ART OF ANCIENT EGYPT

       Mesir merupakan sebuah ibu negeri di daerah lembah sungai Nil beserta delta sungai tersebut.Manakala, Mesir sebuah negeri yang makmur dan peradaban tinggi di zaman pra sejarah.Mesir kaya dengan hasil bumi , ini kerana Mesir dilalui sungai Nil yang terkenal subur itu.Diantaranya, tanaman gandum banyak dihasilkan dari bumi mesir.Di lembah sungai Nil terdapat papirus, papirus oleh masyarakat Mesir dibuat sebagai kertas.Di samping itu , sayur-sayuran dan juga buah-buahan juga dihasilkan di Mesir.Boleh dikatakan juga seni Mesir purba ini ialah merupakan lukisan, arca , serta seni bina dan seni lain dihasilkan oleh tamadun Mesir kuno dalam sungai Nil  lebih rendah valley daripada sekitar 3000 BC sehingga 30 AD. Seni Purba sampai satu tahap yang tinggi dalam lukisan dan arca, dan ialah kedua-dua amat diolah dalam gaya dan simbolik.Ia dikenali dengan pelbagai gaya-gaya Mesir berubah luar biasa sedikit atas lebih lebih daripada tiga ribu tahun.Kebanyakan daripada seni terus hidup datang dari kubur.


      Seni  Mesir Purba  termasuk lukisan termasuk lukisan , arca dalam kayu , batu dan seramik , lukisan atau papirus , tembikar berbunga , barang kemas , gegading , dan media seni lain. Ia mempamerkan satu gambaran luar biasa jelas taraf sosioekonomi dan sistem kepercayaan Mesir Purba.Pigmen kebanyakannya mineral, memilih untuk bertahan cahaya matahari yang terik tanpa pemudaran.Medium berjilid digunakan dalam lukisan tetap tidak nyata seperti , tempera telur dan pelbagai pelbagai gusi dan damar yang telah dicadangkan.Sebaliknya cat digunakan ke atas plaster kering , dalam apa dipanggil "fresco secco " dalam bahasa itali.Selepas mengecat , satu varnis .

PREHISTORIC ART

         Dalam sejarah seni , seni prasejarah merupakan ialah semua seni dihasilkan dalamaskara prakenal . Budaya prasejarah ini permulaan mana-mana , menurut dalam sejarah geologi terlalu awal , dan pada umumnya, berlanjutan sehingga budaya itu adalah satu membangunkan penulisan atau cara lain penyimpanan rekod , atau dengan membuat hubungan dengan hubungan penting dengan budaya lain yang mempunyai pada awalnya rekod mengenai peristiwa sejarah utama.Di samping itu, pada ketika ini kebudayaan lama bermula , bagi budaya-budaya celik huruf lebih tua.Bagi tarikh akhir pula, untuk meliputi oleh istilah maka akan berbeza antara bahagian lain dengan dunia.

      Artifak manusia terawal menunjukkan bukti kemahiran dengan satu matlamat artistik ialah perkara beberapa perdebatan.Jelaslah bahawa kemahiran sedemikian diwujudkan menjelang 40, 000 tahun lepas dalam Upper usia  dalam era Paleolitik, tetapi bukti janji menemui kegiatan seni sejak 500 000 tahun yang lepas dijalankan oleh erectus manusia.Dari Upper Paleolitik bagi yang melalui zaman Mesolitik, lukisan gua dan seni mudah alih seperti patung dan manik menguasai , dengan usaha-usaha bercorak hiasan juga dilihat pada beberapa objek utilitarian .Dalam bukti Neolitik tembikar awal mula muncul, begitu juga dengan arca dan pembinaan stilistik.Seni batu awal juga mula-mula muncul sepanjang tempoh ini.Ia juga menyaksikan pembangunan dalam beberapa kawasan pekerja-pekerja mahir, satu kelas rakyat.

     Zaman prasejarah adalah zaman dimana sebelum bertemu dengan sumber-sumber atau dokumen-dokumen tertulis mengenai kehidupan manusia.Latar belakang kebudayaannya berasal dari kebudayaan Indonesia yang disebarkan oleh bangsa Melayu Tua dan Melayu Muda.Agama asli pada waktu itu adalah animisme dan dinamisme   yang melahirkan bentuk kesenian sebagai media upacara utama (bersifat simbolisme)


RUPA SENI ZAMAN BATU:

Rupa seni zaman batu ini terbahagi kepada 3 iaitu:

1. Zaman Batu Tua (Paleolitik)

2. Zaman Batu Menengah (Mesolitik)

3. Zaman Batu Muda (Neolithikum)


   Kemudiannya, seni berkembang dari zaman batu di zaman logam disebut zaman Megalithikum(Batu Besar).


SENI RUPA ZAMAN PALEOLITIK (BATU TUA):

  1.   Kapak genggam (Chopper )

   

2. Batu berwarna( Chalcedon)

RUPA SENI ZAMAN MEGALITIKUM (BATU BESAR)

1. Batu Menhir 

Menhir biasanya didirikan secara tunggal atau berkelompok sejajar di atas tanah.Benda prasejarah ini didirikan oleh manusia untuk melambangkan phallus, yakini bahawa simbol kesuburan untuk bumi.Menhir adalah batu serupa dengan dolmen dan cromlech.

2. Dolmen 

Dolmen merupakan meja dari batu yang bermakna tempat meletakkan sajian untuk pemujaan. Adakalanya , di bawah dolmen dipakai untuk meletakkan mayat tersebut tidak dapat dimakan oleh binatang buas maka kaki mejanya diperbanyak sampai mayat tertutup rapat oleh batu.

REALISM ART

      Realism is broadly considered the beginning of modern art. Literally, this is due to its conviction that everyday life and the modern world were suitable subjects for art. Philosophically, Realism embraced the progressive aims of modernism, seeking new truths through the reexamination and overturning of traditional systems of values and beliefs.

   Realism concerned itself with how life was structured socially, economically, politically, and culturally in the mid-nineteenth century. This led to unflinching, sometimes "ugly" portrayals of life's unpleasant moments and the use of dark, earthy palettes that confronted high art's ultimate ideals of beauty.Realism was the first explicitly anti-institutional, nonconformist art movement. Realist painters took aim at the social mores and values of the bourgeoisie and monarchy upon who patronized the art market. Though they continued submitting works to the Salons of the official Academy of Art, they were not above mounting independent exhibitions to defiantly show their work.

   Following the explosion of newspaper printing and mass media in the wake of the Industrial Revolution, Realism brought in a new conception of the artist as self-publicist. Gustave Courbet, Édouard Manet, and others purposefully courted controversy and used the media to enhance their celebrity in a manner that continues among artists to this day.

   Realism was an artistic movement that began in France in the 1850s, after the 1848 Revolution.Realists rejected Romanticism, which had dominated French literature and art since the late 18th century. Realism revolted against the exotic subject matter and exaggerated emotionalism and drama of the Romantic movement. Instead, it sought to portray real and typical contemporary people and situations with truth and accuracy, and not avoiding unpleasant or sordid aspects of life. Realist works depicted people of all classes in situations that arise in ordinary life, and often reflected the changes brought by the Industrial and Commercial Revolutions. The popularity of such "realistic" works grew with the introduction of photography a new visual source that created a desire for people to produce representations which look objectively real.

           The Realists depicted everyday subjects and situations in contemporary settings, and attempted to depict individuals of all social classes in a similar manner. Classical idealism and Romantic emotionalism and drama were avoided equally, and often sordid or untidy elements of subjects were not smoothed over or omitted. Social realism emphasizes the depiction of the working class, and treating them with the same seriousness as other classes in art, but realism, as the avoidance of artificiality, in the treatment of human relations and emotions was also an aim of Realism. Treatments of subjects in a heroic or sentimental manner were equally rejected.

         Realism as an art movement was led by Gustave Courbet in France. It spread across Europe and was influential for the rest of the century and beyond, but as it became adopted into the mainstream of painting it becomes less common and useful as a term to define artistic style. After the arrival of Impressionism and later movements which downgraded the importance of precise illusionistic brushwork, it often came to refer simply to the use of a more traditional and tighter painting style. It has been used for a number of later movements and trends in art, some involving careful illusionistic representation, such as Photorealism, and others the depiction of "realist" subject matter in a social sense, or attempts at both.

James Abbot McNeil Whistler, Nocture : Blue and Gold - Old Battersea Bridge (1872),Tate Britain , London , England. 

                                                 BEGINNINGS IN FRANCE

         The Realist movement began in the mid-19th century as a reaction to Romanticism and History painting. In favor of depictions of 'real' life, the Realist painters used common laborers, and ordinary people in ordinary surroundings engaged in real activities as subjects for their works. The chief exponents of Realism were Gustave Courbet, Jean François Millet, Honoré Daumier, and Jean Baptiste Camille Corot. Jules Bastien Lepage is closely associated with the beginning of Naturalism, an artistic style that emerged from the later phase of the Realist movement and heralded the arrival of Impressionism. Realists used unprettified detail depicting the existence of ordinary contemporary life, coinciding in the contemporaneous naturalist literature of Emile Zola, Honore de Balzac, and Gustave Flaubert.Courbet was the leading proponent of Realism and he challenged the popular history painting that was favored at the state-sponsored art academy. His groundbreaking paintings A Burial at Ornans and The Stonebreakers depicted ordinary people from his native region. The paintings were done on huge canvases that would typically be used for history paintings.

                                  Bonjour, Monseiur Courbet, 1854 . A Realist painting by Gustave Courbet.

                                                               

                                                            BEYOND FRANCE

          The French Realist movement had stylistic and ideological equivalents in all other Western countries, developing somewhat later. In particular the Peredvizhniki or Wanderers group in Russia who formed in the 1860s and organized exhibitions from 1871 included many realists such as genre art master Vasily Perov, landscape artists Ivan Shishkin, Alexei Savrasov, and Arkhip Kuindzhi, highly regarded portraitist Ivan Kramskoy, war artist Vasily Vereshchagin, historical artist Vasily Surikov and, especially, Ilya Repin, who is considered by many to be the most renowned Russian artist of the 19th century.In Britain artists such as the American James Abbot McNeill Whistler, as well as English artists Hubert von Herkomer and Luke Fildes had great success with realist paintings dealing with social issues and depictions of the "real" world. The Ashcan School, an art movement largely based in New York City, included such artists as George Bellows and Robert Henri. It helped to define American realism in its tendency to depict the daily life of poorer members of society.

                                       Ilya Repin, Barge Haulers on the Volga , 1870.

BAROQUE ART

         The Baroque  is a period of artistic style that used exaggerated motion and clear, easily interpreted detail to produce drama, tension, exuberance, and grandeur in sculpture, painting, architecture, literature, dance, theatre, and music. The style began around 1600 in Rome and Italy, and spread to most of Europe.The popularity and success of the Baroque style was encouraged by the Catholic Church which had decided at the time of the Council of Trent, in response to the Protestant Reformation, that the arts should communicate religious themes with direct and emotional involvement.The aristocracy viewed the dramatic style of Baroque art and architecture as a means of impressing visitors by projecting triumph, power, and control. Baroque palaces are built around an entrance of courts, grand staircases, and reception rooms of sequentially increasing opulence. However, "baroque" has a resonance and application that extend beyond a simple reduction to either a style or period.

The Baroque era is sometimes loosely divided into three approximate phases for convenience:

• Early Baroque, c. 1590–1625   
• High Baroque, c. 1625–1660 
• Late Baroque, c. 1660–1725 or later

The term "Late Baroque" is also sometimes used synonymously with the succeeding Rococo movement.

                      The Church of Sant' Andrea al Quirinale, designed by Gian Lorenzo Bernini.

                                        The Triumph of the Immaculate by Paolo de Matteis

     The Baroque originated around 1600, several decades after the Council of Trent (1545–63), by which the Roman Catholic Church answered many questions of internal reform and formulated policy on the representational arts by demanding that paintings and sculptures in church contexts should speak to the illiterate rather than to the well-informed. Many art historians see this turn toward a populist conception of the function of ecclesiastical art as driving the innovations of Caravaggio and of the brothers Agostino and Annibale Carracci, all of whom were working (and competing for commissions) in Rome around 1600.

BAROQUE FAMOUS ARTIST :

CARAVAGGIO:

         Michelangelo Merisi (Michele Angelo Merigi or Amerighi) da CaravaggioItalian 28 September 1571. At 18 July 1610 was an Italian painter active in Rome, Naples, Malta, and Sicily from the early 1590s to 1610. His paintings combine a realistic observation of the human state, both physical and emotional, with a dramatic use of lighting, and they had a formative influence on Baroque painting.Caravaggio employed close physical observation with a dramatic use of chiaroscuro that came to be known as tenebrism. He made the technique a dominant stylistic element, darkening shadows and transfixing subjects in bright shafts of light. Caravaggio vividly expressed crucial moments and scenes, often featuring violent struggles, torture and death. He worked rapidly, with live models, preferring to forego drawings and work directly onto the canvas. His influence on the new Baroque style that emerged from Mannerism was profound. It can be seen directly or indirectly in the work of Peter Paul Rubens, Jusepe de Ribera, Gian Lorenzo Bernini, and Rembrandt, and artists in the following generation heavily under his influence were called the "Caravaggisti" or "Caravagesques", as well as tenebrists or tenebrosi ("shadowists").

Beginnings in Rome (1592/95–1600)

     Following his initial training under Simone Peterzano, in 1592 Caravaggio left Milan for Rome, in flight after "certain quarrels" and the wounding of a police officer. The young artist arrived in Rome "naked and extremely needy without fixed address and without provision . short of money.A few months later he was performing hack-work for the highly successful Giuseppe Cesari, Pope Clement VIII's favourite artist, "painting flowers and fruit" in his factory-like workshop.

     In Rome there was demand for paintings to fill the many huge new churches and palazzos being built at the time. It was also a period when the Church was searching for a stylistic alternative to Mannerism in religious art that was tasked to counter the threat of Protestantism. Caravaggio's innovation was a radical naturalism that combined close physical observation with a dramatic, even theatrical, use of chiaroscuro that came to be known as tenebrism (the shift from light to dark with little intermediate value).



PAINTING :

            A defining statement of what Baroque signifies in painting is provided by the series of paintings executed by Peter Paul Rubens for Marie de Medici at the Luxembourg Palace in Paris (now at the Louvre), in which a Catholic painter satisfied a Catholic patron: Baroque era conceptions of monarchy, iconography, handling of paint, and compositions as well as the depiction of space and movement.

Baroque style featured "exaggerated lighting, intense emotions, release from restraint, and even a kind of artistic sensationalism". Baroque art did not really depict the life style of the people at that time; however, "closely tied to the Counter Reformation, this style melodramatically reaffirmed the emotional depths of the Catholic faith and glorified both church and monarchy" of their power and influence.

There were highly diverse strands of Italian baroque painting, from Caravaggio to Cortona, both approaching emotive dynamism with different styles. The most prominent Spanish painter of the Baroque was Diego Velázquez.

                                                      Caravaggio , The Crowing with Thorns




       SCULPTURE

       In Baroque sculpture, groups of figures assumed new importance and there was a dynamic movement and energy of human forms they spiraled around an empty central vortex, or reached outwards into the surrounding space. For the first time, Baroque sculpture often had multiple ideal viewing angles. The characteristic Baroque sculpture added extra-sculptural elements, for example, concealed lighting, or water fountains.

        The architecture, sculpture and fountains of Bernini (1598–1680) give highly charged characteristics of Baroque style. Bernini was undoubtedly the most important sculptor of the Baroque period. He approached Michelangelo in his omnicompetence. Bernini sculpted, worked as an architect, painted, wrote plays, and staged spectacles. In the late 20th century Bernini was most valued for his sculpture, both for his virtuosity in carving marble and his ability to create figures that combine the physical and the spiritual. He was also a fine sculptor of bust portraits in high demand among the powerful.

                                                    Stanislaus Kostka on His Deathbed , Pierre Le Gros The Younger







ARCHITECTURE

         In Baroque architecture, new emphasis was placed on bold massing, colonnades, domes, light-and shade (chiaroscuro), 'painterly' colour effects, and the bold play of volume and void. In interiors, Baroque movement around and through a void informed monumental staircases that had no parallel in previous architecture. The other Baroque innovation in worldly interiors was the state apartment, a sequence of increasingly rich interiors that culminated in a presence chamber or throne room or a state bedroom. The sequence of monumental stairs followed by a state apartment was copied in smaller scale everywhere in aristocratic dwellings of any pretensions.

                                           The main altar of St. John's Co-Cathedral , Malta.






                 ROMANTISM

      Romanticism (also the Romantic era or the Romantic period) was an artistic, literary, musical and intellectual movement that originated in Europe toward the end of the 18th century, and in most areas was at its peak in the approximate period from 1800 to 1850. Romanticism was characterized by its emphasis on emotion and individualism as well as glorification of all the past and nature, preferring the medieval rather than the classical. It was partly a reaction to the Industrial Revolution, the aristocratic social and political norms of the Age of Enlightenment, and the scientific rationalization of nature all components of modernity. It was embodied most strongly in the visual arts, music, and literature, but had a major impact on historiography, education, and the natural sciences.It had a significant and complex effect on politics, with romantic thinkers influencing liberalism, radicalism, conservatism and nationalism.

      The movement emphasized intense emotion as an authentic source of aesthetic experience, placing new emphasis on such emotions as apprehension, horror and terror, and awe especially that experienced in confronting the new aesthetic categories of the sublimity and beauty of nature. It elevated folk art and ancient custom to something noble, but also spontaneity as a desirable characteristic (as in the musical impromptu). In contrast to the Rationalism and Classicism of the Enlightenment, Romanticism revived medievalism and elements of art and narrative perceived as authentically medieval in an attempt to escape population growth, early urban sprawl, and industrialism.

William Blake , The Little Girl Found , from Songs of Innocence and Experience, 1794

Basic characteristics

         Defining the nature of Romanticism may be approached from the starting point of the primary importance of the free expression of the feelings of the artist. The importance the Romantics placed on emotion is summed up in the remark of the German painter Caspar David Friedrich that "the artist's feeling is his law". To William Wordsworth, poetry should begin as "the spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings," which the poet then "recollect[s] in tranquility," evoking a new but corresponding emotion the poet can then mould into art.

         To express these feelings, it was considered that the content of the art had to come from the imagination of the artist, with as little interference as possible from "artificial" rules that dictated what a work should consist of. Samuel Taylor Coleridge and others believed there were natural laws that the imagination—at least of a good creative artist would unconsciously follow through artistic inspiration if left alone. As well as rules, the influence of models from other works was considered to impede the creator's own imagination, so that originality was essential. The concept of the genius, or artist who was able to produce his own original work through this process of creation from nothingness, is key to Romanticism, and to be derivative was the worst sin.This idea is often called "romantic originality.

The period

      The period typically called Romantic varies greatly between different countries and different artistic media or areas of thought. Margaret Drabble described it in literature as taking place "roughly between 1770 and 1848",and few dates much earlier than 1770 will be found. In English literature, M. H. Abrams placed it between 1789, or 1798, this latter a very typical view, and about 1830, perhaps a little later than some other critics. Others have proposed 1780–1830.In other fields and other countries the period denominated as Romantic can be considerably different; musical Romanticism, for example, is generally regarded as only having ceased as a major artistic force as late as 1910, but in an extreme extension the Four Last Songs of Richard Strauss are described stylistically as "Late Romantic" and were composed in 1946-48.However, in most fields the Romantic Period is said to be over by about 1850, or earlier.

        The early period of the Romantic Era was a time of war, with the French Revolution (1789–1799) followed by the Napoleonic Wars until 1815. These wars, along with the political and social turmoil that went along with them, served as the background for Romanticism. The key generation of French Romantics born between 1795–1805 had, in the words of one of their number, Alfred de Vigny, been "conceived between battles, attended school to the rolling of drums".According to Jacques Barzun, there were three generations of Romantic artists. The first emerged in the 1790s and 1800s, the second in the 1820s, and the third later in the cen

REALISM AND IMPRESSIONISM

REALISM 

                     Realism in the arts is the attempt to represent subject matter truthfully, without artificiality and avoiding artistic conventions, implausible, exotic and supernatural elements.

Realism has been prevalent in the arts at many periods, and is in large part a matter of technique and training, and the avoidance of stylization. In the visual arts, illusionistic realism is the accurate depiction of lifeforms, perspective, and the details of light and colour. Realist works of art may emphasize the mundane, ugly or sordid, such as works of social realism, regionalism, or kitchen sink realism.There have been various realism movements in the arts, such as the opera style of verismo, literary realism, theatrical realism and Italian neorealist cinema. The realism art movement in painting began in France in the 1850s, after the 1848 Revolution. The realist painters rejected Romanticism, which had come to dominate French literature and art, with roots in the late 18th century.

Bonjour , Monsieur Courbet, 1854. A realist painting by Gustave Courbet.

VISUAL ART

             Realism is the precise, detailed and accurate representation in art of the visual appearance of scenes and objects i.e., it is drawn in photographic precision. Realism in this sense is also called naturalism, mimesis or illusionism. Realistic art was created in many periods, and it is in large part a matter of technique and training, and the avoidance of stylization. It becomes especially marked in European painting in the Early Netherlandish painting of Jan van Eyck and other artists in the 15th century. However such "realism" is often used to depict, for example, angels with wings, which were not things the artists had ever seen in real life.

     Equally, 19th-century Realism art movement painters such as Gustave Courbet are by no means especially noted for precise and careful depiction of visual appearances; in Courbet's time that was more often a characteristic of academic painting, which very often depicted with great skill and care scenes that were contrived and artificial, or imagined historical scenes. It is the choice and treatment of subject matter that defines Realism as a movement in painting, rather than the careful attention to visual appearances. Other terms such as naturalism, naturalistic and "veristic" do not escape the same ambiguity, though the distinction between "realistic" (usually related to visual appearance) and "realist" is often useful, as is the term "illusionistic" for the accurate rendering of visual appearances.

Realist or illusionistic detail of convex mirror in the Arnolfini Potrait by Jan Van Eyck. 

              Realism is the precise, detailed and accurate representation in art of the visual appearance of scenes and objects i.e., it is drawn in photographic precision. Realism in this sense is also called naturalism, mimesis or illusionism. Realistic art was created in many periods, and it is in large part a matter of technique and training, and the avoidance of stylization. It becomes especially marked in European painting in the Early Netherlandish painting of Jan van Eyck and other artists in the 15th century. However such "realism" is often used to depict, for example, angels with wings, which were not things the artists had ever seen in real life.

 Equally, 19th century Realism art movement painters such as Gustave Courbet are by no means especially noted for precise and careful depiction of visual appearances in Courbet's time that was more often a characteristic of academic painting, which very often depicted with great skill and care scenes that were contrived and artificial, or imagined historical scenes. It is the choice and treatment of subject matter that defines Realism as a movement in painting, rather than the careful attention to visual appearances. Other terms such as naturalism, naturalistic and "veristic" do not escape the same ambiguity, though the distinction between "realistic" (usually related to visual appearance) and "realist" is often useful, as is the term "illusionistic" for the accurate rendering of visual appearances.

REALISM OR NATURALISM AS THE DEPICTION OF ORDINARY, EVERYDAY SUBJECTS:

           The depiction of ordinary, everyday subjects in art also has a long history, though it was often squeezed into the edges of compositions, or shown at a smaller scale. This was partly because art was expensive, and usually commissioned for specific religious, political or personal reasons, that allowed only a relatively small amount of space or effort to be devoted to such scenes. Drolleries in the margins of medieval illuminated manuscripts sometimes contain small scenes of everyday life, and the development of perspective created large background areas in many scenes set outdoors that could be made more interesting by including small figures going about their everyday lives. Medieval and Early Renaissance art by convention usually showed non-sacred figures in contemporary dress, so no adjustment was needed for this even in religious or historical scenes set in ancient times.

Woodcutting , miniature from a set of Labours of the  months by Simon Bening, c. 1550.

REALIST MOVEMENT 

       The Realist movement began in the mid-19th century as a reaction to Romanticism and History painting. In favor of depictions of 'real' life, the Realist painters used common laborers, and ordinary people in ordinary surroundings engaged in real activities as subjects for their works. Its chief exponents were Gustave Courbet, Jean-François Millet, Honoré Daumier, and Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot.According to Ross Finocchio, formerly of the Department of European Paintings at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Realists used unprettified detail depicting the existence of ordinary contemporary life, coinciding in the contemporaneous naturalist literature of Émile Zola, Honoré de Balzac, and Gustave Flaubert.

Gustave Courbet , Stone-Breakers ,1849

REALISM OR NATURALISM AS RESISTINGIDEALIZATION 

         Realism or naturalism as a style meaning the honest, unidealizing depiction of the subject, can of course be used in depicting any type of subject, without any commitment to treating the typical or everyday. Despite the general idealism of classical art, this too had classical precedents, which came in useful when defending such treatments in the Renaissance and Baroque. Demetrius of Alopece was a 4th-century BCE sculptor whose work (all now lost) was said to prefer realism over ideal beauty, and during the Ancient Roman Republic even politicians preferred a truthful depiction in portraits, though the early emperors favoured Greek idealism. Goya's portraits of the Spanish royal family represent a sort of peak in the honest and downright unflattering portrayal of important persons.

Francisco Goya , Charles IV of Spain and His Family , 1800-01

IMPRESSIONISM

         Impressionism is a 19th century art movement characterized by relatively small, thin, yet visible brush strokes, open composition, emphasis on accurate depiction of light in its changing qualities (often accentuating the effects of the passage of time), ordinary subject matter, inclusion of movement as a crucial element of human perception and experience, and unusual visual angles. Impressionism originated with a group of Paris based artists whose independent exhibitions brought them to prominence during the 1870s and 1880s.

Claude Monet , Impression ,soleil levant (Impressionism Sunrise) ,1872 , oil on canvas.

IMPRESSIONIST TECHNIQUES

         French painters who prepared the way for Impressionism include the Romantic colourist Eugène Delacroix, the leader of the realists Gustave Courbet, and painters of the Barbizon school such as Théodore Rousseau. The Impressionists learned much from the work of Johan Barthold Jongkind, Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot and Eugène Boudin, who painted from nature in a direct and spontaneous style that prefigured Impressionism, and who befriended and advised the younger artists.

       A number of identifiable techniques and working habits contributed to the innovative style of the Impressionists. Although these methods had been used by previous artists—and are often conspicuous in the work of artists such as Frans Hals, Diego Velázquez, Peter Paul Rubens, John Constable, and J. M. W. Turner—the Impressionists were the first to use them all together, and with such consistency. These techniques include:

• Short, thick strokes of paint quickly capture the essence of the subject, rather than its details. The paint is often applied impasto.
• Colours are applied side-by-side with as little mixing as possible, a technique that exploits the principle of simultaneous contrast to make the colour appear more vivid to the viewer.
• Grays and dark tones are produced by mixing complementary colours. Pure impressionism avoids the use of black paint.
• Wet paint is placed into wet paint without waiting for successive applications to dry, producing softer edges and intermingling of colour.
• Impressionist paintings do not exploit the transparency of thin paint films (glazes), which earlier artists manipulated carefully to produce effects. The impressionist painting surface is typically opaque.