page_title: Albanian art
section_title: Albanian Renaissance
hierarchical_section_title: Albanian art / History / Albanian Renaissance
caption_attribution_description: English: Kolë Idromeno, Motra Tone (called also The Albanian Mona Lisa), 75x60 cm
context_page_description: The Albanian art refers to all artistic expressions and artworks in Albania or produced by Albanians. The country's art is either work of arts produced by its people and influenced by its culture and traditions. It has preserved its original elements and traditions despite its long and eventful history around the time when Albania was populated to Illyrians and Ancient Greeks and subsequently conquered by Romans, Byzantines, Venetians and Ottomans.
  At different times, Illyrian, Ancient Greek and Roman art developed in Albania and survived in a number of media inclusive of architecture, sculpture, pottery, and mosaic. The rock inscriptions in Grama Bay and mosaic in Durrës can be traced back to the 4th century BC and there are nonetheless ancient remains of extraordinary quality available at Apollonia, Byllis, Shkodër, Butrint and elsewhere across the country.
  The centerpiece of medieval Albanian art started with the successor of the Roman Empire, namely the Byzantine Empire that ruled the great majority of Albania and the Balkan Peninsula. It comprised gradually of frescoes, murals, and icons painted with an admirable use of color and gold.
context_section_description: In the nineteenth century, a significant era for Albanian art begins. The great liberation acts starting with League of Prizren in 1878, that led to the Independence in 1912, established the climate for a new artistic movement, which would reflect life and history more realistically and Impressionism and Realism came into dominance.
  Kolë Idromeno is perhaps the most famous of the Realist painters in the country and often considered as the introducer of Realism in Albania. Some artists captured the historical past and identity of Albanians in landscapes of vast forests, wide rivers, pristine lakes as well as portraits. Other artists have been focused on social criticism, showing the conditions of the people. By the early twentieth century, a radical artistic change occurred and experienced a patriotic renaissance. The year 1883 is dominated and celebrated for the creation of the most crucial and finest paintings The Portrait of Skanderbeg by Jorgji Panariti and Motra Tone by Kolë Idromeno.
  Impressionism did not make itself evident among Albanian artists until after 1900. It did inspired numerous painters among them Vangjush Mio, the first impressionist painter of Albania.
  By the middle of the twentieth century, a communist government took rule over Albania and the artwork that arrived during the communist era reflects its time. Art was censored by the government and artists were urged to create works that endorsed socialism. The dominant theme of Albanian paintings was the proletariat, the backbone of the socialist system. Much of the country's art focused on domestic scenes such as men working in the fields and women feeding chickens. Also, landscape scenes were highly popularized by Albanian painters.
caption: Motra Tone by Kolë Idromeno.
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