Stone Age
(30,000 BCE - 2500 BCE)
Cave painting, fertility goddesses, megalithic structures
Characteristics
Artists and Works
Lascaux Cave Painting, Woman of Willendorf, Stonehenge
Ice Age ends (10,000 BCE –8,000 BCE); New Stone Age and first permanent settlements (8000 BCE – 2500 BCE)
Historical Events
Mesopotamian
(3500 BCE – 539 BCE)
Warrior art and narration in stone relief
Characteristics
Artists and Works
Standard of Ur, Gate of Ishtar, Stele of Hammurabi’s Code
Sumerians invent writing (3400 BCE); Hammurabi writes his law code (1780 BCE); Abraham founds monotheism
Historical Events
Egyptian
(3100 BCE–30 BCE)
Art with an afterlife focus: pyramids and tomb painting
Characteristics
Artists and Works
Imhotep, Step Pyramid, Great Pyramids, Bust of Nefertiti
Narmer unites Upper/Lower Egypt (3100 BCE); Rameses II battles the Hittites (1274 BCE); Cleopatra dies (30 BCE)
Historical Events
Greek and Hellenistic
(850 BCE –31 BCE)
Greek idealism: balance, perfect proportions; architectural orders (Doric, Ionic, Corinthian)
Characteristics
Artists and Works
Parthenon, Myron, Phidias, Polykleitos, Praxiteles
Athens defeats Persia at Marathon (490 BCE); Peloponnesian Wars (431 BCE – 404 BCE); Alexander the Great’s conquests (336 BCE –323 BCE)
Historical Events
Roman
(500 BCE – 476 CE)
Roman realism: practical and down to earth; the arch
Characteristics
Artists and Works
Augustus of Primaporta, Colosseum, Trajan’s Column, Pantheon
Julius Caesar assassinated (44 BCE); Augustus proclaimed Emperor (27 BCE); Diocletian splits Empire (292 CE); Rome falls (476 CE)
Historical Events
Indian, Chinese, and Japanese
(653 BCE – 1900 CE)
Serene, meditative art, and Arts of the Floating World
Characteristics
Artists and Works
Gu Kaizhi, Li Cheng, Guo Xi, Hokusai, Hiroshige
Birth of Buddha (563 BCE); Silk Road opens (1st century BCE); Buddhism spreads to China (1st–2nd centuries CE) and Japan (5th century CE)
Historical Events
Byzantine and Islamic
(476 CE – 1453 CE)
Heavenly Byzantine mosaics; Islamic architecture and amazing maze-like design
Characteristics
Artists and Works
Hagia Sophia, Andrei Rublev, Mosque of Córdoba, the Alhambra
Justinian partly restores Western Roman Empire (533 CE – 562 CE); Iconoclasm Controversy (726 CE – 843 CE); Birth of Islam (610 CE) and Muslim Conquests (632 CE – 732 CE)
Historical Events
Middle Ages
(500 CE – 1400 CE)
Celtic art, Carolingian Renaissance, Romanesque, Gothic
Characteristics
Artists and Works
St. Sernin, Durham Cathedral, Notre Dame, Chartres, Cimabue, Duccio, Giotto
Viking Raids (793 CE – 1066 CE); Battle of Hastings (1066); Crusades I–IV (1095–1204); Black Death (1347–1351); Hundred Years’ War (1337–1453)
Historical Events
Early and High Renaissance
(1400 – 1550)
Rebirth of classical culture
Characteristics
Artists and Works
Ghiberti’s Doors, Brunelleschi, Donatello, Botticelli, Leonardo, Michelangelo, Raphael
Gutenberg invents movable type (1447); Turks conquer Constantinople (1453); Columbus lands in New World (1492); Martin Luther starts Reformation (1517)
Historical Events
Venetian and Northern Renaissance
(1430–1550)
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The Renaissance spreads north- ward to France, the Low Countries, Poland, Germany, and England
Characteristics
Artists and Works
Bellini, Giorgione, Titian, Dürer, Bruegel, Bosch, Jan van Eyck, Rogier van der Weyden
Council of Trent and Counter-Reformation (1545–1563); Copernicus proves the Earth revolves around the Sun (1543)
Historical Events
Mannerism, also known as Late Renaissance
(1527–1580)
Art that breaks the rules; artifice over nature
Characteristics
Artists and Works
Tintoretto, El Greco, Pontormo, Bronzino, Cellini
Magellan circumnavigates the globe (1520–1522)