With such an extraordinary history of visual art, France is no doubt responsible for inspiring many global movements that have transformed the fine arts world.
Gustave Courbet’s realistic portrayals of peasant life were an unexpected departure from academic convention, depicting women with long hair allowing him to avoid stereotyped images in his paintings.
Gothic Architecture
Gothic architecture is best defined by its characteristic pointed arches, which allow more light into churches than the round-topped arches found in Romanesque structures that preceded them. Additionally, pointed arches reduced stress on church walls that were more vulnerable to stress fractures due to being thinner and taller than Romanesque structures.
Abbot Suger of Saint-Denis Abbey is widely recognized for introducing Gothic architecture into France through innovative features in his church at the abbey, such as adding the rib vault and flying buttresses – these innovations allowed his church to grow taller while more evenly disbursing weight across its structure.
Gothic buildings feature more than pointed arches and stained glass; in addition to ornate architectural features like pointed arches and stained glass windows, Gothic architecture also often includes ornate sculpture moldings, saint statues and historical figures as well as pinnacles or spires that double as water spouts; Notre-Dame de Paris stands as an excellent example.
Renaissance Painting
Renaissance art marked an immense advance from its Middle Age counterparts. Artists became part of society rather than craftworkers and developed an increased emphasis on human beauty, evidenced by Renaissance works depicting it.
Proto-Renaissance artists like Giotto and Cimabue pioneered realistic compositions in religious works by employing foreshortening, sfumato and chiaroscuro techniques. Furthermore, oil paints provided greater color options, and brush strokes became part of the artistry itself.
Baroque Painting
Baroque art was inspired by Catholic beliefs that art should evoke emotion and spirituality, sparking its development across Italy, Flanders and France before eventually giving way to Rococo movement of 17th Century Europe.
Caravaggio’s realistic depictions of human figures stunned his contemporaries and created an entirely new artistic style. His paintings exude drama with bold colors adding depth and movement.
Baroque artists were fascinated with physical materials. Painters would create realistic backgrounds using chiaroscuro techniques like Tenebrism and Quadro Riportato to achieve illusionist effects (trompe l’oeil). Additionally, large flowers with thick leaves of Acanthus were frequently used to decorate buildings adorn columns or doorways in buildings during this era.
Romanticism
Romanticism refers to an art movement which began during the 17th and 18th centuries, spearheaded by Madame de Stael, Francois-Auguste-Rene de Chateaubriand and William Wordsworth among others.
Romantics were generally focused on exploring individual consciousness and imagination through alternative states of mind and diminished importance of logic reasoning.
Romantic art often featured heroic chivalry and heroism as well as depictions of humans living harmoniously within nature. Pieces like Theodore Gericault’s Raft of Medusa and Eugene Delacroix’s Barque of Dante by these two artists wowed audiences at Paris Salons with their depictions of emotional and physical extremes.
Neoclassicism
Neoclassical painting began to emerge during the 1790s. This movement stressed outline and linear design. This coincided with Romanticism’s rise both in poetry (Delacroix, Baudelaire and Victor Hugo) and art; reflecting a desire to avoid obscurity while tending toward clarity seen also among naturalist writers such as Emile Zola, Honore de Balzac and Gustave Flaubert.
Painters who employed the linear Neoclassical style include Jacques-Louis David, who used Oath of the Horatii as an example of its precision and clarity in composition. Nicholas Poussin was another great Neoclassical painter renowned for depicting mythological and historical subjects with meticulous organization that often featured linearity.
Impressionism
Monet, Pissarro and Renoir began shifting away from traditional landscape paintings during the 1860s to portray river scenes and depictions of light dancing across water surfaces. Utilizing vibrant palettes to capture both indirect and direct sunlight rays they created river scene paintings with striking reflections.
They encouraged each other to create spontaneous paintings of natural subjects outdoors – an unconventional challenge to the art establishment with its restrictions on subject matter and style.
This group eventually included women artists like Mary Cassatt and Berthe Morisot. Additionally, they took inspiration from Edgar Degas’s paintings depicting Parisian life behind-the-scenes of theaters and ballet performances.