HOW HISTORY SHAPED ART

Art is never finished. Only abandoned. -  Leonardo da Vinci

This quote means that something can be made and seem complete but it never truly is as everything is evolving so something can always be improved. This tells us that the outside world is always changing because of many factors that contribute to society such as religion, politics and war. Art is a representation as to what the artist feels and thinks so naturally most would depict or be inspired by those categories. In this essay I am going to be talking about how different centuries have different factors that contribute to the art that is made.

The first art movement I will talk about is the renaissance art movement, this took place from the 1400-1600s and some of the main contributors to the style include Donatello, Raphael, Michelangelo and Leonardo Da Vinci. Most of this art was biblical and made because of an increased enlightenment of nature, a come-back of classical learning, and a more individualistic view of humans. These artworks weren’t made because of famous people or royalty like later art styles but were based on religion, mostly Roman Catholicism, so most of the art depicts religious iconography and characters such as Mary, Jesus and cherubs. Art at this time was viewed as beautiful because it was inspired by idealized forms, proportions and harmony of classical art and architecture. The art was all about ideals, creating an image of a refined appearance and perfect life. The renaissance had a massive impact as it completely changed Europe’s art, culture, politics and economics by introducing modern concepts, bringing it out of the medieval era. One of the most known artworks from this time is The Last Supper by Leonardo da Vinci, this piece shows just how used and prominent mathematics was during this era as this drawing is all done using the golden ratio, or divine proportion. This is a ratio between two things that approximately equals 1.618 written as the Greek number phi and is strongly associated with the Fibonacci sequence, this shows that da Vinci took lots of inspiration from the Greeks, one of the most prominent eras in history.

The second art movement I will talk about is the Romanticism era, this took place from 1780-1850 and some of the main contributors are Jean-Jacques Rousseau, John constable and Eugene Delacroix. This art movement came about as a response to the disenchantment of values, reason and order in the fallout of the French Revolution. These artworks were based on emotions and moods including spirituality, imagination, mystery, and fervor. The subject matter was mostly landscapes depicting religion, revolution, or peace. This era was considered beautiful as it didn’t follow formal rules set from the neoclassicism era, 1750-1850, of content and mathematical composition. Romanticism was about expressive and dramatic qualities as well as topics which were meant to evoke fear, terror, or awe. The romantic era was important as it was the start of painting imaginary scenarios therefore expanding the repertoire of what artists could paint. One of the most famous art works from this time is Saturn Devouring His Son by Francisco Goya, it depicts the Greek god Titan Cronus eating one of his offspring. Goya, was in his 70s and having lived through the devastations of the Napoleonic Wars, was probably anxious about his own mortality. It was said he had been inspired by Rubens's portrayal of the myth, Saturn Devouring His Son, 1638. This shows that he was inspired to create his art by the baroque era, 1600-1750, this era came about straight after the renaissance and was still heavily influenced by the Catholic Church, showing it to be a very prominent part of history.

The last art movement I will talk of is surrealism, this took place from 1917-1950 and some of the main contributors include René Magritte, Salvador Dali and Joan Miró. This art movement developed in Europe in the aftermath of World War I. Artists depicted demoralized, illogical scenes to allow the unconscious mind to make known what they thought or felt for viewers and themselves. These artworks mostly depict a living thing, such as a human or animal, but with some type of altered appearance. This era was considered beautiful as the artists find magical beauty in the unusual and the eerie, the overlooked and choose to embrace the unconventional. This era was important as it fully altered how humans thought of art by broadening the scope to not only possible scenarios but also impossible ones, it had massive influence over many areas, not only art, including psychology and literature. One of the most famous artworks from this time is the persistence of memory by Salvador Dali, this depicts multiple clocks ‘melting’ in an outdoor space. This was inspired by Albert Einstein’s theory of relativity, 1905, this is the beginning of a new era of history as we started to think about our world’s mysteries with science first not religion. Surrealist art showed this by taking inspiration from science and other proven things more than religion and unproven things. This shows just how prominent science is an inspiration.

In conclusion art has evolved intensely over the centuries and with it so has our view of the world. We are greatly influenced by popularity and/or notoriety of something those can include people, war and politics. ‘Art wasn't supposed to look nice; it was supposed to make you feel something’- Rainbow Rowell. This quote tells us that although we may view art as pretty that has never and will never be its purpose. Its purpose is to convey otherwise impossible emotions and thoughts to help us understand and learn from our past.

Ella Henderson