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16,000 BCE
Hall of Bulls
The Hall of Bulls is one of the greatest representations of cave art from the Pre-Historic era. It is believed that the artists made cave art as rituals for good luck on their hunts and to their communicate stories. -
3000 BCE
Stonehenge
Stonehenge is an example of the cultural advances brought about by the Neolithic revolution—the most important development in human history. it is a huge sculpture in Salisbury Plain, England. -
3000 BCE
Palette of King Narmer
The Palette of Narmer was discovered in 1898 buried within the temple at Hierakonpolis. Palettes were generally flat, minimally decorated stone objects used for grinding and mixing minerals for cosmetics. This palette was significantly important because the way it was found and the specific elements on the palette; it was never allowed to leave Egypt. -
1340 BCE
Thutmose, Model Bust of Queen Nefertiti
This statue is made of limestone and plaster. It was under great controversy because it is believed it was illegally excavated from Thutmose in 1912 by Ludwig Borchardt. -
1323 BCE
The death mask of Tutankhamun
"The death mask is considered one of the masterpieces of Egyptian art. It originally rested directly on the shoulders of the mummy inside the innermost gold coffin. It is constructed of two sheets of gold that were hammered together and weighs 22.5 pounds. The back of the mask is covered with Spell 151b from the Book of the Dead, which the Egyptians used as a road map for the afterlife. This particular spell protects the various limbs of Tutankhamun as he moves into the underworld."(Khan) -
900 BCE
Double-faced female figurine, Tlatilco
Tlatilco figurines are wonderful small ceramic figures, often of women, found in Central Mexico (Aztec empire). The artists put emphasis on the wide hips, the spherical upper thighs, and the pinched waist. They also typically had two heads with an elaborate hairstyle and no hands or feet. -
515 BCE
The Euphronios Krater
The Euphronios Krater is a bowl used for mixing wine with water. It is the only complete example of the surviving 27 vases painted by the renowned Euphronios and is considered one of the finest Greek vase artifacts in existence. -
480 BCE
The Kritios Boy
It is the first statue from classical antiquity known to use contrapposto, a more natural pose. The statue was excavated in 1866 on the Acropolis of Athens, among the "Perserschutt". -
330 BCE
Boxer at Rest
This statue is a bronze Hellenistic Greek sculpture of a sitting nude boxer at rest, still wearing his caestus, a type of leather hand-wrap. It is a very popular statue because of how aesthetically pleasing it is to the eyes. -
600
Rebecca and Eliezer at the Well
This manuscript has heavy silver in on purple-dyed parchment. The Vienna Genesis may have been a luxury item intended for display, or it may have provided a synopsis of exciting stories from scripture to be read for edification or diversion by a wealthy Christian. -
1200
The phoenix from folio 56 recto of the Aberdeen Bestiary
The Bestiary is a medieval encyclopedia that identifies a selection of animals, plants, and precious stones. They were copied by hand at different times and places, resulting in a wide range of variations. -
1423
Adoration of the Magi
This beautiful painting has layers of silver, gold and paint that have been molded, etched, and glazed into glittering textures. The altarpiece depicts several gospel stories of the birth of Christ as they were retold in the Middle Ages and Renaissance. -
1432
Ghent Altarpiece
It is a painting composed of oil on wood. The painting depicts the adoration of a mystical lamb. The sacrifice of the lamb symbolizes Christ’s slaughter for our salvation. -
1484
The Birth of Venus
This painting is painted by Sandro Botticelli with tempera on canvas. It depicts the goddess Venus arriving at the shore after her birth, when she had emerged from the sea fully-grown. It is one of the most famous icons fro the Italian Renaissance. -
1498
The Book of Hours of Louis XII
The Hours of Louis XII was one of the greatest French illuminated manuscripts of the Renaissance. This illumination depicts Louis XII of France kneeling in prayer accompanied by Saint Michael, Charlemagne, Louis and Denis'. It was illustrated by Jean Bourdichon -
1498
The Last Supper
This painting depicts Jesus's last supper with the apostles before Jesus is arrested. Unfortunately, it is not in very good condition due to humidity and bombings that occurred; but it is still one of the greatest works of the High Renaissance. -
1502
Giovanni Todeschino, Jean Bourdichon and Master of Claude of France, Book of Hours of Frederic of Aragon
This was from a medieval illuminated manuscript. This book of hours was made for Frederic of Aragon, former king of Naples. A book of hours is a liturgical book made for lay people containing the text of prayers for each hour of the day, and particularly the hours of the Virgin. -
1505
Mona Lisa
The Mona Lisa is one of the most recognized paintings of all time. It is oil on a panel and most likely depicts the wife of a wealthy man. The Mona Lisa's mysterious smile has inspired many writers, singers, and painters and left many critics questioning her thoughts. -
1512
Ceiling of Sistine Chapel
This fresco is a masterpiece of the Renaissance. The entire ceiling is a fresco, which is an ancient method for painting murals that relies upon a chemical reaction between damp lime plaster and water-based pigments to permanently fuse the work into the wall. Michelangelo even designed his own scaffold to reach the chapel's ceiling. -
The Crowning with Thorns
This painting is oil on canvas painted by Caravaggio; who was strongly influenced by the Catholic church. Caravaggio turned to a powerful and dramatic realism, accentuated by bold contrasts of light and dark, and tightly-cropped compositions that enhanced the physical and emotional immediacy in the painting. -
Los Caprichos
The artist Goya used the techniques of etching, aquatint, drypoint, and burin in this painting. In this ominous image, we see the dark vision of humanity that characterizes Goya’s work for the rest of his life. A man sleeps, apparently peacefully, even as bats and owls threaten from all sides and a lynx lays quiet, but wide-eyed and alert. Another creature sits at the center of the composition, staring not at the sleeping figure, but at us. -
Saturn Devouring One Of His Sons
Francisco de Goya y Lucientes made this disturbing painting of Saturn who, fearing that he would be overthrown by one of his children, ate each one upon their birth. It is another oil painting on canvas. -
Liberty leading the People
Eugeme Delacroix was the artist that painted this with oil on canvas. He stressed the intensity emotion as many artists did during the era of Romanticism. He depicted the intensity and atrocities of war with his techniques very well in this painting. -
Paris Boulevard
Louis Daguerre created the daguerreotype which was a great step for photography. This photograph depicts an empty Paris street which raised the question for many critics: where are all the people in the normally busy streets of Paris? -
The Horse in Motion
Eadweard Muybridge created a series of photographs which settled the debate if horses lift all four legs off the ground when they gallop. -
A Burial at Ornans
This is a history painting done by Gustave Courbet with oil on canvas. It is of a funeral and critics claim Courbet of a deliberate pursuit of ugliness. I found interesting that Courbet said: "The Burial at Ornans was in reality the burial of Romanticism." -
The Gleaners
Jean-François Millet painted The Gleaners with oil on canvas. The depiction of the working class in The Gleaners made the upper classes feel uneasy about their status. The masses of workers greatly outnumbered the members of the upper class. This disparity in numbers meant that if the lower class was to revolt, the upper class would be overturned. With the French Revolution still fresh on the minds of the upper classes, this painting was not perceived well at all. -
The Cradle
Berte Morisot painted this with oil on canvas in 1872. Morisot, apart of the Impressionism movement, was widely criticized for her works looking unfinished and like slap-dash impressions. Most of her paintings include domestic scenes of family, children, ladies, and flowers, depicting what women's life was like in the late nineteenth century; which explains her painting above. -
The Railway
Édouard Manet created one of the most mysterious paintings of the Realism era. Critics are left wondering about the purpose of the setting, the railway, and the two figures. The style of art he depicted stood for leisure, pleasure, spontaneity, freedom and nature. -
The Ballet Class
Edgar Devas, very famous Impressionist artist, painted The Ballet Class with oil on canvas in 1874. It depicts a session of a ballet class under ballet master Jules Perro, Degas' friend. -
A Bar at the Folies-Bergère
Édouard Manet painted this oil painting of a contemporary scene specialized to Realism and Manet's introduction to Modernism. Features, such as the barmaid and the mirror, in this painting have confused critics and made them compare this work to many other works of art. -
Self-Portrait with Bandaged Ear
Vincent Van Gogh, one of the most infamous Impressionist artist, made this portrait with oil on canvas. It shows the artist in a three quarter profile standing in a room in the Yellow House wearing a closed coat and a fur cap. His right ear is bandaged. It was in fact his left ear that was bandaged, the painting being a mirror image. Van Gogh cutting off his ear is a well-known fact around the art world. -
Still Life with Apples
Paul Cezanne created this art piece with oil on canvas in 1898. it is exactly what is it titled, a still life of apples on a table. Critics called his work problematic because he created images that could be viewed from multiple perspectives, like the continuous vision of a video camera. -
Bonheur de Vivre
Henry Matisse created this masterpiece with oil on canvas in 1906. Matisse's used bright colors and sensuous undertones in paintings illustrated above. Matisse’s landscape is a broad open field with a deep pleasing view and the figures are not crowded. Their bodies are flowing that in turn relate to the forms of nature that surround them. -
Portrait of Gertrude Stein
Pablo Picasso created this piece in 1906 with oil on canvas. He painted such with dull colors. Her bulky form sits on a large armchair or sofa and stiffly leans forward, imposing in the way she rests her arms and large hands heavily on the folds of her skirt. In contrast to the rounded mass of the figure, Stein’s face has a planar quality that seems hard and mask-like. This was inspired by African and Iberian art. -
Houses at l'Estaque
Georges Braque painted this in 1908 with oil on canvas. He and Picasso were the creators of the Cubism movement and worked closely together. Braque sought to undermine the illusion of depth by forcing the viewer to recognize the canvas not as a window but as it truly is, a vertical curtain that hangs before us. -
The Portuguese
Georges Braque created this painting with oil on canvas. His work s shows that by 1910, Cubism had matured into a complex system that is seemingly so abstract that it appears to have rejected all esthetic concerns. The astonishing part to many was that the art was more confusing than beautiful and understandable. -
Jeanne Hébuterne
Amedeo Modigliani created this portrait in 1919 with oil on canvas, He made many portraits of people with elongated faces and abstract features as shown above. He claimed himself a part of the intellectual avant-garde of the art world. -
Automatic Drawing
Masson used ink on paper in 1924 to create this art piece. Surrealist artist André Masson began creating automatic drawings, essentially applying the same unfettered, unplanned process used by Surrealist writers, but to create visual images. -
The Persistence of Memory
Salvador Dali created this piece in 1931 with oil on canvas. It is one of the most recognizable pieces in Surrealism. The image depicts the soft melting pocket watch. It epitomizes Dalí's theory of "softness" and "hardness", which was central to his thinking at the time. -
Girl with a Ball
Roy Lichtenstein created this piece in 1961 with oil on canvas. Pop artists applied their paint to imitate the look of industrial printing techniques. This ironic approach is shown by Lichtenstein’s painted Benday dots, a mechanical process used to print pulp comics. -
Gold Marilyn Monroe
Andy Warhol created this image in 1962 with silkscreen on canvas. The central image on a gold background evokes a religious tradition of painted icons, transforming the Hollywood starlet into a Byzantine Madonna that reflects our obsession with celebrity. Notably, Warhol’s spiritual reference was especially poignant given Monroe’s suicide a few months earlier. -
Floor Cake
Claes Oldenburg's created the Floor Cake in 1962 and it entered into the Painting and Sculpture Department at MoMA in 1975. Measuring five by nine feet, this popular piece of painted cake has been heavily exhibited in the Museum and across the United States. It is definitely a statement piece for the PopArt movement.
