Timeline of Art

The Evolution of Art

The history of art is immense which begins over 30,000 years ago. There is a lot to be found in
a timeline of art history which includes a series of movements, styles, and periods that reflect
the time during which each piece of art was created. The history of art is important because it
can tell us stories, relate the moods and beliefs of an era, which help us to relate to the people
who came before us.

Art Periods/ Characteristics Chief Artists and Historical Events

Movements Major Works

Stone Age Cave painting, Lascaux Cave Ice Age ends (10,000
fertility goddesses, Painting, Woman b.c.–8,000 b.c.); New
(30,000 b.c.–2500 megalithic of Willendorf, Stone Age and
b.c.) structures Stonehenge first permanent
settlements (8000
b.c.–2500 b.c.)
 Mesopotamian Warrior art and Standard of Ur, Sumerians invent
narration in stone Gate of Ishtar, writing (3400 b.c.);
(3500 b.c.–539 b.c.) relief Stele of Hammurabi writes his
Hammurabi’s Code law
code (1780 b.c.);
Abraham founds
monotheism

Egyptian Art with an afterlife Imhotep, Step Narmer unites

focus: pyramids and Pyramid, Great Upper/Lower Egypt
(3100 b.c.–30 b.c.) tomb painting Pyramids, Bust of (3100 b.c.); Rameses II
Nefertiti battles
the Hittites (1274
b.c.); Cleopatra dies
(30 b.c.)

Greek and Hellenistic Greek idealism: Parthenon, Myron, Athens defeats Persia
balance, perfect Phidias, at Marathon (490 b.c.);
(850 b.c.–31 b.c.) proportions; Polykleitos, Peloponnesian
architectural Praxiteles Wars (431 b.c.–404
orders(Doric, Ionic, b.c.); Alexander the
Corinthian) Great’s conquests
(336 b.c.–323 b.c.)
 Roman Roman realism: Augustus of Julius Caesar
practical and down Primaporta, assassinated (44 b.c.);
(500 b.c.– a.d. 476) to earth; the arch Colosseum, Augustus proclaimed
Trajan’s Column, Emperor (27 b.c.);
Pantheon Diocletian splits
Empire (a.d. 292);
Rome falls
(a.d. 476)

Indian, Chinese, and Serene, meditative Gu Kaizhi, Li Birth of Buddha (563

Japanese art, and Arts of the Cheng, Guo Xi, b.c.); Silk Road opens
Floating World Hokusai, Hiroshige (1st century b.c.);
(653 b.c.–a.d. 1900) Buddhism spreads to
China (1st–2nd
centuries a.d.) and
Japan
(5th century a.d.)
Byzantine and Islamic Heavenly Byzantine Hagia Sophia, Justinian partly
(a.d. 476–a.d.1453) mosaics; Islamic Andrei Rublev, restores Western
architecture and Mosque of Roman Empire (a.d.
amazing Córdoba, the 533–a.d. 562);
maze-like design Alhambra Iconoclasm
Controversy (a.d. 726–
a.d.
843); Birth of Islam
(a.d. 610) and Muslim
Conquests (a.d.
632–a.d. 732)

Middle Ages Celtic art, St. Sernin, Viking Raids (793–

Carolingian Durham Cathedral, 1066); Battle of
(500–1400) Renaissance, Notre Dame, Hastings (1066);
Romanesque, Chartres, Crusades I–IV (1095–
Gothic Cimabue, 1204); Black Death
Duccio, Giotto (1347–1351); Hundred
Years’ War (1337–
1453)
 Early and High Rebirth of classical Ghiberti’s Doors, Gutenberg invents
Renaissance culture Brunelleschi, movable type (1447);
Donatello, Turks conquer
(1400–1550) Botticelli, Constantinople
Leonardo, (1453); Columbus
Michelangelo, lands in New World
Raphael (1492); Martin
Luther starts
Reformation (1517)

Venetian and The Renaissance Bellini, Giorgione, Council of Trent and

Northern Renaissance spreads north- ward Titian, Dürer, Counter-Reformation
to France, the Low Bruegel, Bosch, (1545–1563);
(1430–1550) Countries, Poland, Jan van Copernicus proves the
Germany, and Eyck, Rogier van Earth revolves around
England der Weyden the Sun (1543)

Mannerism Art that breaks the Tintoretto, El Magellan

rules; artifice over Greco, Pontormo, circumnavigates the
(1527–1580) nature Bronzino, Cellini globe (1520–1522)
 Baroque Splendor and Reubens, Thirty Years’ War
flourish for God; art Rembrandt, between Catholics and
(1600–1750) as a weapon in the Caravaggio, Palace Protestants
religious of Versailles (1618–1648)
wars

Neoclassical Art that recaptures David, Ingres, Enlightenment (18th

Greco-Roman grace Greuze, Canova century); Industrial
(1750–1850) and grandeur Revolution
(1760–1850)

Romanticism The triumph of Caspar Friedrich, American Revolution

imagination and Gericault, (1775–1783); French
(1780–1850) individuality Delacroix, Turner, Revolution
Benjamin (1789–1799);
West Napoleon crowned
emperor of France
(1803)

Realism Celebrating working Corot, Courbet, European democratic

class and Daumier, Millet revolutions of 1848
(1848–1900) peasants; en plein
air
rustic painting
 Impressionism Capturing fleeting Monet, Manet, Franco-Prussian War
effects of natural Renoir, Pissarro, (1870–1871);
(1865–1885) light Cassatt, Morisot, Unification of
Degas Germany
(1871)

Post-Impressionism A soft revolt against Van Gogh, Belle Époque (late-

(1885–1910) Impressionism Gauguin, Cézanne, 19th-century Golden
Seurat Age); Japan
defeats Russia (1905)

Fauvism and Harsh colors and Matisse, Kirchner, Boxer Rebellion in

Expressionism flat surfaces Kandinsky, Marc China (1900); World
(Fauvism); emotion War
(1900–1935) distorting (1914–1918)
form

Cubism, Futurism, Pre– and Post–World Picasso, Braque, Russian Revolution

Supremativism, War 1 art Leger, Boccioni, (1917); American
Constructivism, De experiments: new Severini, Malevich women franchised
Stijl forms to express (1920)
(1905–1920) modern life
Dada and Surrealism Ridiculous art; Duchamp, Dalí, Disillusionment after
painting Ernst, Magritte, de World War I; The
(1917–1950) dreams and Chirico, Kahlo Great Depression
exploring the (1929–1938); World
unconscious War II (1939–1945)
and Nazi horrors;
atomic bombs dropped
on Japan (1945)

Abstract Post–World War II: Gorky, Pollock, de Cold War and Vietnam
Expressionism pure abstraction Kooning, Rothko, War (U.S. enters
(1940s–1950s) and and expression Warhol, 1965); U.S.S.R.
Pop Art without form; Lichtenstein suppresses Hungarian
(1960s) popular art absorbs revolt (1956)
consumerism Czechoslovakian
revolt
(1968)

Postmodernism and Art without a center Gerhard Richter, Nuclear freeze

Deconstructivism and reworking and Cindy Sherman, movement; Cold War
mixing past styles Anselm Kiefer, fizzles; Communism
(1970– ) Frank Gehry, collapses
Zaha Hadid in Eastern Europe and
U.S.S.R. (1989–1991)
 Timeline of Art
The Evolution of Art
The history of art is immense which begins over 30,000 years ago. There is a lot to be
found in a timeline of art history which includes a series of movements, styles, and periods
that reflect the time during which each piece of art was created. The history of art is important
because it can tell us stories, relate the moods and beliefs of an era, which help us to relate to
the people who came before us.