Introduction
M y goal in writing Art History For Dummies was to make it as useful, fun to read, and handy as a good travel guide. This book covers a lot of art history, but not everything. I focus on the Western art tradition and cover some art and art movements that other art history books neglect.
Most art-history books these days weigh in at about 10 pounds. I made this book leaner so you could stick it in your backpack and carry it to class without feeling weighted down, or so you can take it on a long trip as a guidebook or carry it around a museum as a handy resource.
As you read Art History For Dummies, you’ll journey around the world and travel back in time. Reading many of the chapters is like going on a vacation to an exotic land in a past life. You can hobnob with a Byzantine empress or an Egyptian pharaoh, attend the ancient Olympics (the games were often depicted on Greek vases), or stroll through the Ishtar Gate in ancient Babylon.
Why do some people study art history and others don’t? Probably because high schools don’t often teach art history and colleges usually offer it as an elective, unless you’re an art major. But art history is the visual side of history — they’re sister subjects. Studying art history and history together is like adding pictures to text. It makes the overall story clearer and more interesting. In Art History For Dummies, I often splice history and art history together, giving you a context for the art.
Some people believe art history is a high-brow subject. With all those Italian and French terms, it just has to be snobby, right? I disagree. I believe art history is an everyman/everywoman subject because it’s about mankind’s common cultural heritage. Art history mirrors human evolution. It shows mankind through the ages, from cave to castle, jungle hut to urban high-rise. Each age for the last 30,000 years has left an imprint of itself in its art.
About This Book
In this book, I’m your tour guide through the world of art history. The tour features the greatest art and architecture ever created. On the journey, I point out the key features of these works and structures; often, I suggest possible interpretations that I hope inspire you to make your own interpretations. I also add spicy anecdotes and colorful facts to make every stop on the tour fun.
This book is a reference — it’s something you can turn to again and again, dipping into it to find whatever piece of information is most critical to you at the time. You don’t have to read it cover to cover. Use the table of contents and index to find the subjects that you’re interested in and go from there. Of course, if you want to start with Chapter 1 and read through to the end, you can — but it isn’t a requirement to understand the information in these pages.
Conventions Used in This Book
The conventions used in this book are pretty straightforward. When I introduce new terms, I put them in italics and define them in context. I put e-mail addresses and Web addresses in monofont so you can spot them more easily and know exactly what to type.
When this book was printed, some Web addresses may have needed to break across two lines of text. If that happened, rest assured that I haven’t put in any extra characters (such as hyphens) to indicate the break. So, when using one of these Web addresses, just type in exactly what you see in this book, pretending as though the line break doesn’t exist.
What You’re Not to Read
Here’s a novel idea: Don’t read anything you’re not interested in. If you think Egyptian tombs are dreary, or if Postmodernism makes you dizzy, skip those subjects. You don’t have to remember everything you read, either. After all, I’m not testing you on any of this. You can also skip anything in a sidebar — a gray box of text — without missing the meat of what I’m covering. Sidebars often have interesting information, but they aren’t essential to the topic at hand.
Foolish Assumptions
You don’t need to have taken remedial art history or even studied high school art to understand and benefit from this book. This is Art History 101 and there are no prerequisites! I assume you’ve at least heard of Leonardo da Vinci’s Mona Lisa and Michelangelo’s Sistine Chapel Ceiling. But if you haven’t, it’s no biggie — you have now. You don’t need any background in art history or art. I give you the background you need as I go along.
I also assume that anything with the word history attached to it may scare you. It conjures up visions of memorizing dates and isms in high school. That’s okay. I give some dates and define some isms, but I don’t dwell on that side of art history. I prefer to get into the fun stuff. Instead of putting dates and isms in the foreground of the subject, in this book I put the story of art front and center. Bottom line: You won’t have to memorize dates. In fact, you won’t have to memorize anything!
How This Book Is Organized
I break the chapters of Art History For Dummies into parts, described in the following sections.
Part I: Mankind in the Looking Glass: Art History 101
Chapter 1 helps you decide which chapters you want to read first and which chapters you may want to skip, at least for the time being. I’ve arranged the chapters in chronological order. But you don’t have to follow that order; you can jump from Surrealism to cave art if you like, or from the Renaissance to Impressionism.
In this part, I also introduce you to the tools and art concepts that will help you navigate this book and the world of art and art history. These tools and concepts include comparing and contrasting, looking at balance and pattern, reading visual narrative, sorting out symbolism, and figuring out the artist’s intention.
Finally, in Chapter 3, I give you a quick rundown of the major art periods and movements, from prehistoric art to Postmodernism and everything in between. You may want to periodically refer back to this chapter as a quick reference to see how the periods fit together and influence each other.
Part II: From Caves to Colosseum: Ancient Art
In this part, I look at Stone Age art and its roots in ritual and primitive religion. Next, I examine the religious and political art of the first civilizations in Mesopotamia and Egypt. Then I explore ancient Minoan and Greek vase and mural painting, sculpture, and architecture and tell you how Greek culture laid the foundation for the modern world. I show you how Etruscan and Roman art are in some ways outgrowths of Greek art. In my coverage of Roman art, I explain how closely art, architecture, and politics can be interwoven.
Part III: Art after the Fall of Rome: A.D. 500–A.D. 1760
Classical art tumbled with Rome in A.D. 476. New religious-centered art styles emerged in both Europe and Asia. In this part, I examine the glittering Byzantine art of the Eastern Roman Empire (which outlived the Western Empire by about 1,000 years), early Christian art in Europe, and Islamic art. I follow the evolution of religious art in Europe during the Middle Ages, focusing on manuscript illuminations, relief sculpture, architecture, tapestries, and painting. Then I explore the rebirth of classical art during the Renaissance and the art traditions that grew out of this rebirth: Mannerism, Baroque, and Rococo.
Part IV: The Industrial Revolution and Artistic Devolution: 1760–1900
The Industrial Revolution transformed the world — and the way artists viewed and depicted it. In this part, I show you how some artists tried to rewind the clock — their art was a graceful throwback to classicism: Some grounded themselves in the glories of unsullied nature, while others soared beyond the stench of industrial mills on the wings of their imaginations. The Industrial Revolution also jumpstarted sweeping political turnovers like the American and French revolutions. I show you how Romantic and Realistic art reflected and often encouraged independence movements, democracy, and social change.
Part V: Twentieth-Century Art and Beyond
In the 20th century, art fanned out in so many directions, it can be hard to track all of them. But I do exactly that in this part. World War I, World War II, and the Vietnam War all had enormous impacts on artists who lived through those catastrophes. In this part, I show you how war spawned arts movements, the goals of which were sometimes the betterment of mankind. I also show you how artists struggled to reflect an increasingly complex world and how they used technology to give their art added horsepower. Finally, I explore early photography and identify how the pioneers of photography slowly learned to focus their art.
Part VI: The Part of Tens
The Part of Tens, a feature of every For Dummies book, is a place to go when you’re short on time but craving information. In this part, I provide a list of ten must-see art museums. I briefly describe the museums’ collections and highlight a few of the most celebrated works.
I also recommend ten great art books penned by ten great artists. I strongly recommend you pick up one of these books to discover what the artists themselves thought about their art and life in general. If you’re a student, you can use any of these books to write a report on the artist-author. If you’re not a student, the books will simply enrich and inspire you.
Finally, I introduce you to ten revolutions in tastes that began on the tips of paintbrushes. Some of these revolutions were short lived, like Seurat’s Pointil- lism (painting with dots) movement; others were highly influential. I fill you in here.
Appendix
I couldn’t fit in this book every piece of art that I wanted to discuss, so I’ve included an appendix that lists many of these pieces and the Web sites where you can go to see them. As always, Web addresses are subject to change. The addresses are current as of this writing, but if a page has moved, you can use your favorite search engine to track it down.
Icons Used in This Book
This book uses icons in the margins, designed to flag your attention for a particular reason. Here’s what each icon means:
Where to Go from Here
You can dive into this book anywhere you like. I’ve organized Art History For Dummies so that you can read it in two ways:
You can take the full tour and read the book chronologically from cover to cover. This is a great way to see how art evolved over the millennia.
You can jump into any chapter or section within a chapter, extract the information you need, and skip the rest. For example, if you’re planning to see an Egyptian exhibition or you’re taking a test on the period, Chapter 6 will give you all the information you need to ace the test or enjoy the show.
If you don’t begin at the beginning, I recommend starting with the chapter that covers the art you like best. If it’s Michelangelo and Leonardo, start with Chapter 11 on the Early and High Renaissance; if it’s Frida Kahlo, start with Chapter 23, which includes Surrealism and other movements. Then fan out from there. Each period or movement will lead you to the periods that it grew out of and that grew out of it, giving you a better understanding of why Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo, or Frida Kahlo painted as they did.
Finally, if you have questions or comments about this book, you can e-mail me at jesse_bryant_wilder@hotmail.com.