The Historical

Development of
Visual Arts
The Development of
Painting
Pre-Historic Painting
Pre-Historic Greek Painting
Prehistoric Greek art was seen in four periods:
Formative or Pre-Greek Period - motif was sea and nature

First Greek Period -  largely of Egyptian influence

Golden Age - period in which the aesthetic ideal is based on the

representation of human character as an expression of a divine
system.

Hellenistic Period - discussed heightened individualism and

featured tragic mood and contorted faces (encaustic painting)
Pre-Historic Greek Painting
Pre-Historic Roman Painting
Pre-Historic Roman Art encompassed two periods:

Etruscan Period - the subject matters of paintings were

ancestors, worship, catacombs, and sarcophagus.

Roman Period - characterized by commemorative statues,

sarcophagus, frescoes, and designs with vine motifs.
Pre-Historic Roman Painting
Painting in the Medieval Period
There were three art classifications during the Medieval Period:
Early Christian Art - subject matters of art in this period were symbols: cross,
fish, lamb, alpha and omega, triumphal wreaths, grapes, doves, and peacocks.
haloed Christ, saint and martyrs, and the Virgin Mary began to appear in
painting at a later time. Spiritual expression to precedence over physical beauty.
Byzantine Art - the subject matter of paintings for Christ as the creator and
Mary the Mother of God.

Gothic Art - gothic paintings were religious, grotesque, and calmer and plastic
in style. The picture of the Madonna and child of Franco Flemich School, gazing
into each other's eyes in a playful mood is an example of this style.
 Painting in the Medieval Period
There were three art classifications during the Medieval Period:
Early Christian Byzantine Art Gothic Art
Painting of the Renaissance
The Renaissance is divided into three period:
Early Renaissance - early renaissance paintings placed emphasis on simplicity,
gesture, and expression. painting depicted man and nature in fresco technique.

High Renaissance - its center was in Florence, Venice, and Rome. painting style
consists of deepening of pictorial space, making the sky more dramatic with dark clouds
and flashes of light. da Vinci introduced the chiaroscuro; Michelangelo dramatized the
position of figures in his famous contrapuesto-twists.

Mannerism Period - the human figure is rendered through the use of oil paints of
sumptuous, warm, and sensual colors.
Painting of the Renaissance
Painting in the Baroque Period
Paintings in the baroque period are ornate and fantastic. They
appeal to the emotion, are sensual and highly decorative. they
make use of light and shadow to produce dramatic effects. the
paintings show figures in diagonal, twists, and zigzags.
Famous painters in this period include Peter Paul Rubens,
Rembrandt, El Greco, Diego Velazquez, and Bartolome Esteban
Murillo.
Painting in the Baroque Period
Rococo Painting
Rococo painting placed emphasis voluptuousness  and
picturesque and intimate presentation of farm and country. the
rococo art technique made up of soft pastel colors, rendering the
landscape smoking and hazy with the subject always in the center
of the canvas.
Rococo Painting
Romantic Painting
Romantic paintings delved on the artist’s reactions to
past events, landscapes, and people. Painting is richer
than Rococo. One of the famous painters of this period
was Francisco Goya.
Romantic Painting
19 Century Painting
th

(Modern Art)
Impressionism
Impressionism - Paul Cezzane was the greatest impressionist and
the father of modern art. His efforts were toward the
achievement of simplicity, brilliance, perfect balance, brightness of
colors, and sense of depth in art.
Impressionism
Expressionism
Vincent van Gogh is regarded as the father of expressionism. he
used bright, pure colors mixed on the palette but applied to the
canvas in small dots of strokes, play lying on the beholder’s eyes
to see them together.
Expressionism
The Historical
Development of
Sculpture
Pre-Historic Sculpture
Prehistoric sculpture consisted of rude forms carved in stones and
woods. This figures and images were created to commemorate
heroes and heroines and perpetuate the memory of men.
Egyptian Sculpture
Pre-Historic Egyptian sculpture had gone through four periods:
First Dynasty Period - This period occurred 5,000 years ago. The sun,
moon, stars, and sacred animals were common subjects of the sculpture
in this period. The sculptors decorated the tombs of the dead with scenes
from his life and signs of his rank and profession with assurance that his
spirit may continue his existence without the tomb. Statues began to
flourish in this period.
Old Kingdom Period - Portrait sculpture was emphasized. Five life like
structures existed in every home. Statues were either single figures or in
a family groups. The faces of statues were always calm and grave.
Statues of royale personnages were much larger than ordinary
personnages to give impression of movement splendor.
Egyptian Sculpture
Middle Kingdom Period - Phases of statues me during this period
depicted individual moods but their bodies we're still rigid and straight
in posture.
New Kingdom Period - Figures of this period were life like and
vigorous looking. They were depicted in usual poses - walking,
dancing, and bending. Figures showed dignity and serenity.

The forms of Egyptian sculpture are palettes (shield pieces of stone

with relief carvings); wall carvings (bas-reliefs or high reliefs found in
walls of tombs) and statues (figures of men and women in sitting and
standing positions, usually impressive). An example of prehistoric
Egyptian sculpture is the Great Sphinx of Giza. 
Greek Sculpture
Pre-Historic Greek sculpture had gone through three periods:

Daedalic Period - Marble was heavily used as material. nude male

statues were usually produced.
Classical Age - This was the Golden Age or Age of Pericles in
Greece. Temples of gods and goddesses were adorned with
sculptured figures. Many statues depicted young victors of Greek
games and athletic contests. The human body with all its beauty
and splendor was the emphasis of art in this period. Male figures
were always naked; women figures were fully draped.
Greek Sculpture
Later Greek Period - Male and female figures were shown with very little or no clothing at
all. An example of prehistoric Greek sculpture is the famous Venus de Milo.
Roman Sculpture
Prehistoric roman sculpture portrayed famous men and women in
bust forms. The personalities were represented as if in real life,
including their individual imperfections.
Byzantine Sculpture
Byzantine sculpture is classified into two:
Early Byzantine Sculpture - During this period, no statues can be
seen in churches and basilicas only symbols or signs as mosaic. For
example, fish symbolized Christ; hand protruding from the clouds
symbolized god.

Later Byzantine Sculpture - statues replaced symbols and signs.

biblical statues adorned churches, basilicas, and even homes. these
statues are tall, dignified, straight, exquisitely carved, sometimes
covered with jewels. Christ was shown as fully garbed, mature, and has
a dark beard and haunting eyes.
Byzantine Sculpture
Romanesque Sculpture
Romanesque sculpture gives prominence to biblical characters and
human figures as subjects. Biblical characters and human figures
were carved in statues or in reliefs, with the body fully clothed, flat,
and elongated and the faces grave and remote. Draperies were
usually swirled in whirlpool patterns around these figures. Arches of
churches who were decorated with zigzag and geometric design.
Romanesque Sculpture
Gothic Sculpture
Gothic statues of human figure were given a natural and life-like look,
boast in bodies and facial expressions. They were garments to give
the impression of real bodies.
Renaissance Sculpture
Renaissance sculpture is divided into three periods:
Early Renaissance Sculpture - great and detailed attention was given
to anatomical shapes, proportions, and perspective to indicate a more
scientific attitude towards art.
Middle Renaissance Sculpture - by the end of the 15th century, you
sculpture became more secular than religious. Places where adorned
with sculpture cast in bronze.
Later Part of the Renaissance - the subject matter is of sculpture
where legends and myths of Greece and Rome. The artists were given
complete freedom on their choice of subject.
Renaissance Sculpture
Baroque Sculpture
Baroque sculpture is started in the 17th century. It depicted the
beauty of art and stressed on the expression of emotion. The works
of Gian Lorenzo Bernini and the La Piedad of Gregorio Fernandez,
famous Spanish sculpture, were representative of baroque sculpture.
Baroque Sculpture
19th Century Sculpture
There were two schools in this period:
Neoclassical Schools - depicted perfect human anatomy  endowed
with a calm, reflective look.

Romantic Realistic Schools - depicted realistic figures with

psychological attitudes of the french revolution.
19th Century Sculpture
20th Century Sculpture
20th century sculpture was mainly concerned with the human body.
Pablo Picasso, the Father of Abstract Sculpture and Julio
Gonzalez advocated regeneration of plastic shapes through
geometric organization of the human body. abstract sculpture
remains tied to biology.
20th Century Sculpture
Henry Moore and his associates depicted anxiety and terror in their
sculpture. through this form, the sculptor's view of life is shown.
20th Century Sculpture
Alberto Giacometti carved a figure
endowed with either action or
feeling by using thinned-out matter
rising upward in empty space - the
expression of being lost in infinite
nothingness.