Western Art: Medieval, Renaissance, Baroque and Modern
Western Art: Medieval, Renaissance, Baroque, and Modern surveys style change from Byzantine mosaic to twentieth-century abstraction. The exam tests formal markers, patronage, and terminology.
Core rules
- Byzantine: gold ground, frontal figures, elongated forms, and San Vitale mosaics.
- Romanesque: round arches, thick walls, small windows, and tympanum sculpture. Gothic: pointed arch, rib vault, flying buttress, stained glass, and Chartres.
- Renaissance: humanism, linear perspective, chiaroscuro, and sfumato; Brunelleschi's dome, Leonardo, Michelangelo, and Raphael.
- Baroque: drama, diagonal composition, tenebrism, Bernini, Caravaggio, and Versailles.
- Modern: Impressionism and light; Post-Impressionism and structure or expression; Cubism and multiple viewpoints; Expressionism, Dada, Surrealism, and Bauhaus.
Worked example
A painting has strong diagonal light, a dark background, and a dramatic conversion scene. Reasoning: tenebrism and theatrical light point to Caravaggio. The subject and naturalistic detail fit Baroque drama, not Renaissance balance.
Traps
Do not call all medieval art Gothic. Do not use perspective for Byzantine icons. Do not reduce modern art to abstract; many movements remain figurative. Do not confuse Romanesque round arches with Gothic pointed arches.
Exam focus
Match formal features to period, identify artists with signature techniques, and explain how patronage and belief shape style.