Art Periods/  Chief Artists and 

Characteristics  Historical Events 

Movements  Major Works 
Ice Age ends (10,000 
Lascaux Cave  b.c.–8,000 b.c.); New 
Cave painting, fertility 
Stone Age (30,000  Painting, Woman of Stone Age and 
goddesses, 
b.c.–2500 b.c.)  Willendorf,  first permanent 
megalithic structures 
Stonehenge  settlements (8000 
b.c.–2500 b.c.) 
Sumerians invent 
writing (3400 b.c.); 
Standard of Ur, 
Warrior art and  Hammurabi writes his 
Mesopotamian (3500  Gate of Ishtar, 
narration in stone  law 
b.c.–539 b.c.)  Stele of 
relief  code (1780 b.c.); 
Hammurabi’s Code 
Abraham founds 
monotheism 
Narmer unites 
Upper/Lower Egypt 
Imhotep, Step 
Art with an afterlife  (3100 b.c.); Rameses II 
Egyptian (3100  Pyramid, Great 
focus: pyramids and  battles 
b.c.–30 b.c.)  Pyramids, Bust of 
tomb painting  the Hittites (1274 b.c.); 
Nefertiti 
Cleopatra dies (30 
b.c.) 
Greek and Hellenistic  Greek idealism:  Parthenon, Myron,  Athens defeats Persia 
(850 b.c.–31 b.c.)  balance, perfect  Phidias,  at Marathon (490 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.) 
Julius Caesar 
assassinated (44 b.c.); 
Augustus of 
Augustus proclaimed 
Roman realism:  Primaporta, 
Roman (500 b.c.– a.d.  Emperor (27 b.c.); 
practical and down to Colosseum, 
476)  Diocletian splits 
earth; the arch  Trajan’s Column, 
Empire (a.d. 292); 
Pantheon 
Rome falls 
(a.d. 476) 
Birth of Buddha (563 
b.c.); Silk Road opens 
(1st century b.c.); 
Indian, Chinese, and  Serene, meditative  Gu Kaizhi, Li 
Buddhism spreads to 
Japanese(653  art, and Arts of the  Cheng, Guo Xi, 
China (1st–2nd 
b.c.–a.d. 1900)  Floating World  Hokusai, Hiroshige 
centuries a.d.) and 
Japan 
(5th century a.d.) 
Heavenly Byzantine  Hagia Sophia,  Justinian partly 
Byzantine and Islamic 
mosaics; Islamic  Andrei Rublev,  restores Western 
(a.d. 476–a.d.1453) 
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) 
Viking Raids 
(793–1066); Battle of 
St. Sernin, Durham  Hastings (1066); 
Celtic art, Carolingian Cathedral, Notre  Crusades I–IV 
Middle Ages 
Renaissance,  Dame, Chartres,  (1095–1204); Black 
(500–1400) 
Romanesque, Gothic  Cimabue,  Death 
Duccio, Giotto  (1347–1351); Hundred 
Years’ War 
(1337–1453) 
Ghiberti’s Doors,  Gutenberg invents 
Brunelleschi,  movable type (1447); 
Early and High  Donatello,  Turks conquer 
Rebirth of classical 
Renaissance  Botticelli,  Constantinople (1453); 
culture 
(1400–1550)  Leonardo,  Columbus lands in 
Michelangelo,  New World (1492); 
Raphael  Martin 
 Luther starts 
Reformation (1517) 
The Renaissance  Bellini, Giorgione,  Council of Trent and 
spreads north- ward  Titian, Dürer,  Counter-Reformation 
Venetian and Northern 
to France, the Low  Bruegel, Bosch,  (1545–1563); 
Renaissance 
Countries, Poland,  Jan van  Copernicus proves the 
(1430–1550) 
Germany, and  Eyck, Rogier van  Earth revolves around 
England  der Weyden  the Sun (1543 
Art that breaks the  Tintoretto, El  Magellan 
Mannerism 
rules; artifice over  Greco, Pontormo,  circumnavigates the 
(1527–1580) 
nature  Bronzino, Cellini  globe (1520–1522) 
Splendor and flourish 
Reubens,  Thirty Years’ War 
for God; art as a 
Rembrandt,  between Catholics and 
Baroque (1600–1750)  weapon in the 
Caravaggio, Palace Protestants 
religious 
of Versailles  (1618–1648) 
wars 
Enlightenment (18th 
Art that recaptures 
Neoclassical  David, Ingres,  century); Industrial 
Greco-Roman grace 
(1750–1850)  Greuze, Canova  Revolution 
and grandeur 
(1760–1850) 
American Revolution 
The triumph of  Caspar Friedrich, 
Romanticism  (1775–1783); French 
imagination and  Gericault, 
(1780–1850)  Revolution 
individuality  Delacroix, Turner, 
(1789–1799); 
 Benjamin  Napoleon crowned 
West  emperor of France 
(1803) 
Celebrating working 
class and  Corot, Courbet,  European democratic 
Realism (1848–1900) 
peasants; ​en plein air Daumier, Millet  revolutions of 1848 
rustic painting 
Monet, Manet,  Franco-Prussian War 
Impressionism  Capturing fleeting  Renoir, Pissarro, 
(1870–1871); 
(1865–1885)  effects of natural light Cassatt, Morisot, 
Unification of Germany 
Degas  (1871) 
Belle Époque 
Van Gogh, 
Post-Impressionism  A soft revolt against  (late-19th-century 
Gauguin, Cézanne, 
(1885–1910)  Impressionism  Golden Age); Japan 
Seurat 
defeats Russia (1905) 
Harsh colors and flat  Boxer Rebellion in 
Fauvism and 
surfaces (Fauvism);  Matisse, Kirchner,  China (1900); World 
Expressionism 
emotion distorting  Kandinsky, Marc  War 
(1900–1935) 
form  (1914–1918) 
Cubism, Futurism,  Pre– and Post–World 
Russian Revolution 
Supremativism,  War 1 art  Picasso, Braque, 
(1917); American 
Constructivism, De  experiments: new  Leger, Boccioni, 
women franchised 
Stijl  forms to express  Severini, Malevich 
(1920) 
(1905–1920)  modern life 
 Disillusionment after 
World War I; The 
Great​Depression 
Ridiculous art;  Duchamp, Dalí, 
Dada and  (1929–1938); World 
painting dreams​ and  Ernst, Magritte,​ de 
Surrealism(​ 1917–1950 War II (1939–1945) 
exploring the  Chirico, Kahlo 
)  and Nazi horrors; 
unconscious 
atomic bombs 
dropped on Japan 
(1945) 
Cold War and Vietnam 
Post–World War II:  War (U.S. enters 
Abstract 
pure abstraction and  Gorky, Pollock, de  1965); U.S.S.R. 
Expressionism 
expression  Kooning, Rothko,  suppresses Hungarian 
(1940s–1950s) and 
without form; popular Warhol,  revolt (1956) 
Pop Art 
art absorbs  Lichtenstein  Czechoslovakian 
(1960s) 
consumerism  revolt 
(1968) 
Nuclear freeze 
Gerhard Richter, 
movement; Cold War 
Postmodernism and  Art without a center  Cindy Sherman, 
fizzles; Communism 
Deconstructivism  and reworking and  Anselm Kiefer, 
collapses 
(1970– )  mixing past styles  Frank Gehry, 
in Eastern Europe and 
Zaha Hadid 
U.S.S.R. (1989–1991)