PAINTING, HISTORY OF

history of Western painting from its beginnings in prehistoric times to the present. Painting, the execution of forms and shapes on a surface by means of pigment (but see also drawing for discussion of depictions in chalks, inks, pastels, and crayons), has been continuously practiced by humans for some 20,000 years. Together with other activities that may have been ritualistic in origin but have come to be designated as artistic (such as music or dance), painting was one of the earliest ways in which man sought to express his own personality and his emerging understanding of an existence beyond the material world. Unlike music and dance, however, examples of early forms of painting have survived to the present day. The modern eye can derive aesthetic as well as antiquarian satisfaction from the 15,000-year-old cave murals of Lascauxsome examples testify to the considerable powers of draftsmanship of these early artists. And painting, like other arts, exhibits universal qualities that make it easy for viewers of all nations and civilizations to understand and appreciate. The major extant examples of early painting anywhere in the world are found in western Europe and the Soviet Union. But some 5,000 years ago, the areas in which important paintings were executed shifted to the eastern Mediterranean Sea and neighbouring regions. For the purposes of this article, therefore, Western painting is to be taken as signifying painting not only in Europe but also in regions outside Europe that share a European cultural traditionthe Middle East and Mediterranean Basin and, later, the countries of the New World. Western painting is in general distinguished by its concentration on the representation of the human figure, whether in the heroic context of antiquity or the religious context of the early Christian and medieval world. The Renaissance extended this tradition through a close examination of the natural world and an investigation of balance, harmony, and perspective in the visible world, linking painting to the developing sciences of anatomy and optics. The first real break from figurative painting came with the growth of landscape painting in the 17th and 18th centuries. The landscape and figurative traditions developed together in the 19th century in an atmosphere that was increasingly concerned with painterly qualities of the interaction of light and colour and the expressive qualities of paint handling. In the 20th century these interests contributed to the development of a third major tradition in Western painting, abstract painting, which sought to uncover and express the true nature of paint and painting through action and form. The Editors of the Encyclopdia Britannica Additional reading General Among the standard surveys of the history of Western art are Helen Gardner, Gardner's Art Through the Ages, 8th ed., edited by Horst de la Croix and Richard G. Tansey (1986); H.W. Janson, History of Art, 3rd ed., revised and expanded by Anthony F. Janson (1986); and David M. Robb and J.J. Garrison, Art in the Western World, 4th ed. (1963). Among the major standard reference works are the Encyclopedia of World Art, 16 vol. (195983); Ulrich Thieme and Felix Becker (eds.), Allgemeines Lexikon der bildenden Knstler von der Antike bis zur Gegenwart, 37 vol. (190750, reprinted 197071); McGraw-Hill Dictionary of Art, edited by Bernard S. Myers, 5 vol. (1969); Harold Osborne (ed.), The Oxford Companion to Art (1970, reprinted 1984); and the Praeger Encyclopedia of Art, 5 vol. (1971). See also Arnold Hauser, The Social History of Art, trans. from German, 4 vol. (1962); Elizabeth G. Holt (ed.), A Documentary History of Art, 3 vol. (195766, vol. 1 and 2 reprinted in 1982); Peter Murray and Linda Murray, A Dictionary of Art and Artists, 4th ed. (1976); and E.H. Gombrich, The Story of Art, 14th rev. ed. (1984). An extensive bibliography may be found in E. Louise Lucas, Art Books: A Basic Bibliography on the Fine Arts (1968). Later reference works include the Larousse Dictionary of Painters (1981; originally published in French, 1976); and David Piper (ed.), The Random House Library of Painting and Sculpture, 4 vol. (1981). F. David Martin, Sculpture and Enlivened Space: Aesthetics and History (1981), examines the comparative importance of painting and sculpture in Western art. European Metal Age cultures Stuart Piggott, Ancient Europe, from the Beginnings of Agriculture to Classical Antiquity (1965); and Walter Torbrugge, Prehistoric European Art (1968; originally published in German, 1968), provide general surveys. There is a vast literature on the Aegean and eastern Mediterranean, including Spyridon Marinatos, Crete and Mycenae (1960; originally published in Greek, 1959), photographs by Max Hirmer; Reynold Higgins, Minoan and Mycenaean Art, rev. ed. (1981); and Spyridon Marinatos, Life and Art in Prehistoric Thera, Proceedings of the British Academy, vol. 57 (1972). Sir Arthur Evans, The Palace of Minos: A Comparative Account of the Successive Stages of the Early Cretan Civilization as Illustrated by the Discoveries at Knossos, 4 vol. in 6 (192135, reissued 1964), is a classic work but is superseded in part by Richard W. Hutchinson, Prehistoric Crete (1962, reprinted 1968); Sinclair Hood, The Minoans: The Story of Bronze Age Crete (1971); and Keith Branigan, The Foundations of Palatial Crete (1970). For Helladic art, the best works are George E. Mylonas, Mycenae and the Mycenaean Age (1966); and Lord William Taylour, The Mycenaeans, rev. ed. (1983). For Cyprus, see Vassos Karageorghis, Cyprus (1969), with a useful bibliography. Among the numerous works on the western Mediterranean are the following: Antonio Arribas, The Iberians (1964); L. Bernab Brea, Sicily Before the Greeks (rev. ed., 1966; originally published in Italian, 1966); David H. Trump, Central and Southern Italy Before Rome (1966); David Randall-MacIver, The Iron Age in Italy: A Study of Those Aspects of the Early Civilization Which Are neither Villanovan nor Etruscan (1927, reprinted 1974) and Villanovans and Early Etruscans: A Study of the Early Iron Age in Italy as It Is Seen near Bologna, in Etruria and in Latium (1924); Mario Moretti and Guglielmo Maetzke, The Art of the Etruscans (1970; originally published in Italian, 1969); P.J. Riis, An Introduction to Etruscan Art (1953; originally published in Danish, 1948); Raymond Bloch, The Etruscans (1958; originally published in French, 1958); Massimo Pallotino, Etruscan Painting, trans. from French (1952), and Art of the Etruscans, trans. from French (1955); Margaret Guido, Sardinia (1964); and John D. Evans, Malta (1959). For northern European art, see Paul Jacobsthal, Early Celtic Art, 2 vol. (1944, reprinted 1970). See also John E. Pfeiffer, The Creative Explosion: An Inquiry into the Origins of Art and Religion (1982); Andr Leroi-Gourhan, The Dawn of European Art: An Introduction to Palaeolithic Cave Painting (1982; originally published in Italian, 1981); and Pierre Amiet et al., Art in the Ancient World: A Handbook of Styles and Forms, trans. from French (1981). Ancient Greek Important general works include John D. Beazley and Bernard Ashmole, Greek Sculpture and Painting to the End of the Hellenistic Period (1932, reprinted 1966); John Boardman, Greek Art, new rev. ed. (1985); John Boardman et al., Greek Art and Architecture (1967; originally published in German, 1966), with photographs by Max Hirmer; Rhys Carpenter, The Esthetic Basis of Greek Art of the Fifth and Fourth Centuries B.C., rev. ed. (1959); Gisella Richter, A Handbook of Greek Art, 8th ed. (1983), and Archaic Greek Art Against Its Historical Background (1949); George Boas (ed.), The Greek Tradition (1939), a collection of essays published in connection with an exhibition and accompanied by its catalog, George Boas et al., The Greek Tradition in Painting and the Minor Arts (1939); Bernhard Schweitzer, Greek Geometric Art (1971; originally published in German, 1969); and Vincent J. Bruno, Form and Color in Greek Painting (1977). Among the standard studies on vase painting are Paolo E. Arias, A History of 1000 Years of Greek Vase Painting (1962; originally published in Italian, 1960), with photographs by Max Hirmer; John D. Beazley, The Development of Attic Black-Figure (1951, reprinted 1986), Potter and Painter in Ancient Athens (1944), Attic Black-Figure Vase-Painters (1956, reprinted 1978), and Attic Red-Figure Vase-Painters, 2nd ed., 3 vol. (1963, reissued 1984); Ernst Buschor, Greek Vase Painting (1921, reprinted 1971; originally published in German, 1913); Joseph V. Noble, The Techniques of Painted Attic Pottery (1965); and Martin Robertson, Greek Painting (1959; reissued 1979). See also Manolis Andronikos, Vergina: The Royal Tombs and the Ancient City (1984; originally published in Greek, 1984). Martin Robertson, A Shorter History of Greek Art (1981), is an excellent condensed study of Greek art from the Geometric through the Hellenistic periods. Roman General surveys include George M.A. Hanfmann, Roman Art: A Modern Survey of the Art of Imperial Rome (1964, reissued 1975); Heinz Khler, The Art of Rome and Her Empire (1963; originally published in German, 1962); German Hafner, Art of Rome, Etruria, and Magna Graecia, trans. from German (1969); G.A. Mansuelli, The Art of Etruria and Early Rome, trans. from Italian (1965); Jocelyn M.C. Toynbee, Art in Roman Britain (1962); and Sir Mortimer Wheeler, Roman Art and Architecture (1964, reissued 1985). More detailed information on painting may be found in Amedeo Maiuri, Roman Painting, trans. from French (1953); and Wladimiro Dorigo, Late Roman Painting (1971; originally published in Italian, 1966). Bernard Andreae, The Art of Rome (1978; originally published in German, 1973), is a comprehensive survey; and Otto J. Brendel, Prolegomena to the Study of Roman Art (1979), includes criticism of previous writings on the subject. Early Christian, Byzantine, Armenian, Georgian, and Coptic Viktor Lazarev, Storia della pittura bizantina (1967; originally published in Russian, 2 vol., 194748), is a well-annotated general survey, now seriously out of date but still useful. Good coverage is provided by a combination of two books: Beat Brenk (ed.), Sptantike und frhes Christentum (1977); and Wolfgang F. Volbach and Jacqueline Lafontaine-Dosogne, Byzanz und der christliche Osten (1968). See also Wolfgang F. Volbach, Early Christian Art, with photographs by Max Hirmer (1962; originally published in German, 1958); and D. Talbot Rice, Byzantine Art, rev. ed. (1968); Thomas F. Mathews, The Byzantine Churches of Istanbul: A Photographic Survey (1976); and Cyril Mango, The Art of the Byzantine Empire, 3121453: Sources and Documents (1972, reprinted 1986).A number of books consider the art of the period as a whole and propose various ways of interpreting the material: Andr Grabar, Christian Iconography: A Study of Its Origins (1968, reprinted 1980; originally published in French, 1957; 2nd rev. French ed., 1984), The Beginnings of Christian Art, 200395 (1967; originally published in French, 1966), Byzantium: From the Death of Theodosius to the Rise of Islam, trans. from French (1967), and Byzantine Painting: Historical and Critical Study, trans. from French (1953, reissued 1979); Ernst Kitzinger, Byzantine Art in the Making: Main Lines of Stylistic Development in Mediterranean Art, 3rd7th Century (1977); Clive Foss and Paul Magdalino, Rome and Byzantium (1977); and Cyril Mango, Byzantium, the Empire of New Rome (1980). Henry Maguire, Art and Eloquence in Byzantium (1981), discusses art as influenced by sermons and other theological writings; alternatively, Robin Cormack, Writing in Gold: Byzantine Society and Its Icons (1985), interprets Byzantine art as a major element in the Byzantine outlook.A number of helpful publications cover some of the specialist areas: Klaus Wessel, Coptic Art (1965; originally published in German, 1963); Guiseppe Bovini, Ravenna: Its Mosaics and Monuments (1956, reissued 1970; originally published in Italian, 1956); Heinz Khler, Hagia Sophia (1967; originally published in German, 1967); Anthony Bryer and Judith Herrin (eds.), Iconoclasm (1977); Kurt Weitzmann, The Icon: Holy ImagesSixth to Fourteenth Century (1978); and Kurt Weitzmann et al., The Icon (1982; originally published in Italian, 1981). Early medieval and Romanesque The most satisfactory survey of the whole period is provided in Andr Grabar and Carl Nordenfalk, Early Medieval Painting from the Fourth to the Eleventh Century, trans. from French and German (1957), and Romanesque Painting from the Eleventh to the Thirteenth Century, trans. from French and German (1958). The most exhaustive study on wall painting is still Edgar W. Anthony, Romanesque Frescoes (1951, reprinted 1971). For manuscript illumination, see Albert Boeckler, Abendlndische Miniaturen bis zum Ausgang der romanischen Zeit (1930); a stimulating discussion by Otto Pcht, Book Illumination in the Middle Ages: An Introduction (1986; originally published in German, 1984); and a survey by Christopher De Hamel, A History of Illuminated Manuscripts (1986). An excellent short introduction to the subject is contained in Ernst Kitzinger, Early Medieval Art, with Illustrations from the British Museum and British Library Collections, rev. ed. (1983). The 9th through 12th centuries are covered in John Beckwith, Early Medieval Art: Carolingian, Ottonian, Romanesque, rev. ed. (1969, reprinted 1985); and C.R. Dodwell, Painting in Europe, 800 to 1200 (1971). The most comprehensive modern overview of Dark Age and early medieval painting is Carlo Bertelli, Traccia allo studio delle fondazioni medievali dell'arte italiana, in Storia dell'arte italiana, part 2, Dal medioevo al novecento, vol. 1, Dal medioevo al quattrocento, pp. 3163 (1983). For Rome, see Richard Krautheimer, Rome, Profile of a City, 3121308 (1980). The best survey of early Anglo-Saxon art is still T.D. Kendrick, Anglo-Saxon Art to A.D. 900 (1938, reprinted 1972). For book illumination in Britain and Ireland, see J.J.G. Alexander, Insular Manuscripts, 6th to the 9th Century (1978); Carl Nordenfalk, Celtic and Anglo-Saxon Painting: Book Illumination in the British Isles, 600800 (1977); Franoise Henry, Irish Art in the Early Christian Period, to 800 A.D. (1965), Irish Art During the Viking Invasions, 8001020 A.D. (1967), and Irish Art in the Romanesque Period, 10201170 A.D. (1970; originally published in French together in a set of 3 vol., 196364).Merovingian illumination is discussed in Jean Hubert, Jean Porcher, and Wolfgang F. Volbach, Europe in the Dark Ages (1969; U.S. title, Europe of the Invasions; originally published in French, 1967). There are several good surveys of Carolingian painting: Wolfgang Braunfels, Die Welt der Karolinger und ihre Kunst (1968); Jean Hubert, Jean Porcher, and Wolfgang F. Volbach, Carolingian Art (1970; U.S. title, The Carolingian Renaissance; originally published in French, 1968); and Florentine Mtherich and Joachim E. Gaehde, Carolingian Painting (1976). Excellent particular studies can be found in Wolfgang Braunfels and Hermann Schnitzler (eds.), Karolingische Kunst (1965). Late Anglo-Saxon art is considered in Elzbieta Temple, Anglo-Saxon Manuscripts, 9001066 (1976); Janet Backhouse, D.H. Turner, and Leslie Webster (eds.), The Golden Age of Anglo-Saxon Art, 966-1066 (1984); and C.R. Dodwell, Anglo-Saxon Art: A New Perspective (1982). Hans Jantzen, Ottonische Kunst (1947, reissued 1963), is an excellent review of Ottonian art; and Adolph Goldschmidt, German Illumination, vol. 2, Ottonian Period (1929, reprinted as part of a 1-vol. edition, 1970; originally published in German, 1928), is still valuable. A brief survey is Louis Grodecki et al., Le Sicle de l'an mil (1973). C.R. Dodwell and D.H. Turner, Reichenau Reconsidered: A Re-assessment of the Place of Reichenau in Ottonian Art (1965), offers a stimulating but contested examination of late 10th-century Ottonian illumination. The Romanesque period is surveyed in Franois Avril, Xavier Barral I Altet, and Danielle Gaborit-Chopin, Le Temps des Croisades (1982), and Les Royaumes d'Occident (1983); Hanns Swarzenski, Monuments of Romanesque Art: The Art of Church Treasures in North-Western Europe, 2nd ed. (1967, reissued 1974); Otto Demus and Max Hirmer, Romanesque Mural Painting (1970; originally published in German, 1968); and Walter Cahn, Romanesque Bible Illumination (1982). The best study of French Romanesque illumination is Jean Porcher, Medieval French Miniatures (1960; U.K. title, French Miniatures from Illuminated Manuscripts; originally published in French, 1959). For England, there is an excellent survey of manuscripts: C.M. Kauffmann, Romanesque Manuscripts, 10661190 (1975); and a later discussion in the exhibition catalog, George Zarnecki, Janet Holt, and Tristram Holland (eds.), English Romanesque Art, 10661200 (1984). The standard work on early Spanish illumination, in English, is J. Domnguez Bordona, Spanish Illumination (1930, reissued 1969; originally published in Spanish, 1930); see also John Williams, Early Spanish Manuscript Illumination (1977). Illumination in northwest Germany is surveyed in two exhibition catalogs, Rhein und Maas, Kunst und Kultur, 8001400, 2 vol. (197273); and Anton Legner (ed.), Ornamenta ecclesiae: Kunst und Knstler der Romanik, 3 vol. (1985). The Gospels of Henry the Lion are discussed in The Gospels of Henry the Lion, Count of Saxony, Duke of Bavaria (1983), an auction catalog of Sotheby Parke Bernet Inc.; and Horst Fuhrmann and Florentine Mtherich (eds.), Das Evangeliar Heinrichs des Lwen und das mittelalterliche Herrscherbild (1986).The standard work on Salzburg illumination is still the masterly Georg Swarzenski, Die Salzburger Malerei von den ersten Anfngen bis zur Bltezeit des romanischen Stils: Studien zur Geschichte der deutschen Malerei und Handschriftenkunde des Mittelalters, 2nd ed., 2 vol. (1969). The best survey of the art of the late 12th century is found in the three volumes of The Year 1200, a set published in conjunction with an exhibition: vol. 1, A Centennial Exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum of Art: A Catalog, edited by K. Hoffmann (1970); vol. 2, A Background Survey, edited by F. Deuchler (1970); and vol. 3, A Symposium, texts by Franois Avril et al. (1975). Otto Demus, Byzantine Art and the West (1970), discusses the influence of Byzantine art on western Europe throughout the Middle Ages. Gothic General social and intellectual studies of Gothic art include Joan Evans (ed.), The Flowering of the Middle Ages, new ed. (1985); and Johan Huizinga, The Waning of the Middle Ages: A Study of the Forms of Life, Thought and Art in France and the Netherlands in the XIVth and XVth Centuries (1924, reprinted 1985; originally published in Dutch, 1919). See also Andrew Martindale, Gothic Art (1967, reprinted 1985); George Henderson, Early Medieval (1972), and Gothic (1967); Emile Male, Religious Art in France, the Thirteenth Century: A Study of Medieval Iconography and Its Sources (1984; originally published in French, 9th rev. ed., 1958), and Religious Art from the Twelfth to the Eighteenth Century (1949, reprinted 1970; originally published in French, 1945); Teresa G. Frisch, Gothic Art 1140c. 1450 (1971); and Jacques Dupont and Cesare Gnudi, Gothic Painting (1954, reissued 1979; originally published in French, 1954).For a discussion of Italian Gothic painting, see Eve Borsook, The Mural Painters of Tuscany: From Cimabue to Andrea del Sarto, 2nd rev. ed. (1980); Millard Meiss, Painting in Florence and Siena After the Black Death (1951, reprinted 1978); John White, Art and Architecture in Italy, 12501400 (1966), and The Birth and Rebirth of Pictorial Space, 2nd ed. (1967); and Frederick Antal, Florentine Painting and Its Social Background: The Bourgeois Republic Before Cosimo de'Medici's Advent to Power, XIV and Early XV Centuries (1948, reprinted 1986). Charles D. Cuttler, Northern Painting from Pucelle to Bruegel: Fourteenth, Fifteenth, and Sixteenth Centuries (1968), is an introductory work. No adequate monograph on International Gothic art exists, but, for France, see Millard Meiss, French Painting in the Time of Jean de Berry: The Late Fourteenth Century and the Patronage of the Duke, 2 vol. (1967), French Painting in the Time of Jean de Berry: The Limbourgs and Their Contemporaries, 2 vol. (1974), and French Painting in the Time of Jean de Berry: The Boucicaut Master (1968). For late Gothic art, French painting is surveyed in Grete Ring, A Century of French Painting, 14001500 (1949, reprinted 1979). Netherlandish painting is dealt with in Max J. Friedlnder, Early Netherlandish Painting, 14 vol. (196776; originally published in German, 192437); the best monograph on this early period is Erwin Panofsky, Early Netherlandish Painting, Its Origins and Character, 2 vol. (1953, reprinted 1971). Anne Shaver-Grandell, The Middle Ages (1982), is an introduction to medieval art intended for the general reader; Walter Oakeshott, The Two Winchester Bibles (1981), is a scholarly study of 12th-century painting; Richard I. Abrams and Warner A. Hutchinson, An Illustrated Life of Jesus (1982), includes an analysis of 94 paintings from the collection of the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., with background notes on the artists; and Peter S. Beagle, The Garden of Earthly Delights: Illustrations Taken from the Paintings of Hieronymus Bosch (1982), is a creative and entertaining introduction to the artist's works. Renaissance (Italy): General works include Creighton Gilbert, History of Renaissance Art: Painting, Sculpture, Architecture Throughout Europe (1973); Michael Levey, Early Renaissance (1967, reprinted 1979), and High Renaissance (1975); and Robert Klein and Henri Zerner, Italian Art, 15001600: Sources and Documents (1966). A useful introduction to the theorists of the period is provided by Sir Anthony Blunt, Artistic Theory in Italy, 14501600 (1940, reprinted 1982). See also Sydney J. Freedberg, Painting of the High Renaissance in Rome and Florence, new rev. ed., 2 vol. (1985), and Painting in Italy, 1500 to 1600, 2nd ed. (1983), a fine survey of the often-complex movements in 16th-century Italian painting; James Beck, Italian Renaissance Painting (1981), a historical survey of works of individual masters; and Bruce Cole, The Renaissance Artist at Work: From Pisano to Titian (1983).(Northern Renaissance): Otto Benesch, Art of the Renaissance in Northern Europe: Its Relation to the Contemporary Spiritual and Intellectual Movements, rev. ed. (1965), and German Painting, from Drer to Holbein, trans. from German (1966); Wolfgang Stechow, Northern Renaissance Art, 14001600: Sources and Documents (1966); and Albert Chtelet, Early Dutch Painting: Painting in the Northern Netherlands in the Fifteenth Century (1981; originally published in French, 1980). (France): Sir Anthony Blunt, Art and Architecture in France, 1500 to 1700, 4th ed. (1980), is an authoritative survey. (Spain and Portugal): George Kubler and Martin Soria, Art and Architecture in Spain and Portugal and Their American Dominions, 1500 to 1800 (1959), is the only scholarly study in English. (Central Europe and Russia): G.H. Hamilton, The Art and Architecture of Russia, 3rd ed. (1983), is a survey of all the arts of Russia.Many studies have been done since the 1960s dealing exclusively with Mannerism. The most coherent view as a whole is John Shearman, Mannerism (1967). See also Franzsepp Wrtenberger, Mannerism: The European Style of the Sixteenth Century (1963; originally published in German, 1962); and Giuliano Briganti, Italian Mannerism (1962; originally published in Italian, 1961). Baroque and Rococo The classic study of Baroque art, Heinrich Wlfflin, Renaissance and Baroque (1964, reprinted 1984; originally published in German, 1888), remains an important basic study. Michael Kitson, The Age of Baroque (1966), provides an excellent modern summary. John Rupert Martin, Baroque (1977), is a fuller survey. Germain Bazin, Baroque and Rococo, trans. from French (1964, reprinted as Baroque and Rococo Art, 1974), covers the entire period in less detail, but it has in no way replaced the basic study by Fiske Kimball, The Creation of the Rococo (1943, reprinted as The Creation of the Rococo Decorative Style, 1980). Arno Schnberger and Halldor Soehner, The Age of Rococo (1960; U.S. title, The Rococo Age: Art and Civilization of the 18th Century; originally published in German, 1959), has excellent illustrations and detailed notes. Patronage during the period has been analyzed in depth by Francis Haskell, Patrons and Painters: A Study in the Relations Between Italian Art and Society in the Age of the Baroque, rev. ed. (1980). (Italy): Denis Mahon, Studies in Seicento Art and Theory (1947, reprinted 1971), is of fundamental importance for an understanding of Baroque art in Italy. Rudolf Wittkower, Art and Architecture in Italy, 1600 to 1750, 3rd rev. ed. (1973, reprinted with corrections 1980), surveys the 17th century with clarity and includes a massive bibliography. Ellis Waterhouse, Italian Baroque Painting, 2nd ed. (1969), provides an introduction to the principal painters and stylistic movements of the time; a similar role is performed by Michael Levey, Painting in Eighteenth-Century Venice, 2nd rev. ed. (1980). (Latin America): Pal Kelemen, Baroque and Rococo in Latin America, 2nd ed., 2 vol. (1967), is an introduction to the art of the 17th and 18th centuries, with an exhaustive bibliography. (Flanders): The only comprehensive introduction to this period available in English is provided by Horst Gerson and E.H. ter Kuile, Art and Architecture in Belgium, 1600 to 1800 (1960; originally published in German, 1942). (Holland): Jakob Rosenberg, Seymour Slive, and E.H. ter Kuile, Dutch Art and Architecture, 1600 to 1800, 3rd ed. (1977), provides an excellent survey of the period and a large bibliography; while Wolfgang Stechow, Dutch Landscape Painting of the Seventeenth Century, 2nd ed. (1968, reprinted 1981), is a particularly detailed and valuable study of this important facet of Dutch painting. Ingvar Bergstrm, Dutch Still-Life Painting in the Seventeenth Century (1956, reprinted 1983; originally published in Swedish, 1947), provides a survey of this group of paintings. (France): Important surveys are Wend Graf Kalnein and Michael Levey, Art and Architecture of the Eighteenth Century in France (1972); and Philip Conisbee, Painting in Eighteenth-Century France (1981). (England): Ellis Waterhouse, Painting in Britain, 1530 to 1790, 4th ed. (1978); and Margaret Whinney and Oliver Millar, English Art, 16251714 (1957), are both well-illustrated and include bibliographies. (Central Europe): The best introduction to Baroque art in central Europe, available in English, is undoubtedly Eberhard Hempel, Baroque Art and Architecture in Central Europe: Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Hungary, Czechoslovakia, Poland, trans. from German (1965). (Scandinavia): Most of the information available on Scandinavian art of the 17th and 18th centuries is to be found in museum and exhibition catalogs devoted to wider subjects, but the monograph by Gunnar W. Lundberg, Roslin: Liv och verk, 3 vol. in 2 (1957), is available, together with the relevant sections in Torben Holck Colding, Aspects of Miniature Painting: Its Origins and Development (1953). Neoclassicism, Romanticism, and Realism Important works on the period in general are Walter Friedlaender, David to Delacroix, trans. from German (1952, reprinted 1980); and Fritz Novotny, Painting and Sculpture in Europe, 17801880, 2nd ed. (1971, reissued 1980). Among the many general studies of Neoclassical art are Hugh Honour, Neo-classicism (1968, reprinted 1977), a sound introduction; Robert Rosenblum, Transformations in Late Eighteenth Century Art (1967), one of the best studies of the period; and David Irwin, English Neoclassical Art: Studies in Inspiration and Taste (1966), a book dealing exclusively with Neoclassical painting and sculpture in Britain. Among the most important works covering Romanticism are Marcel Brion, Art of the Romantic Era: Romanticism, Classicism, Realism (1966; originally published in French, 1963); Werner Hofmann, The Earthly Paradise: Art in the Nineteenth Century (1961; originally published in German, 1960); Francis D. Klingender, Art and the Industrial Revolution, rev. ed., edited by Arthur Elton (1968); Edgar P. Richardson, The Way of Western Art, 17761914 (1939, reprinted 1969); Frederick Antal, Classicism and Romanticism, with Other Studies in Art History (1966); T.J. Clark, The Absolute Bourgeois: Artists and Politics in France, 18481851 (1973, reprinted 1982), and Image of the People: Gustave Courbet and the 1848 Revolution (1973, reprinted 1982); Albert Boime, The Academy and French Painting in the Nineteenth Century (1971); Hugh Honour, Romanticism (1979); and Michel Le Bris, Romantics and Romanticism, trans. from French (1981). Linda Nochlin, Realism and Tradition in Art, 18481900: Sources and Documents (1966), and Realism (1971), are provocative studies. See also Barbara Novak, American Painting of the Nineteenth Century: Realism, Idealism, and the American Experience, 2nd ed. (1979). Modern Among the numerous surveys of modern art are H.H. Arnason, History of Modern Art: Painting, Sculpture, Architecture, Photography, 3rd rev. ed., updated by Daniel Wheeler (1986); John Canaday, Mainstreams of Modern Art, 2nd ed. (1981); Jean Cassou, Emile Langui, and Nikolaus Pevsner, Gateway to the Twentieth Century: Art and Culture in a Changing World (1962); Sam Hunter, Modern American Painting and Sculpture (1959), Modern French Painting, 18551956 (1956), and American Art of the 20th Century: Painting, Sculpture, Architecture (1973); Sam Hunter and John Jacobus, Modern Art: Painting, Sculpture, Architecture, 2nd ed. (1985); Marcel Brion et al., Art Since 1945 (1958); and Robert L. Herbert (ed.), Modern Artists on Art (1964). See also Beverly Whitney Kean, All the Empty Palaces: The Merchant Patrons of Modern Art in Pre-Revolutionary Russia (1983), an original study of important developments in the history of European art; and Siegfried Wichmann, Japonisme: The Japanese Influence on Western Art in the 19th and 20th Centuries (1981; originally published in German, 1980), a broad study including treatments of individual artists.Important works dealing with modern painting include: Werner Haftmann, Painting in the Twentieth Century, 2nd ed., 2 vol. (1965; originally published in German, 1965); Bernard S. Myers, Mexican Painting in Our Time (1956); Guido Ballo, Modern Italian Painting: From Futurism to the Present Day (1958; originally published in Italian, 1956); Alan Gowans, The Restless Art: A History of Painters and Painting, 17601960 (1966); and Herbert Read, A Concise History of Modern Painting, 3rd rev. ed. (1975). See also Paul Vogt, Expressionism: German Painting, 19051920 (1980; originally published in German), and Contemporary Painting (1981; trans. from German), a survey of international painting mostly of the 1950s and 1960s; George H. Roeder, Jr., Forum of Uncertainty: Confrontations with Modern Painting in Twentieth-Century American Thought (1980); John Russell, The Meanings of Modern Art, rev. ed. (1981); Frank H. Goodyear, Jr., Contemporary American Realism Since 1960 (1981); and Abraham A. Davidson, Early American Modernist Painting, 19101935 (1981).(Pre-Raphaelites): Christopher Wood, The Pre-Raphaelites (1981); and Pre-Raphaelites and Academics (1981), a catalog of the exhibition organized in celebration of the publication of Wood's work. (Impressionism and Postimpressionism): Linda Nochlin (ed.), Impressionism and Post-Impressionism, 18741904: Sources and Documents (1966); Horst Keller, Watercolors and Drawings of the French Impressionists and Their Parisian Contemporaries (1982; originally published in German, 1980); John Rewald, The History of Impressionism, 4th rev. ed. (1973, reprinted 1980), and Post-Impressionism, from van Gogh to Gauguin, 3rd rev. ed. (1978). (Fauvism): Georges Duthuit, The Fauvist Painters (1950; originally published in French, 1949). (German Expressionism): Peter Selz, German Expressionist Painting (1957, reprinted 1974). (Cubism): John Golding, Cubism: A History and an Analysis, 19071914, 2nd ed. (1968); Christopher Gray, Cubist Aesthetic Theories (1953); and Robert Rosenblum, Cubism and Twentieth-Century Art, rev. ed. (1966, reissued 1976). (Futurism): Marianne W. Martin, Futurist Art and Theory, 19091915 (1968, reprinted 1978). (Suprematism and Constructivism): Camilla Gray, The Russian Experiment in Art, 18631922, rev. ed., edited by Marian Burleigh-Motley (1986). (De Stijl and Neoplasticism): H.L.C. Jaff, De Stijl, 19171931: The Dutch Contribution to Modern Art (1956, reprinted 1986); and Mildred Friedman (ed.), De Stijl: Visions of Utopia (1982), an exhibition catalog. (Dada and Surrealism): Robert Motherwell (ed.), The Dada Painters and Poets: An Anthology, 2nd ed. (1981); Hans Richter, Dada: Art and Anti-Art (1966, reprinted 1978; originally published in German, 1964); William S. Rubin, Dada, Surrealism, and Their Heritage (1968, reprinted 1982); Patrick Waldberg, Surrealism, trans. from French (1962, reissued 1978); and Herbert S. Gershman, The Surrealist Revolution in France (1969, reprinted 1974). (Abstract Expressionism): Barbara Rose, American Art Since 1900, rev. and expanded ed. (1975). (Pop Art and Op Art): Mario Amaya, Pop Art and After (1965, reprinted 1972; U.K. title, Pop as Art: A Survey of New Super Realism); Lucy R. Lippard, Pop Art (1966); and John Russell and Suzi Gablik (compilers), Pop Art Redefined (1969). Peter John Callaghan Robin Sinclair Cormack John Burnett Mitchell Nicholas B. Penny The Editors of the Encyclopdia Britannica Ancient Greek At the root of Greek art was the desire to explore man and the nature of his experience. Even divine subjects were cast in terms of human behaviour, and both gods and epic heroes could at times stand as representations of and models for contemporary political achievement. The seemingly naturalistic outward forms characteristic of Greek art have continued to fascinate Western artists to the present day, and the history of Western painting is full of classical revivals that have aimed at recapturing the spirit of the Greek original. Art, however, is deeply rooted in the society that creates it, and these classical revivals usually say more about those who are attempting the revival than they do about the Greek art that served as the model. Attempts to re-create the spirit and form of antique art do serve, however, as a reminder that a mere description of form does not reveal the whole truth about the art of an ancient culture. This section defines, therefore, the reasons for certain developments as well as the technical advances themselves. A major stumbling block has been the difficulty in defining the ancient Greek attitude to art. Certainly it is clear that there was no concept of art for art's sake before the Hellenistic period (roughly the last three and a quarter centuries BC). Great works of art were functional: they served as gifts to the gods, monuments to the dead, or commemorations of events in the life of a city. The Greek language itself made no distinction between art and craft: both were called techne; a great work of art was simply an exceptional piece of workmanship (aristourgema). This lack of linguistic variety should not be made too much of, however, for the actions of the artists indicate that they were exceptionally proud of their work. For the first time in the history of art, painters signed their works, and both painters and sculptors explored new means of expression. The greatest sculptors sometimes wrote books detailing their philosophy of art, and there was obviously a body of philosophical thought behind the more important advances in the painter's technique during the 5th and 4th centuries BC. By the late 5th century BC this became a basis for discussion by the philosophers themselves, indicating that, by then at least, a theory of art coexisted with the corpus of workshop techniques that might reasonably be called the practice of art. Peter John Callaghan Paintings on wall plaster, wood, and marble panels are easily eradicated, and most ancient paintings were destroyed long ago. Many fine examples, some of the highest quality, have survived, however. These are the funerary paintings on stelae (decorated stone slabs) or burial chamber walls in northern Greece and Macedonia, whose rich kings and nobles could afford the best talents from the southern cities. Contemporary vase paintingsso long as vase painting continuedoften depict the same subjects and sometimes faintly reflect the style and composition of monumental frescoes, but they were in no sense accurate or even deliberate copies. The paintings on vases, now the main evidence for the development of Greek draftsmanship, were hardly mentioned by ancient writers and, although in great demand, were evidently not considered important works of art. Bernard Ashmole Peter John Callaghan Dark Ages (1200900 BC) During the 13th century BC the great palatial centres of the Aegean world came to a violent end. Both internal dissension and foreign invasion seem to have played a part in this development, and, if the exact course of events is still obscure, the end result is quite clear: Greece was severely depopulated and impoverished. The small, scattered settlements that took the place of the great Mycenaean and Minoan kingdoms were not able to support the luxury arts that had flourished in the Bronze Age palaces. No wall paintings are known from this period, and the sophisticated Bronze Age aesthetics was lost. Before the end of the 11th century BC Greece began a steady recovery, and a secure basis was laid for all future developments. At Athens, a city that had won a position of importance in Greece only at the end of the Bronze Age, the potters invented a new painted style, which has been called the Protogeometric. Old Bronze Age shapes persisted, but they became tauter and better proportioned. In addition, the old patterns were executed with a new finesse, aided by improved equipmenta multiple brush and compasses. Using these, the painter decorated selected zones of the vase with distinctive concentric circles and semicircles, simple zigzags, and wavy lines. The vases were well potted and restrained and successful in their decoration. The simple precision of their patterns is a quality that remained dominant in Greek vase painting as well as in the other arts. Other Greek cities besides Athens adopted the Protogeometric style as well. Baroque Baroque is a term loosely applied to European art from the end of the 16th century to the early 18th century, with the latter part of this period falling under the alternative stylistic designation of Late Baroque. The painting of the Baroque period is so varied that no single set of stylistic criteria can be applied to it. This is partly because the painting of Roman Catholic countries such as Italy or Spain differed both in its intent and in its sources of patronage from that of Protestant countries such as Holland or Britain, and it is partly because currents of classicism and naturalism coexisted with and sometimes even predominated over what is more narrowly defined as the High Baroque style. The Baroque style in Italy and Spain had its origins in the last decades of the 16th century when the refined, courtly, and idiosyncratic style of Mannerist painting had ceased to be an effective means of artistic expression. Indeed, Mannerism's inadequacy as a vehicle for religious art was being increasingly felt in artistic circles as early as the middle of that century. To counter the inroads made by the Reformation, the Roman Catholic Church after the Council of Trent (154563) adopted an overtly propagandistic stance in which painting and the other arts were intended to serve as a means of extending and stimulating the public's faith in the church and its doctrines. The church thus adopted a conscious artistic program, the products of which would make an overtly emotional and sensory appeal to the faithful. The Baroque style of painting that evolved from this program was paradoxically both sensuous and spiritual; while naturalistic treatment rendered the painted religious image more readily comprehensible to the average churchgoer, dramatic and illusory effects were used to stimulate piety and devotion. This appeal to the senses manifested itself in a style that above all emphasized movement and emotion. The stable, pyramidal compositions and the clear, well-defined pictorial space that were characteristic of Renaissance paintings gave w