The Collection Drawings

Classification of Drawings with Definitions

Old Master
An Old Master, (or old master) is a term for a European Painter of skill who worked before 1800, or a painting by such a painter. An Old Master print is an original print (for example an engraving or etching) made by an artist in the same period; likewise for an Old master drawing.
In theory, an Old Master should be an artist who was fully trained and worked independently, but in practice, paintings considered to be produced by pupils or workshops will be included in the term. Therefore, beyond a certain level of competence, date rather than quality is the criterion for using the term.

In the eighteenth and nineteenth century the term often had a starting date of perhaps 1450 or 1470; paintings made before that were "primitives"; but this distinction is no longer made.
The end-date is necessarily vague— Goya (1746–1828) is certainly an Old Master, and he was still painting and printmaking at his death in 1828. For example the term might be used, but usually is not, about John Constable (1776–1837) or Eugene Delacroix (1798–1868).
The term tends to be avoided by Art Historians as too vague, especially when discussing paintings, although less so for Old Master Prints and Drawings. It remains more current in the art trade. Auction houses still usually divide their sales between, for example: Old Master Paintings, Nineteenth-century paintings and Modern paintings. Christies define the term as ranging "from the 14th to the early 19th century".

Examples of Old Masters are: Giotto, Leonard da Vinci, Michelangelo, Titian, Raphael, Durer, Caravaggio, Velazquez, and Goya.

Renaissance
The word Renaissance (French for 'rebirth', or Rinascimento in Italian), was first used to define the historical age in Italy — and in Europe in general - that followed the Middle Ages and preceded the Reformation, spanning roughly the 14th through the 16th century. The principal features were the revival of learning based on classical sources, the rise of courtly and papal patronage, the development of perspective in painting, and the advancements of science.

Mannerist
Is the term applied to an artistic style (usually painting), which emerged after the Sack of Rome (1527) and in concept and time immediately followed the High Renaissance. Mannerism is actually a fusion of various highly individual styles that poses as an alternative to the neoclassical punctiliousness achieved in the Roman art and architecture of the High Renaissance.
The term comes from the Italian maniera, or "style," in the sense of an artist's characteristic "touch" or recognizable "manner." But, historically regarded, Mannerism is a useful designation for those aspects of the late Renaissance arts (1530-1580), whose proponents sought to create dramatic and dynamic effects by depicting figures with elongated forms and in exaggerated, out-of-balance poses in manipulated irrational space, lit with unrealistic lighting.

Baroque
In the arts, Baroque is a period as well as the style that dominated it. The Baroque style used exaggerated motion and clear, easily interpreted detail to produce drama, tension, exuberance, and grandeur in sculpture, painting, literature, dance, and music. The style started around 1600 in Rome, Italy and spread to most of Europe The appeal of Baroque style turned consciously from the witty, intellectual qualities of 16th century Mannerist art to a visceral appeal aimed at the senses. It employed an iconography that was direct, simple, obvious, and dramatic. Baroque art drew on certain broad and heroic tendencies in Annibale Carracci and his circle, and found inspiration in other artists such as Correggio, Caravaggio, and Federico Barocci nowadays sometimes termed 'proto-Baroque'.

Some examples of Baroque artists are: Caravaggio, Rubens, Bernini,

Rococo
The Rococo style of art emerged in France in the early 18th century as a continuation of the Baroque style. In contrast to the heavier themes and darker colors of the Baroque, the Rococo style was characterized by an opulence, grace, playfulness, and lightness. Rococo motifs focused on the carefree aristocratic life and on lighthearted romance rather than heroic battles or religious figures; they also revolve heavily around nature and exterior settings. In the mid-late 18th century, Rococo was largely supplanted by the Neo-classical style.

The word Rococo is seen as a combination of the French rocaille, or shell, and the Italian barocco, or Baroque style. Due to Rococo love of shell-like curves and focus on decorative arts, some critics used the term to derogatively imply that the style was frivolous or merely fashion; interestingly, when the term was first used in English in about 1836, it was a colloquialism meaning "old-fashioned". However, since the mid 19th century, the term has been accepted by art historians. While there is still some debate about the historical significance of the style to art in general, Rococo is now widely recognized as a major period in the development of European art.

Watteau and Boucher are examples of Rococo artists.

Romanticism
Romanticism is an artistic and intellectual movement that originated in late 18th century Western Europe. It is in part, a revolt against aristocratic, social, and political norms of the Enlightenment period, and a reaction against the rationalization of nature. In art and literature it stressed strong emotion as a source of aesthetic experience, placing new emphasis on such emotions as trepidation, horror, and the awe experienced in confronting the sublimity of nature. It elevated folk art, nature and custom, as well as arguing for an epistemology based on usage and custom. It was influenced by ideas of the Enlightenment and elevated medievalism and elements of art and narrative perceived to be from the medieval period. The name "romantic" itself comes from the term “romance” which is a prose or poetic heroic narrative originating in medieval literature and romantic literature.

The ideologies and events of the French Revolution are thought to have influenced the movement. Romanticism elevated the achievements of what it perceived as misunderstood heroic individuals and artists that altered society. It also legitimized the individual imagination as a critical authority which permitted freedom from classical notions of form in art. There was a strong recourse to historical and natural inevitability in the representation of its ideas.

Examples of Romantic artists are: Turner, Friedrich, and Géricault.

Neo-Classical
(sometimes rendered as Neo-Classicism or Neo-classicism) is the name given to quite distinct movement in the decorative and visual arts, literature, theatre, music, and architecture. These movements were in effect at various times between the 18th and 20th centuries. This article addresses what these "neoclassicisms" have in common.
What "neo"-classicism depends on most fundamentally, is a consensus about a body of work that has achieved canonic status. These are the "classics." Ideally— and neoclassicism is essentially an art of an ideal — an artist, well-schooled and comfortably familiar with the canon, does not repeat it in lifeless reproductions, but synthesizes the tradition anew in each work. This sets a high standard, clearly; but though a neoclassical artist who fails to achieve it may create works that are inane, vacuous or even mediocre, gaffes of taste and failures of craftsmanship are not commonly neoclassical failings. Novelty, improvisation, self-expression, and blinding inspiration are not neoclassical virtues; neoclassicism exhibits perfect control of an idiom. It does not recreate art forms from the ground up with each new project, as modernism demanded. "Make it new" was the modernist credo of the poet Ezra Pound.

Jacques Louis David exemplifies the Neo-Classical style.

Enlightenment
The Age of Enlightenment (from the German word Aufklärung, meaning "Enlightenment") refers to either the 18th century in European and American philosophy, or the longer period including the 17th century and the Age of Reason. It can more narrowly refer to the historical intellectual movement The Enlightenment, which advocated Reason as a means to establishing an authoritative system of aesthetics, ethics, government, and logic, to allow philosophers to obtain objective truth about the universe.

Inspired by the revolution in physics commenced by Newtonian kinematics, Enlightenment thinkers argued that same kind of systematic thinking could apply to all forms of human activity. Hence, the Enlightenment is often closely linked with the Scientific Revolution: For both movements emphasized empiricism, reason, science, and rationality. The intellectual leaders believed they would lead the world into progress from a long period of doubtful tradition, irrationality, superstition, and tyranny, which they imputed to the Dark Ages. The movement helped create the intellectual framework for the American and French Revolutions, the Latin American independence movement, and the Polish Constitution of May 3rd; and led to the rise of classical liberalism, democracy, and capitalism.
The Enlightenment is matched with the high baroque and classical eras in music, and the neo-classical period in the arts; it receives modern attention as being one of the central models for many movements in the modern period.

Impressionist
Impressionism was a 19th century art movement that began as a loose association of Paris-based artists, who began exhibiting their art publicly in the 1860s. The name of the movement is derived from the title of a Claude Monet work, Impression, Sunrise (Impression, soleil levant), which provoked the critic Louis Leroy to coin the term in a satiric review published in Le Charivari.
Characteristics of Impressionist painting include visible brushstrokes, light colors, open composition, emphasis on light in its changing qualities (often accentuating the effects of the passage of time), ordinary subject matter, and unusual visual angles.

The influence of the Impressionists is thought to have spread beyond the art world, leading to Impressionist music and Impressionist literature.
Impressionism also describes art created in this style, but outside of the late 19th century time period.
Monet, Renoir, Cezanne, Cassatt, and Degas are regarded as Impressionist artists.