In
Byzantine and Medieval art of the Western Middle Ages, much art focused on the expression
of subjects about Biblical and religious culture, and used styles that showed the higher glory of a
heavenly world, such as the use of gold in the background of paintings, or glass in mosaics or
windows, which also presented figures in idealized, patterned (flat) forms. Nevertheless, a
classical realist tradition persisted in small Byzantine works, and realism steadily grew in the art
of Catholic Europe.[34]
Renaissance art had a greatly increased emphasis on the realistic depiction of the material
world, and the place of humans in it, reflected in the corporeality of the human body, and
development of a systematic method of graphical perspective to depict recession in a three-
dimensional picture space.[35]
The stylized signature of Sultan Mahmud II of the Ottoman Empire was written in Islamic calligraphy. It
reads "Mahmud Khan son of Abdulhamid is forever victorious".
The Great Mosque of Kairouan in Tunisia, also called the Mosque of Uqba, is one of the finest, most
significant and best preserved artistic and architectural examples of early great mosques. Dated in its
present state from the 9th century, it is the ancestor and model of all the mosques in the western Islamic
lands.[36]
In the east, Islamic art's rejection of iconography led to emphasis on geometric
patterns, calligraphy, and architecture.[37] Further east, religion dominated artistic styles and forms
too. India and Tibet saw emphasis on painted sculptures and dance, while religious painting
borrowed many conventions from sculpture and tended to bright contrasting colors with
emphasis on outlines. China saw the flourishing of many art forms: jade carving, bronzework,
pottery (including the stunning terracotta army of Emperor Qin[38]), poetry, calligraphy, music,
painting, drama, fiction, etc. Chinese styles vary greatly from era to era and each one is
traditionally named after the ruling dynasty. So, for example, Tang dynasty paintings are
monochromatic and sparse, emphasizing idealized landscapes, but Ming dynasty paintings are
busy and colorful, and focus on telling stories via setting and composition.[39] Japan names its
styles after imperial dynasties too, and also saw much interplay between the styles of calligraphy
and painting. Woodblock printing became important in Japan after the 17th century.[40]
Painting by Song dynasty artist Ma Lin, circa 1250. 24.8 × 25.2 cm
The western Age of Enlightenment in the 18th century saw artistic depictions of physical and
rational certainties of the clockwork universe, as well as politically revolutionary visions of a post-
monarchist world, such as Blake's portrayal of Newton as a divine geometer,[41] or David's
propagandistic paintings. This led to Romantic rejections of this in favor of pictures of the
emotional side and individuality of humans, exemplified in the novels of Goethe. The late 19th
century then saw a host of artistic movements, such as academic
art, Symbolism, impressionism and fauvism among others.[42][43]
The history of 20th-century art is a narrative of endless possibilities and the search for new
standards, each being torn down in succession by the next. Thus the parameters
of Impressionism, Expressionism, Fauvism, Cubism, Dadaism, Surrealism, etc. cannot be
maintained very much beyond the time of their invention. Increasing global interaction during this
time saw an equivalent influence of other cultures into Western art. Thus, Japanese woodblock
prints (themselves influenced by Western Renaissance draftsmanship) had an immense
influence on impressionism and subsequent development. Later, African sculptures were taken
up by Picasso and to some extent by Matisse. Similarly, in the 19th and 20th centuries the West
has had huge impacts on Eastern art with originally western ideas like Communism and Post-
Modernism exerting a powerful influence.[44]
Modernism, the idealistic search for truth, gave way in the latter half of the 20th century to a
realization of its unattainability. Theodor W. Adorno said in 1970, "It is now taken for granted that
nothing which concerns art can be taken for granted any more: neither art itself, nor art in
relationship to the whole, nor even the right of art to exist."[45] Relativism was accepted as an
unavoidable truth, which led to the period of contemporary art and postmodern criticism, where
cultures of the world and of history are seen as changing forms, which can be appreciated and
drawn from only with skepticism and irony. Furthermore, the separation of cultures is increasingly
blurred and some argue it is now more appropriate to think in terms of a global culture, rather
than of regional ones.[46]
