art wall

I love how my art wall turned out! It may be just a random collection of postcards and cut outs, but it is a visual representation of memories from Europe and studying and life in general.

The Age of Modernity—Art History

The age of realism raised the idea of what it meant to be modern. Alcoholism, prostitution, and rampant poverty were results of the industrial revolution. Art and architecture of the modernist period reflected the competing ideas about modernity when speaking of progress and decline for Western Civilization. CREATION OF BARRIERS Philosopher Georg Simmel addresses “the …

The Age of Realism—Art History

Romanticism, 1750–1850, did not die out completely yet tinkered off, while artists continued to pursue romantics ways of viewing the world into the twentieth century. By 1830, there was a rise of a new movement of nineteenth century Realism, which called into question the over-emphasis of passions, irrationality, and subjectivity of the Romantics. Realists wanted …

Romanticism & Art History

Romanticism is “a shift in emphasis from reason to feeling, from calculation to intuition, and from objective nature to subjective emotion” (Gardner 784), thus indicating a distinct transition from Neoclassicism. Rousseau’s claim that “‘Man is born free but is everywhere in chains!’—the opening line of his Social Contract (1762)—summarizes a fundamental Romantic premise” (784). Romanticism reflected …

Age of Enlightenment and Revolution—Art History

Art produced in seventeenth, eighteenth, and nineteenth century was mobilized for political purposes. Royalty and revolutionaries used art as a means of solidifying their power. Anthony van Dyck specialized in court portraiture. International painters copied the artist’s refined style; other painters reflected his style well into the nineteenth century (Gardner 678-9). His Charles I Dismounted …

The Age of Scientific Revolution—Art History

The Age of the Scientific Revolution changed the way people essentially thought. Descartes “discovered that he could doubt everything except that he was doubting” (Davis 496) and explains in Discourse on Method: “whilst I thus wished to think all things false, it was absolutely essential that . . . remarking that this truth ‘I think, …

The Age of Catholic Counter-Reformation

The religious conflicts in the 16th century continued throughout the 17th century. The Catholic Reformation (AKA the Counter-Reformation) did not work in tandem with Protestant Reformation. It was a long process because certain popes did not want to respond to those who had questions; additionally, there was much civil unrest. Plus, reforming the Catholic Church, …

The Age of Reformation—Art History

Learn about the Age of Reformation with an art history perspective.

Humanism and the Age of the Renaissance in Art History

Giovanni Pico della Mirandola wrote Oration on the Dignity of Man, which explains how humans are not base animalistic creatures. God is above—the animals below; humans are, when taking into consideration the great chain of being, in the center. Mirandola argues men ought to “struggle toward the heavenly” (2205). Therefore, this description reveals the basic core of humanism …

Human Isolation in Urban Setting

image from here The oil painting depicts a man sitting on the edge of a sidewalk, stretching his tired left leg while flexing his left foot outward into the street. Resting his right foot in the gutter, the man hunches over. While the disconsolate man rests near a fire hydrant, rows and rows of concatenated legs …