ART APPRECIATION

MODULE 3: The Western Art History

Instructress: Ma’am Hannah R. Combatir, LPT

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 describe the history of Art in Prehistoric Civilization;
 discuss the Medieval arts in Europe;
 identify the famous artists in Western Europe; and
 analyze the most common Paintings in Classical Greek.

INTRODUCTION

Historically speaking, the human instinct to create art is universal. Art is an

approach of a human being to communicate his/her beliefs and express ideas about
his/her experiences. It also provides valuable insights into the past and existing
cultures. It helps us to understand how others have lived and what they valued
(Annenberg Foundation, 2017).

The history of art reflects the remnant of civilization, the study of artworks, and the
lives of artists, illuminate much about our shared past. It helps us to discover,
authenticate who made a particular art object (Meyer, 2009). It also helped us to
appreciate the stylistic and recognized development of artistic practices on a large scale
and within a broad historical viewpoint.

The history of art also covers the entire history of humankind since prehistoric
times. Art is a product of man’s emotional and intellectual connection with the world. It
also aimed to produce a message which will either provoke an unexplainable
consciousness within the hearts of its viewers or incite wisdom among inquisitive minds.
Leroi-Gourhan (1967) lists three primary domains of the expression of feeling
associated to the first periods of humanity that may add to our understanding of the
beginnings of art such as Psycho-physiological impressions; Magic-religious; and
techno-economic.
Art in Prehistoric Civilization

The term prehistoric relates to the time before written history. Specifically, the
writing developed in ancient Mesopotamia before 3000 B.C.E., so this period includes
visual culture (paintings, sculpture, and architecture) made before that date (Zucker,
2015). The oldest recognized decorative art forms come from Africa date back to
100,000 BC.E.

Prehistoric art has four main periods: Stone Age, Neolithic, Bronze Age, and Iron
Age. The remaining artifacts of this period are small sculptures and cave paintings.
During these early times, different forms of art were created and performed as a sign of
communication or adoration to the deity. This practice shows how cultural and religious
factors played little to the development of the art forms that made the ancient society so
famous until now.

Ancient people often represented their worldviews and beliefs through visual
images. Art emerged with the appearance and the dispersal of entirely modern people
through Africa, Asia, Australia, America and Europe. Paintings, sculptures, engravings,
and potteries are expressions for beauty and complex social and spiritual systems.
Prehistoric art like animals are the favorite subjects of hunters, herdsmen, and
breeders.

Prehistoric art is a symbolic system that is an integral part of the culture that
creates it (Honour et al., 2005). Many archaeologists have identified Stone Age art,
namely: petroglyphs (rock carvings and engravings); pictographs (graphic imagery,
symbols); ancient sculpture (totemic statues, ivory carvings); and megalithic arts
(performs or any other works associated with the formation of stones).

The oldest European cave art is the

El Castillo Cave (Cave of the Castle) in
Spain. This cave was discovered in 1903
by Hermilio Alcalde del Río, a Spanish
archaeologist. Some Archaeologists
argue that artwork inside this cave are
probably a creation of Homo
neanderthalensis. Hand stencils, claviforms (club shapes) and disks made by
blowing paint onto the wall in El Castillo cave found that date back at least 40,800
years, making them older than those of the Chauvet Cave in central France, which
dated to around 39,000 years (Kwong, 2012). Other old cave painting sites in France
include Lascaux, Grotte de Cussac, Pech Merle, Cave of Niaux, and Font-de-
Gaume.
Stone Tools for Art Making

Stone is formed based on the composition of minerals on it. It classified as

Mineral growth, Sedimentary, Metamorphic, and Volcanic. Sedimentary rocks shaped
through the deposition and compression of particulate matter. On the other hand,
Metamorphic rocks changed from the result of extreme temperature and pressure.
Volcanic rocks are from molten igneous magma (Prindle, 1994).

The tools made of tone were the instruments by which early man developed and
progressed. All human culture founded on the ingenuity and brainpower of our early
ancestors in creating sophisticated tools that enable them to survive. The first stone
tools (eoliths- which are now believed to be naturally produced by geological
processes such as glaciation) and other types of organic materials (wood, bone, ivory,
and antler) were about two million years ago. The oldest human tools were a simple
stone chopper, such as those unearth at Olduvai George in Tanzania. Many
Paleoanthropologists (people who study the origins and predecessors of the present
human species) confirmed that the Palaeolithic Man produced four types of tools in
creating an art namely: pebble tools (with a single sharpened edge for cutting or
chopping): Bifacial tools (hand axes); Flake tools; and Blade tools.

Pebble Tools (Pebble chopper). It is a first

cutting device and considered as the oldest
type of tool made by humans. The tool
contains a rounded stone struck some blows with
a similar stone used as a pounder, which created
a serrated crest that served as a chopping blade.

Bifacial tools. It is a hand ax prehistoric

stone tool flake with two faces or sides.
These tools may be oval, triangular, or
almond-shaped in form and characterized by
axial symmetry. The cutting edge could be
straight or jagged and is used as a knife, pick,
scraper, or weapon. The technique was distinctive of the hand-ax tradition of the lower
Palaeolithic period and the Acheulian culture.

Flake tools. These are hand tools used during

Stone Age. They are usually formed by crushing
off a small or large fragment then used as the
tool. Both cores and flakes could be as stone
tools. New flakes were very sharp, but quickly
became blunt during use and had to be
sharpened again by further flaking, a process called retouch.

Blade tools. These are a Stone tool created

by striking a long narrow flake from a stone
core. This procedure of cutting the stone and
creating the blades is called lithic reduction.
After chipping the blades, they integrated into
larger tools, such as spears.

Medieval Arts in Europe

The primitive art of the Western world covers an extensive range of time and place
over 1000 years. Specifically, Medieval art in Europe grew out of the artistic culture of
the Roman Empire and the iconographic practices in the church of the early Christian
(Oliquiano, 2012). These sources were mixed with the influential "barbarian" artistic
culture of Northern Europe to make an extraordinary creative legacy. Medieval art
portrayed in Pietistic painting (religious art) displayed in a Ceramics, fresco and mosaic
paintings, Goldsmith and Silversmith, Stained Glass, illuminated manuscripts,
metalwork, Tapestry, and Heraldry in churches.

a. Illuminated Manuscripts (Illumination) - They were colorful religious texts which

often use of gold and silver as its main feature. The term illuminate is the Latin word
illuminate which means to adorn or to enlighten. It is the embellishment of a
manuscript with bright colors. The artist who produced the impressive artwork on
illuminated manuscripts was called Illuminators.

b. Metalwork- Metal workers were very skilled in creating religious objects for church
decorations. Experts in Bronze art produced beautiful jewels, sculptures, and even
church doors.
c. Silversmith and Goldsmith- They were excellent artists who created new shapes of
jewelry. The Medieval church demanded to employed silversmiths and goldsmiths in the
church to produce 2222 with small pieces of colored glass, stone or other materials.
The early Christians used ceiling and wall mosaics in their churches and cathedrals.

d. Paintings- Artists who were skillful in Iconography uses Fresco and panel painting
with the religious theme during the medieval period. Fresco is performed mostly on
wall covers or ceilings. Likewise, Panels is a painting which showed on several pieces
of wood that joined together. It is also for the Icons of Byzantine art.

e. Bayeux Tapestry- It is embroidery in colored wool. It is consisting of eight long

strips of unbleached linen, sewn together to form a continuous panel of 230 feet long
and 20 inches high.

f. Ceramics- They were hand shaped cooking pots, jars, and pitchers.

g. Stained Glass- It is usually applied exclusively to the windows of medieval

churches, castles, and cathedrals. It creates the primary form of art where small pieces
of glass are arranged to form pictures or patterns which are held together.

h. by strips of lead and supported by a hard frame.

i. Heraldry- It is the manner of designing coats of arms and insignia. Specimens of

coats of arms were worked using embroidery, paper, painted wood, stonework and
stained glass.

Famous Artists in Western Europe

The great artists introduced the advancement of arts during the middle periods.
During this era, artists split away from the influences of the Byzantium art style and
developed into the Gothic visual art. The Medieval painters and sculptors were founders
of the movement towards greater realism which culminated in the Renaissance art style.
Most famous artists during medieval period were Donatello, Giotto, Leon Battista
Alberti, Cimabue, Filippo Brunelleschi, Fra Angelico and Lorenzo Ghiberti.

Donatello (also known as Donato di Niccolo di Betto Bardi)

He was born in 1386 in Italy. He was the son of Nicolo di
Betto Bardi, a wool merchant in Florence. He learned the
fabrication of metals and other substances which known as
metallurgy. His most famous works of art include David, Mary
Magdalene, Madonna, Salome, Zuccone, and St. Mark, St.
John the Evangelist and St. George and the Dragon. He also invented
a technique known as schiacciato (shallow relief), which achieved effects
of spatial depth. He died on December 13, 1466.

Giotto di Bondone
He was born about 1266 in Vespignano village,
Florence. He was the son of Giorgio Vasari, a small landed
farmer. He worked with others artists for the Cathedral of San
Francesco in Assisi and began painting a fresco cycle there
with scenes from the Old and New Testaments. In 1300, he
was invited by Pope Benedict XI in Rome to paint a mosaic
over the entrance to St. Peter's Basilica. He died on January 8, 1337, in
Florence.

Leon Battista Alberti

He was born in Genoa on February 14, 1404, in Italy. As
an Architect, he was hired by Pope Nicholas V in the
renovation of the papal palace and of the Roman bridge of
Acqua Vergine. He died in Rome on April 25, 1472.

Giovanni Cimabue
He was born in Florence in 1240. He devoted all his
time wrapping his paper and his books with photographs of
horses, houses, people, and other various things he dreamt
up. He made mosaics .as well as paintings, which include
the frescoes of New Testament scenes in the upper church
of St. Francis of Assisi. He died in 1302.

Filippo Brunelleschi
He was born in 1377 in Florence, Italy. He was the son
Brunellesco Di Lippoo, an Italian lawyer and his mother
was Giuliana Spini. He was a sculptor and goldsmith in
one of the Florentine workshops. He died on April 15,
1446.
 Fra Angelico (also known as Beato Angelico, which means
"Blessed Angelic One”)
He was born in 1395 in Florence, Italy. As a painter,
his most famous works of art include the Annunciation, The
Madonna and Saints and the Transfiguration of Christ
painting.

Lorenzo Ghiberti
He was born in 1380 in Florence, Italy. He was
admitted to the Gold Guild and started his apprenticeship as
a goldsmith in 1392. He started work on the East Doors of
the Baptistery of San Giovanni. The Bronze doors (known
as the “Gates of Paradise”) had 10 panels depicting scenes
from the Old Testament. He died in 1445.

Most Common Paintings in Classical Greek

During the classical era, most paintings were discovered in panels, tomb, and
vases. It portrays natural symbols with dynamic masterpieces about battle scenes,
mythological figures, and everyday scenes. It also discloses a grasp of linear
perspective and naturalist illustration (Rayos, 2018). Familiar paintings in classical
Greek are as follows:

a. Kerch Vase Painting

Kerch Vase is red-figured pottery named after the place where it discovered. Most
common motifs were scenes from the life of women, mythological beings or mythical
story or event. This type of painting used a technique known as polychromy which
combined different colors especially the brilliant one in an artistic manner. The shapes
commonly found are:

a. Krater (it is a bowl used for mixing wine and water)

 b. lebes gamikos (a container with high handles and lid use to
carry bridal bath)

c. lekanis (a low bowl with two horizontal handles and a small,

broad foot)

d. pelike (a wine container)

b. Panel Painting

Panel Painting was especially famous for

making beautiful altarpieces. This type of
paintings executed on flat panels of wood or
metals which can be either a small, single piece
or several boards that are together. The earliest known old panel painting is the Pitsa
Panel (dated between 540 and 530 B.C.E.).

c. Tomb/Wall Painting

Popular Tomb or wall painting during

classical period uses either tempera (water-
based) or encaustic (wax) as a method of
fresco. Colors in this type are made with grind
powder stains in pure water, dry and set with plaster to become a lasting part of the
wall.