History of Painting in Three Easy Chapters

By Dan Streja

This history of painting is for people who can't tell Baroque from Gothic and Neoclassicism from Pre-Raphaelism and do not necessarily want to go there. It is produced by one who was in the same predicament not long ago. However, it is easier to appreciate and remember many paintings if you know what the painter is really trying to do, and where in the story his paintings fit in. Because a story it is. So to tell this story, we are going to make three mental buckets and sort out all the paintings in one of them. Some will not quite fit, but we will deal with that. We will keep this as simple as possible. All subchapter title paintings are part of The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.

The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York is not associated with this book in any way.

This book is a companion to the Met Tours iPhone application and contains 4 of its 9 tours.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Dan Streja
• Release date: Jun 19, 2013
• ISBN: 9781301699414

Dan Streja

Dan Streja is a Director of Software Developement for an Insurance Software company, working in Scarsdale, New York. He produced an iPhone app - Met Tours, that has tours for the Metropolitan Museum, read alound by Julia Proctor. This book corresponds to four of the nine tours of the app. He also produced a second book based on the Metropolitan Museum paintings, available on Kindle: "Women, Sex and Betrayal at the Met"

Book preview

Published by Dan Streja - EdgeRom Software at Smashwords

Copyright 2013 Dan Streja - EdgeRom Software

All Rights Reserved.

To Robina, Jill and Lynn.

To my father, who has always been an inspiration.

To my mother, who has always been a support.

Prologue

This history of painting is for people who can't tell Baroque from Gothic and Neoclassicism from Pre-Raphaelism and do not necessarily want to go there. It is produced by one who was in the same predicament not long ago. However, it is easier to appreciate and remember many paintings if you know what the painter is really trying to do, and where in the story his paintings fit in. Because a story it is. So to tell this story, we are going to make three mental buckets and sort out all the paintings in one of them. Some will not quite fit, but we will deal with that. We will keep this as simple as possible. All subchapter title paintings are part of The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.

NOTE: this book is in not produced by The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, which is not associated with it in any way.

This book is a companion book to the Met Tours iPhone application and contains four of its 9 tours.

CONTENTS

Prologue

Chapter 1 – LEARNING TO PAINT

1. GIOTTO

2. VAN EYCK

3. MEMLING

4. UCCELLO

5. RAPHAEL

Chapter 2 – HAVING FUN WITH THE SUBJECT

1. BRONZINO

2. REMBRANDT

3. CARAVAGGIO

4. EL GRECO

5. DAVID

6. MONET

Interlude – WHERE IS ALL THIS CRAZINESS COMING FROM ?

1. CUBISM

2. ABSTRACT EXPRESSIONISM

3. ABSTRACT EXPRESSIONISM AGAIN

4. PRIMITIVISM AND CUBISM AGAIN

5. FLAT COLORS

6. THE ESSENTIAL IN SCULPTURE- BRANCUSI

7. MORE ABSTRACT EXPRESSIONISM

8. ESSENTIAL IN SCLUPTURE AGAIN

Chapter 3 - FORGET THE SUBJECT

1. CUBISM

2. FUTURISM

3. SURREALISM, METHAPHYSICAL, DADA

4. ABSTRACT EXPRESSIONISM

5. POP ART

6. MINIMALISM

Chapter 1 – LEARNING TO PAINT

For the first bucket, we skip all painting before the beginning of the Renaissance, so we do not deal with Egyptian, Greek and Roman, Byzantine or anything else before around 1200. First chapter goes from about 1200 to the height of the Renaissance, about 1550. (We also keep dates nice, round and approximate.) It is a time for painters to strive and search for the best way to show people and to show nature, as close to perfection as possible. They are in the search for the mind of God, to understand creation, people and light, to perfect the craft.

1. GIOTTO

Ok, so we heard a lot about this guy, Giotto, but when looking at this, we do not get what the big deal is. People look a bit weird and we have seen better