In art, pointillism is the practice of using seperate dots or strokes of color, instead of blending the paint. The concept behind Pointillism, devised by French artist Georges Seurat in the 19th century, is that color could be separated into its components on the canvas, and would merge when viewed at a distance. In a simplified example, a painter would arrange yellow and blue dots, which would then appear green from a distance. You can see an example of pointillism in the detail of Seurat's A Sunday on La Grande Jatte, 1884-1886.

The Renaissance popularity of Humanism and classical readings, combined with the availability of literature such as Dante's Divine Comedy, led to an interest in mythology, pagan and secular themes. Humanism emphasized the importance of education and knowledge, as well as the potential of the individual and civic responsibility. So in the Renaissance, we might see a civic mural like Ambrogio Lorenzetti's Peaceful City, a secular mural like Raphael's School of Athens with its themes of philosophy and science, or Boticelli's lyrical, mythological Birth of Venus.

Although we often associate Leonardo and Michelangelo with the Renaissance, the term refers to almost three centuries of painters, architects and sculptors. The Renaissance emphasis on monumental art, public architecture, artistic genius and fame, means that many artists' names have endured. Here is a list of some of the major players from the Early, High and Late Renaissance.

It is difficult to define the term "Renaissance" because it is used in different contexts. Renaissance is used as a general term to refer to the Europe of the 15th, 16th and 17th centuries. More specifically, in art history, Renaissance, (literally meaning rebirth), refers to the cultural developments spanning the 14th and 16th centuries. It is associated primarily with Italy and France, but spread to involve most of Europe. The Renaissance was a change from the 14th century Gothic period, and affected art, music, architecture, science, philosophy and literature. It was as much an intellectual movement as an artistic one. Although we strongly associate the term Renaissance with High Renaissance artists like Leonardo da Vinci and Michelangelo, the period encompasses a much broader group of artists. Renaissance can be broken into Early Renaissance, High Renaissance, and Late Renaissance.he 15th, 16th and 17th centuries. More specifically, in art history, Renaissance, (literally meaning rebirth), refers to the cultural developments spanning the 14th and 16th centuries. It is associated primarily with Italy and France, but spread to involve most of Europe. The Renaissance was a change from the 14th century Gothic period, and affected art, music, architecture, science, philosophy and literature. It was as much an intellectual movement as an artistic one. Although we strongly associate the term Renaissance with High Renaissance artists like Leonardo da Vinci and Michelangelo, the period encompasses a much broader group of artists. Renaissance can be broken into Early Renaissance, High Renaissance, and Late Renaissance.

Impressionism, the French art movement from the last quarter of the 19th century, is defined by its goal to capture the visual truthfully. Not truthfully in the sense that Realism attempts to create an illusion of reality, but in the sense that the fleeting aspects of a moment are communicated through the painting. These aspects might include light, shadow, movement, color, atmosphere, as well as emotion and mood. These general concepts behind Impressionism translated in practice, for artists like Claude Monet, to intense observation, scientific enquiry into the nature of color, experimentation in the application of paint, and painting everyday scenes and landscapes. Rather than contrive a still life or Romantic fantasy in the studio, the Impressionist painter would work from real scenes of the moment; a busy dance hall (Renoir's Le Moulin de la Galette), a train station (Monet's Saint-Lazare Train Station), ballet dancers in motion (Degas's many works with dancers), or a domestic scene (Mary Cassatt's The Bath).

Impressionism was a French art movement of the last quarter of the 19th century. The first Impressionist exhibition was held in Paris, in 1874. The first Impressionist exhibitions included works by Claude Monet, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Camille Pissarro, as well as the English Impressionist Alfred Sisley, and Paul Cézanne, who would become one of the central artists of the Post-Impressionist movement. And, although he himself was not part of the Impressionists, Édouard Manet is considered the father of Impressionism. Although Impressionism was a relatively brief movement, it has endured as one of the most popular and accessible art movements today. The term Impressionism was coined from Monet's work Impression: Sunrise. The term was used by an art critic of the exhibition in a derogatory sense, but the group adopted it as their official name.

The most well known Pointillist Artist is </span>Georges Seurat <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times; font-size: medium; "> (1859-1891), a Post-Impressionist painter. While all Impressionist and Post-Impressionist painters were concerned in some way with the interaction of color, Seurat relied on the science of color theory in developing his pointillist technique. Pointillism is sometimes called Neo-Impressionism (although this term is used differently by different historians) or Divisionism, which was Seurat's own term.