Telling the Styles Apart

By now you have met many periods and styles, in this course and in Art History I. Recognizing a style is like recognizing a friend's handwriting: not by one letter but by a set of habits. Each period has telltale clues you can look for, in its forms, its colors, its brushwork and its subjects. Names and famous works help, but clues let you read a work you have never seen before.

Clues to the main European styles. Dates are approximate and styles overlap.
Period	About when	Look for
Gothic	1140 to 1500	pointed arches, ribbed vaults, flying buttresses, huge stained-glass windows
Renaissance	1400 to 1600	linear perspective, balanced groups, calm idealized figures, classical columns
Baroque	1600 to 1750	strong light and dark, diagonals, motion and drama, the viewer pulled in
Rococo	1720 to 1780	pastel colors, curving ornament, elegant leisure, small scale
Neoclassicism	1760 to 1830	crisp outlines, calm balance, Greek and Roman subjects, moral messages
Romanticism	1790 to 1850	awe at nature, storms and wide views, strong feeling
Realism	1840 to 1880	ordinary working people, everyday subjects, no idealizing
Impressionism	1867 to 1886	visible broken brushstrokes, outdoor light, modern leisure
Post-Impressionism	1886 to 1905	bold color, simplified forms, thick or dotted paint
Cubism	from about 1907	objects broken into facets seen from several viewpoints

Key idea

Each period has telltale signs: Gothic pointed arches, Renaissance balance, Baroque drama, Rococo pastels, Neoclassical clarity, Impressionist strokes, Cubist facets. Read the clues, not just the famous names.

Why it works

Artists of a period shared training, materials, patrons and ideas, so their works share habits. A Baroque painter trained after Caravaggio learned strong light and dark; a Neoclassical painter trained in an academy that prized clear outline. That is why a set of clues points to a period even when the artist is unknown.

Looking closely: one subject, two styles

Neoclassical (A) and Romantic (B), only about thirty years apart.

A sets three brothers in a shallow, stage-like hall, with hard outlines, sober color and a story of duty: the clues of Neoclassicism. B sets one figure, seen from behind, before an endless sea of fog, with soft, atmospheric color and no story but a feeling: the clues of Romanticism. Both are by trained European painters within about thirty years, but their aims are opposite, and the clues show it.

Common mistake

People recognize styles by famous names only: "It's a Monet, so it's Impressionist." That fails as soon as you meet an unfamiliar work. Look for the visual clues: the light, the brushwork, the composition, the subject. Then check: do several clues agree? One clue alone can mislead, because styles overlap and artists borrow.

Worked example: Read the clues

An unfamiliar painting shows a pastel-colored garden party, with silk dresses, soft feathery trees and playful couples. Which style?

Pastel color: Rococo.
Elegant leisure and courtship: Rococo.
Soft, light handling, no deep shadow or moral message: Rococo, not Baroque or Neoclassical.

Answer: Rococo: three clues agree.

Sort the clues and works by style.

The European styles in order.

Telling the Styles Apart

Looking closely: one subject, two styles

Practice

Builds on

Leads to

Sources and further reading