Art History Lecture Notes

Contents

1. Western Art
2. Prehistoric Art
3. Neolithic Art
4. Egyptian Art
5. Egyptian Portraits
6. Egyptian Architecture
7. Near Eastern Art
8. Near Eastern Architecture
9. Greek Art
10. Greek Painting
11. Greek Architecture
12. Roman Art
13. Roman Painting and Drawing
14. Roman Architecture
15. Late Roman and Early Christian Art
16. Byzantine Art
17. Medieval Art
18. Romanesque Art
19. Gothic Art
20. The Fourteenth Century
21. International Gothic
22. Renaissance Art
23. Early Renaissance in Italy
24. Early Renaissance in Northern Europe
25. High Renaissance
26. Renaissance Architecture
27. Mannerism
28. Baroque Art
29. The Eighteenth Century
30. Rococo and Neoclassicism
31. Naturalism
32. The Nineteenth Century
33. Romanticism
34. Photography
35. Modern Art
36. Realism
37. Impressionism
38. Post-Impressionism
39. Art Nouveau
40. Fauvism
41. Cubism
42. Expressionism
43. Abstract and Non-Objective Art
44. Suprematism and Constructivism
45. Neo-Plasticism and De Stijl
46. Dada
47. Surrealism
48. Abstract Expressionism
49. Post-Painterly Abstraction
50. Post-1960 Art
51. Pop Art
52. Happenings / Performance Art
53. Minimalism
54. Conceptual Art
55. Earthworks / Environmental Art
56. California Funk Art
57. Op Art
58. West Coast Abstraction
59. Photorealism

Essay Summaries / Chapter Summaries

• Western Art — Introduces art as an early form of human expression and frames Western painting around realism, the human figure, balance, harmony, perspective, and four major epochs: Paleolithic, Greek, Renaissance, and twentieth-century abstraction.
• Prehistoric and Neolithic Art — Traces the movement from Paleolithic naturalism, cave painting, animal imagery, symbolism, abstraction, and outline to Neolithic conceptual and geometric forms, emphasizing the shift from likeness to idea.
• Egyptian and Near Eastern Art — Describes Egyptian art through religion, tomb culture, monumentality, order, balance, proportion, timelessness, and conceptual realism, then contrasts Near Eastern art through movement, decoration, conquest, narrative relief, emotion, hierarchy, and dramatic space.
• Greek and Roman Art — Presents Greek art as a shift toward autonomous art, realism, the human figure, balance, harmony, artist signatures, and the city-state patron, then treats Roman art through Greek influence, vivid realism, documentary narrative, portraiture, architecture, and public communication.
• Late Roman, Early Christian, Byzantine, Medieval, Romanesque, and Gothic Art — Follows the transformation of classical form into Christian, symbolic, architectural, and medieval systems of image-making, emphasizing abstraction, transcendence, frontality, religious function, and new architectural structures.
• Renaissance through Baroque Art — Surveys the return to naturalism, perspective, artistic authorship, Renaissance humanism, Mannerist complexity, and Baroque concerns with space, light, time, psychology, landscape, emotion, and expanded pictorial experience.
• Eighteenth- and Nineteenth-Century Art — Covers Rococo, Neoclassicism, Naturalism, Romanticism, official salon art, photography, Realism, Impressionism, and Post-Impressionism as changing approaches to history, perception, modern life, subjectivity, light, color, and artistic independence.
• Modern and Twentieth-Century Art — Moves through Art Nouveau, Fauvism, Cubism, Expressionism, abstraction, Constructivism, De Stijl, Dada, Surrealism, Abstract Expressionism, Pop Art, Minimalism, Conceptual Art, Earthworks, California Funk Art, Op Art, West Coast Abstraction, and Photorealism, emphasizing major shifts in form, subject, concept, medium, and artistic purpose.