KEY IDEAS

• Realism was based on the theory of being positive (positivism)

• Japanese art had a profound impact on late 19th century painting.

• Impressionist art is all about painting "en plein-air"

• Symbolist painters seek to portray mystical personal visions.

• The Skyscraper is a new type of building due to technological advances

• Art Nouveau unifies painting, sculpture, and architecture with curvilinear lines and organic forms and motifs.

• Artists were inspired by the past but rejected the tradtional subject matter.

• Almost all artworks are purely secular with no religious symbolism or intent.

HISTORY

• Europe was in a move from aristocracies to democracies = Revolutions in Sicily, Venice, Germany, Austria, and Lombardy. 

• Franco-Prussian War of 1870

• Concept of positivism fueled by Comte (knowledge must come from proven ideas based off science)

• Darwin and Marx = Human evolution and social equality

• Invention of telephones, motion pictures, bicycles, and cars!

• The avant-garde

• New excavation begins in Greece, Turkey, and Europe