Painting Styles

Painting Styles

Patricia Martinez

University Of Phoenix

Art

101

Painting Styles

Neoclassicism art was created in Greece and Rome. It took place from the late 17th century until early 19th centuries. Neoclassicism is referred to as one of the last truly international European aesthetic movements. It was also perceived by 18th century critics as a rejection to the decadence of baroque that was happening since the early 17th century. (Encyclopedia.com, 2011) Neoclassicism is an art of an ideal; it does not try to re-create art forms from the ground up with each new project. It exhibits perfect control of an idiom. Neoclassical art was used to express courage and show vivid ideas.

It originally began due to a discovery of Roman ruins at Herculaneum and Pompeii from a German art historian and scholar Johann Winckelmann. Neoclassical art works were serious, unemotional, and sternly heroic. Somber colors with occasional highlights were used to show moral narratives of self denial and self sacrifice. There is also no clear dividing line between neoclassicism and romanticism because of the interest in Classical Antiquity can easily be morphed into a desire for the past. (Art movements, n.d)

Impressionism art was developed in France during the 1870’s, it was sometimes called optical realism because of its almost scientific interests is visual experiences and the effect of light and movement on the appearance of objects. The founder of this movement was an artist named Claude Monet because of a critic that called him that. The impressionist styles of painting emphasized loose imagery rather than fine lined paintings.

The artists in this movement mainly worked outside and wanted to capture the colors and the different variations of light during the day. They rarely used any blacks, or grays, their palettes were very colorful. They often painted landscapes or scenes from daily life. They tried to emphasize on sunlight, shadows and direct and reflected lights. In...