-
100
PREHISTORIC ART 30,000 - 2,500 b.c.
STONE AGECharacteristics: Cave painting, fertility goddesses, megalithic structures.
Chief Artists and Major Works: Lascaux Cave Painting, Woman of Willendorf, Stonehenge.
Historical Events: Ice Age ends (10,000 b.c.–8,000 b.c.); New Stone Age and first permanent settlements (8000 b.c.–2500 b.c.) -
100
MESOPOTAMIAN ART 3,500 B.C. - 539 B.C.
MESOPOTAMIAN ARTHistorical Events: Sumerians invent writing (3400 b.c.); Hammurabi writes his law code (1780 b.c.); Abraham founds monotheism.
Characteristics Warrior art and narration in stone relief.
Chief Artists and Major Works: Standard of Ur, Gate of Ishtar, Stele of Hammurabi's Code. -
100
EGYPTIAN ART 3,100 b.c - 30 b.c.
EGYPTIAN ARTCharacteristics: Art with an afterlife focus: pyramids and tomb painting.
Historical Events: Narmer unites Upper/Lower Egypt (3100 b.c.); Rameses II battles the Hittites (1274 b.c.); Cleopatra dies (30 b.c.)
Chief Artists and Major Works: Imhotep, Step Pyramid, Great Pyramids, Bust of Nefertiti -
100
GREEK AND HELLENISTIC ART 850 b.c. - 31b.c.
GREEK AND HELLENISTIC ARTCharacteristics:
Greek idealism: balance, perfect proportions; architectural orders(Doric, Ionic, Corinthian).
Chief Artists and Major Works:
Parthenon, Myron, Phidias, Polykleitos, Praxiteles
Historical Events:
Athens defeats Persia at Marathon (490 b.c.); Peloponnesian Wars (431 b.c.–404 b.c.); Alexander the Great's conquests (336 b.c.–323 b.c.) -
Period: 100 to
Time
-
200
ROMAN ART 500 b.c - 476 a.d.
ROMAN ARTCharacteristics:
Roman realism: practical and down to earth; the arch.
Historical Events:
Julius Caesar assassinated (44 b.c.); Augustus proclaimed Emperor (27 b.c.); Diocletian splits Empire (a.d. 292); Rome falls (a.d. 476).
Chief Artists and Major Works:
Augustus of Primaporta, Colosseum, Trajan's Column, Pantheon. -
500
BYZANTINE ART a.d. 476 - a.d. 1453
BYZANTINE ARTCharacteristics:
Heavenly Byzantine mosaics; Islamic architecture and amazing maze-like design.
Historical Events:
Justinian partly restores Western Roman Empire (a.d. 533–a.d. 562); Iconoclasm Controversy (a.d. 726–a.d. 843); Birth of Islam (a.d. 610) and Muslim Conquests (a.d. 632–a.d. 732).
Chief Artists and Major Works:
Hagia Sophia, Andrei Rublev, Mosque of Córdoba, the Alhambra. -
500
MEDIEVAL ART 500 a.d. - 1400
MEDIEVAL ARTCharacteristics:
Celtic art, Carolingian Renaissance, Romanesque, Gothic.
Historical Events:
Viking Raids (793–1066); Battle of Hastings (1066); Crusades I–IV (1095–1204); Black Death (1347–1351); Hundred Years' War (1337–1453).
Chief Artists and Major Works:
St. Sernin, Durham Cathedral, Notre Dame, Chartres, Cimabue, Duccio, Giotto. -
Jan 1, 1400
RENAISSANCE
RENAISSANCECharacteristics:
Ribirth of classical culture.
Chief Artists and Major Works:
Ghiberti's Doors, Brunelleschi, Donatello, Botticelli, Leonardo, Michelangelo, Raphael.
Historical Events:
Gutenberg invents movable type (1447); Turks conquer Constantinople (1453); Columbus lands in New World (1492); Martin Luther starts Reformation (1517). -
Jan 1, 1527
MANNERISM 1527 - 1580
MANNERISMCharacteristics:
Art that breaks the rules; artifice over nature.
Historical Events:
Magellan circumnavigates the globe (1520–1522).
Chief Artists and Major Works:
Tintoretto, El Greco, Pontormo, Bronzino, Cellini. -
BAROQUE 1600 - 1750
BAROQUE ARTIn the last part of this period scholars placed the ROCOCO movement. At first, it was considered "Late baroque" but later on it was accepted as a period in its own right.
Characteristics:
Splendor and flourish for God; art as a weapon in the religious wars.
Main artists and works:
Splendor and flourish for God; art as a weapon in the religious wars
Reubens, Rembrandt, Caravaggio, Palace of Versailles.
Historical events:
Thirty Years' War between Catholics and Protestants (1618–1648). -
NEOCLASSICAL ART 1750 - 1850
NEOCLASSICLA ARTCharacteristics:
Art that recaptures Greco-Roman grace and grandeur.
Main artists and works:
David, Ingres, Greuze, Canova.
Historical events:
Enlightenment (18th century); Industrial Revolution (1760–1850). -
ROMANTICISM 1780 - 1850
ROMANTIC ARTCharacteristics:
The triumph of imagination and individuality.
Main artists and works:
Caspar Friedrich, Gericault, Delacroix, Turner, Benjamin West.
Historical events:
American Revolution (1775–1783); French Revolution (1789–1799); Napoleon crowned emperor of France (1803). -
REALISM 1848 - 1900
FRENC REALISM
Characteristics:
Celebrating working class and peasants;en plein airrustic painting.
Main artists and works:
Corot, Courbet, Daumier, Millet.
Historical events:
European democratic revolutions of 1848. -
IMPRESSIONISM 1865- 1885
IMPRESSIONISMCharacteristics:
Capturing fleeting effects of natural light.
Main artists and works:
Monet, Manet, Renoir, Pissarro, Cassatt, Morisot, Degas.
Historical events:
Franco-Prussian War (1870–1871); Unification of Germany (1871).
