From Baroque to Contemporary, 1600-present: Western Art History 101
A brief introduction to the past 400 years of art movements
After the Renaissance, art continued to become more complex and skillful, leading to the “Baroque” movement of the 1600s.
Baroque is known as the first “global” art movement. It spread further than any previous movement, partly from European colonization and trading networks. It dominated the world with highly-decorated dramatic works of art, architecture, and sculpture. It’s often easy to classify Baroque works because of their correlation with “fear of empty space” and epic appearance.
Important artists include: Peter Paul Reubens, Rembrandt van Rijn, Caravaggio, Artemesia Gentileschi, Diego Velázquez.
Gian Lorenzo Bernini is credited as the “founder” of Baroque sculpture.
The Cultural Tutor argued that Baroque art was invented in the Reformation in direct opposition to Protestant minimalism and iconoclasm; the Catholic Church “started paying more attention to art as a religious and political force” and placed increasing emphasis on the persuasive nature of beauty. “The rise of Protestantism had made the Catholic Church more deeply aware of its own identity - and so they doubled down on it.”
“Baroque architecture was rooted in the neoclassical style of the Renaissance - it used rounded arches, classical orders, pediments, and all the other trappings of Roman and Greek architecture. Only with a new dynamism, decadence, scale, and lavishness never before seen.”
Baroque composers included Johan Sebastian Bach, Georg Frideric Handel, Johann Pachelbel, and Antonio Vivaldi.
Rococo (Pompadour) is a type of late Baroque style which originated in Paris. It’s less bombastic and dynamic, instead emphasizing delicacy and light-hearted themes. Rococo artists rebelled against Baroque norms and introduced more softness, along with more pastel-like colors. Whereas Baroque art was content with themes like archangels and dragons, Rococo preferred picnics and love. However, they kept the idea of intricacy; Rococo art is very decorative and almost over-worked in its level of detail.
In the mid-1700s, Neoclassicism developed. The Age of Enlightenment and early archeology led to the movement. Excavations of Pompeii and Herculaneum brought a massive wave of interest to ancient art and literature. Neoclassical works are easy to spot. They’re all based on ancient Greco-Roman art and mythology.
Visually, it has similarities to prior movements, especially in the Renaissance, but is more restrained and minimalistic. Especially compared to the intricate Baroque and Rococo styles. Neoclassical work emphasizes simplicity and symmetry, focusing on what Europeans believed ancient Mediterranean civilization looked like (judging by their ruins).
“Classical” music dates to about 1750-1820; a transitional period between the Baroque and Romantic movements. Compositions became more complex and the harpsichord became less common as piano rose in popularity. Composers included Joseph Haydn, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Ludwig van Beethoven, and Franz Schubert.
Romanticism (approx 1780-1850) was more counter-cultural than prior movements. Some historians argue that this was the beginning of “modern art.” It was anti-Enlightenment, against the Industrial Revolution, soon after the American Revolution, and in favor of the French Revolution. They disliked the intricacy of Baroque and Rococo, along with the realism and symmetry of Neoclassicism.
Romantic- era artists emphasized emotion, atmospheric landscapes, and the power of nature. (Little to no work related to “romance” or love.) Some late works could potentially be classified as Early Impressionism due to their abstraction, JMW Turner as one example.
Important artists include: Ivan Aivazovsky, Caspar Friedrich, Gericault, Eugène Delacroix, William Blake, Henry Fuseli, Goya
A subcategory: the Hudson River School
Romantic composers included Frédéric Chopin, Felix Mendelssohn, Gioachino Rossini, and Carl Maria von Weber.
Personally, Neoclassicism and Romanticism are my favorite periods.
Beaux-Arts was a French combination of Neoclassicism, Baroque, and Renaissance styles. Primarily applied to architecture, it was an academic style taught in art schools. Students underwent considerable training and they influenced architecture around the world. The goal here was to combine the best parts of each style with modern techniques and materials.
Victorian art dealt with a variety of themes, notably including Shakespeare and fairy tales. Stylistically, their paintings varied, so “Victorian” is more about what the art showed rather than how. Many artists of the time used Renaissance and Neoclassical techniques to show heroic or mythological scenes.
Realists (including the Ashcan and Barbizon schools) diverged from their contemporaries in Neoclassical, Romantic, and Victorian art. They focused on painting mundane subjects. Daily life in city neighborhoods, farmers, etc. They shunned epic mythological tales in favor of simple truths about life. They were willing to push boundaries of accepted art and discuss social issues. “Mundane” art had existed before, but intermittently, and the Realists pushed it into a cohesive movement of its own.
Around this time, the Impressionist movement popped up. Color and light took the stage over lines and detail. Sometimes considered an extreme form of Romanticism, these paintings had a sketch-like quality with their loose brushstrokes.
Post-Impressionism was a natural extension which included further abstraction and distortions. It diverged from reality with overly expressive effects and strange colors. Pointillism (using dots instead of brushstrokes) was one technique.
Most artists and critics hated impressionism and post-impressionism. At the time most of these works were deemed messy, low-skilled, and degenerate. Remember that this was being done at the same time as Victorian art. There’s a huge visual difference between Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema and Van Gogh.
Important artists include: Vincent van Gogh, Paul Cézanne, Paul Gauguin, Georges Seurat
Symbolism was another reaction against realistic and naturalistic art. In paintings, poems, and literature, artists wanted to use metaphor and allusion instead of showing things literally. They were influenced by dreams, mysticism, and the works of people like Edgar Allan Poe. Visually, there was a lot of stylistic variation like in Victorian art. This was a precursor for Surrealism.
Art Nouveau (approximately 1890-1915) was a nature-inspired movement which primarily dealt with architecture and decorative arts (interior decorating). Posters were also popular. It emphasized curves and plant-like visuals, and is most similar to Rococo, although it often included neoclassical and medieval elements. Tiffany stained glass has many examples.
Important artists include: Alphonse Mucha, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, Gustav Klimt, Aubrey Beardsley
Lastly, we have to mention photography. Part of the reason for art becoming more abstract is that photos muscled into the “realistic art” niche. Painting a beautiful landscape had less perceived value when taking a picture was faster and less expensive. Artists thus began expressing themselves in different ways.
Modern Art & Contemporary Art
Opinions differ on when “modern art” begins. I personally put it around 1900, alongside the short-lived burst of Fauvism and decline of Impressionism. Artists by this point turned from depictions of externalities (the divine, nature, etc.) in favor of emotions, abstractions, and internal thoughts. “Anything” can become “art.”
Early modern art includes movements such as Expressionism, Cubism, Futurism, Suprematism, Constructivism, De Stijl, Precisionism, and Harlem Renaissance.
After The Great War (WW1) things took a slightly darker turn in art and sculpture. The ramifications of the war was one influence for artists further questioning the point of art. We get Dada, Surrealism, and Modernist Architecture.
One of the highlights of post-war art is Art Deco (1920 – 1935).
Bauhaus and other abstract movements are the foundation of contemporary nonsense like Corporate Memphis. Emphasis on “function” and simplified forms, along with mass production, ushered in the new age of Globalism—where cultural identity is tossed aside in favor of a homogeneous “international” style. Beauty and form are stripped away, leaving us with an “Ikeafication” and “Debranding” of everything.
WW2 exacerbated this with 50s/60s styles like Pop Art, Brutalism, and Minimalism. Andy Warhol and Roy Liechtenstein are among the biggest personalities of the time.
The “break point” for the next art era came from hippies, feminists, and other outcasts. The 1960s included movements like psychedelic art, graffiti, “junk” art, and performance art.
“Contemporary art” is a broad, easy-to-classify term. It’s anything made after 1970. This includes Postmodernism, Deconstructivism, Installation Art, and meme culture. Anything goes. Some people argue that art is solely an intellectual exercise now, not an aesthetic display, with ideas taking center stage.
One newer term is “Artivism”—described as “political action presented through (or as) art.” It’s a reactionary movement, generally railing against traditional values and espousing social justice activism. It’s more about politics, trying to bully people into believing what you want them to believe, rather than art.
The art world continues to evolve in unexpected ways, including nostalgia-based movements like Vaporwave and counter-countermovements like Neo-Traditionalism. Classical sculpture has survived in artists like Frederick Elliott Hart and Roger Morigi.
As for where we’ll go next, no one knows.
The big thing these days is NFT art and Artificial Intelligence art.
Side note: because this article is a brief introduction, we haven’t covered literally everything here. Stay tuned for more. This is the 101 level to contextualize things and introduce a generalized exposure to each style/topic.
Here’s the full art history series at this time:
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From Baroque to Contemporary, 1600-present: Western Art History 101
Loved this newsletter! Great expo of art history from someone who knew none of these terms but never bothered to look any of em up