The history of art is the history of any activity or product made by humans in a visual form for aesthetical or communicative purposes, expressing ideas, emotions, or, in general, a worldview. The first artifacts date back to the Paleolithic era, and the history of art can be traced through the ages, from pre-historic to contemporary art.
The history of art is often told as a history of masterpieces, a history of great artists. But this is only a small part of the story. For one thing, most artists throughout history have not been masters. For another, many great works of art have been created by anonymous artists, or by artists who were not considered great at the time they were working.
The history of art is also the history of the people who have created it, and of the societies in which they lived. It is a history of the different materials and techniques that artists have used, and of the changing styles and movements in art.
Art history is not just a history of paintings and sculpture. It includes the study of all the visual arts, including architecture, decorative arts, photography, and film. It also encompasses the study of the performing arts, such as dance and theater.
The study of art history can be a rewarding experience. It can give you a greater appreciation for the art that you see around you, and it can help you to understand the cultures that have produced it.
(30,000 BCE – 2500 BCE)
Cave painting, fertility goddesses, megalithic structures
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)
(3500 BCE – 539 BCE)
Cave painting, fertility goddesses, megalithic structures
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)
(3100 BCE – 30 BCE)
Art with an afterlife focus: pyramids and tomb painting
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)
(850 BCE – 31 BCE)
Greek idealism: balance, perfect proportions; architectural orders (Doric, Ionic, Corinthian)
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)
(850 BCE – 31 BCE)
Roman realism: practical and down to earth; the arch
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)
(653 BCE – 1900 CE)
Serene, meditative art, and Arts of the Floating World
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)
(476 CE – 1453 CE)
Heavenly Byzantine mosaics; Islamic architecture and amazing maze-like design
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)
(500 CE – 1400 CE)
Celtic art, Carolingian Renaissance, Romanesque, Gothic
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)
(1400 – 1550)
Rebirth of classical culture
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)
(1430–1550)
The Renaissance spreads north- ward to France, the Low Countries, Poland, Germany, and England
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)
(1527–1580)
Art that breaks the rules; artifice over nature
Tintoretto, El Greco, Pontormo, Bronzino, Cellini
Magellan circumnavigates the globe (1520-1522)
(1600-1750)
Splendor and flourish for God; art as a weapon in the religious wars
Reubens, Rembrandt, Caravaggio, Palace of Versailles
Thirty Years’ War between Catholics and Protestants (1618-1648)
(1750-1850)
Art that recaptures Greco-Roman grace and grandeur
David, Ingres, Greuze, Canova
Enlightenment (18th century); Industrial Revolution (1760-1850)
(1780-1850)
The triumph of imagination and individuality
Caspar Friedrich, Gericault, Delacroix, Turner, Benjamin West
American Revolution (1775-1783); French Revolution (1789-1799); Napoleon crowned emperor of France (1803)
(1848-1900)
Celebrating working class and peasants; en plein air rustic painting
Corot, Courbet, Daumier, Millet
European democratic revolutions of 1848
(1865–1885)
Capturing fleeting effects of natural light (video)
Monet, Manet, Renoir, Pissarro, Cassatt, Morisot, Degas
Franco-Prussian War (1870-1871); Unification of Germany (1871)
(1900-1935)
Harsh colors and flat surfaces (Fauvism); emotion distorting form
Matisse, Kirchner, Kandinsky, Marc
Boxer Rebellion in China (1900); World War (1914-1918)
(1900-1935)
Pre-and Post-World War 1 art experiments: new forms to express modern life
Picasso, Braque, Leger, Boccioni, Severini, Malevich
Russian Revolution (1917); American women franchised (1920)
(1917-1950)
Ridiculous art; painting dreams and exploring the unconscious (video)
Duchamp, Dalí, Ernst, Magritte, de Chirico, Kahlo
Disillusionment after World War I; The Great Depression (1929-1938); World War II (1939-1945) and Nazi horrors; atomic bombs dropped on Japan (1945)
(1940s–1950s) and 1960s
Post-World War II: pure abstraction and expression without form; popular art absorbs consumerism (video)
Gorky, Pollock, de Kooning, Rothko, Warhol, Lichtenstein
Cold War and Vietnam War (U.S. enters 1965); U.S.S.R. suppresses Hungarian revolt (1956) Czechoslovakian revolt (1968)
(1970- )
Art without a center and reworking and mixing past styles
Gerhard Richter, Cindy Sherman, Anselm Kiefer, Frank Gehry, Zaha Hadid
Nuclear freeze movement; Cold War fizzles; Communism collapses in Eastern Europe and U.S.S.R. (1989–1991)