Renaissance
Renaissance
The Renaissance (French
for "rebirth"; Italian: Rinascimento), was a cultural movement that
spanned roughly the 14th through the 17th century, beginning in Italy in the
late Middle Ages and later spreading to the rest of Europe. It encompassed the
revival of learning based on classical sources, the rise of courtly and papal
patronage, the development of perspective in painting, and advancements in
science. The Renaissance had wide-ranging consequences in all intellectual
pursuits, but is perhaps best known for its artistic aspect and the
contributions of such polymaths as Leonardo da Vinci and Michelangelo, who have
inspired the term "Renaissance men". There is a consensus, though not
a unanimous one, that the Renaissance began in Florence in the fourteenth
century. Various theories have been proposed to explain its origin and
characteristics, focusing on an assortment of factors, including the social and
civic peculiarities of Florence at this time including its political structure
and the patronage of its dominant family, the Medici. The Renaissance has a
long and complex historiography, and there has always been debate among
historians as to the usefulness of the Renaissance as a term and as a
historical age. Some have called into question whether the Renaissance really
was a cultural "advance" from the Middle Ages, instead seeing it as a
period of pessimism and nostalgia for the classical age. While
nineteenth-century historians were keen to emphasise that the Renaissance
represented a clear "break" from Medieval thought and practice, some
modern historians have instead focused on the continuity between the two eras.
Indeed, it is now usually considered incorrect to classify any historical
period as "better" or "worse", leading some to call for an
end to the use of the term, which they see as a product of presentism. The word
Renaissance has also been used to describe other historical and cultural
movements, such as the Carolingian Renaissance and the Byzantine Renaissance.
Leonardo da Vinci's Vitruvian Man shows clearly the effect writers of antiquity
had on Renaissance thinkers. Based on the specifications in Vitruvius's De
architectura, da Vinci tried to draw the perfectly proportioned man. The
Renaissance was a cultural movement that profoundly affected European
intellectual life in the early modern period. Beginning in Italy, and spreading
to the rest of Europe by the 16th century, its influence was felt in
literature, philosophy, art, politics, science, religion, and other aspects of
intellectual enquiry. Renaissance scholars employed the humanist method in
study, and searched for realism and human emotion in art. Renaissance thinkers
sought out learning from ancient texts, typically written in Latin or ancient
Greek. Scholars scoured Europe's monastic libraries, searching for works of
antiquity which had fallen into obscurity. In such texts they found a desire to
improve and perfect their worldly knowledge; an entirely different sentiment to
the transcendental spirituality stressed by medieval Christianity. They did not
reject Christianity; quite the contrary, many of the Renaissance's greatest
works were devoted to it, and the Church patronized many works of Renaissance
art. However, a subtle shift took place in the way that intellectuals approached
religion that was reflected in many other areas of cultural life. Artists
strove to portray the human form realistically, developing techniques to render
perspective and light more naturally. Political philosophers, most famously
Niccol? Machiavelli, sought to describe political life as it really was, and to
improve government on the basis of reason. In addition to studying classical
Latin and Greek, authors also began increasingly to use vernacular languages;
combined with the invention of printing, this would allow many more people
access to books, especially the Bible. In all, the Renaissance could be viewed
as an attempt by intellectuals to study and improve the secular and worldly,
both through the revival of ideas from antiquity, and through novel approaches
to thought.
Assimilation of Greek and
Arabic knowledge
Latin translations of
the 12th century
The Renaissance was so
called because it was a "rebirth" of certain classical ideas that had
long been lost to Europe. It has been argued that the fuel for this rebirth was
the rediscovery of ancient texts that had been forgotten by Western
civilization, but were preserved in some monastic libraries and in the Islamic
world, and the translations of Greek and Arabic texts into Latin. Renaissance scholars
such as Niccol? de' Niccoli and Poggio Bracciolini scoured the libraries of
Europe in search of works by such classical authors as Plato, Cicero and
Vitruvius. Additionally, as the reconquest of the Iberian peninsula from
Islamic Moors progressed, numerous Greek and Arabic works were captured from
educational institutions such as the library at C?rdoba, which claimed to have
400,000 books. The works of ancient Greek and Hellenistic writers (such as
Plato, Aristotle, Euclid, Ptolemy, and Plotinus) and Muslim scientists and
philosophers (such as Geber, Abulcasis, Alhacen, Avicenna, Avempace, and
Averroes), were imported into the Christian world, providing new intellectual
material for European scholars. Greek and Arabic knowledge was not only
assimilated from Spain, but also directly from the Middle East. The study of
mathematics was flourishing in the Middle East, and mathematical knowledge was
brought back by crusaders in the 13th century. The decline of the Byzantine
Empire after 1204 - and its eventual fall in 1453 - led to a sharp increase in
the exodus of Greek scholars to Italy and beyond. These scholars brought with
them texts and knowledge of the classical Greek civilization which had been
lost for centuries in the West.
Social and political structures
in Italy
A political map of the
Italian Peninsula circa 1494.The unique political structures of late Middle
Ages Italy have led some to theorize that its unusual social climate allowed
the emergence of a rare cultural efflorescence. Italy did not exist as a
political entity in the early modern period. Instead, it was divided into
smaller city states and territories: the kingdom of Naples controlled the
south, the Republic of Florence and the Papal States the center, the Genoese
and the Milanese the north and west, and the Venetians the east.
Fifteenth-century Italy was one of the most urbanised areas in Europe. Many of
its cities stood among the ruins of ancient Roman buildings; it seems likely
that the classical nature of the Renaissance was linked to its origin in the
Roman Empire's heartlands.
Italy at this time was
notable for its merchant Republics, including the Republic of Florence and the
Republic of Venice. Although in practice these were oligarchical, and bore
little resemblance to a modern democracy, the relative political freedom they
afforded was conducive to academic and artistic advancement. Likewise, the
position of Italian cities such as Venice as great trading centres made them
intellectual crossroads. Merchants brought with them ideas from far corners of
the globe, particularly the Levant. Venice was Europe's gateway to trade with
the East, and a producer of fine glass, while Florence was a capital of silk
and jewelry. The wealth such business brought to Italy meant that large public
and private artistic projects could be commissioned and individuals had more
leisure time for study.
The Black Death
One theory that has been
advanced is that the devastation caused by the Black Death in Florence (and
elsewhere in Europe) resulted in a shift in the world view of people in 14th
century Italy. Italy was particularly badly hit by the plague, and it has been
speculated that the familiarity with death that this brought thinkers to dwell
more on their lives on Earth, rather than on spirituality and the afterlife. It
has also been argued that the Black Death prompted a new wave of piety,
manifested in the sponsorship of religious works of art. However, this does not
fully explain why the Renaissance occurred specifically in Italy in the 14th century.
The Black Death was a pandemic that affected all of Europe in the ways
described, not only Italy. The Renaissance's emergence in Italy was most likely
the result of the complex interaction of the above factors.
Cultural conditions in
Florence
Lorenzo de' Medici,
ruler of Florence and patron of arts. It has long been a matter of debate why
the Renaissance began in Florence, and not elsewhere in Italy. Scholars have
noted several features unique to Florentine cultural life which may have caused
such a cultural movement. Many have emphasized the role played by the Medici
family in patronizing and stimulating the arts. Lorenzo de' Medici devoted huge
sums to commissioning works from Florence's leading artists, including Leonardo
da Vinci, Sandro Botticelli, and Michelangelo Buonarroti.
The Renaissance was
certainly already underway before Lorenzo came to power, however. Indeed,
before the Medici family itself achieved hegemony in Florentine society. Some
historians have postulated that Florence was the birthplace of the Renaissance
as a result of luck, i.e. because "Great Men" were born there by
chance. Da Vinci, Botticelli and Michelangelo were all born in Tuscany. Arguing
that such chance seems improbable, other historians have contended that these
"Great Men" were only able to rise to prominence because of the
prevailing cultural conditions at the time.
The Renaissance's
characteristics
Renaissance humanism
Humanism was not a
philosophy per se, but rather a method of learning. In contrast to the medieval
scholastic mode, which focused on resolving contradictions between authors,
humanists would study ancient texts in the original, and appraise them through
a combination of reasoning and empirical evidence. Humanist education was based
on the study of poetry, grammar, ethics and rhetoric. Above all, humanists
asserted "the genius of man... the unique and extraordinary ability of the
human mind." Humanist scholars shaped the intellectual landscape
throughout the early modern period. Political philosophers such as Niccol?
Machiavelli and Thomas More revived the ideas of Greek and Roman thinkers, and
applied them in critiques of contemporary government. Theologians, notably
Erasmus and Martin Luther, challenged the Aristotelian status quo, introducing
radical new ideas of justification and faith.
Art
Italian Renaissance
painting, Renaissance painting, and Renaissance architecture
One of the
distinguishing features of Renaissance art was its development of highly
realistic linear perspective. Giotto di Bondone (1267-1337) is credited with
first treating a painting as a window into space, but it was not until the
writings of architects Filippo Brunelleschi (1377-1446) and Leon Battista
Alberti (1404–1472) that perspective was formalized as an artistic technique.
The development of perspective was part of a wider trend towards realism in the
arts. To that end, painters also developed other techniques, studying light,
shadow, and, famously in the case of Leonardo da Vinci, human anatomy.
Underlying these changes in artistic method was a renewed desire to depict the
beauty of nature, and to unravel the axioms of aesthetics, with the works of
Leonardo, Michelangelo and Raphael representing artistic pinnacles that were to
be much imitated by other artists. Concurrently, in the Netherlands, a
particularly vibrant artistic culture developed, the work of Hugo van der Goes
and Jan van Eyck having particular influence on the development of painting in
Italy, both technically with the introduction of oil paint and canvas, and
stylistically in terms of naturalism in representation. Later, the work of
Pieter Brueghel the Elder would inspire artists to depict themes of everyday
life. In architecture, Filippo Brunelleschi was foremost in studying the
remains of ancient Classical buildings, and with rediscovered knowledge from
the 1st century writer Vitruvius and the flourishing discipline of mathematics,
formulated the Renaissance style. Brunelleschi's major feat of engineering was
the building of the dome of Florence Cathedral. The outstanding architectural
work of the High Renaissance was the rebuilding of St. Peter's Basilica,
combining the skills of Bramante, Michelangelo, Raphael, Sangallo and Maderno.
Science
The upheavals occurring
in the arts and humanities were mirrored by a dynamic period of change in the
sciences. Some have seen this flurry of activity as a "scientific
revolution," heralding the beginning of the modern age. Others have seen
it merely as an acceleration of a continuous process stretching from the
ancient world to the present day. Regardless, there is general agreement that
the Renaissance saw significant changes in the way the universe was viewed and
the methods with which philosophers sought to explain natural phenomena.
Science and art were very
much intermingled in the early Renaissance, with artists such as Leonardo da
Vinci making observational drawings of anatomy and nature. Yet the most
significant development of the era was not a specific discovery, but rather a
process for discovery, the scientific method. This revolutionary new way of
learning about the world focused on empirical evidence, the importance of
mathematics, and discarding the Aristotelian "final cause" in favor
of a mechanical philosophy. Early and influential proponents of these ideas
included Copernicus and Galileo. The new scientific method led to great
contributions in the fields of astronomy, physics, biology, and anatomy. With
the publication of Vesalius's De humani corporis fabrica, a new confidence was
placed in the role of dissection, observation, and a mechanistic view of
anatomy.
Religion
Alexander VI, a Borgia
pope infamous for his corruption. Main articles: Reformation and
Counter-Reformation
It should be emphasized
that the new ideals of humanism, although more secular in some aspects,
developed against an unquestioned Christian backdrop, especially in the
Northern Renaissance. Indeed, much (if not most) of the new art was
commissioned by or in dedication to the Church. However, the Renaissance had a
profound effect on contemporary theology, particularly in the way people
perceived the relationship between man and God. Many of the period's foremost
theologians were followers of the humanist method, including Erasmus, Zwingli,
Thomas More, Martin Luther, and John Calvin.
The Renaissance began in
times of religious turmoil. The late Middle Ages saw a period of political
intrigue surrounding the Papacy, culminating in the Western Schism, in which
three men simultaneously claimed to be true Bishop of Rome. While the schism
was resolved by the Council of Constance (1414), the fifteenth century saw a
resulting reform movement know as Conciliarism, which sought to limit the
pope's power. While the papacy eventually emerged supreme in ecclesiastical
matters by the Fifth Council of the Lateran (1511), it was dogged by continued
accusations of corruption, most famously in the person of Pope Alexander VI,
who was accused variously of simony, nepotism and fathering four illegitimate
children whilst Pope, whom he married off to gain more power. Churchmen such as
Erasmus and Luther proposed reform to the Church, often based on humanist
textual criticism of the New Testament. Indeed, it was Luther who in October
1517 published the 95 Theses, challenging papal authority and criticizing its
perceived corruption, particularly with regard to its sale of indulgences. The
95 Theses led to the Reformation, a break with the Roman Catholic Church that
previously claimed hegemony in Western Europe. Humanism and the Renaissance
therefore played a direct role in sparking the Reformation, as well as in many
other contemporaneous religious debates and conflicts.
Renaissance
self-awareness
By the fifteenth century,
writers, artists and architects in Italy were well aware of the transformations
that were taking place and were using phrases like modi antichi (in the antique
manner) or alle romana et alla antica (in the manner of the Romans and the
ancients) to describe their work. The term "la rinascita" first appeared,
however, in its broad sense in Giorgio Vasari's Vite de' pi? eccellenti
architetti, pittori, et scultori Italiani (The Lives of the Artists, 1550,
revised 1568).Vasari divides the age into three phases: the first phase
contains Cimabue, Giotto, and Arnolfo di Cambio; the second phase contains
Masaccio, Brunelleschi, and Donatello; the third centers on Leonardo da Vinci
and culminates with Michelangelo. It was not just the growing awareness of
classical antiquity that drove this development, according to Vasari, but also
the growing desire to study and imitate nature.
The Renaissance spreads
In the 15th century the
Renaissance spread with great speed from its birthplace in Florence, first to
the rest of Italy, and soon to the rest of Europe. The invention of the
printing press allowed the rapid transmission of these new ideas. As it spread,
its ideas diversified and changed, being adapted to local culture. In the
twentieth century, scholars began to break the Renaissance into regional and
national movements, including:
The Italian Renaissance
,The English Renaissance, The German Renaissance, The Northern Renaissance,
The French Renaissance, The Renaissance in the Netherlands, The Polish
Renaissance, The Spanish Renaissance, Renaissance architecture in Eastern
Europe.
Northern Renaissance
The Renaissance as it
occurred in Northern Europe has been termed the "Northern
Renaissance". It arrived first in France, imported by King Charles VIII
after his invasion of Italy. Francis I imported Italian art and artists,
including Leonardo Da Vinci, and at great expense built ornate palaces. Writers
such as Fran?ois Rabelais, Pierre de Ronsard, Joachim du Bellay and Michel de
Montaigne, painters such as Jean Clouet and musicians such as Jean Mouton also
borrowed from the spirit of the Italian Renaissance.
In the second half of the
15th century, Italians brought the new style to Poland and Hungary. After the
marriage in 1476 of Matthias Corvinus, King of Hungary, to Beatrix of Naples,
Buda became the one of the most important artistic centres of the Renaissance
north of the Alps. The most important humanists living in Matthias' court were
Antonio Bonfini and Janus Pannonius. In 1526 the Ottoman conquest of Hungary
put an abrupt end to the short-lived Hungarian Renaissance. An early Italian
humanist who came to Poland in the mid-15th century was Filip Callimachus. Many
Italian artists came to Poland with Bona Sforza of Milano, when she married
King Zygmunt I of Poland in 1518. This was supported by temporarily strengthened
monarchies in both areas, as well as by newly-established universities. The
spirit of the age spread from France to the Low Countries and Germany, and
finally by the late 16th century to England, Scandinavia, and remaining parts
of Central Europe. In these areas humanism became closely linked to the turmoil
of the Protestant Reformation, and the art and writing of the German
Renaissance frequently reflected this dispute.
In England, the
Elizabethan era marked the beginning of the English Renaissance with the work
of writers William Shakespeare, Christopher Marlowe, John Milton, and Edmund
Spenser, as well as great artists, architects (such as Inigo Jones), and
composers such as Thomas Tallis, John Taverner, and William Byrd. The
Renaissance arrived in the Iberian peninsula through the Mediterranean
possessions of the Aragonese Crown and the city of Valencia. Early Iberian
Renaissance writers include Ausi?s
March, Joanot Martorell,
Fernando de Rojas, Juan del Encina, Garcilaso de la Vega, Gil Vicente and
Bernardim Ribeiro. The late Renaissance in Spain saw writers such as Miguel de
Cervantes, Lope de Vega, Luis de G?ngora and Tirso de Molina, artists such as
El Greco and composers such as Tom?s Luis de Victoria. In Portugal writers such
as S? de Miranda and Lu?s de Cam?es and artists such as Nuno Gon?alves
appeared.
While Renaissance ideas
were moving north from Italy, there was a simultaneous southward spread of
innovation, particularly in music. The music of the 15th century Burgundian
School defined the beginning of the Renaissance in that art and the polyphony
of the Netherlanders, as it moved with the musicians themselves into Italy,
formed the core of what was the first true international style in music since
the standardization of Gregorian Chant in the 9th century. The culmination of
the Netherlandish school was in the music of the Italian composer, Palestrina.
At the end of the 16th century Italy again became a center of musical
innovation, with the development of the polychoral style of the Venetian
School, which spread northward into Germany around 1600. The paintings of the
Italian Renaissance differed from those of the Northern Renaissance. Italian
Renaissance artists were among the first to paint secular scenes, breaking away
from the purely religious art of medieval painters. At first, Northern
Renaissance artists remained focused on religious subjects, such as the
contemporary religious upheaval portrayed by Albrecht D?rer. Later on, the
works of Pieter Bruegel influenced artists to paint scenes of daily life rather
than religious or classical themes. It was also during the northern Renaissance
that Flemish brothers Hubert and Jan van Eyck perfected the oil painting
technique, which enabled artists to produce strong colors on a hard surface
that could survive for centuries.
The Renaissance's
historiography
Conception
It was not until the
nineteenth century that the French word Renaissance achieved popularity in
describing the cultural movement that began in the late 13th century. The Renaissance
was first defined by French historian Jules Michelet (1798-1874), in his 1855
work, Histoire de France. For Michelet, the Renaissance was more a development
in science than in art and culture. He asserted that it spanned the period from
Columbus to Copernicus to Galileo; that is, from the end of the fifteenth
century to the middle of the seventeenth century. Moreover, Michelet
distinguished between what he called, "the bizarre and monstrous"
quality of the Middle Ages and the democratic values that he, as a vocal
Republican, chose to see in its character. A French nationalist, Michelet also
sought to claim the Renaissance as a French movement. The Swiss historian Jacob
Burckhardt, (1818-1897) in his Die Kultur der Renaissance in Italien, by
contrast, defined the Renaissance as the period between Giotto and Michelangelo
in Italy, that is, the 14th to mid-16th centuries. He saw in the Renaissance
the emergence of the modern spirit of individuality, which had been stifled in
the Middle Ages. His book was widely read and was influential in the
development of the modern interpretation of the Italian Renaissance.
For better or for worse?
Much of the debate
around the Renaissance has centered around whether the Renaissance truly was an
"improvement" on the culture of the Middle Ages. Both Michelet and
Burckhardt were keen to describe the progress made in the Renaissance towards
the "modern age". Burckhardt likened the change to a veil being
removed from man's eyes, allowing him to see clearly.
On the other hand, many
historians now point out that most of the negative social factors popularly
associated with the "medieval" period - poverty, warfare, religious
and political persecution, for example - seem to have worsened in this era
which saw the rise of Machiavelli, the Wars of Religion, the corrupt Borgia
Popes, and the intensified witch-hunts of the 16th century. Many people who
lived during the Renaissance did not view it as the "golden age"
imagined by certain 19th-century authors, but were concerned by these social
maladies. Significantly, though, the artists, writers, and patrons involved in
the cultural movements in question believed they were living in a new era that
was a clean break from the Middle Ages.
Some Marxist historians
prefer to describe the Renaissance in material terms, holding the view that the
changes in art, literature, and philosophy were part of a general economic
trend away from feudalism towards capitalism, resulting in a bourgeois class
with leisure time to devote to the arts. In the Middle Ages both sides of human
consciousness--that which was turned within as that which was turned without--
lay dreaming or half awake beneath a common veil. The veil was woven of faith,
illusion, and childish prepossession, through which the world and history were
seen clad in strange hues.
Jacob Burckhardt, The
Civilization of the Renaissance in Italy
Johan Huizinga
(1872–1945) acknowledged the existence of the Renaissance but questioned
whether it was a positive change. In his book The Waning of the Middle Ages, he
argued that the Renaissance was a period of decline from the High Middle Ages,
destroying much that was important. The Latin language, for instance, had evolved
greatly from the classical period and was still a living language used in the
church and elsewhere.
The Renaissance obsession
with classical purity halted its further evolution and saw Latin revert to its
classical form. Robert S. Lopez has contended that it was a period of deep
economic recession. Meanwhile George Sarton and Lynn Thorndike have both argued
that scientific progress was slowed.Historians have begun to consider the word
Renaissance as unnecessarily loaded, implying an unambiguously positive rebirth
from the supposedly more primitive "Dark Ages" (Middle Ages). Many
historians now prefer to use the term "Early Modern" for this period,
a more neutral designation that highlights the period as a transitional one
between the Middle Ages and the modern era.
Other Renaissances
The term Renaissance has
also been used to define time periods outside of the 15th and 16th centuries.
Charles H. Haskins (1870–1937), for example, made a convincing case for a
Renaissance of the 12th century. Other historians have argued for a Carolingian
Renaissance in the eighth and ninth centuries, and still later for an Ottonian
Renaissance in the tenth century. Other periods of cultural rebirth have also
been termed "renaissances", such as the Bengal Renaissance or the
Harlem Renaissance.
Expressionism
"View of
Toledo" by El Greco, 1595/1610 has been pointed out to bear a particularly
striking resemblance to 20th century expressionism. Historically speaking it is
however part of the Mannerist movement.Expressionism is the tendency of an
artist to distort reality for an emotional effect; it is a subjective art form.
Expressionism is exhibited in many art forms, including painting, literature,
theatre, film, architecture and music. The term often implies emotional angst.
In a general sense, painters such as Matthias Gr?newald and El Greco can be
called expressionist, though in practice, the term is applied mainly to 20th
century works.
Origin of the term
Although it is used as
term of reference, there has never been a distinct movement that called itself
"expressionism", apart from the use of the term by Herwald Walden in
his polemic magazine Der Sturm in 1912. The term is usually linked to paintings
and graphic work in Germany at the turn of the century which challenged the
academic traditions, particularly through the Die Br?cke and Der Blaue Reiter
groups. Philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche played a key role in originating modern
expressionism by clarifying and serving as a conduit for previously neglected
currents in ancient art.
In The Birth of Tragedy
Nietzsche presented his theory of the ancient dualism between two types of
aesthetic experience, namely the Apollonian and the Dionysian; a dualism
between the plastic "art of sculpture", of lyrical dream-inspiration,
identity (the principium individuationis), order, regularity, and calm repose,
and, on the other hand, the non-plastic "art of music", of
intoxication, forgetfulness, chaos, and the ecstatic dissolution of identity in
the collective. The analogy with the world of the Greek gods typifies the
relationship between these extremes: two godsons, incompatible and yet
inseparable. According to Nietzsche, both elements are present in any work of
art. The basic characteristics of expressionism are Dionysian: bold colors,
distorted forms-in-dissolution, two-dimensional, without perspective.
More generally the term
refers to art that expresses intense emotion. It is arguable that all artists
are expressive but there is a long line of art production in which heavy emphasis
is placed on communication through emotion. Such art often occurs during time
of social upheaval, and through the tradition of graphic art there is a
powerful and moving record of chaos in Europe from the 15th century on the
Protestant Reformation, Peasants' War, Spanish Occupation of Netherlands, the
rape, pillage and disaster associated with countless periods of chaos and
oppression are presented in the documents of the printmaker. Often the work is
unimpressive aesthetically, but almost without exception has the capacity to
move the viewer to strong emotions with the drama and often horror of the
scenes depicted.
The term was also coined
by Czech art historian Anton?n Mat?j?ek in 1910 as the opposite of
impressionism: "An Expressionist wishes, above all, to express
himself....[An Expressionist rejects] immediate perception and builds on more
complex psychic structures....Impressions and mental images that pass through
mental peoples soul as through a filter which rids them of all substantial
accretions to produce their clear essence [...and] are assimilated and condense
into more general forms, into types, which he transcribes through simple
short-hand formulae and symbols." (Gordon, 1987)
Expressionist groups in
painting
There was never a group
of artists that called themselves "The expressionists". This movement
primarily originated in Germany and Austria, though following World War II it
began to influence young American artists. Norris Embry (1921-1981) studied
with Oskar Kokoschka in 1947 and over the next 43 years produced a large body
of work grounded in the Expressionist tradition. Norris Embry has been called
"the first American German Expressionist". Other American artists of
the late 20th and early 21st century have developed distinct movements that are
generally considered part of Expressionism. Another prominent artist who came
from the German Expressionist "school" was Bremen born Wolfgang
Degenhardt. After working as a commercial artist in Bremen he migrated to
Australia in 1954 and became quite prominent and sought after in the Hunter
Valley region. His paintings captured the spirit of Australian and world issues
but presented them in a way which was true to his German Expressionist roots.
There were a number of Expressionist groups in painting, including the Blaue
Reiter and Die Br?cke. The Der Blaue Reiter group was based in Munich and Die
Br?cke was based originally in Dresden (although some later moved to Berlin).
Die Br?cke was active for a longer period than Der Blaue Reiter which was only
truly together for a year (1912). The Expressionists had many influences, among
them Munch, Vincent van Gogh, and African art. They also came to know the work
being done by the Fauves in Paris. American Expressionism and particularly the
Boston figurative expressionism were an integral part of American modernism
around the Second World War.
Major figurative Boston
expressionists included: Karl Zerbe, Hyman Bloom, Jack Levine, David Aronson,
Philip Guston. The Boston figurative expressionists post World War II were
increasingly marginalized by the development of abstract expressionism centered
in New York City.
Later in the 20th
century, post World War II, figurative expressionism influenced worldwide a
large number of artists and movements:
Lyrical Abstraction,
Tachisme of the 1940s and 1950s in Europe represented by artists such as
Georges Mathieu, Hans Hartung, Nicolas de Sta?l and others.
Abstract Expressionism,
of the 1950s represented primarily of American artist such as Arshile Gorky,
Jackson Pollock, Franz Kline and Willem de Kooning and others. some of whom
took part in figurative expressionism.
In the United States and
Canada Lyrical Abstraction beginning in the late 1960s and the 1970s.
Neo-expressionism was an
international revival movement beginning in the late 1970s and centered around
artists across the world:
Many other artists from
different countries joined the movement of Neo-expressionism.
Influenced by the Fauves,
Expressionism worked with arbitrary colors as well as jarring compositions. In
reaction and opposition to French Impressionism which focused on rendering the
sheer visual appearance of objects, Expressionist artists sought to capture
emotions and subjective interpretations: It was not important to reproduce an
aesthetically pleasing impression of the artistic subject matter; the
Expressonists focused on capturing vivid emotional reactions through powerful
colors and dynamic compositions instead. The leader of Der Blaue Reiter,
Kandinsky, would take this a step further. He believed that with simple colors
and shapes the spectator could perceive the moods and feelings in the
paintings, therefore he made the move to abstraction.