-
Period: 30,000 BCE to 2500 BCE
Stone Age
Cave painting, fertility goddesses, megalithic structures -
Period: 3500 BCE to 539 BCE
Mesopotamian
Warrior art and narration in stone relief -
Period: 3100 BCE to 30 BCE
Egyptian
Art with an afterlife focus: pyramids and tomb painting -
Period: 850 BCE to 31 BCE
Greek and Hellenistic
Greek idealism: balance, perfect proportions; architectural
orders(Doric, Ionic, Corinthian) -
Period: 653 BCE to
Indian, Chinese, and Japanese
Serene, meditative art, and Arts of the Floating World -
Period: 500 BCE to 476
Roman
Roman realism: practical and down to earth; the arch -
Period: 476 to 1453
Byzantine and Islamic
Heavenly Byzantine mosaics; Islamic architecture and amazing
maze-like design -
Period: 500 to 1400
Middle Ages
Celtic art, Carolingian Renaissance, Romanesque, Gothic -
Period: 1400 to 1550
Early and High Renaissance
Rebirth of classical culture -
Period: 1430 to 1550
Venetian and Northern Renaissance
The Renaissance spreads north- ward to France, the Low
Countries, Poland, Germany, and England -
Period: 1527 to 1580
Mannerism
Art that breaks the rules; artifice over nature -
Period: to
Baroque
Splendor and flourish for God; art as a weapon in the religious
wars -
Period: to
Neoclassical
Art that recaptures Greco-Roman grace and grandeur -
Period: to
Romanticism
The triumph of imagination and individuality -
Period: to
Realism
Celebrating working class and peasants; en plein air
rustic painting -
Period: to
Impressionism
Capturing fleeting effects of natural light -
Period: to
Post-Impressionism
A soft revolt against Impressionism -
Period: to
Fauvism and Expressionism
Harsh colors and flat surfaces (Fauvism); emotion distorting
form -
Period: to
Dada and Surrealism
Ridiculous art; painting dreams and exploring the
unconscious -
Period: to
Abstract Expressionism
Post–World War II: pure abstraction and expression
without form; popular art absorbs consumerism -
Period: to
Postmodernism and Deconstructivism
Art without a center and reworking and mixing past styles