(Most pictures/info taken from wikipedia)

The period of High Renaissance includes figures such as Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo Buonarroti and Raffaello Santi.

The Last Supper by Leonardo DaVinci

Sculpture of David-- Michelangelo

Northern Renaissance--The cornerstone of it was often characterised by oil paintings.

Mannerism, Baroque, and Rococo--Mannerism adopts an approach to do with the distortion of light and space and focus on the intricate details to aid artists in the expressions of their emotions. Baroque art , on the other hand, empathsises on the search for beauty in drama, exuberance and exaggerated motion.

El Greco--Baptism of Christ [Mannerism]

Neoclassicism, Romanticism, Academism, and Realism--Spawned by the rejection of other ideas in Art. Romanticism in particular, was a big poetry movement, with famous poets like William Blake.

Modern Art--branched out into various forms. It is sparked off generally by the liberisation in society. (Industrial changes, etc)

• Cubism: the art of transposing a three-dimensional reality onto a flat canvas.
• Expressionism: concerned with evoking emotion through objective works of art.
• Fauvism: Canvas are characterised by wide, bright hues. (Revoluntionised the use of colours)
• Abstract: understood to mean art that does not depict objects in the natural , but instead uses shapes and colors in a non-representational or subjective way.
• Surrealism: an artistic, cultural and intellectual movement oriented toward the liberation of the mind by emphasizing the critical and imaginative faculties of the subconscious.

Picasso's Guernica was painted as a reactionary representation of bombing of Guernica in the Spanish Civil War.

Art by Timeline

Medieval Art is closely motivated by, and related to, religion. Medieval artists were simply trying to send religious messages, tasks which demand clear iconic images instead of precisely rendered ones. This is largely due to the fall of Rome, which resulted in many perspectives of Art being lost and knowledge of the Human figure being downplayed.

Saint Matthew from the Lindisfarne Gospels.

(Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Western_art_history)

Romanesque was primarily motivated by the increasing influence of monasticism and prigrimages to Europe. This spurred on an array of breath-taking architecture.

Renaissance--Early

Renaissance marked the careers of sculptors like Donatello and Masaccio. Architecture like the Florence Cathedral also emerged.

[Sculpture] Donatello's Gattamelata (Erasmo of Narni)

[Painting] Trinity by Tommaso Masaccio

Florence Cathedral. (c) Igor Zeiger

Timeline

6th to 15th Century: Medieval Art
11th to 12th Century: Romansque
14th to 16th Century: The Renaissance
16th Century: Mannerism
17th to 18th Century: Baroque Art
Mid-18th Century: Rococo
17th to 19th Century: Neoclassicism
Late 18th to 19th Century: Romanticism
19th Century: Realism
First half of 20th Century: Modern Art
Since 1960s: Contemporary and Post-Modern Art

Definition of "Art"

Definition of Art
art (From dictionary.com)

1. Human effort to imitate, supplement, alter, or counteract the work of nature.
2. The conscious production or arrangement of sounds, colors, forms, movements, or other elements in a manner that affects the sense of beauty, specifically the production of the beautiful in a graphic or plastic medium.
3. The study of these activities.
4. The product of these activities; human works of beauty considered as a group.
5. High quality of conception or execution, as found in works of beauty; aesthetic value.
6. A field or category of art, such as music, ballet, or literature.
   
7. A nonscientific branch of learning; one of the liberal arts.