaciones mesoamericanas, como los zapotecas u otros grupos de las zonas centrales o costeras de México, y también con poblaciones que no habitaban territorios mesoamericanos, como los taínos del Caribe . Produjeron impresionantes retratos de reyes, vasijas de cerámica policromada , figuras de barro, esculturas de madera, estelas y construyeron ciudades complejas con pirámides. La mayoría de las vasijas de cerámica policromada bien conservadas fueron descubiertas en las tumbas de los nobles.

Los aztecas, que surgieron de orígenes humildes como grupo nómada, crearon el imperio más grande de la historia de Mesoamérica, que duró desde 1427 hasta 1521. No se llamaban a sí mismos "aztecas", sino mexicas. El término aztecas fue asignado por los historiadores. Transformaron la capital de su imperio, Tenochtitlan , en un lugar donde los artistas de Mesoamérica crearon impresionantes obras de arte para sus nuevos amos. La actual Ciudad de México se construyó sobre la capital azteca, Tenochtitlan. ^{[57] [58] [59]}

• 
  Cabeza colosal ; do. 1050 aC; esteatita ; altura: 2,2 m; Museo de Antropología de Xalapa ( Xalapa , México ) ^[60]
• 
  Colgante en forma de chamán sentado en pose ritual ( olmeca ); siglos IX-V a. C.; serpentina y cinabrio ; altura: 18,5 cm; Museo de Arte de Dallas ( Dallas , Texas , EE. UU.) ^[60]
• 
  Efigie de murciélago ( zapoteca ); c. 50 a. C.; jadeíta y concha; altura: 28 cm; Museo Nacional de Antropología ( Ciudad de México ) ^[61]
• 
  Retrato de K'inich Janaab Pakal I ( Maya ; 615–683; estuco ; altura 43 cm; Museo Nacional de Antropología ^[62]
• 
  Vasija con escena de trono (maya); finales del siglo VII-VIII; cerámica; 21,59 cm; Museo Metropolitano de Arte (Nueva York)
• 
  Dintel 24 de Yaxchilán (Maya); 702; piedra caliza; 109 x 74 cm; Museo Británico (Londres) ^[63]
• 
  Columnas de guerreros ( toltecas ); c. 1000; basalto; altura: c. 460 cm; Tula de Allende (México)
• 
  Serpiente de dos cabezas ( azteca ); c. 1450–1521; cedro, turquesa , concha y restos de dorado; longitud: 43,3 cm; Museo Británico ^[64]
• 
  Piedra de Coyolxauhqui (azteca); c. 1469–1481; piedra; diámetro: 3 m; Museo del Templo Mayor ( Ciudad de México ) ^[64]
• 
  Vasija efigie de Tlāloc (azteca); c. 1440–1469; loza pintada; altura: 35 cm; Museo del Templo Mayor ^[64]

De manera similar a Mesoamérica, el actual territorio colombiano es una zona en la que se desarrollaron múltiples culturas antes de la llegada de los colonizadores españoles. Aquí se producían accesorios corporales de oro, muchos de ellos de oro, pero también muchos otros de tumbaga , una aleación no específica de oro y cobre dada por los conquistadores españoles a los metales compuestos por estos elementos que se encontraban en uso extendido en la Mesoamérica precolombina en América del Norte y América del Sur .

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  Colgante con figura de cabeza de animal ( Yotoco ); siglos I-VII; oro; altura: 6,35 cm; Museo Metropolitano de Arte (Nueva York)
• 
  Recipiente para cal ( Quimbaya ); siglos V-IX; oro; altura: 23 cm; Museo Metropolitano de Arte
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  Figura masculina/ tunjo ( muisca ); siglo X-mediados del siglo XVI; oro; altura: 14,9 cm; Museo Metropolitano de Arte
• 
  Colgante ( Tairona ); siglos X-XVI; oro; altura: 14 cm; Museo Metropolitano de Arte

Las antiguas civilizaciones de Perú y Bolivia alimentaron tradiciones artísticas únicas, incluida una de las tradiciones de arte textil más impresionantes del mundo desde el punto de vista estético. Dos de las primeras culturas importantes de esta tierra son la cultura Chavín y la cultura Paracas .

La cultura Paracas de la costa sur de Perú es más conocida por sus textiles con patrones complejos, en particular los mantos. Los Moche controlaban los valles fluviales de la costa norte, mientras que los Nazca del sur de Perú dominaban a lo largo de los desiertos costeros y las montañas contiguas. Los Nazca son más conocidos por las famosas Líneas de Nazca , un grupo de geoglifos en un desierto en el sur de Perú. También produjeron cerámicas policromadas y textiles influenciados por los Paracas, y utilizaron una paleta de al menos 10 colores para su cerámica. Ambas culturas florecieron alrededor de 100-800 d. C. La cerámica Moche es una de las más variadas del mundo. En el norte, el Imperio Wari (o Huari) es conocido por su arquitectura de piedra y sus logros escultóricos.

Los Chimú fueron precedidos por un estilo cerámico simple conocido como Sicán (700–900 d.C.). Los Chimú produjeron excelentes retratos y obras decorativas en metal, notablemente oro pero especialmente plata. Más tarde, el Imperio Inca (1100–1533) se extendió por la Cordillera de los Andes . Elaboraron figurillas de metales preciosos y, como otras civilizaciones de la misma zona, textiles complejos. Las llamas eran animales importantes, por su lana y por transportar cargas. ^{[66] [67] [68]}

• 
  El Colibrí, una de las Líneas de Nazca ( Nazca ); c. 200 a.C.-600 d.C.; rocas, grava y tierra; longitud: 50 m; Provincias de Nasca y Palpa (Perú) ^[69]
• 
  Botella con cabeza de retrato ( Moche ); siglos III-VI; cerámica pintada; tamaño total: 26,35 x 16,21 cm; Museo Metropolitano de Arte (Nueva York)
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  Figura de mosaico de un hombre noble ( Wari ); siglos VII-IX; madera, concha, piedra y plata ; altura: 10,2 cm; Museo de Arte Kimbell ( Fort Worth , Texas , EE. UU.) ^[70]
• 
  Cuchillo ceremonial/ tumi ( sicán ); siglos X-XIII; oro, turquesa, piedra verde y concha; altura: 33 cm; Museo Metropolitano de Arte ^[65]
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  Túnica real ( Inca ); 1476–1534; fibra de camélido y algodón; altura: 91 cm; Dumbarton Oaks ( Washington, DC , EE. UU.) ^[71]

La civilización oriental abarca en general a Asia y también incluye una compleja tradición de creación artística. Un enfoque de la historia del arte oriental divide el campo por nación, con foco en el arte indio , el arte chino y el arte japonés . Debido al tamaño del continente, la distinción entre Asia oriental y Asia meridional en el contexto de las artes se puede ver claramente. En la mayor parte de Asia, la cerámica era una forma de arte predominante. La cerámica suele estar decorada con patrones geométricos o representaciones abstractas de animales, personas o plantas. Otras formas de arte muy extendidas fueron, y son, la escultura y la pintura.

El arte de Asia Central se desarrolló en Asia Central , en áreas correspondientes a los modernos Kirguistán , Kazajstán , Uzbekistán , Turkmenistán , Azerbaiyán , Tayikistán , Afganistán , Pakistán y partes de Mongolia, China y Rusia modernas. ^{[72] [73]} El arte de Asia Central antigua y medieval refleja la rica historia de esta vasta área, hogar de una gran variedad de pueblos, religiones y formas de vida. Los restos artísticos de la región muestran una notable combinación de influencias que ejemplifican la naturaleza multicultural de la sociedad de Asia Central. La transmisión del arte de la Ruta de la Seda , el arte escita , el arte grecobudista , el arte serindio y, más recientemente, la cultura persa , son parte de esta complicada historia. Asia Central siempre ha sido una encrucijada de intercambio cultural, el centro de la llamada Ruta de la Seda , ese complejo sistema de rutas comerciales que se extiende desde China hasta el Mediterráneo. Ya en la Edad del Bronce (III y II milenio a. C.), los asentamientos en crecimiento formaban parte de una extensa red de comercio que unía Asia Central con el valle del Indo , Mesopotamia y Egipto. ^[74]

• 
  Figura sedente ( bactriana ); 3º-2º milenio a. C.; clorita y piedra caliza ; altura: 9 cm; Museo Metropolitano de Arte (Nueva York) ^[74]
• 
  Hebilla de cinturón; siglos III-I a.C.; oro; altura: 7,9 cm; Museo Metropolitano de Arte ^[75]
• 
  Copa que muestra El rapto de Europa y Ganimedes , parte del tesoro de Bagram ; siglo I d.C.; vidrio pintado; altura: 16 cm, diámetro: 10 cm; Museo Guimet (París) ^[76]
• 
  Diosa y músico celestial ( budista ); siglo VII; pigmentos sobre yeso; altura: 2,03 m; Museo de Arte Asiático ( Berlín , Alemania) ^[77]
• 
  Mausoleo de Gur-i Amir ( Samarcanda , Uzbekistán ), siglo XV ^[78]

Los primeros budistas de la India desarrollaron símbolos relacionados con Buda . Las principales supervivencias del arte budista comienzan en el período posterior a los Maurya , dentro del arte Kushan del norte de la India , el arte grecobudista de Gandhara y finalmente el período "clásico" del arte Gupta . Además, estaba la escuela Andhra que apareció antes de la escuela Gandhara y que tenía su base en el sur de la India. ^[79] Sobreviven buenas cantidades de esculturas de algunos sitios clave como Sanchi , Bharhut y Amaravati , algunas de las cuales permanecen in situ , y otras en museos de la India o de todo el mundo. Las estupas estaban rodeadas de vallas ceremoniales con cuatro toranas o puertas ornamentales profusamente talladas que miraban hacia los puntos cardinales. Estas son de piedra, aunque claramente adoptan formas desarrolladas en madera. Tanto ellas como las paredes de la estupa en sí pueden estar profusamente decoradas con relieves, que en su mayoría ilustran la vida de Buda. Poco a poco se esculpieron figuras de tamaño natural, inicialmente en relieve profundo, pero luego independientes. ^[80] El arte de Mathura fue el centro más importante de este desarrollo, que se aplicó tanto al arte hindú y jainista como al budista. ^{[81] Las fachadas e interiores de las salas de oración} chaitya excavadas en la roca y los viharas monásticos han sobrevivido mejor que las estructuras independientes similares en otros lugares, que durante mucho tiempo fueron principalmente de madera. Las cuevas de Ajanta , Karle , Bhaja y otros lugares contienen esculturas tempranas, a menudo superadas en número por obras posteriores como figuras icónicas de Buda y bodhisattvas , que no se encontraron antes del año 100 d. C. como mínimo.

• 
  La Gran Stupa de Sanchi ( Madhya Pradesh , India), siglo III- c. 100 a. C. ^[82]
• 
  Capitel de león de Ashoka ; c. 250 a. C.; arenisca pulida ; altura: 2,2 m; Museo de Sarnath (India) ^[83]
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  Buda sentado ; c. 475; piedra arenisca; altura: 1,6 m; Museo de Sarnath ^[84]
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  Bodhisattva Padmapani ; c. 450–490; pigmentos sobre roca; altura: c. 1,2 m; cuevas de Ajanta (India) ^[84]
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  Shiva como señor de la danza; siglo XI aproximadamente ; bronce; altura: 96 cm; Museo Guimet (París) ^[85]
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  Templo Kandariya Mahadeva ( Khajuraho , India), c. 1030 ^[86]
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  Durga matando al demonio búfalo; c. 1150; argilita ; altura: 13,5 cm; Museo Metropolitano de Arte (Nueva York) ^[87]
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  Ganesha ; siglo XIV-XV aproximadamente ; marfil ; altura: 18,4 cm; Museo Metropolitano de Arte ^[85]
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  Basawan Akbarnama; c. 1590; acuarela sobre papel; 33 x 20 cm; Victoria and Albert Museum (Londres) ^[88]
• 
  Taj Mahal ( Agra , India), un ejemplo icónico de la arquitectura mogol , 1632-1648 ^[89]

En Asia oriental, la pintura se derivó de la práctica de la caligrafía, y los retratos y paisajes se pintaban sobre tela de seda. La mayoría de las pinturas representan paisajes o retratos. Las esculturas más espectaculares son los bronces rituales y las esculturas de bronce de Sanxingdui . Un ejemplo muy conocido del arte chino es el Ejército de terracota , que representa a los ejércitos de Qin Shi Huang , el primer emperador de China. Es una forma de arte funerario enterrado con el emperador en 210-209 a. C. cuyo propósito era proteger al emperador en su otra vida.

El arte chino es una de las artes tradicionales continuas más antiguas del mundo y se caracteriza por un grado inusual de continuidad y conciencia de esa tradición, que carece de un equivalente al colapso occidental y la recuperación gradual de los estilos clásicos. Los medios que generalmente se han clasificado en Occidente desde el Renacimiento como artes decorativas son extremadamente importantes en el arte chino, y gran parte de las mejores obras fueron producidas en grandes talleres o fábricas por artistas esencialmente desconocidos, especialmente en cerámica china . La variedad y calidad de los productos que decoraban los palacios y hogares chinos, y a sus habitantes, es deslumbrante. Los materiales provenían de toda China y mucho más allá: oro y plata, nácar , marfil y cuerno de rinoceronte, madera y laca , jade y esteatita , seda y papel.

• 
  Pagoda de Buda (Monasterio Fogong, Yingxian , China), 1056 ^[90]
• 
  Grúas auspiciosas pintadas por el emperador Huizong de una escena rara en la parte superior de una puerta de la ciudad el 16 de enero de 1112.
• 
  Principios de otoño de Qian Xuan , un ejemplo de pintura china de pájaros y flores (siglo XIII)
• 
  Una sección del famoso pergamino de los Nueve Dragones , completado en 1244 d. C.
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  Paisaje nevado de Ma Yuan (c.1160–1225), Museo Nacional del Palacio de Taipei
• 
  Baile y canto (campesinos que regresan del trabajo) c. 1200
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  Una pintura del estilo Gongbi del emperador Huizong
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  Un bodegón también de estilo Gongbi de la dinastía Song del Sur.
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  Pájaros en un matorral de bambú y ciruelo, siglo XII.
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  Li Bai paseando por Liang Kai (c.1140 - c.1210), conocido por sus obras minimalistas que ejemplifican la virtud budista de la atención plena.
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  Gallina y polluelos, dinastía Song . El fuerte contraste que produce el fondo negro es muy poco frecuente en la pintura china .
• 
  Patito cantor al estilo Gongbi
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  Pájaro en una rama, de Li Anzhong, finales de la dinastía Song del Norte, c. 1130
• 
  El río Amarillo desvía su curso Dinastía Song
• 
  Sección de Ocho vistas de Xiaoxiang , un recorrido imaginario por Xiaoxiang de Li Shi; siglo XII. Museo Nacional de Tokio
• 
  Rocas elegantes y árboles dispersos de Zhao Mengfu (1254-1322)
• 
  Principios de primavera ; de Guo Xi ; 1072; pergamino colgante, tinta sobre seda; 1,58 x 1,08 m; Museo Nacional del Palacio ( Taipei , Taiwán ) ^[91]
• 
  Estatua de luohan Tamrabhadra, perteneciente al grupo de luohans de cerámica vidriada de Yixian; siglos X-XIII; terracota vidriada; altura: 123 cm; Museo Guimet (París)
• 
  Guan Yin de los Mares del Sur; siglos XI-XII; madera pintada y dorada; altura: 2,41 m; Museo de Arte Nelson-Atkins ( Kansas City , Misuri , EE. UU.) ^[92]
• 
  Damas preparando seda; una pintura de la dinastía Tang del siglo VIII de Zhang Xuan copiada y reproducida en la dinastía Song ; tinta y colores sobre seda; 0,37 x 1,47 m; Museo de Bellas Artes ( Boston , EE. UU.) ^[93]
• 
  Una caja decorativa de la dinastía Song del sur , alrededor del siglo XIII.
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  Copa; principios del siglo XVII; cuerno de rinoceronte; altura: 10,2 cm; Museo Metropolitano de Arte
• 
  Dinastía Ming , 1403-24.
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  Caja cloisonné ; siglo XVIII; esmaltes cloisonné sobre cobre con bronce dorado; 20,5 × 19,8 cm; Walters Art Museum ( Baltimore , Maryland , EE. UU.)

El arte japonés abarca una amplia gama de estilos y medios artísticos, incluyendo cerámica antigua , escultura , pintura con tinta y caligrafía sobre seda y papel, pinturas ukiyo-e y xilografías , cerámica, origami y, más recientemente, manga ( cómics y dibujos animados japoneses modernos ), junto con una miríada de otros tipos.

Los primeros pobladores de Japón fueron los Jōmon ( c.  11.000–300 a. C.). Fabricaban vasijas de cerámica profusamente decoradas , figurillas de arcilla llamadas dogū . Japón ha estado sujeto a invasiones repentinas de nuevas ideas seguidas de largos períodos de contacto mínimo con el mundo exterior. Con el tiempo, los japoneses desarrollaron la capacidad de absorber, imitar y finalmente asimilar aquellos elementos de la cultura extranjera que complementaban sus preferencias estéticas. El arte complejo más antiguo de Japón se produjo en los siglos VII y VIII en relación con el budismo . En el siglo IX, cuando los japoneses comenzaron a alejarse de China y a desarrollar formas de expresión autóctonas, las artes seculares cobraron cada vez más importancia; hasta finales del siglo XV, florecieron tanto las artes religiosas como las seculares. Después de la Guerra de Ōnin (1467–1477), Japón entró en un período de perturbación política, social y económica que duró más de un siglo. En el estado que surgió bajo el liderazgo del shogunato Tokugawa , la religión organizada jugó un papel mucho menos importante en la vida de la gente y las artes que sobrevivieron fueron principalmente seculares.

• 
  Templo del Pabellón Dorado ( Kitayama , Kioto ), un templo budista zen en Kioto , 1398 ^[94]
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  Figura femenina; c. 1670–1690; porcelana con esmaltes policromados sobre cubierta; altura: 39,7 cm; Museo Metropolitano de Arte (Nueva York)
• 
  Túnica Noh; 1750–1800; bordado de seda y pan de oro sobre satén de seda; largo: 1,66 m; Museo Metropolitano de Arte ^[95]
• 
  La gran ola de Kanagawa , de Katsushika Hokusai ; c. 1830–1832; xilografía a todo color; 25,7 x 37,9 cm; Museo Metropolitano de Arte ^[96]
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  Plum Park en Kameido ; por Hiroshige ; 1857; xilografía a todo color; 36,4 x 24,4 cm; Rijksmuseum ( Ámsterdam , Países Bajos )

El arte del África subsahariana incluye tanto la escultura , tipificada por las fundiciones de bronce del pueblo de Benín , Igbo Ukwu y el Reino de Ifẹ , y las terracotas de Djenne-Jeno , Ife y la cultura más antigua Nok , así como el arte popular . Simultáneamente con la Edad Media europea, en el siglo XI d. C. se fundó en Gran Zimbabue una nación que hacía gran arquitectura, esculturas de oro y joyas intrincadas . Al mismo tiempo, el pueblo yoruba de lo que hoy es Nigeria estaba fundiendo impresionantes esculturas de bronce . En el Reino de Benín , también del sur de Nigeria, que comenzó aproximadamente en la misma época, se crearon elegantes colmillos de altar, cabezas de bronce, placas de bronce y arquitectura palaciega. El Reino de Benín fue terminado por los británicos en 1897, y poco del arte de la cultura permanece ahora en Nigeria. Hoy, el lugar de arte más importante de África es la Bienal de Johannesburgo .

El África subsahariana se caracteriza por una alta densidad de culturas. Destacan los pueblos dogón de Mali ; los pueblos edo , yoruba , igbo y la civilización nok de Nigeria ; los pueblos kuba y luba de África central ; los ashanti de Ghana ; los zulúes del sur de África ; y los fang de Guinea Ecuatorial (85%), Camerún y Gabón; los pueblos de la civilización sao de Chad; los kwele del este de Gabón, la República del Congo y Camerún.

Las innumerables formas de arte africano forman parte de algunas de las tradiciones artísticas más vibrantes y receptivas del mundo y son parte integral de la vida de los africanos. Creadas con propósitos específicos, las obras de arte pueden revelar su importancia continua a través de transformaciones físicas que realzan tanto su apariencia como su potencia. Muchas formas de arte africano tradicional se crean como conductos hacia el mundo espiritual y cambian de apariencia a medida que se agregan materiales para realzar su belleza y potencia. Cuanto más se utiliza y se bendice una obra, más abstracta se vuelve con la acumulación de materia sacrificial y el desgaste de los detalles originales.

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  Figura sentada; por artistas de la cultura Nok ; siglo V a. C.-siglo V d. C.; loza (Nigeria central); altura: 38 cm; Museo del Quai Branly , París ^[97]
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  Olla; de Igbo-Ukwu ( Nigeria ); siglo IX; bronce; dimensiones desconocidas; Museo Nacional de Nigeria , Lagos
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  Escultura de cabeza de bronce del Oni Obalufon , ca. Siglo XII, descubierta en la ciudad santa de los yoruba yoruba Ilé-Ifẹ̀ ; Museo Nacional de Nigeria , Lagos
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  Cabeza de un rey o dignatario; obra de artistas del pueblo yoruba ; siglos XII-XV; terracota; 19 cm; descubierta en Ife (Nigeria); Museo Etnológico de Berlín , Alemania
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  Figura sentada; de artistas de la cultura Djenné-Djenno (Mali); siglo XIII; loza; ancho: 29,9 cm; Museo Metropolitano de Arte , Nueva York ^[97]
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  Máscara colgante ; por artistas del pueblo Edo (Nigeria); siglo XVI (?); marfil y hierro; altura: 24,5 cm; Museo Británico , Londres ^[98]
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  N'dop , rey Mishe miShyaang maMbul; por artistas del Reino de Kuba ( República Democrática del Congo ); siglo XVIII; madera; 49,5 cm; Museo de Brooklyn , Nueva York ^[99]
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  Mandu Yenu (trono de Nsangu); por artistas del Reino de Bamun ; c. 1870; madera, cuentas de vidrio, porcelana y concha; altura: 1,75 m; Museo Etnológico de Berlín ^[100]
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  Máscara real; realizada por artistas del pueblo Bamum (Camerún); anterior a 1880; madera, cobre, cuentas de vidrio, rafia y conchas; altura: 66 cm; Museo Metropolitano de Arte ^[99]
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  Máscara Ngaad-A-Mwash; por artistas del pueblo Kuba; finales del siglo XIX-principios del XX; madera, conchas, cuentas de vidrio, rafia y pigmento; altura: 82 cm; Detroit Institute of Arts , Detroit , Michigan , EE. UU. ^[99]
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  Reposacabezas; obra de artistas del pueblo Luba ; siglo XIX; madera; altura: 18,5 cm; Museo del Quai Branly (París) ^[101]

Oceanian art includes the geographic areas of Micronesia, Polynesia, Australia, New Zealand, and Melanesia. One approach treats the area thematically, with foci on ancestry, warfare, the body, gender, trade, religion, and tourism. Unfortunately, little ancient art survives from Oceania. Scholars believe that this is likely because artists used perishable materials, such as wood and feathers, which did not survive in the tropical climate, and there are no historical records to refer to most of this material. The understanding of Oceania's artistic cultures thus begins with the documentation of it by Westerners, such as Captain James Cook, in the 18th century. At the turn of the 20th century the French artist Paul Gauguin spent significant amounts of time in Tahiti, living with local people and making modern art — a fact that has become intertwined with Tahitian visual culture to the present day.^{[citation needed]} The indigenous art of Australia often looks like abstract modern art, but it has deep roots in local culture.

The art of Oceania is the last great tradition of art to be appreciated by the world at large. Despite being one of the longest continuous traditions of art in the world, dating back at least fifty millennia, it remained relatively unknown until the second half of the 20th century.

The often ephemeral materials of Aboriginal art of Australia makes it difficult to determine the antiquity of the majority of the forms of art practised today. The most durable forms are the multitudes of rock engravings and rock paintings which are found across the continent. In the Arnhem Land escarpment, evidence suggests that paintings were being made fifty thousand years ago, antedating the Palaeolithic rock paintings of Altamira & Lascaux in Europe.

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  Hoa Hakananai'a, an example of a moai; c. 1200 AD; flow lava; height: 242 cm; British Museum (London)^[102]
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  Statue of A'a from Rurutu; probably 18th century; wood; height: 117 cm; British Museum^[103]
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  Taurapa (māori canoe sternpost); late 18th-early 19th century; wood and sheel; height: 148 cm; Musée du Quai Branly (Paris)^[104]
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  Australian painting of a kangaroo totemic ancestor; c. 1915; painting on bark; 92.5 × 35.5 cm; Musée du Quai Branly

With the decline of the Roman Empire from c. 300 AD, a period subsequently defined as the Medieval era began. It lasted for about a millennium, until the beginning of the Renaissance c. 1400. Early Christian art typifies the early stages of this period, followed by Byzantine art, Anglo-Saxon art, Viking art, Ottonian art, Romanesque art and Gothic art, with Islamic art dominating the eastern Mediterranean. Medieval art grew out of the artistic heritage of the Roman Empire and of Byzantium, mixed with the "barbarian" artistic culture of northern Europe.^[105]

In Byzantine and Gothic art of the Middle Ages, the dominance of the church resulted in a large amount of religious art. There was extensive use of gold in paintings, which presented figures in simplified forms.

Byzantine art consists of the body of Christian Greek artistic products of the Eastern Roman (Byzantine) Empire,^[107][108] as well as of the nations and states that inherited culturally from that empire. Though the Byzantine empire itself emerged from Rome's decline and lasted until the Fall of Constantinople in 1453,^[109] the start-date of the Byzantine period is rather clearer in art history than in political history, if still imprecise. Many Eastern Orthodox states in Eastern and Central Europe, as well as to some degree the Muslim states of the eastern Mediterranean, preserved many aspects of the empire's culture and art for centuries afterward.

Surviving Byzantine art is mostly religious, and—with exceptions at certain periods—is highly conventionalised, following traditional models that translate carefully controlled church theology into artistic terms. Painting in fresco, in illuminated manuscripts and on wood panels, and (especially in earlier periods) mosaic were the main media, and figurative sculpture occurred very rarely except for small carved ivories. Manuscript painting preserved to the end some of the classical realist tradition that was missing in larger works.^[110] Byzantine art was highly prestigious and sought-after in Western Europe, where it maintained a continuous influence on medieval art until near the end of the medieval period. This was especially so in Italy, where Byzantine styles persisted in modified form through the 12th century, and became formative influences on Italian Renaissance art. But few incoming influences affected the Byzantine style. With the expansion of the Eastern Orthodox church, Byzantine forms and styles spread throughout the Orthodox world and beyond.^[111] Influences from Byzantine architecture, particularly in religious buildings, can be found in diverse regions from Egypt and Arabia to Russia and Romania.

Byzantine architecture is notorious for the use of domes. It also often featured marble columns, coffered ceilings and sumptuous decoration, including the extensive use of mosaics with golden backgrounds. The building material used by Byzantine architects was no longer marble, which the Ancient Greeks had appreciated so much. The Byzantines used mostly stone and brick, and also thin alabaster sheets for windows. Mosaics were used to cover brick walls, and any other surface where fresco wouldn't resist. Good examples of mosaics from the proto-Byzantine era are in Hagios Demetrios in Thessaloniki (Greece), the Basilica of Sant'Apollinare Nuovo and the Basilica of San Vitale (both in Ravenna in Italy), and in Hagia Sophia in Istanbul. Greco-Roman temples and Byzantine churches differ substantially in terms of their exterior and interior aspect. In Antiquity, the exterior was the most important part of the temple, because in the interior, which contained the cult statue of the deity to whom the temple was built, only the priest had access. Temple ceremonies in Antiquity took place outside, and what the worshippers viewed was the facade of the temple, consisting of columns, with an entablature and two pediments. In contrast, Christian liturgies played out in the interior of the churches, thus the exterior usually having little to no ornamentation.^[112][113]

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  Christ as the Good Shepherd; c. 425–430; mosaic; width: c. 3 m; Mausoleum of Galla Placidia (Ravenna, Italy)^[114]
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  Feeding of the Five Thousand; c.520; mosaic; unknown dimensions; Basilica of Sant'Apollinare Nuovo, Ravenna, Italy
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  Basilica of Sant'Apollinare in Classe, Ravenna, unknown architect, c.530^[115]
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  Diptych Leaf with a Byzantine Empress; 6th century; ivory with traces of gilding and leaf; height: 26.5 cm; Kunsthistorisches Museum (Vienna, Austria)^[116]
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  Collier; late 6th–7th century; gold, an emerald, a sapphire, amethysts and pearls; diameter: 23 cm; from a Constantinopolitan workshop; Antikensammlung Berlin (Berlin, Germany)^[117]
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  Page of the Gospel Book with Commentaries: Portrait of Mark; 1000–1100; ink, tempera, gold, vellum and leather binding; sheet: 28 × 23 cm; Cleveland Museum of Art (Cleveland, Ohio, US)
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  Ladder of Divine Ascent; late 12th century; tempera and gold leaf on panel; 41 x 29.5 cm; Saint Catherine's Monastery (Sinai Peninsula, Egypt)^[118]
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  Madonna and Child on a Curved Throne; c.1280; tempera on panel; 81.5 x 49 cm; National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.^[119]

Ottonian art is a style in pre-romanesque German art, covering also some works from the Low Countries, northern Italy and eastern France. It was named by the art historian Hubert Janitschek after the Ottonian dynasty which ruled Germany and northern Italy between 919 and 1024 under the kings Henry I, Otto I, Otto II, Otto III and Henry II.^[120] With Ottonian architecture, it is a key component of the Ottonian Renaissance (circa 951–1024). However, the style neither began nor ended to neatly coincide with the rule of the dynasty. It emerged some decades into their rule and persisted past the Ottonian emperors into the reigns of the early Salian dynasty, which lacks an artistic "style label" of its own.^[121] In the traditional scheme of art history, Ottonian art follows Carolingian art and precedes Romanesque art, though the transitions at both ends of the period are gradual rather than sudden. Like the former and unlike the latter, it was very largely a style restricted to a few of the small cities of the period, to important monasteries, as well as to the court circles of the emperor and his leading vassals.

After the decline of the 9th-century Carolingian Empire, the Holy Roman Empire was re-established under the Saxon Ottonian dynasty. From this emerged a renewed faith in the idea of Empire and a reformed Church, creating a period of heightened cultural and artistic fervour. In this atmosphere masterpieces were created that fused the traditions from which Ottonian artists derived their inspiration: models of Late Antique, Carolingian, and Byzantine origin. Surviving Ottonian art is very largely religious, in the form of illuminated manuscripts and metalwork, and was produced in a small number of centres for a narrow range of patrons in the circle of the Imperial court, as well as for important figures in the church. However much of it was designed for display to a wider public, especially to pilgrims.^[122]

The style is generally grand and heavy, sometimes to excess, and initially less sophisticated than the Carolingian equivalents, with less direct influence from Byzantine art and less understanding of its classical models, but around 1000 a striking intensity and expressiveness emerge in many works, as "a solemn monumentality is combined with a vibrant inwardness, an unworldly, visionary quality with sharp attention to actuality, surface patterns of flowing lines and rich bright colours with passionate emotionalism".^[123]

The Romanesque, the first pan-European style to emerge after the Roman Empire, spanned the mid-tenth century to the thirteenth. The period saw a resurgence of monumental stone structures with complex structural programmes.

Romanesque churches are characterized by rigid articulation and geometric clarity, incorporated into a unified volumetric whole. The architecture is austere but enlivened by decorative sculpting of capitals and portals, as well as frescoed interiors. Geometric and foliate patterning gives way to increasingly three-dimensional figurative sculpture.

St. Michael's Church, Hildesheim, Germany, 1001–1030, is seen by some as a Proto-Romanesque church.^{[124][need quotation to verify]}

From the mid-eleventh to the early thirteenth centuries, Romanesque paintings were two-dimensional, defined by bold, linear outlines and geometry, particularly in the handling of drapery; painters emphasised symmetry and frontality. Virtually all Western churches were painted, but probably only a few wall-painters were monks; instead, itinerant artists carried out most of this work. Basic blocking-out was done on wet plaster with earth colours. A limited palette, dominated by white, red, yellow ochres and azure, was employed for maximum visual effect, with dense colouring forming a backdrop of bands, a practice that originated in late Classical art as an attempt to distinguish earth and sky.

During the later eleventh and twelfth centuries, the great age of Western monasticism, Europe experienced unprecedented economic, social and political change, leading to burgeoning wealth among landowners, including monasteries. There was increasing demand for books, and economic wealth encouraged the production of richly illuminated manuscripts.

One of the outstanding artefacts of the age is the 70 m long Bayeux Tapestry.^{[125][126][127]} It depicts the events leading up to the Norman conquest of England with protagonists William, Duke of Normandy, and Harold, Earl of Wessex, later King of England, and culminating in the Battle of Hastings of 1066. It is thought to date from the 11th century. It tells the story from the point of view of the conquering Normans, but is now agreed to have been made in England - most likely by women, although the designer is unknown. It is housed in France.

• 
  'Holy Face'; 904–1018; wood with polychromy; height: 2.9 m; Sansepolcro Cathedral (Sansepolcro, Italy)^[128]
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  Speyer cathedral (Speyer, Germany), 1030-1106^[129]
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  Maria Laach Abbey (Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany), 1093-1230^[130]
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  Head of pope Alexander; 1145; wood, silver, gilt bronze, gems, pearls and champlevé enamel; height: c. 45 cm; Art & History Museum (Brussels, Belgium)^[131]
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  The stoning of Saint Stephen; 1160s; fresco; height: 1.3 m; Saint John Abbey (Val Müstair, Canton of Grisons, Switzerland)^[132]

Gothic art developed in Northern France out of Romanesque in the 12th century AD, and led by the concurrent development of Gothic architecture. It spread to all of Western Europe, and much of Southern and Central Europe, never quite effacing more classical styles in Italy. In the late 14th century, the sophisticated court style of International Gothic developed, which continued to evolve until the late 15th century.

Brick Gothic was a specific style of Gothic architecture common in Northeast and Central Europe especially in the regions in and around the Baltic Sea, which do not have resources of standing rock. The buildings are essentially built using bricks.

The imposing Gothic cathedrals, with their sculptural programmes and stained glass windows, epitomize the Gothic style.^[133] It differs from Romanesque through its rib-shaped vaults, and the use of ogives. Instead of the thick Romanesque walls, Gothic buildings are thin and tall. Spiral stairs in towers are specific to Gothic architecture.^[134]

Gothic painting, much of it executed in tempera and, later, oils on panel, as well as fresco, and with an increasingly broad palette of secondary colours, is generally seen as more 'naturalistic' than Romanesque. The humanity of religious narrative was highlighted, and the emotional state of the characters individualized.^[135] The increased urbanity of the medieval economy and the rise of the clerical and lay patron saw a change in the nature of the art market, which can be seen in developments in Gothic manuscript illumination. Workshops employed specialists for different elements of the page, such as figures or marginal vine motifs.^[136]

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  North transept windows; c. 1230–1235; stained glass; diameter (rose window): 10.2 m; Chartres Cathedral (Chartres, France)^[137]
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  The Sainte-Chapelle (Paris), 1243–1248, by Pierre de Montreuil^[138]
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  Ekkehard and Uta; attributed to the Master of Namburg; 1245–1260; limestone and polychromy; height: c. 1.9 m; Naumburg Cathedral (Naumburg, Germany)^[139]
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  Arrest of Christ and Annunciation of the Virgin; by Jean Pucelle; 1324–1328; grisaille and temprea on vellum; 8.9 x 12.4 cm; Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York City)^[136]
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  The Wilton Diptych; c. 1395–1459; tempera and gold on panel; 53 × 37 cm; National Gallery (London)^[135]
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  St. Mary's Church, 1265-1352, in Lübeck, Germany
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  Town Hall and St. Nicholas' church in Stralsund, from around 1250 to 1400, Germany
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  Brick Gothic with some decoration of stone, Old St. John's Hospital, 13th to 15th century, in Bruges, Belgium

Encompassing Early, Northern and High Renaissance, the term Renaissance describes the 'rebirth' in Europe of a new interest for Classical antiquity. For the first time since antiquity, art became convincingly lifelike. Besides the ancient past, Renaissance artists also studied nature, understanding the human body, animals, plants, space, perspective and the qualities of light. The most common theme were religious subjects, but depictions of mythological stories were produced as well. Also, there was no uniform Renaissance style. Each artist developed their own distinct visual language, influenced by their predecessors and contemporaries.

The Early Renaissance was a period of great creative and intellectual activity when artists broke away completely from the parameters of Byzantine art. It is generally accepted that it started in Florence in present-day Italy in the early 15th century. It is characterized by a surge of interest in classical literature, philosophy and art, the growth of commerce, the discovery of new continents, and new inventions. There was a revival of interest in the art and literature of ancient Rome, and the study of ancient Greek and Latin texts instigated concepts of individualism and reason, which became known as humanism. Humanists considered life in the present and emphasized the importance of individual thought, which affected artists' approaches.

Despite being highly associated with Italy, particularly with Florence, Rome, and Venice, the rest of Western Europe participated to the Renaissance as well.^[140] The Northern Renaissance occurred in Europe north of the Alps from the early 15th century, following a period of artistic cross-fertilization between north and south known as 'International Gothic'. There was a big difference between the Northern and Italian Renaissance. The North artists did not seek to revive the values of ancient Greece and Rome like the Italians, while in the south Italian artists and patrons were amazed by the empirical study of nature and the human society, and by the deep colors that northern artists could achieve in the newly developed medium of oil paint. The Protestant Reformation increased the northern interest in secular painting, like portraits or landscapes. Two key northern artists are Hieronymus Bosch, known for his surreal paintings filled with hybrid creatures like The Garden of Earthly Delights, and Albrecht Dürer, who brought the new art of printmaking to a new level.

The High Renaissance took place in the late 15th-early 16th centuries and was influenced by the fact that as papal power stabilized in Rome, several popes commissioned art and architecture, determined to recreate the city's former glory. Raphael and Michelangelo produced vast and grandiose projects for the popes. The most famous artwork of this part of the Renaissance is probably the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel.

Mannerism broke away from High Renaissance ideals of harmony and a rational approach to art, to embrace exaggerated forms, elongated proportions, and more vibrant colors. It developed in Italy between 1510 and 1520, among artists who prized originality above all. The name of this movement comes from the Italian maniera, meaning 'style or 'manner'. The word was meant to describe the standard of excellence achieved during the High Renaissance, to which all art should now adhere, but in practice it led to stylization and art 'to show art', sometimes with great success, an example being Raphael's pupil Giulio Romano. Mannerism has also been used more generally to describe a period following the Renaissance and preceding the Baroque.^[141]

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  The Florence Cathedral (Florence, Italy), 1294–1436, by Arnolfo di Cambio, Filippo Brunelleschi and Emilio De Fabris^[142]
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  Crucifix; by Giotto; c. 1300; tempera on panel; 5.78 x 4.06 m; Santa Maria Novella (Florence, Italy)^[143]
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  Arnolfini Portrait; by Jan van Eyck; 1434; oil on panel; 82.2 x 60 cm; National Gallery (London)^[144]
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  David; by Donatello; c. 1460s; bronze; height: 1.6 m; Bargello (Florence)^[145]
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  Saint George and the Dragon; by Paolo Uccello; c. 1470; oil on canvas; 55.6 x 74.2 cm; National Gallery (London)^[146]
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  Primavera; by Sandro Botticelli; c. 1478; tempera on panel; 2 x 3.1 m; Uffizi Gallery (Florence)^[147]
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  The Tempietto (San Pietro in Montorio, Rome), 1502, by Donato Bramante^[148]
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  Mona Lisa; by Leonardo da Vinci; c.1503-1519; oil on poplar panel; 77 × 53 cm; Louvre^[149]
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  The Garden of Earthly Delights; by Hieronymus Bosch; c. 1504; oil on panel; 2.2 x 1.95 m; Museo del Prado (Madrid, Spain)^[150]
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  Sistine Chapel ceiling; by Michelangelo; 1508–1512; fresco; 13.7 x 39 m; Sistine Chapel (Vatican City)^[151]
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  The School of Athens; by Raphael; 1509–1510; fresco; 5.8 x 8.2 m; Apostolic Palace (Vatican City)^[152]
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  The Rhinoceros; by Albrecht Dürer; 1515; woodcut; 23.5 × 29.8 cm; National Gallery of Art (Washington, D.C., US)
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  Château d'Azay-le-Rideau (Loire, France), 1518-1527^[153]
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  The Tower of Babel; by Pieter Bruegel the Elder; 1563; oil on panel; 1.14 x 1.55 m; Kunsthistorisches Museum (Vienna, Austria)^[154]
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  Cupboard; c. 1580; walnut and oak, partially gilded and painted; height: 2.06 m, width: 1.50 m; Louvre^[155]
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  The Augsburg Town Hall (Augsburg, Germany), 1615–1624, by Elias Holl

The 17th century was a period of volatile change, both in science, through inventions and developments, such as the telescope or the microscope, and in religion, as the Catholic Counter-Reformation contested the growing popularity of Protestant faith. After the Protestant Reformation the Catholic Church reacted with the Counter-Reformation, decreeing that art should inspire viewers with passionate religious themes.

Succeeding Mannerism, and developing as a result of religious tensions across Europe, Baroque art emerged in the late 16th century. The name may derive from 'barocco', the Portuguese word for misshaped pearl, and it describes art that combined emotion, dynamism and drama with powerful color, realism and strong tonal contrasts. Between 1545 and 1563 at the Council of Trent, it was decided that religious art must encourage piety, realism and accuracy, and, by attracting viewers' attention and empathy, glorify the Catholic Church and strengthen the image of Catholicism. In the next century the radical new styles of Baroque art both embraced and developed High Renaissance models, and broke new ground both in religious art and in new varieties of secular art – above all landscape. The Baroque and its late variant the Rococo were the first truly global styles in the arts, dominating more than two centuries of art and architecture in Europe, Latin America and beyond from circa 1580 to circa 1750. Born in the painting studios of Bologna and Rome in the 1580s and 1590s, and in Roman sculptural and architectural ateliers in the second and third decades of the 17th century, the Baroque spread swiftly throughout Italy, Spain and Portugal, Flanders, France, the Netherlands, England, Scandinavia, and Russia, as well as to central and eastern European centres from Munich (Germany) to Vilnius (Lithuania). The Portuguese, Spanish and French empires and the Dutch treading network had a leading role in spreading the two styles into the Americas and colonial Africa and Asia, to places such as Lima, Mozambique, Goa and the Philippines.

Just like paintings and sculptures, Baroque cathedrals and palaces are characterised by the use of illusion and drama as well. They also frequently use dramatic effects of light and shade, and have sumptuous, highly decorated interiors that blurred the boundaries between architecture, painting and sculpture. Another important characteristic of Baroque architecture was the presence of dynamism, done through curves, Solomonic columns and ovals. In France, Baroque is synonymous with the reign of Louis XIV between 1643 and 1715, since multiple monumental buildings were built in Paris, Versailles and other parts of France during his rule, such as the Palace of Versailles, the Château de Maisons, the Château de Vaux-le-Vicomte, the Louvre Colonnade or The Dôme des Invalides. Besides the building itself, the space where it was placed has a role too. Baroque buildings try to seize viewers' attention and to dominate their surroundings, whether on a small scale such as the San Carlo alle Quattro Fontane in Rome, or on a massive one, like the new facade of the Santiago de Compostela Cathedral, designed to tower over the city. Applied arts prospered during this period as well. Baroque furniture could be as bombastic as the rooms they were meant to adorn, and their motifs and techniques were carefully calibrated to coordinate with the architect's overall decorative programme. One of the most prestigious furniture makers was André Charles Boulle, known for his marquetry technique, made by gluing sheets of tortoiseshell and brass together and cut to form the design. His works were also adorned with gilded bronze mounts. Complex Gobelins tapestries featured scenes inspired by classical antiquity, and the Savonnerie manufactory produced big highly detailed carpets for the Louvre. These carpets with black or yellow backgrounds had a central motif or a medallion. Chinese porcelain, Delftware and mirrors fabricated at Saint-Gobain (France) spread rapidly in all princely palaces and aristocratic residences in France. During the reign of Louis XIV, big mirrors are put above fireplace mantels, and this trend will last long after the Baroque period.^[156]

• 
  The Four Continents; by Peter Paul Rubens; c.1615; oil on canvas; 209 x 284 cm; Kunsthistorisches Museum (Vienna, Austria)
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  Château de Maisons (France), by François Mansart, 1630-1651^[157]
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  The Rape of the Sabine Women; by Nicolas Poussin; 1634–1635; oil on canvas; 1.55 × 2.1 m; Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York City)^[158]
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  The Night Watch; by Rembrandt; 1642; oil on canvas; 3.63 × 4.37 m; Rijksmuseum (Amsterdam, the Netherlands)^[159]
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  Ecstasy of Saint Teresa; by Gian Lorenzo Bernini; 1647–1652; marble; height: 3.5 m; Santa Maria della Vittoria (Rome)^[160]
• 
  Las Meninas; by Diego Velázquez; 1656; oil on canvas; 3.18 cm × 2.76 m; Museo del Prado (Madrid, Spain)^[161]
• 
  Vanitas Still Life; by Maria van Oosterwijck; 1668; oil on canvas; 73 x 88.5 cm; Kunsthistorisches Museum^[162]
• 
  Carpet with fame and fortitude; by the Savonnerie manufactory; 1668–1685; knotted and cut wool pile, woven with about 90 knots per square inch; 909.3 x 459.7 cm; Metropolitan Museum of Art
• 
  Dôme des Invalides (Paris), 1677–1706, by Jules Hardouin-Mansart^[163]
• 
  Commode; by André Charles Boulle; c. 1710–1732; walnut veneered with ebony and marquetry of engraved brass and tortoiseshell, gilt-bronze mounts, antique marble top; 87.6 x 128.3 x 62.9 cm; Metropolitan Museum of Art^[164]
• 
  Part of a Meissen porcelain tea and chocolate service, c. 1725, given to Vittorio Amadeo II, King of Sardinia (1666–1732) by Augustus the Strong, owner of the Meissen factory
• 
  Frauenkirche in Dresden, 1726-1743, by George Bähr

Originating in c.1720 Paris, Rococo is characterized by natural motifs, soft colours, curving lines, asymmetry and themes including love, nature and light-hearted entertainment. Its ideals were delicacy, gaiety, youthfulness and sensuality.

Beginning in France as a reaction against the heavy Baroque grandeur of Louis XIV's court at the Palace of Versailles, the rococo movement became associated particularly with the powerful Madame de Pompadour (1721–1764), the mistress of the new king Louis XV (1710–1774). Because of this, the style was also known as 'Pompadour'. The name of the movement derives from the French 'rocaille', or pebble, and refers to stones and shells that decorate the interiors of caves, as similar shell forms became a common feature in Rococo design. It began as a design and decorative arts style, and was characterized by elegant flowing shapes. Architecture followed and then painting and sculpture. The French painter with whom the term Rococo is most often associated is Jean-Antoine Watteau, whose pastoral scenes, or fêtes galantes, dominate the early part of the 18th century.

Although there are some important Bavarian churches in this style, such as the Wieskirche, Rococo is most often associated with secular buildings, principally great palaces and salons where educated elites would meet to discuss literary and philosophical ideas. In Paris, its popularity coincided with the emergence of the salon as a new type of social gathering, the venues for which were often decorated in the Rococo style. Among the most characteristically elegant and refined examples is the Salon Oval de la Princesse of the Hôtel de Soubise, one of the most beautiful 18th century mansions in Paris. The Rococo introduced dramatic changes to elite furniture, as it favoured smaller pieces with narrow, sinewy frames and more delicate, often asymmetrical decoration, often including elements of chinoiserie. The taste for Far Eastern objects (mainly Chinese) lead to the use of Chinese painted and lacquered panels for furniture.

The movement spread quickly throughout Europe and as far as Ottoman Turkey and China thanks to ornament books featuring cartouches, arabesques and shell work, as well as designs for wall panels and fireplaces. The most popular were made by Juste-Aurèle Meissonnier (1695–1750), Jacques-François Blondel (1705–1774), Pierre-Edmé Babel (1720–1775) and François de Cuvilliés (1695–1768).^[166]

• 
  The Embarkation for Cythera; by Jean-Antoine Watteau; 1718; oil on canvas; 1.29 x 1.94 m; Schloss Charlottenburg^[167]
• 
  Zwinger, Dresden, Germany, by Matthäus Daniel Pöppelmann, 1719^[168]
• 
  The Salon Oval de la Princesse of the Hôtel de Soubise (Paris), 1737–1739, by Germain Boffrand, Charles-Joseph Natoire and Jean-Baptiste Lemoyne^[169]
• 
  Candelabrum; by Jean Joseph de Saint-Germain; c.1750; gilt bronze; overall: 72.4 x 49.3 x 39.7 cm; Cleveland Museum of Art (Cleveland, Ohio, US)
• 
  Fire; by Jean-Pierre Defrance; c.1750-1760; limestone; height: 223 cm; Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York City)
• 
  Pilgrimage Church of Wies, Steingaden, Germany, by Dominikus and Johann Baptist Zimmermann, 1754^[170]
• 
  Side table (commode en console); by Bernard II van Risamburgh; c.1755-1760; Japanese lacquer, gilt-bronze mounts and Sarrancolin marble top; height: 90.2 cm; Metropolitan Museum of Art
• 
  Madame de Pompadour; by François Boucher; 1756; oil on canvas; 2.01 x 1.57 m; Alte Pinakothek (Munich, Germany)^[169]
• 
  Coffeepot; 1757; silver; height: 29.5 cm; Metropolitan Museum of Art
• 
  Covered tureen (terrine du roi); by the Manufacture nationale de Sèvres 1756; soft-paste porcelain with enamel and gilt decoration; overall: 24.2 cm; Cleveland Museum of Art
• 
  The Swing; by Jean-Honoré Fragonard; 1767; oil on canvas; 81 x 64 cm; Wallace Collection (London)^[169]
• 
  Marie-Antoinette with the Rose; by Élisabeth Vigée Le Brun; 1783; oil on canvas; 130 x 87 cm; Palace of Versailles (Versailles, France)

Inspired by the excavations of the ancient Roman cities of Pompeii and Herculaneum from 1748, a renewed interest in the arts of antiquity occurred. Neoclassicism dominates Western art from the mid to late 18th century until the 1830s. Embracing order and restraint, it developed in reaction to the perceived frivolity, hedonism and decadence of Rococo and exemplifying the rational thinking of the 'Age of Enlightenment' (aka the 'Age of Reason'). Initially, the movement was developed not by artists, but by Enlightenment philosophers. They requested replacing Rococo with a style of rational art, moral and dedicated to the soul.^[172] This fitted well with a perception of Classical art as the embodiment of realism, restraint and order. Inspired by ancient Greek and Roman art, the classical history paintings of the French artist Nicolas Poussin (1594–1665) and the ideas of the German writer Anton Raphael Mengs (1728–1779) and the German archaeologist and art historian Johann Joachim Winckelmann (1717–1768), Neoclassicism began in Rome, but soon spread throughout Europe. Rome had become the main focus of the Grand Tour by the mid-18th century, and aristocratic travellers went there in search of Classical visions to recreate on their country estates, thus spreading the style across Europe, particularly in England and France. The tour was also an opportunity for collecting Classical antiquities. Neoclassical paintings tended to be populated with figures posed like Classical statues or reliefs, set in locations filled with archaeological details. The style favoured Greek art over Roman, considering it purer and more authentically classical in its aesthetic goal.

In 1789, France was on the brink of its first revolution and Neoclassicism sought to express their patriotic feelings. Politics and art were closely entwined during this period. They believed that art should be serious, and valued drawings above painting; smooth contours and paint with no discernible brushstrokes were the ultimate aim. Both painting and sculpture exerted calmness and restraint and focused on heroic themes, expressing such noble notions as self-sacrifice and nationalism.

This movement paved the way for Romanticism, that appeared when the idealism of the revolution faded away and after the Napoleonic period came to an end in the early 19th century. Neoclassicism should not be seen as the opposite of Romanticism, however, but in some ways an early manifestation of it.^[173][174]

• 
  Fantasy View with the Pantheon and other Monuments of Ancient Rome, by Giovanni Paolo Panini, 1737, oil on canvas, Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, US
• 
  The ancient Capitol ascended by approximately one hundred steps . . ., by Giovanni Battista Piranesi, c.1750, etching, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City
• 
  Hôtel de la Marine, Paris, by Ange-Jacques Gabriel, 1761–1770^[175]
• 
  Petit Trianon, Versailles, France, by Ange-Jacques Gabriel, 1764^[176]
• 
  A Philosopher Lecturing on the Orrery, by Joseph Wright of Derby, c.1766, oil on canvas, Derby Museum and Art Gallery, Derby, England^[177]
• 
  The Hall, Osterley Park, London, by Robert Adam, 1767^[178]
• 
  The Artist and her Daughter, by Élisabeth Vigée Le Brun, c.1785, oil on canvas, Louvre^[179]
• 
  Washstand (athénienne or lavabo), 1800–1814, legs, base and shelf of yew wood, gilt-bronze mounts, iron plate beneath shelf, Metropolitan Museum of Art
• 
  Portrait of Charlotte du Val d'Ognes, by Marie-Denise Villers, 1801, oil on canvas, Metropolitan Museum of Art^[180]
• 
  The Three Graces, by Antonio Canova, 1813–1816, marble, Hermitage Museum, Saint Petersburg, Russia^[181]

Many art historians place the origins of modern art in the late 18th century, others in the mid 19th century. Art historian H. Harvard Arnason stated "a gradual metamorphosis took place in the course of a hundred years."^[182] Events such as the Age of Enlightenment, revolutions and democracies in America and France, and the Industrial Revolution had far reaching affects in western culture. People, commodities, ideas, and information could travel between countries and continents with unprecedented speed and these changes were reflected in the arts. The invention of photography in the 1830s further altered certain aspects of art, particularly painting. By the dawn of the 19th century, a long and gradual paradigm shift was complete, from the Gothic when artists were viewed as craftsmen in the service of the church and monarchies, to the idea of art for art's sake, where the ideas and visions of the individual artist were held in the high regard, with patronage from an increasingly literate, affluent, and urban middle and upper class population that had been emerging for 200 years (particularly in Paris and London). A dichotomy began in the late 18th century between neoclassicism and romanticism that subdivided and continued to run through virtually every new movement in modern art: "Spreading like waves, these "isms" defy national, ethnic, and chronological boundaries; never dominant anywhere for long, they compete or merge with each other in endlessly shifting patterns."^[183]

Modern art has consistently moved toward international influences and exchanges, from the exotic curiosity of Orientalism, the deeper influence of Japonisme, to the arts of Oceania, Africa, and the Americas. Conversely modern art has increasingly extended beyond western Europe. In Russia and the US the arts were developing to a degree that rivaled the leading European countries by the end of the 19th century. Many of the major movements appeared in Latin America, Australia, and Asia too and geography and nationality became increasingly insignificant with each passing decade. By the 20th century important and influential artists were emerging around the world: e.g. Foujita (Japan), Arshile Gorky (Armenia), Diego Rivera and Frida Kahlo (Mexico), Wifredo Lam (Cuba), Edvard Munch (Norwegian), Roberto Matta (Chilean), Mark Rothko (Lithuanian-American), Fernando Botero Angulo (Colombia), Constantin Brâncuși and Victor Brauner (Romania).^{[184][185][186][187][188]}

• 
  Newton's Cenotaph, exterior by night; by Étienne-Louis Boullée; 1784; ink and wash, 40.2 × 63.3 cm.; Bibliothèque Nationale
• 
  The Dog; Francisco de Goya; ca. 1819–1823; mural transferred to canvas, 131.5 × 79.3 cm.; Museo del Prado
• 
  Death on a Pale Horse; J. M. W. Turner; c. 1830; oil on canvas, 60 × 76 cm.; Tate Britain
• 
  Toothless Man Laughing, Charles Philipon form Célébrités du Juste milieu; Honoré Daumier; 1832–33; painted clay, 6.12 high; Musée d'Orsay
• 
  Still life with statue of Jupiter Tonans; by Louis Jacques Daguerre; c. 1839; daguerreotype

Romanticism emerged in the late 18th century out of the German Sturm und Drang movement and flourished in the first half of the 19th century with significant and international manifestations in music, literature, and architecture, as well as the visual arts. It grew from a disillusionment with the rationalism of 18th century Enlightenment. Despite being often viewed as the opposite of Neoclassicism, there were some stylistic overlapping with both movements, and many Romantic artists were excited by classicism. The movement focused on intense emotions, imagination, and on the impressive power of nature, a bigger and more powerful force than the one of men, with its potential for disaster. "Neoclassicism is a new revival of classical antiquity... while Romanticism refers not to a specific style but to an attitude of mind that may reveal itself in any number of ways."^[190]

One of the earliest expressions of romanticism was in the English landscape garden, carefully designed to appear natural and standing in dramatic contrast to the formal gardens of the time. The concept of the "natural" English garden was adopted throughout Europe and America in the following decades. In architecture, the romantics frequently turned to alternative sources other than the Greek and Roman examples admired by the neo-classicist. Romantic architecture often revived Gothic forms and other styles such as exotic eastern models. The Palace of Westminster (Houses of Parliament), London is an example of romantic architecture that is also referred to as Gothic Revival.^[190] In painting romanticism is exemplified by the paintings of Francisco Goya in Spain, Eugène Delacroix and Théodore Géricault in France, William Blake, Henry Fuseli, Samuel Palmer, and William Turner in England, Caspar David Friedrich and Philipp Otto Runge in Germany, Francesco Hayez in Italy, Johan Christian Claussen Dahl in Norway, and Thomas Cole in America. Examples of sculptors of the romantic period include Antoine-Louis Barye, Jean-Baptiste Carpeaux, Auguste Préault, and François Rude. As romanticism ran its course, some aspects of the movement evolved into symbolism.^{[191][192][187][193][194]}

• 
  Elohim Creating Adam; by William Blake; 1795; color print finished in ink and watercolour on paper; 43.1 × 53.6 cm; Tate Britain (London)^[195]
• 
  The Morning, by Philipp Otto Runge, 1808
• 
  The Third of May 1808; by Francisco Goya; 1814; oil on canvas; 2.68 × 3.47 m; Museo del Prado (Madrid, Spain)^[196]
• 
  The Raft of the Medusa; by Théodore Géricault; 1819; oil on canvas; 4.91 × 7.16 m; Louvre^[197]
• 
  The Death of Sardanapalus; by Eugène Delacroix; 1827; oil on canvas; 3.92 × 4.96 m; Louvre^[198]
• 
  Palace of Westminster (London), 1840–1870, by Sir Charles Barry and A. Welby Pugin^[199]
• 
  Schwerin Castle, Schwerin, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Germany, 1845-1857, by Gottfried Semper, Friedrich August Stüler, Georg Adolf Demmler and Ernst Friedrich Zwirner

Academism is the codification of art into rules that can be learned in art academies. It promotes the Classical ideals of beauty and artistic perfection. There was also a very strict hierarchy of subjects. At the top, there were paintings that depicted historic events, including the biblical and Classical ones, followed by the portrait and by the landscape. At the bottom of the hierarchy were still life and genre painting. Nicolas Poussin was the artist whose works and theories played the most significant role in the development of academism. The vales of academism were situated in the centre of the Enlightenment project of discovering the basic principles and ideals of art.

During the 18th century, across all Europe, many academies were founded, that will later dominate the art of the 19th century. In order to study at an art academy, young artists had to take an admission exam, and after being admitted, they would study there for multiple years. Most of the 19th century French art movements were exterior or even opposing the values of academism.

Some of the most important artists of the French academy were William Bouguereau (1825–1905), Jean-Léon Gérôme (1824–1904), Alexandre Cabanel (1823–1889) and Thomas Couture (1815–1879). Academic art is closely related to Beaux-Arts architecture, which developed in the same place and holds to a similar classicizing ideal. The Beaux-Arts style takes its name from the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris, where it developed and where many of the main exponents of the style studied.^[200][201]

• 
  Palais Garnier (Paris), 1860–1875, by Charles Garnier^[202]
• 
  Pollice Verso (Thumbs Down); by Jean-Léon Gérôme; 1872; oil on canvas; height: 96.5 cm; Phoenix Art Museum (Phoenix, Arizona, US)
• 
  The Birth of Venus; by William-Adolphe Bouguereau; 1879; oil on canvas; 300 x 215 cm; Musée d'Orsay (Paris)^[203]
• 
  Phaedra; by Alexandre Cabanel; 1880; oil on canvas; 194 x 286 cm; Musée Fabre (Montpellier, France)^[204]
• 
  The Roses of Heliogabalus; by Lawrence Alma-Tadema; 1888; oil on canvas; 1.3 x 2.1 m; private collection of Juan Antonio Pérez Simón^[205]

When it comes to architecture and applied arts, the 19th century is best known as the century of revivals. One of the most well-known revivalist styles is the Gothic Revival or Neo-Gothic, which first appeared in the mid-18th century in a few houses in England, like the Strawberry Hill House in London. However, these houses were isolated cases, since the beginning of the 19th century was dominated by Neoclassicism. Later, between 1830 and 1840, a taste and nostalgia for the rediscovery of past styles, ranging from the Middle Ages to the 18th century, developed under the influence of romanticism. Approximatively until World War I, rehashes of the past dominated the world of architecture and applied arts. Associations between styles and building types appeared, for example: Egyptian for prisons, Gothic for churches, or Renaissance Revival for banks and exchanges. These choices were the result of other associations: the pharaohs with death and eternity, the Middle Ages with Christianity, or the Medici family with the rise of banking and modern commerce. Sometimes, these styles were also seen in a nationalistic way, on the idea that architecture might represent the glory of a nation. Some of them were seen as 'national styles', like the Gothic Revival in the UK and the German states or the Romanian Revival in Romania. Augustus Pugin called the Gothic style the 'absolute duty'^[206] of the English architect, despite the fact that the style is of French origin. This way, architecture and the applied arts were used to grant the aura of a highly idealized glorious past. Some architects and designers associated historic styles, especially the medieval ones, with an idealized fantasy organic life, which they put in comparison with the reality of their time.^[207]

Despite revivalism being so prevalent, this doesn't mean that there was no originality in these works. Architects, ébénistes and other craftsmen, especially during the second half of the 19th century, created mixes of styles, by extracting and interpreting elements specific to certain eras and areas. This practice is known as eclecticism. This stylistic development occurred during a period when the competition of World's Fairs motivated many countries to invent new industrial methods of creation.

• 
  Egyptian Revival - Coin cabinet; 1809–1819; mahogany (probably Swietenia mahagoni), with applied and inlaid silver; 90.2 x 50.2 x 37.5 cm; Metropolitan Museum of Art
• 
  Gothic Revival - Pair of vases; manufactured in 1832, decorated in 1844; hard-paste porcelain; 36.4 x 32.7 x 20 cm; Metropolitan Museum of Art
• 
  Eclectic - Église Saint-Augustin de Paris, 1860–1868, by Victor Baltard
• 
  Renaissance Revival - Buffet; by Henri-Auguste Fourdinois, Nivillier, Party, Hugues Protat, Primo and Maigret; 1867; walnut, jasper and lapis lazuli marquetry, and ivory and silver-inlayed interior; unknown dimensions; Musée des Arts Décoratifs (Paris)
• 
  Rococo Revival - Apartment building no. 8 on Rue de Miromesnil (Paris), 1900, by P. Lobrot

Realism emerged in the mid-nineteenth century, c. 1840, and had counterparts in sculpture, literature, and drama, often referred to as Naturalism in literature. In nineteenth-century painting, the term Realism refers more to the subject matter depicted than to the style or technique. Realist paintings typically represent ordinary places and people engaged in everyday activities, as opposed to grand, idealized landscapes, mythological gods, biblical subjects, and historical figures and events that had often dominated painting in western culture. Courbet said "I cannot paint an angel because I have never seen one".^[190]

Realism was also in part a reaction to the often dramatic, exotic, and emotionally charged work of romanticism. The term realism is applied relative to the idealized imagery of neo-classicism and the romanticized imagery of romanticism. Artists such as Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot and Honoré Daumier had loose associations with realism, as did members of the Barbizon School, particularly Jean-François Millet, but it was perhaps Gustave Courbet who was the central figure in the movement, self identifying as a realist, advocating realism, and influencing younger artists such as Édouard Manet. One significant aspect of realism was the practice of painting landscapes en plein air and its subsequent influence on impressionism.

Beyond France, realism is exemplified by artists such as Wilhelm Leibl in Germany, Ford Madox Brown in England, and Winslow Homer in the United States. Art historian H. H. Arnason wrote, "The chronological sequence of neo-classicism, romanticism, and realism is, of course, only a convenient stratification of movements or tendencies so inextricably bound up with one another and with the preceding movements that it is impossible to tell where one ended and another began",^[208] and this becomes even more pertinent and complex as one follows all of the movements and "isms" into the late 19th and early 20th centuries.^{[209][210][211][211][212]}

• 
  The Painter's Studio; by Gustave Courbet; 1854–1855; oil on canvas; 3.59 x 5.98 m; Musée d'Orsay (Paris)^[213]
• 
  The Gleaners; by Jean-François Millet; 1857; oil on canvas; 0.84 x 1.12 m; Musée d'Orsay^[213]
• 
  The Third-Class Carriage; by Honoré Daumier; c.1862–1864; oil on canvas; 65.4 x 90.2 cm; Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York City)
• 
  The Iron Rolling Mill; by Adolph von Menzel; 1875; oil on canvas; 153 x 253 cm; Alte Nationalgalerie (Berlin, Germany)^[214]
• 
  The Poor, Picking up Pieces of Coal; by Nikolay Kasatkin; 1894; oil on canvas; 80 x 107 cm; Russian Museum (Saint Petersburg, Russia)^[214]

Impressionism emerged in France, under the influences of Realism, the Barbizon School, and en plein air painters like Eugène Boudin, Camille Corot, Charles-Francois Daubigny, and Johan Barthold Jongkind. Starting in the late 1850s, several of the impressionists had made acquaintances and friendships as students in Paris, notably at the free Académie Suisse and Charles Gleyre's studio. Their progressive work was frequently rejected by the conservative juries of the prestigious Académie des Beaux Arts salons, a forum where many artist turned to establish their reputations, and many of the young artist were included in a highly publicized, but much ridiculed Salon des Refusés in 1863. In 1874 they formed the Société Anonyme Coopérative des Artistes Peintres, Sculpteurs, Graveurs, independent of the academy, and mounted the first of several impressionist exhibitions in Paris, through to 1886 when their eighth and final exhibition was held. Important figures in the movement included Frédéric Bazille, Gustave Caillebotte, Mary Cassatt, Paul Cézanne, Edgar Degas, Armand Guillaumin, Édouard Manet, Claude Monet, Berthe Morisot, Camille Pissarro, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, and Alfred Sisley. Although impressionism was primarily a movement of painters, Degas and Renoir also produced sculptures and others like Auguste Rodin and Medardo Rosso are sometimes linked to impressionism. By 1885 impressionism had achieved some prominence, and yet a younger generation were already pushing the limits beyond impressionism. Artist from Russia, Australia, America and Latin America soon adopted impressionist styles. A few of the original impressionist continued producing significant work into the 1910s and 1920s.^{[210][216][217]}

Although not unprecedented, many of the techniques used were in contrast to traditional methods. Paintings were often completed in hours or days with wet paint applied to wet paint (opposed to wet on dry paint, completed in weeks and months). Rather than applying glazes and mixed colors, pure colors were often applied side by side, in thick, opaque, impasto strokes; blending in the eye of the viewer when observed from a distance. Black was used very sparingly, or not at all, and defining lines replaced with nuanced strokes of color forming the subjects, contours, and shapes. Art historian H. W. Janson said "instead of adding to the illusion of real space, it strengthens the unity of the actual painted surface."^[190] Impressionist paintings typically depict landscapes, portraits, still lifes, domestic scenes, daily leisure and nightlife, all treated in a realist manner. Compositions were often based on unusual perspectives, appearing spontaneous and candid. The paintings were usually void of didactic, symbolic, or metaphoric meanings, and rarely addressed the biblical, mythological, and historical subjects that were so highly regarded by the academies or the darker and psychological interest explored by the symbolist. The nuances of light, shadow, atmosphere, and reflections of colors from surfaces were examined, sometimes emphasizing changes of these elements in time. The painting itself was the subject of the painting. It was art for art's sake, an idea that had been floating around for a few of decades but it perhaps reached a new high and consistency in impressionism.^{[186][210][216][217]}

• 
  At the Races in the Countryside; by Edgar Degas; 1869; oil on canvas; 36.5 x 56 cm; Museum of Fine Arts (Boston, US)^[215]
• 
  Boulevard des Capucines; by Claude Monet; 1873; oil on canvas; 80.5 x 60.2 cm; Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art (Kansas City, Missouri, US)^[215]
• 
  Hoarfrost: Old Road to Ennery, Pontoise; by Camille Pissarro; 1873; oil on canvas; 64.7 x 92.6 cm; Musée d'Orsay (Paris)^[215]
• 
  Banks of the Seine near Bougival; by Alfred Sisley; 1873; oil on canvas; 46.2 x 62.1 cm; Montreal Museum of Fine Arts (Montreal, Canada)^[215]
• 
  La Loge; Pierre-Auguste Renoir; 1874; oil on canvas; 80 x 63.4 cm; Courtauld Gallery (London)^[215]
• 
  The Floor Scrapers; by Gustave Caillebotte; 1875; oil on canvas; 1 x 1.54 m; Musée d'Orsay^[218]
• 
  Paris Street; Rainy Day; by Gustave Caillebotte; 1877; oil on canvas; 2.12 x 2.76 cm; Art Institute of Chicago^[218]
• 
  Summer's Day; by Berthe Morisot; 1879; oil on canvas; 45.7 cm × 75.2 cm; National Portrait Gallery (London)^[218]
• 
  A Bar at the Folies-Bergère; by Édouard Manet; 1881–1882; oil on canvas; 0.96 × 1.30 cm.; Courtauld Institute of Art (London)^[219]
• 
  Ox-Drawn Cart; by Nicolae Grigorescu; 1899; oil on canvas; 66 x 81 cm; National Museum of Art of Romania (Bucharest, Romania)

Symbolism emerged in France and Belgium in the 3rd quarter of the nineteenth century and spread throughout Europe in the 1870s, and later to America to a lesser extent. It evolved from romanticism without a clear or defining demarcation point, although poetry, literature, and specifically the publication of Charles Baudelaire's Les Fleurs du mal (The Flowers of Evil) in 1857 were significant in the development of symbolism. It had international expression in poetry, literature, drama, and music. In architecture, the applied arts, and decorative arts symbolism closely paralleled and overlapped into Art Nouveau. Symbolism is often inextricably linked to other contemporary art movements, surfacing and finding expression within other styles like Post-Impressionism, Les Nabis, the Decadent Movement, the Fin-de Siecle, Art Nouveau, The Munich Secession, The Vienna Secession, Expressionism, and even the Pre-Raphaelites, which had formed before and influenced symbolism as well. Artist as diverse as James McNeill Whistler, Eugène Carrière, Ferdinand Hodler, Fernand Khnopff, Giovanni Segantini, Lucien Lévy-Dhurmer, Jean Delville, and James Ensor all had varying degrees of association with symbolism. Art historian Robert L. Delevoy wrote "Symbolism was less a school than the atmosphere of a period."^[220] It quickly began to fade with the onset of Fauvism, Cubism, Futurism and had largely dissipated by the outbreak of the First World War, however it did find some sustained development and relevance in the metaphysical school, which in turn had a profound influence on surrealism.^{[220][186][221]}

The subjects, themes, and meanings of symbolist art are frequently veiled and obscure, but at its best still manage to resonate deeply on psychological or emotional levels. The subjects are often presented as metaphors or allegories, aiming to evoke highly subjective, personal, introspective emotions and ideas in the viewer, without clearly defining or addressing the subject directly. The poet Stéphane Mallarmé wrote "depict not the thing but the effect it produces"^[222] and "To name an object is to suppress three quarters of the pleasure of the poem which is made to be understood little by little".^[221] The English painter George Frederic Watts stated "I paint ideas, not things."^{[220][186][221]}

• 
  Thracian Girl with Head of Orpheus on his Lyre; by Gustave Moreau; 1865; oil; 154 × 99.5 cm; Musée d'Orsay (Paris)
• 
  Vision After the Sermon (Jacob Wrestling with the Angel); 1888; oil on canvas; 73 x 92 cm; Scottish National Gallery (Edinburgh, Scotland)^[223]
• 
  The Scream; by Edvard Munch; 1893; tempera and crayon on cardboard; 91 x 73.5 cm; National Gallery (Oslo, Norway)^[223]
• 
  Green Death; by Odilon Redon; c.1905; oil on canvas; 54.9 x 46.3 cm; Museum of Modern Art^[224]
• 
  The Cyclops; by Odilon Redon; c.1914; oil on cardboard on panel; 64 x 51 cm; Kröller-Müller Museum (Otterlo, the Netherlands)^[223]

Post-Impressionism is a rather imprecise term applied to a diverse generation of artists. In its strictest sense, it pertains to four highly influential artists: Paul Cézanne,^[226][227] Paul Gauguin,^[228][229] Georges Seurat,^[230][231] and Vincent van Gogh.^[232][233] Each passed through an impressionist phase, but ultimately emerged with four very original but different styles. Collectively, their work anticipated, and often directly influenced, much of the avant-garde art that appeared before the First World War including fauvism, cubism, expressionism, and early abstraction. Cézanne (particularly influential on cubism) and Van Gogh worked in relative isolation, away from Paris, at critical points in their careers, while Seurat and Gauguin worked in groups, more collaboratively, at key points in their development. Another important artist of the period is Toulouse-Lautrec, an influential painter as well as graphic artist.^[234][235] In a broader sense, post-impressionism includes a generation of predominantly French and Belgian artists who worked in a range of styles and groups. Most had come under the sway of impressionism at some point, but pushed their work beyond it into a number of factions as early as the mid-1880s, sometimes as a logical development of impressionism, other times as a reaction against it. Post-Impressionists typically depicted impressionist subjects, but the work, particularly synthetism, often contained symbolism, spiritualism, and moody atmospheres that rarely appeared in impressionism. Unnatural colors, patterns, flat plains, odd perspectives and viewpoints pushed to extremes, all moved the center of modernism a step closer to abstraction with a standard for experimentation.^{[208][236][237]}

Neo-Impressionism (Divisionism or Pointillism, c. 1884–1894) explored light and color based on scientific color theories, creating mosaics of brush strokes in pure colors, sometimes laid out in rhythmic patterns with lines influenced by Art Nouveau. The leading artists were Georges Seurat and Paul Signac, others include Henri-Edmond Cross, Maximilien Luce, Albert Dubois-Pillet, and for a period Pissarro and Van Gogh. It was influential on fauvism, and elements of the style appeared in expressionism, cubism, and early abstraction. Synthetism (Cloisonnism c. 1888–1903) Cloisonnism was conceived by Émile Bernard and immediately taken up and developed by Paul Gauguin and others while at an artists' colony in Pont-Aven (Brittany, France). The style resembled cloisonné enamel or stained glass, with flat, bold colors outlined in black or dark colors. Synthetism, exemplified in the work of Gauguin and Paul Sérusier, is slightly a broader term with less emphasis on dark outlines and cloisonné qualities. Other artist include Cuno Amiet, Louis Anquetin, Charles Filiger, Jacob Meyer de Haan, Charles Laval, and Armand Seguin. Their work greatly influenced fauvism and expressionism. Les Nabis (c. 1890–1905: Hebrew for prophets or illuminati) was a larger movement in France and Belgium that eclectically drew on progressive elements in synthetism, neo-impressionism, symbolism, and Art Nouveau. Perhaps more influential than the art, were the numerous theories, manifestoes, and infectious enthusiasm for the avant-garde, setting the tone for the proliferation of movements and "isms" in the first quarter of the 20th century. La Revue Blanche often published Les Nabis and symbolist content. The work of Édouard Vuillard,^[238][239] and Pierre Bonnard,^[240][241] ca. 1890–1910 is exemplary of Les Nabis, though both evolved in their styles and produced significant work into the 1940s. Other artist include Maurice Denis, Maxime Dethomas, Meyer de Haan, Henri-Gabriel Ibels, Georges Lacombe, Aristide Maillol, Paul Ranson, Ker-Xavier Roussel, Armand Séguin, Paul Sérusier, Félix Vallotton, Jan Verkade, and others.^{[208][236][237]}

• 
  The Starry Night; by Vincent van Gogh; 1889; oil on canvas; height: 73.7 cm; Museum of Modern Art (New York City)
• 
  Félix Fénéon; by Paul Signac; 1890; oil on canvas; 73.5 x 92.5 cm; Museum of Modern Art (New York City)^[225]
• 
  Aha Oe Feii? (Are You Jealous?); by Paul Gauguin; 1892; oil on canvas; 68 x 92 cm; Pushkin Museum (Moscow, Russia)^[225]
• 
  At the Moulin Rouge; by Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec; 1892/1895; oil on canvas, 1.23 × 1.41 m; Art Institute of Chicago^[225]
• 
  The Bathers; by Paul Cézanne; 1898–1905; oil on canvas; 210.5 cm × 250.8 cm; Philadelphia Museum of Art (Philadelphia, US)

The history of 20th-century art is a narrative of endless possibilities and the search for new standards, each being torn down in succession by the next. The art movements of Fauvism, Expressionism, Cubism, abstract art, Dadaism and Surrealism led to further explorations of new creative styles and manners of expression. Increasing global interaction during this time saw an equivalent influence of other cultures into Western art, such as Pablo Picasso being influenced by Iberian sculpture, African sculpture and Primitivism. Japonism, and Japanese woodcuts (which had themselves been influenced by Western Renaissance draftsmanship) had an immense influence on Impressionism and subsequent artistic developments. The influential example set by Paul Gauguin's interest in Oceanic art and the sudden popularity among the cognoscenti in early 20th century Paris of newly discovered African fetish sculptures and other works from non-European cultures were taken up by Picasso, Henri Matisse, and many of their colleagues. Later in the 20th century, Pop Art and Abstract Expressionism came to prominence.

Art Nouveau (French: new art) was an international and widespread art and design movement that emerged in the final decades of the 19th century until the First World War in 1914. It was catapulted into international prominence with the 1900 Exposition Universelle in Paris. Developing almost simultaneously in parts of Europe and the US, it was an attempt to create a unique and modern form of expression that evoked the spirit of the new century. It manifested in painting, illustration, sculpture, jewellery, metalwork, glass, ceramics, textiles, graphic design, furniture, architecture, costume design and fashion. Art Nouveau artists aimed to raise the status of craft and design to the level of fine art.

The movement is highly associated with sinuous organic forms, such as flowers, vines and leaves, but also insects and animals, through the works of artists like Alphonse Mucha, Victor Horta, Hector Guimard, Antoni Gaudí, René Lalique Otto Eckmann or Émile Gallé. Art Nouveau designs and buildings can often be asymmetrical. Although there are identifying characteristics, the style also displayed many regional and national interpretations.

Despite being a short-lived fashion, it paved the way for the modern architecture and design of the 20th century. It was the first architectural style without historic precedent, the 19th century being notorious for a practice known as Historicism, which is the use of visual styles that consciously echo the style of a previous artistic era. Between c.1870 and 1900, a crisis of historicism occurred, during which the historicist culture was critiqued, one of the voices being Friedrich Nietzsche in 1874, who diagnosed 'a malignant historical fervour' as one of the crippling symptoms of a modern culture burdened by archaeological study and faith in the laws of historical progression. Despite this, Art Nouveau was also heavily influenced by styles from the past such as Celtic, Gothic and Rococo art, and also by the Arts and Crafts movement, Aestheticism, Symbolism and especially by Japanese art.^[243][244]

Fauvism emerged from post-impressionism, gradually developing into the first major movement of the 20th century. Its genesis was in 1895 when Henri Matisse, the oldest and central figure, entered the studio of Gustave Moreau at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts. There he met Georges Rouault, Charles Camoin, Henri Manguin, and Albert Marquet. Marquet said "As early as 1898 Matisse and I were working in what was later to be called the Fauve manner. The first exhibitions at the Indepéndants in which we were, I believe, the only ones to paint in pure tones, go back to 1901."^[245] By 1902–03 the circle of like-minded artist had grown to include Georges Braque, André Derain, Raoul Dufy, Othon Friesz, Jean Metzinger, Jean Puy, Louis Valtat, Kees van Dongen, and Maurice de Vlaminck. During this period a number of influential retrospective exhibitions were held in Paris: Seurat (1900, 1905), Van Gogh (1901, 1905), Toulouse-Lautrec (1902), Gauguin (1906), Cézanne (1907), all relatively unknown to the public at that time. Matisse and Derain collected African carvings, a novel but growing curiosity of the time. Matisse spent the summer of 1904 in Saint-Tropez painting with the neo-impressionist Paul Signac and Henri-Edmond Cross, followed in 1905 by Camoin, Manguin, and Marquet. The artists exhibited regularity at the Salon des Indepéndants and the Salon d'Automne 1903–1908 and in 1905 their work created a sensation and a scandal. Matisse stated "We were exhibiting at the Salon d'Automne, Derain, Manguin, Marquet, Puy, and a few others were hung together in one of the larger galleries. In the center of this room the sculptor Marque exhibited a bust of a child very much in the Italian style. Vauxcelles [art critic for Gil Blas] entered the room and said, Well! well! Donatello in the mist of wild beasts! [Donatello chez les fauves]."^[246] The movement had not been perceived as an entity by the public, but once published the name stuck. Unlike the impressionist and their long struggle for acceptance, the avant-garde had an eager audience by 1906–1907 and the fauvist were attracting collectors from America to Russia. However fauvism largely dissolved in 1908, as cubism appeared, most of the artist began exploring other styles and moving in different directions. Only Matisse and Dufy continued to explore fauvism into the 1950s.^{[245][247][248][249][250]}

The fauvist painted landscapes en plein air, interiors, figures, and still lifes, following examples of realism, impressionism, and post-impressionism. They applied paint with loose brushstrokes, in thick, unnatural, often contrasting, vibrant colors, at times straight from the tube. Gauguin's influence, with his exploration of the expressive values and spatial aspects of patterning with flat, pure colors, as well as his interest in primitivism were significant, as was neo-impressionism. Matisse explained – for a long time color served as a complement of design, the painters of the Renaissance constructed the picture by line, adding local color afterwards – writing: "From Delacroix to Van Gogh and chiefly to Gauguin, by way of the Impressionist, who cleared the ground, and Cézanne, who gave the final impulse and introduced colored volumes, we can follow this rehabilitation of color's function, this restoration of its emotive power."^[245] Fauvism was the culmination in a shift, from drawing and line as the fundamental foundations of design in painting to color, and they depicted their subjects on the verge of abstraction.^{[245][247][248][249][250]}

• 
  Woman with a Hat; by Henri Matisse; 1905; oil on canvas; 80.7 x 59.7 cm; San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (San Francisco, US)^[251]
• 
  Fauve Landscape; by Louis Valtat; 1905–1906; oil on canvas; Speed Art Museum (Louisville, Kentucky, US)
• 
  Charing Cross Bridge, London; by André Derain; 1906; oil on canvas, 80.3 × 100.3 cm.; National Gallery of Art (Washington, D.C., US)
• 
  La Ciotat; by Othon Friesz; 1907; oil on canvas, 65.7 by 81 cm.; unknown collection

Expressionism was an international movement in painting, sculpture, the graphic arts, poetry, literature, theater, film, and architecture. Some associate the Second Viennese School and other music of the period with the movement. Most historians place the beginning of expressionism in 1905 with the founding of the Die Brücke. However, several artists were producing influential work that was in the spirit of expressionism c. 1885–1905 including Lovis Corinth, James Ensor, Käthe Kollwitz, Paula Modersohn-Becker, Edvard Munch, Emil Nolde, and Christian Rohlfs among others. Many of these artists later exhibited and associated with various expressionist groups. Expressionist painting is characterized by loose, spontaneous, frequently thick, impasto brushwork. It often conveyed how the artist felt about their subject, opposed to what it looked like, putting intuition and gut feelings over realistic representations or art theories. Expressionism was frequently infused with an angst or joy, and an overall engagement with contemporary life and social issues that was often absent from fauvism's focus on design and color applied to neutral subjects. Woodcut prints are particularly noteworthy in expressionism. Expressionism can sometimes overlap and integrate with other styles and movements, such as symbolism, fauvism, cubism, futurism, abstraction, and dada. Several groups and factions of expressionists appeared at various times and places.^{[208][237][208][253][254]}

Die Brücke (The Bridge: 1905 -1913) aspired to connect "all revolutionary and surging elements."^[253] It was founded by four architectural students Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, Erich Heckel, Karl Schmidt-Rottluff, and Fritz Bleyl. Sharing a studio in Dresden they produced paintings, carvings, prints, and organized exhibitions, separating in the summer to work independently. Their first exhibit was in 1905, later joined by Emil Nolde and Max Pechstein in 1906, and Otto Mueller in 1910 among others. Influences included Gothic art, primitivism, Art Nouveau, and developments in Paris, particularly Van Gogh and fauvism. The group shifted to Berlin in 1911 and later dissolved in 1913. Der Blaue Reiter (The Blue Rider: 1911–1914), founded by Wassily Kandinsky and Franz Marc, was a relatively informal group that organized exhibitions of art from Paris and Europe, as well their own. It was one in a series of increasingly progressive groups splitting from the Art Academy in Munich including The Munich Secession in 1892 (realist and impressionist), Phalanx in 1901 (postimpressionist), Neue Kunstler Vereiningung in 1909, and The Blue Rider in 1911. Artist associated with the latter two groups included the Burliuk brothers, Heinrich Campendonk, Alexej von Jawlensky, Paul Klee, August Macke, Gabriele Münter, and Marianne von Werefkin. The euphonious almanac Der Blaue Reiter, a collection of influential essays, and Kandinsky's Concerning the Spiritual in Art with his ideas on non-objective art were both published in 1912. The Blue Rider ended with the outbreak of World War I in which Macke and Marc both died.^{[208][237][255][253][254]}

Other artists such as Oskar Kokoschka, Egon Schiele, and Richard Gerstl emerged in Austria. French artist Georges Rouault and Chaïm Soutine had affinities with the movement. Sculptors include Ernst Barlach, Wilhelm Lehmbruck, Gerhard Marcks, and William Wauer. Architects associated with expressionism include Max Berg, Hermann Finsterlin, Johann Friedrich Höger, Michel de Klerk, Erich Mendelsohn, Hans Poelzig, Hans Scharoun, Rudolf Steiner, and Bruno Taut. Der Sturm (The Storm 1910–1932) was a magazine with much expressionist content founded by Herwarth Walden, with an associated gallery in Berlin opened in 1912 and a theater company and school opened in 1918. Films regarded as expressionistic, some considered as classics, include The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (Robert Wiene, 1920), Nosferatu (F. W. Murnau, 1922), and Metropolis (Fritz Lang, 1927).^{[208][237][255][253][254]}

After World War I a tendency to withdraw from the avant-garde by many artist occurred, seen in the work of the original fauvists during the 1920s, Picasso and Stravinsky's neoclassical periods, and De Chirico's late work. This tendency was called New Objectivity (ca. 1919–1933) in Germany, and in contrast to the nostalgic nature of this work elsewhere, it was characterized by disillusionment and ruthless social criticisms. New objectivity artists mostly emerged from expressionist and dada milieus including Otto Dix, Christian Schad, Rudolf Schlichter, Georg Scholz, and Jeanne Mammen. Max Beckmann and George Grosz also had some association with new objectivity for a period. Although not intrinsically expressionistic, the Staatliches Bauhaus (School of Building: 1919–1933) was an influential German school merging crafts, decorative, and fine arts. Moving from Weimar, to Dessau, to Berlin, it changed and evolved in focus with time. Directors included architects Walter Gropius (1919–1928), Hannes Meyer (1928–1930), and Ludwig Mies van der Rohe (1930–1933). At various points the faculty included Josef Albers, Theo van Doesburg, Lyonel Feininger, Johannes Itten, Paul Klee, Wassily Kandinsky, El Lissitzky, Gerhard Marcks, László Moholy-Nagy, Oskar Schlemmer. Bauhaus architects greatly influenced the International Style, which was characterized by simplified forms, a lack of ornamentation, a union of design and function, and the idea that mass production could be compatible with personal artistic vision. As the Nazi Party rose to power, modern art was dubbed "degenerate art" and the Bauhaus was closed in 1933, subduing modernism in Germany for several years.^{[208][237][255][253][254]}

• 
  The Scream; by Edvard Munch; 1893; tempera and crayon on cardboard; 91 x 73.5 cm; National Gallery of Norway (Oslo)^[256]
• 
  Tower of Blue Horses; by Franz Marc; 1912; ink and guache on card; 14.3 x 9.4 cm; Bavarian State Painting Collections (Munich, Germany)^[252]
• 
  Composition VII; by Wassily Kandinsky; 1913; oil on canvas; 2 x 3 m; Tretyakov Gallery (Moscow, Russia)^[257]
• 
  The Einstein Tower (Potsdam, near Berlin, Germany), 1920–1924, by Erich Mendelsohn^[258]
• 
  Actor's Mask; by Paul Klee; 1924; oil on canvas mounted on board; 36.7 x 33.8 cm; Museum of Modern Art (New York City)^[259]

Cubism consisted in the rejection of perspective, which leads to a new organisation of space where viewpoints multiply producing a fragmentation of the object that renders the predilection for form over the content of the representation obvious. Pablo Picasso, Georges Braque and other Cubist artists, were inspired by the sculptures of Iberia, Africa and Oceania exhibited in the Louvre and the ethnographic museum in the Trocadéro, and which were being offered at flee markets and in sale rooms.

'A Picasso studies an object the way a surgeon dissects a corpse,' wrote the critic and poet Guillaume Apollinaire in 1913. Five years earlier, Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque – friends, colleagues and rivals – had begun to reject perspectival realism for a form of artistic autopsy: an utterly revolutionary painting style that looked inside and around objects, presenting them analytically, objectively and completely impersonally.^[260]

• 
  Les Demoiselles d'Avignon; by Pablo Picasso; 1907; oil on canvas; 2.43 × 2.3 m; Museum of Modern Art^[260]
• 
  Violin and Pitcher; by Georges Braque; 1909–1910; oil on canvas; 1.17 x 0.73 cm; Kunstmuseum Basel (Basel, Switzerland)^[260]
• 
  The Eiffel Tower; by Robert Delaunay; 1911; oil on canvas; 2.02 x 1.38 m; Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum (New York City)^[261]
• 
  Breakfast; by Juan Gris; 1914; gouache, oil and crayon on cut-and-pasted printed paper on canvas; 80.9 x 59.7 cm; Museum of Modern Art (New York City)^[261]

Art Deco appeared in France as a style of luxury and modernity. Soon, it spread quickly throughout the world, most dramatically in America, becoming more streamlined through the 1930s. The style was named after the International Exhibition of Modern Decorative and Industrial Arts held in Paris in 1925. Its exuberance and fantasy captured the spirit of the 'roaring 20s' and provided an escape from the realities of the Great Depression during the 1930s. It had ancient Greek, Roman, African, Aztec and Japanese influences, but also Futurist, Cubist and Bauhaus ones. It sometimes blended with the Egyptian Revival style, due to the discovery in 1922 of the Tomb of Tutankhamun and the Egyptomania that it caused. Two examples of this are Le Louxor Cinema in Paris, 1919–1921, by Henri Zipcy, and the Egyptian Theatre in DeKalb (Illinois, US), 1929–1930, by Elmer F. Behrns. In decorative arts, including architecture, low-relief designs, and angular patterns and shapes were used. Predominant materials include chrome, brass, polished steel and aluminum, inlaid wood, stone and stained glass.

Some of the most important Art Deco artists are the Paris-based Polish painter Tamara de Lempicka, the Ukrainian-born French poster artist Adolphe Jean-Marie Mouron, known as Cassandre, and the French furniture designer and interior decorator Émile-Jacques Ruhlmann.^[262][263]

Surrealism emerged as a faction of Dada, formally announcing its inception in 1924 with André Breton's Manifesto of Surrealism.^[264] Originally a literary group of poets and writers in Paris, it soon developed into an international movement that included painters, sculptors, photographers, and filmmakers. A Second Manifeste du Surréalisme was published in 1929.^[265] Surrealism did not have significant expression in applied or decorative arts, architecture, or music, although a few isolated examples could be identified (e.g. chess sets, furniture, and Las Pozas). The small and short lived Metaphysical School (c. 1910–1921), with Giorgio de Chirico as its principal figure, was highly influential on surrealism. The surrealist explored a myriad of innovative techniques, some had recently been developed in Cubism and Dada, others were new, including collage, found objects, assemblage, random chance, rayographs (photograms), painting on sand, dripping and flinging paint, decalcomania, frottage, fumage, and raclage. Two fundamental approaches predominate surrealist art. Automatism dominated in the early years which can be seen in the work of artist like André Masson and Joan Miró. Other artists, swayed by work of Giorgio de Chirico, used more traditional methods and mediums to illustrate unfiltered thoughts and incongruous juxtapositions, including Salvador Dalí and René Magritte. Significant artist include Jean Arp, Hans Bellmer, Victor Brauner, Luis Buñuel, Joseph Cornell, Óscar Domínguez, Max Ernst, Wifredo Lam, Yves Tanguy, Man Ray, Alberto Giacometti, Méret Oppenheim, and Roberto Matta. Other important artist informally accosted with surrealism include Marcel Duchamp, Pablo Picasso, and Frida Kahlo. Surrealist ideas and theories were discussed in a successive series of journals, La Révolution Surréaliste (1924–1929), Le Surrealisme au service de la revolution (1930–1933), Minotaure (1933–1939), VVV (1942–1944). The automatic paintings produced by André Masson and Joan Miró, as well as latecomers to surrealism like Roberto Matta and Arshile Gorky had a considerable influence on the abstract expressionist in the late 1940s.^{[266][267][268][269][270][271]}

With a measure of Dada's irreverence and contempt for the traditional political, religious, and bourgeois values of western culture that they believed had led the world into the First World War (Breton and other founding members were veterans); the surrealist explored the possibilities that had been opened up by Sigmund Freud regarding the subconscious mind: "Pure psychic automatism, by which one intends to express verbally, in writing or by any other method, the real functioning of the mind. Dictation by thought, in the absence of any control exercised by reason, and beyond any aesthetic or moral preoccupation."^[264] Surrealism sought to express pure thought, unfiltered and uncensored by political, religious, moral, or rational principles.^{[266][267][268][269][270][271]}

• 
  The Song of Love; by Giorgio de Chirico; 1914; oil on canvas; 73 x 59.1 cm; Museum of Modern Art (New York City)^[272]
• 
  The Elephant Celebes; by Max Ernst; 1921; oil on canvas; 125.4 × 107.9 cm; Tate Modern (London)

As Europe struggled to recover from World War II, America moved into a position of political, economic and cultural strength. During the 1940s and 1950s, Abstract Expressionism emerged as the first specifically American art movement to have an international impact. In consequence, the art world's focus shifted from Europe to New York. Abstract Expressionists were a small group of loosely associated artists who had similar outlooks but different approaches. They were influenced by Surrealism, and believed in spontaneity, freedom of expression and abandonment of the themes of American life that had characterized national art of recent decades. One of the most famous representatives of this movement was Jackson Pollock, known for his painting made by pouring, flicking and dripping paint on to huge canvases on the ground. Other artists include Willem de Kooning, Franz Kline, Robert Motherwell, Barnett Newman, Mark Rothko and Clyfford Still.

After World War II, consumerism and the mass media surged, and as a result, Pop art developed in both London and New York. In a London exhibition in 1956, the word 'Pop' was used in a collage created by Richard Hamilton (1922–2011) made of American magazines. Pop art was a reaction against Abstract Expressionism, and interpreted ideas of pop culture. In celebrating and commenting on consumerism, pop artists, as they became known, produced colorful images based on advertising, the media and shopping, featuring film stars, comic strips, flags, packaging and food – things that everyone, rather than just a highbrow few, could relate to.

The term Minimalism was not new, but it gained momentum in the 1960s, specifically describing a style of art characterized by detached restraint. Originating in New York, it was a reaction against Abstract Expressionism, but it also embraced Constructivist ideas that art should be made of modern materials. Thus, Minimalist artists, primarily sculptors, often used non-traditional materials and production methods, often employing industrial or specialist fabricators to produce works to their specifications. The term was chiefly used to describe a group of American sculptors who re-evaluated the space around them, aiming to challenge assumptions and present familiar objects in new ways. Their artworks don't have any symbolism or hidden meaning, as they try to enable viewers to re-evaluate art and space around forms. Unlike a figural sculpture on which the viewer focuses to the exclusion of the room in which it stands, Minimalist art becomes one with its space. By focusing on the effects of context and the theatricality of the viewing experience. Minimalism exerted an indirect but powerful influence on later developments in Conceptual and Performance art, as well as providing a foil for the rise of Postmodernism.

Despite developing almost 50 years after Marcel Duchamp's ideas, Conceptual art showed that art does not always have to be judged aesthetically. It was never a single, cohesive movement, but an umbrella term that now covers several types of art and emerged more or less concurrently in America and Europe, first defined in New York. Conceptual artists promote the art of ideas, or concepts, suggesting that they can be more valid in the modern world than technical skill or aesthetics. No matter the art media of an artwork, it is considered as no more than a vehicle for presenting the concept. At its most extreme, Conceptual art foregoes the physical object completely, using verbal or written message to convey the idea.^{[273][274][275]}

Traditionally, many creative acts such as sewing, weaving, and quilting have been considered as women's work, described as crafts, and denied the cachet and public recognition of so-called high or fine arts such as sculpture and painting. Many artists have now challenged this hierarchy by either expanding the scope of a fine art such as sculpture, by creating soft sculptures using unconventional materials and practices, or by reclaiming and redefining the materials and methods of so-called craftwork, publicly exhibiting their work in museums and galleries and thus elevating the status of the decorative and applied arts.^[276] Artists of the twentieth and twenty first centuries effecting this radical change include Maria Martinez, Anni Albers, Lucie Rie, Lenore Tawney, Louise Bourgeois, Miriam Schapiro, Faith Ringgold, Magdalena Abakanowicz, Sheila Hicks, Marva Lee Pitchford-Jolly, Judy Chicago, and Dindga McCannon.

• 
  IKB 191; by Yves Klein; 1962
• 
  The Boxers; by Keith Haring; 1987
• 
  El Cap de Barcelona; by Roy Lichtenstein; 1991–1992

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• "Art: The history of ideas in literature and the arts in aesthetic theory and literary criticism" – The Dictionary of the History of Ideas
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• Timeline of Art History from Metropolitan Museum of Art