Study Days
A History of Art: A Journey of Discovery
How did we get to where we are today, with the multi-various forms of art from a multitude of artists that is now part of everyday gallery-going life? What were the milestones, the tipping points of Western European art that changed the course of European art history?
In the course of this lecture I shall examine and identify what are the key works of art that heralded fundamental changes in the way we view visual arts, and how and why they came to be. Over the course of this lecture we shall witness the coming of these genres defining new works of art, the turbulent societal changes that drove them as well as the societal consequences of making these works that we now have come to regard as seminal to the history of art.
From the 1st century to the 21st century, we will witness the birth of Christian art in Byzantium, the emergence of Giotto, the rise of Leonardo and Michelangelo, the end of the Renaissance and the dawn of the Baroque with Gian Lorenzo Bernini and Caravaggio, the beginning of truly commercial art with Rembrandt and Vermeer, the controversial birth of Impressionism with Monet and Renoir that heralded the coming of the modern age and ultimately the Contemporary world of art that will conclude this story of A History of Art: A Journey of Discovery.
Short reading list:
Sutherland Harris, Ann: 17th Century Art and Architecture (Laurence King, 2008)
Bell, Julian (ed). Mirror of the World: A New History of Art (Thames & Hudson, 2007)
Gombrich, E. H.: The Story of Art (Phaidon, 1995)
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