France Art & Literature

Astro Muñoz Santiago

Vast and fascinating history Cultural enrichment took place during the

crusades Divides into five different periods Exceled in impressionism

Introduction to Art

Produced in preliterate,

prehistorical cultures that developed somewhere in very late geological history

Includes cave paintings and portable art, such as animal carvings and great goddess statuettes called Venus figurines

Ornamental beads, bone pins, carvings, as well as flint and stone arrowheads also are among the prehistoric objects from the area of France.

Prehistoric art

Developed in southern Germany

and eastern France by tribal artisans of the mid- to late 5th cent. B.C.

Stylized and fantastic plant and animal forms, as well as strong, geometrical, intertwining patterns

Principal materials used in the surviving pieces of metalwork were gold and bronze

Celtic Art

There was no longer the desire to

build robust and harmonious buildings.

Resurgence of Celtic decoration, which, with Christian and other contributions, constituted the basis of Merovingian art

New innovations in figurine line drawing and set stage for the rise of Romanesque art and, eventually, Gothic art in the West.

Multiple regional styles developed based on the chance availability of Carolingian manuscripts as models to copy, and the availability of itinerant artists

Merovingian and Carolingian

Art

Renewed interest in Roman

construction techniques Small-scale sculptures influenced by

Byzantine and Early Christian sculpture Derived motifs from the arts of the

"barbarian," such as grotesque figures, beasts, and geometric patterns

Covered church facades, doorways, and capitals all increased and expanded in size and importance

Rich textiles and precious objects in gold and silver, such as chalices and reliquaries, were produced in increasing numbers to meet the needs of the liturgy, and to serve the cult of the saints

Large-scale stone sculpture spread throughout Europe

Romanesque Art

It began in France, developing

from the Romanesque period in the mid-twelfth century

The primary Gothic art media were sculpture, panel painting, stained glass, fresco, and illuminated manuscript

Entirely new invention in French art, and would provide the model for a generation of sculptors

The dominant architectural style often changed during the building of a particular building

More somber, dark, and emotional styles than the previous period

Gothic Art

French invasion of Italy and the

proximity of the vibrant Burgundy court brought the French into contact with the goods, paintings, and the creative spirit of the Northern and Italian Renaissance

Characterized by figures which are elongated and graceful and a reliance on visual rhetoric, including the elaborate use of allegory and mythology

French Wars of Religion dragged the country into thirty years of civil war which eclipsed much artistic production outside of religious and political propaganda

Renaissance & Mannerism French Art

Art and architecture in

France in the early 17th century is referred to as Baroque

Mid to late 17th century French art is more often referred to by the term Classicism which implies an adherence to certain rules of proportion and sobriety uncharacteristic of the Baroque as it was practiced in Southern and Eastern Europe during the same period

Baroque & Classicism French Art

French Rococo and Neoclassicism are terms used to describe the

visual and plastic arts and architecture in Europe from the late 17th to the late 18th centuries

Painting turned toward theater settings and the female nude The latter half of the 18th century continued to see French

preeminence in Europe, particularly through the arts and sciences The middle of the 18th century saw a turn to Neoclassicism in

France, that is to say a conscious use of Greek and Roman forms and iconography

The French neoclassical style would greatly contribute to the monumentalism of the French revolution, as typified in the structures La Madeleine church which is in the form of a Greek temple and the mammoth Panthéon which today houses the tombs of great Frenchmen

Rococo & Neoclassicism French Art

Rococo & Neoclassicism Art

Covers the visual and plastic works of art made in

France or by French citizens during the following political regimes: Napoleon Bonaparte's Consulate and Empire, the Restoration under Louis XVIII and Charles X, the July Monarchy under Louis Philippe d'Orléans, the Second Republic, the Second Empire under Napoleon III, and the first decades of the Third Republic.

Romantic tendencies continued throughout the century: both idealized landscape painting and Naturalism have their seeds in Romanticism

Development of Impressionism

19th Century French Art

Impressionism, the leading development in French painting in

the later 19th century and a reaction against both the academic tradition and romanticism, refers principally to the work of Claude Monet, Pierre Auguste Renoir, and other artists associated with them.

The term impressionism was derived from a painting by Claude Monet

He probably intended the title to refer to the sketchy, unfinished look of the work, similar to receiving an impression of something on the basis of an exposure that is partially obscured and incomplete in its detail.

They chose to paint outdoors, recording the rapidly changing conditions of light and atmosphere as well as their individual sensations before nature. They used high-key colors and a variety of brushstrokes.

Impressionism

19th Century French Art

Covers the history of the visual and plastic

arts in France in the twentieth century The first half of the twentieth century in

France saw the even more revolutionary experiments of cubism, dada and surrealism, artistic movements that would have a major impact on western, and eventually world, art

Dominated by experiments in color and content that Impressionism and Post-Impressionism had unleashed

20th Century French Art

20th Century French Art

Jacques-Louis David Claude Monet Auguste Renoir Edgar Degas Edouard Manet Paul Gauguin Henri Matisse Marcel Duchamp

Most influential painters in French history