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31 periods · 141 artists · 141 walkable 3D galleries. Every fact and image from Wikipedia and Wikimedia Commons.

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Prehistoric Art 38000–2000 BCE

In the history of art, prehistoric art is all art produced in preliterate, prehistorical cultures beginning somewhere in very late geological history, and generally continuing until that culture either develops writing or other methods of record-keeping, or makes significant contact with another culture that has, and that makes some record of major historical events.

Mesopotamia 3500–539 BCE

The art of Mesopotamia has survived in the record from early hunter-gatherer societies on to the Bronze Age cultures of the Sumerian, Akkadian, Babylonian and Assyrian empires. These empires were later replaced in the Iron Age by the Neo-Assyrian and Neo-Babylonian empires.

Ancient Egypt 3100–30 BCE

Ancient Egyptian art refers to art produced in ancient Egypt between the 6th millennium BC and the 4th century AD, spanning from Prehistoric Egypt until the Christianization of Roman Egypt. It includes paintings, sculptures, drawings on papyrus, faience, jewelry, ivories, architecture, and other art media.

Aegean Art 3000–1100 BCE

Aegean art is art that was created in the lands surrounding, and the islands within, the Aegean Sea during the Bronze Age, that is, until the 11th century BC, before Ancient Greek art.

Etruscan Civilization 900–264 BCE

Etruscan art was produced by the Etruscan civilization in central Italy between the 10th and 1st centuries BC. From around 750 BC it was heavily influenced by Greek art, which was imported by the Etruscans, but always retained distinct characteristics.

Archaic Greece 700–480 BCE

Archaic Greece was the period in Greek history lasting from c. 800 BC to the second Persian invasion of Greece in 480 BC, following the Greek Dark Ages and succeeded by the Classical period.

Republican Rome 509–27 BCE

The Roman Republic was the era of classical Roman civilisation beginning with the overthrow of the Roman Kingdom and ending in 27 BC with the establishment of the Roman Empire following the War of Actium.

Classical Greece 480–400 BCE

Classical Greece was a period of around 200 years in Ancient Greece, marked by much of the eastern Aegean and northern regions of Greek culture gaining increased autonomy from the Persian Empire; the peak flourishing of democratic Athens; the First and Second Peloponnesian Wars; the Spartan and then Theban hegemonies; and the expansion of Macedonia under Philip II.

Late Classical Greece 400–323 BCE

The sculpture of ancient Greece is the main surviving type of fine ancient Greek art as, with the exception of painted ancient Greek pottery, almost no ancient Greek painting survives.

Hellenistic Period 323–31 BCE

Hellenistic art is the art of the Hellenistic period generally taken to begin with the death of Alexander the Great in 323 BC and end with the conquest of the Greek world by the Romans, a process well underway by 146 BC, when the Greek mainland was taken, and essentially ending in 30 BC with the conquest of Ptolemaic Egypt following the Battle of Actium.

Imperial Rome 27 BCE–130 CE

The art of Ancient Rome, and the territories of its Republic and later Empire, 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.

Medieval & Gothic 1200–1400

Gothic art was a style of medieval art that developed in Northern France out of Romanesque art in the 12th century, led by the concurrent development of Gothic architecture. It spread to all of Western Europe, and much of Northern, Southern and Central Europe, never quite effacing more classical styles in Italy.

Early Renaissance 1400–1490

Italian Renaissance painting is the painting of the period beginning in the late 13th century and flourishing from the early 15th to late 16th centuries, occurring in the Italian Peninsula, which was at that time divided into many political states, some independent but others controlled by external powers.

Northern Renaissance 1430–1570

The Northern Renaissance was the Renaissance that occurred in Europe north of the Alps, developing later than the Italian Renaissance, and in most respects only beginning in the last years of the 15th century.

High Renaissance 1490–1530

In art history, the High Renaissance was a short period of the most exceptional artistic production in the Italian states, particularly Rome, capital of the Papal States, and in Florence, during the Italian Renaissance.

Mannerism 1520–1600

Mannerism is a style in European art that emerged in the later years of the Italian High Renaissance around 1520, spreading by about 1530 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.

Baroque 1600–1720

The Baroque is a Western style of architecture, music, dance, painting, sculpture, poetry, and other arts that flourished from the early 1600s until the 1750s. It followed Renaissance art and Mannerism and preceded the Rococo and Neoclassical styles.

Rococo 1715–1780

Rococo, less commonly Roccoco, is a Western style of architecture, art, and decoration that emerged in France in the 1730s as a reaction against the Louis XIV style. It is characterized by extensive ornamentation, fluid curves, asymmetry, and a smaller scale designed to foster intimacy.

Neoclassicism 1760–1830

Neoclassicism, also spelled Neo-classicism, emerged as a Western cultural movement in the decorative and visual arts, literature, theatre, music, and architecture that drew inspiration from the art and culture of classical antiquity.

Romanticism 1790–1850

Romanticism was an artistic and intellectual movement that originated in Europe towards the end of the 18th century.

Realism 1840–1880

Realism was an artistic movement that emerged in France in the 1840s. Realists rejected Romanticism, which had dominated French literature and art since the early 19th century.

Impressionism 1860–1890

Impressionism was a 19th-century art movement characterised by visible brush strokes, open composition, emphasis on accurate depiction of light in its changing qualities, ordinary subject matter, unusual visual angles, and inclusion of movement as a crucial element of human perception and experience.

Symbolism & Art Nouveau 1880–1915

Symbolism was a late 19th-century art movement of French and Belgian origin in poetry and other arts seeking to represent absolute truths symbolically through language and metaphorical images, mainly as a reaction against naturalism and realism.

Post-Impressionism 1885–1910

Post-Impressionism was a predominantly French art movement which developed roughly between 1886 and 1905, from the last Impressionist exhibition to the birth of Fauvism. Post-Impressionism emerged as a reaction against Impressionists' concern for the naturalistic depiction of light and colour.

Expressionism 1905–1935

Expressionism is a modernist movement, initially in poetry and painting, originating in Northern Europe around the beginning of the 20th century. Its typical trait is to present the world solely from a subjective perspective, distorting it radically for emotional effect in order to evoke moods or ideas.

Cubism 1907–1925

Cubism is an early-20th-century avant-garde art movement which began in Paris. It revolutionized painting and the visual arts, and sparked artistic innovations in music, ballet, literature, and architecture.

Early Abstraction 1910–1944

Abstract art uses visual language of shape, form, color, and line to create a composition which may exist with a degree of independence from visual references in the world. Abstract art, non-figurative art, non-objective art, and non-representational art are all closely related terms.

Surrealism 1924–1966

Surrealism is an art and cultural movement that developed in Europe in the aftermath of World War I in which artists aimed to allow the unconscious mind to express itself, often resulting in the depiction of illogical or dreamlike scenes and ideas.

Abstract Expressionism 1943–1965

Abstract expressionism in the United States emerged as a distinct art movement in the aftermath of World War II and gained mainstream acceptance in the 1950s, a shift from the American social realism of the 1930s influenced by the Great Depression and Mexican muralists.

Pop Art 1955–1975

Pop art is an art movement that emerged in the United Kingdom and the United States during the mid-to late 1950s.

Contemporary 1975–2026

Contemporary art is generally art created from the 1970s onwards. Contemporary artists work in a globally influenced, culturally diverse, and technologically advancing world.

Text: Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0) · Images: Wikimedia Commons, public domain or Creative Commons (attribution with each work) · Machine-readable data: index.json