Contenido

El arte prehistórico es el desarrollado por el ser humano primitivo desde la Edad de Piedra (Paleolítico superior, Mesolítico y Neolítico) hasta la Edad de los Metales, periodos donde surgieron las primeras manifestaciones que se pueden considerar como artísticas por parte del Homo sapiens. Durante el Paleolítico (25 000-8000 a. C.), los seres humanos se mantenían principalmente gracias a la caza y a la recolección y habitaban en cuevas, en algunas de las cuales desarrollaron la llamada pintura rupestre. Tras un periodo de transición (Mesolítico, 8000-6000 a. C.), en el Neolítico (6000-3000 a. C.) el ser humano se volvió sedentario y se dedicó a la agricultura, con sociedades cada vez más complejas donde fue cobrando importancia la religión, y comenzó la producción de piezas de artesanía. Por último, en la llamada Edad de los Metales (3000-1000 a. C.), surgieron las primeras civilizaciones protohistóricas.

Paleolithic

The first artistic manifestations come from Homo neanderthalensis, from about 65,000 years ago, as confirmed by the remains found in the caves of Maltravieso (Cáceres), Ardales (Málaga) and La Pasiega (Cantabria).[2] Even so, most of the first artistic finds are from the Upper Paleolithic and already belong to Homo sapiens, around 25,000 a. C., having its peak in the Magdalenian period (±15,000-8000 BC). The first traces of man-made objects appear in southern Africa, the western Mediterranean, central and eastern Europe (Adriatic Sea), Siberia (Lake Baikal), India and Australia. These first vestiges are generally utensils made of worked stone (flint, obsidian), or bone or wood. For painting they used red iron oxide, black "Black (color)") manganese oxide "Manganese oxide (IV)") and ocher clay. Its main expressive medium was cave painting, developed mainly in the Franco-Cantabrian region: they are paintings of a magical-religious nature, in caves, with a naturalistic sense "Naturalism (art)"), with representation of animals, highlighting the caves of Altamira, Tito Bustillo, Trois Frères, Chauvet and Lascaux. In sculpture, the so-called venus stand out, female representations that surely served as a cult of fertility, highlighting the Venus of Willendorf. Other representative works of this period are the so-called Man of Brno, the Vogelherd's Mammoth and the Lady of Brassempouy.[3]​.

In prehistory, the first rudimentary forms of music and dance emerged: various natural phenomena and the modulation of the human voice itself made primitive man see that there were sounds that were harmonious and melodious, and that affected the emotions and mood of people. At the same time, dance, rhythmic movement, was a form of bodily communication that served to express feelings, or to ritualize important events (births, deaths, weddings). In principle, music and dance had a ritual component, celebrated in ceremonies of fertility, hunting or war, or of various religious nature. Soon human beings learned to use rudimentary objects (bones, reeds "Cane (vegetable)"), trunks "Trunk (botany)"), shells) to produce sounds, while their own breathing and heartbeats served to give a first cadence "Cadencia (music)") to the dance.[4]​.

Neolithic

This period—beginning around 8000 BC. C. in the Near East - meant a profound transformation for the ancient human being, who became sedentary and dedicated himself to agriculture and livestock, new forms of social coexistence emerged and religion developed. In Levantine painting—dating between the Mesolithic and the Neolithic—the human figure appeared, very schematized, with notable examples in El Cogul, Valltorta, Alpera and Minateda. This type of painting also occurred in North Africa (Atlas "Atlas (mountain range)"), Sahara) and in the area of ​​present-day Zimbabwe. Neolithic painting used to be schematic, reduced to basic strokes (the man in the shape of a cross, the woman in a triangular shape). Also noteworthy are the cave paintings of the Pinturas River in Argentina, especially the Cueva de las Manos. In furniture art, the so-called cardial ceramics were produced, decorated with shell impressions (cardium), and textile art appeared. New materials were manufactured such as amber, rock crystal, quartz, jasper, etc. At this time the first vestiges of towns appeared with an urban planimetry, highlighting the remains found in Tell as-Sultan#Tell_es-Sultán "Jericho (Cisjordania)") (Jericho "Jericho (Cisjordania)"), Jarmo (Iraq) and Çatalhöyük (Anatolia).[5]​.

Metal Age

The last prehistoric phase is the so-called Age of Metals, since the use of elements such as copper, bronze and iron represented a great material transformation for these ancient societies. At the end of the Neolithic and during the so-called Chalcolithic, megalithism emerged, funerary monuments in stone, highlighting the dolmen and the menhir, or the English cromlech, as in the magnificent Stonehenge complex. In Spain, the Los Millares culture was formed, characterized by Bell-shaped ceramics and human representations of schematic figures with large eyes. In Malta, the group of temples of Mudajdra, Tarxien and Ggantija stood out. A notable megalithic culture developed in the Balearic Islands, with various types of monuments: the naveta, a truncated pyramid-shaped tomb "Pyramid (architecture)"), with an elongated funerary chamber; the taula "Taula (talayotic construction)"), two large stones placed one vertically and the other horizontally on top; and the talayot, a tower with a chamber covered with a false dome.[6]​.

In the Iron Age, the cultures of Hallstatt (Austria) and La Tène (Switzerland) stood out. The first occurred between the centuries BC. C. and a. C., characterized by necropolises with tumulus tombs, with a wooden mortuary chamber in the shape of a house, often accompanied by a four-wheeled cart. The ceramics were polychrome, with geometric decorations and applications of metallic ornaments. La Tène developed between the centuries BC. C. and a. C., linked to Celtic culture. It stood out for its iron objects (swords, spears, shields, fibulas), with various phases of evolution (La Tène I, II and III), which at the end of this era received Greek, Etruscan and steppe art influences.[7]​.

Se denomina así a las creaciones artísticas de la primera etapa de la historia, iniciadas con la invención de la escritura, destacando las grandes civilizaciones del Próximo Oriente: Egipto y Mesopotamia. También englobaría las primeras manifestaciones artísticas de la mayoría de pueblos y civilizaciones de todos los continentes. En esta época aparecieron las primeras grandes ciudades, principalmente en cuatro zonas delimitadas por grandes ríos: el Nilo, el Tigris y el Éufrates, el Indo y el río Amarillo.

Uno de los grandes avances en esta época fue la invención de la escritura, generada en primer lugar por la necesidad de llevar registros de índole económica y comercial. El primer código escrito fue la escritura cuneiforme, surgida en Mesopotamia alrededor del 3500 a. C., practicada en tablillas de arcilla. Estaba basada en elementos pictográficos e ideográficos, mientras que más adelante los sumerios desarrollaron un anexo silábico para su escritura, reflejando la fonología y la sintaxis del idioma sumerio hablado. En Egipto se desarrolló la escritura jeroglífica, con una primera muestra en la Paleta de Narmer (3100 a. C.). La lengua hebrea fue una de las primeras que utilizó como método de escritura el alfabeto (abyad, alrededor del 1800 a. C.), que relaciona un único símbolo a cada fonema; de aquí derivan los alfabetos griego y latino.[8]​.

Mesopotamia

Mesopotamian art developed in the area between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers (present-day Syria and Iraq), where since the millennium BC. C. various cultures followed one another such as the Sumerians, Akkadians, Amorites, Assyrians, Chaldeans, etc. The architecture is characterized by the use of brick, with a lintel system and the introduction of construction elements such as the arch "Arco (architecture)") and the vault. The ziggurats stand out, large temples with a stepped pyramidal shape, of which practically no vestiges have survived, except for some bases. The tomb used to be a corridor, with a chamber covered with a false dome, like some examples found in Ur. The palaces, walled complexes with a system of terraces like a ziggurat, also stood out, giving great importance to the garden areas (the hanging gardens of Babylon are one of the seven wonders of the ancient world).

The sculpture was developed in free carving or relief "Relief (art)"), in religious or hunting and military scenes, with the presence of human figures and real or mythological animals. In Sumerian times, small statues of angular shapes were created, with colored stone or paste in the eyes, in figures without hair, with their hands on their chests. In the Akkadian period they are figures with hair and long beards, highlighting the Naram-Sin stele. From the Amorite (or Neo-Sumerian) stage, the representations of King Gudea of ​​Lagash stand out, with a cloak and turban and his hands again on his chest. In the Babylonian domain, it is worth mentioning the famous stele of Hammurabi. Of Assyrian sculpture, the anthropomorphic figures of bulls or winged geniuses stand out, which flanked the doors of the palaces, as well as the reliefs with scenes of war or hunting, such as the Black Obelisk of Shalmaneser III.[9]​.

With the appearance of writing, literature emerged as a means of expressing human creativity. In Sumerian literature, the Poem of Gilgamesh, from the century BC, stands out. C. About thirty myths were written about the most important Sumerian and Akkadian divinities, among which stand out: the descent of Inanna into hell and those generated around the gods Enki and Tammuz. Another example of relevance is the poem Lugal ud melambi Nirpal (The Works of Ninurta), whose content is didactic and moral. In the Akkadian era, Atrahasis stands out, about the myth of the flood. In Babylonian literature, the poem Enûma Elish, about the creation of the world, is worth highlighting.[10]​.

Music developed in this region between the 4th and the millennium BC. C., in rituals in Sumerian temples, where hymns or psalms (ersemma) were sung to the gods. The liturgical song was composed of responsories—singing alternated between priests and choir—and antiphons—singing alternated between two choirs. They had several instruments, such as the tigi (flute), the balag (drum), the lilis (precursor of the timpani), the algar (lyre "Lyre (musical instrument)"), the zagsal (harp) and the adapa (tambourine).[11]​.

Egypt

In Egypt, one of the first great civilizations emerged, with elaborate and complex works of art that already imply professional specialization on the part of the artist/craftsman. His art was intensely religious and symbolic, with a strongly centralized and hierarchical political power, giving great relevance to the religious concept of immortality, mainly of the pharaoh,[note 1]​ for which works of great monumentality were built. Started around 3000 BC. C., Egyptian art lasted until the conquest of Alexander the Great, although its influence persisted in Coptic and Byzantine art.

The architecture is characterized by its monumentality with the use of stone, in large blocks, with a lintel construction system and solid columns "Column (architecture)"). The funerary monuments stand out, with three main typologies: the mastaba, a rectangular tomb; the pyramid "Pyramid (architecture)"), which can be stepped (Saqqarah) or smooth-sided (Gizeh); and the hypogeums, tombs excavated in the ground or in cliff walls (Valley of the Kings). The other large building is the temple, monumental complexes preceded by an avenue of sphinxes and two obelisks, an entrance with two pylons or trapezoidal walls "Trapezoid (geometry)"), a hypetrous patio, a hypostyle room and the sanctuary. The temples of Karnak, Luxor, Philae and Edfu stand out. Another type of temple is the speos, in the form of a hypogeum, as in Abu Simbel and Deir el-Bahari.

Sculpture and painting show representations in a figurative way, generally with great rigidity and schematization. In Egyptian sculpture, pharaohs and gods began to be represented already in the first dynasties, reaching absolute mastery of the technique during the IV Dynasty in elegant representations of majestic bearing with polished finishes in materials as hard as granite or diorite. The law of frontality and hieraticism predominated, with forms tending toward geometrization, given their symbolic nature as manifestations of afterlife. Also noteworthy are the ushabti, small figurines made of baked earth or wood, more realistic than the funerary sculpture, representing everyday scenes.

The painting is mainly characterized by presenting juxtaposed figures on overlapping planes. The images were represented with hierarchical criteria, for example: the pharaoh is larger than the subjects or enemies next to him. The profile canon predominated, which consisted of representing the head and limbs in profile but the shoulders and eyes from the front. In Egypt, the applied arts were notably developed, especially cabinetmaking and goldsmithing, with magnificent examples such as the cedar furniture with ebony and ivory inlays from the tombs of Yuya and Tuyu (Egyptian Museum in Cairo), or the pieces found in the tomb of Tutankhamun, of great artistic quality.[12]​.

Egyptian literature was the first to develop a literary format as we know it today: the book.[13]​ One of its best manifestations is the , a servant of Sesostris I, whose story dates back to the middle of the century BC. C. Later, the stands out, written in the , dated around the century BC. C. Egyptian music was mainly religious, with a great role in vocal singing, developing an annual cycle of festivities, each of which had its corresponding music - a fact that passed to the Jewish and Christian liturgy. Their instruments included the sistrum, the (tambourine), the (harp), the (flute), the (trumpet) and the (clarinet). Apparently, they also had a type of hydraulic organ, and two silver trumpets were found in Tutankhamun's tomb.[14]

America

In an evolution parallel to that of the European Neolithic peoples, the ancient hunter-gatherers began farming around the millennium BC. C. —especially corn—, with the first societies emerging in the highlands of Mexico, where the predominance of a priestly caste is observed, with great knowledge in mathematics and astronomy. The first artistic finds are from around 1300 BC. C. in Xochipala (state of Guerrero), where some clay statuettes of great vivacity were found. The first great Mesoamerican civilization was the Olmec, located in a space that currently corresponds to the provinces of Veracruz and Tabasco, where the stone sculptures of great naturalism stand out (Luchador, found in Santa María Uxpanapán), or the colossal monolithic heads up to 3.5 meters high. The Zapotecs, established in Oaxaca, built the magnificent complex of the City of Temples, on Monte Albán. In North America, the Hohokam, Mogollon and Anasazi cultures stood out.

In Peru, the construction of large temples is documented even before the invention of ceramics, in the millennium BC. C. (Sechín Alto, Kuntur Wasi). Of note is Chavín de Huántar (900 BC), a religious complex built in various phases, with a U-shaped structure, with a tiled plaza with slabs in relief with figures of jaguars and mythological animals, a temple built on three floors of galleries, and a central white granite monolith 4.5 meters high. In this region, a notable textile industry emerged, perhaps the first in the world, spun on a loom with threads of almost 200 different colors, especially the Paracas wool cloaks. Other notable cultures of the region were the Moche and the Nazca—with their enigmatic Nazca geoglyphs. In the Amazon area, the barrancoid culture "Municipio Sotillo (Monagas)") stood out, with ceramics with incised designs, as well as the San Agustín culture in Colombia.[15]​.

Africa

African art has always had a marked magical-religious character, intended more for rites and ceremonies of the various African animist and polytheistic beliefs than for aesthetic purposes, although there are also ornamental productions. Most of his works are made of wood, stone or ivory, in masks and free-standing figures of a more or less anthropomorphic character, with a typical canon of a large head, straight trunk and short limbs. Ceramics, jewelry and textiles were also produced, as well as metallurgy objects—iron was known since the century BC. C.—. The first production of some relevance was the Nok culture, in the millennium BC. C., located in the north of present-day Nigeria. The terracotta sculptures stand out, with human figures - sometimes just the head - or animals (elephants, monkeys, snakes), with a great naturalistic sense, showing facial expressions of individualized sign, with various hairstyles, sometimes with necklaces and bracelets. In Sudan, the Kerma and Meroe cultures developed, characterized by their monumental mud constructions, their weapons and their ceramics. In Ethiopia, the city of Aksum "Aksum (city)") stood out, the center of a kingdom that reached its peak in the 19th century. With a notable culture - they developed a writing in the Ge'ez language, and created a monetary system - their steles "Stele (monument)") are worth highlighting in the form of monolithic pillars, of a funerary nature, up to 20 meters high.[16]​.

Asia

Indian art has a mainly religious character, serving as a vehicle for the transmission of the different religions that have marked India: Hinduism, Buddhism, Islam, Christianity, etc. We must also highlight as a distinctive feature of Indian art its desire to integrate with nature, as an adaptation to the universal order, taking into account that most natural elements (mountains, rivers, trees) have a sacred character for the Indians.

• - Indus Culture: the first great Indian civilization developed between the century BC. C. and the century BC. C., known today from the excavations carried out in 1920 by sir John Marshall "John Marshall (archaeologist)") in Mohenjo-Daro, an ancient city that in successive locations shows a planned urbanization, with public buildings built in baked clay bricks. Of equal importance are the excavations carried out in Harappa, with remains of ceramics, sculpture and metal tools (gold, silver, copper and brass).[17]​.

• - Vedic period (centuries - BC) and premauria (centuries - BC): in this stage the Aryan peoples were introduced, and traditional Indian religions appeared. In the century BC. C. Buddhism and Jainism appeared, establishing close ties with Persian art. The expedition to India of Alexander the Great (326-325 BC) opened contact with Greek Hellenistic art, embodied in Greco-Buddhist forms.

• - Mauryan art (centuries - BC): the Maurya dynasty, of Buddhist religion, occupied the entire middle course of the Indus and the central part of the Deccan peninsula. Stone architecture replaces brick, as at Aśoka Palace in Pātaliputra. The characteristic monument of this period is the stūpa, a commemorative funerary mound, generally covered with reliefs with scenes from the life of Buddha, such as the Sānchi Stūpa.

• - Gandhāra art (2nd century BC-1st century AD): Gandhāra art is of the Greco-Buddhist tradition, with Hellenistic and Sassanid influence, notable for the direct representation of the image of Buddha. The typology of the stūpa evolved, which is domed on a tall cylindrical drum placed on a square base, like that of Kanisha, in Peshawar.

• - Art of Mathurā and Amarāvatī (- centuries): in the city of Mathurā, located in the upper basin of the Ganges, an important artistic school developed that would spread throughout the rest of India and influence Gupta art. The Mathurā style mixed traditional Indian elements with Greco-Roman motifs, however few representations from this period have survived due to the destruction caused by the Islamic invasion. Amarāvatī art also has Greco-Roman influence, as demonstrated by the remains found in Virapatnam (Pondicherry). Like the previous styles, its main works are monasteries and stūpas, highlighting the great stupa of Amarāvatī, 50 meters high.[18]​.

Indian literature began around 2500 BC. C., written in Sanskrit. Its first manifestation was Vedic literature (from veda, 'truth'), with writings focused on religion and war, with a poetic tone and evocative of a magical world. It is divided into three groups:

Oceania

Oceanic art is marked by the multiplicity of island territories that dot the Pacific Ocean, highlighting the islands of Australia and New Zealand, and three main areas of islands and archipelagos: Polynesia, Melanesia and Micronesia. The first culture developed in the area was the Lapita (1500-500 BC), originated in New Caledonia and spread throughout New Guinea and Western Polynesia (Solomon Islands, Vanuatu, Fiji, Tonga and Samoa, mainly). It is characterized by its ceramics decorated with toothed motifs made with combs or spikes, as well as objects made of obsidian and shells. Between 500 BC C. and 500 AD. C. colonization continued towards Micronesia, Melanesia and eastern Polynesia (Society Islands, Marquesas, Easter Island, Hawaii), although in these early phases no numerous vestiges have been found, except for some utensils and beads, mainly made of shells. In Australia, the cave paintings stand out, which are quite schematic, reaching geometric simplification.[29]​.

Other manifestations

• - Hittite art: the Hittite people lived in the Anatolian peninsula, Armenia and Syria, between the 3rd and the millennium BC. C. It received Mesopotamian influence and, in turn, influenced Persian, Minoan and Etruscan art. Its architecture was monumental, with palaces preceded by avenues with sculptures of sphinxes, as in Boğazköy, where various reliefs with scenes of war and hunting also appeared. The sculptures of Karkemish and Tell-Halaf (Syria) also stood out.

• - Phoenician art: a people with a seafaring tradition, dedicated mainly to trade, they sailed throughout the Mediterranean and North Africa, founding the city of Carthage in present-day Tunisia. They transmitted the influence of oriental art throughout the Mediterranean. His sculptures stand out, of Assyrian and Egyptian influence, with a certain archaic rigidity and lack of naturalness. Phoenician art also occurred in different areas of the Mediterranean, especially Cyprus, Sardinia and Ibiza "Ibiza (island)").

• - Scythian art: also called "art of the steppes", it corresponds to the nomadic peoples who inhabited the Eurasian plains, mainly between the 2nd and the millennium BC. C. Their art was predominantly mobile, easy to transport, being a nomadic people. Linked to metallurgy, objects in bronze, iron and precious metals stand out (weapons, shields, fibulas, belts, jewelry), as well as works in wood, bone, leather, fabrics and carpets. Animalistic motifs stand out in his works, possibly of totemic origin. Scythian art influenced that of the Germanic, Viking and Early Christian peoples.

• - Iberian art: it developed in the Iberian Peninsula at the same time as the La Tène culture, mainly in Andalusia and the eastern area and, to a lesser extent, in the Central Plateau and the south of France. The architecture was based on rammed earth walls, with a lintel system, creating arches and false vaults by approximating courses. Cities were usually built on acropolis, as in Azaila, Ullastret and Olérdola. Sculpture developed notably, highlighting the typology of the "ladies", such as those of Elche, Baza and Cerro de los Santos. The representation of animals (horses, bulls, lions) was also typical, some of an anthropoid nature, such as the Bicha de Balazote.

• - Persian art: an important culture developed in Persia under the reign of two important dynasties: the Achaemenid (560-331 BC) and the Sassanid (226-640 AD). Persian architecture brought together Mesopotamian forms with Egyptian ones, using stone for the first time in large palaces such as those of Susa, Persepolis and Pasargadae, where the use of windows arose for the first time - unlike the overhead lighting used until then - and where the large rooms or apadanas stand out, with tall columns and volute capitals. In the Sassanid era, palaces arose (Ctesiphon, Firuzabad) with vaulted systems with domes on squinches, and a portico or iwan with a large arch open to a patio, which would influence Islamic art. In Persian sculpture, the reliefs stand out, in stone or enameled ceramic, with scenes of warriors, fights with monsters or animals such as bulls and lions.[30]​.

Se denomina arte clásico[nota 2]​ al arte desarrollado en las antiguas Grecia y Roma, cuyos adelantos tanto científicos como materiales y de orden estético aportaron a la historia del arte un estilo basado en la naturaleza y en el ser humano, donde preponderaba la armonía y el equilibrio, la racionalidad de las formas y los volúmenes, y un sentido de imitación («mímesis») de la naturaleza que sentaron las bases del arte occidental, de tal forma que la recurrencia a las formas clásicas ha sido constante a lo largo de la historia en la civilización occidental.

Greece

The main artistic manifestations that have marked the evolution of Western art were developed in Greece. After beginnings where the Minoan and Mycenaean cultures stood out, Greek art developed in three periods: archaic, classical and Hellenistic. Characterized by naturalism and the use of reason in measurements and proportions, and with an aesthetic sense inspired by nature, Greek art was the starting point of art developed on the European continent.

In architecture, the temples stood out, where three construction orders followed one another: Doric, Ionic and Corinthian. They were stone constructions, on a plinth (krepis), with or without a portico (or with a portico in front and behind, that is, amphiprostyle), with or without columns (which can be frontal, lateral, or can surround the entire building, in which case it is called peripteral), and generally crowned in the form of a pediment "Fronton (architecture)"), located above the entablature, whose frieze usually shows reliefs. sculptural The Acropolis complex stands out especially, with the Doric temple of the Parthenon and the Ionic temples of the Erechtheion and the Nike Áptera. Other relevant works were the Theater of Epidaurus and the Lantern of Lysicrates, and urban planning was developed by Hippodamus of Miletus.

In sculpture, the representation of the human body predominated, based on the harmony of proportions. In archaic times, rigid and schematic forms, of great expressiveness, were given, standing out for a type of smile close to the grimace, called "eginetic smile" for having its greatest representation in the figures of the Temple of Aphaia in Aegina. Statues of naked athletes (kouros) and dressed girls (kore) are also typical of this era. In the century BC. C. (the so-called "century of Pericles"), classicism was established, bringing the canon to perfection in the proportions of the human body, with greater naturalism and a soul study in the expression of the figure represented. The work of Myron, Phidias and Polykleitos especially stood out. In a second classicist phase, the naturalistic serenity was broken in order to emphasize the expression, which is more tragic and distressing, as we perceive in the work of Scopas, Praxiteles and Lysippus. Finally, in the Hellenistic period, proportion and harmony give way to overloading and sinuosity, to the violent dynamism of form and the pathetic expression of feeling, as in the Laocoon and the Farnese Bull, although classical forms persist in works such as the Venus de Milo and the Victory of Samothrace.

Painting developed mainly in ceramics, in everyday scenes or with historical or mythological themes. Two periods are usually established, depending on the technique used in making painted ceramics: "black figures on a red background" (until the century BC) and "red figures on a black background" (from the century BC). Although numerous samples have not reached the present day, there is evidence from historical sources of the names of several famous Greek painters, such as Zeuxis, Apelles, Parrhasius, Eufranor, Polygnotus, etc.[32]​.

Greek literature reached levels of great quality, laying the foundations for Western literature. The literary genres were configured (epic, lyrical and dramatic), with religion and mythology being the plot basis of their works. From the beginnings of oral tradition (the epic), written literature emerged with the development of the Greek alphabet around the century BC. C.. Greek myths were a fusion of Indo-Germanic and Mediterranean elements, with a particular aesthetic sense that would give rise to poetry. Originally, the Greek mythos was an explained story, of oral tradition, considered reliable - unlike today, where "myth" is synonymous with legend, fiction; With the epic and poetry, the myth passed into literature, mainly with the figure of Homer and his two great works: the Iliad and the Odyssey. Poetry stood out for its choral lyrics that expressed collective feelings, as seen in the work of Hesiod, Pindar, Sappho and Anacreon. Prose was also developed, especially in the historical genre, highlighting Herodotus, Thucydides and Xenophon; oratory, represented by Demosthenes, Plato and Aristotle; and the fable, practiced by Aesop.[33]​.

In Greece, theater was born, understood as "dramatic art", where along with a text - where dialogue predominates, the basis of the scenic representation -, actors, scenery, lights and sound effects, costumes, makeup, etc. also intervene, while the presence of an audience watching the show is essential. Greek theater evolved from ancient religious rituals (komos); The ritual became a myth and, through "mimesis", the word was added, resulting in tragedy. At the same time, the public went from participating in the ritual to being an observer of the tragedy, which had an educational component, transmission of values, as well as purgation of feelings ("catharsis"). Later, comedy emerged, with a first component of satire and political and social criticism, later leading to traditional themes and archetypal characters. Then mimicry and farce also appeared. The main Greek playwrights were: Aeschylus, Sophocles and Euripides in tragedy, while in comedy Aristophanes and Menander stood out.[34]​.

Greek music is unknown to us on an auditory level, we only have an idea of ​​what it could be like through written documents. The Greeks wrote music with the letters of the alphabet, but it is not known how long each note was, so the rhythm is unknown. One of the first modalities was the dithyramb, related to the cult of Dionysus. The theater and epic narratives were sung, although since the musical annotations were lost they have remained as written documents. In Greece it was the first time in history that music was studied scientifically: Pythagoras related it to mathematics, and theoretical treatises on music were written, the first being that of Aristoxenus in the century BC. C. The main instruments used in Greece were: the lyre "Lyre (musical instrument)"), the kithara, the aulós "Aulos (instrument)"), the syringa "Siringa (musical instrument)"), various types of drums - such as the tympanon -, the rattlesnake, the cymbal, the sistrum, etc.[35] Greece was the first place where dance was considered an art, having a muse dedicated to her: Terpsichore. The first vestiges come again from the cults of Dionysus, while it was in the tragedies - mainly those of Aeschylus - where it was developed as a technique, in the rhythmic movements of the chorus.[36]​.

Rome

With a clear precedent in Etruscan art, Roman art was greatly influenced by Greek art. Thanks to the expansion of the Roman Empire, classical Greco-Roman art reached almost every corner of Europe, North Africa and the Middle East, laying the evolutionary foundation for future art developed in these areas.

Architecture stood out for its practical and utilitarian character: great engineers and builders, the Romans stood out in civil architecture, with the construction of roads, bridges, aqueducts and urban works, as well as temples, palaces, theaters, amphitheaters, circuses, thermal baths, triumphal arches, etc. To the Greek architraved system they added the use of the arch "Arch (architecture)") and the vault, with the use of ashlar, brick and masonry. They used the Greek orders, to which they added the Tuscan order, with a smooth shaft and capital with collar and equine "Equina (architecture)") topped with a square abacus "Abaco (architecture)"). Among his main works we can remember the Colosseum, the Pantheon of Agrippa, the Theater of Mérida, the Maison Carrée of Nîmes, the Baths of Caracalla, the Aqueduct of Segovia, the Arch of Constantine, the Tower of Hercules, etc.

The sculpture, inspired by the Greek, also focused on the human figure, although with more realism, they did not mind showing defects that were ignored by the idealized Greek sculpture. A very widespread genre was the portrait, with great detail and fidelity in the features, noticeable in the use of the trephine to produce chiaroscuro and in the fact of engraving the pupils. More idealized are the portraits of the emperors, made in three versions: togata, as a patrician; thoracata, as a soldier; and apotheosis, as divinity. The relief "Relief (art)") especially stood out, in historical or religious themes, as we see in the Ara Pacis of Augustus, in the Arch of Titus and in the Trajan Column.

The painting is known above all from the remains found in Pompeii, where four styles can be seen: inlay, which imitates marble covering; the architectural, so called because it simulates architectures; the ornamental, with fantastic architectures, garlands and putti; and the fantastic, a mixture of the previous two, with imaginary landscapes, various architectural forms and mythological scenes. The mosaic also stood out, in opus sectile, of geometric shapes, or opus tesellatum, with small pieces that form figurative scenes, such as The Sacrifice of Iphigenia in Ampurias or The Battle of Isos in Naples.[37]​.

Roman literature received, as in the rest of the arts, Greek influence, from which they adopted techniques and genres; The main Latin innovation was the concept of "style" that the Romans applied to their works. Although their production was not of great quality—in the aesthetic-literary aspect—the work of Latin authors has exerted a great influence on Western literature, due to its influence on Christian and medieval literature, and because Latin was the origin of the vernacular languages ​​subsequently spoken in many places in Europe. They cultivated the same genres as the Greeks, highlighting Lucretius, Virgil, Horace and Ovid in poetry; in prose, Petronius and Apuleius; in oratory, Cicero and Seneca; in historiography, Sallust, Tacitus and Titus Livy.[38]​.

La caída del Imperio romano de Occidente marcó el inicio en Europa de la Edad Media, etapa de cierta decadencia política y social, pues la fragmentación del imperio en pequeños estados y la dominación social de la nueva aristocracia militar supuso la feudalización de todos los territorios anteriormente administrados por la burocracia imperial. El arte clásico será reinterpretado por las nuevas culturas dominantes, de origen germánico, mientras que la nueva religión, el cristianismo, impregnará la mayor parte de la producción artística medieval.

Early Christian art

Paleo-Christian art is called art made by the first followers of this new religion, first in a hidden way, while they were still persecuted by the imperial power, and later, after the conversion to Christianity of the Roman Emperor Constantine, it became the official style of the Empire. Classical forms were reinterpreted to serve as a vehicle for the expression of the new official religion, and an atomization of styles occurred by geographical areas.

In architecture, the first manifestations occurred in the area of ​​cemeteries or "catacombs", which simultaneously served as meeting places for persecuted Christian devotees. With the legalization of his religion, the basilica stood out as a typology, an adaptation of the Roman building of the same name that, however, went from a civil function to a religious one. It generally consisted of three parts: an entrance atrium, the body of the basilica, divided into three naves "Nave (architecture)"), and the presbytery "Presbytery (architecture)"), where the altar is located. The basilicas of Saint Peter in the Vatican, Saint John Lateran, Saint Lawrence and Saint Clement in Rome, and Saint Apollinaris in Ravenna stand out.

The figurative arts begin the path of medieval art, eminently religious, giving preponderance to the symbolism of the scenes represented over the realism of the narrative or its aesthetic character. In sculpture, the sarcophagi stood out, which evolved from simple ornamental decoration with concave moldings (strygiles) to the narration of scenes in frieze. Painting occurred above all in the catacombs, with religious and allegorical scenes, and miniature, manuscript illumination, emerged, with two main schools: the Hellenistic-Alexandrian and the Syrian. The mosaic gained special relevance, which had a great development, influencing Byzantine art; The best examples are found in Santa Maria Maggiore in Rome "Basilica of Santa María Maggiore (Rome)") and San Apollinaris and San Vitale in Ravenna.[40]​.

Christian literature was developed in Latin and Greek, generally for didactic and propagandistic purposes of the new faith. They were practical works, without stylistic intent, with a moralizing purpose. At first, the development of the New Testament stood out, written in Greek, with three main parts: the four gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke, John), the epistolary corpus (letters of Saint Paul and other apostles) and the Apocalypse of Saint John. A series of apologetic writings from the so-called Fathers of the Church then emerged: Athenagoras, Origen, Clement of Alexandria, Eusebius of Caesarea, etc. When Christianity became the official religion of the Empire, a more literary, more elaborate and rhetorical trend emerged, highlighting Saint Basil the Great, Saint John Chrysostom and Saint Gregory of Nazianzus. Among the Latin exegetes, Tertullian, Lactantius, Prudentius, Saint Jerome (translator of the Bible into Latin, the so-called Vulgate) and, especially, Saint Augustine, stood out.[41]

Early Christian music was inherited from the Roman music, as well as from the Jewish liturgy. The mass was sung, choral type. In the 2nd century, Saint Ambrose introduced Ambrosian chant, a vocal undulation without rhythm or jumps between notes. Later, Pope Gregory I the Great created Gregorian chant (century), with a continuous melodic line, in the form of a missal (missalis romanum). There are three styles of Gregorian chant, which are classified depending on the number of different tones sung per syllable: when there is one tone per syllable it is called "syllabic" style; 2 to 5 tones per syllable is called "tire"; and 6 or more tones per syllable is called "melismatic".[42]​.

Germanic art

The invasion of the Roman Empire by the Germanic peoples led to the fragmentation of the territory into various kingdoms, where the invading peoples became the ruling class, although Roman culture survived among the humble classes. This cultural coexistence generated the appearance of vernacular languages ​​and the creation of new political and cultural entities, which will be strengthened throughout the Middle Ages until forming the various nationalities that exist today in the Western world.

The first architectural manifestations of these towns were of little relevance, due to the poverty of the materials used and the lack of a major construction program. Roman facilities and materials used to be used, making the use of the semicircular arch and the vault widespread. The Ostrogothic constructions in Italy stand out, such as the Mausoleum of Theodoric in Ravenna. In sculpture, relief stood out, like those of Poitiers in France or Cividale in Italy. Painting developed in miniature, as we see in the sacramentaries of Luxeuil and Gelasiano (Vatican).

Among the Germanic peoples, it is worth highlighting the Visigoths, settled in the Iberian Peninsula, who developed their own style of great relevance. The architecture stood out for the use of ashlar masonry, the horseshoe arch and the vault, either barrel or groined. They developed three types of churches "Church (building)"): the basilica with three naves (San Juan de Baños "Church of San Juan (Baños de Cerrato)")), that with a nave with side chambers (San Pedro de la Mata) and that with a Greek cross (Santa Comba de Bande). In sculpture, it is worth highlighting the incorporation of figurative sculpture into churches, especially in friezes and capitals, as in Quintanilla de las Viñas "Ermita de Santa María (Quintanilla de las Viñas)") and San Pedro de la Nave "Church of San Pedro de la Nave (El Campillo)"). Goldsmithing also stood out, especially in crowns and crosses, such as those found in the treasures of Guarrazar and Torredonjimeno.[43]​.

Pre-Romanesque art

This is the name given to the multiple styles developed in Europe from the coronation of Charlemagne (year 800) until around the year 1000, where the appearance of the Romanesque will mean the dissemination of the same unitary style throughout the entire European continent. This meaning is simply a way of encompassing a series of independent styles with few or no common factors, with the only unifying factor being that they are predecessors of the internationalization of Romanesque.

• - Carolingian art: the coronation of Charlemagne meant in a certain way the restoration of the Roman Empire, which led to a cultural rebirth and a first return to classical culture as a source of inspiration, although nuanced by the Christian religion. Carolingian architecture was based on the use of pillars instead of columns, with semicircular arches and wooden roofs or barrel vaults. Examples of this are the Palatine Chapel in Aachen and Benedictine monasteries such as Sankt Gallen, Fulda and Corvey. Sculpture was mostly produced in ivory and bronze, like the Equestrian Statue of Charlemagne (Louvre). Painting was limited to miniature, with several schools such as the Palatine, Tours, Reims and Saint-Denis.

• - Ottonian art: it is so called because it coincides with the reigns of Otto I, Otto II and Otto III. Architecturally they are heirs of Carolingian art: the Aachen model can be seen in the choir of the Abbey of Essen and in Ottmarsheim, while the Benedictine basilica model is present in Saint Cyriacus of Genrode, Saint Michael of Hildesheim and the cathedral of Speyer. In the plastic arts, the Byzantine influence is perceived, due to the marriage of Otto II with Theophan of Constantinople: in sculpture, the bronze works stand out, such as the doors of San Miguel de Hildesheim; in painting, it is worth mentioning the frescoes of Saint George of Oberzell").

• - Celtic art: in the British Isles, recently evangelized, Celtic art had a time of splendor. In architecture, few remains are preserved, since it was generally built in wood: the churches of Deerhurst and Bradford-on-Avon are worth highlighting. In sculpture, the large Irish crosses stand out, decorated in relief, such as those of Moone"), Kells and Monasterboice. The miniature had Carolingian influence, highlighting the Winchester school, to which the Pontifical of Saint Aethelwold (British Museum) belonged.

• - Viking art: the architecture was made of wood, highlighting the pyramid-shaped churches, with pointed roofs and highly vertical projections, in the style of Viking meeting rooms, such as the Norwegian church of Borgund. The goldsmith work also stands out, especially the fibulas with long needles and the swords with terminal button and rings on the hilt.

• - Asturian art: with the Islamic invasion of the Iberian Peninsula, Christians were reduced to the region of Asturias, which saw art flourish notably, especially in architecture, where three stages are distinguished, depending on the reign of Ramiro I: pre-Ramirense, Ramirense and post-Ramirense. It is characterized by the use of ashlar walls, semicircular arches—sometimes banked#Types_of_arches_according_to_the_form_of_intradós "Arch (architecture)")—, barrel vaults with transverse arches and exterior buttresses. The main typology is the basilica with three naves, with a wide transept "Cruise (architecture)") and three rectangular chapels at the head. In the first period, the church of San Julián de los Prados stands out; in Ramirense, Santa María del Naranco, San Miguel de Lillo and Santa Cristina de Lena; and in the post-Ramiran area, San Salvador de Valdediós.

Byzantine art

Despite the fall of the Western Roman Empire, it endured in the East—known as the Byzantine Empire—[note 3] until the conquest of Constantinople in 1453 by the Ottoman Turks. Heir to Hellenistic art, Byzantine art gathered the main eastern artistic traditions, of which it was the gateway to Europe, where Byzantine art influenced pre-Romanesque and Romanesque art. Three "golden ages" are distinguished in Byzantine art: a first in the 2nd century, coinciding with the reign of Justinian; a second from the century until the taking of Constantinople by the crusaders in 1204; and a third in the century, with the Paleologos dynasty.

Stone and brick were used in architecture, with exterior coverings of stone plates with reliefs and mosaic interiors. The use of the column abounded, with cubic capitals "Cube (geometry)") decorated with reliefs on two planes, or in the shape of a wasp nest. The semicircular arch and the vault with a dome on pendentives were used. The most used typology was that of a centralized plan - perhaps due to the importance given to the dome -, with an entrance atrium, narthex, presbytery "Presbytery (architecture)") and choir at the back, with two lateral chambers or sacristies and the altar under a baldachin. Las primeras manifestaciones, de época de Justiniano, son las más monumentales: iglesia de los Santos Sergio y Baco, de Santa Irene y de Santa Sofía[nota 4]​ en Constantinopla; In the second golden age, the Cathedral of Saint Sofia in kyiv and Saint Mark in Venice stand out; and in the third it is worth mentioning the complexes of Mistra, Thessaloniki and Mount Athos.

In the time of Justinian, the figurative arts had an early Christian influence, while at the same time they included various previous traditions, especially the Hellenistic and the Neoatic Syrian, highlighting the musivary complexes of San Demetrius of Thessaloniki "Church of San Demetrius (Thessaloniki)") and San Vital de Ravenna. In the second golden age, Byzantine aesthetics and iconography were established, especially around the "Icon (religion)" icons, with a strong symbolic load of the images, with stylized figures and hierarchical perspectives (the size of the figure depends on its religious importance). The sculpture was usually in relief, on stone or ivory, highlighting images of "imperial consecration" (Christ with his hands on the heads of the emperors). In the Third Golden Age, painting replaced mosaic, especially panel painting icons, highlighting the schools of Cyprus, Thessaloniki, Crete, Venice and Moscow (where Andrei Rubliov excelled).[47]

Islamic art

With the Hegira of Muhammad in 622, a new religion arose, Islam, which spread rapidly from the Near East through North Africa, reaching Europe with the conquest of the Iberian Peninsula and the Balkan area after the fall of the Byzantine Empire. Over time, the new religion brought together a great diversity of peoples and cultures, its art being the reflection of this disparity, having numerous manifestations and stylistic variants depending on the region where it was produced. Most of the manifestations of Islamic art are works of architecture—which include magnificent sculptural or other ornamentation. As for painting and sculpture, the religious prohibition on representing figurative images meant that it was developed mainly as ornamentation, in abstract or geometric motifs; The few examples of figurative works usually occurred in private settings such as palaces.

The architecture stood out for the use of the pointed arch - which in al-Andalus was a horseshoe arch due to the inheritance of Visigothic art -, sometimes used in overlapping and intersecting, later emerging the lobed arch#Lobed_arc "Arch (architecture)"), generally with three or five lobes. Various types of vault were used, such as the gallon vault and the ribbed vault. Great importance was given to ornamental decoration, generally made of plasterwork, alabaster, marble, mosaic or painting, which was abstract in nature, with epigraphic, vegetal or lacework motifs. The main typology is the mosque, usually composed of a large patio (sahn), the tower or minaret and the prayer room (haram), in the background (quibla) there is a niche called mihrab, sometimes preceded by a space with arches (macsura). The mosques of Damascus, the Rock and al-Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem, the Samarra mosque, the Ibn Tulun mosque in Egypt, the Isfahan mosque, the Tamerlane mosque in Samarkand, the Blue Mosque in Istanbul, etc. stand out.

In al-Andalus, Islamic art had its moment of splendor in the emirate of Córdoba: Córdoba architecture was heir to Hispano-Roman and Visigothic forms, as demonstrated by the use of the horseshoe arch, which is framed in an alfiz and to which is added a characteristic alternation of its voussoirs in red and white. Its main monument is the Mosque of Córdoba, composed of eleven naves perpendicular to the qibla, with a series of superimposed arches, semicircular at the top and horseshoe at the bottom, with the traditional white-red alternation. Also worth highlighting are the Bab al-Mardum Mosque in Toledo and the Medina Azahara Palace. Other important manifestations of Islamic art in the peninsula were those produced in Seville during the Almohad domination, highlighting the Giralda and the Torre del Oro; and Nasrid art in Granada, which has its main expression in the Alhambra.[48]​.

Arab literature began with a work of great significance, the , the sacred book of Islam written by Muhammad and established in its definitive text by the Caliph Uthman Ibn Affan in 650. It consists of 114 chapters (), in rhymed verses, with two main groups of preachings: those written by Muhammad in Mecca, brief and poetic in tone, of a more fervent religiosity; and those written in Medina, longer and more discursive, exposing the main precepts of the new religion. The was the grammatical and stylistic basis of Arabic literature, which developed especially in poetry (Abu Nuwas, al-Mutanabbi, Ibn Quzman); and prose, whether philosophical (al-Kindi, Avicenna, Avempace, Ibn Tufail, Averroes), historical (Ibn Khaldun), narrative (Ibn al-Muqaffa, al-Jahiz), or fantastic (al-Hamadani"), al-Hariri"). It is worth highlighting the collection of stories titled , an anonymous work written over the centuries and in various styles, and which is an impressive exercise in ingenuity and fantasy.[49]​.

Romanesque art

Romanesque art represents the first international style of Western European culture, with an identity fully consolidated after the passage from Latin to vernacular languages. Eminently religious in nature, almost all Romanesque art was aimed at the exaltation and dissemination of Christianity. Emerging in the middle of the century, it developed fundamentally during the century, at the end of which it began to coexist with the incipient Gothic. The various styles produced by the pre-Romanesque culminated in the Romanesque, while the eastern influence of Byzantine art is denoted.

The architecture stood out for the use of ashlar walls, semicircular arches and barrel vaults, supported on pillars by transverse arches, corresponding to the exterior buttresses; Domes are also frequent, on squinches "Trompa (architecture)") or pendentives. The churches have one or three naves, with a transept "Crucero (architecture)") and sometimes an ambulatory. The construction of large cathedrals began, which will continue during the Gothic period. As the main examples we have: the Monastery of Cluny, San Lázaro de Autun, Santa Fe de Conques, San Saturnino de Toulouse, San Front de Périgueux and San Esteban de Caen "Church of San Esteban (Caen)") in France; the cathedrals of Durham, York and Canterbury in England; Saint Ambrose of Milan "Basilica of Saint Ambrose (Milan)"), Saint Abundius of Como, Saint Zeno of Verona and the cathedrals of Parma, Modena, Pisa and Lucca in Italy; the cathedrals of Speyer, Mainz and Worms in Germany; the cathedrals of Braga and Coimbra in Portugal; and San Pedro de Roda, San Isidoro de León, San Martín de Frómista, San Juan de Duero (Soria), Santo Domingo de Silos and the cathedrals of Jaca, Solsona and Santiago de Compostela in Spain.[51]​.

The sculpture was developed mainly in the architectural framework, of a religious nature, with schematized figures, without realism, of symbolic sign, with a marked didactic character, due to the illiteracy of the time. The main sculptural cycles occur in the tympanum "Tympanum (architecture)") of the access portals to churches and cathedrals, such as in Saint Madeleine of Vézelay, Saint Lazarus of Autun, Saint Faith of Conques and the Royal Portico of Chartres. In Italy, the figure of Benedetto Antelami stood out, who worked on the Cathedral of Parma, as in his magnificent Descent (1178). In Spain, the Catalan workshops of Ripoll and the Pyrenean area stood out first, the ivory workshops of León "León (Spain)") (Crucifix of Ferdinand I), the workshops of the Camino de Santiago, the Platerías Facade of the Cathedral of Santiago and the cloister of Silos; In the century, various regional schools were produced: the Catalan (portal of the monastery of Santa María de Ripoll), the Aragonese (monastery of San Pedro el Viejo "Monasterio de San Pedro el Viejo (Huesca)") in Huesca), the Navarrese (portal of Sangüesa) and the Castilian (monastery of Santa María la Real de Nájera).[52]​.

gothic art

Gothic art[note 7]​ developed between the 19th and 2nd centuries, a time of great economic and cultural development. The end of the feudal era meant the consolidation of centralized states, with greater predominance of cities over the countryside, while an increasing sector of society had access to culture, which was no longer the exclusive heritage of the Church. The rise of universities led to an increase in scientific, philosophical and literary studies, laying the foundations of modern culture.

Architecture underwent a profound transformation, with lighter, more dynamic forms, with a better structural analysis that allowed for more stylized buildings, with more openings and, therefore, better lighting. New typologies appeared, such as the pointed arch and the ribbed vault, and the use of buttresses and flying buttresses to support the structure of the building, allowing for larger interiors decorated with stained glass and rose windows. It is the time of the great cathedrals, among which it is worth highlighting: Laon, Chartres, Amiens, Reims, Bourges and Notre-Dame de Paris, in France; Canterbury, Salisbury and Gloucester, in England; Siena, Orvieto, Florence, Bologna and Milan, in Italy; Cologne, Strasbourg, Ulm and Magdeburg in Germany; Saint Stephen of Vienna in Austria; Barcelona, ​​Gerona, Palma de Mallorca, Seville, Toledo, Burgos, León, Zamora and Sigüenza, in Spain; and the monasteries of Batalha and Alcobaza in Portugal. In Spain, it is also worth highlighting the development of Mudejar art, strongly influenced by Islamic forms, and which is characterized by the use of brick, plaster and small square wood: Cristo de la Vega "Iglesia de Santa Leocadia (Toledo)") (Toledo), San Lorenzo de Sahagún#Iglesia_de_San_Lorenzo "Sahagún (Spain)"), Las Huelgas (Burgos), Santa Clara de Tordesillas, Convent of Guadalupe (Cáceres), Alcázar of Seville, etc.

Sculpture continued to be framed within the architectural work, although free-standing sculpture began to develop, with more realistic forms, inspired by nature. The artists sought ideal beauty, in simple and diaphanous forms, with a certain melancholy and nobility in the feelings, and with scenes of a narrative nature. In France, the Royal Portico and the transept portals of Chartres Cathedral stand out, as well as the Amiens and Reims complexes. In Italy, the workshop of Nicola and Giovanni Pisano in Pisa stands out, while in Germany the work of Veit Stoss and Tilman Riemenschneider stands out. In Spain, the Pórtico de la Gloria of the Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela stands out, the portals of the Collegiate Church of Toro and the cathedrals of Tuy and Ciudad Rodrigo, the complexes of Burgos, León and Toledo, as well as the work of Pere Johan and Gil de Siloé.

The painting stopped being murals and moved to altarpieces located on the altars of the churches, and painting on canvas, tempera or oil began to develop. Four pictorial styles followed one another:

• - Linear Gothic or Franco-Gothic: it developed from the 19th century until the beginning of the 19th century, characterized by linear drawing, strong chromaticism, a naturalism of simple lines and the idealism of the themes represented. This style was developed especially in stained glass and miniatures.

Pre-Columbian art flourished with great brilliance until the discovery of America. The invaders destroyed numerous works of pre-Columbian art (masks, illustrated codices, pieces of feathers and, especially, works of gold and silver, which were melted down). Even so, the pre-Columbian imprint endured in numerous later artistic productions.

Several cultures developed in Mexico: the first was that of Teotihuacán, a city built between the 2nd and 2nd centuries, with a reticular system - with an astrologically based layout -, where a large avenue stood out flanked by temples in the shape of a stepped pyramid "Pyramid (architecture)"), decorated with relief sculptures "Relief (art)") and fresco paintings. The Mayans occupied the Yucatan peninsula and present-day Belize and Guatemala (- centuries), developing an art of religious significance, where the temples, conceived under astronomical measurements, in a pyramidal shape (Tikal, Uxmal, Temple of Kukulcán in Chichén Itzá) also stood out. The sculpture was in relief, usually of mythological animals, snakes, birds and human figures, often with hieroglyphs. The Toltecs (- centuries), in the state of Hidalgo, built the Temple of the God of the Morning Star in Tula, and have left us one of the best examples of pre-Columbian sculpture: the Chac Mool. On the Mexican plateau, the Aztec culture developed (- centuries), which collected various previous traditions into a synthetic art dedicated to the expression of power. In their capital, Tenochtitlán, they built a great city with large palaces and gardens, and pyramid-shaped temples, dedicated to human sacrifice.

Inca art flourished in the Andes, emerging just like Aztec art in the 2nd century, covering present-day Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia, Chile and part of Argentina. The Incas had a highly developed culture, with advanced metallurgical, ceramic and textile procedures. Like the Romans, they developed notable architecture and civil engineering, with planned cities and well-laid roads, such as the Camino Real de las Montañas, 6,000 kilometers long, walled and 9 meters wide. Its capital, Cuzco, was fortified with walls of polygonal ashlars, a technique also used in Machu Picchu. Their buildings were rectangular or circular, with trapezoidal doors and windows. In addition to its architecture, its ceramics and textile art stood out, generally decorated with geometric motifs. In Bolivia, the city of Tiahuanaco stood out.[63]​.

Pre-Columbian literature was predominantly oral, so few vestiges have reached us. In Mexico, several expressions are preserved in the Nahuatl language: writings of religious, cosmological and divinatory sign (Borgia Codex); administrative documents and historical accounts (Xólotl Codex); and poetic compositions, such as the ritual hymns collected by Bernardino de Sahagún in Songs of the Gods. In the Mayan language, the books of Chilam Balam stand out, a transcription of hieroglyphic works on oral traditions, and the Popol Vuh, sacred book of the Quiché Indians "Quiché (ethnicity)"). In Peru, Inca literature is represented by a series of works of religious poetry, as well as long narrative poems with historical or mythological themes. Apparently, it was the only pre-Columbian culture where something similar to theater was developed, as can be seen in the Quechua language drama .[64]​.

North Africa had more relationship with European and Asian art, and Christianity was introduced in the 19th century, especially in Ethiopia. Subsequently, Islamism spread strongly throughout the Maghreb countries. Sub-Saharan Africa, on the other hand, was more isolated, with small kingdoms mired in frequent disputes. His first artistic manifestations, in perishable materials, have not reached us. The first vestiges are wood carvings, like those of the Tellem and Dogon peoples, in present-day Mali. Bronze objects appear in western and southern Africa around the 1st century, such as some vessels of the Igbo-Ukwu people in Nigeria. The Monomotapa culture flourished in Zimbabwe (- centuries), whose capital, Great Zimbabwe, was one of the largest cities in all of Africa. In Ife (also in Nigeria), of Yoruba culture, a notable school of terracotta figures, of great naturalism, emerged over the centuries. The churches carved into the rock of Lalibela, in Ethiopia, date from this period, where the painting of Christian themes also stands out. Between the centuries and a more schematic style of terracotta figures, male figures with a characteristic pointed beard, occurred in Djenné (Mali). Finally, between the and centuries, another notable school of sculpture occurred in Benin, highlighting its magnificent collection of bronzes.[65]​.

• - Gupta art (centuries -): Buddhism expanded in the Gupta Empire, with an art characterized by formal purism, harmony of proportions and the idealization of the human figure. The great rock sanctuaries or vihara (Ajantā, Ellorā, Elephanta) and the open-air temples (Bhitargaon, Bodhagaya, Deogarth, Sirpur) stand out. Gupta art spread throughout almost the entire Deccan: the Chālukya" used it in the temples of Ahiōlē and Bādāmi (550-750), and the Pallavas demonstrated it in their architectural-sculptural complex of Mahābalipuram. These styles are often called "post-Gupta".

• - Hindu art (centuries -): during this period the previous styles survive, accentuating Brahmanical forms. The most widespread type of sanctuary is the śikhara, like the one in Udaipur. The architecture is divided into two typologies: "the covered building and the pyramid" (Tanjore vimāna, century), and "the building with a curvilinear roof" (Gujarāt temple). Between the centuries - the art of Khajurāhō was produced, the highest expression of Indo-Aryan art due to the formal and aesthetic elegance of its temples, as well as the sculpture that adorns them. In Orissā, in the northeastern part of India, new typologies developed that turned the śikhara and vimāna into architectural representations of the Hindu gods, as in Bhubaneshwar and Kōnārka.[66]​.

Indian literature of this time was carried out in various modalities: the drama continued with the mythological epics, with a strong seal of imagination, highlighting Bhavabhūti, author of Malatimadhava, a story about the love of two young people that has been compared to Romeo and Juliet; The epic poem is the heir of the Rāmāyana, in a new genre called mahakavya, of historical and mythological themes, highlighting the Rajatarangini of Kalhana") (around 1150); lyric poetry is represented by the Sataka of Bhartrihari"), a set of poems about the Indian concept of life, and the Gītāgovinda of Jāyādeva, poems by allegorical type love; Finally, the fable was characterized by short stories with a popular air, of a didactic and instructive nature, highlighting the authors Narayana "Naraian Pandit (fabulist)") and Sivadasa"). It is also worth mentioning the famous Kama-sutra, compiled in the century by Vātsyāyana, which is a set of precepts and advice related to love and sex.[67]​.

Theater evolved without major signs of rupture since ancient times, in shows where, along with mythological dramas about the Hindu cosmogony, singing, dance and mime stood out. At this time two main modalities stood out: the mahanataka (great spectacle), about the great Indian epics; and dutangada, in which an actor recites the main text while others stage it with the help of mime and dance.[68]​.

The music at this time was predominantly vocal, with accompaniment of various instruments, mainly zithers and lutes. Several treatises on music were written: the of Matamga") (century), the of Nārada (century) and the of Śārngadeva") (century). They had seven notes (): sa, ri, ga, ma, pa, dha, ni; with 22 microtonal degrees (). The melody was composed of various tonal cycle structures (), which included various ornaments (). In turn, each is related to a or measure of time, to mark the rhythm, which can be slow (), medium () or fast (). Finally, the (pedal) is a sustained sound that supports the tonal center, acting as a guide during the execution of the work.[69]​.

In this period, Polynesian expansion continued towards the oceanic periphery (New Zealand, Kermadec Islands, Chatham Islands). Great cultural and artistic diversification occurred: in Melanesia alone, for example, there were more than 1,000 different ethnic groups. The majority of artistic manifestations were of a ritual nature, related to dances and ceremonies of an animistic or polytheistic type. Elaborate architectural complexes with stone sculptures and megaliths were produced in Micronesia. In Yap (Caroline Islands), a type of stone coin composed of large discs with a central hole appeared. In Guam and the Mariana Islands, houses on stone columns (latte) stand out. In Hawaii, large temples (heiau) were built, with wooden sculptures up to three meters high representing their gods. In the Marquesas Islands there were a type of megalithic house construction on stone platforms, with large anthropomorphic statues. In New Zealand, the Maori developed a type of wood carving with figures of political and religious leaders, as well as carved nephrite pendants (hei tiki). Finally, it is worth highlighting the construction on Easter Island of the famous monolithic heads (moai), of which about 600 were erected between the year 900 and 1600. They are 4 or 5 meter figures, which were placed on stone platforms that served as the base for the temples (ahu) of ancestor worship.[78]​.

El arte de la Edad Moderna —no confundir con arte moderno, que se suele emplear como sinónimo de arte contemporáneo—[nota 8]​ se desarrolló entre los siglos y . La Edad Moderna supuso cambios radicales a nivel político, económico, social y cultural: la consolidación de los estados centralizados supuso la instauración del absolutismo; los nuevos descubrimientos geográficos —especialmente el continente americano— abrieron una época de expansión territorial y comercial, suponiendo el inicio del colonialismo; la invención de la imprenta conllevó una mayor difusión de la cultura, que se abrió a todo tipo de público; la religión perdió la preponderancia que tenía en la época medieval, a lo que coadyuvó el surgimiento del protestantismo; a la vez, el humanismo surgió como nueva tendencia cultural, dejando paso a una concepción más científica del hombre y del universo.

El origen de la historia del arte como tal data del siglo , considerándose las Vidas de Giorgio Vasari el texto inaugural del estudio del arte con carácter historiográfico. El método que siguió el erudito florentino era la biografía del artista. Esta metodología fue la que se impuso hasta el siglo , cuando el historiador alemán Johann Joachim Winckelmann inició un nuevo tipo de análisis del arte buscando en el desarrollo de las civilizaciones una evolución estilística.[nota 9]​.

Renaissance

Emerging in Italy in the century (Quattrocento), it spread throughout the rest of Europe from the end of that century and the beginning of the . The artists were inspired by classical Greco-Roman art, which is why there was talk of artistic "renaissance" after medieval obscurantism. Style inspired by nature, new models of representation emerged, such as the use of perspective. Without giving up the religious theme, the representation of the human being and his environment became more relevant, with new themes appearing such as mythological or historical, or new genres such as landscape, still life and even the nude "Nude (artistic genre)"). Beauty stopped being symbolic, as in the medieval era, to have a more rational and measured component, based on harmony and proportion.

Architecture recovered the classic models, reworked with a more naturalistic concept "Naturalism (art)") and with scientific bases: the use of the semicircular arch, the barrel vault, the half-orange dome and the classical orders (Doric, Ionic, Corinthian and Composite) were recovered. The structure of the building was based on mathematical proportions, which sought the perfection of the forms, while enhancing the luminosity and openness of the spaces. In the Quattrocento, the architecture developed in Florence stood out: Filippo Brunelleschi (dome of Santa María del Fiore, Basilica of San Lorenzo), Leon Battista Alberti (Saint Andrew of Mantua "Basilica of Saint Andrew (Mantua)")); while in the Cinquecento the artistic center became Rome: Bramante (San Pietro in Montorio, St. Peter's Basilica in the Vatican), Antonio da Sangallo (Farnese Palace). At this time, gardening gained progressive popularity, which began to be conceived through a structured design; Thus arose the so-called "Italian garden", with a geometric composition, built on terraces with stairs (Jardín del Belvedere, Bramante; Villa Madama, Rafael). Outside of Italy, the Renaissance developed especially in France, with the work of Philibert Delorme; in Germany it did not arrive until the middle of the century, with the castle of Heidelberg and, especially at the end of the century, in Bavaria; In the Netherlands the Italian influence was especially noticeable in the decoration, on structures still of Gothic sign; In England the Tudor style was produced, developed especially in the construction of civil palaces, characterized by the use of the Tudor arch; In Russia, the Italian Renaissance—introduced by Aristotile Fioravanti—was adapted to the typically Russian Byzantine style, as in the magnificent Kremlin complex. In Spain, several styles were developed: Plateresque, characterized by the use of padded walls, balustraded columns and profuse decoration of grotesques (Alonso Covarrubias, Diego de Siloé); and purism "Purism (architecture)"), more concerned with the rational structure of the building, abandoning the exuberant decoration of the plateresque (Rodrigo Gil de Hontañón, Andrés de Vandelvira).

Sculpture also sought the idealized perfection of classicism, although the curvilinear elegance and slender proportions of international Gothic endured until the century. Noble materials were used, such as marble and bronze, with a special taste for monumental form. Along with the religious theme, portraiture was developed, in busts or equestrian figures, in the style of ancient Rome. Particularly notable were: Lorenzo Ghiberti, Jacopo della Quercia, Luca della Robbia, Andrea Verrocchio and, especially, Donatello (David, 1409; Judith and Holofernes "Judith and Holofernes (Donatello)"), 1455-1460); and, outside Italy, Michel Colombe in France, Peter Vischer in Germany, and Felipe Bigarny, Bartolomé Ordóñez and Damián Forment in Spain.

Painting underwent a notable evolution from medieval forms, with naturalistic forms and secular or mythological themes alongside religious ones. Perspective studies allowed for works of great realistic effect, based on mathematical proportions, with special use of the "golden section" after the study published by Luca Pacioli (De Divina Proportione, 1509). Fresco and tempera were used, while oil painting was introduced in the middle of the century due to Flemish influence. One of its main exponents was Leonardo Da Vinci, a multifaceted genius who introduced sfumato or "aerial perspective", with works such as The Virgin of the Rocks (1483), The Last Supper "The Last Supper (Leonardo)") (1495-1497), The Mona Lisa (1503), etc. Another relevant name was Raphael, master of serene and balanced classicism, with perfect pictorial execution, as demonstrated in his frescoes in the Vatican Rooms. Other notable artists were: Masaccio, Fra Angelico, Paolo Ucello, Andrea del Castagno, Perugino, Piero della Francesca, Benozzo Gozzoli, Domenico Ghirlandaio, Botticelli, Andrea del Verrocchio, Luca Signorelli, Andrea Mantegna, Giovanni Bellini, Antonello da Messina, etc. In the rest of Europe: Matthias Grünewald, Albrecht Dürer, Hans Holbein the Younger and Lucas Cranach the Elder in Germany; Quentin Metsys and Pieter Brueghel in Holland; and Pedro Berruguete, Alejo Fernández, Vicente Masip, Juan de Juanes, Pedro Machuca and Luis de Morales in Spain.

The industrial arts had a great boom due to the taste for luxury of the new wealthy classes: cabinetmaking was developed, especially in Italy and Germany, highlighting the technique of intarsia, wooden inlays of various tones to produce linear effects or certain images. Tapestry stood out in Flanders, with works based on sketches developed by painters such as Bernard van Orley. The ceramics were made in Italy with glazed varnishes, achieving brilliant tones with great effect. Glass developed notably in Venice (Murano), sometimes decorated with gold threads or filaments of colored glass. Goldsmithing was cultivated by sculptors such as Lorenzo Ghiberti, with pieces of great virtuosity and high quality, especially highlighting the enamels and cameos. With the invention of the printing press, the graphic arts were developed, with most engraving techniques appearing or being perfected: intaglio (etching, aquatint, burin engraving, half-tone engraving or drypoint engraving), linocut, woodcut, etc.[79]​.

Renaissance literature developed around humanism, the new theory that highlighted the primary role of the human being over all other considerations, especially religious ones. At this time the world of letters received a great boost with the invention of the printing press by Gutenberg, a fact that led to access to literature by a larger audience. This led to greater concern for spelling and linguistics, with the first grammar systems emerging in vernacular languages ​​(such as the Spanish of Elio Antonio de Nebrija) and the first national language academies appearing. Among the literati of this era, the following stand out: Angelo Poliziano, Matteo Maria Boiardo, Ludovico Ariosto, Jacopo Sannazaro, Pietro Bembo, Baldassare Castiglione, Torquato Tasso, Tomás Moro, Erasmo de Rotterdam, François Rabelais, Pierre de Ronsard, Michel de Montaigne, Edmund Spenser, Luís de Camões, etc. In Spain, a golden age of letters began, which would last until the century: poetry, influenced by the Italian stil nuovo, included the figures of Garcilaso de la Vega, Fray Luis de León, San Juan de la Cruz and Santa Teresa de Jesús; In prose, the books of chivalry emerged (Amadís de Gaula, 1508) and the picaresque genre began with Lazarillo de Tormes (1554), while the work of Miguel de Cervantes, the great genius of Spanish letters, author of the immortal Don Quixote (1605), emerged.[80]​.

Renaissance theater also accused the transition from theocentrism to anthropocentrism, with more naturalistic works, with a historical aspect, trying to reflect things as they are. The recovery of reality was sought, of life in movement, of the human figure in space, in three dimensions, creating spaces of illusionistic effects, in trompe-l'œil. Theatrical regulation emerged based on three units (action, space and time), based on Aristotle's Poetics "Poetics (Aristotle)"), a theory introduced by Lodovico Castelvetro. Around 1520 the Commedia dell'arte emerged in northern Italy, with improvised texts, in dialect, predominating mime and introducing archetypal characters such as Harlequin, Columbine, Pulcinella (called in France Guignol), Pierrot, Pantalone "Pantaleón (comedy of art)"), Pagliaccio, etc. The main playwrights included Niccolò Machiavelli, Pietro Aretino, Bartolomé Torres Naharro, Lope de Rueda and Fernando de Rojas, with his great work La Celestina (1499). In England, Elizabethan theater stood out, with authors such as Christopher Marlowe, Ben Jonson, Thomas Kyd and, especially, William Shakespeare, a great universal genius of letters (Romeo and Juliet, 1597; Hamlet, 1603; Othello, 1603; Macbeth, 1606).[81]​.

Renaissance music marked the consecration of polyphony, as well as the strengthening of instrumental music, which would evolve towards the modern orchestra. The madrigal "Madrigal (music)") appeared as a secular genre that combined text and music, being the paradigmatic expression of Renaissance music. In 1498 Ottaviano Petrucci devised a printing system adapted to music, in staff, with which music began to be published. As Renaissance composers, Orlandus Lassus, Carlo Gesualdo, Giovanni Gabrieli, Tomás Luis de Victoria, Cristóbal de Morales, Claudio Monteverdi and Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina stood out. At the end of the century, opera was born, the initiative of a circle of scholars (the Camerata Fiorentina) who, upon discovering that ancient Greek theater was sung, had the idea of ​​setting dramatic texts to music. The first opera was Dafne (1594), by Jacopo Peri, which was followed by Euridice "Euridice (Peri)") (1600), by the same author; in 1602 Giulio Caccini wrote another Euridice; and, in 1607, Claudio Monteverdi composed La favola d'Orfeo "Orfeo (opera)"), where he added a musical introduction that he called symphony, and divided the sung structures into arias.[82]​.

Renaissance dance had a great revitalization, due again to the preponderant role of the human being over religion, in such a way that many authors consider this era the birth of modern dance. It was developed especially in France - where it was called ballet-comique -, in the form of danced stories, based on classical mythological texts, being promoted mainly by Queen Catherine de' Medici. The first ballet is usually considered to be Ballet comique de la Reine Louise (1581), by Balthazar de Beaujoyeulx. The main modalities of the time were the gallarda, the pavane and the tourdion. At this time the first treatises on dance emerged: Domenico da Piacenza wrote De arte saltandi et choreas ducendi, being considered the first choreographer in history; Thoinot Arbeau made a compilation of French popular dances (Orchesographie, 1588).[83]​.

Mannerism

Emerging also in Italy in the middle of the century as an evolution of Renaissance forms, Mannerism[note 10]​ abandoned nature as a source of inspiration to seek a more emotional and expressive tone, gaining importance in the artist's subjective interpretation of the work of art. The architecture acquired a more effective sign and tense balance, highlighting the multifaceted artist Michelangelo, author of the apse and dome of Saint Peter's in the Vatican; Jacopo Vignola (Church of the Gesù); and Andrea Palladio, creator of his own style (Palladianism), as we see in the Basilica of Vicenza, the Villa Capra (called the Rotunda), San Giorgio Maggiore in Venice, etc. In France, the notable Fontainebleau School emerged. In Spain, Herrerian architecture (by Juan de Herrera) was produced, a sober and simple style, with simple and naked forms of decoration, in accordance with the counter-reformation doctrine that prevailed at that time; It had its greatest achievement in the Monastery of El Escorial.

The sculpture is once again a reflection of the pessimism that dominated Italian society in the second half of the century, with an art where reality is deformed at whim, predominating the sentimental expression of the artist, with stylized figures, in violent positions and dramatic attitudes. The work of Michelangelo stands out again, with works of tense dynamism where the expression of the person represented stands out: Pieta (1501), David (1501-1504), Moses (1513-1515), Sepulcher of the Medici (1520-1534), etc. Other important sculptors were: Baccio Bandinelli, Benvenuto Cellini, Giambologna and Jacopo Sansovino; and, outside Italy, Jean Goujon and Germain Pilon in France, Adriaen de Vries in Flanders, Hubert Gerhard") in Germany, and Alonso Berruguete, Juan de Juni and Gaspar Becerra in Spain.

Mannerist painting had a more capricious, extravagant stamp, with a taste for sinuous and stylized forms, deforming reality, with distorted perspectives and spectacular atmospheres. Michelangelo (author of the decoration of the Sistine Chapel) stood out first - as in the other arts - followed by Bronzino, Andrea del Sarto, Pontormo, Correggio, Parmigianino, Giorgione, Tiziano, Veronese, Tintoretto, Jacopo Bassano, Giuseppe Arcimboldo, etc. Mention may be made of Maarten van Heemskerck and Abraham Bloemaert in the Netherlands, and Bartholomeus Spranger in Germany. In Spain, Juan Fernández de Navarrete, Alonso Sánchez Coello, Juan Pantoja de la Cruz and, especially, El Greco stood out, an exceptional artist who created a personal and unique style, with a strong expressionist sense.[84]​.

Baroque

The Baroque[note 11]​ developed between the 19th century and the beginning of the 19th century. It was a time of great disputes in the political and religious fields, a division emerging between the counter-reformist Catholic countries, where the absolutist state was established, and the Protestant countries, of a more parliamentary nature. Art became more refined and ornate, with the survival of a certain classicist rationalism but with more dynamic and effective forms, with a taste for the surprising and anecdotal, for optical illusions and effects.

The architecture, under classical lines, assumed more dynamic forms, with exuberant decoration and a scenographic sense of shapes and volumes. The modulation of space became relevant, with a preference for concave and convex curves, paying special attention to optical games (trompe-l'œil) and the viewer's point of view. As in the previous era, the driving force of the new style was once again Italy: Gian Lorenzo Bernini was one of its best exponents, being the main architect of the monumental Rome that we know today (columnata of St. Peter's Square, baldachin of St. Peter, St. Andrew's Quirinal, Chigi-Odescalchi Palace); Francesco Borromini is another great name of the time, author of the churches of San Carlo alle Quattre Fontane and Sant'Ivo alla Sapienza; Pietro da Cortona, Baldassare Longhena, Filippo Juvara and Guarino Guarini also stood out. In France, under the reign of Louis Palace of Versailles, by Le Vau and Jules Hardouin-Mansart. In Austria, Johann Bernhard Fischer von Erlach stood out, author of the Church of St. Charles Borromeo "Church of St. Charles Borromeo (Vienna)") in Vienna. In England, it is worth mentioning St. Paul's Cathedral in London, by Christopher Wren. In Spain, architecture in the first half of the century showed the Herrerian heritage, with Juan Gómez de Mora as a prominent figure, while in the second half of the century the Churrigueresque style was given (by José Benito Churriguera), characterized by exuberant decorativeism and the use of Solomonic columns (Main Altarpiece of San Esteban de Salamanca "Convento de San Esteban (Salamanca)")).

The sculpture acquired the same dynamic, sinuous, expressive, ornamental character, highlighting movement and expression, with a naturalistic base but deformed at the whim of the artist. In Italy, Bernini once again stood out, author of works such as Apollo and Dafne "Apollo and Daphne (sculpture by Bernini)") (1622-1625), Ecstasy of Saint Teresa (1644-1652), Death of the Blessed Ludovica Albertoni (1671-1674), etc. In France, François Girardon, Antoine Coysevox and Pierre Puget stood out. In Spain, religious imagery of Gothic heritage endured, highlighting Gregorio Fernández, Juan Martínez Montañés, Alonso Cano, Pedro de Mena, Francisco Salzillo, etc.

Painting developed in two opposing trends: naturalism, based on strict natural reality, with a taste for chiaroscuro - the so-called tenebrism -, where it is worth mentioning Caravaggio, Orazio and Artemisia Gentileschi, Pieter van Laer, Adam Elsheimer, Georges de La Tour and the Le Nain brothers; and classicism, which is equally realistic but with a more intellectual and idealized concept of reality, encompassing Annibale Carracci, Guido Reni, Domenichino, Guercino, Giovanni Lanfranco, Nicolas Poussin, Claude Lorrain, Hyacinthe Rigaud, etc. In the so-called "full baroque" (second half of the century), of decorative style and predominance of mural painting, Pietro da Cortona, Andrea Pozzo, Luca Giordano and Charles Le Brun stood out. Apart from these currents, there were countless schools, styles and authors of very diverse nature, highlighting two regional schools: the Flemish one (Peter Paul Rubens, Anton Van Dyck, Jacob Jordaens, Frans Snyders), and the Dutch one (Rembrandt, Jan Vermeer, Frans Hals). In Spain, the exceptional figure of Diego Velázquez stood out (, 1630; , 1635; , 1650; , 1656; , 1657), as well as José de Ribera, Francisco Ribalta, Alonso Cano, Francisco de Zurbarán, Juan de Valdés Leal and Bartolomé Esteban Murillo.

Rococo

Developed in the century [note 12]​—coexisting at the beginning of the century with the Baroque, and at the end with Neoclassicism—, it meant the survival of the main artistic manifestations of the Baroque, with a more emphasized sense of decoration and ornamental taste, which are taken to a paroxysm of richness, sophistication and elegance. The progressive social rise of the bourgeoisie and scientific advances, as well as the cultural environment of the Enlightenment, led to the abandonment of religious themes in favor of new themes and more worldly attitudes, highlighting luxury and ostentation as new factors of social prestige.

Architecture went from baroque grandiloquence to a more delicate taste, with graceful forms and a preponderance of small spaces, with secluded environments designed for well-being and comfort. The exotic became fashionable, especially the taste for oriental art. Rococo developed mainly in France and Germany, represented mainly by Ange-Jacques Gabriel (Petit Trianon in Versailles, Hotel Biron in Paris), François de Cuvilliés (Amalienburg Pavilion of the Nymphenburg Palace in Munich), Johann Balthasar Neumann (Episcopal Palace in Würzburg) and Dominikus Zimmermann (Church of Wies). In gardening, the "Italian garden" was succeeded by the "French garden", with a geometric composition like the Italian one, but with a longer perspective, simpler composition, larger areas of grass and a new ornamental detail: the flower bed; The gardens of Versailles (designed by André Le Nôtre) and Aranjuez stand out.

The sculpture has a graceful, refined air, with a certain survival of baroque forms, especially due to the influence of Bernini. In Italy, the Trevi Fountain, by Pietro Bracci and Filippo della Valle, stands out. In France, the work of Edmé Bouchardon, Jean-Baptiste Pigalle and Étienne-Maurice Falconet stood out. In Germany we have the presence of Georg Rafael Donner, Ignaz Günther and the Asam brothers (Cosmas Damian and Egid Quirin). In Spain we can highlight Juan Pascual de Mena and Luis Salvador Carmona.

Painting moved between religious exaltation or Vedutist landscaping in Italy (Giambattista Tiepolo, Canaletto, Francesco Guardi), and the court scenes of Jean-Antoine Watteau, François Boucher, Jean-Baptiste-Siméon Chardin and Jean-Honoré Fragonard in France, passing through the English portraitism of Joshua Reynolds and Thomas Gainsborough. A separate figure is the unclassifiable Spanish painter Francisco de Goya, who evolved from a more or less rococo seal to a certain pre-romanticism, but with a personal and expressive work with a strong intimate tone. He cultivated both painting and engraving, and his cartoons for tapestry are also notable. Among his works the following stand out: the Caprichos (1799), The Family of Charles IV (1800), The Third of May 1808 in Madrid (1814), the Black Paintings (1820), etc.

The decorative arts had special relevance, since, as has been noted, Rococo was an art with a bourgeois air dedicated to ostentation and luxury. Interior design developed significantly, with special emphasis on furniture, mirrors, silks, tapestries and porcelain objects. The latter was widely spread, especially in Saxony and Sèvres, with delicate ornamental motifs, preferably in an oriental style. Small sculptural carvings with gallant, pastoral or Commedia dell'arte motifs were also made in porcelain. In furniture, the "Chippendale style" (by Thomas Chippendale) was developed, characterized by eclecticism "Eclecticism (art)"), with a mixture of Gothic, Rococo, Palladian and Chinoiserie elements. In Spain, the tapestries of the Royal Factory of Santa Bárbara gained notoriety, some of them designed by Goya. At this time, lithography appeared, a new type of engraving on limestone, invented by Aloys Senefelder in 1778.[90]​.

Neoclassicism

The rise of the bourgeoisie after the French Revolution favored the resurgence of classical forms, purer and austere, in contrast to the ornamental excesses of the baroque and rococo, identified with the aristocracy. This environment of appreciation of the classical Greco-Roman legacy was influenced by the archaeological discovery of Pompeii and Herculaneum, along with the dissemination of an ideology of perfection of classical forms carried out by Johann Joachim Winckelmann, who postulated that perfect beauty occurred in ancient Greece, generating a myth about the perfection of classical beauty that still conditions the perception of art today.[note 13]​.

Neoclassical architecture was more rational, functional in nature and had a certain utopian air, as we see in the postulates of Claude-Nicolas Ledoux and Étienne-Louis Boullée. It is convenient to distinguish two types of neoclassical architecture: that of baroque heritage, but stripped of excessive decoration to distinguish itself from rococo architecture; and the neoclassical itself, with austere and rational lines, sober and functional. The first includes works such as the Paris Pantheon, by Jacques-Germain Soufflot, or the Berlin Opera, by Georg Wenzeslaus von Knobelsdorff; British and American neo-Palladianism also falls within this line. In the new, more rational line, we can mention the urban planning project of the Tuileries, by Pierre-François-Léonard Fontaine (initiator of the so-called "Empire style"); the Piazza del Popolo in Rome, by Giuseppe Valadier; the Walhalla "Walhalla (Monument)") in Regensburg, by Leo von Klenze; and the Prado Museum in Madrid, by Juan de Villanueva.

The sculpture, with a logical Greco-Roman reference, had as its main figures: Jean-Antoine Houdon, portraitist of pre-revolutionary society (Rousseau, Voltaire, Lafayette, Mirabeau); Antonio Canova, who worked for the popes and Napoleon's court (Paulina Borghese as Venus, 1805-1807); and Bertel Thorvaldsen, greatly influenced by Greek sculpture, devoted to ancient mythology and history (Jason with the Golden Fleece, 1803). Other notable names would be John Flaxman, Johann Gottfried Schadow, Johan Tobias Sergel and Damià Campeny.

The painting maintained an austere and balanced seal, influenced by Greco-Roman sculpture or figures such as Raphael and Poussin. Jacques-Louis David, "official" painter of the French Revolution, stood out especially (Oath of the Horatii, 1784; The death of Marat, 1793; Napoleon crossing the Alps, 1800). Along with him it is worth remembering: François Gérard, Antoine-Jean Gros, Pierre-Paul Prud'hon, Anne-Louis Girodet-Trioson, Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres, Joseph Wright of Derby, Johann Zoffany, Angelika Kauffmann, Anton Raphael Mengs, Joseph Anton Koch, Asmus Jacob Carstens, José de Madrazo, etc.[95]​.

The decorative arts developed in various styles, some of which lasted throughout the century: the Directory style emerged in France at the time of the Directory "Directory (France)") (1795-1805), characterized by simple, classic, sober lines, without excessive ornaments; The Empire style developed in Napoleonic and Restoration France, from where it passed to the rest of Europe, replacing sobriety with ostentation and luxury, with a sumptuous style, with a preference for exotic and oriental themes; In contrast, the German Biedermeier style presented a more practical and comfortable design, with simple and homely lines. These styles influenced the Spanish Elizabethan and the English Victorian, with a bourgeois air, dedicated to luxury and ostentation, although without giving up comfort and functionality.

From the discovery of America by Christopher Columbus in 1492 until the independence of the various American countries throughout the century (the last being Cuba and Puerto Rico in 1898), there was the so-called colonial art, which was a faithful reflection of the art made in the metropolis, developing the same artistic styles as on the European continent, mainly the Renaissance, Baroque and Rococo. The main samples of colonial art were produced in the two most relevant geographical centers in the pre-Columbian era: Mexico and Peru.

The architecture was based on the same typologies of buildings typical of European culture, mainly churches "Church (building)") and cathedrals, given the rapid advance of the work of evangelization of the Native American peoples, but also civil buildings such as town halls, hospitals, universities, palaces and private villas. During the first half of the century, the religious orders were responsible for the construction of numerous churches in Mexico, preferably a type of fortified churches called "Indian chapels." In the middle of the century, the first great cathedrals began to be built, such as those in Mexico, Puebla, Guadalajara "Cathedral of Guadalajara (Mexico)"), Cuzco and Córdoba "Cathedral of Córdoba (Argentina)"). Baroque architecture was characterized by profuse decoration, which would be exacerbated in the so-called "ultra-baroque" (Facade of the Tabernacle of the Cathedral of Mexico). In Peru, the constructions developed in Lima and Cuzco since 1650 show original characteristics that even precede the European Baroque, such as the use of padded walls and Solomonic columns (Iglesia de la Compañía, Cuzco). In the 19th century, the architecture shifted towards a more exuberant style, giving an unmistakable appearance to the Lima baroque (Palacio del Marqués de Torre-Tagle.

The first samples of colonial painting were those of religious scenes created by anonymous masters, such as the images of the Virgin with Child. The artistic production made in New Spain by indigenous people in the century is called Indo-Christian art. Baroque painting was influenced by Sevillian tenebrism, mainly by Zurbarán, as can be seen in the work of the Mexicans José Juárez and Sebastián López de Arteaga, and the Bolivian Melchor Pérez de Holguín. At the end of the century, the Cuzco School of painting stood out, represented mainly by Luis de Riaño and Marcos Zapata "Marcos Zapata (painter)"). In the century the main influence would be that of Murillo, and in some cases - as in Cristóbal de Villalpando - that of Valdés Leal. Gregorio Vázquez de Arce in Colombia and Juan Rodríguez Juárez and Miguel Cabrera "Miguel Cabrera (painter)") in Mexico stand out.

In sculpture, the first samples were again in the religious field, in free-standing carvings and altarpieces for churches, generally made of wood covered with plaster and decorated with incarnation - direct application of color - or stew "Stew (art)") - on a silver and gold background. At the beginning of the century the first local schools were born, such as Quito and Cuzco, highlighting the sponsoring work of the Jesuit order. In the Baroque, the sculptural work developed in Lima stood out, such as the stalls of the Lima Cathedral. In Brazil, Aleijadinho's work stood out.[100]​.

At this time, the diversity of styles and artistic manifestations continued on the African continent, due to the ethnic and religious multiplicity, and the different social organizations, from nomadic peoples to centralized states such as Benin, Dahomey, the Congo and Ashanti. The main materials were wood, stone, ivory, metal, clay, fur, feathers, shells, etc. In the Drakensberg Mountains (South Africa), the San (or Bushmen) made thousands of cave paintings between the 20th and 2nd centuries, related to shamanic rituals. In the Owerri region (Nigeria) a series of votive buildings called mbari were built, decorated with paintings and sculptures. In Mali, adobe buildings stood out, such as the Great Mosque of Djenné, initially dating from the 17th century but rebuilt several times. In Ashanti (present-day Ghana) the fabrics called kente, made of cotton or silk, decorated with geometric motifs, gained notoriety.

Sculpture was the main artistic activity on the continent in general, characterized by its great expressiveness and emotional force, which came to influence European avant-garde art when colonialism favored the creation of ethnological museums that took African works of art throughout Europe. In Benin, brass figures were made from the 17th century to the 19th century. In Ashanti there was a naturalistic style of small metal sculptures (- centuries). In the Yoruba culture (between Nigeria, Benin and Togo) carved wooden reliefs proliferated, such as on the doors of the Ikere palace, by the sculptor Olowe of Ise. Other typologies were: fetishes or "figures of power" (nduda), related to otherworldly rites, of anthropomorphic figures covered in fabric, leather or feathers; the pfemba, dedicated to motherhood, generally a woman with a child in her arms; and the mbulu-ngulu, protective reliquaries. Figures were also forged in iron, such as that of King Glele of Dahomey, life-size, the work of Akate Akpele Kendo (1860). Finally, the masks stood out, intended for rites of different kinds (funeral, agricultural, fertility, etc.).[101]​.

During this period Islamic art was introduced to India. The Muslim invasion, which culminated in the Mughal Empire, caused a great upheaval in Indian society and, therefore, in its art. Characteristic elements of Islamic art were added to the traditional forms, with new typologies such as the mosque. This artistic syncretism was manifested in buildings such as the mosques of Lahore and Delhi and in the tombs of Agra, especially in the famous Taj Mahal (19th century). Gardening and miniatures were also developed, both of Persian influence, and textile arts and set jewelery (such as the Throne of Aurangzeb) became highly relevant.

Traditional Hindu art had its manifestation in the magnificent temple of Meenakshi (Madurai), as well as in the miniaturist school of Rajput, where a Jain community lived that created an art that was widely spread in the West, embodied in a set of temples and marble sculptures inlaid with colored stones, decorated with great beauty. From the century onwards, sculpture was made more in bronze than in stone, highlighting the representations of the god Śivá in a dancing attitude; Later, portraits of warriors and courtiers would be characteristic, a tradition that lasted until the 19th century. The architecture at the end of this period evolved towards increasingly complex forms, with great decorative richness, in what could be called a "baroque" phase of Indian art (although without drawing parallels with the European baroque).[102]​.

In literature, the main peculiarity of this time was the emergence of vernacular languages, emerging literature in Hindi, Bengali, Tamil, Marathi, Gujarati, Telugu, Rajasthani, etc. In the dramatic genre, Anandarayamakhin") stood out, author of Jiva-nandana (around 1700), an allegorical drama that represents the human soul as a king imprisoned in his palace (the body); and in the epic poem the Ram-chari-manas of Tulsidas stands out, a reworking of the Ramaiana with great linguistic and stylistic purity. The theater derived in more recent times from the ancient dutangada —where the dance and mime—in a new modality called kathakali, which also placed emphasis on music and gestures. In this interpretation, the language of the hands (mudras, with 24 basic positions and others combined), as well as the expression of the face and the movements of the eyes (navarasya), also had importance. Makeup was also important, where the colors were symbolic, identifying the role or character.[103]​.

Music also received Muslim influence, although the old traditional forms, based on ragas, survived. However, the coexistence of both modalities caused a division into two distinct musical traditions: the northern or Hindustani, more influenced by Arabic music; and the southern or Carnatic, more conservative of the ancient tradition. The first was more elegant, decorative, romantic, while the second was more austere, intellectual. Two of the classical dances of India that exemplify the above are kathak, in the north, and bharatanatyam, in the south.[104]​.

The art continued to be predominantly indigenous, although the first contacts with Western civilization occurred. On his voyages through the Pacific (1768-1780) James Cook collected a series of works of art that included textiles, sculptures, jewelry, furniture, weapons, tools, musical instruments, etc. In Melanesia, the large meeting houses or "spirit houses" stand out, dedicated to ceremonies related to the cult of ancestors. The carving of anthropomorphic figures - mainly local deities - continued, such as that of Kukailimoku, Hawaiian god of war (British Museum), or the god A'a, of Rurutu "Rurutu (island)") (Austral Islands). He also followed the tradition of masks, especially in New Guinea (mai), New Ireland (malanggan) and New Caledonia (apuema). The Asmat, a tribe from Irian Jaya (New Guinea), built commemorative poles (bisj) between 5 and 10 meters high, carved with anthropomorphic figures, one on top of the other. In the Solomon Islands there are wooden statues (indalo) of human or animal figures, inlaid with shells. In Australia, the tradition of cave paintings continued, as well as churingas, pieces of wood, stone or shell, decorated with geometric motifs.[112]​.

19th century

Between the end of the century and the beginning of the century, the foundations of contemporary society were laid, marked in the political field by the end of absolutism and the establishment of democratic governments – an impulse that began with the French Revolution; and, economically, by the Industrial Revolution and the consolidation of capitalism, which will have a response in Marxism and the class struggle. In the field of art, an evolutionary dynamic of styles begins that follow one another chronologically with increasing speed, which will culminate in the century with an atomization of styles and currents that coexist and contrast, influence and confront each other. Modern art emerges as a contrast to academic art, placing the artist at the forefront of the cultural evolution of humanity.

Nineteenth-century architecture underwent a great evolution due to the technical advances brought about by the Industrial Revolution, with the incorporation of new materials such as iron, steel and concrete, which allowed the construction of more solid and open structures. Urban planning, the concern for the habitable environment, became increasingly important, which translated into sanitation works, infrastructure, greater attention to means of transportation, and the opening of green spaces to seek better environments and living conditions for the citizen. After some initial utopian approaches, such as those of Robert Owen or Charles Fourier, the great urban transformations of the century took place: Paris (Haussmann plan), London, Brussels, Vienna, Florence, Madrid, Barcelona (plan Cerdà), etc. Another great driving force of the architecture of the time were the universal exhibitions, economic-social festivals that sought to encourage and disseminate commerce, industry, culture, technological advances, etc. These events were a testing ground for new architectural typologies, as was evident in the London Exhibition of 1851, the Paris "Exposition Universelle de Paris (1889)") of 1889 (with the famous Tower Eiffel), etc. In gardening, the so-called "English garden" appeared - which introduced the concept of "landscape architecture" - which, compared to the geometry of the Italian and the French, defended greater naturalness in its composition, intervening only in a series of ornamental details, such as pavilions or pergolas, or even the placement of ruins - natural or artificial -, in line with the romantic concepts of the sublime and the picturesque (Regent's Park, by John Nash; Kew Gardens, by William Chambers "William Chambers (architect)").

Stylistically, the first half of the century saw a certain eclecticism "Eclecticism (art)") of forms, as well as a revival of previous styles reinterpreted according to modern concepts: it is the so-called historicism, which produced movements such as neo-Romanesque, neo-Gothic, neo-baroque, etc. Among its main architects it is worth remembering: John Nash, Augustus Pugin, Viollet-le-Duc, etc. In the United States, a new building typology emerged, the skyscraper, promoted by the so-called Chicago School "Chicago School (architecture)") (William Le Baron Jenney, Louis Sullivan). At the end of the century, modernism "Modernism (art)") emerged,[note 15]​ which represented a great revolution in the field of design, with names such as Victor Horta, Henry van de Velde, Hector Guimard, Charles Rennie Mackintosh, Otto Wagner, Adolf Loos, Joseph Maria Olbrich, Hendrik Petrus Berlage, Antoni Gaudí, Lluís Domènech i Montaner, Josep Puig i Cadafalch, etc.[113]​.

Movement of profound renewal in all artistic genres, the romantics paid special attention to the field of spirituality, imagination, fantasy, feeling, dreamy evocation, love of nature, along with a darker element of irrationality, attraction to the occult, madness, dream. Popular culture, the exotic, the return to underappreciated artistic forms of the past—especially medieval ones—were especially valued, and the landscape gained notoriety, which took center stage on its own. Graphic arts also gained importance, mainly lithography and wood engraving.

In painting, after a pre-romantic phase where we could cite William Blake and Johann Heinrich Füssli, Hubert Robert, Eugène Delacroix, Théodore Géricault, Francesco Hayez, John Constable, Joseph Mallord William Turner, Caspar David Friedrich, Karl Friedrich Schinkel, Philipp Otto Runge, etc. stood out. A derivation of romanticism was the German movement of the Nazarenes "Nazarenes (art)"), inspired by the Italian Quattrocento and the German Renaissance, mainly Dürer (Friedrich Overbeck, Peter Cornelius, Franz Pforr). In Spain, Genaro Pérez Villaamil, Valeriano Domínguez Bécquer, Leonardo Alenza and Eugenio Lucas stood out.

In sculpture, neoclassical forms prevail, reinterpreted according to new romantic themes. In France it is worth mentioning: François Rude, who evolved from neoclassicism to romanticism (La Marseillaise, 1832); Antoine-Louis Barye, specialized in animal figures; Jean-Baptiste Carpeaux, versatile artist with a taste for the spectacular; and David d'Angers, author of the relief on the pediment of the Pantheon in Paris (1830-1837). In Germany, the following stood out: Christian Daniel Rauch, Rudolf Schadow and Johann Heinrich Dannecker").[114]

The literature of Romanticism established the idea of ​​an art that arises spontaneously from the individual, highlighting the figure of the "genius" - art is the expression of the artist's emotions. He exalted nature, individualism, feeling, passion, with a new taste for intimate and subjective forms of expression such as the sublime, and giving value to new aspects such as the dark, the dark, the irrational. In a pre-romanticism - embodied in the German Sturm und Drang movement - Johann Christoph Friedrich von Schiller and Johann Wolfgang von Goethe stood out, as well as the English poet William Blake. Subsequently, it is worth highlighting the work of: Johann Christian Friedrich Hölderlin, Novalis, Heinrich Heine, August Wilhelm von Schlegel, Friedrich von Schlegel, Heinrich von Kleist, Johann Ludwig Tieck, E. T. A. Hoffmann, Walter Scott, William Wordsworth, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, John Keats, Lord Byron, Percy Shelley, Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley, Jane Austen, Alphonse de Lamartine, Madame de Staël, François-René de Chateaubriand, Alfred de Vigny, Victor Hugo, George Sand, Prosper Mérimée, Alexandre Dumas (father) "Alexandre Dumas (father)"), Ugo Foscolo, Giacomo Leopardi, Alessandro Manzoni, Aleksandr Pushkin, Nikolai Gogol, Adam Mickiewicz, Washington Irving, James Fenimore Cooper, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Edgar Allan Poe, Gustavo Adolfo Bécquer, Ramón de Campoamor, José de Espronceda, Mariano José de Larra, Fernán Caballero, Rosalía de Castro, Bonaventura Carles Aribau, Andrés Bello, Domingo Faustino Sarmiento, José Hernández, Gertrudis Gómez de Avellaneda, etc.[115]​.

Romantic theater had two notable antecedents again in Sturm und Drang with Schiller (Don Carlos, 1787; William Tell, 1804) and Goethe (Faust "Faust (Goethe)"), 1808). As in the rest of romantic literature, it stands out for its sentimentalism, drama, predilection for dark and lurid themes, and the exaltation of nature and popular folklore. A new genre emerged, melodrama, and variety shows (vaudeville) became popular. Its best exponents were: Georg Büchner, Christian Dietrich Grabbe, Juliusz Słowacki, Alfred de Musset, Victor Hugo, Francisco Martínez de la Rosa, the Duke of Rivas, Antonio García Gutiérrez, José Echegaray, José Zorrilla (Don Juan Tenorio, 1844), etc.[116]​.

Romantic music is characterized, as in the rest of the arts, by the predominance of feeling and passion, of the subjectivity and emotionality of the artist, exalting national and popular music. The orchestra is significantly expanded, in order to fully satisfy the expressiveness of the artist, the new feelings that reside within him (the sublime, the pathetic). The piano was the fashionable instrument, since its register, the intensity of the pulsation, are a faithful reflection of that emotionality, linked to the new cult of personality that developed in romanticism. Musicology was born as a science applied to music, as well as musical criticism and aesthetics"), and the first conservatories appeared. Its main representatives were: Ludwig van Beethoven, Carl Maria von Weber, Franz Schubert, Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy, Robert Schumann, Franz Liszt, Frédéric Chopin, Niccolò Paganini, Johann Strauss "Johann Strauss (son)"), Johannes Brahms, Anton Bruckner, Hector Berlioz, Jules Massenet, etc.

During this time, opera developed significantly, especially in Italy, where it received the name bel canto. She stood out for the brilliance of her voices, the coloratura, and the ornamentation, with the role of the soprano gaining importance—from 1840 the chest do became fashionable. The romantic opera had two aspects: the comic – or bufa – and the dramatic, about the great romantic literary dramas. Notable: Luigi Cherubini, Gaetano Donizetti, Vincenzo Bellini, Gioacchino Antonio Rossini, Charles Gounod, Georges Bizet and, especially, Giuseppe Verdi (Rigoletto, 1851; Il trovatore, 1853; La Traviata, 1853; Aida, 1870). In Germany, Richard Wagner gave opera levels of great brilliance, with the aim of creating a "total work of art" (gesamtkunstwerk) that combined music, poetry, philosophy, scenography, etc. (Tannhäuser "Tannhäuser (opera)"), 1845; Lohengrin, 1850; Tristan and Isolde "Tristan and Isolde (opera)"), 1865; Parsifal, 1882).[117]​.

Romantic dance recovered the taste for popular dances, folk dances, many of which it brought from oblivion. The classic ballet costume (the tutu) emerged, appearing for the first time in the Ballet of the Nuns by Robert le Diable (1831), by Giacomo Meyerbeer. Music began to be composed purely for ballet, highlighting Coppélia (1870), by Léo Delibes. In the theoretical aspect, the figure of the choreographer Carlo Blasis, the main creator of modern ballet, stood out in that he codified all the technical aspects concerning dance: in The Code of Terpsichore (1820) he related dance with the other arts, carrying out studies of anatomy and body movements, expanding the vocabulary related to dance, and distinguishing various types of dancers according to their physique. He also introduced tiptoe dancing, in which Maria Taglioni and Fanny Elssler stood out. In popular dances, the waltz fashion continued, and the mazurka and polka appeared.[118]​.

Since the middle of the century, a trend emerged that placed emphasis on reality, the description of the surrounding world, especially of workers and peasants in the new framework of the industrial era, with a certain component of social denunciation, linked to political movements such as utopian socialism.

In painting, Camille Corot, Gustave Courbet, Jean-François Millet, Honoré Daumier, Adolph von Menzel, Hans Thoma, Ilya Repin and Mariano Fortuny stood out. Linked to realism were two landscape schools: the French Barbizon (Théodore Rousseau, Charles-François Daubigny, Narcisse-Virgile Díaz de la Peña), marked by a pantheistic feeling of nature; and the Italian one of the Macchiaioli (Silvestro Lega, Giovanni Fattori, Telemaco Signorini), of an anti-academic nature, characterized by the use of spots (macchia in Italian, hence the name of the group) of color and unfinished, sketched shapes. In Great Britain, the school of the Pre-Raphaelites emerged, who were inspired - as their name indicates - by the Italian painters before Raphael, as well as by the newly emerging photography, highlighting Dante Gabriel Rossetti, Edward Burne-Jones, John Everett Millais and Ford Madox Brown.[119]​.

The sculpture was also based on the faithful reflection of society, with a predilection for figures of workers and marginal characters. Highlights include: Max Klinger, Adolf von Hildebrand, Aimé-Jules Dalou, the brothers Agapito and Venancio Vallmitjana, Ricardo Bellver, Mariano Benlliure and, especially, Constantin Meunier, the main evoker of the figure of the proletarian, with a certain idealized air, the worker as a modern hero (El Pudelador, 1884-1888).

Realistic literature opposed romantic subjectivism, defending the rigorous and detailed description of reality, influenced by positivist philosophy, which considered the artist as an indissoluble part of society, with the artistic work being a faithful reflection of the social conditions that surround the artist. The main realist format was the novel, which stood out for its naturalistic style that emphasized the everyday aspect of reality, which was described in all its thoroughness and fidelity to the real world, with temperamental descriptions of the characters, with great psychological prospection. The author is a "chronicler", who objectively presents the facts, with a high critical component, with a desire for reform. Figures include: Honoré de Balzac, Stendhal, Gustave Flaubert, Guy de Maupassant, Émile Zola, Giovanni Verga, Giosuè Carducci, Charles Dickens, Alfred Tennyson, the sisters Emily, Charlotte and Anne Brontë, George Eliot, Fyodor Dostoevsky, Lev Tolstoy, Maksim Gorki, Mark Twain, Herman Melville, Henry James, Emily Dickinson, Joseph Conrad, Benito Pérez Galdós, Pedro Antonio de Alarcón, Marcelino Menéndez y Pelayo, Emilia Pardo Bazán, Leopoldo Alas (Clarín) "Leopoldo Alas (Clarín)"), Vicente Blasco Ibáñez, Ignacio Manuel Altamirano, José María Eça de Queirós, etc. Adventure and suspense novels also stand out, such as those by Alexandre Dumas (son) "Alexandre Dumas (son)"), Emilio Salgari, Jules Verne and Arthur Conan Doyle.[120]​.

With realistic theater, modern theater was born, as it laid the foundations for what would be the theater of the century. Emphasis was placed on naturalism "Naturalism (theater)"), the detailed description of reality, not only in the theme and language, but also in sets, costumes, props, etc. The interpretation was more truthful, without great gesticulations or grandiloquent diction, as in the "anti-theatrical representation" - acting as in real life, as if one were not in a theater - of André Antoine and his Théâtre Libre - where for the first time only the stage was illuminated, leaving the audience in the dark. Eugène Scribe, Victorien Sardou and Eugène Labiche correspond to a prenaturalist period. Nordic theater stood out especially, with figures such as Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson, August Strindberg and Henrik Ibsen. Other authors were: Frank Wedekind, Anton Chejov, Adelardo López de Ayala, Manuel Tamayo y Baus, Àngel Guimerà, etc.[121]​.

In the field of music, in parallel to realism, the so-called musical nationalism arose, which marked the rebirth of various European regions that had until then been culturally unremarkable. Heir to romantic musical forms, folklore and popular music were revalued as bearers of ancestral cultural values ​​of all peoples. Figures such as: Mijaíl Glinka, Modest Mussorgsky, Aleksandr Borodín, Nikolai Rimsky-Kórsakov and Piotr Tchaikovsky in Russia stood out; Antonín Dvořák, Bedřich Smetana and Leoš Janáček in Czechoslovakia; Jean Sibelius in Finland; Edvard Grieg in Norway; Carl Nielsen in Denmark; Karol Szymanowski in Poland; Béla Bartók and Zoltán Kodály in Hungary; Edward Elgar and Ralph Vaughan Williams in Great Britain; Isaac Albéniz, Enrique Granados and Manuel de Falla in Spain. The first national schools also emerged in America: John Philip Sousa in the United States; Heitor Villa-Lobos in Brazil; Manuel María Ponce in Mexico; Guillermo Uribe in Colombia; Prospero Bisquertt in Chile; Juan Bautista Plaza in Venezuela; Amadeo Roldán in Cuba; and Eduardo Fabini in Uruguay. In opera, Italian verismo sought to equally reflect reality, with more popular plots, in rural and proletarian environments, where the protagonists are ordinary characters. He is represented by Arrigo Boito, Amilcare Ponchielli, Ruggero Leoncavallo, Umberto Giordano and, mainly, Giacomo Puccini (La bohème "La bohème (Puccini)"), 1896; Tosca "Tosca (opera)"), 1900; Madama Butterfly, 1903).[122]​.

In dance, the geographical center of creation and innovation shifted from Paris to Saint Petersburg, where the Imperial Ballet reached heights of great brilliance, with a nerve center in the Mariinsky Theater - and, later, in the Bol'šoj in Moscow. The main figure in the formation of Russian ballet was Marius Petipa, who introduced a type of narrative choreography where it is the dance itself that tells the story. He made longer ballets, up to five acts, turning the ballet into a great spectacle, with dazzling staging, highlighting his collaboration with Tchaikovsky in three exceptional works: The Sleeping Beauty "The Sleeping Beauty (ballet)") (1889), The Nutcracker (1893) and Swan Lake (1895). At a popular level, the most famous dance of the time was the cancán, while in Spain the habanera and the chotis emerged.[123]​.

• - Impressionism: it was a deeply innovative movement, which marked a break with academic art and a transformation of artistic language, beginning the path towards avant-garde movements. The Impressionists were inspired by nature, from which they sought to capture a visual "impression", the capture of a moment on the canvas - under the influence of photography - with a loose brushstroke technique and light, luminous tones, especially valuing light. A new theme emerged, derived from the new way of observing the world: along with landscapes and seascapes, there appear urban and night views, interiors with artificial light, cabaret, circus and music hall scenes, characters from bohemian "Bohemia (culture)"), beggars, outcasts, etc. It is worth mentioning as main representatives Édouard Manet - considered a precursor -, Claude Monet, Camille Pissarro, Alfred Sisley, Pierre-Auguste Renoir and Edgar Degas. Equally innovative in the field of sculpture was the role of Auguste Rodin, who laid the foundations for the sculpture of the century (The Thinker, 1880-1900; The Burghers of Calais, 1884-1886). Medardo Rosso also stood out, who would lead sculpture towards the disintegration of form.

• - Neoimpressionism: evolving from impressionism, the neoimpressionists were more concerned with optical phenomena, developing the technique of pointillism, consisting of composing the work using a series of dots of pure colors, which are placed next to others of complementary colors, merging on the viewer's retina in a new tone. Its main representatives were Georges Seurat and Paul Signac. Another variant was divisionism, which emerged in Italy in environments of social nonconformity close to anarchism. This technique is characterized by the proximity of decomposed colors, with long brush strokes that, observed from a long distance, produce a compositional effect. This style was mainly practiced by Giovanni Segantini, Giuseppe Pellizza da Volpedo and Gaetano Previati, and influenced Italian Futurism.

• - Post-impressionism: they were a series of artists who, based on the new technical discoveries made by the impressionists, reinterpreted them in a personal way, opening different avenues of development of utmost importance for the evolution of art in the 20th century. Thus, more than a certain style, post-impressionism was a way of grouping together various artists of different types: Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, author of circus and cabaret scenes sketched with quick notes from life; Paul Gauguin experimented with depth, giving new value to the pictorial plane, with flat colors of a symbolic nature; Paul Cézanne structured the composition in geometric shapes (cylinder, cone "Cone (geometry)") and sphere), in an analytical synthesis of the precursor reality of cubism; Vincent van Gogh was the author of works of strong drama and interior prospection, with sinuous and dense brushstrokes, of intense color, deforming reality, to which he gave a dreamlike air. In Spain we can highlight Joaquín Sorolla, author of popular scenes where the use of light stands out.[124]​.

In parallel to painting, impressionist music prioritizes harmony over melody, just as in painting color prevails over line. The reconstruction of a musical composition is left to the viewer, made from parts and suggestions. Its main representative, Claude Debussy, rejected tonic chromaticism, introducing new chords of five and six tones, opposite to the usual scales. Faced with the continuous Wagnerian melody, he returned to the static tonality, quieting the harmony and enhancing the texture, the timbral, the rhythmic irregularity (Prelude to the nap of a faun, 1894). Maurice Ravel returned to linear expression, although with notes and chords somewhat out of context (Bolero "Bolero (Ravel)"), 1928). Other representatives were Paul Dukas and Florent Schmitt.[125]​.

A fantastic and dreamlike style, it emerged as a reaction to the naturalism of the realist and impressionist movement, placing special emphasis on the world of dreams, as well as satanic and terrifying aspects, sex and perversion. A main characteristic of symbolism was aestheticism, a reaction to the utilitarianism prevailing at the time and the ugliness and materialism of the industrial era. Faced with this, symbolism gave art and beauty their own autonomy, synthesized in Théophile Gautier's formula "art for art's sake" (L'art pour l'art), even going so far as to speak of "aesthetic religion." Beauty moved away from any moral component, becoming the ultimate goal of the artist, who came to live his own life as a work of art - as can be seen in the figure of the dandy. They stood out: Gustave Moreau, Odilon Redon, Pierre Puvis de Chavannes, James McNeill Whistler, Lawrence Alma-Tadema, Arnold Böcklin, Ferdinand Hodler and Gustav Klimt, as well as the Nabis group "Nabis (artists)") (Maurice Denis, Paul Sérusier, Pierre Bonnard, Félix Vallotton and the sculptor Aristide Maillol). Linked to symbolism was also the so-called naive art, whose authors were self-taught, with a somewhat naive and unstructured composition, instinctive, with a certain primitivism, although fully conscious and expressive (Henri Rousseau, Séraphine Louis, Grandma Moses).[126]​.

Symbolist literature stood out for its aestheticism and decadence, taking romantic sensitivity to exaggeration, especially in the taste for the morbid and terrifying, emerging an "aesthetic of evil", appreciable in the attraction to Satanism, magic and paranormal phenomena, or the fascination with vice and sexual deviations. Writers distance themselves from the world and social conventions, giving rise to the figure of the "cursed poet." His main vehicle of expression was poetry, which was elaborate, formally demanding, with an almost musical rhythmic sense, with an evocative and suggestive, symbolic language, highlighting its polysemic character. It had a precedent in the Parnassianism of Leconte de Lisle, José María de Heredia and Charles Baudelaire, later highlighting authors such as Oscar Wilde, Algernon Charles Swinburne, Arthur Rimbaud, Paul Verlaine, Stéphane Mallarmé, the Count of Lautréamont, Jean Moréas, Anatole France, Frédéric Mistral, Joris-Karl Huysmans, Walt Whitman, Dmitri Sergeievich Merezhkovsky, etc.[127]​.

Symbolist theater was influenced by Wagner's "total spectacle", standing out for a language with a strong metaphysical and transcendent background, seeking the human essence through intuition and meditation, with a preference for mythical themes and legends, of esoteric and theosophical influence. Auguste Villiers de l'Isle-Adam, Paul Claudel, Maurice Maeterlinck and Émile Verhaeren stood out.[128]​ In music, Gabriel Fauré innovated with a precious, meticulous and personal sound language, in the line of symbolist poetry. He made static, diffuse music, with liquid harmonies, giving importance to solo instruments: The Good Song (1892), based on poems by Verlaine.

In parallel to architecture, modernism "Modernism (art)")[note 15]​ also developed in painting, a notable school emerging in Catalonia, with artists such as Ramón Casas and Santiago Rusiñol, with a style characterized by a naturalistic theme of a somber atmosphere, with a certain influence of French impressionism. Later, the influence of symbolism was received, practiced by Rusiñol himself and by artists such as Alexandre de Riquer, Adrià Gual and Joan Llimona. In sculpture it is worth mentioning Eusebi Arnau, Josep Llimona and Miguel Blay. In a so-called "postmodernism"[note 16]​ there are names such as Isidre Nonell and Joaquim Mir, just as we find the presence of a young Pablo Picasso, who entered the modernist environment around the year 1900, a fact that marked a change in his career and his affiliation to avant-garde art, as we can see in his Fauvist period (1900-1901) and in the symbolism of the «blue period "Pablo Picasso")» (1901-1904), to finally lead to cubism.

In the rest of Europe, modernist painting was closely linked to the world of design and illustration, especially poster art, a new artistic genre halfway between painting and graphic arts, since it was based on a design made by a painter or illustrator, to be later reproduced in series. In its genesis, the advertising aspect of the poster was decisive, although it was soon also dedicated to the dissemination of events and political and institutional propaganda. Among the various artists dedicated to painting or posters, it is worth remembering Alfons Mucha, Aubrey Beardsley, Jan Toorop, Fernand Khnopff, etc.

Modernism, due to its ornamental character, meant a great revitalization of the applied arts, especially carpentry, forging, glasswork, ceramics, plaster molding, printing (books, magazines, postcards), jewelry, mosaic, etc.[129] This was helped by new industrial procedures, which allowed mass manufacturing. Design, the creative process of the artist, which materializes his creation in the sketch of the work, which can then be carried out by various artisans, gained special relevance. Among its main architects were Émile Gallé (ceramist and glassmaker), René Lalique (goldsmith), Koloman Moser (designer), Louis Comfort Tiffany (jeweler and glassmaker), Gaspar Homar (cabinetmaker), etc. Also of special relevance was the English Arts and Crafts movement, promoted by John Ruskin and William Morris, which defended a revaluation of artisanal work and advocated a return to traditional forms of manufacturing, stipulating that art should be as useful as it is beautiful.[130]​.

In literature, modernism is usually linked to the work of the Nicaraguan Rubén Darío, the inaugurator of modern Spanish literature with an aestheticist language of great formal richness, with a symbolist influence. Other exponents were the Cuban José Martí, the Mexican Amado Nervo, the Peruvian José Santos Chocano, the Argentine Leopoldo Lugones and the Colombian José Asunción Silva, as well as the Spaniards Salvador Rueda and Eduardo Marquina. With the same modernizing desire we can also place here the so-called Generation of '98 which, in the face of pessimism due to the loss of the last Spanish colonies, represented a great boost in the renewal of Spanish literature, especially in terms of content. Authors such as Ramón María del Valle-Inclán, Antonio Machado, Jacinto Benavente, Juan Ramón Jiménez, Azorín, Pío Baroja, Miguel de Unamuno, Ramiro de Maeztu, Ramón Menéndez Pidal, etc. stood out. In Catalonia the Renaixença movement took place, highlighting Jacinto Verdaguer and Joan Maragall, while in Galicia the Rexurdimento included figures such as Manuel Curros Enríquez and Eduardo Pondal.[131]​.

In the century a new technology appeared that allowed images to be captured from nature, through the principle of the camera obscura. Despite being a purely technical achievement, the artistic nature of this new medium was soon glimpsed, since the resulting work could be considered artistic in that it involved the intervention of the creativity of the person who captured the image, derived from the work of perception, design and narrativity carried out in the taking of the image. Thus, photography soon came to be considered one of the arts, specifically the eighth.[note 17]​.

This new technique began with the research of Joseph Nicéphore Niépce, who made the first photograph in 1816, in negative on paper, from which the technical procedures for its capture and reproduction were perfected. The construction of the daguerreotype by Louis-Jacques-Mandé Daguerre represented a new advance, managing to impress metal plates and fix the image with a bath of salt and mercury "Mercury (element)"). Another of the pioneers was William Henry Fox Talbot, who in 1835 invented the negative, which allowed various copies to be made of the image obtained. Hippolyte Bayard achieved direct positive photography in 1840. Another precursor, John Frederick William Herschel, was the creator of the term photography, as well as negative and positive, and snapshot when the exposure time was reduced (25/100 of a second). In 1888 George Eastman launched celluloid film and the Kodak device, a small camera loaded with 100 clichés. The first color photograph was obtained by James Clerk Maxwell in 1861; However, the first color photographic plate (Autochrome) did not reach the markets until 1907.

From then on, photography became popular, since it was a medium that did not require great personal qualities, simply mastery of the technique, with numerous amateurs appearing who set out to capture the world in images. The first photography studios and laboratories emerged, initially dedicated mainly to portraiture, although later to all types of events and natural images. Photomechanics and the first illustrated publications also appeared, pioneering the albums Excursions Daguerriennes (1841-1842) and, as the first illustrated book, Pencil of Nature (1844), by Fox Talbot. Documentary photography also appeared, especially in terms of capturing war conflicts, with the Crimean and American Civil Wars being the first to be portrayed.

At the end of the century, photography began to be considered an art, with pictorialism emerging as the first photographic artistic movement; He intended to take photographs with a pictorial composition, influenced by impressionism. Among the most prominent photographers of the century we can mention Gaspard-Félix Tournachon, Louis Désiré Blanquart-Evrard, André Adolphe Eugène Disdéri, David Octavius ​​Hill, John Thomson "John Thomson (photographer)"), Julia Margaret Cameron, Oscar Gustav Rejlander, Eadweard Muybridge, Étienne-Jules Marey, Jacob August Riis, etc.[132]​.

20th century

The art of the century underwent a profound transformation: in a more materialistic, more consumerist society, art addresses the senses, not the intellect. Likewise, the concept of fashion has gained special relevance, a combination between the speed of communications and the consumerist aspect of current civilization. Thus, avant-garde movements emerged, which sought to integrate art into society, seeking a greater artist-spectator relationship, since it is the latter who interprets the work, being able to discover meanings that the artist did not even know. The latest artistic trends have even lost interest in the artistic object: traditional art was an art of the object, the current one of concept. There is a revaluation of active art, of action, of spontaneous, ephemeral manifestation, of non-commercial art (conceptual art, happening, environment).[133]​.

Architecture has undergone a profound transformation from traditional forms to avant-garde movements, which have represented a new construction concept based on a more rational idea of ​​space, structured in a more refined and functional way, with special attention to new technologies and its environmental location. Urban planning has gained great importance, encouraged by the new consumerist aspect of Western civilization, while the rise of communications has led to the development of engineering studies applied to architecture.

The architecture of the century has had a development independent of the rest of the arts, although sometimes it has gone parallel to a certain artistic movement. Thus we have expressionist architecture, characterized by the use of new materials and their mass manufacturing (brick, steel, glass), with names such as Bruno Taut, Erich Mendelsohn, Hans Poelzig and Fritz Höger. Futurism also had some architectural manifestation, although the utopian nature of its formulations prevented its material realization in many cases; The work of Antonio Sant'Elia stands out. In Dutch neoplasticism we have the work of Jacobus Johannes Pieter Oud, Gerrit Thomas Rietveld and Truus Schröder. Finally, it is worth highlighting the architectural aspect of Russian constructivism "Constructivism (art)"), where a program linked to the revolution began that sought a functional architecture that satisfied the real needs of the population; It was mainly represented by Konstantin Melnikov.

But the main artistic trend of the century has been rationalism (1920-1950) - also called "International Style" -, fundamentally represented by the Bauhaus School. This trend sought an architecture based on reason, with simple and functional lines, based on simple geometric shapes and industrial materials (brick, steel, concrete, glass), renouncing excessive ornamentation and giving great importance to design, which is equally simple and functional. Among its figures stand out: Walter Gropius, Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, Le Corbusier, José Luis Sert, Frank Lloyd Wright, Eliel Saarinen, Oscar Niemeyer, Alvar Aalto, etc.

• - Wikimedia Commons hosts a multimedia category on Art History.

• - Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.

• - Arthistory.

• - Web Gallery of Art.

Contenido

El arte prehistórico es el desarrollado por el ser humano primitivo desde la Edad de Piedra (Paleolítico superior, Mesolítico y Neolítico) hasta la Edad de los Metales, periodos donde surgieron las primeras manifestaciones que se pueden considerar como artísticas por parte del Homo sapiens. Durante el Paleolítico (25 000-8000 a. C.), los seres humanos se mantenían principalmente gracias a la caza y a la recolección y habitaban en cuevas, en algunas de las cuales desarrollaron la llamada pintura rupestre. Tras un periodo de transición (Mesolítico, 8000-6000 a. C.), en el Neolítico (6000-3000 a. C.) el ser humano se volvió sedentario y se dedicó a la agricultura, con sociedades cada vez más complejas donde fue cobrando importancia la religión, y comenzó la producción de piezas de artesanía. Por último, en la llamada Edad de los Metales (3000-1000 a. C.), surgieron las primeras civilizaciones protohistóricas.

Paleolithic

The first artistic manifestations come from Homo neanderthalensis, from about 65,000 years ago, as confirmed by the remains found in the caves of Maltravieso (Cáceres), Ardales (Málaga) and La Pasiega (Cantabria).[2] Even so, most of the first artistic finds are from the Upper Paleolithic and already belong to Homo sapiens, around 25,000 a. C., having its peak in the Magdalenian period (±15,000-8000 BC). The first traces of man-made objects appear in southern Africa, the western Mediterranean, central and eastern Europe (Adriatic Sea), Siberia (Lake Baikal), India and Australia. These first vestiges are generally utensils made of worked stone (flint, obsidian), or bone or wood. For painting they used red iron oxide, black "Black (color)") manganese oxide "Manganese oxide (IV)") and ocher clay. Its main expressive medium was cave painting, developed mainly in the Franco-Cantabrian region: they are paintings of a magical-religious nature, in caves, with a naturalistic sense "Naturalism (art)"), with representation of animals, highlighting the caves of Altamira, Tito Bustillo, Trois Frères, Chauvet and Lascaux. In sculpture, the so-called venus stand out, female representations that surely served as a cult of fertility, highlighting the Venus of Willendorf. Other representative works of this period are the so-called Man of Brno, the Vogelherd's Mammoth and the Lady of Brassempouy.[3]​.

In prehistory, the first rudimentary forms of music and dance emerged: various natural phenomena and the modulation of the human voice itself made primitive man see that there were sounds that were harmonious and melodious, and that affected the emotions and mood of people. At the same time, dance, rhythmic movement, was a form of bodily communication that served to express feelings, or to ritualize important events (births, deaths, weddings). In principle, music and dance had a ritual component, celebrated in ceremonies of fertility, hunting or war, or of various religious nature. Soon human beings learned to use rudimentary objects (bones, reeds "Cane (vegetable)"), trunks "Trunk (botany)"), shells) to produce sounds, while their own breathing and heartbeats served to give a first cadence "Cadencia (music)") to the dance.[4]​.

Neolithic

This period—beginning around 8000 BC. C. in the Near East - meant a profound transformation for the ancient human being, who became sedentary and dedicated himself to agriculture and livestock, new forms of social coexistence emerged and religion developed. In Levantine painting—dating between the Mesolithic and the Neolithic—the human figure appeared, very schematized, with notable examples in El Cogul, Valltorta, Alpera and Minateda. This type of painting also occurred in North Africa (Atlas "Atlas (mountain range)"), Sahara) and in the area of ​​present-day Zimbabwe. Neolithic painting used to be schematic, reduced to basic strokes (the man in the shape of a cross, the woman in a triangular shape). Also noteworthy are the cave paintings of the Pinturas River in Argentina, especially the Cueva de las Manos. In furniture art, the so-called cardial ceramics were produced, decorated with shell impressions (cardium), and textile art appeared. New materials were manufactured such as amber, rock crystal, quartz, jasper, etc. At this time the first vestiges of towns appeared with an urban planimetry, highlighting the remains found in Tell as-Sultan#Tell_es-Sultán "Jericho (Cisjordania)") (Jericho "Jericho (Cisjordania)"), Jarmo (Iraq) and Çatalhöyük (Anatolia).[5]​.

Metal Age

The last prehistoric phase is the so-called Age of Metals, since the use of elements such as copper, bronze and iron represented a great material transformation for these ancient societies. At the end of the Neolithic and during the so-called Chalcolithic, megalithism emerged, funerary monuments in stone, highlighting the dolmen and the menhir, or the English cromlech, as in the magnificent Stonehenge complex. In Spain, the Los Millares culture was formed, characterized by Bell-shaped ceramics and human representations of schematic figures with large eyes. In Malta, the group of temples of Mudajdra, Tarxien and Ggantija stood out. A notable megalithic culture developed in the Balearic Islands, with various types of monuments: the naveta, a truncated pyramid-shaped tomb "Pyramid (architecture)"), with an elongated funerary chamber; the taula "Taula (talayotic construction)"), two large stones placed one vertically and the other horizontally on top; and the talayot, a tower with a chamber covered with a false dome.[6]​.

In the Iron Age, the cultures of Hallstatt (Austria) and La Tène (Switzerland) stood out. The first occurred between the centuries BC. C. and a. C., characterized by necropolises with tumulus tombs, with a wooden mortuary chamber in the shape of a house, often accompanied by a four-wheeled cart. The ceramics were polychrome, with geometric decorations and applications of metallic ornaments. La Tène developed between the centuries BC. C. and a. C., linked to Celtic culture. It stood out for its iron objects (swords, spears, shields, fibulas), with various phases of evolution (La Tène I, II and III), which at the end of this era received Greek, Etruscan and steppe art influences.[7]​.

Se denomina así a las creaciones artísticas de la primera etapa de la historia, iniciadas con la invención de la escritura, destacando las grandes civilizaciones del Próximo Oriente: Egipto y Mesopotamia. También englobaría las primeras manifestaciones artísticas de la mayoría de pueblos y civilizaciones de todos los continentes. En esta época aparecieron las primeras grandes ciudades, principalmente en cuatro zonas delimitadas por grandes ríos: el Nilo, el Tigris y el Éufrates, el Indo y el río Amarillo.

Uno de los grandes avances en esta época fue la invención de la escritura, generada en primer lugar por la necesidad de llevar registros de índole económica y comercial. El primer código escrito fue la escritura cuneiforme, surgida en Mesopotamia alrededor del 3500 a. C., practicada en tablillas de arcilla. Estaba basada en elementos pictográficos e ideográficos, mientras que más adelante los sumerios desarrollaron un anexo silábico para su escritura, reflejando la fonología y la sintaxis del idioma sumerio hablado. En Egipto se desarrolló la escritura jeroglífica, con una primera muestra en la Paleta de Narmer (3100 a. C.). La lengua hebrea fue una de las primeras que utilizó como método de escritura el alfabeto (abyad, alrededor del 1800 a. C.), que relaciona un único símbolo a cada fonema; de aquí derivan los alfabetos griego y latino.[8]​.

Mesopotamia

Mesopotamian art developed in the area between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers (present-day Syria and Iraq), where since the millennium BC. C. various cultures followed one another such as the Sumerians, Akkadians, Amorites, Assyrians, Chaldeans, etc. The architecture is characterized by the use of brick, with a lintel system and the introduction of construction elements such as the arch "Arco (architecture)") and the vault. The ziggurats stand out, large temples with a stepped pyramidal shape, of which practically no vestiges have survived, except for some bases. The tomb used to be a corridor, with a chamber covered with a false dome, like some examples found in Ur. The palaces, walled complexes with a system of terraces like a ziggurat, also stood out, giving great importance to the garden areas (the hanging gardens of Babylon are one of the seven wonders of the ancient world).

The sculpture was developed in free carving or relief "Relief (art)"), in religious or hunting and military scenes, with the presence of human figures and real or mythological animals. In Sumerian times, small statues of angular shapes were created, with colored stone or paste in the eyes, in figures without hair, with their hands on their chests. In the Akkadian period they are figures with hair and long beards, highlighting the Naram-Sin stele. From the Amorite (or Neo-Sumerian) stage, the representations of King Gudea of ​​Lagash stand out, with a cloak and turban and his hands again on his chest. In the Babylonian domain, it is worth mentioning the famous stele of Hammurabi. Of Assyrian sculpture, the anthropomorphic figures of bulls or winged geniuses stand out, which flanked the doors of the palaces, as well as the reliefs with scenes of war or hunting, such as the Black Obelisk of Shalmaneser III.[9]​.

With the appearance of writing, literature emerged as a means of expressing human creativity. In Sumerian literature, the Poem of Gilgamesh, from the century BC, stands out. C. About thirty myths were written about the most important Sumerian and Akkadian divinities, among which stand out: the descent of Inanna into hell and those generated around the gods Enki and Tammuz. Another example of relevance is the poem Lugal ud melambi Nirpal (The Works of Ninurta), whose content is didactic and moral. In the Akkadian era, Atrahasis stands out, about the myth of the flood. In Babylonian literature, the poem Enûma Elish, about the creation of the world, is worth highlighting.[10]​.

Music developed in this region between the 4th and the millennium BC. C., in rituals in Sumerian temples, where hymns or psalms (ersemma) were sung to the gods. The liturgical song was composed of responsories—singing alternated between priests and choir—and antiphons—singing alternated between two choirs. They had several instruments, such as the tigi (flute), the balag (drum), the lilis (precursor of the timpani), the algar (lyre "Lyre (musical instrument)"), the zagsal (harp) and the adapa (tambourine).[11]​.

Egypt

In Egypt, one of the first great civilizations emerged, with elaborate and complex works of art that already imply professional specialization on the part of the artist/craftsman. His art was intensely religious and symbolic, with a strongly centralized and hierarchical political power, giving great relevance to the religious concept of immortality, mainly of the pharaoh,[note 1]​ for which works of great monumentality were built. Started around 3000 BC. C., Egyptian art lasted until the conquest of Alexander the Great, although its influence persisted in Coptic and Byzantine art.

The architecture is characterized by its monumentality with the use of stone, in large blocks, with a lintel construction system and solid columns "Column (architecture)"). The funerary monuments stand out, with three main typologies: the mastaba, a rectangular tomb; the pyramid "Pyramid (architecture)"), which can be stepped (Saqqarah) or smooth-sided (Gizeh); and the hypogeums, tombs excavated in the ground or in cliff walls (Valley of the Kings). The other large building is the temple, monumental complexes preceded by an avenue of sphinxes and two obelisks, an entrance with two pylons or trapezoidal walls "Trapezoid (geometry)"), a hypetrous patio, a hypostyle room and the sanctuary. The temples of Karnak, Luxor, Philae and Edfu stand out. Another type of temple is the speos, in the form of a hypogeum, as in Abu Simbel and Deir el-Bahari.

Sculpture and painting show representations in a figurative way, generally with great rigidity and schematization. In Egyptian sculpture, pharaohs and gods began to be represented already in the first dynasties, reaching absolute mastery of the technique during the IV Dynasty in elegant representations of majestic bearing with polished finishes in materials as hard as granite or diorite. The law of frontality and hieraticism predominated, with forms tending toward geometrization, given their symbolic nature as manifestations of afterlife. Also noteworthy are the ushabti, small figurines made of baked earth or wood, more realistic than the funerary sculpture, representing everyday scenes.

The painting is mainly characterized by presenting juxtaposed figures on overlapping planes. The images were represented with hierarchical criteria, for example: the pharaoh is larger than the subjects or enemies next to him. The profile canon predominated, which consisted of representing the head and limbs in profile but the shoulders and eyes from the front. In Egypt, the applied arts were notably developed, especially cabinetmaking and goldsmithing, with magnificent examples such as the cedar furniture with ebony and ivory inlays from the tombs of Yuya and Tuyu (Egyptian Museum in Cairo), or the pieces found in the tomb of Tutankhamun, of great artistic quality.[12]​.

Egyptian literature was the first to develop a literary format as we know it today: the book.[13]​ One of its best manifestations is the , a servant of Sesostris I, whose story dates back to the middle of the century BC. C. Later, the stands out, written in the , dated around the century BC. C. Egyptian music was mainly religious, with a great role in vocal singing, developing an annual cycle of festivities, each of which had its corresponding music - a fact that passed to the Jewish and Christian liturgy. Their instruments included the sistrum, the (tambourine), the (harp), the (flute), the (trumpet) and the (clarinet). Apparently, they also had a type of hydraulic organ, and two silver trumpets were found in Tutankhamun's tomb.[14]

America

In an evolution parallel to that of the European Neolithic peoples, the ancient hunter-gatherers began farming around the millennium BC. C. —especially corn—, with the first societies emerging in the highlands of Mexico, where the predominance of a priestly caste is observed, with great knowledge in mathematics and astronomy. The first artistic finds are from around 1300 BC. C. in Xochipala (state of Guerrero), where some clay statuettes of great vivacity were found. The first great Mesoamerican civilization was the Olmec, located in a space that currently corresponds to the provinces of Veracruz and Tabasco, where the stone sculptures of great naturalism stand out (Luchador, found in Santa María Uxpanapán), or the colossal monolithic heads up to 3.5 meters high. The Zapotecs, established in Oaxaca, built the magnificent complex of the City of Temples, on Monte Albán. In North America, the Hohokam, Mogollon and Anasazi cultures stood out.

In Peru, the construction of large temples is documented even before the invention of ceramics, in the millennium BC. C. (Sechín Alto, Kuntur Wasi). Of note is Chavín de Huántar (900 BC), a religious complex built in various phases, with a U-shaped structure, with a tiled plaza with slabs in relief with figures of jaguars and mythological animals, a temple built on three floors of galleries, and a central white granite monolith 4.5 meters high. In this region, a notable textile industry emerged, perhaps the first in the world, spun on a loom with threads of almost 200 different colors, especially the Paracas wool cloaks. Other notable cultures of the region were the Moche and the Nazca—with their enigmatic Nazca geoglyphs. In the Amazon area, the barrancoid culture "Municipio Sotillo (Monagas)") stood out, with ceramics with incised designs, as well as the San Agustín culture in Colombia.[15]​.

Africa

African art has always had a marked magical-religious character, intended more for rites and ceremonies of the various African animist and polytheistic beliefs than for aesthetic purposes, although there are also ornamental productions. Most of his works are made of wood, stone or ivory, in masks and free-standing figures of a more or less anthropomorphic character, with a typical canon of a large head, straight trunk and short limbs. Ceramics, jewelry and textiles were also produced, as well as metallurgy objects—iron was known since the century BC. C.—. The first production of some relevance was the Nok culture, in the millennium BC. C., located in the north of present-day Nigeria. The terracotta sculptures stand out, with human figures - sometimes just the head - or animals (elephants, monkeys, snakes), with a great naturalistic sense, showing facial expressions of individualized sign, with various hairstyles, sometimes with necklaces and bracelets. In Sudan, the Kerma and Meroe cultures developed, characterized by their monumental mud constructions, their weapons and their ceramics. In Ethiopia, the city of Aksum "Aksum (city)") stood out, the center of a kingdom that reached its peak in the 19th century. With a notable culture - they developed a writing in the Ge'ez language, and created a monetary system - their steles "Stele (monument)") are worth highlighting in the form of monolithic pillars, of a funerary nature, up to 20 meters high.[16]​.

Asia

Indian art has a mainly religious character, serving as a vehicle for the transmission of the different religions that have marked India: Hinduism, Buddhism, Islam, Christianity, etc. We must also highlight as a distinctive feature of Indian art its desire to integrate with nature, as an adaptation to the universal order, taking into account that most natural elements (mountains, rivers, trees) have a sacred character for the Indians.

• - Indus Culture: the first great Indian civilization developed between the century BC. C. and the century BC. C., known today from the excavations carried out in 1920 by sir John Marshall "John Marshall (archaeologist)") in Mohenjo-Daro, an ancient city that in successive locations shows a planned urbanization, with public buildings built in baked clay bricks. Of equal importance are the excavations carried out in Harappa, with remains of ceramics, sculpture and metal tools (gold, silver, copper and brass).[17]​.

• - Vedic period (centuries - BC) and premauria (centuries - BC): in this stage the Aryan peoples were introduced, and traditional Indian religions appeared. In the century BC. C. Buddhism and Jainism appeared, establishing close ties with Persian art. The expedition to India of Alexander the Great (326-325 BC) opened contact with Greek Hellenistic art, embodied in Greco-Buddhist forms.

• - Mauryan art (centuries - BC): the Maurya dynasty, of Buddhist religion, occupied the entire middle course of the Indus and the central part of the Deccan peninsula. Stone architecture replaces brick, as at Aśoka Palace in Pātaliputra. The characteristic monument of this period is the stūpa, a commemorative funerary mound, generally covered with reliefs with scenes from the life of Buddha, such as the Sānchi Stūpa.

• - Gandhāra art (2nd century BC-1st century AD): Gandhāra art is of the Greco-Buddhist tradition, with Hellenistic and Sassanid influence, notable for the direct representation of the image of Buddha. The typology of the stūpa evolved, which is domed on a tall cylindrical drum placed on a square base, like that of Kanisha, in Peshawar.

• - Art of Mathurā and Amarāvatī (- centuries): in the city of Mathurā, located in the upper basin of the Ganges, an important artistic school developed that would spread throughout the rest of India and influence Gupta art. The Mathurā style mixed traditional Indian elements with Greco-Roman motifs, however few representations from this period have survived due to the destruction caused by the Islamic invasion. Amarāvatī art also has Greco-Roman influence, as demonstrated by the remains found in Virapatnam (Pondicherry). Like the previous styles, its main works are monasteries and stūpas, highlighting the great stupa of Amarāvatī, 50 meters high.[18]​.

Indian literature began around 2500 BC. C., written in Sanskrit. Its first manifestation was Vedic literature (from veda, 'truth'), with writings focused on religion and war, with a poetic tone and evocative of a magical world. It is divided into three groups:

Oceania

Oceanic art is marked by the multiplicity of island territories that dot the Pacific Ocean, highlighting the islands of Australia and New Zealand, and three main areas of islands and archipelagos: Polynesia, Melanesia and Micronesia. The first culture developed in the area was the Lapita (1500-500 BC), originated in New Caledonia and spread throughout New Guinea and Western Polynesia (Solomon Islands, Vanuatu, Fiji, Tonga and Samoa, mainly). It is characterized by its ceramics decorated with toothed motifs made with combs or spikes, as well as objects made of obsidian and shells. Between 500 BC C. and 500 AD. C. colonization continued towards Micronesia, Melanesia and eastern Polynesia (Society Islands, Marquesas, Easter Island, Hawaii), although in these early phases no numerous vestiges have been found, except for some utensils and beads, mainly made of shells. In Australia, the cave paintings stand out, which are quite schematic, reaching geometric simplification.[29]​.

Other manifestations

• - Hittite art: the Hittite people lived in the Anatolian peninsula, Armenia and Syria, between the 3rd and the millennium BC. C. It received Mesopotamian influence and, in turn, influenced Persian, Minoan and Etruscan art. Its architecture was monumental, with palaces preceded by avenues with sculptures of sphinxes, as in Boğazköy, where various reliefs with scenes of war and hunting also appeared. The sculptures of Karkemish and Tell-Halaf (Syria) also stood out.

• - Phoenician art: a people with a seafaring tradition, dedicated mainly to trade, they sailed throughout the Mediterranean and North Africa, founding the city of Carthage in present-day Tunisia. They transmitted the influence of oriental art throughout the Mediterranean. His sculptures stand out, of Assyrian and Egyptian influence, with a certain archaic rigidity and lack of naturalness. Phoenician art also occurred in different areas of the Mediterranean, especially Cyprus, Sardinia and Ibiza "Ibiza (island)").

• - Scythian art: also called "art of the steppes", it corresponds to the nomadic peoples who inhabited the Eurasian plains, mainly between the 2nd and the millennium BC. C. Their art was predominantly mobile, easy to transport, being a nomadic people. Linked to metallurgy, objects in bronze, iron and precious metals stand out (weapons, shields, fibulas, belts, jewelry), as well as works in wood, bone, leather, fabrics and carpets. Animalistic motifs stand out in his works, possibly of totemic origin. Scythian art influenced that of the Germanic, Viking and Early Christian peoples.

• - Iberian art: it developed in the Iberian Peninsula at the same time as the La Tène culture, mainly in Andalusia and the eastern area and, to a lesser extent, in the Central Plateau and the south of France. The architecture was based on rammed earth walls, with a lintel system, creating arches and false vaults by approximating courses. Cities were usually built on acropolis, as in Azaila, Ullastret and Olérdola. Sculpture developed notably, highlighting the typology of the "ladies", such as those of Elche, Baza and Cerro de los Santos. The representation of animals (horses, bulls, lions) was also typical, some of an anthropoid nature, such as the Bicha de Balazote.

• - Persian art: an important culture developed in Persia under the reign of two important dynasties: the Achaemenid (560-331 BC) and the Sassanid (226-640 AD). Persian architecture brought together Mesopotamian forms with Egyptian ones, using stone for the first time in large palaces such as those of Susa, Persepolis and Pasargadae, where the use of windows arose for the first time - unlike the overhead lighting used until then - and where the large rooms or apadanas stand out, with tall columns and volute capitals. In the Sassanid era, palaces arose (Ctesiphon, Firuzabad) with vaulted systems with domes on squinches, and a portico or iwan with a large arch open to a patio, which would influence Islamic art. In Persian sculpture, the reliefs stand out, in stone or enameled ceramic, with scenes of warriors, fights with monsters or animals such as bulls and lions.[30]​.

Se denomina arte clásico[nota 2]​ al arte desarrollado en las antiguas Grecia y Roma, cuyos adelantos tanto científicos como materiales y de orden estético aportaron a la historia del arte un estilo basado en la naturaleza y en el ser humano, donde preponderaba la armonía y el equilibrio, la racionalidad de las formas y los volúmenes, y un sentido de imitación («mímesis») de la naturaleza que sentaron las bases del arte occidental, de tal forma que la recurrencia a las formas clásicas ha sido constante a lo largo de la historia en la civilización occidental.

Greece

The main artistic manifestations that have marked the evolution of Western art were developed in Greece. After beginnings where the Minoan and Mycenaean cultures stood out, Greek art developed in three periods: archaic, classical and Hellenistic. Characterized by naturalism and the use of reason in measurements and proportions, and with an aesthetic sense inspired by nature, Greek art was the starting point of art developed on the European continent.

In architecture, the temples stood out, where three construction orders followed one another: Doric, Ionic and Corinthian. They were stone constructions, on a plinth (krepis), with or without a portico (or with a portico in front and behind, that is, amphiprostyle), with or without columns (which can be frontal, lateral, or can surround the entire building, in which case it is called peripteral), and generally crowned in the form of a pediment "Fronton (architecture)"), located above the entablature, whose frieze usually shows reliefs. sculptural The Acropolis complex stands out especially, with the Doric temple of the Parthenon and the Ionic temples of the Erechtheion and the Nike Áptera. Other relevant works were the Theater of Epidaurus and the Lantern of Lysicrates, and urban planning was developed by Hippodamus of Miletus.

In sculpture, the representation of the human body predominated, based on the harmony of proportions. In archaic times, rigid and schematic forms, of great expressiveness, were given, standing out for a type of smile close to the grimace, called "eginetic smile" for having its greatest representation in the figures of the Temple of Aphaia in Aegina. Statues of naked athletes (kouros) and dressed girls (kore) are also typical of this era. In the century BC. C. (the so-called "century of Pericles"), classicism was established, bringing the canon to perfection in the proportions of the human body, with greater naturalism and a soul study in the expression of the figure represented. The work of Myron, Phidias and Polykleitos especially stood out. In a second classicist phase, the naturalistic serenity was broken in order to emphasize the expression, which is more tragic and distressing, as we perceive in the work of Scopas, Praxiteles and Lysippus. Finally, in the Hellenistic period, proportion and harmony give way to overloading and sinuosity, to the violent dynamism of form and the pathetic expression of feeling, as in the Laocoon and the Farnese Bull, although classical forms persist in works such as the Venus de Milo and the Victory of Samothrace.

Painting developed mainly in ceramics, in everyday scenes or with historical or mythological themes. Two periods are usually established, depending on the technique used in making painted ceramics: "black figures on a red background" (until the century BC) and "red figures on a black background" (from the century BC). Although numerous samples have not reached the present day, there is evidence from historical sources of the names of several famous Greek painters, such as Zeuxis, Apelles, Parrhasius, Eufranor, Polygnotus, etc.[32]​.

Greek literature reached levels of great quality, laying the foundations for Western literature. The literary genres were configured (epic, lyrical and dramatic), with religion and mythology being the plot basis of their works. From the beginnings of oral tradition (the epic), written literature emerged with the development of the Greek alphabet around the century BC. C.. Greek myths were a fusion of Indo-Germanic and Mediterranean elements, with a particular aesthetic sense that would give rise to poetry. Originally, the Greek mythos was an explained story, of oral tradition, considered reliable - unlike today, where "myth" is synonymous with legend, fiction; With the epic and poetry, the myth passed into literature, mainly with the figure of Homer and his two great works: the Iliad and the Odyssey. Poetry stood out for its choral lyrics that expressed collective feelings, as seen in the work of Hesiod, Pindar, Sappho and Anacreon. Prose was also developed, especially in the historical genre, highlighting Herodotus, Thucydides and Xenophon; oratory, represented by Demosthenes, Plato and Aristotle; and the fable, practiced by Aesop.[33]​.

In Greece, theater was born, understood as "dramatic art", where along with a text - where dialogue predominates, the basis of the scenic representation -, actors, scenery, lights and sound effects, costumes, makeup, etc. also intervene, while the presence of an audience watching the show is essential. Greek theater evolved from ancient religious rituals (komos); The ritual became a myth and, through "mimesis", the word was added, resulting in tragedy. At the same time, the public went from participating in the ritual to being an observer of the tragedy, which had an educational component, transmission of values, as well as purgation of feelings ("catharsis"). Later, comedy emerged, with a first component of satire and political and social criticism, later leading to traditional themes and archetypal characters. Then mimicry and farce also appeared. The main Greek playwrights were: Aeschylus, Sophocles and Euripides in tragedy, while in comedy Aristophanes and Menander stood out.[34]​.

Greek music is unknown to us on an auditory level, we only have an idea of ​​what it could be like through written documents. The Greeks wrote music with the letters of the alphabet, but it is not known how long each note was, so the rhythm is unknown. One of the first modalities was the dithyramb, related to the cult of Dionysus. The theater and epic narratives were sung, although since the musical annotations were lost they have remained as written documents. In Greece it was the first time in history that music was studied scientifically: Pythagoras related it to mathematics, and theoretical treatises on music were written, the first being that of Aristoxenus in the century BC. C. The main instruments used in Greece were: the lyre "Lyre (musical instrument)"), the kithara, the aulós "Aulos (instrument)"), the syringa "Siringa (musical instrument)"), various types of drums - such as the tympanon -, the rattlesnake, the cymbal, the sistrum, etc.[35] Greece was the first place where dance was considered an art, having a muse dedicated to her: Terpsichore. The first vestiges come again from the cults of Dionysus, while it was in the tragedies - mainly those of Aeschylus - where it was developed as a technique, in the rhythmic movements of the chorus.[36]​.

Rome

With a clear precedent in Etruscan art, Roman art was greatly influenced by Greek art. Thanks to the expansion of the Roman Empire, classical Greco-Roman art reached almost every corner of Europe, North Africa and the Middle East, laying the evolutionary foundation for future art developed in these areas.

Architecture stood out for its practical and utilitarian character: great engineers and builders, the Romans stood out in civil architecture, with the construction of roads, bridges, aqueducts and urban works, as well as temples, palaces, theaters, amphitheaters, circuses, thermal baths, triumphal arches, etc. To the Greek architraved system they added the use of the arch "Arch (architecture)") and the vault, with the use of ashlar, brick and masonry. They used the Greek orders, to which they added the Tuscan order, with a smooth shaft and capital with collar and equine "Equina (architecture)") topped with a square abacus "Abaco (architecture)"). Among his main works we can remember the Colosseum, the Pantheon of Agrippa, the Theater of Mérida, the Maison Carrée of Nîmes, the Baths of Caracalla, the Aqueduct of Segovia, the Arch of Constantine, the Tower of Hercules, etc.

The sculpture, inspired by the Greek, also focused on the human figure, although with more realism, they did not mind showing defects that were ignored by the idealized Greek sculpture. A very widespread genre was the portrait, with great detail and fidelity in the features, noticeable in the use of the trephine to produce chiaroscuro and in the fact of engraving the pupils. More idealized are the portraits of the emperors, made in three versions: togata, as a patrician; thoracata, as a soldier; and apotheosis, as divinity. The relief "Relief (art)") especially stood out, in historical or religious themes, as we see in the Ara Pacis of Augustus, in the Arch of Titus and in the Trajan Column.

The painting is known above all from the remains found in Pompeii, where four styles can be seen: inlay, which imitates marble covering; the architectural, so called because it simulates architectures; the ornamental, with fantastic architectures, garlands and putti; and the fantastic, a mixture of the previous two, with imaginary landscapes, various architectural forms and mythological scenes. The mosaic also stood out, in opus sectile, of geometric shapes, or opus tesellatum, with small pieces that form figurative scenes, such as The Sacrifice of Iphigenia in Ampurias or The Battle of Isos in Naples.[37]​.

Roman literature received, as in the rest of the arts, Greek influence, from which they adopted techniques and genres; The main Latin innovation was the concept of "style" that the Romans applied to their works. Although their production was not of great quality—in the aesthetic-literary aspect—the work of Latin authors has exerted a great influence on Western literature, due to its influence on Christian and medieval literature, and because Latin was the origin of the vernacular languages ​​subsequently spoken in many places in Europe. They cultivated the same genres as the Greeks, highlighting Lucretius, Virgil, Horace and Ovid in poetry; in prose, Petronius and Apuleius; in oratory, Cicero and Seneca; in historiography, Sallust, Tacitus and Titus Livy.[38]​.

La caída del Imperio romano de Occidente marcó el inicio en Europa de la Edad Media, etapa de cierta decadencia política y social, pues la fragmentación del imperio en pequeños estados y la dominación social de la nueva aristocracia militar supuso la feudalización de todos los territorios anteriormente administrados por la burocracia imperial. El arte clásico será reinterpretado por las nuevas culturas dominantes, de origen germánico, mientras que la nueva religión, el cristianismo, impregnará la mayor parte de la producción artística medieval.

Early Christian art

Paleo-Christian art is called art made by the first followers of this new religion, first in a hidden way, while they were still persecuted by the imperial power, and later, after the conversion to Christianity of the Roman Emperor Constantine, it became the official style of the Empire. Classical forms were reinterpreted to serve as a vehicle for the expression of the new official religion, and an atomization of styles occurred by geographical areas.

In architecture, the first manifestations occurred in the area of ​​cemeteries or "catacombs", which simultaneously served as meeting places for persecuted Christian devotees. With the legalization of his religion, the basilica stood out as a typology, an adaptation of the Roman building of the same name that, however, went from a civil function to a religious one. It generally consisted of three parts: an entrance atrium, the body of the basilica, divided into three naves "Nave (architecture)"), and the presbytery "Presbytery (architecture)"), where the altar is located. The basilicas of Saint Peter in the Vatican, Saint John Lateran, Saint Lawrence and Saint Clement in Rome, and Saint Apollinaris in Ravenna stand out.

The figurative arts begin the path of medieval art, eminently religious, giving preponderance to the symbolism of the scenes represented over the realism of the narrative or its aesthetic character. In sculpture, the sarcophagi stood out, which evolved from simple ornamental decoration with concave moldings (strygiles) to the narration of scenes in frieze. Painting occurred above all in the catacombs, with religious and allegorical scenes, and miniature, manuscript illumination, emerged, with two main schools: the Hellenistic-Alexandrian and the Syrian. The mosaic gained special relevance, which had a great development, influencing Byzantine art; The best examples are found in Santa Maria Maggiore in Rome "Basilica of Santa María Maggiore (Rome)") and San Apollinaris and San Vitale in Ravenna.[40]​.

Christian literature was developed in Latin and Greek, generally for didactic and propagandistic purposes of the new faith. They were practical works, without stylistic intent, with a moralizing purpose. At first, the development of the New Testament stood out, written in Greek, with three main parts: the four gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke, John), the epistolary corpus (letters of Saint Paul and other apostles) and the Apocalypse of Saint John. A series of apologetic writings from the so-called Fathers of the Church then emerged: Athenagoras, Origen, Clement of Alexandria, Eusebius of Caesarea, etc. When Christianity became the official religion of the Empire, a more literary, more elaborate and rhetorical trend emerged, highlighting Saint Basil the Great, Saint John Chrysostom and Saint Gregory of Nazianzus. Among the Latin exegetes, Tertullian, Lactantius, Prudentius, Saint Jerome (translator of the Bible into Latin, the so-called Vulgate) and, especially, Saint Augustine, stood out.[41]

Early Christian music was inherited from the Roman music, as well as from the Jewish liturgy. The mass was sung, choral type. In the 2nd century, Saint Ambrose introduced Ambrosian chant, a vocal undulation without rhythm or jumps between notes. Later, Pope Gregory I the Great created Gregorian chant (century), with a continuous melodic line, in the form of a missal (missalis romanum). There are three styles of Gregorian chant, which are classified depending on the number of different tones sung per syllable: when there is one tone per syllable it is called "syllabic" style; 2 to 5 tones per syllable is called "tire"; and 6 or more tones per syllable is called "melismatic".[42]​.

Germanic art

The invasion of the Roman Empire by the Germanic peoples led to the fragmentation of the territory into various kingdoms, where the invading peoples became the ruling class, although Roman culture survived among the humble classes. This cultural coexistence generated the appearance of vernacular languages ​​and the creation of new political and cultural entities, which will be strengthened throughout the Middle Ages until forming the various nationalities that exist today in the Western world.

The first architectural manifestations of these towns were of little relevance, due to the poverty of the materials used and the lack of a major construction program. Roman facilities and materials used to be used, making the use of the semicircular arch and the vault widespread. The Ostrogothic constructions in Italy stand out, such as the Mausoleum of Theodoric in Ravenna. In sculpture, relief stood out, like those of Poitiers in France or Cividale in Italy. Painting developed in miniature, as we see in the sacramentaries of Luxeuil and Gelasiano (Vatican).

Among the Germanic peoples, it is worth highlighting the Visigoths, settled in the Iberian Peninsula, who developed their own style of great relevance. The architecture stood out for the use of ashlar masonry, the horseshoe arch and the vault, either barrel or groined. They developed three types of churches "Church (building)"): the basilica with three naves (San Juan de Baños "Church of San Juan (Baños de Cerrato)")), that with a nave with side chambers (San Pedro de la Mata) and that with a Greek cross (Santa Comba de Bande). In sculpture, it is worth highlighting the incorporation of figurative sculpture into churches, especially in friezes and capitals, as in Quintanilla de las Viñas "Ermita de Santa María (Quintanilla de las Viñas)") and San Pedro de la Nave "Church of San Pedro de la Nave (El Campillo)"). Goldsmithing also stood out, especially in crowns and crosses, such as those found in the treasures of Guarrazar and Torredonjimeno.[43]​.

Pre-Romanesque art

This is the name given to the multiple styles developed in Europe from the coronation of Charlemagne (year 800) until around the year 1000, where the appearance of the Romanesque will mean the dissemination of the same unitary style throughout the entire European continent. This meaning is simply a way of encompassing a series of independent styles with few or no common factors, with the only unifying factor being that they are predecessors of the internationalization of Romanesque.

• - Carolingian art: the coronation of Charlemagne meant in a certain way the restoration of the Roman Empire, which led to a cultural rebirth and a first return to classical culture as a source of inspiration, although nuanced by the Christian religion. Carolingian architecture was based on the use of pillars instead of columns, with semicircular arches and wooden roofs or barrel vaults. Examples of this are the Palatine Chapel in Aachen and Benedictine monasteries such as Sankt Gallen, Fulda and Corvey. Sculpture was mostly produced in ivory and bronze, like the Equestrian Statue of Charlemagne (Louvre). Painting was limited to miniature, with several schools such as the Palatine, Tours, Reims and Saint-Denis.

• - Ottonian art: it is so called because it coincides with the reigns of Otto I, Otto II and Otto III. Architecturally they are heirs of Carolingian art: the Aachen model can be seen in the choir of the Abbey of Essen and in Ottmarsheim, while the Benedictine basilica model is present in Saint Cyriacus of Genrode, Saint Michael of Hildesheim and the cathedral of Speyer. In the plastic arts, the Byzantine influence is perceived, due to the marriage of Otto II with Theophan of Constantinople: in sculpture, the bronze works stand out, such as the doors of San Miguel de Hildesheim; in painting, it is worth mentioning the frescoes of Saint George of Oberzell").

• - Celtic art: in the British Isles, recently evangelized, Celtic art had a time of splendor. In architecture, few remains are preserved, since it was generally built in wood: the churches of Deerhurst and Bradford-on-Avon are worth highlighting. In sculpture, the large Irish crosses stand out, decorated in relief, such as those of Moone"), Kells and Monasterboice. The miniature had Carolingian influence, highlighting the Winchester school, to which the Pontifical of Saint Aethelwold (British Museum) belonged.

• - Viking art: the architecture was made of wood, highlighting the pyramid-shaped churches, with pointed roofs and highly vertical projections, in the style of Viking meeting rooms, such as the Norwegian church of Borgund. The goldsmith work also stands out, especially the fibulas with long needles and the swords with terminal button and rings on the hilt.

• - Asturian art: with the Islamic invasion of the Iberian Peninsula, Christians were reduced to the region of Asturias, which saw art flourish notably, especially in architecture, where three stages are distinguished, depending on the reign of Ramiro I: pre-Ramirense, Ramirense and post-Ramirense. It is characterized by the use of ashlar walls, semicircular arches—sometimes banked#Types_of_arches_according_to_the_form_of_intradós "Arch (architecture)")—, barrel vaults with transverse arches and exterior buttresses. The main typology is the basilica with three naves, with a wide transept "Cruise (architecture)") and three rectangular chapels at the head. In the first period, the church of San Julián de los Prados stands out; in Ramirense, Santa María del Naranco, San Miguel de Lillo and Santa Cristina de Lena; and in the post-Ramiran area, San Salvador de Valdediós.

Byzantine art

Despite the fall of the Western Roman Empire, it endured in the East—known as the Byzantine Empire—[note 3] until the conquest of Constantinople in 1453 by the Ottoman Turks. Heir to Hellenistic art, Byzantine art gathered the main eastern artistic traditions, of which it was the gateway to Europe, where Byzantine art influenced pre-Romanesque and Romanesque art. Three "golden ages" are distinguished in Byzantine art: a first in the 2nd century, coinciding with the reign of Justinian; a second from the century until the taking of Constantinople by the crusaders in 1204; and a third in the century, with the Paleologos dynasty.

Stone and brick were used in architecture, with exterior coverings of stone plates with reliefs and mosaic interiors. The use of the column abounded, with cubic capitals "Cube (geometry)") decorated with reliefs on two planes, or in the shape of a wasp nest. The semicircular arch and the vault with a dome on pendentives were used. The most used typology was that of a centralized plan - perhaps due to the importance given to the dome -, with an entrance atrium, narthex, presbytery "Presbytery (architecture)") and choir at the back, with two lateral chambers or sacristies and the altar under a baldachin. Las primeras manifestaciones, de época de Justiniano, son las más monumentales: iglesia de los Santos Sergio y Baco, de Santa Irene y de Santa Sofía[nota 4]​ en Constantinopla; In the second golden age, the Cathedral of Saint Sofia in kyiv and Saint Mark in Venice stand out; and in the third it is worth mentioning the complexes of Mistra, Thessaloniki and Mount Athos.

In the time of Justinian, the figurative arts had an early Christian influence, while at the same time they included various previous traditions, especially the Hellenistic and the Neoatic Syrian, highlighting the musivary complexes of San Demetrius of Thessaloniki "Church of San Demetrius (Thessaloniki)") and San Vital de Ravenna. In the second golden age, Byzantine aesthetics and iconography were established, especially around the "Icon (religion)" icons, with a strong symbolic load of the images, with stylized figures and hierarchical perspectives (the size of the figure depends on its religious importance). The sculpture was usually in relief, on stone or ivory, highlighting images of "imperial consecration" (Christ with his hands on the heads of the emperors). In the Third Golden Age, painting replaced mosaic, especially panel painting icons, highlighting the schools of Cyprus, Thessaloniki, Crete, Venice and Moscow (where Andrei Rubliov excelled).[47]

Islamic art

With the Hegira of Muhammad in 622, a new religion arose, Islam, which spread rapidly from the Near East through North Africa, reaching Europe with the conquest of the Iberian Peninsula and the Balkan area after the fall of the Byzantine Empire. Over time, the new religion brought together a great diversity of peoples and cultures, its art being the reflection of this disparity, having numerous manifestations and stylistic variants depending on the region where it was produced. Most of the manifestations of Islamic art are works of architecture—which include magnificent sculptural or other ornamentation. As for painting and sculpture, the religious prohibition on representing figurative images meant that it was developed mainly as ornamentation, in abstract or geometric motifs; The few examples of figurative works usually occurred in private settings such as palaces.

The architecture stood out for the use of the pointed arch - which in al-Andalus was a horseshoe arch due to the inheritance of Visigothic art -, sometimes used in overlapping and intersecting, later emerging the lobed arch#Lobed_arc "Arch (architecture)"), generally with three or five lobes. Various types of vault were used, such as the gallon vault and the ribbed vault. Great importance was given to ornamental decoration, generally made of plasterwork, alabaster, marble, mosaic or painting, which was abstract in nature, with epigraphic, vegetal or lacework motifs. The main typology is the mosque, usually composed of a large patio (sahn), the tower or minaret and the prayer room (haram), in the background (quibla) there is a niche called mihrab, sometimes preceded by a space with arches (macsura). The mosques of Damascus, the Rock and al-Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem, the Samarra mosque, the Ibn Tulun mosque in Egypt, the Isfahan mosque, the Tamerlane mosque in Samarkand, the Blue Mosque in Istanbul, etc. stand out.

In al-Andalus, Islamic art had its moment of splendor in the emirate of Córdoba: Córdoba architecture was heir to Hispano-Roman and Visigothic forms, as demonstrated by the use of the horseshoe arch, which is framed in an alfiz and to which is added a characteristic alternation of its voussoirs in red and white. Its main monument is the Mosque of Córdoba, composed of eleven naves perpendicular to the qibla, with a series of superimposed arches, semicircular at the top and horseshoe at the bottom, with the traditional white-red alternation. Also worth highlighting are the Bab al-Mardum Mosque in Toledo and the Medina Azahara Palace. Other important manifestations of Islamic art in the peninsula were those produced in Seville during the Almohad domination, highlighting the Giralda and the Torre del Oro; and Nasrid art in Granada, which has its main expression in the Alhambra.[48]​.

Arab literature began with a work of great significance, the , the sacred book of Islam written by Muhammad and established in its definitive text by the Caliph Uthman Ibn Affan in 650. It consists of 114 chapters (), in rhymed verses, with two main groups of preachings: those written by Muhammad in Mecca, brief and poetic in tone, of a more fervent religiosity; and those written in Medina, longer and more discursive, exposing the main precepts of the new religion. The was the grammatical and stylistic basis of Arabic literature, which developed especially in poetry (Abu Nuwas, al-Mutanabbi, Ibn Quzman); and prose, whether philosophical (al-Kindi, Avicenna, Avempace, Ibn Tufail, Averroes), historical (Ibn Khaldun), narrative (Ibn al-Muqaffa, al-Jahiz), or fantastic (al-Hamadani"), al-Hariri"). It is worth highlighting the collection of stories titled , an anonymous work written over the centuries and in various styles, and which is an impressive exercise in ingenuity and fantasy.[49]​.

Romanesque art

Romanesque art represents the first international style of Western European culture, with an identity fully consolidated after the passage from Latin to vernacular languages. Eminently religious in nature, almost all Romanesque art was aimed at the exaltation and dissemination of Christianity. Emerging in the middle of the century, it developed fundamentally during the century, at the end of which it began to coexist with the incipient Gothic. The various styles produced by the pre-Romanesque culminated in the Romanesque, while the eastern influence of Byzantine art is denoted.

The architecture stood out for the use of ashlar walls, semicircular arches and barrel vaults, supported on pillars by transverse arches, corresponding to the exterior buttresses; Domes are also frequent, on squinches "Trompa (architecture)") or pendentives. The churches have one or three naves, with a transept "Crucero (architecture)") and sometimes an ambulatory. The construction of large cathedrals began, which will continue during the Gothic period. As the main examples we have: the Monastery of Cluny, San Lázaro de Autun, Santa Fe de Conques, San Saturnino de Toulouse, San Front de Périgueux and San Esteban de Caen "Church of San Esteban (Caen)") in France; the cathedrals of Durham, York and Canterbury in England; Saint Ambrose of Milan "Basilica of Saint Ambrose (Milan)"), Saint Abundius of Como, Saint Zeno of Verona and the cathedrals of Parma, Modena, Pisa and Lucca in Italy; the cathedrals of Speyer, Mainz and Worms in Germany; the cathedrals of Braga and Coimbra in Portugal; and San Pedro de Roda, San Isidoro de León, San Martín de Frómista, San Juan de Duero (Soria), Santo Domingo de Silos and the cathedrals of Jaca, Solsona and Santiago de Compostela in Spain.[51]​.

The sculpture was developed mainly in the architectural framework, of a religious nature, with schematized figures, without realism, of symbolic sign, with a marked didactic character, due to the illiteracy of the time. The main sculptural cycles occur in the tympanum "Tympanum (architecture)") of the access portals to churches and cathedrals, such as in Saint Madeleine of Vézelay, Saint Lazarus of Autun, Saint Faith of Conques and the Royal Portico of Chartres. In Italy, the figure of Benedetto Antelami stood out, who worked on the Cathedral of Parma, as in his magnificent Descent (1178). In Spain, the Catalan workshops of Ripoll and the Pyrenean area stood out first, the ivory workshops of León "León (Spain)") (Crucifix of Ferdinand I), the workshops of the Camino de Santiago, the Platerías Facade of the Cathedral of Santiago and the cloister of Silos; In the century, various regional schools were produced: the Catalan (portal of the monastery of Santa María de Ripoll), the Aragonese (monastery of San Pedro el Viejo "Monasterio de San Pedro el Viejo (Huesca)") in Huesca), the Navarrese (portal of Sangüesa) and the Castilian (monastery of Santa María la Real de Nájera).[52]​.

gothic art

Gothic art[note 7]​ developed between the 19th and 2nd centuries, a time of great economic and cultural development. The end of the feudal era meant the consolidation of centralized states, with greater predominance of cities over the countryside, while an increasing sector of society had access to culture, which was no longer the exclusive heritage of the Church. The rise of universities led to an increase in scientific, philosophical and literary studies, laying the foundations of modern culture.

Architecture underwent a profound transformation, with lighter, more dynamic forms, with a better structural analysis that allowed for more stylized buildings, with more openings and, therefore, better lighting. New typologies appeared, such as the pointed arch and the ribbed vault, and the use of buttresses and flying buttresses to support the structure of the building, allowing for larger interiors decorated with stained glass and rose windows. It is the time of the great cathedrals, among which it is worth highlighting: Laon, Chartres, Amiens, Reims, Bourges and Notre-Dame de Paris, in France; Canterbury, Salisbury and Gloucester, in England; Siena, Orvieto, Florence, Bologna and Milan, in Italy; Cologne, Strasbourg, Ulm and Magdeburg in Germany; Saint Stephen of Vienna in Austria; Barcelona, ​​Gerona, Palma de Mallorca, Seville, Toledo, Burgos, León, Zamora and Sigüenza, in Spain; and the monasteries of Batalha and Alcobaza in Portugal. In Spain, it is also worth highlighting the development of Mudejar art, strongly influenced by Islamic forms, and which is characterized by the use of brick, plaster and small square wood: Cristo de la Vega "Iglesia de Santa Leocadia (Toledo)") (Toledo), San Lorenzo de Sahagún#Iglesia_de_San_Lorenzo "Sahagún (Spain)"), Las Huelgas (Burgos), Santa Clara de Tordesillas, Convent of Guadalupe (Cáceres), Alcázar of Seville, etc.

Sculpture continued to be framed within the architectural work, although free-standing sculpture began to develop, with more realistic forms, inspired by nature. The artists sought ideal beauty, in simple and diaphanous forms, with a certain melancholy and nobility in the feelings, and with scenes of a narrative nature. In France, the Royal Portico and the transept portals of Chartres Cathedral stand out, as well as the Amiens and Reims complexes. In Italy, the workshop of Nicola and Giovanni Pisano in Pisa stands out, while in Germany the work of Veit Stoss and Tilman Riemenschneider stands out. In Spain, the Pórtico de la Gloria of the Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela stands out, the portals of the Collegiate Church of Toro and the cathedrals of Tuy and Ciudad Rodrigo, the complexes of Burgos, León and Toledo, as well as the work of Pere Johan and Gil de Siloé.

The painting stopped being murals and moved to altarpieces located on the altars of the churches, and painting on canvas, tempera or oil began to develop. Four pictorial styles followed one another:

• - Linear Gothic or Franco-Gothic: it developed from the 19th century until the beginning of the 19th century, characterized by linear drawing, strong chromaticism, a naturalism of simple lines and the idealism of the themes represented. This style was developed especially in stained glass and miniatures.

Pre-Columbian art flourished with great brilliance until the discovery of America. The invaders destroyed numerous works of pre-Columbian art (masks, illustrated codices, pieces of feathers and, especially, works of gold and silver, which were melted down). Even so, the pre-Columbian imprint endured in numerous later artistic productions.

Several cultures developed in Mexico: the first was that of Teotihuacán, a city built between the 2nd and 2nd centuries, with a reticular system - with an astrologically based layout -, where a large avenue stood out flanked by temples in the shape of a stepped pyramid "Pyramid (architecture)"), decorated with relief sculptures "Relief (art)") and fresco paintings. The Mayans occupied the Yucatan peninsula and present-day Belize and Guatemala (- centuries), developing an art of religious significance, where the temples, conceived under astronomical measurements, in a pyramidal shape (Tikal, Uxmal, Temple of Kukulcán in Chichén Itzá) also stood out. The sculpture was in relief, usually of mythological animals, snakes, birds and human figures, often with hieroglyphs. The Toltecs (- centuries), in the state of Hidalgo, built the Temple of the God of the Morning Star in Tula, and have left us one of the best examples of pre-Columbian sculpture: the Chac Mool. On the Mexican plateau, the Aztec culture developed (- centuries), which collected various previous traditions into a synthetic art dedicated to the expression of power. In their capital, Tenochtitlán, they built a great city with large palaces and gardens, and pyramid-shaped temples, dedicated to human sacrifice.

Inca art flourished in the Andes, emerging just like Aztec art in the 2nd century, covering present-day Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia, Chile and part of Argentina. The Incas had a highly developed culture, with advanced metallurgical, ceramic and textile procedures. Like the Romans, they developed notable architecture and civil engineering, with planned cities and well-laid roads, such as the Camino Real de las Montañas, 6,000 kilometers long, walled and 9 meters wide. Its capital, Cuzco, was fortified with walls of polygonal ashlars, a technique also used in Machu Picchu. Their buildings were rectangular or circular, with trapezoidal doors and windows. In addition to its architecture, its ceramics and textile art stood out, generally decorated with geometric motifs. In Bolivia, the city of Tiahuanaco stood out.[63]​.

Pre-Columbian literature was predominantly oral, so few vestiges have reached us. In Mexico, several expressions are preserved in the Nahuatl language: writings of religious, cosmological and divinatory sign (Borgia Codex); administrative documents and historical accounts (Xólotl Codex); and poetic compositions, such as the ritual hymns collected by Bernardino de Sahagún in Songs of the Gods. In the Mayan language, the books of Chilam Balam stand out, a transcription of hieroglyphic works on oral traditions, and the Popol Vuh, sacred book of the Quiché Indians "Quiché (ethnicity)"). In Peru, Inca literature is represented by a series of works of religious poetry, as well as long narrative poems with historical or mythological themes. Apparently, it was the only pre-Columbian culture where something similar to theater was developed, as can be seen in the Quechua language drama .[64]​.

North Africa had more relationship with European and Asian art, and Christianity was introduced in the 19th century, especially in Ethiopia. Subsequently, Islamism spread strongly throughout the Maghreb countries. Sub-Saharan Africa, on the other hand, was more isolated, with small kingdoms mired in frequent disputes. His first artistic manifestations, in perishable materials, have not reached us. The first vestiges are wood carvings, like those of the Tellem and Dogon peoples, in present-day Mali. Bronze objects appear in western and southern Africa around the 1st century, such as some vessels of the Igbo-Ukwu people in Nigeria. The Monomotapa culture flourished in Zimbabwe (- centuries), whose capital, Great Zimbabwe, was one of the largest cities in all of Africa. In Ife (also in Nigeria), of Yoruba culture, a notable school of terracotta figures, of great naturalism, emerged over the centuries. The churches carved into the rock of Lalibela, in Ethiopia, date from this period, where the painting of Christian themes also stands out. Between the centuries and a more schematic style of terracotta figures, male figures with a characteristic pointed beard, occurred in Djenné (Mali). Finally, between the and centuries, another notable school of sculpture occurred in Benin, highlighting its magnificent collection of bronzes.[65]​.

• - Gupta art (centuries -): Buddhism expanded in the Gupta Empire, with an art characterized by formal purism, harmony of proportions and the idealization of the human figure. The great rock sanctuaries or vihara (Ajantā, Ellorā, Elephanta) and the open-air temples (Bhitargaon, Bodhagaya, Deogarth, Sirpur) stand out. Gupta art spread throughout almost the entire Deccan: the Chālukya" used it in the temples of Ahiōlē and Bādāmi (550-750), and the Pallavas demonstrated it in their architectural-sculptural complex of Mahābalipuram. These styles are often called "post-Gupta".

• - Hindu art (centuries -): during this period the previous styles survive, accentuating Brahmanical forms. The most widespread type of sanctuary is the śikhara, like the one in Udaipur. The architecture is divided into two typologies: "the covered building and the pyramid" (Tanjore vimāna, century), and "the building with a curvilinear roof" (Gujarāt temple). Between the centuries - the art of Khajurāhō was produced, the highest expression of Indo-Aryan art due to the formal and aesthetic elegance of its temples, as well as the sculpture that adorns them. In Orissā, in the northeastern part of India, new typologies developed that turned the śikhara and vimāna into architectural representations of the Hindu gods, as in Bhubaneshwar and Kōnārka.[66]​.

Indian literature of this time was carried out in various modalities: the drama continued with the mythological epics, with a strong seal of imagination, highlighting Bhavabhūti, author of Malatimadhava, a story about the love of two young people that has been compared to Romeo and Juliet; The epic poem is the heir of the Rāmāyana, in a new genre called mahakavya, of historical and mythological themes, highlighting the Rajatarangini of Kalhana") (around 1150); lyric poetry is represented by the Sataka of Bhartrihari"), a set of poems about the Indian concept of life, and the Gītāgovinda of Jāyādeva, poems by allegorical type love; Finally, the fable was characterized by short stories with a popular air, of a didactic and instructive nature, highlighting the authors Narayana "Naraian Pandit (fabulist)") and Sivadasa"). It is also worth mentioning the famous Kama-sutra, compiled in the century by Vātsyāyana, which is a set of precepts and advice related to love and sex.[67]​.

Theater evolved without major signs of rupture since ancient times, in shows where, along with mythological dramas about the Hindu cosmogony, singing, dance and mime stood out. At this time two main modalities stood out: the mahanataka (great spectacle), about the great Indian epics; and dutangada, in which an actor recites the main text while others stage it with the help of mime and dance.[68]​.

The music at this time was predominantly vocal, with accompaniment of various instruments, mainly zithers and lutes. Several treatises on music were written: the of Matamga") (century), the of Nārada (century) and the of Śārngadeva") (century). They had seven notes (): sa, ri, ga, ma, pa, dha, ni; with 22 microtonal degrees (). The melody was composed of various tonal cycle structures (), which included various ornaments (). In turn, each is related to a or measure of time, to mark the rhythm, which can be slow (), medium () or fast (). Finally, the (pedal) is a sustained sound that supports the tonal center, acting as a guide during the execution of the work.[69]​.

In this period, Polynesian expansion continued towards the oceanic periphery (New Zealand, Kermadec Islands, Chatham Islands). Great cultural and artistic diversification occurred: in Melanesia alone, for example, there were more than 1,000 different ethnic groups. The majority of artistic manifestations were of a ritual nature, related to dances and ceremonies of an animistic or polytheistic type. Elaborate architectural complexes with stone sculptures and megaliths were produced in Micronesia. In Yap (Caroline Islands), a type of stone coin composed of large discs with a central hole appeared. In Guam and the Mariana Islands, houses on stone columns (latte) stand out. In Hawaii, large temples (heiau) were built, with wooden sculptures up to three meters high representing their gods. In the Marquesas Islands there were a type of megalithic house construction on stone platforms, with large anthropomorphic statues. In New Zealand, the Maori developed a type of wood carving with figures of political and religious leaders, as well as carved nephrite pendants (hei tiki). Finally, it is worth highlighting the construction on Easter Island of the famous monolithic heads (moai), of which about 600 were erected between the year 900 and 1600. They are 4 or 5 meter figures, which were placed on stone platforms that served as the base for the temples (ahu) of ancestor worship.[78]​.

El arte de la Edad Moderna —no confundir con arte moderno, que se suele emplear como sinónimo de arte contemporáneo—[nota 8]​ se desarrolló entre los siglos y . La Edad Moderna supuso cambios radicales a nivel político, económico, social y cultural: la consolidación de los estados centralizados supuso la instauración del absolutismo; los nuevos descubrimientos geográficos —especialmente el continente americano— abrieron una época de expansión territorial y comercial, suponiendo el inicio del colonialismo; la invención de la imprenta conllevó una mayor difusión de la cultura, que se abrió a todo tipo de público; la religión perdió la preponderancia que tenía en la época medieval, a lo que coadyuvó el surgimiento del protestantismo; a la vez, el humanismo surgió como nueva tendencia cultural, dejando paso a una concepción más científica del hombre y del universo.

El origen de la historia del arte como tal data del siglo , considerándose las Vidas de Giorgio Vasari el texto inaugural del estudio del arte con carácter historiográfico. El método que siguió el erudito florentino era la biografía del artista. Esta metodología fue la que se impuso hasta el siglo , cuando el historiador alemán Johann Joachim Winckelmann inició un nuevo tipo de análisis del arte buscando en el desarrollo de las civilizaciones una evolución estilística.[nota 9]​.

Renaissance

Emerging in Italy in the century (Quattrocento), it spread throughout the rest of Europe from the end of that century and the beginning of the . The artists were inspired by classical Greco-Roman art, which is why there was talk of artistic "renaissance" after medieval obscurantism. Style inspired by nature, new models of representation emerged, such as the use of perspective. Without giving up the religious theme, the representation of the human being and his environment became more relevant, with new themes appearing such as mythological or historical, or new genres such as landscape, still life and even the nude "Nude (artistic genre)"). Beauty stopped being symbolic, as in the medieval era, to have a more rational and measured component, based on harmony and proportion.

Architecture recovered the classic models, reworked with a more naturalistic concept "Naturalism (art)") and with scientific bases: the use of the semicircular arch, the barrel vault, the half-orange dome and the classical orders (Doric, Ionic, Corinthian and Composite) were recovered. The structure of the building was based on mathematical proportions, which sought the perfection of the forms, while enhancing the luminosity and openness of the spaces. In the Quattrocento, the architecture developed in Florence stood out: Filippo Brunelleschi (dome of Santa María del Fiore, Basilica of San Lorenzo), Leon Battista Alberti (Saint Andrew of Mantua "Basilica of Saint Andrew (Mantua)")); while in the Cinquecento the artistic center became Rome: Bramante (San Pietro in Montorio, St. Peter's Basilica in the Vatican), Antonio da Sangallo (Farnese Palace). At this time, gardening gained progressive popularity, which began to be conceived through a structured design; Thus arose the so-called "Italian garden", with a geometric composition, built on terraces with stairs (Jardín del Belvedere, Bramante; Villa Madama, Rafael). Outside of Italy, the Renaissance developed especially in France, with the work of Philibert Delorme; in Germany it did not arrive until the middle of the century, with the castle of Heidelberg and, especially at the end of the century, in Bavaria; In the Netherlands the Italian influence was especially noticeable in the decoration, on structures still of Gothic sign; In England the Tudor style was produced, developed especially in the construction of civil palaces, characterized by the use of the Tudor arch; In Russia, the Italian Renaissance—introduced by Aristotile Fioravanti—was adapted to the typically Russian Byzantine style, as in the magnificent Kremlin complex. In Spain, several styles were developed: Plateresque, characterized by the use of padded walls, balustraded columns and profuse decoration of grotesques (Alonso Covarrubias, Diego de Siloé); and purism "Purism (architecture)"), more concerned with the rational structure of the building, abandoning the exuberant decoration of the plateresque (Rodrigo Gil de Hontañón, Andrés de Vandelvira).

Sculpture also sought the idealized perfection of classicism, although the curvilinear elegance and slender proportions of international Gothic endured until the century. Noble materials were used, such as marble and bronze, with a special taste for monumental form. Along with the religious theme, portraiture was developed, in busts or equestrian figures, in the style of ancient Rome. Particularly notable were: Lorenzo Ghiberti, Jacopo della Quercia, Luca della Robbia, Andrea Verrocchio and, especially, Donatello (David, 1409; Judith and Holofernes "Judith and Holofernes (Donatello)"), 1455-1460); and, outside Italy, Michel Colombe in France, Peter Vischer in Germany, and Felipe Bigarny, Bartolomé Ordóñez and Damián Forment in Spain.

Painting underwent a notable evolution from medieval forms, with naturalistic forms and secular or mythological themes alongside religious ones. Perspective studies allowed for works of great realistic effect, based on mathematical proportions, with special use of the "golden section" after the study published by Luca Pacioli (De Divina Proportione, 1509). Fresco and tempera were used, while oil painting was introduced in the middle of the century due to Flemish influence. One of its main exponents was Leonardo Da Vinci, a multifaceted genius who introduced sfumato or "aerial perspective", with works such as The Virgin of the Rocks (1483), The Last Supper "The Last Supper (Leonardo)") (1495-1497), The Mona Lisa (1503), etc. Another relevant name was Raphael, master of serene and balanced classicism, with perfect pictorial execution, as demonstrated in his frescoes in the Vatican Rooms. Other notable artists were: Masaccio, Fra Angelico, Paolo Ucello, Andrea del Castagno, Perugino, Piero della Francesca, Benozzo Gozzoli, Domenico Ghirlandaio, Botticelli, Andrea del Verrocchio, Luca Signorelli, Andrea Mantegna, Giovanni Bellini, Antonello da Messina, etc. In the rest of Europe: Matthias Grünewald, Albrecht Dürer, Hans Holbein the Younger and Lucas Cranach the Elder in Germany; Quentin Metsys and Pieter Brueghel in Holland; and Pedro Berruguete, Alejo Fernández, Vicente Masip, Juan de Juanes, Pedro Machuca and Luis de Morales in Spain.

The industrial arts had a great boom due to the taste for luxury of the new wealthy classes: cabinetmaking was developed, especially in Italy and Germany, highlighting the technique of intarsia, wooden inlays of various tones to produce linear effects or certain images. Tapestry stood out in Flanders, with works based on sketches developed by painters such as Bernard van Orley. The ceramics were made in Italy with glazed varnishes, achieving brilliant tones with great effect. Glass developed notably in Venice (Murano), sometimes decorated with gold threads or filaments of colored glass. Goldsmithing was cultivated by sculptors such as Lorenzo Ghiberti, with pieces of great virtuosity and high quality, especially highlighting the enamels and cameos. With the invention of the printing press, the graphic arts were developed, with most engraving techniques appearing or being perfected: intaglio (etching, aquatint, burin engraving, half-tone engraving or drypoint engraving), linocut, woodcut, etc.[79]​.

Renaissance literature developed around humanism, the new theory that highlighted the primary role of the human being over all other considerations, especially religious ones. At this time the world of letters received a great boost with the invention of the printing press by Gutenberg, a fact that led to access to literature by a larger audience. This led to greater concern for spelling and linguistics, with the first grammar systems emerging in vernacular languages ​​(such as the Spanish of Elio Antonio de Nebrija) and the first national language academies appearing. Among the literati of this era, the following stand out: Angelo Poliziano, Matteo Maria Boiardo, Ludovico Ariosto, Jacopo Sannazaro, Pietro Bembo, Baldassare Castiglione, Torquato Tasso, Tomás Moro, Erasmo de Rotterdam, François Rabelais, Pierre de Ronsard, Michel de Montaigne, Edmund Spenser, Luís de Camões, etc. In Spain, a golden age of letters began, which would last until the century: poetry, influenced by the Italian stil nuovo, included the figures of Garcilaso de la Vega, Fray Luis de León, San Juan de la Cruz and Santa Teresa de Jesús; In prose, the books of chivalry emerged (Amadís de Gaula, 1508) and the picaresque genre began with Lazarillo de Tormes (1554), while the work of Miguel de Cervantes, the great genius of Spanish letters, author of the immortal Don Quixote (1605), emerged.[80]​.

Renaissance theater also accused the transition from theocentrism to anthropocentrism, with more naturalistic works, with a historical aspect, trying to reflect things as they are. The recovery of reality was sought, of life in movement, of the human figure in space, in three dimensions, creating spaces of illusionistic effects, in trompe-l'œil. Theatrical regulation emerged based on three units (action, space and time), based on Aristotle's Poetics "Poetics (Aristotle)"), a theory introduced by Lodovico Castelvetro. Around 1520 the Commedia dell'arte emerged in northern Italy, with improvised texts, in dialect, predominating mime and introducing archetypal characters such as Harlequin, Columbine, Pulcinella (called in France Guignol), Pierrot, Pantalone "Pantaleón (comedy of art)"), Pagliaccio, etc. The main playwrights included Niccolò Machiavelli, Pietro Aretino, Bartolomé Torres Naharro, Lope de Rueda and Fernando de Rojas, with his great work La Celestina (1499). In England, Elizabethan theater stood out, with authors such as Christopher Marlowe, Ben Jonson, Thomas Kyd and, especially, William Shakespeare, a great universal genius of letters (Romeo and Juliet, 1597; Hamlet, 1603; Othello, 1603; Macbeth, 1606).[81]​.

Renaissance music marked the consecration of polyphony, as well as the strengthening of instrumental music, which would evolve towards the modern orchestra. The madrigal "Madrigal (music)") appeared as a secular genre that combined text and music, being the paradigmatic expression of Renaissance music. In 1498 Ottaviano Petrucci devised a printing system adapted to music, in staff, with which music began to be published. As Renaissance composers, Orlandus Lassus, Carlo Gesualdo, Giovanni Gabrieli, Tomás Luis de Victoria, Cristóbal de Morales, Claudio Monteverdi and Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina stood out. At the end of the century, opera was born, the initiative of a circle of scholars (the Camerata Fiorentina) who, upon discovering that ancient Greek theater was sung, had the idea of ​​setting dramatic texts to music. The first opera was Dafne (1594), by Jacopo Peri, which was followed by Euridice "Euridice (Peri)") (1600), by the same author; in 1602 Giulio Caccini wrote another Euridice; and, in 1607, Claudio Monteverdi composed La favola d'Orfeo "Orfeo (opera)"), where he added a musical introduction that he called symphony, and divided the sung structures into arias.[82]​.

Renaissance dance had a great revitalization, due again to the preponderant role of the human being over religion, in such a way that many authors consider this era the birth of modern dance. It was developed especially in France - where it was called ballet-comique -, in the form of danced stories, based on classical mythological texts, being promoted mainly by Queen Catherine de' Medici. The first ballet is usually considered to be Ballet comique de la Reine Louise (1581), by Balthazar de Beaujoyeulx. The main modalities of the time were the gallarda, the pavane and the tourdion. At this time the first treatises on dance emerged: Domenico da Piacenza wrote De arte saltandi et choreas ducendi, being considered the first choreographer in history; Thoinot Arbeau made a compilation of French popular dances (Orchesographie, 1588).[83]​.

Mannerism

Emerging also in Italy in the middle of the century as an evolution of Renaissance forms, Mannerism[note 10]​ abandoned nature as a source of inspiration to seek a more emotional and expressive tone, gaining importance in the artist's subjective interpretation of the work of art. The architecture acquired a more effective sign and tense balance, highlighting the multifaceted artist Michelangelo, author of the apse and dome of Saint Peter's in the Vatican; Jacopo Vignola (Church of the Gesù); and Andrea Palladio, creator of his own style (Palladianism), as we see in the Basilica of Vicenza, the Villa Capra (called the Rotunda), San Giorgio Maggiore in Venice, etc. In France, the notable Fontainebleau School emerged. In Spain, Herrerian architecture (by Juan de Herrera) was produced, a sober and simple style, with simple and naked forms of decoration, in accordance with the counter-reformation doctrine that prevailed at that time; It had its greatest achievement in the Monastery of El Escorial.

The sculpture is once again a reflection of the pessimism that dominated Italian society in the second half of the century, with an art where reality is deformed at whim, predominating the sentimental expression of the artist, with stylized figures, in violent positions and dramatic attitudes. The work of Michelangelo stands out again, with works of tense dynamism where the expression of the person represented stands out: Pieta (1501), David (1501-1504), Moses (1513-1515), Sepulcher of the Medici (1520-1534), etc. Other important sculptors were: Baccio Bandinelli, Benvenuto Cellini, Giambologna and Jacopo Sansovino; and, outside Italy, Jean Goujon and Germain Pilon in France, Adriaen de Vries in Flanders, Hubert Gerhard") in Germany, and Alonso Berruguete, Juan de Juni and Gaspar Becerra in Spain.

Mannerist painting had a more capricious, extravagant stamp, with a taste for sinuous and stylized forms, deforming reality, with distorted perspectives and spectacular atmospheres. Michelangelo (author of the decoration of the Sistine Chapel) stood out first - as in the other arts - followed by Bronzino, Andrea del Sarto, Pontormo, Correggio, Parmigianino, Giorgione, Tiziano, Veronese, Tintoretto, Jacopo Bassano, Giuseppe Arcimboldo, etc. Mention may be made of Maarten van Heemskerck and Abraham Bloemaert in the Netherlands, and Bartholomeus Spranger in Germany. In Spain, Juan Fernández de Navarrete, Alonso Sánchez Coello, Juan Pantoja de la Cruz and, especially, El Greco stood out, an exceptional artist who created a personal and unique style, with a strong expressionist sense.[84]​.

Baroque

The Baroque[note 11]​ developed between the 19th century and the beginning of the 19th century. It was a time of great disputes in the political and religious fields, a division emerging between the counter-reformist Catholic countries, where the absolutist state was established, and the Protestant countries, of a more parliamentary nature. Art became more refined and ornate, with the survival of a certain classicist rationalism but with more dynamic and effective forms, with a taste for the surprising and anecdotal, for optical illusions and effects.

The architecture, under classical lines, assumed more dynamic forms, with exuberant decoration and a scenographic sense of shapes and volumes. The modulation of space became relevant, with a preference for concave and convex curves, paying special attention to optical games (trompe-l'œil) and the viewer's point of view. As in the previous era, the driving force of the new style was once again Italy: Gian Lorenzo Bernini was one of its best exponents, being the main architect of the monumental Rome that we know today (columnata of St. Peter's Square, baldachin of St. Peter, St. Andrew's Quirinal, Chigi-Odescalchi Palace); Francesco Borromini is another great name of the time, author of the churches of San Carlo alle Quattre Fontane and Sant'Ivo alla Sapienza; Pietro da Cortona, Baldassare Longhena, Filippo Juvara and Guarino Guarini also stood out. In France, under the reign of Louis Palace of Versailles, by Le Vau and Jules Hardouin-Mansart. In Austria, Johann Bernhard Fischer von Erlach stood out, author of the Church of St. Charles Borromeo "Church of St. Charles Borromeo (Vienna)") in Vienna. In England, it is worth mentioning St. Paul's Cathedral in London, by Christopher Wren. In Spain, architecture in the first half of the century showed the Herrerian heritage, with Juan Gómez de Mora as a prominent figure, while in the second half of the century the Churrigueresque style was given (by José Benito Churriguera), characterized by exuberant decorativeism and the use of Solomonic columns (Main Altarpiece of San Esteban de Salamanca "Convento de San Esteban (Salamanca)")).

The sculpture acquired the same dynamic, sinuous, expressive, ornamental character, highlighting movement and expression, with a naturalistic base but deformed at the whim of the artist. In Italy, Bernini once again stood out, author of works such as Apollo and Dafne "Apollo and Daphne (sculpture by Bernini)") (1622-1625), Ecstasy of Saint Teresa (1644-1652), Death of the Blessed Ludovica Albertoni (1671-1674), etc. In France, François Girardon, Antoine Coysevox and Pierre Puget stood out. In Spain, religious imagery of Gothic heritage endured, highlighting Gregorio Fernández, Juan Martínez Montañés, Alonso Cano, Pedro de Mena, Francisco Salzillo, etc.

Painting developed in two opposing trends: naturalism, based on strict natural reality, with a taste for chiaroscuro - the so-called tenebrism -, where it is worth mentioning Caravaggio, Orazio and Artemisia Gentileschi, Pieter van Laer, Adam Elsheimer, Georges de La Tour and the Le Nain brothers; and classicism, which is equally realistic but with a more intellectual and idealized concept of reality, encompassing Annibale Carracci, Guido Reni, Domenichino, Guercino, Giovanni Lanfranco, Nicolas Poussin, Claude Lorrain, Hyacinthe Rigaud, etc. In the so-called "full baroque" (second half of the century), of decorative style and predominance of mural painting, Pietro da Cortona, Andrea Pozzo, Luca Giordano and Charles Le Brun stood out. Apart from these currents, there were countless schools, styles and authors of very diverse nature, highlighting two regional schools: the Flemish one (Peter Paul Rubens, Anton Van Dyck, Jacob Jordaens, Frans Snyders), and the Dutch one (Rembrandt, Jan Vermeer, Frans Hals). In Spain, the exceptional figure of Diego Velázquez stood out (, 1630; , 1635; , 1650; , 1656; , 1657), as well as José de Ribera, Francisco Ribalta, Alonso Cano, Francisco de Zurbarán, Juan de Valdés Leal and Bartolomé Esteban Murillo.

Rococo

Developed in the century [note 12]​—coexisting at the beginning of the century with the Baroque, and at the end with Neoclassicism—, it meant the survival of the main artistic manifestations of the Baroque, with a more emphasized sense of decoration and ornamental taste, which are taken to a paroxysm of richness, sophistication and elegance. The progressive social rise of the bourgeoisie and scientific advances, as well as the cultural environment of the Enlightenment, led to the abandonment of religious themes in favor of new themes and more worldly attitudes, highlighting luxury and ostentation as new factors of social prestige.

Architecture went from baroque grandiloquence to a more delicate taste, with graceful forms and a preponderance of small spaces, with secluded environments designed for well-being and comfort. The exotic became fashionable, especially the taste for oriental art. Rococo developed mainly in France and Germany, represented mainly by Ange-Jacques Gabriel (Petit Trianon in Versailles, Hotel Biron in Paris), François de Cuvilliés (Amalienburg Pavilion of the Nymphenburg Palace in Munich), Johann Balthasar Neumann (Episcopal Palace in Würzburg) and Dominikus Zimmermann (Church of Wies). In gardening, the "Italian garden" was succeeded by the "French garden", with a geometric composition like the Italian one, but with a longer perspective, simpler composition, larger areas of grass and a new ornamental detail: the flower bed; The gardens of Versailles (designed by André Le Nôtre) and Aranjuez stand out.

The sculpture has a graceful, refined air, with a certain survival of baroque forms, especially due to the influence of Bernini. In Italy, the Trevi Fountain, by Pietro Bracci and Filippo della Valle, stands out. In France, the work of Edmé Bouchardon, Jean-Baptiste Pigalle and Étienne-Maurice Falconet stood out. In Germany we have the presence of Georg Rafael Donner, Ignaz Günther and the Asam brothers (Cosmas Damian and Egid Quirin). In Spain we can highlight Juan Pascual de Mena and Luis Salvador Carmona.

Painting moved between religious exaltation or Vedutist landscaping in Italy (Giambattista Tiepolo, Canaletto, Francesco Guardi), and the court scenes of Jean-Antoine Watteau, François Boucher, Jean-Baptiste-Siméon Chardin and Jean-Honoré Fragonard in France, passing through the English portraitism of Joshua Reynolds and Thomas Gainsborough. A separate figure is the unclassifiable Spanish painter Francisco de Goya, who evolved from a more or less rococo seal to a certain pre-romanticism, but with a personal and expressive work with a strong intimate tone. He cultivated both painting and engraving, and his cartoons for tapestry are also notable. Among his works the following stand out: the Caprichos (1799), The Family of Charles IV (1800), The Third of May 1808 in Madrid (1814), the Black Paintings (1820), etc.

The decorative arts had special relevance, since, as has been noted, Rococo was an art with a bourgeois air dedicated to ostentation and luxury. Interior design developed significantly, with special emphasis on furniture, mirrors, silks, tapestries and porcelain objects. The latter was widely spread, especially in Saxony and Sèvres, with delicate ornamental motifs, preferably in an oriental style. Small sculptural carvings with gallant, pastoral or Commedia dell'arte motifs were also made in porcelain. In furniture, the "Chippendale style" (by Thomas Chippendale) was developed, characterized by eclecticism "Eclecticism (art)"), with a mixture of Gothic, Rococo, Palladian and Chinoiserie elements. In Spain, the tapestries of the Royal Factory of Santa Bárbara gained notoriety, some of them designed by Goya. At this time, lithography appeared, a new type of engraving on limestone, invented by Aloys Senefelder in 1778.[90]​.

Neoclassicism

The rise of the bourgeoisie after the French Revolution favored the resurgence of classical forms, purer and austere, in contrast to the ornamental excesses of the baroque and rococo, identified with the aristocracy. This environment of appreciation of the classical Greco-Roman legacy was influenced by the archaeological discovery of Pompeii and Herculaneum, along with the dissemination of an ideology of perfection of classical forms carried out by Johann Joachim Winckelmann, who postulated that perfect beauty occurred in ancient Greece, generating a myth about the perfection of classical beauty that still conditions the perception of art today.[note 13]​.

Neoclassical architecture was more rational, functional in nature and had a certain utopian air, as we see in the postulates of Claude-Nicolas Ledoux and Étienne-Louis Boullée. It is convenient to distinguish two types of neoclassical architecture: that of baroque heritage, but stripped of excessive decoration to distinguish itself from rococo architecture; and the neoclassical itself, with austere and rational lines, sober and functional. The first includes works such as the Paris Pantheon, by Jacques-Germain Soufflot, or the Berlin Opera, by Georg Wenzeslaus von Knobelsdorff; British and American neo-Palladianism also falls within this line. In the new, more rational line, we can mention the urban planning project of the Tuileries, by Pierre-François-Léonard Fontaine (initiator of the so-called "Empire style"); the Piazza del Popolo in Rome, by Giuseppe Valadier; the Walhalla "Walhalla (Monument)") in Regensburg, by Leo von Klenze; and the Prado Museum in Madrid, by Juan de Villanueva.

The sculpture, with a logical Greco-Roman reference, had as its main figures: Jean-Antoine Houdon, portraitist of pre-revolutionary society (Rousseau, Voltaire, Lafayette, Mirabeau); Antonio Canova, who worked for the popes and Napoleon's court (Paulina Borghese as Venus, 1805-1807); and Bertel Thorvaldsen, greatly influenced by Greek sculpture, devoted to ancient mythology and history (Jason with the Golden Fleece, 1803). Other notable names would be John Flaxman, Johann Gottfried Schadow, Johan Tobias Sergel and Damià Campeny.

The painting maintained an austere and balanced seal, influenced by Greco-Roman sculpture or figures such as Raphael and Poussin. Jacques-Louis David, "official" painter of the French Revolution, stood out especially (Oath of the Horatii, 1784; The death of Marat, 1793; Napoleon crossing the Alps, 1800). Along with him it is worth remembering: François Gérard, Antoine-Jean Gros, Pierre-Paul Prud'hon, Anne-Louis Girodet-Trioson, Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres, Joseph Wright of Derby, Johann Zoffany, Angelika Kauffmann, Anton Raphael Mengs, Joseph Anton Koch, Asmus Jacob Carstens, José de Madrazo, etc.[95]​.

The decorative arts developed in various styles, some of which lasted throughout the century: the Directory style emerged in France at the time of the Directory "Directory (France)") (1795-1805), characterized by simple, classic, sober lines, without excessive ornaments; The Empire style developed in Napoleonic and Restoration France, from where it passed to the rest of Europe, replacing sobriety with ostentation and luxury, with a sumptuous style, with a preference for exotic and oriental themes; In contrast, the German Biedermeier style presented a more practical and comfortable design, with simple and homely lines. These styles influenced the Spanish Elizabethan and the English Victorian, with a bourgeois air, dedicated to luxury and ostentation, although without giving up comfort and functionality.

From the discovery of America by Christopher Columbus in 1492 until the independence of the various American countries throughout the century (the last being Cuba and Puerto Rico in 1898), there was the so-called colonial art, which was a faithful reflection of the art made in the metropolis, developing the same artistic styles as on the European continent, mainly the Renaissance, Baroque and Rococo. The main samples of colonial art were produced in the two most relevant geographical centers in the pre-Columbian era: Mexico and Peru.

The architecture was based on the same typologies of buildings typical of European culture, mainly churches "Church (building)") and cathedrals, given the rapid advance of the work of evangelization of the Native American peoples, but also civil buildings such as town halls, hospitals, universities, palaces and private villas. During the first half of the century, the religious orders were responsible for the construction of numerous churches in Mexico, preferably a type of fortified churches called "Indian chapels." In the middle of the century, the first great cathedrals began to be built, such as those in Mexico, Puebla, Guadalajara "Cathedral of Guadalajara (Mexico)"), Cuzco and Córdoba "Cathedral of Córdoba (Argentina)"). Baroque architecture was characterized by profuse decoration, which would be exacerbated in the so-called "ultra-baroque" (Facade of the Tabernacle of the Cathedral of Mexico). In Peru, the constructions developed in Lima and Cuzco since 1650 show original characteristics that even precede the European Baroque, such as the use of padded walls and Solomonic columns (Iglesia de la Compañía, Cuzco). In the 19th century, the architecture shifted towards a more exuberant style, giving an unmistakable appearance to the Lima baroque (Palacio del Marqués de Torre-Tagle.

The first samples of colonial painting were those of religious scenes created by anonymous masters, such as the images of the Virgin with Child. The artistic production made in New Spain by indigenous people in the century is called Indo-Christian art. Baroque painting was influenced by Sevillian tenebrism, mainly by Zurbarán, as can be seen in the work of the Mexicans José Juárez and Sebastián López de Arteaga, and the Bolivian Melchor Pérez de Holguín. At the end of the century, the Cuzco School of painting stood out, represented mainly by Luis de Riaño and Marcos Zapata "Marcos Zapata (painter)"). In the century the main influence would be that of Murillo, and in some cases - as in Cristóbal de Villalpando - that of Valdés Leal. Gregorio Vázquez de Arce in Colombia and Juan Rodríguez Juárez and Miguel Cabrera "Miguel Cabrera (painter)") in Mexico stand out.

In sculpture, the first samples were again in the religious field, in free-standing carvings and altarpieces for churches, generally made of wood covered with plaster and decorated with incarnation - direct application of color - or stew "Stew (art)") - on a silver and gold background. At the beginning of the century the first local schools were born, such as Quito and Cuzco, highlighting the sponsoring work of the Jesuit order. In the Baroque, the sculptural work developed in Lima stood out, such as the stalls of the Lima Cathedral. In Brazil, Aleijadinho's work stood out.[100]​.

At this time, the diversity of styles and artistic manifestations continued on the African continent, due to the ethnic and religious multiplicity, and the different social organizations, from nomadic peoples to centralized states such as Benin, Dahomey, the Congo and Ashanti. The main materials were wood, stone, ivory, metal, clay, fur, feathers, shells, etc. In the Drakensberg Mountains (South Africa), the San (or Bushmen) made thousands of cave paintings between the 20th and 2nd centuries, related to shamanic rituals. In the Owerri region (Nigeria) a series of votive buildings called mbari were built, decorated with paintings and sculptures. In Mali, adobe buildings stood out, such as the Great Mosque of Djenné, initially dating from the 17th century but rebuilt several times. In Ashanti (present-day Ghana) the fabrics called kente, made of cotton or silk, decorated with geometric motifs, gained notoriety.

Sculpture was the main artistic activity on the continent in general, characterized by its great expressiveness and emotional force, which came to influence European avant-garde art when colonialism favored the creation of ethnological museums that took African works of art throughout Europe. In Benin, brass figures were made from the 17th century to the 19th century. In Ashanti there was a naturalistic style of small metal sculptures (- centuries). In the Yoruba culture (between Nigeria, Benin and Togo) carved wooden reliefs proliferated, such as on the doors of the Ikere palace, by the sculptor Olowe of Ise. Other typologies were: fetishes or "figures of power" (nduda), related to otherworldly rites, of anthropomorphic figures covered in fabric, leather or feathers; the pfemba, dedicated to motherhood, generally a woman with a child in her arms; and the mbulu-ngulu, protective reliquaries. Figures were also forged in iron, such as that of King Glele of Dahomey, life-size, the work of Akate Akpele Kendo (1860). Finally, the masks stood out, intended for rites of different kinds (funeral, agricultural, fertility, etc.).[101]​.

During this period Islamic art was introduced to India. The Muslim invasion, which culminated in the Mughal Empire, caused a great upheaval in Indian society and, therefore, in its art. Characteristic elements of Islamic art were added to the traditional forms, with new typologies such as the mosque. This artistic syncretism was manifested in buildings such as the mosques of Lahore and Delhi and in the tombs of Agra, especially in the famous Taj Mahal (19th century). Gardening and miniatures were also developed, both of Persian influence, and textile arts and set jewelery (such as the Throne of Aurangzeb) became highly relevant.

Traditional Hindu art had its manifestation in the magnificent temple of Meenakshi (Madurai), as well as in the miniaturist school of Rajput, where a Jain community lived that created an art that was widely spread in the West, embodied in a set of temples and marble sculptures inlaid with colored stones, decorated with great beauty. From the century onwards, sculpture was made more in bronze than in stone, highlighting the representations of the god Śivá in a dancing attitude; Later, portraits of warriors and courtiers would be characteristic, a tradition that lasted until the 19th century. The architecture at the end of this period evolved towards increasingly complex forms, with great decorative richness, in what could be called a "baroque" phase of Indian art (although without drawing parallels with the European baroque).[102]​.

In literature, the main peculiarity of this time was the emergence of vernacular languages, emerging literature in Hindi, Bengali, Tamil, Marathi, Gujarati, Telugu, Rajasthani, etc. In the dramatic genre, Anandarayamakhin") stood out, author of Jiva-nandana (around 1700), an allegorical drama that represents the human soul as a king imprisoned in his palace (the body); and in the epic poem the Ram-chari-manas of Tulsidas stands out, a reworking of the Ramaiana with great linguistic and stylistic purity. The theater derived in more recent times from the ancient dutangada —where the dance and mime—in a new modality called kathakali, which also placed emphasis on music and gestures. In this interpretation, the language of the hands (mudras, with 24 basic positions and others combined), as well as the expression of the face and the movements of the eyes (navarasya), also had importance. Makeup was also important, where the colors were symbolic, identifying the role or character.[103]​.

Music also received Muslim influence, although the old traditional forms, based on ragas, survived. However, the coexistence of both modalities caused a division into two distinct musical traditions: the northern or Hindustani, more influenced by Arabic music; and the southern or Carnatic, more conservative of the ancient tradition. The first was more elegant, decorative, romantic, while the second was more austere, intellectual. Two of the classical dances of India that exemplify the above are kathak, in the north, and bharatanatyam, in the south.[104]​.

The art continued to be predominantly indigenous, although the first contacts with Western civilization occurred. On his voyages through the Pacific (1768-1780) James Cook collected a series of works of art that included textiles, sculptures, jewelry, furniture, weapons, tools, musical instruments, etc. In Melanesia, the large meeting houses or "spirit houses" stand out, dedicated to ceremonies related to the cult of ancestors. The carving of anthropomorphic figures - mainly local deities - continued, such as that of Kukailimoku, Hawaiian god of war (British Museum), or the god A'a, of Rurutu "Rurutu (island)") (Austral Islands). He also followed the tradition of masks, especially in New Guinea (mai), New Ireland (malanggan) and New Caledonia (apuema). The Asmat, a tribe from Irian Jaya (New Guinea), built commemorative poles (bisj) between 5 and 10 meters high, carved with anthropomorphic figures, one on top of the other. In the Solomon Islands there are wooden statues (indalo) of human or animal figures, inlaid with shells. In Australia, the tradition of cave paintings continued, as well as churingas, pieces of wood, stone or shell, decorated with geometric motifs.[112]​.

19th century

Between the end of the century and the beginning of the century, the foundations of contemporary society were laid, marked in the political field by the end of absolutism and the establishment of democratic governments – an impulse that began with the French Revolution; and, economically, by the Industrial Revolution and the consolidation of capitalism, which will have a response in Marxism and the class struggle. In the field of art, an evolutionary dynamic of styles begins that follow one another chronologically with increasing speed, which will culminate in the century with an atomization of styles and currents that coexist and contrast, influence and confront each other. Modern art emerges as a contrast to academic art, placing the artist at the forefront of the cultural evolution of humanity.

Nineteenth-century architecture underwent a great evolution due to the technical advances brought about by the Industrial Revolution, with the incorporation of new materials such as iron, steel and concrete, which allowed the construction of more solid and open structures. Urban planning, the concern for the habitable environment, became increasingly important, which translated into sanitation works, infrastructure, greater attention to means of transportation, and the opening of green spaces to seek better environments and living conditions for the citizen. After some initial utopian approaches, such as those of Robert Owen or Charles Fourier, the great urban transformations of the century took place: Paris (Haussmann plan), London, Brussels, Vienna, Florence, Madrid, Barcelona (plan Cerdà), etc. Another great driving force of the architecture of the time were the universal exhibitions, economic-social festivals that sought to encourage and disseminate commerce, industry, culture, technological advances, etc. These events were a testing ground for new architectural typologies, as was evident in the London Exhibition of 1851, the Paris "Exposition Universelle de Paris (1889)") of 1889 (with the famous Tower Eiffel), etc. In gardening, the so-called "English garden" appeared - which introduced the concept of "landscape architecture" - which, compared to the geometry of the Italian and the French, defended greater naturalness in its composition, intervening only in a series of ornamental details, such as pavilions or pergolas, or even the placement of ruins - natural or artificial -, in line with the romantic concepts of the sublime and the picturesque (Regent's Park, by John Nash; Kew Gardens, by William Chambers "William Chambers (architect)").

Stylistically, the first half of the century saw a certain eclecticism "Eclecticism (art)") of forms, as well as a revival of previous styles reinterpreted according to modern concepts: it is the so-called historicism, which produced movements such as neo-Romanesque, neo-Gothic, neo-baroque, etc. Among its main architects it is worth remembering: John Nash, Augustus Pugin, Viollet-le-Duc, etc. In the United States, a new building typology emerged, the skyscraper, promoted by the so-called Chicago School "Chicago School (architecture)") (William Le Baron Jenney, Louis Sullivan). At the end of the century, modernism "Modernism (art)") emerged,[note 15]​ which represented a great revolution in the field of design, with names such as Victor Horta, Henry van de Velde, Hector Guimard, Charles Rennie Mackintosh, Otto Wagner, Adolf Loos, Joseph Maria Olbrich, Hendrik Petrus Berlage, Antoni Gaudí, Lluís Domènech i Montaner, Josep Puig i Cadafalch, etc.[113]​.

Movement of profound renewal in all artistic genres, the romantics paid special attention to the field of spirituality, imagination, fantasy, feeling, dreamy evocation, love of nature, along with a darker element of irrationality, attraction to the occult, madness, dream. Popular culture, the exotic, the return to underappreciated artistic forms of the past—especially medieval ones—were especially valued, and the landscape gained notoriety, which took center stage on its own. Graphic arts also gained importance, mainly lithography and wood engraving.

In painting, after a pre-romantic phase where we could cite William Blake and Johann Heinrich Füssli, Hubert Robert, Eugène Delacroix, Théodore Géricault, Francesco Hayez, John Constable, Joseph Mallord William Turner, Caspar David Friedrich, Karl Friedrich Schinkel, Philipp Otto Runge, etc. stood out. A derivation of romanticism was the German movement of the Nazarenes "Nazarenes (art)"), inspired by the Italian Quattrocento and the German Renaissance, mainly Dürer (Friedrich Overbeck, Peter Cornelius, Franz Pforr). In Spain, Genaro Pérez Villaamil, Valeriano Domínguez Bécquer, Leonardo Alenza and Eugenio Lucas stood out.

In sculpture, neoclassical forms prevail, reinterpreted according to new romantic themes. In France it is worth mentioning: François Rude, who evolved from neoclassicism to romanticism (La Marseillaise, 1832); Antoine-Louis Barye, specialized in animal figures; Jean-Baptiste Carpeaux, versatile artist with a taste for the spectacular; and David d'Angers, author of the relief on the pediment of the Pantheon in Paris (1830-1837). In Germany, the following stood out: Christian Daniel Rauch, Rudolf Schadow and Johann Heinrich Dannecker").[114]

The literature of Romanticism established the idea of ​​an art that arises spontaneously from the individual, highlighting the figure of the "genius" - art is the expression of the artist's emotions. He exalted nature, individualism, feeling, passion, with a new taste for intimate and subjective forms of expression such as the sublime, and giving value to new aspects such as the dark, the dark, the irrational. In a pre-romanticism - embodied in the German Sturm und Drang movement - Johann Christoph Friedrich von Schiller and Johann Wolfgang von Goethe stood out, as well as the English poet William Blake. Subsequently, it is worth highlighting the work of: Johann Christian Friedrich Hölderlin, Novalis, Heinrich Heine, August Wilhelm von Schlegel, Friedrich von Schlegel, Heinrich von Kleist, Johann Ludwig Tieck, E. T. A. Hoffmann, Walter Scott, William Wordsworth, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, John Keats, Lord Byron, Percy Shelley, Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley, Jane Austen, Alphonse de Lamartine, Madame de Staël, François-René de Chateaubriand, Alfred de Vigny, Victor Hugo, George Sand, Prosper Mérimée, Alexandre Dumas (father) "Alexandre Dumas (father)"), Ugo Foscolo, Giacomo Leopardi, Alessandro Manzoni, Aleksandr Pushkin, Nikolai Gogol, Adam Mickiewicz, Washington Irving, James Fenimore Cooper, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Edgar Allan Poe, Gustavo Adolfo Bécquer, Ramón de Campoamor, José de Espronceda, Mariano José de Larra, Fernán Caballero, Rosalía de Castro, Bonaventura Carles Aribau, Andrés Bello, Domingo Faustino Sarmiento, José Hernández, Gertrudis Gómez de Avellaneda, etc.[115]​.

Romantic theater had two notable antecedents again in Sturm und Drang with Schiller (Don Carlos, 1787; William Tell, 1804) and Goethe (Faust "Faust (Goethe)"), 1808). As in the rest of romantic literature, it stands out for its sentimentalism, drama, predilection for dark and lurid themes, and the exaltation of nature and popular folklore. A new genre emerged, melodrama, and variety shows (vaudeville) became popular. Its best exponents were: Georg Büchner, Christian Dietrich Grabbe, Juliusz Słowacki, Alfred de Musset, Victor Hugo, Francisco Martínez de la Rosa, the Duke of Rivas, Antonio García Gutiérrez, José Echegaray, José Zorrilla (Don Juan Tenorio, 1844), etc.[116]​.

Romantic music is characterized, as in the rest of the arts, by the predominance of feeling and passion, of the subjectivity and emotionality of the artist, exalting national and popular music. The orchestra is significantly expanded, in order to fully satisfy the expressiveness of the artist, the new feelings that reside within him (the sublime, the pathetic). The piano was the fashionable instrument, since its register, the intensity of the pulsation, are a faithful reflection of that emotionality, linked to the new cult of personality that developed in romanticism. Musicology was born as a science applied to music, as well as musical criticism and aesthetics"), and the first conservatories appeared. Its main representatives were: Ludwig van Beethoven, Carl Maria von Weber, Franz Schubert, Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy, Robert Schumann, Franz Liszt, Frédéric Chopin, Niccolò Paganini, Johann Strauss "Johann Strauss (son)"), Johannes Brahms, Anton Bruckner, Hector Berlioz, Jules Massenet, etc.

During this time, opera developed significantly, especially in Italy, where it received the name bel canto. She stood out for the brilliance of her voices, the coloratura, and the ornamentation, with the role of the soprano gaining importance—from 1840 the chest do became fashionable. The romantic opera had two aspects: the comic – or bufa – and the dramatic, about the great romantic literary dramas. Notable: Luigi Cherubini, Gaetano Donizetti, Vincenzo Bellini, Gioacchino Antonio Rossini, Charles Gounod, Georges Bizet and, especially, Giuseppe Verdi (Rigoletto, 1851; Il trovatore, 1853; La Traviata, 1853; Aida, 1870). In Germany, Richard Wagner gave opera levels of great brilliance, with the aim of creating a "total work of art" (gesamtkunstwerk) that combined music, poetry, philosophy, scenography, etc. (Tannhäuser "Tannhäuser (opera)"), 1845; Lohengrin, 1850; Tristan and Isolde "Tristan and Isolde (opera)"), 1865; Parsifal, 1882).[117]​.

Romantic dance recovered the taste for popular dances, folk dances, many of which it brought from oblivion. The classic ballet costume (the tutu) emerged, appearing for the first time in the Ballet of the Nuns by Robert le Diable (1831), by Giacomo Meyerbeer. Music began to be composed purely for ballet, highlighting Coppélia (1870), by Léo Delibes. In the theoretical aspect, the figure of the choreographer Carlo Blasis, the main creator of modern ballet, stood out in that he codified all the technical aspects concerning dance: in The Code of Terpsichore (1820) he related dance with the other arts, carrying out studies of anatomy and body movements, expanding the vocabulary related to dance, and distinguishing various types of dancers according to their physique. He also introduced tiptoe dancing, in which Maria Taglioni and Fanny Elssler stood out. In popular dances, the waltz fashion continued, and the mazurka and polka appeared.[118]​.

Since the middle of the century, a trend emerged that placed emphasis on reality, the description of the surrounding world, especially of workers and peasants in the new framework of the industrial era, with a certain component of social denunciation, linked to political movements such as utopian socialism.

In painting, Camille Corot, Gustave Courbet, Jean-François Millet, Honoré Daumier, Adolph von Menzel, Hans Thoma, Ilya Repin and Mariano Fortuny stood out. Linked to realism were two landscape schools: the French Barbizon (Théodore Rousseau, Charles-François Daubigny, Narcisse-Virgile Díaz de la Peña), marked by a pantheistic feeling of nature; and the Italian one of the Macchiaioli (Silvestro Lega, Giovanni Fattori, Telemaco Signorini), of an anti-academic nature, characterized by the use of spots (macchia in Italian, hence the name of the group) of color and unfinished, sketched shapes. In Great Britain, the school of the Pre-Raphaelites emerged, who were inspired - as their name indicates - by the Italian painters before Raphael, as well as by the newly emerging photography, highlighting Dante Gabriel Rossetti, Edward Burne-Jones, John Everett Millais and Ford Madox Brown.[119]​.

The sculpture was also based on the faithful reflection of society, with a predilection for figures of workers and marginal characters. Highlights include: Max Klinger, Adolf von Hildebrand, Aimé-Jules Dalou, the brothers Agapito and Venancio Vallmitjana, Ricardo Bellver, Mariano Benlliure and, especially, Constantin Meunier, the main evoker of the figure of the proletarian, with a certain idealized air, the worker as a modern hero (El Pudelador, 1884-1888).

Realistic literature opposed romantic subjectivism, defending the rigorous and detailed description of reality, influenced by positivist philosophy, which considered the artist as an indissoluble part of society, with the artistic work being a faithful reflection of the social conditions that surround the artist. The main realist format was the novel, which stood out for its naturalistic style that emphasized the everyday aspect of reality, which was described in all its thoroughness and fidelity to the real world, with temperamental descriptions of the characters, with great psychological prospection. The author is a "chronicler", who objectively presents the facts, with a high critical component, with a desire for reform. Figures include: Honoré de Balzac, Stendhal, Gustave Flaubert, Guy de Maupassant, Émile Zola, Giovanni Verga, Giosuè Carducci, Charles Dickens, Alfred Tennyson, the sisters Emily, Charlotte and Anne Brontë, George Eliot, Fyodor Dostoevsky, Lev Tolstoy, Maksim Gorki, Mark Twain, Herman Melville, Henry James, Emily Dickinson, Joseph Conrad, Benito Pérez Galdós, Pedro Antonio de Alarcón, Marcelino Menéndez y Pelayo, Emilia Pardo Bazán, Leopoldo Alas (Clarín) "Leopoldo Alas (Clarín)"), Vicente Blasco Ibáñez, Ignacio Manuel Altamirano, José María Eça de Queirós, etc. Adventure and suspense novels also stand out, such as those by Alexandre Dumas (son) "Alexandre Dumas (son)"), Emilio Salgari, Jules Verne and Arthur Conan Doyle.[120]​.

With realistic theater, modern theater was born, as it laid the foundations for what would be the theater of the century. Emphasis was placed on naturalism "Naturalism (theater)"), the detailed description of reality, not only in the theme and language, but also in sets, costumes, props, etc. The interpretation was more truthful, without great gesticulations or grandiloquent diction, as in the "anti-theatrical representation" - acting as in real life, as if one were not in a theater - of André Antoine and his Théâtre Libre - where for the first time only the stage was illuminated, leaving the audience in the dark. Eugène Scribe, Victorien Sardou and Eugène Labiche correspond to a prenaturalist period. Nordic theater stood out especially, with figures such as Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson, August Strindberg and Henrik Ibsen. Other authors were: Frank Wedekind, Anton Chejov, Adelardo López de Ayala, Manuel Tamayo y Baus, Àngel Guimerà, etc.[121]​.

In the field of music, in parallel to realism, the so-called musical nationalism arose, which marked the rebirth of various European regions that had until then been culturally unremarkable. Heir to romantic musical forms, folklore and popular music were revalued as bearers of ancestral cultural values ​​of all peoples. Figures such as: Mijaíl Glinka, Modest Mussorgsky, Aleksandr Borodín, Nikolai Rimsky-Kórsakov and Piotr Tchaikovsky in Russia stood out; Antonín Dvořák, Bedřich Smetana and Leoš Janáček in Czechoslovakia; Jean Sibelius in Finland; Edvard Grieg in Norway; Carl Nielsen in Denmark; Karol Szymanowski in Poland; Béla Bartók and Zoltán Kodály in Hungary; Edward Elgar and Ralph Vaughan Williams in Great Britain; Isaac Albéniz, Enrique Granados and Manuel de Falla in Spain. The first national schools also emerged in America: John Philip Sousa in the United States; Heitor Villa-Lobos in Brazil; Manuel María Ponce in Mexico; Guillermo Uribe in Colombia; Prospero Bisquertt in Chile; Juan Bautista Plaza in Venezuela; Amadeo Roldán in Cuba; and Eduardo Fabini in Uruguay. In opera, Italian verismo sought to equally reflect reality, with more popular plots, in rural and proletarian environments, where the protagonists are ordinary characters. He is represented by Arrigo Boito, Amilcare Ponchielli, Ruggero Leoncavallo, Umberto Giordano and, mainly, Giacomo Puccini (La bohème "La bohème (Puccini)"), 1896; Tosca "Tosca (opera)"), 1900; Madama Butterfly, 1903).[122]​.

In dance, the geographical center of creation and innovation shifted from Paris to Saint Petersburg, where the Imperial Ballet reached heights of great brilliance, with a nerve center in the Mariinsky Theater - and, later, in the Bol'šoj in Moscow. The main figure in the formation of Russian ballet was Marius Petipa, who introduced a type of narrative choreography where it is the dance itself that tells the story. He made longer ballets, up to five acts, turning the ballet into a great spectacle, with dazzling staging, highlighting his collaboration with Tchaikovsky in three exceptional works: The Sleeping Beauty "The Sleeping Beauty (ballet)") (1889), The Nutcracker (1893) and Swan Lake (1895). At a popular level, the most famous dance of the time was the cancán, while in Spain the habanera and the chotis emerged.[123]​.

• - Impressionism: it was a deeply innovative movement, which marked a break with academic art and a transformation of artistic language, beginning the path towards avant-garde movements. The Impressionists were inspired by nature, from which they sought to capture a visual "impression", the capture of a moment on the canvas - under the influence of photography - with a loose brushstroke technique and light, luminous tones, especially valuing light. A new theme emerged, derived from the new way of observing the world: along with landscapes and seascapes, there appear urban and night views, interiors with artificial light, cabaret, circus and music hall scenes, characters from bohemian "Bohemia (culture)"), beggars, outcasts, etc. It is worth mentioning as main representatives Édouard Manet - considered a precursor -, Claude Monet, Camille Pissarro, Alfred Sisley, Pierre-Auguste Renoir and Edgar Degas. Equally innovative in the field of sculpture was the role of Auguste Rodin, who laid the foundations for the sculpture of the century (The Thinker, 1880-1900; The Burghers of Calais, 1884-1886). Medardo Rosso also stood out, who would lead sculpture towards the disintegration of form.

• - Neoimpressionism: evolving from impressionism, the neoimpressionists were more concerned with optical phenomena, developing the technique of pointillism, consisting of composing the work using a series of dots of pure colors, which are placed next to others of complementary colors, merging on the viewer's retina in a new tone. Its main representatives were Georges Seurat and Paul Signac. Another variant was divisionism, which emerged in Italy in environments of social nonconformity close to anarchism. This technique is characterized by the proximity of decomposed colors, with long brush strokes that, observed from a long distance, produce a compositional effect. This style was mainly practiced by Giovanni Segantini, Giuseppe Pellizza da Volpedo and Gaetano Previati, and influenced Italian Futurism.

• - Post-impressionism: they were a series of artists who, based on the new technical discoveries made by the impressionists, reinterpreted them in a personal way, opening different avenues of development of utmost importance for the evolution of art in the 20th century. Thus, more than a certain style, post-impressionism was a way of grouping together various artists of different types: Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, author of circus and cabaret scenes sketched with quick notes from life; Paul Gauguin experimented with depth, giving new value to the pictorial plane, with flat colors of a symbolic nature; Paul Cézanne structured the composition in geometric shapes (cylinder, cone "Cone (geometry)") and sphere), in an analytical synthesis of the precursor reality of cubism; Vincent van Gogh was the author of works of strong drama and interior prospection, with sinuous and dense brushstrokes, of intense color, deforming reality, to which he gave a dreamlike air. In Spain we can highlight Joaquín Sorolla, author of popular scenes where the use of light stands out.[124]​.

In parallel to painting, impressionist music prioritizes harmony over melody, just as in painting color prevails over line. The reconstruction of a musical composition is left to the viewer, made from parts and suggestions. Its main representative, Claude Debussy, rejected tonic chromaticism, introducing new chords of five and six tones, opposite to the usual scales. Faced with the continuous Wagnerian melody, he returned to the static tonality, quieting the harmony and enhancing the texture, the timbral, the rhythmic irregularity (Prelude to the nap of a faun, 1894). Maurice Ravel returned to linear expression, although with notes and chords somewhat out of context (Bolero "Bolero (Ravel)"), 1928). Other representatives were Paul Dukas and Florent Schmitt.[125]​.

A fantastic and dreamlike style, it emerged as a reaction to the naturalism of the realist and impressionist movement, placing special emphasis on the world of dreams, as well as satanic and terrifying aspects, sex and perversion. A main characteristic of symbolism was aestheticism, a reaction to the utilitarianism prevailing at the time and the ugliness and materialism of the industrial era. Faced with this, symbolism gave art and beauty their own autonomy, synthesized in Théophile Gautier's formula "art for art's sake" (L'art pour l'art), even going so far as to speak of "aesthetic religion." Beauty moved away from any moral component, becoming the ultimate goal of the artist, who came to live his own life as a work of art - as can be seen in the figure of the dandy. They stood out: Gustave Moreau, Odilon Redon, Pierre Puvis de Chavannes, James McNeill Whistler, Lawrence Alma-Tadema, Arnold Böcklin, Ferdinand Hodler and Gustav Klimt, as well as the Nabis group "Nabis (artists)") (Maurice Denis, Paul Sérusier, Pierre Bonnard, Félix Vallotton and the sculptor Aristide Maillol). Linked to symbolism was also the so-called naive art, whose authors were self-taught, with a somewhat naive and unstructured composition, instinctive, with a certain primitivism, although fully conscious and expressive (Henri Rousseau, Séraphine Louis, Grandma Moses).[126]​.

Symbolist literature stood out for its aestheticism and decadence, taking romantic sensitivity to exaggeration, especially in the taste for the morbid and terrifying, emerging an "aesthetic of evil", appreciable in the attraction to Satanism, magic and paranormal phenomena, or the fascination with vice and sexual deviations. Writers distance themselves from the world and social conventions, giving rise to the figure of the "cursed poet." His main vehicle of expression was poetry, which was elaborate, formally demanding, with an almost musical rhythmic sense, with an evocative and suggestive, symbolic language, highlighting its polysemic character. It had a precedent in the Parnassianism of Leconte de Lisle, José María de Heredia and Charles Baudelaire, later highlighting authors such as Oscar Wilde, Algernon Charles Swinburne, Arthur Rimbaud, Paul Verlaine, Stéphane Mallarmé, the Count of Lautréamont, Jean Moréas, Anatole France, Frédéric Mistral, Joris-Karl Huysmans, Walt Whitman, Dmitri Sergeievich Merezhkovsky, etc.[127]​.

Symbolist theater was influenced by Wagner's "total spectacle", standing out for a language with a strong metaphysical and transcendent background, seeking the human essence through intuition and meditation, with a preference for mythical themes and legends, of esoteric and theosophical influence. Auguste Villiers de l'Isle-Adam, Paul Claudel, Maurice Maeterlinck and Émile Verhaeren stood out.[128]​ In music, Gabriel Fauré innovated with a precious, meticulous and personal sound language, in the line of symbolist poetry. He made static, diffuse music, with liquid harmonies, giving importance to solo instruments: The Good Song (1892), based on poems by Verlaine.

In parallel to architecture, modernism "Modernism (art)")[note 15]​ also developed in painting, a notable school emerging in Catalonia, with artists such as Ramón Casas and Santiago Rusiñol, with a style characterized by a naturalistic theme of a somber atmosphere, with a certain influence of French impressionism. Later, the influence of symbolism was received, practiced by Rusiñol himself and by artists such as Alexandre de Riquer, Adrià Gual and Joan Llimona. In sculpture it is worth mentioning Eusebi Arnau, Josep Llimona and Miguel Blay. In a so-called "postmodernism"[note 16]​ there are names such as Isidre Nonell and Joaquim Mir, just as we find the presence of a young Pablo Picasso, who entered the modernist environment around the year 1900, a fact that marked a change in his career and his affiliation to avant-garde art, as we can see in his Fauvist period (1900-1901) and in the symbolism of the «blue period "Pablo Picasso")» (1901-1904), to finally lead to cubism.

In the rest of Europe, modernist painting was closely linked to the world of design and illustration, especially poster art, a new artistic genre halfway between painting and graphic arts, since it was based on a design made by a painter or illustrator, to be later reproduced in series. In its genesis, the advertising aspect of the poster was decisive, although it was soon also dedicated to the dissemination of events and political and institutional propaganda. Among the various artists dedicated to painting or posters, it is worth remembering Alfons Mucha, Aubrey Beardsley, Jan Toorop, Fernand Khnopff, etc.

Modernism, due to its ornamental character, meant a great revitalization of the applied arts, especially carpentry, forging, glasswork, ceramics, plaster molding, printing (books, magazines, postcards), jewelry, mosaic, etc.[129] This was helped by new industrial procedures, which allowed mass manufacturing. Design, the creative process of the artist, which materializes his creation in the sketch of the work, which can then be carried out by various artisans, gained special relevance. Among its main architects were Émile Gallé (ceramist and glassmaker), René Lalique (goldsmith), Koloman Moser (designer), Louis Comfort Tiffany (jeweler and glassmaker), Gaspar Homar (cabinetmaker), etc. Also of special relevance was the English Arts and Crafts movement, promoted by John Ruskin and William Morris, which defended a revaluation of artisanal work and advocated a return to traditional forms of manufacturing, stipulating that art should be as useful as it is beautiful.[130]​.

In literature, modernism is usually linked to the work of the Nicaraguan Rubén Darío, the inaugurator of modern Spanish literature with an aestheticist language of great formal richness, with a symbolist influence. Other exponents were the Cuban José Martí, the Mexican Amado Nervo, the Peruvian José Santos Chocano, the Argentine Leopoldo Lugones and the Colombian José Asunción Silva, as well as the Spaniards Salvador Rueda and Eduardo Marquina. With the same modernizing desire we can also place here the so-called Generation of '98 which, in the face of pessimism due to the loss of the last Spanish colonies, represented a great boost in the renewal of Spanish literature, especially in terms of content. Authors such as Ramón María del Valle-Inclán, Antonio Machado, Jacinto Benavente, Juan Ramón Jiménez, Azorín, Pío Baroja, Miguel de Unamuno, Ramiro de Maeztu, Ramón Menéndez Pidal, etc. stood out. In Catalonia the Renaixença movement took place, highlighting Jacinto Verdaguer and Joan Maragall, while in Galicia the Rexurdimento included figures such as Manuel Curros Enríquez and Eduardo Pondal.[131]​.

In the century a new technology appeared that allowed images to be captured from nature, through the principle of the camera obscura. Despite being a purely technical achievement, the artistic nature of this new medium was soon glimpsed, since the resulting work could be considered artistic in that it involved the intervention of the creativity of the person who captured the image, derived from the work of perception, design and narrativity carried out in the taking of the image. Thus, photography soon came to be considered one of the arts, specifically the eighth.[note 17]​.

This new technique began with the research of Joseph Nicéphore Niépce, who made the first photograph in 1816, in negative on paper, from which the technical procedures for its capture and reproduction were perfected. The construction of the daguerreotype by Louis-Jacques-Mandé Daguerre represented a new advance, managing to impress metal plates and fix the image with a bath of salt and mercury "Mercury (element)"). Another of the pioneers was William Henry Fox Talbot, who in 1835 invented the negative, which allowed various copies to be made of the image obtained. Hippolyte Bayard achieved direct positive photography in 1840. Another precursor, John Frederick William Herschel, was the creator of the term photography, as well as negative and positive, and snapshot when the exposure time was reduced (25/100 of a second). In 1888 George Eastman launched celluloid film and the Kodak device, a small camera loaded with 100 clichés. The first color photograph was obtained by James Clerk Maxwell in 1861; However, the first color photographic plate (Autochrome) did not reach the markets until 1907.

From then on, photography became popular, since it was a medium that did not require great personal qualities, simply mastery of the technique, with numerous amateurs appearing who set out to capture the world in images. The first photography studios and laboratories emerged, initially dedicated mainly to portraiture, although later to all types of events and natural images. Photomechanics and the first illustrated publications also appeared, pioneering the albums Excursions Daguerriennes (1841-1842) and, as the first illustrated book, Pencil of Nature (1844), by Fox Talbot. Documentary photography also appeared, especially in terms of capturing war conflicts, with the Crimean and American Civil Wars being the first to be portrayed.

At the end of the century, photography began to be considered an art, with pictorialism emerging as the first photographic artistic movement; He intended to take photographs with a pictorial composition, influenced by impressionism. Among the most prominent photographers of the century we can mention Gaspard-Félix Tournachon, Louis Désiré Blanquart-Evrard, André Adolphe Eugène Disdéri, David Octavius ​​Hill, John Thomson "John Thomson (photographer)"), Julia Margaret Cameron, Oscar Gustav Rejlander, Eadweard Muybridge, Étienne-Jules Marey, Jacob August Riis, etc.[132]​.

20th century

The art of the century underwent a profound transformation: in a more materialistic, more consumerist society, art addresses the senses, not the intellect. Likewise, the concept of fashion has gained special relevance, a combination between the speed of communications and the consumerist aspect of current civilization. Thus, avant-garde movements emerged, which sought to integrate art into society, seeking a greater artist-spectator relationship, since it is the latter who interprets the work, being able to discover meanings that the artist did not even know. The latest artistic trends have even lost interest in the artistic object: traditional art was an art of the object, the current one of concept. There is a revaluation of active art, of action, of spontaneous, ephemeral manifestation, of non-commercial art (conceptual art, happening, environment).[133]​.

Architecture has undergone a profound transformation from traditional forms to avant-garde movements, which have represented a new construction concept based on a more rational idea of ​​space, structured in a more refined and functional way, with special attention to new technologies and its environmental location. Urban planning has gained great importance, encouraged by the new consumerist aspect of Western civilization, while the rise of communications has led to the development of engineering studies applied to architecture.

The architecture of the century has had a development independent of the rest of the arts, although sometimes it has gone parallel to a certain artistic movement. Thus we have expressionist architecture, characterized by the use of new materials and their mass manufacturing (brick, steel, glass), with names such as Bruno Taut, Erich Mendelsohn, Hans Poelzig and Fritz Höger. Futurism also had some architectural manifestation, although the utopian nature of its formulations prevented its material realization in many cases; The work of Antonio Sant'Elia stands out. In Dutch neoplasticism we have the work of Jacobus Johannes Pieter Oud, Gerrit Thomas Rietveld and Truus Schröder. Finally, it is worth highlighting the architectural aspect of Russian constructivism "Constructivism (art)"), where a program linked to the revolution began that sought a functional architecture that satisfied the real needs of the population; It was mainly represented by Konstantin Melnikov.

But the main artistic trend of the century has been rationalism (1920-1950) - also called "International Style" -, fundamentally represented by the Bauhaus School. This trend sought an architecture based on reason, with simple and functional lines, based on simple geometric shapes and industrial materials (brick, steel, concrete, glass), renouncing excessive ornamentation and giving great importance to design, which is equally simple and functional. Among its figures stand out: Walter Gropius, Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, Le Corbusier, José Luis Sert, Frank Lloyd Wright, Eliel Saarinen, Oscar Niemeyer, Alvar Aalto, etc.

• - Wikimedia Commons hosts a multimedia category on Art History.

• - Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.

• - Arthistory.

• - Web Gallery of Art.