MODULE 3

WESTERN ART HISTORY

INTRODUCTION

This chapter is an introduction to the artistic developments in Western Art from

the cave paintings of the prehistoric period to the modern times of art in Europe. The
focus is on monuments of architecture, sculpture and painting, which are analyzed in
terms of their formal aspects, their stylistic associations, their symbolic content, and
their historical and societal contexts.

LEARNING OUTCOME

At the end of the lesson, students are expected to:

• discuss how art was used by prehistoric people to depict
everyday life;
• demonstrate understanding on the Medieval arts in Europe;
and
• identify the famous artists in Western Europe and their works
of art.

PRETEST

Think about the scenario and list down the images or figures that pop in your head.
What does those figures talk about the way of living of those prehistoric people?

CONTENT

The history of art reflects the remnant of civilization, the study of artworks, and
the lives of artists illuminate much about our shared past. It helps us to discover,
authenticate who made a particular art object (Meyer, 2009). It also helped us to
appreciate the stylistic and recognized development of artistic practices on a large
scale and within a broad historical viewpoint.

The history of art also covers the entire history of humankind since prehistoric
times. Art is a product of man’s emotional and intellectual connection with the world.
It also aimed to produce a message which will either provoke an unexplainable
consciousness within the hearts of its viewers or incite wisdom among inquisitive
minds. Leroi-Gourhan (1967) lists three primary domains of the expression of feeling
associated to the first periods of humanity that may add to our understanding of the
beginnings of art such as Psycho-physiological impressions; Magic-religious; and
techno-economic.
Art in Prehistoric Civilization

The term “prehistoric” relates to the time before written history. Specifically,
the writing developed in ancient Mesopotamia before 3000 B.C.E., so this period
includes visual culture (paintings, sculpture, and architecture) made before that date
(Zucker, 2015). The oldest recognized decorative art forms come from Africa date
back to 100,000 BC.E.

Prehistoric art has four main periods: Stone Age, Neolithic, Bronze Age, and
Iron Age. The remaining artifacts of this period are small sculptures and cave
paintings. During these early times, different forms of art were created and performed
as a sign of communication or adoration to the deity. This practice shows how cultural
and religious factors played little to the development of the art forms that made the
ancient society so famous until now.

Ancient people often represented their worldviews and beliefs through visual
images. Art emerged with the appearance and the dispersal of entirely modern people
through Africa, Asia, Australia, America and Europe. Paintings, sculptures,
engravings, and potteries are expressions for beauty and complex social and spiritual
systems. Prehistoric art like animals are the favorite subjects of hunters, herdsmen,
and breeders.

Prehistoric art is a symbolic system that is an integral part of the culture that
creates it (Honour et al., 2005). Many archaeologists have identified Stone Age art,
namely: petroglyphs (rock carvings and engravings); pictographs (graphic imagery,
symbols); ancient sculpture (totemic statues, ivory carvings); and megalithic arts
(performs or any other works associated with the formation of stones).

The oldest European cave art is the El Castillo Cave (Cave of the Castle) in
Spain. This cave was discovered in 1903 by Hermilio Alcalde del Río, a Spanish
archaeologist. Some Archaeologists argue that artwork inside this cave are probably
a creation of Homo neanderthalensis. Hand stencils, claviforms (club shapes) and
disks made by blowing paint onto the wall in El Castillo cave found that date back at
least 40,800 years, making them older than those of the Chauvet Cave in central
France, which dated to around 39,000 years (Kwong, 2012).Other old cave painting
sites in France include Lascaux, Grotte de Cussac, Pech Merle, Cave of Niaux, and
Font-de-Gaume.
Stone Tools for Art Making

Stone is formed based on the

composition of minerals on it. It classified
as Mineral growth, Sedimentary,
Metamorphic, and Volcanic.
Sedimentary rocks shaped through the
deposition and compression of particulate
matter. On the other hand, Metamorphic
rocks changed from the result of extreme
temperature and pressure. Volcanic rocks
are from molten igneous magma (Prindle, 1994).

The tools made of tone were the instruments by which early man developed
and progressed. All human culture founded on the ingenuity and brainpower of our
early ancestors in creating sophisticated tools that enable them to survive. The first
stone tools (eoliths- which are now believed to be naturally produced by geological
processes such as glaciation) and other types of organic materials (wood, bone, ivory,
and antler) were about two million years ago. The oldest human tools were a simple
stone chopper, such as those unearth at Olduvai George in Tanzania. Many
Paleoanthropologists (people who study the origins and predecessors of the present
human species) confirmed that the Palaeolithic Man produced four types of tools in
creating an art namely: pebble tools (with a single sharpened edge for cutting or
chopping): Bifacial tools (hand axes); Flake tools; and Blade tools.

Pebble Tools (Pebble chopper). It is a first cutting device and considered as the
oldest type of tool made by humans. The tool contains a rounded stone struck some
blows with a similar stone used as a pounder, which created a serrated crest that
served as a chopping blade.

Bifacial tools. It is a hand ax prehistoric stone tool flake with two faces or sides.
These tools may be oval, triangular, or almond-shaped in form and characterized by
axial symmetry. The cutting edge could be straight or jagged and is used as a knife,
pick, scraper, or weapon. The technique was distinctive of the hand-ax tradition of the
lower Palaeolithic period and the Acheulian culture.

Flake tools. These are hand tools used during Stone Age. They are usually formed
by crushing off a small or large fragment then used as the tool. Both cores and flakes
could be as stone tools. New flakes were very sharp, but quickly became blunt during
use and had to be sharpened again by further flaking, a process called “retouch.”

Blade tools. These are a Stone tool created by striking a long narrow flake from a
stone core. This procedure of cutting the stone and creating the blades is called lithic
reduction. After chipping the blades, they integrated into larger tools, such as spears.

Medieval Arts in Europe

The primitive art of the Western world covers an extensive range of time and
place over 1000 years. Specifically, Medieval art in Europe grew out of the artistic
culture of the Roman Empire and the iconographic practices in the church of the early
Christian (Oliquiano, 2012). These sources were mixed with the influential "barbarian"
artistic culture of Northern Europe to make an extraordinary creative legacy. Medieval
art portrayed in Pietistic painting (religious art) displayed in a Ceramics, fresco and
mosaic paintings, Goldsmith and Silversmith, Stained Glass, illuminated manuscripts,
metalwork, Tapestry, and Heraldry in churches.

a. Illuminated Manuscripts
(Illumination) - They were colorful
religious texts which often use of gold
and silver as its main feature. The
term illuminate is the Latin word
“illuminate” which means to adorn or
to enlighten. It is the embellishment
of a manuscript with bright colors.
The artist who
produced the impressive artwork on
illuminated manuscripts was called Illuminators.

b. Metalwork- Metalworkers were very skilled in creating religious objects for

church decorations. Experts in Bronze art produced beautiful jewels,
sculptures, and even church doors.
c. Silversmith and Goldsmith- They were excellent artists who created new
shapes of jewelry. The Medieval church demanded to employed silversmiths
and goldsmiths in the church to produce e2222 with small pieces of colored
 glass, stone or other materials. The early Christians used ceiling and wall
mosaics in their churches and cathedrals.
d. Paintings- Artists who were skillful in Iconography uses Fresco and panel
painting with the religious theme during the medieval period. Fresco is
performed mostly on wall covers or ceilings. Likewise, Panels is a painting
which showed on several pieces of wood that joined together. It is also for the
Icons of Byzantine art.
e. Bayeux Tapestry- It is embroidery in colored wool. It is consists of eight long
strips of unbleached linen, sewn together to form a continuous panel of 230
feet long and 20 inches high.
f. Ceramics- They were hand shaped cooking pots, jars, and pitchers.
g. Stained Glass- It is usually applied exclusively to the windows of medieval
churches, castles, and cathedrals. It creates the primary form of art where
small pieces of glass are arranged to form pictures or patterns which are held
togetherby strips of lead and supported by a hard frame.
h. Heraldry- It is the manner of designing coats of arms and insignia. Specimens
of coats of arms were worked using embroidery, paper, painted wood,
stonework and stained glass.

Famous Artists in Western Europe

The great artists introduced the advancement of arts during the middle
periods. During this era, artists split away from the influences of the Byzantium art
style and developed into the Gothic visual art. The Medieval painters and sculptors
were founders of the movement towards greater realism which culminated in the
Renaissance art style. Most famous artists during medieval period were Donatello,
Giotto, Leon Battista Alberti, Cimabue, Filippo Brunelleschi, Fra Angelico and Lorenzo
Ghiberti.

1. Donatello (also known as Donato di Niccolo di Betto Bardi). He was born in

1386 in Italy. He was the son of Nicolo di Betto Bardi, a wool merchant in
Florence. He learned the fabrication of metals and other substances which
known as metallurgy. His most famous works of art include David, Mary
Magdalene, Madonna, Salome, Zuccone, and St. Mark, St. John the
Evangelist and St. George and the Dragon. He also invented a technique
known as schiacciato (shallow relief), which achieved effects of spatial depth.
He died on December 13, 1466.

2. Giotto di Bondone. He was born about 1266 in Vespignano village, Florence.

He was the son of Giorgio Vasari, a small landed farmer. He worked with
others artists for the Cathedral of San Francesco in Assisi and began painting
a fresco cycle there with scenes from the Old and New Testaments. In 1300,
he was invited by Pope Benedict XI in Rome to paint a mosaic over the
entrance to St. Peter's Basilica. He died on January 8, 1337, in Florence.

3. Leon Battista Alberti- He was born in Genoa on February 14, 1404, in Italy. As
an Architect, he was hired by Pope Nicholas V in the renovation of the papal
palace and of the Roman bridge of Acqua Vergine. He died in Rome on April
25, 1472.

4. Giovanni Cimabue- He was born in Florence in 1240. He devoted all his time
wrapping his paper and his books with photographs of horses, houses,
people, and other various things he dreamt up. He made mosaics .as well as
paintings, which include the frescoes of New Testament scenes in the upper
church of St. Francis of Assisi. He died in 1302.

5. Filippo Brunelleschi- He was born in 1377 in Florence, Italy. He was the son
Brunellesco Di Lippoo, an Italian lawyer and his mother was Giuliana Spini.
 He was a sculptor and goldsmith in one of the Florentine workshops. He died
on April 15, 1446.

6. Fra Angelico (also known as Beato Angelico, which means "Blessed Angelic
One”)- He was born in 1395 in Florence, Italy. As a Painter, his most famous
works of art include the Annunciation, The Madonna and Saints and the
Transfiguration of Christ painting.

7. Lorenzo Ghiberti- He was born in 1380 in Florence, Italy. He was admitted to

the Gold Guild and started his apprenticeship as a goldsmith in 1392. He
started work on the East Doors of the Baptistery of San Giovanni. The Bronze
doors (known as the “Gates of Paradise”) had 10panels depicting scenes from
the Old Testament. He died in 1445.

Most Common Paintings in Classical Greek

During the classical era, most paintings were discovered in panels, tomb, and
vases. It portrays natural symbols with dynamic masterpieces about battle scenes,
mythological figures, and everyday scenes. It also discloses a grasp of linear
perspective and naturalist illustration (Rayos, 2018). Familiar paintings in classical
Greek are as follows:

a. Kerch Vase Painting

Kerch Vase is red-figured pottery named after the place

where it discovered. Most common motifs were scenes
from the life of women, mythological beings or mythical
story or event. This type of painting used a technique
known as polychromy which combined different colors
especially the brilliant one in an artistic manner. The
shapes commonly found are:

a. Krater (it is a bowl used for mixing wine and

water)
b. lebesgamikos (a container with high handles and
lid use to carry bridal bath)
c. lekanis (a low bowl with two horizontal handles
and a small, broad foot)
d. pelike (a wine container)

b. Panel Painting

Panel Painting was especially famous for making beautiful altarpieces. This type of
paintings executed on flat panels of wood or metals which can be either a small, single
piece or several boards that are together. The earliest known old panel painting is the
Pitsa Panel (dated between 540 and 530 B.C.E.).

c. Tomb/Wall Painting

Popular Tomb or wall painting during classical period uses either tempera (water-
based) or encaustic (wax) as a method of fresco. Colors in this type are made with
grind powder stains in pure water, dry and set with plaster to become a lasting part
of the wall.

Learning Activity

ACTIVITY 3
PRE - HISTORIC ART

Imagine how the prehistoric people were able to make an artwork all over the
caves. Make your style of cave art using a stone as your working canvas and
another stone as your medium to create an artwork. Take a picture of your output
and discuss your
insights on a sheet of paper.

Materials:
• Flat rock (any shape)
• Stones (with sharp edges)
• White Glue
Procedure:
1. Using a sharp-edged rock, scratch the flat rock with your desired design.
2. After designing your stone, put varnish utilizing a mixture of white glue
diluted with water to preserve your plan on it. Your design should imitate the
character of a prehistoric artwork.