What Is the Difference Between Art Movements and Art Periods?

As long every bit we humans take been able to use our easily, we have been creating fine art. From early on cave paintings to the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel, human artistic expression tin can tell us a lot about the lives of the people who create information technology. To fully appreciate the cultural, social, and historical significance of different artworks, you need to be enlightened of the broad art history timeline. This article presents an overview of many significant eras of art creation and the historical contexts out of which they have risen.

Tabular array of Contents

• 1 Art Eras: Where to Begin?
• ii A Brief Overview of the Art Periods Timeline
• 3 A Comprehensive Art Movement Timeline
  • iii.1 The Romanesque Catamenia (one thousand-1300): Sharing Data Through Art
  • iii.ii The Gothic Era (1100-1500): Freedom and Fright Come up Together
  • 3.three The Renaissance Era (1420-1520): The Reawakening of an Art Era That Never Really Existed
  • 3.4 Mannerism (1520-1600): A Window into the Future of Kitsch
  • 3.v The Baroque Era (1590-1760): The Glorification of Power and the Deception of the Eye
  • iii.six The Rococo Art Flow (1725-1780): Calorie-free and Airy, a French Fancy
  • 3.7 Classicism (1770-1840): Throwing It Back to Classic Times
  • three.8 Romanticism (1790-1850): A Break from the Severity of it All
  • 3.9 Realism (1850-1925): Objectivity over Subjectivity
  • three.10 Impressionism (1850-1895): Heralding the Era of Modern Fine art
  • iii.11 Symbolism (1890-1920): There is Always More than Than Meets the Eye
  • 3.12 Art Nouveau (1890-1910): The Pure Gold of Gustav Klimt
  • 3.13 Expressionism (1890-1914): Bringing a Political Edge to the Fence
  • 3.fourteen Cubism (1906-1914): Breaking Things Apart and Putting Them Back Together Again
  • three.fifteen Futurism (1909-1945): Artistic Anarchism
  • 3.sixteen Dadaism (1912-1920): The True Reality That Life is Nonsense
  • three.17 Surrealism (1920-1930): Things Just Go More Bizzare
  • 3.18 The New Objectivity (1925-1965): Cold and Technical
  • iii.19 Abstract Expressionism (1948-1962): Stepping Away from Europe
  • 3.20 Popular-Art (1955-1969): Fine art is Everything
  • 3.21 Neo-Expressionism (1980-1989): Mod Art

Art Eras: Where to Begin?

Equally long as humankind has been witting of itself, it has been creating fine art to stand for this self. The earliest cave paintings that we are enlightened of were created roughly 40,000 years ago. Nosotros have found paintings and drawings of man activity from the Paleolithic Era under rocks and in caves. We cannot truly know the reason why these early on humans began to produce art. Perhaps painting and drawing were a mode to record their lived experiences, to tell stories to young children, or to pass down wisdom from one generation to the next.

These prehistoric stone paintings are in Manda Guéli Cave in the Ennedi Mountains, Chad, Central Africa. Camels accept been painted over before images of cattle, possibly reflecting climatic changes;David Stanley from Nanaimo, Canada, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Although we have these exquisite examples of early creative expression, the official history of art periods only begins with the Romanesque Era. Official art era timelines do not include cave paintings, sculptures, and other works of fine art from the stone age or the beautiful frescos produced in Egypt and Crete in around 2000 BC. The reason behind this decision is that these early eras of artistic expression were bound to a relatively small geographical space. The official art eras that we will exist discussing today, in contrast, span across many countries, oftentimes all of Europe and sometimes Northward and South America.

Despite their lack of official recognition, these earliest examples of human creative flair raise a lot of interesting questions. Why is information technology that the animals depicted in cave paintings are so much more realistic and bright than the animals represented in later eras?

This commodity hopes to requite you some insight into the always-changing artistic fashion of the human creative mind every bit we explore the complexities of the dissimilar art periods.

A Brief Overview of the Art Periods Timeline

As with many areas of human history, it is incommunicable to delineate the unlike art periods with precision. The dates presented in the brackets below are approximations based on the progression of each motility across several countries. Many of the fine art periods overlap considerably, with some of the more recent eras occurring at the same time. Some eras last for a few thousand years while others span less than ten. Art is a continuous process of exploration, where more recent periods abound out of existing ones.

Fine art Period	Years
Romanesque	100 – 1150
Gothic	1140 – 1600
Renaissance	1495 – 1527
Mannerism	1520 – 1600
Bizarre	1600 – 1725
Rococo	1720 – 1760
Neoclassicism	1770 – 1840
Romanticism	1800 – 1850
Realism	1840 – 1870
Pre-Raphaelite	1848 – 1854
Impressionism	1870 – 1900
Naturalism	1880 – 1900
Post-Impressionism	1880 – 1920
Symbolism	1880 – 1910
Expressionism	1890 – 1939
Art Noveau	1895 – 1915
Cubism	1905 – 1939
Futurism	1909 – 1918
Dadaism	1912 – 1923
New Objectivity	1918 – 1933
Precisionism	1920 – 1950
Art Deco	1920 – 1935
Bauhaus	1920 – 1925
Surrealism	1924 – 1945
Abstract Expressionism	1945 – 1960
Pop-Art / Op Art	1956 – 1969
Arte Povera	1960 – 1969
Minimalism	1960 – 1975
Photorealism	1968 – at present
Lowbrow Pop Surrealism	1970 – now
Contemporary Fine art	1978 – at present

Information technology may seem strange for our business relationship of the art period timeline to finish 30 years ago. The concept of an art era seems inadequate to capture the diversity of creative styles that have grown since the turn of the 21st Century. There is a feeling amongst some art historians that the traditional concept of painting has died in our era of fast-rail living. We do not accept this stance. Instead, we go along to share our unique human experiences through the medium of fine art, just as the cave people did, exterior of our modern system of classification.

Biergarten (c. 1915) by Max Liebermann;Max Liebermann, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

A Comprehensive Fine art Movement Timeline

It is time to dive a little deeper into the social, cultural, and historical contexts of each of the distinct art eras we presented above. You volition come across how many eras take influence from those earlier them. Art, similar man consciousness, is continuously evolving. It is too important to annotation that this art timeline is a history of Western and predominantly European art.

The Romanesque Menstruum (1000-1300): Sharing Information Through Art

Art historians typically consider the Romanesque fine art era to exist the commencement of the art history timeline. Romanesque art developed during the rise of Christianity ca. 1000 Advertising. During this time, only a small per centum of the European population were literate. The ministers of the Christian church building were typically part of this minority, and to spread the bulletin of the bible, they needed an alternative method.

Christian objects, stories, deities, saints, and ceremonies were the exclusive field of study of most Romanesque paintings. Intended to teach the masses well-nigh the values and beliefs of the Christian Church, Romanesque paintings had to be uncomplicated and easy to read.

As a result, Romanesque works of art are unproblematic, with bold contours and make clean areas of colour. Romanesque paintings lack whatever depth of perspective, and the imagery is rarely of natural scenes. There were several different forms that Romanesque paintings could take, including wall paintings, mosaics, panel paintings, and volume paintings.

Due to the Christian purpose behind Romanesque paintings, they are almost always symbolic. The relative importance of the figures inside the paintings is shown by the size, with the more of import figures appearing much larger. Yous can come across that human faces are oft distorted, and the stories depicted in these paintings tend to have a loftier emotional value. Romanesque paintings often include mythological creatures like dragons and angels, and virtually e'er appear in churches.

At the most fundamental level, paintings of the Romanesque flow serve the purpose of spreading the give-and-take of the bible and Christianity. The proper name of this art era stems from circular arches used in Roman compages, often found in churches of the fourth dimension.

Altar frontal from Avià, c. 1200; Museu Nacional d'Art de Catalunya, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

The Gothic Era (1100-1500): Freedom and Fear Come Together

One of the near famous eras, Gothic art grew out of the Romanesque period in France and is an expression of two contrasting feelings of the age. On the one mitt, people were experiencing and celebrating a new level of freedom of idea and religious understanding. On the other, there was a fright that the world was coming to an end. You tin conspicuously see the expression of these 2 contrasting tensions within the art of the Gothic period.

Simply every bit in the Romanesque menstruation, Christianity lay at the middle of the tensions of the Gothic era. Every bit more freedom of thought emerged, and many pushed against conformity, the subjects of paintings became more diverse. The stronghold of the church building began to dissipate.

Gothic paintings portrayed scenes of real human life, such equally working in the fields and hunting. The focus moved away from divine beings and mystical creatures as more focus was given to the intricacies of what it meant to be human.

Human figures received a lot more than attending during the Gothic period. Gothic artists fleshed out more realistic human faces as they became more private, less 2-dimensional, and less inanimate. The development of a 3-dimensional perspective is thought to take facilitated this modify. Painters besides paid more attending to things of personal value like clothing, which they painted realistically with beautiful folds.

The Raising of Lazarus(1310-1311) by Duccio di Buoninsegna;Duccio di Buoninsegna, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Many historians believe that part of the reason why the subjects of art became more diverse during the Gothic era was due to the increased surface area for painting inside churches. Gothic churches were more than expansive than those of the Romanesque period, which is thought to represent the increased feelings of liberty at this time.

Alongside the newfound freedom of creative expression, there was a deep fear that the stop of the globe was coming. It is suggested that this was accompanied past a gradual turn down in religion in the church, and this in turn may have spurred the expansion of art exterior of the church building. In fact, towards the end of the Gothic era, works by Hieronymus von Bosch, Breughel, and others were unsuitable for placement within a church.

Nosotros do not know many individual artists who painted in the Romanesque period, equally art was non well-nigh who painted it but rather the bulletin it carried. Thus, the move away from the church can too be seen in the enormous increase in known artists from the Gothic period, including Giotto di Bondone. Schools of art began to emerge throughout French republic, Italy, Frg, the Netherlands, and other parts of Europe.

The Renaissance Era (1420-1520): The Reawakening of an Fine art Era That Never Really Existed

The Renaissance era is mayhap one of the virtually well-known, featuring artists like Michelangelo and Leonardo da Vinci. This era continued to focus on the individual human as its inspiration and took influence from the art and philosophy of the ancient Romans and Greeks. The Renaissance can exist seen as a cultural rebirth.

A part of this cultural rebirth was the returned focus on the natural and realistic world in which humans lived. The three-dimensional perspective became even more than important to the fine art of the Renaissance, equally is aptly demonstrated by Michelangelo's statue ofDavid.This statue harkened back to the works of the ancient Greeks as it was consciously created to be seen from all angles. Statues of the last two eras had been 2-dimensional, intended to be viewed but from the forepart.

Michelangelo's David (1501-1504); Livioandronico2013, CC By-SA four.0, via Wikimedia Commons

The same three-dimensional perspective carried over into the paintings of the Renaissance era. Frescos that were invented around 3000 years prior were given new life by Renaissance painters. Scenes became more complex, and the representation of humans became much more nuanced. Renaissance artists painted homo bodies and faces in three dimensions with a strong accent on realism. The pigment used during the Renaissance period also represented a shift from tempera paints to oil paints. The Renaissance menstruum is oftentimes credited as the very outset of great Dutch landscape paintings.

Mannerism (1520-1600): A Window into the Hereafter of Kitsch

Of course, this heading is partly in jest. Not all of the art produced in this era is what nosotros would sympathize today as "kitsch". What we understand kitsch to mean today is oft bogus, cheaply made, and without much 'classic' sense of taste. Instead, the reason we describe the art of this menstruum every bit beingness kitsch is due to the relative over-exaggeration that characterized it. Stemming from the newfound freedom of human expression in the Renaissance period, artists began to explore their ain unique and individual artistic mode, or mode.

Michelangelo himself, in fact, is non free from the exaggeration that distinguishes this era. Some art historians do not consider some of his later paintings to be works of the Renaissance period. The expression of feelings and human gestures, fifty-fifty items of clothing, is exaggerated deliberately in mannerist paintings.

The modest S-curve of the homo body that characterizes the Renaissance style is transformed into an unnatural angle of the body. This is the first European style that attracted artists from across Europe to its birthplace in Italy.

Madonna with Long Neck (1534-1540) by Parmigianino;Parmigianino, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

The Baroque Era (1590-1760): The Glorification of Power and the Deception of the Eye

The progression of fine art celebrating the lives of humans over the ability of the divine continued into the Baroque era. Kings, princes, and even popes began to prefer to meet their own power and prestige celebrated through art than that of God. The over-exaggeration that classified Mannerism also continued into the Baroque period, with the scenes of paintings becoming increasingly unrealistic and magnificent.

Baroque paintings oft showed scenes where Kings would be ascending into the heavens, mingling with the angels, and reaching e'er closer to the divinity and power of God. Here, nosotros really can see the progression of man cocky-importance, and although the subject matter does not motility away entirely from religious symbolism, man is increasingly the primal ability within the compositions.

New materials that glorify wealth and status like golden and marble get the prized materials for sculptures. Opposites of light and dark, warm and cold colors, and symbols of good and evil are emphasized across what is naturally occurring. Art academies increased in their numbers, every bit art became a way to display your wealth, power, and status.

Bizarre ceiling frescoes of Cathedral in Ljubljana, Slovenia. Piece of work of Italian main Giulio Quaglio in 1703–1706 and afterwards 1721–1723;Petar Milošević, CC Past-SA iv.0, via Wikimedia Commons

The Rococo Fine art Menstruation (1725-1780): Lite and Blusterous, a French Fancy

The paintings from the Rococo era are typical of the French elite of the time. The name stems from the French word rocaille which means "shellwork". The solid forms which characterized the Baroque period softened into light, air, and desire. Paintings of this era were no longer potent and powerful, just calorie-free and playful.

The colors were lighter and brighter, almost transparent in some instances. Many pieces of art from this period neglected religious themes, although some artists like Tiepolo did create frescos in many churches.

Much like the mental attitude of the French aristocracy of the time, the fine art of the Rococo period is totally removed from the social reality. The shepherd'southward idyll became the theme of this period, representing life as calorie-free and carefree, without the constraints of economic or social hardship.

Classicism (1770-1840): Throwing Information technology Back to Classic Times

Classicism, like the Rococo era, began in French republic in effectually 1770. In dissimilarity to the Rococo era, nonetheless, Classism reverted to earlier, more serious styles of artistic expression. Much similar the Renaissance period, Classisim took inspiration from classic Roman and Greek art.

The fine art created in the Classicism era reverted to strict forms, two-dimensional colors, and human figures. The tone of these paintings was undoubtedly strict. Colors lost their symbolism. The art produced in this era was used internationally to instill feelings of patriotism in the people of each nation. Parts of Classicism include Louis-Sieze, Empire, and Biedermeier.

A Childhood Idyll (1900) by William Bouguereau;William-Adolphe Bouguereau, Public domain, via Wikimedia Eatables

Romanticism (1790-1850): A Break from the Severity of information technology All

You can see from the dates that this art era occurred at around the aforementioned fourth dimension as Classicism. Romanticism is often seen as an emotionally charged reaction to the stern nature of Classicism. In contrast to the strict and realistic nature of the Classicism era, the paintings of the Romantic era were much more than sentimental.

The exploration of the intangible; emotions and the hidden, took center-stage. Around this time, people began to go hiking in an attempt to explore the natural world. It was not, however, the true reality of the natural world which they intended to detect, but the way it made them experience.

There is no tangible or precisely determinable style to the art of the Romanticism period. English and French painters tended to focus on the effects of shadows and lights, while the art produced by German painters tended to take more gravity of thought to them. The Romantic painters were oft criticized and even mocked for their interpretation of the world around them.

Realism (1850-1925): Objectivity over Subjectivity

As the Romanticism era was a reactionary movement to the Classicism menses before it, so is Realism a reaction to Romanticism. In contrast to the beautiful and securely emotional content of Romantic paintings, Realist artists presented both the practiced and beautiful, the ugly and evil. The reality of the world is presented in an unembellished way by Realism painters.

These artists attempt to bear witness the earth, people, nature, and animals, as they truly are. There is a focus on the "obligation of art into truth" equally Gustave Courbet puts it.

Just as with Romanticism, Realism was not popular with anybody. The paintings are not particularly pleasing to the heart and some critics have commented that despite the artist's claims of realism, erotic scenes somehow miss the real eroticism. Goethe criticizes Realism, saying that art should be ideal, not realistic. Schiller too calls Realism "mean," indicating the harshness that many of the paintings portray.

Proudhon and His Children(1865) by Gustave Courbet; Gustave Courbet, Public domain, via Wikimedia Eatables

Impressionism (1850-1895): Heralding the Era of Modern Art

Historians oft paint the Impressionist motion as the beginning of the mod age. Impressionist art is said to have closed the volume on classical music and other classical forms of art. Impressionism is also possibly, later on Cubism, ane of the most easily recognizable art periods. Featuring artists like Claude Monet and Vincent van Gough, Impressionism broke abroad from the smoothen brush strokes and areas of solid color that characterized many art periods before it.

Initially, the word Impressionism was like a swear give-and-take in the art world, with critics believing that these artists did not paint with technique, but rather simply smeared paint onto a canvas. The brushstrokes indeed were a significant departure from those that came earlier them, sometimes becoming furiously wild. Singled-out shapes and lines disappeared into a whirlwind of colors. Private dots of completely new colors were put together, particularly in the pointillism diversity of Impressionist paintings. The subjects of Impressionist paintings could often only be recognized from a altitude.

View of Vetheuil sur Seine(1880) by Claude Monet;Claude Monet, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

A significant change that occurred during the Impressionist era was that painting began to have place "en-plein-air," or exterior. Much of the Impressionist creative person'southward ability to capture the complex and ever-changing colors of the natural world were a effect of this shift.

Impressionist artists also began to motility away from the desire to lecture and teach, preferring to create art for art's sake. Galleries and international exhibitions became increasingly of import.

Symbolism (1890-1920): At that place is Always More than Than Meets the Center

During this menses, the era of Symbolism began to take hold in French republic. Artists became preoccupied with the representation of feelings and thoughts through objects. The favorite themes of the Symbolism motility were death, sickness, sin, and passion. The forms were by and large clear, a fact which art historians believe was anticipating the Art Nouveau era.

Art Nouveau (1890-1910): The Pure Gold of Gustav Klimt

Although Gustav Klimt was by no means the virtually of import artist in the Art Nouveau movement, he is one of the nigh well-known. His style perfectly encapsulates the Art Nouveau motion with soft, curved lines, lots of florals, and the stylistic characterization of human figures. In many countries, this style is known as the Secession style.

The Kiss (1907-1908) past Gustav Klimt;Gustav Klimt, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

The art produced in the Art Nouveau menstruum includes a lot of symmetry and is characterized by playfulness and youthfulness. Fine art Nouveau has a lot of political content, although many critics ignore this and hold the decorative aspects against it. Through the art of the Art Nouveau period, artists attempted to bring nature back into industrial cities.

Expressionism (1890-1914): Bringing a Political Border to the Argue

In the Expressionism fine art era, we once again see a resurgence of the importance of the expression of subjective feelings. The artists within this movement were not interested in naturalism or what things look like on the outside. As a event, there is a certain tinge of aggression in some Expressionist paintings, which are frequently archaic and slightly wild.

Expressionism originated in Frg and is intended to contrast Impressionism. Towards the first of the First World War, Expressionist paintings had a disturbing intensity about them. Intended to criticize ability and the standing social society, Expressionism spread these political ideas through the medium of paint. Art was beginning to become political.

Cubism (1906-1914): Breaking Things Apart and Putting Them Back Together Again

Beginning with ii artists, Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque, the Cubist movement was all nigh fragmentation, geometric shapes, and multiple perspectives. The dimensional planes of everyday objects were cleaved downwards into unlike geometric segments and put back together in a style that presented the object from multiple sides simultaneously.

Cubism was a rejection of all the rules of traditional western painting and has had a potent influence on the styles of fine art that have followed information technology.

Guitar and Glasses (1912) by Juan Gris;Juan Gris, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Futurism (1909-1945): Artistic Anarchism

Futurism is less of an artistic manner and more of an artistically inspired political move. Founded by Tommaso Marinetti'southFuturist Manifesto, which rejected social organisation and Christian morality, the Futurist era was full of chaos, hostility, assailment, and anger. Although Marinetti was not a painter himself, painting became the near prominent form of art within the Futurist motion.

These artists vehemently rejected the rules of Classical painting, assertive that everything that was passed through generations (beliefs, traditions, religion) was suspicious and dangerous. The militant nature of the Futurist movement has resulted in many people believing that information technology was too close to fascism.

Dadaism (1912-1920): The True Reality That Life is Nonsense

Dada means a corking many things and aught at all. The writer Hugo Ball discovered that this small word has several different meanings in different languages and at the same time, every bit a discussion, it meant zip at all. The Dadaism movement is based on the concepts of illogic and provocation and was seen as not only an fine art movement, but an anti-war move.

The illogic of existing rules, norms, traditions, and values was called into question by the Dadaist movement. The art motion encompassed several art forms including writing, poetry, dance, and performance art. Function of the movement was to telephone call into question what could be classified as "art".

Dadaism represents the beginnings of activeness fine art in which painting becomes more than just a portrait of reality, simply rather an amalgamation of the social, cultural, and subjective parts of being human.

Surrealism (1920-1930): Things But Get More than Bizzare

As if the pure illogic nature of the Dadaism motility was not outlandish enough, the Surrealists took the dream world to be the fountain of all truth. One of the almost famous Surrealist artists is Salvador Dali, and y'all are bound to know his painting Melting Spotter (1954).

Surrealism is fundamentally psychoanalytical, and many Surrealist artists would paint directly from their dreams. Sometimes dealing with uncomfortable concepts, hidden desires, and taboos, Surrealism was a direct critique of the ingrained ideas and beliefs of the bourgeoise. Equally you can imagine, this style of art was not popular when information technology began, simply it has greatly influenced the globe of modern art.

Space and fourth dimension (in homage to Fifty.Five. Beethoven) (1974) by Italian painter William Girometti;William Girometti, CC By-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

The New Objectivity (1925-1965): Cold and Technical

As the surrealists were attempting to motility away from the world of physical, physical, and visible objects, the New Objectivity motility turned towards these ideas. Many of the themes within New Objective fine art were social critiques. The turbulence of the war left many people searching for some kind of club to concur onto, and this can be seen clearly in the art of New Objectivity.

The images represented in New Objectivity were often cold, unemotional, and technical, with some favorite subjects existence the radio and lightbulbs. Every bit is the example with many mod movements in fine art, at that place were several unlike wings to the New Objectivity motility.

Abstract Expressionism (1948-1962): Stepping Away from Europe

Abstract Expressionism is said to be the first fine art motility to originate outside of Europe. Emerging from North America, Abstruse Expressionism focused on color-field painting and action paintings. Rather than using a canvass and a brush, buckets of paint would be poured on the ground, and artists used their fingers to create images.

With well-known artists like Marc Tobey and Jackson Pollock, this art motion was distinct from whatever that came earlier information technology. The application of the pigment was sometimes and so thick that the finished slice would take on a grade unlike any painting before information technology. Abstruse Expressionism spread throughout Europe. As with all art, there are always critics, with conservative Americans during the cold war calling it "united nations-American."

Pop-Art (1955-1969): Fine art is Everything

For the artists of Popular-Art, everything in the world was art. From advertisements, tin cans, toothpaste, and toilets,everythingis fine art. Pop-Art developed simultaneously in the United States and England and is characterized by uniform blocks of color and clear lines and contours. Painting and graphic art became influenced by photorealism and serial prints. One of the nearly famous English Pop artists is David Hockney, although merely a few of his lifetime paintings were in this motion.

A particular of Roy Lichtenstein'south Wall Explosion II, 1965; Colin McLaughlin, CC BY-SA iv.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Neo-Expressionism (1980-1989): Modern Art

Starting in the 1980s, Neo-Expressionism emerged with large-format representational and life-affirming paintings. Berlin was a primal indicate for this new movement, and the designs typically featured cities and big-city life. The name Neo-Expressionism emerged from Fauvism, and although the artists in Berlin disbanded in 1989, some artists connected to pigment in this way in New York.

Art is a primal function of what information technology ways to be human. Many of the troubles and joys we experience can only be captured accurately through artistic expression. We hope that this short summary of the art periods timeline has helped you gain some more than insight into the contexts surrounding some of the most famous works of fine art created by the human race.

We've besides created a web story about art periods.

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Source: https://artincontext.org/art-periods/

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