The story of art

Chapter 1: STRANGE BEGINNINGS

“…the whole story of art is not a story of progress in technical proficiency, but a story of changing ideas and requirements.” (page 43)
Throughout the chapter the author talks about primitive art and the ways of understanding it and perceiving it.
He says that even though we can’t fully understand it “we can appreciate the thoroughness with which the shapes of nature are transformed into a consistent pattern”
“There are many great works of this kind dating from the strange beginnings of art whose exact explanation is probably lost for ever but which we can still admire.”
It’s amazing that here in Guatemala we have a lot of that primitive art that is still preserved for the whole world to appreciate.
Something that I thought it was very interesting was that the native American people say the lightning in the sky like it had the shape of a big serpent and that’s the reason why they considered it sacred.

Chapter 2: ART FOR ETERNITY

This chapter starts by mentioning how important the Egyptian art is so important for us
I never really knew the meaning of the pyramids, they were considered mountains of stone that tell us the story of amazingly organized land of Egypt.
“…so thoroughly organized that it was possible to pile up these gigantic mounds in the lifetime of a single king, and they tell us of kings who were so rich and powerful that they could force thousands and thousands of workers…”
Mesopotamia also had a great influence but more in a decorative way of important monuments.
“On all the monuments which glorify the warlords of the past, war is no trouble at all. You just appear, and the enemy is scattered like chaff in the wind”

Chapter 3: THE GREAT AWAKENING

Main centre was originally the island of Crete, whose kings were at times sufficiently rich and powerful to send embassies to Egypt, and whose art created an impression.
Simplicity and clear arrangement also seen in style of building of the Greeks
Egyptian art is rather stiff and unnatural- the Greek relief has shed all these awkward limitations, but it has retained the lucidity and beauty of the arrangement, which is no longer geometrical and angular but free and relaxed.
Greek artists were frequently asked to create statues of victorious athletes dedicated to the gods; hence, Greek artists perfected their knowledge of the human body in action.
“The type of work which Greek artists were frequently asked to do may have helped them to perfect their knowledge of the human body in action”

Chapter 4: THE REALM OF BEAUTY

Greatest artist of the century: Praxiteles; famed for the charm of his work and for the sweet and insinuating character of his creations.
The art of this period is known as Hellenistic art
During this period art had largely lost its old connection with magic and religion. Artists became interested in the problems of their craft for its own sake.
“Strange as it may sound to us, the idea of a portrait, in the sense in which we use the word, did not occur to the Greeks until rather late in the fourth century”
“The Greeks broke through the rigid taboos of early Oriental art, and went out on a voyage of discovery to add more and more features from observation to the traditional images of the world. But their works never look like mirrors in which any odd corner of nature is reflected”

Chapter 5: WORLD CONQUEROR

The most outstanding achievement of the Romans was probably in civil engineering
The most famous of these Roman buildings is perhaps the Colosseum.
The most important feature in Roman architecture, however, is the use of arches.
Christian art-the artists who portrayed this kind of art were capable of conjuring the

idea of a human figure with a few rough strokes of the brush.

This combination of Roman structures with Greek forms had an enormous influence

on later architects.

The main aim was no longer that of harmony, beauty or dramatic expressions

Chapter 6: A PARTING OF WAYS

During this period, we can see how art became more related with religion. This was something that was no longer that way, but with the rise of the Church, religion became again one of the main themes of art.
“The question of how to decorate the basilicas was a much more difficult and serious one, because here the whole issue of the image and its use in religion came up again and Christians agreed: there must be no statues in the House of God”
“Painting can do for the illiterate what writing does for those who can read”.

Chapter 15: Harmony Attained

"We left Italian art at the time of Botticelli, that is, at the end of the fifteenth century, which the Italians by an awkward trick of language called the Quattrocento, that is to say the "four hundreds".
"Since the time of Brunelleschi, page 168, the architect had to have some of the knowledge of a classical scholar. He had to know the rules of the ancient orders, of the right porportions and easurements of the Doric, Ionic and Corinthian column and entablatures"
"Leonardo da Vinci, the oldest of these famous masters, was born in a Tuscan village. He was apprenticed to a leading Florentine workshop, that of the painter and sculpture Andrea del Verrocchio"

Chapter 16: Light and Colour

"We must now turn to another great centre of Italian art, second in importance only to Florence itself- the proud and prosperous city of Venice."
"Leaonardo and Raphael had died and Titian had already risen to fame when Corregio painted his more importnat works, but we do not know how much he knew of the art of his time. He probably had an opportunity in the neighboring cities of northern Italy to study the works of some of Leaonardo's pupils and to learn about his treatment of light and shade"

Chapter 17: The New Learning Spreads

The great achievments and inventions of the Itlaian masters of the Renaissance made a deep impression on the peoples north of the Alps. Every one who was interested in the revival of learning had become accustomed to looking towards Italy, where the wisdom and the treasures of classical antiquity were being discovered. We know very well that in art we cannot speak of progress in the sense in which we speak of progress in learning"
Art is something that just pops out from the bottom of your heart, like the quote says, there is no such thing as good or bad, you can;t really measure the quality of art since everyone has a different way of expressing feelings.

Chapter 18: A crisis of Art.

"Round about 1520 all lovers of art in the Italian cities seemed to agree that painting had reached the peak of perfection. Men such as Michelangelo and Raphael, Titian and Leaonardo had actually done everything that former generations had tried to do"
"Other architects, again, were more intent on displaying their great learning and their knowledage of classical authors in which, they did, in fact, surpass the masters of Bramante's generation"
"The greates and most learned of these was the architect Andrea Palladio"

Chapter 19: Vision and Visions

"The history of art is sometimes described as the story of a succession of various styles. We hear how the Romanesque or Norman style of the twelfth century with its round arches was succeeded by the Gothic style with the pointed arch; how the Gothic style was supplanted by the Renaissance, which had its beginnings in Italy in the early fifteenth century and slowly gained ground in all the countries of Europe"
"Allegorical pictures are usually regarded as rather boring and abstract, but for the age of Rubens they were a convenient means of expressing ideas"

Chapter 20: The Mirror of Nature

"The division of Europe into a Catholic and a Protestant camp affected even the art of small countries lik the Netherlands. The southern Netherlands, which today we call Belgium, had remained Catholic, and we have seen how Rubens in Antwerp recieved innumerable commissions from churches, princes, and kings to paint vast canvases for the glorification of their power"
"It is this strange and unique combination of melloweness and precision which makes Jan Vermeer van Delf's best paintings so unforgettable"