As part of the Middle Ages, monasteries and pilgrimage churches were constructed and decorated with frescoes to usher in Romanesque and Gothic styles of architecture.
At the Academy, Le Brun asserted that drawing emulated reality while color only represented accidental situations.
The Barbizon School opposed Romanticism’s exaggerations and depicted nature and rural life more realistically.
Medieval
During the Medieval Period, wealthy patrons commissioned architecture, sculpture, painting, textiles and manuscripts from wealthy artists. Medieval art preserved elements from classical antiquity while creating new forms and styles which went on to change art history forever.
As literacy declined, artworks became an effective means of spreading narratives (often of Biblical nature) amongst a larger population. Medieval figures changed from tall, bony figures into more approachable faces over time.
Renaissance
Renaissance, an Italian word meaning rebirth, refers to a cultural and artistic renewal during this period. Humanism became increasingly widespread and classical learning more sought-after during this period of renaissance.
Francois I, who reigned from 1515-1547, fostered Renaissance artists and is widely credited with the design of Chambord Chateau in France’s Loire valley. Additionally, Francois invited Leonardo da Vinci to France where he spent his final years living at Amboise Abbey.
Rococo
Rococo was first popular in France shortly after Louis XIV’s death as a reaction against Baroque style’s formal geometricity and strict formality. Characterized by curving lines and serpentine rolls derived from “rocaille”–rock or shell work in garden grottoes–Rococo style became widely utilized across architecture, furniture and interior design industries.
Painters like Antoine Watteau and Jean-Honore Fragonard used light brushstrokes to depict romantic or courtly scenes of love or courtship–known in French as fete galante–that delighted 18th century aristocrats looking to shake off the austerity of Versailles, yet intellectuals such as Voltaire criticised it as superficiality.
Neoclassicism
Neoclassical art is distinguished by clean forms, precise proportions and traditional subject matter. It emerged as a reaction against Enlightenment values such as science, reason and exploration.
Painters like Jacques-Louis David focused their works on topics with an aim of inspiring moral subjects while conveying values like simplicity, austerity, heroism, and stoicism that stemmed from Republican Roman history.
Among them were Claude Michel (known by his nickname of Clodion), who created numerous small figures with vivid expression; and Augustin Pajou, known for creating portraits depicting modern people dressed in antique attire in order to “classicize” them.
Romanticism
Romanticism can be broadly defined as a sensibility that embraces imagination and emotion, yet its origins remain hard to pinpoint. Rousseau and Diderot wrote with Romantic flourishes long before the Romantic Movement emerged, while artists like Delacroix and Theodore Gericault challenged academic conventions long before Victor Hugo published his manifesto against them.
Classicists and Romantics had already clashed in literature (Baudelaire and Hugo) and music (Delacroix and Berlioz), leading to increasingly restless and dynamic paintings and sculptures inspired by these innovators.
Realism
Realist art emerged during the late 19th century as a response to profound societal changes, led by Gustave Courbet. Realism popularized art by depicting current subjects instead of glorified classicism or exoticism found in academic paintings or Romanticism.
Realist artists strived to capture in gritty detail the daily lives of humble people. This approach conformed with Pierre Proudhon and Karl Marx’s philosophical approaches. Additionally, this logical approach informs characters like those seen on The Big Bang Theory television show.
Impressionism
Impressionist artists escaped the conventions of Salon juries by holding eight independent exhibitions between 1874 and 1886. They committed themselves to free techniques, truthful representations of nature and artistic freedom.
Their techniques sought to capture fleeting moments–the shimmer of light on water or an unexpected flash of rain–in a fleeting way. By painting small commas of pure color adjacent to one another, their colors were meant to appear blended optically rather than physical pigment on a palette.
Modern
Rococo-era frivolity gave way to the classical ideals reaffirmed by Neoclassical artists like Jacques-Louis David who brought back classical principles into French art.
Honore Daumier’s satirical lithographs critiqued the establishment. Impressionists employed vibrant colors and subjects that could be found outdoors for painting en plein air, such as daily life scenes painted en plein air by Paul Gauguin and Emile Bernard’s Synthetism style; this decorative technique featured flat patterns of color with thick outlines to evoke medieval enamel techniques.