The Western Tradition: The Basics

Statue of a Kouros (youth), ca. 590-580 B.C.E., Fletcher Fund, 1932, Metropolitan Museum of Art- (32.11.1)The Western Tradition in art generally refers to the aesthetic and cultural tradition of Western civilization--countries in Western Europe and North America. It begins with the earliest art of what would become ancient Greece and Rome--and continues to the present day--although definitions are always changing. In art history, we generally break the Western Tradition down into some major divisions. Each of these periods (of course) has numerous movements within it--not every movement is listed here--and the definitions are not carved in stone. But it’s a start at helping you sort out the Western Tradition.

Victory of Samothrace (Island in the North Aegean Sea) - ca. 190 B.C.E. - Musée du LouvreAntiquity - the art of ancient Greece and Rome. During this period--artists became increasingly more interested in creating ideal types of the human form, imbued with pathos, energy and emotion.

Medieval and Gothic Art - art produced from the 5th century to the 16th century CE, ranging from the extremely naive to the enormously sophisticated.From the Book of Kells, c. 800 - Trinity College Library, Dublin - MS.A.l.6 Hiberno-Saxon Style

Nicolo and Giovanni Pisano - Pulpit 1260-1301, Marble, height 465cm Baptistry, Pisa

The Renaissance - art produced from the 15th to the 16th century. It overlaps, with Gothic art. A broad term, this period includes the Early and High Renaissance, Mannerism, and the Northern Renaissance.Leonardo da Vinci, The Mona Lisa (La Gioconda) 1503-1506 - Wood panel, Louvre

Baroque - A 17th century movement in art coinciding with the Counter-Reformation. It is a highly decorative and elaborate extension of Renaissance art.Peter Paul Rubens, St. George and the Dragon, 1606-1607, Oil on canvas. Museo del Prado, Madrid, Spain

Rococo - A light, elaborate and more intimate successor of the Baroque, the movement ran from around 1715-1774.Jean-Honoré Fragonard, Girl on a Swing, Oil on Canvas, 1766

Neoclassicism - A formal and stark Mid 18th to early 19th century movement, this movement refers back to the grandeur of ancient Greece and Rome. It was largely intended to inspire the causes of the French and American revolutions.Jacques-Louis David, The Oath of the Horatii, 1784, Canvas, H 3.30 m; W 4.25 m, The Louvre INV 3692

Romanticism - From the late 18th to the mid 19th century, this movement represented a reaction again the neoclassical. Romantic art is exotic, elegant, individualistic, and emotional.Caspar David Friedrich, Wanderer Above the Sea of Fog, c 1818, Oil on canvas, 94.8 x 74.8 cm, Kunsthalle, Hamburg

Academic Classicism - A highly polished 19th century style favored by the academies where artists got their training, in France. It embodies mythological or historical subject matter, and is quite moralistic in tone.Adolphe-William Bouguereau (French, 1825-1905), Le Ravissement de Psyche (The Rapture of Psyche), 1895, Oil on canvas, 209 x 120 cm

Impressionism - A light, spontaneous manner of painting which began in France as a reaction against Academic Classicism. It flourished from the 1860s to the 1880s, and was concerned with the fleeting aspects of color and light.Claude Monet, Impression, Soleil Levant (Impression, Sunrise), 1873, Oil on canvas, 48 x 63 cm, Musee Marmottan, Paris

Post-Impressionism - This refers to a variety of styles that emerged from the 1880s to 1900 that were influenced, in part, by Impressionism--but took different directions.Paul Cézanne, Still Life, c. 1900, National Gallery of Art, Washington D.C., Gift of the W. Averell Harriman Foundation 1972.9.5

Modern Art - This refers to a variety of movements in art that occurred from 1900 - 1945. It should be noted that “modern art” in lower case letters refers to any art that embraces Modern Art approaches.Georges Braque, Viaduct at L'Estaque, Paris, early 1908, oil on canvas, (72.5 x 59 cm), Musée National d'Art Moderne, Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris

Postmodernism - A reaction against and simultaneous continuation of modern approaches, this refers to art created from 1945 forward.Willem de Kooning, Seated Woman, 1952, pastel, pencil, and oil on two hinged sheets of paper, (30.8 x 24.2 cm), Museum of Modem Art, NY

Contemporary art - Another very loose definition, this generally refers to artists who are currently living (or had been living until recently). In short, it is the art of the late 20th and early 21st century.Fernando Botero, The Hunter, 1980, Oil on Canvas, 181.3 x 149.8 cm, Gift of the artist, Hirshhorn Museum, Washington D.C.