COLOR IN ART HISTORY

José Luis CAIVANO caivano@fadu.uba.ar

University of Buenos Airesand National Council for Research

Argentine Color Group

circa 20 000 BC - Bison, Altamira cave, Spain

2660 BC - Ur, Mesopotamian memorial plate

Egypt - glazed brick lion from the wall of Nebuchadnezzar’s palace

Egyptone of the first major civilizations to codify design elements in art. The wall paintings followed a rigid code of visual rules and meanings.

circa 2500 BC - Egypthippopotamus hunt, Tomb of Ti, Saqqarah

Egypt

circa 1300 BCbust of Nephertiti

polychrome sculpture

Greece

red and black pottery

500 BC

chryselephantinesculptures

Greece, 5th century BC

polychromy with the use of different

materials

chryselephantinesculptures

Greece

Athena ParthenosPhidias, circa 440 BC

polychromy with the use of different

materials

circa 500 BC

Greece, polychrome painted

sculpture(reconstruction)

circa 80 BC

Pompeii,wall

painting in a villa

1st century

Rome, polychrome painted

sculpture

1st century

Rome, polychrome

sculpture

medieval polychrome sculpture

12th century

Byzantinmosaic

circa 1100

medieval stained

glass windows

circa 1140

Cathedral of St. Denis

medieval stained

glass windows

circa 1285

Cimabue

Madonna and child

image and color codified representation

Medieval painting

1340

Pietro Lorenzetti

Madonna and child

codified blue on the Virgin

Medieval painting

circa 1300

miniature painting,

manuscript

circa 1400

illuminated manuscripts

1325

Giotto

Last suppererrors in

perspective (parallel

lines do not met in a

vanishing point)

before 1470 - Botticelli, Madonna and child

Renaissance

codified blue on the

Virgin

correct perspective

with central

vanishing point for parallel

lines

circa 1439

Jan van Eyck

Madonna and child

early stages of aerial

perspective

Renaissance

circa 1474 Piero della Francesca

Federico da Montefeltro

aerial perspective

Renaissance

circa 1490

Jean Hay

Margaret of Austria

aerial perspective

Renaissance

circa 1495

Lorenzo di Credi

Annunciation

aerial perspective

Renaissance

circa 1510

Raphael

Madonna

HighRenaissance

1510

Leonardo

Virgin and child with St. Anne

developed stage of aerial perspective

HighRenaissance

circa 1530

Parmigianino

Madonna and child

developed stage of aerial perspective;

starting of chiaroscuro

Manierism

1598 - Federico Barocci, Aeneas flees burning Troy

1606 - Caravaggio, St. Jerome - chiaroscuroBaroque

Baroque

circa1609

Rubens, Samson and Delilah - chiaroscuro

1640

Georges de la Tour

St. Joseph, thecarpenter

chiaroscuro

Baroque

Baroque

17th century

trompe l’oeilin mural painting

perspective and illussions of

3D space

1767

Tiepolo

ceiling in Villa Pisani

1648 - Nicolas Poussin, Holy family - 3 primary colors

1784 - Jacques-L. David, Oath of the HoratiiNeoclassicism

1822 - Delacroix, The barque of DanteRomanticism

1835 - William Turner, The burning of the Houses of Lords…

circa 1835 - William Turner, Surge of sea in a storm

circa 1845 - William Turner, Europe and the bull

ChevreulThe principles of harmony and contrast of colors“Two adjacent colours, when seen by the eye, will appear as dissimilar as possible.”

influence on impressionist painters

1886 - Georges Seurat, La grande jatte - pointillism

1887 - Georges Seurat, Sitting model - pointillism

1888 - Georges Seurat, The dock of Port-en-Bessin with hight tide – pointillism, divisionism, partitive color mixture

1887Vincent Van Gogh, Interior of a restaurant - pointillism

1887

Vincent Van Gogh

Self portrait

1892-1894

Monet, Cathedral of Rouen

Impressionism

1904Henri Matisse, Light, calm and voluptuous

1905

Henri Matisse,

Portrait of Madame Matisse

arbitrary use of color

Fauvism

1906

AndréDerian

pure colors without mixing, painting withouth shades or nuances, subjective representation

Fauvism

1913 - Kandisnky, Composition Nr. 4Abstraction

1915

Malevich

Black square

Abstraction

suprematism

Malevitch

White on white

Abstraction

suprematism

Ostwald, Harmonie der Farben (Harmony of colors)

influences on Paul Klee and the neoplasticist painters (De Stijl), including Mondrian

1929

Paul Klee

Fire in the evening

Abstraction

1921

Piet Mondrian

Composition

Abstraction

neoplasticismDe Stijl

1942

Piet Mondrian

Brodway boogie boogie

Abstraction

neoplasticismDe Stijl

1926

Josef Albers

Structure in blue

sandblasted glass

Abstraction

1950

Henri Matisse, Zulma

gouache on paper cut-out

use of plane color

1950-1960 - Yves Klein – monochrome paintings

1950-1960

Yves Klein

monochrome paintings

IKB (International Klein Blue)

reminiscent of the lapis lazuli used to paint the Madonna'srobes in medieval paintings

conceptual art

Yves Klein – anthropometries – using the human body to paint

Keneth Noland1958

color field paintingabstract expressionism

Clyfford Still1957

1960

Mark Rothko

Red over black on

red

abstract expressionism

1960’s - Jackson Pollock

1965

Roy Lichtenstein

Head with black shadow

Pop art

reminiscent of comics

cinetic art

1960-1990

Jesus Soto

light, color, space, moires, interferences

cinetic art

1960-2000

Carlos Cruz Diez

light, color, space, moires, interferences

Association Internationale de la CouleurInternational Color AssociationInternationale Vereinigung für die Farbe

www.aic-color.org