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40,000 BCE
Prehistory - the beginning of cave art around the world
Cave art - the numerous paintings and engravings found in European caves and shelters. The first painted cave acknowledged as being Paleolithic, meaning from the Stone Age, was Altamira in Spain. The art discovered there was deemed by experts to be the work of modern humans. Most examples of cave art have been found in France and in Spain, but a few are also known in Portugal, England, Italy, Romania, Germany, and Russia. The total number of decorated sites is about 400. -
Period: 800 BCE to 323 BCE
Era of Greek Art
Greek art began in the Cycladic and Minoan civilization, and absorbed influences of Eastern civilizations, of Roman art and its patrons, and the new religion of Orthodox Christianity in the Byzantine era and absorbed Italian and European ideas during the period of Romanticism, until the Modernist and Postmodernist. Greek art is mainly 5 forms - architecture, sculpture, painting, pottery, and jewelry making ex. Fresco murals, ancient pottery, encaustic paintings, sculpture, flourish -
Period: 800 BCE to 400 BCE
Art of Classical Antiquity
Period of Greco-Roman arts and antiquities "Classical Antiquity" is referred to the shorter period of classical civilization centered upon the cultures of Ancient Greece and Ancient Rome, as well as their prototypes (Aegean and Etruscan cultures) and derivatives (the effect of Greek culture on Turkey, Persia, Central Asia, India and Egypt, a process known as Hellenism; Celtic culture, Early Christian culture). -
535 BCE
High point of Greek black-figure style of ceramic pottery
Black-figure pottery painting, also known as the black-figure style or black-figure ceramic, is one of the styles of painting on antique Greek vases. Figures and ornaments were painted on the body of the vessel using shapes and colors reminiscent of silhouettes. Delicate contours were incised into the paint before firing, and details could be reinforced and highlighted with opaque colors, usually white and red. -
Period: 447 BCE to 432 BCE
Construction of the Parthenon
The Parthenon is a former temple, on the Athenian Acropolis, Greece, dedicated to the goddess Athena, whom the people of Athens considered their patron. It is the most important surviving building of Classical Greece. Its decorative sculptures are considered some of the high points in Greek Art. It is also regarding as an enduring symbol of Ancient Greece, Athenian democracy, and western civilization, and one of the world's greatest cultural monuments. -
Period: 300 BCE to 400 BCE
Era of Roman Art
Roman Art refers to the visual arts made in Ancient Rome and in the territories of the Roman Empire. Roman art includes architecture, painting, sculpture, and mosaic work. Luxury objects in metal-work, gem engraving, ivory carvings, and glass are sometimes considered in modern terms to be minor forms of Roman Art. Sculpture was perhaps considered as the highest form of art by Romans, but figure painting was also very highly regarded. -
232 BCE
Famous Greek Sculpture: Dying Gaul
The Dying Gaul, also called The Dying Galatian or The Dying Gladiator, is an Ancient Roman marble copy of a lost Hellenistic sculpture, thought to have been originally executed in bronze. The identity of the sculptor of the original is unknown, but it has been suggested that Epigonus, a court sculptor of the Attalid dynasty of Pergamon, may have been the creator. -
Period: 200 to 320
Early Christian Art becomes more widespread
Early Christian Art is the art produced by Christians or under Christian patronage from the earliest period of Christianity. In practice identifiably Christian art only survives from the 2nd century onwards. After 550 at the latest, Christian art is classified as Byzantine, or of some other regional type. It is hard to know when distinctly Christian art began. Prior to 100, Christians may have been constrained by their position as a persecuted group from producing durable works of art. -
Period: 450 to 1050
The Period of the Dark Ages
The Dark Ages, also known as the Migration Period or Early Middle Ages, the early medieval period of western European history - specifically, the time when there was no Roman emperor in the West, which was marked by frequent warfare and a virtual disappearance of urban life. The name of the period refers to the movement of so-called barbarian peoples—including the Huns, Goths, Vandals, Bulgars, Alani, Suebi, and Franks—into what had been the Western Roman Empire. -
Period: 500 to 1200
Beginning of Medieval Art and Byzantine Art
Medieval Arts - The medieval art of the Western world covers a vast scope of time and place, over 1000 years of art in Europe, and at times the Middle East and North Africa. It includes major art movements and periods, national and regional art, genres, revivals, the artists crafts, and the artists themselves. Byzantine Art - Byzantine art is the name for the artistic products of the Byzantine Empire, as well as the nations and states that inherited culturally from the empire. -
Period: 532 to 537
Hagia Sophia built in Constantinople
Hagia Sophia was a Greek Orthodox Christian patriarchal basilica (church), later an imperial mosque, and is now a museum in Istanbul, Turkey. The Roman Empire's first Christian Cathedral, from the date of its construction in 537 AD, and until 1453, it served as an Eastern Orthodox cathedral and seat of the Patriarch of Constantinople except between 1204 and 1261, when it was converted by the Fourth Crusaders to a Roman Catholic cathedral under the Latin Empire. -
Period: 700 to 750
Oils (walnut, linseed) first used for oil-resin varnishes, and for painting on stone & glass.
Oils (walnut, linseed) first used for oil-resin varnishes, and for painting on stone & glass. -
Period: 700 to 900
Era of Tang Dynasty Art
Tang dynasty art is Chinese art made during the Tang dynasty. It is best known for the development of many forms—painting, sculpture, calligraphy, music, dance and literature. The Tang dynasty, with its capital at Chang'an (today's Xi'an), the most populous city in the world at the time, is regarded by historians as a high point in Chinese civilization—equal, or even superior, to the Han period. The Tang period was considered the golden age of literature and art. -
Period: 750 to 900
Era of Carolingian Art
Carolingian art comes from the Frankish Empire in the period of roughly 120 years from about 780 to 900 — during the reign of Charlemagne and his immediate heirs — popularly known as the Carolingian Renaissance. The art was produced by and for the court circle and a group of important monasteries under Imperial patronage; survivals from outside this charmed circle show a considerable drop in quality of workmanship and sophistication of design. -
Period: 780 to 900
Medieval Christian artworks appear during Pre-Romanesque Era of Carolingian Renaissance
Medieval Christian artworks - For centuries after the decline of Rome, Western Europe was cloaked in barbarian darkness. No city - not even Rome itself - could compare with the magnificence of Constantinople, Cordoba or Baghdad. Europe produced no science, no schools of medieval art, no architecture to compare with its former achievements. For 600 years (400-1000) it remained a cultural backwater. Only one institution survived: the Church. -
Period: 900 to 1000
Era of Ottonian Art
Ottonian art is a style in pre-romanesque German art, covering also some works from the Low Countries, northern Italy and eastern France. It was named by the art historian Hubert Janitschek after the Ottonian dynasty which ruled Germany and northern Italy between 919 and 1024 under the kings Henry I, Otto I, Otto II, Otto III and Henry II. With Ottonian architecture, it is a key component of the Ottonian Renaissance. -
Period: 1150 to 1450
Era of Gothic Art
Gothic art was a style of medieval art that developed in Northern France out of Romanesque art in the 12th century AD, led by the concurrent development of Gothic architecture. It spread to all of Western Europe, and much of Southern and Central Europe, never quite effacing more classical styles in Italy. In the late 14th century, the sophisticated court style of International Gothic developed, which continued to evolve until the late 15th century. -
Period: 1250 to 1400
Oil paints first used for painting on panel
Oil paints first used for painting on panel. -
Period: 1304 to 1310
Era of Proto-Renaissance Art
In fine art, the term "Proto Renaissance" refers to the pre-Renaissance period (c.1300-1400) in Italy, and the activities of progressive painters such as Giotto (1267-1337), who pioneered the new form of figurative "realism", which was fully developed by artists during the era of Renaissance art proper. Giotto's groundbreaking art did not however, represent the European or even the Italian mainstream. -
1346
Zen Ink-Painting dominates Japanese art
Zen Ink-Painting dominates Japanese art. -
Period: 1400 to 1530
The Renaissance
The Renaissance was a period in European history, from the 14th to the 17th century, regarded as the cultural bridge between the Middle Ages and modern history. It started as a cultural movement in Italy in the Medieval period and later spread to the rest of Europe, marking the beginning of the Modern age. The intellectual basis of the Renaissance was its own invented version of humanism, derived from the concept of Roman Humanitas and the rediscovery of classical Greek philosophy. -
1432
Golden Age of Flemish painting: Jan Van Eyck paints The Ghent Altarpiece
The Ghent Altarpiece (or the Adoration of the Mystic Lamb, Dutch: Het Lam Gods) is a very large and complex 15th-century Early Flemish polyptych altarpiece in St Bavo's Cathedral, attributed to the brothers Hubert and Jan van Eyck, and considered a masterpiece of European art and one of the world's treasures. The panels are organised in two vertical registers, each with two sets of foldable wings with inner and outer panel paintings. -
Period: 1435 to 1440
Famous painting: Descent from the Cross (The Deposition) by Rogier Van der Weyden
The Descent from the Cross (or Deposition of Christ, or Descent of Christ from the Cross) is a panel painting by the Flemish artist Rogier van der Weyden created c. 1435, now in the Museo del Prado, Madrid. The crucified Christ is lowered from the cross, his lifeless body held by Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus. The work was a self-conscious attempt by van der Weyden to create a masterpiece that would establish an international reputation. -
1444
Iconic bronze David made by sculptor Donatello (greatest of early Renaissance sculptors)
David is the title of two statues of the biblical hero David by the Italian early Renaissance sculptor Donatello. They consist of an early work in marble of a clothed figure, and a far more famous bronze figure that is nude between its helmet and boots. Both are now in the Museo Nazionale del Bargello in Florence. -
1485
Famous mythological painting: The Birth of Venus by Sandro Botticelli
The Birth of Venus (Italian: Nascita di Venere is a painting by Sandro Botticelli probably made in the mid 1480s. It depicts the goddess Venus arriving at the shore after her birth, when she had emerged from the sea fully-grown (called Venus Anadyomene and often depicted in art). The painting is currently in the Uffizi Gallery in Florence, Italy. -
1490
Famous example of linear perspective: Lamentation Over the Dead Christ by Mantegna
The Lamentation of Christ (also known as the Lamentation over the Dead Christ, or the Dead Christ and other variants) is a painting by the Italian Renaissance artist Andrea Mantegna. It portrays the body of Christ supine on a marble slab. He is watched over by the Virgin Mary and Saint John and St. Mary Magdalene weeping for his death. -
Period: 1490 to 1520
Tilman Riemenschneider creates greatest wood sculpture of German Gothic art
Tilman Riemenschneider creates greatest wood sculpture of German Gothic art. -
1495
First masterpiece of High Renaissance painting: The Last Supper by Leonardo Da Vinci
The Last Supper is a late 15th-century mural painting by Leonardo da Vinci housed by the refectory of the Convent of Santa Maria delle Grazie in Milan. It is one of the world's most recognizable paintings. The painting represents the scene of The Last Supper of Jesus with his apostles, as it is told in the Gospel of John, 13:21. Leonardo has depicted the consternation that occurred among the Twelve Disciples when Jesus announced that one of them would betray him. -
Period: 1503 to 1506
Leonardo paints the Mona Lisa, one of the greatest Renaissance paintings
The Mona Lisa, is a half-length portrait painting by the Italian Renaissance artist Leonardo da Vinci that has been described as "the best known, the most visited, the most written about, the most sung about, the most parodied work of art in the world".The Mona Lisa is also one of the most valuable paintings in the world. The painting is thought to be a portrait of Lisa Gherardini, the wife of Francesco del Giocondo, and is in oil on a white Lombardy poplar panel. -
Period: 1508 to 1512
Michelangelo paints the Genesis Old Testament (Sistine Chapel ceiling)
The Sistine Chapel ceiling, painted by Michelangelo between 1508 and 1512, is a cornerstone work of High Renaissance art. The ceiling is that of the Sistine Chapel, the large papal chapel built within the Vatican between 1477 and 1480 by Pope Sixtus IV, for whom the chapel is named. It was painted at the commission of Pope Julius II. The chapel is the location for papal conclaves and many other important services. -
Period: 1530 to
Era of Mannerism
Mannerism is a style in European art. Mannerism encompasses a variety of approaches influenced by, and reacting to, the harmonious ideals associated with artists such as Leonardo da Vinci, Raphael, and early Michelangelo. Where High Renaissance art emphasizes proportion, balance, and ideal beauty, Mannerism exaggerates such qualities, often resulting in compositions that are asymmetrical or unnaturally elegant. -
Period: to
Era of Baroque Art
The Baroque is a period of artistic style that used exaggerated motion and clear, easily interpreted detail to produce drama, tension, exuberance, and grandeur in sculpture, painting, architecture, literature, dance, theatre, and music. The style began around 1600 in Rome and Italy, and spread to most of Europe. The popularity and success of the Baroque style was encouraged by the Catholic Church, which had decided at the time of the Council of Trent. -
Period: to
Era of Rococo Art
Rococo, or "Late Baroque", is a French artistic movement and style, affecting many aspects of the arts including painting, sculpture, architecture, interior design, decoration, literature, music, and theatre. Rococo artists and architects used a more jocular, florid, and graceful approach to the Baroque. Their style was ornate and used light colours, asymmetrical designs, curves, and gold. Unlike the political Baroque, the Rococo had playful and witty themes. -
Period: to
Era of Romanticism
Romanticism was an artistic, literary, musical and intellectual movement that originated in Europe toward the end of the 18th century. Romanticism was characterized by its emphasis on emotion and individualism as well as glorification of all the past and nature, preferring the medieval rather than the classical. It was partly a reaction to the Industrial Revolution, the aristocratic social and political norms of the Age of Enlightenment, and the scientific rationalization of nature. -
Period: to
Era of French Impressionism
Impressionism was an art movement that started in the mid-19th century and rose to popularity in the last quarter of the century. The movement was inspired by a variety of factors, including anti-establishment, foreign/asian influences and a desire to paint modern life instead of academic subjects of history and mythology. -
Period: to
The Age of Modern Art
Modern art includes artistic work produced during the period extending roughly from the 1870s to the 1970s, and denotes the styles and philosophy of the art produced during that era. The term is usually associated with art in which the traditions of the past have been thrown aside in a spirit of experimentation. Modern artists experimented with new ways of seeing and with fresh ideas about the nature of materials and functions of art. -
Period: to
Era of Post-Impressionism
Post-Impressionism is a predominantly French art movement that developed roughly between 1886 and 1905, from the last Impressionist exhibition to the birth of Fauvism. Post-Impressionism emerged as a reaction against Impressionists' concern for the naturalistic depiction of light and colour. Due to its broad emphasis on abstract qualities or symbolic content, Post-Impressionism encompasses Neo-Impressionism, Symbolism, Cloisonnism, Pont-Aven School, and Synthetism. -
Period: to
Cubism
Cubism is an early-20th-century art movement which brought European painting and sculpture historically forward toward 20th century Modern art. Cubism in its various forms inspired related movements in literature and architecture. Cubism has been considered to be among the most influential art movements of the 20th century. The term is broadly used in association with a wide variety of art produced in Paris. -
Period: to
The period of Socialist Realism
Socialist realism is a style of realistic art that was developed in the Soviet Union and became a dominant style in that country as well as in other socialist countries. Socialist realism is characterized by the glorified depiction of communist values, such as the emancipation of the proletariat, by means of realistic imagery. Although related, it should not be confused with social realism, a type of art that realistically depicts subjects of social concern. -
Period: to
Era of Neo-Expressionism
Neo-expressionism is a style of late modernist or early-postmodern painting and sculpture. It is characterized by intense subjectivity and rough handling of materials.Neo-expressionism developed as a reaction against conceptual art and minimal art. Neo-expressionists returned to portraying recognizable objects, such as the human body (although sometimes in an abstract manner), in a rough and violently emotional way, often using vivid colors. -
Period: to
The era of Pop-Art
Pop art is an art movement that emerged in Britain and the United States. The movement presented a challenge to traditions of fine art by including imagery from popular and mass culture, such as advertising, comic books and mundane cultural objects. It is also associated with the artists' use of mechanical means of reproduction or rendering techniques. In pop art, material is sometimes visually removed from its known context, isolated, or combined with unrelated material. -
Period: to
The Age of Postmodernist Art
Postmodern art is a body of art movements that sought to contradict some aspects of modernism or some aspects that emerged or developed in its aftermath. In general, movements such as intermedia, installation art, conceptual art and multimedia, particularly involving video are described as postmodern.
