Periods of art history

Prehistoric 30,000-20,000 BCE

30,000 BCE

covers Europe, the Mediterrean, and Western Asia from the Paleolithic period (Old Stone Age), Cave painting, fertility goddesses, megalithic structures The most comprehensive representation of Paleolithic art ever published and a radical (and controversial) new way of interpreting it.
major works: Lascaux Cave Painting, Woman of Willendorf, Stonehenge

Egypt (ancient)

25,000 BCE

Art with an afterlife focus: pyramids and tomb painting, It also includes paintings, sculptures, drawings on papyrus, faience, jewelry, ivories, architecture, and other art media. It is also very conservative: the art style changed very little over time.
major works: Imhotep, Step Pyramid, Great Pyramids, Bust of Nefertiti

Mesopotamia- babylon/ sumeria

2000 BCE

Warrior art and narration in stone relief; include sculptures that were predominantly created for religious and political purposes, they were made with common materials including clay, metal, and stone fashioned into reliefs and sculptures in the round. The Uruk period marked a development of rich narrative imagery and increasing lifelikeness of human figures.
major works: Standard of Ur, Gate of Ishtar, Stele of Hammurabi’s Code

India

1500 BCE

Indian art consists of a variety of art forms, including painting, sculpture, pottery, and textile arts, The origin of Indian art can be traced to pre-historic settlements. On its way to modern times, Indian art has had cultural influences, as well as religious influences (Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism, Sikhism and Islam). In spite of this complex mixture of religious traditions, generally, the prevailing artistic style at any time and place has been shared by the major religious groups.

Africa (benin, zimbabwe, malí, Ife)

1000 BCE

Elongated necks, enlarged heads and arms, pointed breasts, and the like are often found in human beings which are frequently the subject of African art. These are examples of the notable dynamic forms in this art, representing vitality, power, and boldness of humanity.

China

1000 BCE

Chinese art is visual art that, whether ancient or modern, originated in or is practiced in China or by Chinese artists. The Chinese art in the Republic of China and that of overseas Chinese can also be considered part of Chinese art where it is based in or draws on Chinese heritage and Chinese culture

Pre-columbian south america (Toltec, olmec, aztec, mayan, navaho)

500 BCE

refers to the visual arts of indigenous peoples of the Caribbean, North, Central, and South America, the time period marked by Christopher Columbus' arrival in the Americas. Visual art expressed cosmologies, world views, religion, and philosophy of these cultures, These cultures produced a wide variety too, including painting on textiles, hides, rock and cave surfaces, bodies especially faces, ceramics, architectural features including interior murals, wood panels, and other available surfaces.

Greece (ancient)

400 BCE

stands out among that of other ancient cultures for its development of naturalistic but idealized depictions of the human body, in which largely nude male figures were generally the focus of innovation. The stylistic development between about 750 and 300 BC was remarkable by ancient standards, and in surviving works is best seen in sculpture. Which have to be reconstructed due to the lack of original survivals of quality, other than the distinct field of painted pottery.

Rome (ancient)

300

Includes architecture, painting, sculpture and mosaic work. Luxury objects in metal-work, gem engraving, ivory carvings, and glass are sometimes considered to be minor forms of Roman art, although they were not considered as such at the time. Sculpture was perhaps considered as the highest form of art by Romans, but figure painting was also highly regarded. A very large body of sculpture has survived from about the 1st century BC onward.

Byzantine

500

comprises the body of Christian Greek artistic products of the Eastern Roman (Byzantine) Empire, as well as the nations and states that inherited culturally from the empire. Though the empire itself emerged from the decline of Rome and lasted until the Fall of Constantinople in 1453, Many Eastern Orthodox states in Eastern Europe, as well as to some degree the Muslim states of the eastern Mediterranean, preserved many aspects of the empire's culture and art for centuries afterward.

Middle Ages/ medieval-(romanesque, gothic, islamic)

1000

Is classify into major periods and styles, often with some difficulty. A generally accepted scheme includes Christian art, Byzantine art, Romanesque art, and Gothic art, as well as many other periods within these central styles. In addition each region, mostly during the period in the process of becoming nations or cultures, had its own distinct artistic style. Art was produced in many media, and survive in large numbers in sculpture, illuminated manuscripts, stained glass, metalwork and mosaics

Japan

1100

Covers a wide range of art styles and media, including ancient pottery, sculpture, ink painting and calligraphy on silk and paper, ukiyo-e paintings and woodblock prints, ceramics, origami, and more recently manga which is modern Japanese cartoons and comics along with a myriad of other types. It has a long history, ranging from the beginnings of human habitation in Japan, sometime in the 10th millennium BC, to the present-day country.

Renaissance

1400

is the painting, sculpture and decorative arts of the period of European history, emerging as a distinct style in Italy, in parallel with developments which occurred in philosophy, literature, music, science and technology. Perceived as the noblest of ancient traditions, took as its foundation the art of Classical antiquity, but transformed that tradition by absorbing recent developments in the art of Northern Europe and by applying contemporary scientific knowledge.

Mannerism late

1500

is a style in European art that emerged in the later years of the Italian High Renaissance around 1520, and lasting until about the end of the 16th century in Italy, when the Baroque style largely replaced it. Northern Mannerism continued into the early 17th century. Stylistically, Mannerism encompasses a variety of approaches influenced by, and reacting to, the harmonious ideals associated with artists such as Leonardo da Vinci. exaggerates proportion, balance, and ideal beauty

Baroque

1650

is a style of architecture, music, dance, painting, sculpture and other arts that flourished in Europe from the early 17th century until the 1740s. In the territories of the Spanish and Portuguese empires including the Iberian Peninsula it continued, together with new styles, until the first decade of the 1800s. It was encouraged by the Catholic Church as a means to counter the Protestant architecture, art and music, though Lutheran Baroque art developed in parts of Europe as well.

Rococo

1750

is an exceptionally ornamental and theatrical style of architecture, art and decoration which combines asymmetry, scrolling curves, gilding, white and pastel colors, sculpted molding, and trompe l'oeil frescoes to create surprise and the illusion of motion and drama. It is often described as the final expression of the Baroque movement. The Rococo style began in France in the 1730s as a reaction against the more formal and geometric

Romanticism

1800

An artistic and intellectual movement originating in Europe in the late 1700s and characterized by a heightened interest in nature, emphasis on the individual's expression of emotion and imagination, departure from the attitudes and forms of classicism, and rebellion against established social rules

Classicism

1800

refers generally to a classical period, antiquity in the Western tradition, as setting standards for taste which the classicists seek to emulate. In its purest form, classicism is an aesthetic attitude dependent on principles based in the culture, art and literature of ancient Greece and Rome, with the emphasis on form, simplicity, proportion, clarity of structure, perfection, restrained emotion, as well as explicit appeal to the intellect, tipically seeks to be formal and restrained

Historicism

1800

comprises artistic styles that draw their inspiration from recreating historic styles or imitating the work of historic artisans. This is especially prevalent in architecture, such as Revival architecture.

Academicism

1800

s a style of painting, sculpture, and architecture produced under the influence of European academies of art. Specifically, academic art is the art and artists influenced by the standards of the French Académie des Beaux-Arts, which was practiced under the movements of Neoclassicism and Romanticism, and the art that followed these two movements in the attempt to synthesize both of their styles

modernism

1850

includes artistic work produced during the period extending roughly from the 1860s to the 1970s, and denotes the styles and philosophies of the art produced during that era. Modern artists experimented with new ways of seeing and with fresh ideas about the nature of materials and functions of art. toward abstraction is characteristic of much modern art. More recent artistic production is often called contemporary art or postmodern art.

Postmodernism

1980

reaction against the ideas and values of modernism, as well as a description of the period that followed modernism's dominance in cultural theory and practice in the early and middle decades of the twentieth century. The term is associated with scepticism, irony and philosophical critiques of the concepts of universal truths and objective reality.