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Dec 17, 2020 · Reviewing the Timeline of the Different Art Periods. As with many areas of human history, it is impossible to delineate the different art periods with precision. The dates presented in the brackets below are approximations based on the progression of each movement across several countries.
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- Ancient Art. What we consider ancient art is what was created from around 30,000 B.C.E. to 400 A.D. If you prefer, it can be thought of as fertility statuettes and bone flutes to roughly the fall of Rome.
- Medieval to Early Renaissance Art. Some people still refer to the millennium between 400 and 1400 A.D. as the "Dark Ages." The art of this period can be considered relatively "dark" as well.
- Renaissance to Early Modern Art. This period covers the years 1400 through 1880 and it includes many of our favorite pieces of art. Much of the notable art created during the Rennaissance was Italian.
- Modern Art. Modern Art runs from around 1880 to 1970 and they were an extremely busy 90 years. The Impressionists opened the floodgates on new paths to take and individual artists such as Picasso and Duchamp were themselves responsible for creating multiple movements.
This page indexes the individual year in art pages; see also art periods. This list is exclusively for the visual arts; for music, see Timeline of musical events.
- Prehistoric Art (~40,000–4,000 B.C.) The origins of art history can be traced back to the Prehistoric era, before written records were kept. The earliest artifacts come from the Paleolithic era, or the Old Stone Age, in the form of rock carvings, engravings, pictorial imagery, sculptures, and stone arrangements.
- Ancient Art (4,000 B.C.– A.D. 400) Ancient art was produced by advanced civilizations, which in this case refers to those with an established written language.
- Medieval Art (500–1400) The Middle Ages, often referred to as the “Dark Ages,” marked a period of economic and cultural deterioration following the fall of the Roman Empire in 476 A.D.
- Renaissance Art (1400–1600) This style of painting, sculpture, and decorative art was characterized by a focus on nature and individualism, the thought of man as independent and self-reliant.
Explore the story of art and global culture through The Met collection with essays, works of art, and chronologies. Funded by the Heilbrunn Foundation, New Tamarind Foundation, and Zodiac Fund.
The Met’s Timeline of Art History pairs essays and works of art with chronologies and tells the story of art and global culture through the collection.
Art History Timelines. These interactive timelines are used to graphically and logically illustrate the progression of visual art. They aim to educate and introduce topics using technology and the interactive capabilities of the web.
