Introduction to Art History

4CLARA PEETERS, Still Life with Flowers, Goblet, Dried Fruit, and Pretzels , 1611.

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JACOB VAN RUISDAEL, View of Haarlem from the Dunes at Overveen , ca. 1670

Taste

Taste

Taste as an aesthetic, sociological, economic andanthropological concept refers to cultural patterns of choiceand preference regarding aesthetic judgments.

What determines aesthetic judgements?

What gives us certain tastes?

Is it really just a function of our “ ingroup ” bias?

And why should we even care about things we don’t like ?

Well, for one…..because art exists for more than one subgroup or individual….

Art is part of our Public (shared) Experience

ART is reflective of the

HUMAN EXPERIENCE…good

and bad.

Edvard Munch, “The Scream”

1893, National Gallery, Oslo Norway.

ART is not just for interior design and we are not just “CONSUMERS”!

…..and this is why Museums and Galleries are so important.

ITS GOOD TO GET OUT OF THE HOUSE and AWAYFROM THE MARKETERS!!!

• ART HISTORY IS NOT ABOUT “TASTE”

ART IS POWERFUL

The reason art can please, is

also because it can

displease…..

The Buddhas of Bamiyan were two 6th century monumental statues of standing buddhascarved into the side of a cliff in central Afghanistan. They were intentionally destroyed in 2001by the Taliban, on orders from leader Mullah Mohammed Omar, after the Taliban governmentdeclared that they were "idols".

ART IS POWERFUL

…. it can alternately challenge

or reinforce the value system

of any given culture.

It is one of many place where

a peoples discovers who they

wish to be….

ART and BEAUTY

Should ALL art aim to be Beautiful ?

Official North Korean Art

Socialist Realism……pretty as a picture???

NOT SO PRETTY

Soviet Union , Stalin's regime

(1924-53): 20 million DEAD.

“As long as art is the beauty

parlor of civilization, neither art

nor civilization is secure .”

-John Dewey

ART and BEAUTY

Art should comfort the disturbed

and disturb the comfortable!

It has MANY purposes.

This print was not really meant to “hang ” over the couch….

BEGIN

Europe in the ‘Dark Ages”

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DONATELLO, David , late 1440 –1460. Bronze, 5’ 2 1/4” high. MuseoNazionale del Bargello, Florence.

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SANDRO BOTTICELLI, Birth of Venus, ca. 1484 –1486. Tempera on canvas, approx. 5’ 9” x 9’ 2”.Galleria degli Uffizi, Florence.

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MASACCIO, Holy Trinity , Santa Maria Novella, Florence, Italy, ca.1424 –1427. Fresco, 21’ 10’ 5/8” x 10’ 4 3/4”.

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PERUGINO, Christ Delivering the Keys of the Kingdom to Saint Peter , Sistine Chapel, Vatican, Rome,

Italy, 1481 –1483. Fresco, 11’ 5 1/2” x 18’ 8 1/2”.

RAPHAEL, Philosophy ( School of Athens ), Stanza della Segnatura, Vatican Palace, Rome, Italy,1509 –1511. Fresco, 19’ x 27’. 76

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LUCAS CRANACH THE ELDER, Allegory of Law and Grace , ca. 1530. Woodcut, 10 5/8” x 1’ 3/4”. British

Museum, London.

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GIANLORENZO BERNINI, David , 1623. Marble,5’ 7” high. Galleria Borghese, Rome.

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GIANLORENZO BERNINI, Ecstasy of SaintTeresa , Cornaro Chapel, Santa Maria dellaVittoria, Rome, Italy, 1645 – 1652. Marble,

height of group 11’ 6”.

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CARAVAGGIO, Calling of Saint Matthew , ca. 1597 –1601. Oil on canvas, 11’ 1” x 11’ 5”. ContarelliChapel, San Luigi dei Francesi, Rome

TITIAN, Venus of Urbino , 1538. Oil on canvas, 3’ 11” x 5’ 5”. Galleria degli Uffizi, Florence.81

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PETER PAUL RUBENS, Consequences of War , 1638 –1639. Oil on canvas, 6’ 9” x 11’ 3 7/8”. Palazzo

Pitti, Florence..

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JAN VAN EYCK, Man in a Red

Turban , 1433. Oil on wood, 1’ 1 1/8” X10 1/4". National Gallery, London.

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REMBRANDT VAN RIJN, Anatomy Lesson of Dr. Tulp , 1632. Oil on canvas, 5’ 3 3/4” x 7’ 1 1/4”.Mauritshuis, The Hague.

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PIETER CLAESZ, Vanitas Still Life , 1630s. Oil on panel, 1’ 2” x 1’ 11 1/2”. GermanischesNationalmuseum, Nuremberg.

89JEAN-BAPTISTE GREUZE, Village Bride , 1761.

90JACQUES-LOUIS DAVID, Oath of the Horatii , 1784.

Henry Fuseli, THE SHEPHERDS DREAM, 1793.

THÉODORE GÉRICAULT, Raft of the Medusa, 1818 – 1819.

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97JEAN-FRANÇOIS MILLET, The Gleaners , 1857.

98ÉDOUARD MANET, Le Déjeuner sur l’Herbe ( Luncheon on the Grass ), 1863.

99ÉDOUARD MANET, Olympia , 1863.

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THOMAS EAKINS, The Gross

Clinic , 1875.

102JOHN EVERETT MILLAIS, Ophelia.