I'll start by categorizing art. I have always stressed the view that before the Industrial Revolution belonged to the era of agricultural civilization, and after the Industrial Revolution belonged to the era of industrial civilization.
From an artistic point of view, it can also be divided into two eras: aesthetics and art after the Enlightenment and the Industrial Revolution are collectively called modernism, and modernism is an aesthetic of the era of industrial civilization. Aesthetics and art before the Industrial Revolution were collectively called classicism.
Before I said that the core of modernism is technology, rationality, science, and elite, emphasizing grand narrative, rationality, originality, and creativity, paying attention to functionalism, pragmatism, formalism, and pursuing avant-garde pioneers. This is mainly related to industrial civilization, industry, science, and rationality.
The core of classicism is hierarchy, theocracy, imperial power, religious, aristocratic, sacred, mystical, luxurious, grand, emphasizing asceticism, divinity, majesty, solemnity, unattainability, unseemly, unseemly, ostentatious, ostentatious, and so on.
There are many schools of modern art, including avant-garde, impressionism, fauvism, expressionism, cubism, futurism, dadaism, surrealist, installation art, pop art, minimalism, and postmodernism. Similarly, there are many schools of classicism, mainly Byzantine art, Baroque, Rococo, and Romanticism.
Aesthetic needs and artistic styles will be fully reflected in the architecture, sculpture, painting, music, drama, literature, poetry and other artistic fields of the time.
As before, I will first draw a conclusion: from Byzantine art, to Baroque art, to Rococo art, the essence is the decline and decline of the feudal old aristocracy.
Byzantine art was mainly popular from the 5th to the 15th century, Baroque art was produced in the 16th century and became popular in the 17th century, and Rococo art became popular in the 18th century. Byzantine art represented the mature era of classical art, Baroque art marked the beginning of the decline of classical art, and Rococo art meant the complete decline of classical art.
Byzantine art represented the glorious era of the old nobility, the emergence of Baroque art meant that the old aristocracy began to decline, and Rococo art was the last afterglow of the old nobility. After the arrival of industrial civilization, the era of great navigation, the Enlightenment, and the industrial revolution began one after another, the turning point of the fate of mankind for thousands of years began, the era of capitalism, the process of industrialization, urbanization, and modernization began, and the rise of the new rich bourgeoisie. Art that belongs to the new era is modernism.
Byzantine art is full of grandeur, asceticism, sacredness, and even in Baroque art, it is still majestic and majestic, and of course it begins to become full of tension, emphasizing strong exuberance, grandeur, luxury and court pleasure, to rococo art is completely ostentatious, deliberate, luxurious, hedonistic.
From the aesthetic interest, it can be seen that the decline of the old aristocracy has been unstoppable, and finally only the ostentatious aristocratic life remains, drunken gold fans, night and night songs, indulging in carnal greed.
Byzantine art
Byzantine art, born with the advice of the Byzantine Empire and the certainty of Christianity, was a combination of court elements and Christian ideology, as well as ancient Greek art and Roman art with Christian ideology. Byzantine art was art with a distinctly religious ideology.
The representative of Byzantine art in the field of architecture is the Hagia Sophia, and the representative of the field of painting is the Emperor and the Attendant of Justinian.
Hagia Sophia
The Hagia Sophia as a whole combines the byzantine principles of centralized composition with the Design of the Western Roman Basilica-style outer flying beams, with a rectangular three-dimensional structure throughout the plane, a majestic group of domes surrounded by four piers and columns, and a central dome towering and protruding as if the earth and the gods are connected by passages.
Hagia Sophia, both for its architectural purpose and its use, permeates the unity of imperial power and religious ideology.
Emperor Justinian and His Attendants
The Emperor and His Attendants mainly depicts the scenes of Emperor Justinian and his attendants participating in sacrifices.
The whole picture is a rigorous and solemn atmosphere, the emperor wearing a purple robe is a royal costume unique to the royal family, wearing a crown and a halo over the head, symbolizing the common divinity with Jesus. The single face, the stiff body, and the stereotyped description of the characters that abandon their individuality vaguely reveal the order under the imperial rule. The whole painting is full of tension, symbolizing the golden splendor under the imperial rule. On the whole, it embodies the unity of imperial power and divinity.
The Byzantine Empire made Christianity the state religion, which was the basis for its prosperity, and Christianity, as the official ideology of the Byzantine Empire, united the hearts of the people and made the empire prosperous. At the same time, religion has penetrated into all areas of social life, from politics to economics to culture. Especially in the field of artistic aesthetics, it is completely religious.
Imperial power, theocracy, emperors, religious leaders, and those around the emperor and the religious realm were all old aristocrats who controlled the field of art, and their aesthetic principle was the aesthetic of the society of the time. This art, this aesthetic, is aristocratic, religious, sacred.
However, as the Byzantine Empire became history, the Middle Ages darkened, the Age of Discovery began, the old aristocracy continued to decline, and the art that represented them, the aesthetics, Byzantine art also declined, replaced by Baroque art.
Baroque art
Baroque art was born in Italy at the end of the 16th century and flourished in the early 17th century.
The Baroque style first appeared in the architecture of the Jesuit church in Rome, which was the architectural reform made by the church, and then developed to the extreme by the French court. Its main achievements are reflected in the architecture and decoration of churches and palaces, which are majestic, vibrant and strongly unrestrained. The use of color is bold and unrestrained, the artistic conception is imaginative, full of romantic and mysterious colors.
Baroque art was the art that emerged during the Age of Discovery and the Age of the Enlightenment in Europe, when the new wealthy bourgeoisie had begun to emerge. The great geographical discoveries accumulated great wealth for them, and the Enlightenment laid the ideological foundation for them, which laid the material and ideological foundation for the next era, the Industrial Revolution. Growing, they became increasingly dissatisfied with the old aristocracy. But at this time the old aristocracy was still firmly in control of ideology, including aesthetics and art.
But the old aristocracy also seemed to sense that some kind of power was rising, a force beyond their control. Fearful, they had to passively introduce new ideas and trends, and began to break through the barriers, break the rules and regulations, and surpass the classical art that has been handed down by the classical art with harmony and rationality as the criterion. This is Baroque art.
So the birth of Baroque art already meant signs of decline in the old aristocracy and the ideology they controlled. Art is the most sensitive perception of the times, and artists are born sensitive.
In the field of architecture, Bernini's design of St. Peter's Basilica Square is a classic of Baroque art, while the Palace of Versailles in France is the pinnacle of Baroque art.
In the field of painting, the Flemish School and the central figure Peter Paul Rubens represent the outstanding achievements of Baroque art in the field of painting.
Flemish School of Painting and Rubens
The Flemish School is a representative of the brilliance of Baroque art, while Rubens represents the peak of the Flemish School. Rubens was born in Germany. At an early age, because of his poor family, he worked as a court attendant. He is gifted in language and has mastered 7 Chinese. In 1598, Rubens became an independent painter. After that, he took to the stage of history as a painter. His representative works include "The Robbery of the Daughters of Lychipus" and "Upper and Lower Crosses".
The Capture of the Daughters of Lychbos
The work is based on Greek mythology: two twin sons of Zeus fell in love with two twin daughters of King Luchpos and took them on a trip as wives. The whole picture is full of enthusiasm, movement and vitality.
Baroque art is unrestrained and ornate, but also extravagant and hedonistic. As the old aristocracy became more and more corrupt and decayed, the rococo art, which was more luxurious and hedonistic than the Baroque, appeared.
Rococo art
The term "rococo" originated in France and refers to ornaments made of shells or small stones, and rococo art is a decorative pattern popular in Europe in the 18th century. This aesthetic is characterized by slenderness, lightness, ornateness, cumbersomeness, flamboyance, and exaggeration. Rococo art is entirely a manifestation of the extravagant and corrupt life of the old nobles of the ruling class, and the slender and feminine represents the decline of the old aristocracy. "The sunset is infinitely better, just near dusk".
The representative of Rococo art in the field of architecture is Pierre Le Porter of France, who is known as the "Father of Rococo".
When art and aesthetics move towards extravagance and the simple pursuit of playfulness, it means the end of an era and the advent of a new era. The old aristocracy has declined, the new rich bourgeoisie has risen, and the world is unstoppable.