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Period: 30,000 BCE to 25,000 BCE
Stone Age
Paleolithic cave art was some of the very first creative arts in global prehistory. The works involved cave painting or etching. These cave painting and etchings give great insight into the history of the Stone Ages. The Stone Age was a time a great climate shifts and environmental change in which the people had to adapt. Stone Age artists had to use what was available within this environment. -
Period: 3500 BCE to 539 BCE
Mesopotamian
The Mesopotamians regarded “the craft of building” as a divine gift taught to men by the gods, and architecture flourished in the region. Mesopotamian sculptures were predominantly created for religious and political purposes. Common materials included clay, metal, and stone fashioned into reliefs and sculptures in the round. -
Period: 3100 BCE to 30 BCE
Egyptian
Egyptian art was always first and foremost functional. No matter how beautifully a statue may have been crafted, its purpose was to serve as a home for a spirit or a god. Tomb paintings, temple tableaus, home and palace gardens all were created so that their form suited an important function and, in many cases, this function was a reminder of the eternal nature of life and the value of personal and communal stability. -
Period: 850 BCE to 31 BCE
Greek and Hellenistic
During the Hellenistic period, artists explored human emotions and states of consciousness, with works ranging from the starkly realistic to the grandly theatrical. Art during this time started to move away from the typical classical ideals, with artists of the time infusing their works with new stylistic choices. Jewelry became more elaborate; sculptures became more dramatic, almost theatrical, and architecture broke the rules, becoming grander. -
Period: 653 BCE to 1900 BCE
Indian, Chinese, and Japanese
The art of the Indian, Chinese and Japanese are all heavily influenced by the culture and the way of life of the people. These influences changed the art for the time period to something that told us of the every day people, rather than the ones that were high in power. -
Period: 500 BCE to 476 BCE
Roman
Roman architecture and engineering was never less than bold, but its painting and sculpture was based on Greek traditions and also on art forms developed in its vassal states like Egypt and Ancient Persia. -
Period: 476 BCE to 1453 BCE
Byzantine and Islamic
Byzantine and Islamic art was about religious expression, but not as we think of it today. During this period, religious expression was almost completely controlled by the church and therefore very uniform and consistent in their depictions and were less an expression of the artist's personal ideals. -
Period: 500 to
Middle Ages
Medieval Art was made up of various artistic mediums, such as sculpture, illuminated manuscripts, stained glass, tapestries, mosaics, and metalworks. Numerous artworks were made using these different styles, which went on to have a higher survival rate than other mediums like fresco wall paintings. -
Period: 1400 to 1550
Early & High Renaissance
Many of the most prominent artists from this time are still regarded as being among the greatest painters of all time. Early Renaissance art focused on realism and naturalism in the way figures were portrayed. The high renaissance exemplified psychological complexity, the use of perspective for dramatic focus, symbolism, and scientifically accurate detail. -
Period: 1430 to 1550
Venetian & Modern Renaissance
Venetian style of painting characterized by deep, rich colors, an emphasis on patterns and surfaces, and a strong interest in the effects of light. The main word here is "light." Four hundred years prior to Impressionism, the Venetian painters were keenly interested in the relationship between light and color. All of their canvases clearly explore this interplay. -
Period: 1527 to 1580
Mannerism
Mannerist artists emerged from the ideals of Michelangelo, Raphael, and other Late Renaissance artists, but their focus on style and technique outweighed the meaning of the subject matter. Often, figures had graceful, elongated limbs, small heads, stylized features and exaggerated details. This yielded more complex, stylized compositions rather than relying on the classical ideals of harmonious composition and linear perspective used by their Renaissance predecessors. -
Period: to
Baroque
The Baroque period produced elaborate, extravagant works of art and architecture. It was characterized by grandeur and richness, punctuated by an interest in broadening human intellect and global discovery. Baroque artists had intricate stylistic aspects. Baroque paintings were characterized by drama, painters used an intense contrast between light and dark and had energetic compositions matched by rich color palettes. -
Period: to
Neoclassical
Neoclassicism is an artistic philosophy that draws inspiration from the ancient art of Greece and Rome. It emphasizes harmony, clarity, restraint, universality, and idealism. All Neoclassical art shares a number of traits in common, including symmetry, an objective portrayal of events, simplicity of line, form, and color, a balance of straight lines and geometric shapes, the application of science, mathematics, and natural law, and a realistic view of events. -
Period: to
Realism
Realism refers to an accurate, detailed, and unembellished representation of nature or contemporary life. In favor of depictions of 'real' life, the Realist painters used common laborers, and ordinary people in ordinary surroundings engaged in real activities as subjects for their works. -
Period: to
Impressionism
Impressionist artists aimed to depict the genuine emotion of a specific moment. This was characterized by short, quick brushstrokes and an unfinished, sketch-like feel. Impressionist artists used modern life as their subject matter, painting situations like dance halls and sailboat regattas rather than historical and mythological events. -
Period: to
Post-Impressionism
Post-Impressionists extended the use of vivid colors, thick application of paint, distinctive brush strokes, and real-life subject matter. And were more inclined to emphasize geometric forms, distort forms for expressive effect, and to use unnatural or arbitrary colors in their compositions. -
Period: to
Fauvism and Expressionism
Paint laid on thick, colors popping off the page, and unnatural hues – fauvism and expressionism are two of the movements that brought these characteristics to life. These two movements opened the way for even greater experimentation with color and abstract form. -
Period: to
Post-Modernism
Postmodern art rejected the traditional values of modernism, and instead embraced experimentation with new media and art forms including intermedia, installation art, conceptual art, multimedia, performance art, and identity politics.