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Period: 30,000 BCE to 10,000 BCE
Prehistoric times
The earliest found example of human created art were found on cave walls dating back to 30,000 BCE. -
Period: 3000 BCE to 30 BCE
Ancient Egypt
Egyptians depicted scenes of daily life, gods, religious deities, and hieroglyphics by carving into the walls of temples and tombs. They also drew on papyrus with ink. -
Period: 800 BCE to 500 BCE
Ancient Greece
The artifacts that have survived from Ancient Greece are vases and pottery that depict myths and scenes of battles. -
Period: 400 to 1400
Middle Ages
Drawings mainly consisted on religious texts that were painted onto wood, wax, or slate. Unfortunately, there is a huge amount of lost drawings of the Middle Ages due to some artists reusing or even throwing away art drawn on wax, slate, and wood. This is also when artists started keeping model books. -
1100
Important Invention
Paper was invented, which would come to greatly impact the relevance of art and drawing. -
Period: 1280 to 1400
Renaissance
Starting in Italy, drawing became respected as an art form due to the rise in paper use, and it was used as a base for all forms of art. Scientists and artists began to want to create realistic depictions as accurately as they could. Artists also started to advertise and make money off of their work. -
Period: 1390 to 1564
Important Advancements in materials
During the Renaissance, when Michelangelo, da Vinci, Bosch and van Eyck were alive they all started drawing with different materials such as pen, ink, chalk, and charcoal to create different effects and methods. -
Period: to
Baroque Period
This period introduced new ways of drawing, such as using open composition. Artists also started using water color, ink washes, and sketchbooks. Drawing also became more available skill due to cheaper supplies. -
Important Innovation
Pencils started to get manufactured and used by a lot of artists. -
Period: to
19th and 20th centuries
Art movements such as Fauvism, Impressionism, Expressionism, Cubism and other movements all started in this time frame. This is when artists started to question traditional art methods and started to branch out to create more experimental styles and practices.
