Antoine Bourdelle (1861–1929)The Meditation of Apollo and the Nine Muses, 1910–12, Bas-relief, 11 ft 6 in × 49 ft 10 in (3.5 × 15.2 m)
GROUPING ART ACCORDING TO MANNER AND LOOK
In the art world, “style” essentially means “in the manner of,” and applies to the characteristic look and feel of the work of a particular artist or era. For instance, we talk about “Louis XVI style,” meaning the look and feel of that monarch’s era. Or we can talk about the style of Rembrandt, meaning the look and feel of that master’s work. Some styles are not attached to any one artist but refer to a vein of art making that runs through an era. Art historians sometimes like to organize the history of art into distinct movements, each of which exhibits a particular style or group of styles. Thus, we can talk about the style of Mannerist painting or Baroque painting or Romantic painting. Such styles may be further broken down into regional variations or variations within the time frame of the style, such as Florentine Renaissance style as opposed to Roman Renaissance style, or late Baroque style as opposed to early Baroque style.
The emergence of styles in art seems to be a natural result of artists working at the same time, in the same geographic area, and with similar influences and ideas. Styles continually change and mutate as new ideas, concerns, looks, and features are invented or embraced.
“Stylish,” has a narrower meaning. A work of art is said to be stylish when it exhibits a fashionable elegance delivered with a seemingly effortless surety and aplomb. It is a quality attached to presentation and is generally thought of as something that doesn’t have a lot of substance. Fine artists are not happy to be known as stylish unless it is central to their ambitions. Thus, a society portrait painter might be happy to be stylish, which would imply that his manner is warmly acceptable to those with a taste in current fashion. A “serious” artist might find the sobriquet to be diminishing, implying that his work has merely to do with surface appearance. There are, however, exceptions. A portrait by Van Dyke (1599–1641) might be seen as stylish and also be an excellent painting; likewise a portrait by Whistler (1834–1903) two centuries later. In both cases, these great artists were seeking to reflect the style, dress, and presentation of an upper class that was very much concerned with surface and appearance. They painted their subjects in a way that entered into the sense of insouciance and ease that those classes prized as qualities of behavior and appearance.
Antoine Bourdelle (1861–1929)
The Meditation of Apollo and the Nine Muses, 1910–12, Bas-relief, 11 ft 6 in × 49 ft 10 in (3.5 × 15.2 m)
An example of the style of Art Deco.
Sir Anthony van Dyke (1599–1641)
Charles I out Hunting, 1635, Oil on canvas, 107 1/8 × 83 1/2 in (272 × 212 cm)
Aubrey Beardsley (1872–98)
Salome and John, 1892, Pen and ink on paper, 8 13/16 × 6 3/16 in (22.3 × 15.7 cm)
An example of the style of Art Nouveau.
