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The history of art focuses on objects made by humans in visual form for aesthetic purposes. Visual artcan be classified in diverse ways, such as separating fine arts from applied arts; inclusively focusing on human creativity; or focusing on different media such as architecture, sculpture, painting, film, photography, and graphic arts. In recent years, technological advances have led to video art, computer art, Performance art, animation, television, and videogames.

The history of art is often told as a chronology of masterpieces created during each civilization. It can thus be framed as a story of high culture, epitomized by the Wonders of the World. On the other hand, vernacular art expressions can also be integrated into art historical narratives, referred to as folk arts or craft. The more closely that an art historian engages with these latter forms of low culture, the more likely it is that they will identify their work as examining visual culture or material culture, or as contributing to fields related to art history, such as anthropology or archaeology. In the latter cases art objects may be referred to as archeological artifacts.

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• 1Prehistory
• 2Ancient art
• 3European
  • 3.1Medieval
• 4Middle Eastern
• 6Americas
• 7Asian art
• 10Modern and contemporary
• 14External links

Prehistory[edit]

Engraved shells created by Homo erectus dating as far back as 500,000 years ago have been found, although experts disagree on whether these engravings can be properly classified as ‘art’.^[1][2] A number of claims of Neanderthal art, adornment, and structures have been made, dating from around 130,000 before present and suggesting that Neanderthals may have been capable of symbolic thought,^[9][10] but none of these claims are widely accepted.^[11]

Upper-Paleolithic[edit]

The oldest secure human art that has been found dates to the Late Stone Age during the Upper Paleolithic, possibly from around 70,000 BCE^[8] but with certainty from around 40,000 BCE, when the first creative works were made from shell, stone, and paint by Homo Sapiens, using symbolic thought.^[12] During the Upper Paleolithic (50,000–10,000 BCE), humans practiced hunting and gathering and lived in caves, where cave painting was developed.^[13] During the Neolithic period (10,000–3,000 BCE), the production of handicrafts commenced.

The earliest human artifacts showing evidence of workmanship with an artistic purpose are the subject of some debate. It is clear that such workmanship existed by 40,000 years ago in the Upper Paleolithic era, although it is quite possible that it began earlier.

The artistic manifestations of the Upper-Paleolithic reached their peak in the Magdalenian period (±15,000–8,000 BCE). Surviving art from this period includes small carvings in stone or bone and cave painting. The first traces of human-made objects appeared in southern Africa, the Western Mediterranean, Central and Eastern Europe (Adriatic Sea), Siberia (Baikal Lake), India and Australia. These first traces are generally worked stone (flint, obsidian), wood or bone tools. To paint in red, iron oxide was used. Cave paintings have been found in the Franco-Cantabrian region. There are pictures that are abstract as well as pictures that are naturalistic. Animals were painted in the caves of Altamira, Trois Frères, Chauvet and Lascaux. Sculpture is represented by the so-called Venus figurines, feminine figures which may have been used in fertility cults, such as the Venus of Willendorf.^[14] There is a theory that these figures may have been made by women as expressions of their own body.^[15] Other representative works of this period are the Man from Brno^[16] and the Venus of Brassempouy.^[17]

• Possibly the 'Oldest known drawing by human hands', discovered in Blombos Cave in South Africa. Estimated to be 73,000 years old.^[8]

• Rhino drawings from the Chauvet Cave, 37,000 to 33,500 years before present

• Venus of Willendorf; c. 26,000 BCE (the Gravettian period); limestone with ocre coloring; Naturhistorisches Museum (Vienna, Austria)

• Bison Licking Insect Bite; 15,000–13,000 BCE; antler; National Museum of Prehistory (Les Eyzies-de-Tayac-Sireuil, France)

Mesolithic[edit]

In Old World archaeology, Mesolithic (Greek: μέσος, mesos 'middle'; λίθος, lithos 'stone') is the period between the Upper Paleolithic and the Neolithic. The term Epipaleolithic is often used synonymously, especially for outside northern Europe, and for the corresponding period in the Levant and Caucasus.The Mesolithic has different time spans in different parts of Eurasia.It refers to the final period of hunter-gatherer cultures in Europe and West Asia, between the end of the Last Glacial Maximum and the Neolithic Revolution. In Europe it spans roughly 15,000 to 5,000 BP, in Southwest Asia (the Epipalaeolithic Near East) roughly 20,000 to 8,000 BP.The term is less used of areas further east, and not all beyond Eurasia and North Africa.

Neolithic[edit]

The Neolithic period began about 10,000 BCE. The rock art of the Iberian Mediterranean Basin—dated between the Mesolithic and Neolithic eras—contained small, schematic paintings of human figures, with notable examples in El Cogul, Valltorta, Alpera and Minateda.

Neolithic painting is similar to paintings found in northern Africa (Atlas, Sahara) and in the area of modern Zimbabwe. Neolithic painting is often schematic, made with basic strokes (men in the form of a cross and women in a triangular shape). There are also cave paintings in Pinturas River in Argentina, especially the Cueva de las Manos. In portable art, a style called Cardium pottery was produced, decorated with imprints of seashells. New materials were used in art, such as amber, crystal, and jasper. In this period, the first traces of urban planning appeared, such as the remains in Tell as-Sultan (Jericho), Jarmo (Iraq) and Çatalhöyük (Anatolia).^[18] In South-Eastern Europe appeared many cultures, such as the Cucuteni-Trypillia culture (from Romania, Republic of Moldova and Ukraine), and the Hamangia culture (from Romania and Bulgaria). Other regions with many cultures are China, most notable being the Yangshao culture and the Longshan culture; and Egypt, with the Badarian, the Naqada I, II and III cultures.

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Common materials of neolithic sculptures from Anatolia, are ivory, stone, clay and bone. Many are anthropomorphic, especially female, zoomorphic ones being rare. Female figurines are both fat and slender. Both zoomorphic and anthropomorphic carvings have been discovered in Siberia, Afghanistan, Pakistan and China.

• The Urfa Man; from modern-day Turkey; c. 9000 BCE; sandstone; height: 1.8 m; Şanlıurfa Archaeology and Mosaic Museum (Urfa, Turkey)

• Fragment of a bowl; by Halaf culture from Mesopotamia; 5600-5000 BC; cermaic; 8.2 cm; Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York City)

• Globular jar; by Dimini culture from Greece; 5300-4800 BC; ceramic; height: 25 cm (9​³⁄₄ in.), diameter at rim: 12 cm (4​³⁄₄ in.); National Archaeological Museum (Athens)

• The Thinker; by Hamangia culture from Romania; c. 5000 BCE; terracotta; height: 11.5 cm (4​¹⁄₂ in.); National Museum of Romanian History (Bucharest)

• Female figure; by Vinča culture from Serbia; 4500-3500 BCE; fired clay with paint; overall: 16.1 cm; Cleveland Museum of Art (Ohio, USA)

• Figurine of a bearded man; by the Naqada I culture from Egypt; 3800-3500 BC; breccia; from Upper Egypt; Musée des Confluences (Lyon, France)

• `Flame-style’ vessel; from the Jōmon period of Japan; circa 2750 BCE; earthenware with carved and applied decoration; height: 61 cm, diameter: 55.8 cm; Cleveland Museum of Art (Ohio, USA)

• Dotted pottery pot, semi-mountain type; by the Yangshao culture from China; 2700–2300 BCE; Gansu Provincial Museum (Lanzhou; China)

Metal Age[edit]

The last prehistoric phase is the Metal Age (or Three-age system), during which the use of copper, bronze and iron transformed ancient societies. When humans could smelt metal and forge metal implements could make new tools, weapons, and art.

In the Chalcolithic (Copper Age) megaliths emerged. Examples include the dolmen and menhir and the Englishcromlech, as can be seen in the complexes at Newgrange and Stonehenge.^[19] In Spain the Los Millares culture was formed which was characterized by the Beaker culture. In Malta, the temple complexes of Ħaġar Qim, Mnajdra, Tarxien and Ġgantija were built. In the Balearic Islands notable megalithic cultures developed, with different types of monuments: the naveta, a tomb shaped like a truncated pyramid, with an elongated burial chamber; the taula, two large stones, one put vertically and the other horizontally above each other; and the talaiot, a tower with a covered chamber and a false dome.^[20]

In the Iron Age the cultures of Hallstatt (Austria) and La Tene (Switzerland) emerged in Europe. The first was developed between the 7th and 5th century BCE by the necropoleis with tumular tombs and a wooden burial chamber in the form of a house, often accompanied by a four-wheeled cart. The pottery was polychromic, with geometric decorations and applications of metallic ornaments. La Tene was developed between the 5th and 4th century BCE, and is more popularly known as early Celtic art. It produced many iron objects such as swords and spears, which have not survived well to the 2000s due to rust.

The Bronze Age refers to the period when bronze was the best material available. Bronze was used for highly decorated shields, fibulas, and other objects, with different stages of evolution of the style. Decoration was influenced by Greek, Etruscan and Scythian art.^[21]

Ancient art[edit]

In the first period of recorded history, art coincided with writing. The great civilizations of the Near East: Egypt and Mesopotamia arose. Globally, during this period the first great cities appeared near major rivers: the Nile, Tigris and Euphrates, Indus and Yellow Rivers.

One of the great advances of this period was writing, which was developed from the tradition of communication using pictures. The first form of writing were the Jiahu symbols from neolithic China, but the first true writing was cuneiform script, which emerged in Mesopotamia c. 3500 BCE, written on clay tablets. It was based on pictographic and ideographic elements, while later Sumerians developed syllables for writing, reflecting the phonology and syntax of the Sumerian language. In Egypt hieroglyphic writing was developed using pictures as well, appearing on art such as the Narmer Palette (3,100 BCE). The Indus Valley Civilization sculpted seals with short texts and decorated with representations of animals and people. Meanwhile, the Olmecs sculpted colossal heads and decorated other sculptures with their own hierglyphs. In these times, writing was accessible only for the elites.

Ancient Near East[edit]

Mesopotamian art was developed in the area between Tigris and Euphrates Rivers in modern-day Syria and Iraq, where since the 4th millennium BCE many different cultures existed such as Sumer, Akkad, Amorite and Chaldea. Mesopotamian architecture was characterized by the use of bricks, lintels, and cone mosaic. Notable are the ziggurats, large temples in the form of step pyramids. The tomb was a chamber covered with a false dome, as in some examples found at Ur. There were also palaces walled with a terrace in the form of a ziggurat, where gardens were an important feature. The Hanging Gardens of Babylon was one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World.

Relief sculpture was developed in wood and stone. Sculpture depicted religious, military, and hunting scenes, including both human and animal figures. In the Sumerian period, small statues of people were produced. These statues had an angular form and were produced from colored stone. The figures typically had bald head with hands folded on the chest. In the Akkadian period, statues depicted figures with long hair and beards, such as the stele of Naram-Sin. In the Amorite period (or Neosumerian), statues represented kings from Gudea of Lagash, with their mantle and a turban on their heads and their hands on their chests. During Babylonian rule, the stele of Hammurabi was important, as it depicted the great king Hammurabi above a written copy of the laws that he introduced. Assyrian sculpture is notable for its anthropomorphism of cattle and the winged genie, which is depicted flying in many reliefs depicting war and hunting scenes, such as in the Black Obelisk of Shalmaneser III.^[22]

• Standing male worshipper, one of the twelve statues in the Tell Asmar Hoard; 2900-2600 BC; gypsum alabaster, shell, black limestone and bitumen; 29.5 × 12.9 × 10 cm; Metropolitan Museum of Art

• Sumerian Statues of worshippers (males and females); 2800-2400 BC (Early Dynastic period); National Museum of Iraq (Baghdad)

• Bull's head ornament from a lyre; 2600-2350 BC; bronze inlaid with shell and lapis lazuli; height: 13.3 cm, width: 10.5 cm; Metropolitan Museum of Art

• A Ram in a Thicket; 2600–2400 BCE; gold, copper, shell, lapis lazuli and limestone; height: 45.7 cm (1 ft 6 in.); British Museum (London)

• The Standard of Ur; 1600–1400 BCE (the Early Dynastic Period III); shell, red limestone and lapis lazuli on wood; height: 21.7 cm, length: 50.4 cm; discovered at the Royal Cemetery at Ur (Dhi Qar Governorate, Iraq); British Museum

• The Statue of Ebih-Il; c. 2400 BCE; gypsum, schist, shells and lapis lazuli; height: 52.5 cm; Louvre (Paris)

• Seal of Hash-hamer, showing enthroned king Ur-Nammu, with modern impression; circa 2100 BC; greenstone; height: 5.3 cm; British Museum (London)

• Assyrian relief with a winged genie with bucket and cone; 713-706 BC; height: 3.3 m, width: 2.1 m; Louvre

Egypt[edit]

One of the first great civilizations arose in Egypt, which had elaborate and complex works of art produced by professional artists and craftspeople. Egypt's art was religious and symbolic. Given that the culture had a highly centralized power structure and hierarchy, a great deal of art was created to honour the pharaoh, including great monuments. Egyptian art and culture emphasized the religious concept of immortality. Later Egyptian art includes Coptic and Byzantine art.

The architecture is characterized by monumental structures, built with large stone blocks, lintels, and solid columns. Funerary monuments included mastaba, tombs of rectangular form; pyramids, which included step pyramids (Saqqarah) or smooth-sided pyramids (Giza); and the hypogeum, underground tombs (Valley of the Kings). Other great buildings were the temple, which tended to be monumental complexes preceded by an avenue of sphinxes and obelisks. Temples used pylons and trapezoid walls with hypaethros and hypostyle halls and shrines. The temples of Karnak, Luxor, Philae and Edfu are good examples. Another type of temple is the rock temple, in the form of a hypogeum, found in Abu Simbel and Deir el-Bahari.

Painting of the Egyptian era used a juxtaposition of overlapping planes. The images were represented hierarchically, i.e., the Pharaoh is larger than the common subjects or enemies depicted at his side. Egyptians painted the outline of the head and limbs in profile, while the torso, hands, and eyes were painted from the front. Applied arts were developed in Egypt, in particular woodwork and metalwork. There are superb examples such as cedar furniture inlaid with ebony and ivory which can be seen in the tombs at the Egyptian Museum. Other examples include the pieces found in Tutankhamun's tomb, which are of great artistic value.^[23]

• Stele of Princess Nefertiabet eating; 2589–2566 BC; limestone & paint; height: 37.7 cm, length: 52.5 cm, depth: 8.3 cm; from Giza; Louvre (Paris)

• Pectoral and necklace of Princess Sithathoriunet; 1887–1813 BC; gold, carnelian, lapis lazuli, turquoise, garnet & feldspar; height of the pectoral: 4.5 cm (1​³⁄₄ in.); Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York City)

• Statuette of the lady Tiye; 1390-1349 BC; wood, carnelian, gold, glass, Egyptian blue and paint; height: 24 cm (9​⁷⁄₈ in.); Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York City)

• The Mask of Tutankhamun; c. 1327 BCE; gold, glass and semi-precious stones; height: 54 cm ; Egyptian Museum (Cairo)

• The Nefertiti Bust; 1352–1332 BC; painted limestone; height: 50 cm; Neues Museum (Berlin, Germany)

• The entrance of the Great Temple of the Abu Simbel temples, founded in approximately 1264 BCE

• Stela of Pepi, chief of the potters; 8th century BC; painted limestone; Hermitage (Sankt Petersburg, Russia)

• Illustration of various types of capitals, drawn by the egyptologist Karl Richard Lepsius

Indus Valley Civilisation/Harappan[edit]

Discovered long after the contemporary civilizations of Mesopotamia and Egypt, the Indus Valley Civilization or Harappan civilization (c. 2400–1900 BCE) is now recognized as extraordinally advanced, comparable in many ways with those cultures.

Various sculptures, seals, bronze vessels pottery, gold jewellery, and anatomically detailed figurines in terracotta, bronze, and steatite have been found at excavation sites.^[24]

A number of gold, terracotta and stone figurines of girls in dancing poses reveal the presence of some dance form. These terracotta figurines included cows, bears, monkeys, and dogs. The animal depicted on a majority of seals at sites of the mature period has not been clearly identified. Part bull, part zebra, with a majestic horn, it has been a source of speculation. As yet, there is insufficient evidence to substantiate claims that the image had religious or cultic significance, but the prevalence of the image raises the question of whether or not the animals in images of the IVC are religious symbols.^[25]

Realistic statuettes have been found in the site in the Indus Valley Civilization. One of them is the famous bronze statuette of a slender-limbed Dancing Girl adorned with bangles, found in Mohenjo-daro. Two other realistic statuettes have been found in Harappa in proper stratified excavations, which display near-Classical treatment of the human shape: the statuette of a dancer who seems to be male, and a red jasper male torso, both now in the Delhi National Museum. Sir John Marshall reacted with surprise when he saw these two statuettes from Harappa:^[26]

When I first saw them I found it difficult to believe that they were prehistoric; they seemed to completely upset all established ideas about early art, and culture. Modeling such as this was unknown in the ancient world up to the Hellenistic age of Greece, and I thought, therefore, that some mistake must surely have been made; that these figures had found their way into levels some 3000 years older than those to which they properly belonged .. Now, in these statuettes, it is just this anatomical truth which is so startling; that makes us wonder whether, in this all-important matter, Greek artistry could possibly have been anticipated by the sculptors of a far-off age on the banks of the Indus.^[26]

These statuettes remain controversial, due to their advanced techniques. Regarding the red jasper torso, the discoverer, Vats, claims a Harappan date, but Marshall considered this statuette is probably historical, dating to the Gupta period, comparing it to the much later Lohanipur torso.^[27][28] A second rather similar grey stone statuette of a dancing male was also found about 150 meters away in a secure Mature Harappan stratum. Overall, anthropologist Gregory Possehl tends to consider that these statuettes probably form the pinnacle of Indus art during the Mature Harappan period.^[27]

Seals have been found at Mohenjo-daro depicting a figure standing on its head, and another sitting cross-legged in what some call a yoga-like pose such as the so-called Pashupati. This figure has been variously identified. Sir John Marshall identified a resemblance to the Hindu god, Shiva.^[29] If this can be validated, it would be evidence that some aspects of Hinduism predate the earliest texts, the Veda.^{[citation needed]}

• Ceremonial vessel; 2600-2450 BCE; terracotta with black paint; 49.53 × 25.4 cm; Los Angeles County Museum of Art (USA)

• The Priest-King; 2400–1900 BCE; low fired steatite; height: 17.5 cm; National Museum of Pakistan (Karachi)

• Stamp seals, some of them with Indus script; probably made of steatite; British Museum (London)

• Male dancing torso; 2400-1900 BCE; limestone; height: 9.9 cm; National Museum (New Delhi, India)

Ancient China[edit]

During the Chinese Bronze Age (the Shang and Zhou dynasties) court intercessions and communication with the spirit world were conducted by a shaman (possibly the king himself). In the Shang dynasty (c. 1600–1050 BCE), the supreme deity was Shangdi, but aristicratic families preferred to contact the spirits of their ancestors. They prepared elaborate banquets of food and drink for them, heated and served in bronze ritual vessels. Bronze vessels were used in religious rituals to cement Dhang authority, and when the Shang capital fell, around 1050 BCE, its conquerors, the Zhou (c. 1050–156 BCE), continued to use these containers in religious rituals, but principally for food rather than drink. The Shang court had been accoused of excessive drunkenness, and the Zhou, promoting the imperial Tian ('Heaven') as the prime spiritual force, rather than ancestors, limited wine in religious rites, in favour of food. The use of ritual bronzes continued into the early Han dynasty (206 BCE–220 CE).

One of the most commonly used motifs was the taotie, a stylized face divided centrally into 2 almoust mirror-image halves, with nostrils, eyes, eyebrows, jaws, cheeks and horns, surrounded by incised patterns. Whether taotie represented real, mythological or wholly imaginary creatures cannot be determined.

The enigmatic bronzes of Sanxingdui. near Guanghan (in Sichuan province), are evidence for a mysterious sacrificial religious system unlike anything elsewhere in ancient China and quite different from the art of the contemporaneous Shang at Anyang. Excavations at Sanxingdui since 1986 have revealed 4 pits containing artefacts of bronze, jade and gold. There was found a great bronze statue of a human figure which stands on a plinth decorated with abstract elephant heads. Besides the standing figure, the first 2 pits contained over 50 bronze heads, some wearing eadgear and 3 with a frontal covering of gold leaf.

• Standing statue of a king and shaman leader; c. 1200–1000 BCE; probably bronze; total height: 2.62 m; Sanxingdui Museum (Guanghan, Sichuan province, China)

• Houmuwu ding, the largest ancient bronze ever found; 1300–1046 BCE; bronze; National Museum of China (Beijing)

• Altar set; late 11th century BCE; bronze; overall (table): hight: 18.1 cm, width: 46.4 cm, depth: 89.9 cm; Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York City)

• One of the warriors of the Terracotta Army, a famous collection of terracotta sculptures depicting the armies of Qin Shi Huang, the first Emperor of China

Greek[edit]

Greek and Etruscan artists built on the artistic foundations of Egypt, further developing the arts of sculpture, painting, architecture, and ceramics. Greek art started as smaller and simpler than Egyptian art, and the influence of Egyptian art on the Greeks started in the Cycladic islands between 3300–3200 BCE. Cycladic statues were simple, lacking facial features except for the nose.

Greek art eventually included life-sized statues, such as Kouros figures. The standing Kouros of Attica is typical of early Greek sculpture and dates from 600 BCE. From this early stage, the art of Greece moved into the Archaic Period. Sculpture from this time period includes the characteristic Archaic smile. This distinctive smile may have conveyed that the subject of the sculpture had been alive or that the subject had been blessed by the gods and was well.

• Female Cycladic figurine; 2700–2600 BCE; marble; height: 37.1 cm; Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York City)

• The Minoan fresco named the Bull-Leaping Fresco; 1675-1460 BC; lime plaster; height: 0.8 m, width: 1 m; from the palace at Knossos (Crete); Heraklion Archaeological Museum (Greece)

• Minoan snake goddess; 1460-1410 BCE (from the Minoan Neo-palatial Period); faience; height: 29.5 cm; from the Temple Repository at Knossos; Heraklion Archaeological Museum

• Mycenaeanrhyton in the shape of a bull's head; 1300-1200 BCE; pottery; height: 15.5 cm; British Museum (London)

• Geometric krater; 750-735 BCE; silhouette on terracotta; height: 1.1 m; probably from Attica (Greece); Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York City)

• The Euphiletos Painter Panathenaic prize amphora; 530 BCE; painted terracotta; height: 62.2 cm; Metropolitan Museum of Art

• The Artemision Bronze; 460-450 BCE; bronze; height: 2.1 m; National Archaeological Museum (Athens)

• Venus de Milo; 130–100 BCE; marble; height: 203 cm (80 in); Louvre (Paris)

Phoenician[edit]

Phoenician art lacks unique characteristics that might distinguish it from its contemporaries. This is due to its being highly influenced by foreign artistic cultures: primarily Egypt, Greece and Assyria. Phoenicians who were taught on the banks of the Nile and the Euphrates gained a wide artistic experience and finally came to create their own art, which was an amalgam of foreign models and perspectives.^[30] In an article from The New York Times published on January 5, 1879, Phoenician art was described by the following:

He entered into other men's labors and made most of his heritage. The Sphinx of Egypt became Asiatic, and its new form was transplanted to Nineveh on the one side and to Greece on the other. The rosettes and other patterns of the Babylonian cylinders were introduced into the handiwork of Phoenicia, and so passed on to the West, while the hero of the ancient Chaldean epic became first the TyrianMelkarth, and then the Herakles of Hellas.

• Decorative plaque which depicts a fighting of man and griffin; 900–800 BCE; ivory: from Nimrud; Cleveland Museum of Art (Ohio, USA)

• Oinochoe; 800-700 BC; terracotta; height: 24.1 cm; Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York City)

• Face bead; mid-4th–3rd century BC; glass; height: 2.7 cm; Metropolitan Museum of Art

• Earring from a pair, each with four relief faces; late 4th–3rd century BCE; gold; overall: 3.5 x 0.6 cm; Metropolitan Museum of Art

Etruscan[edit]

Etruscan art was produced by the Etruscan civilization in central Italy between the 9th and 2nd centuries BCE. From around 600 BCE it was heavily influenced by Greek art, which was imported by the Etruscans, but always retained distinct characteristics. Particularly strong in this tradition were figurative sculpture in terracotta (especially life-size on sarcophagi or temples), wall-painting and metalworking especially in bronze. Jewellery and engraved gems of high quality were produced.^[31]

Etruscan sculpture in cast bronze was famous and widely exported, but relatively few large examples have survived (the material was too valuable, and recycled later). In contrast to terracotta and bronze, there was relatively little Etruscan sculpture in stone, despite the Etruscans controlling fine sources of marble, including Carrara marble, which seems not to have been exploited until the Romans.

The great majority of survivals came from tombs, which were typically crammed with sarcophagi and grave goods, and terracotta fragments of architectural sculpture, mostly around temples. Tombs have produced all the fresco wall-paintings, which show scenes of feasting and some narrative mythological subjects.

• The Sarcophagus of the Spouses; 530-520 BCE; terracotta; 1.14 m x 1.9 m; from a tomb of the Banditaccia necropolis (Cerveteri, Italy); Louvre

• Water jar with Herakles and the Hydra; circa 525 BC; black-figure pottery; height: 44.5 cm, diameter: 33.8 cm; Getty Villa (California, USA)

• Apollo of Veii; circa 510 BCE; painted terracotta; height: 1.81 m; National Etruscan Museum (Rome)

• Fresco with dancers and musicians; circa 475 BCE; fresco secco; height (of the wall); 1.7 m; Tomb of the Leopards (Monterozzi necropolis, Lazio, Italy)

Dacian[edit]

Dacian art is the art associated with the peoples known as Dacians or North Thracians; The Dacians created an art style in which the influences of Scythians and the Greeks can be seen. They were highly skilled in gold and silver working and in pottery making. Pottery was white with red decorations in flolral, geometric, and stylized animal motifs. Similar decorations were worked in metal, especially the figure of a horse, which was common on Dacian coins.^[32] Today, a big collection of Dacic masterpieces is in the National Museum of Romanian History (Bucharest), one of the most famous being the Helmet of Coțofenești.

The Geto-Dacians lived in a very large territory, stretching from the Balkans to the northern Carpathians and from the Black Sea and the river Tyras to the Tisa plain, sometimes even to the Middle Danube.^[33] Between 15th–12th century, the Dacian-Getae culture was influenced by the Bronze Age Tumulus-Urnfield warriors.^[34]

• Bracelet; 5th-4th century BC; gold; National History Museum of Romania (Bucharest, Romania)

• The Helmet of Coțofenești; 4th century BCE; National History Museum of Romania

• Rhyton; 4th-3rd century BC; possibly made of gold and silver; National History Museum of Romania

• The Helmet of Peretu; 310-290 BC; gilded silver; from Peretu (Teleorman County, Romania); National History Museum of Romania

Pre-Roman Iberian[edit]

Pre-Roman Iberian art refers to the styles developed by the Iberians from the Bronze age up to the Roman conquest. For this reason it is sometimes described as 'Iberian art'.

Almost all extant works of Iberian sculpture visibly reflect Greek and Phoenician influences, and Assyrian, Hittite and Egyptian influences from which those derived; yet they have their own unique character. Within this complex stylistic heritage, individual works can be placed within a spectrum of influences- some of more obvious Phoenician derivation, and some so similar to Greek works that they could have been directly imported from that region. Overall the degree of influence is correlated to the work's region of origin, and hence they are classified into groups on that basis.

• The Bicha of Balazote; 6th century BCE; carved of two limestone blocks; height: 73 cm; National Archaeological Museum of Spain (Madrid)

• The Lady of Elche; c. 450 BCE; limestone; National Archaeological Museum of Spain

• The Lion from Nueva Carteya; 4th century BC; limestone; height: 60 cm; Archaeological and Ethnological Museum of Córdoba (Spain)

• Figurine of a standing male; 3rd-2nd century BCE; cast bronze; height: 6.8 cm; Los Angeles County Museum of Art (USA)

Hittite[edit]

Hittite art was produced by the Hittite civilization in ancient Anatolia, in modern-day Turkey, and also stretching into Syria during the second millennium BCE from the nineteenth century up until the twelfth century BCE. This period falls under the Anatolian Bronze Age. It is characterized by a long tradition of canonized images and motifs rearranged, while still being recognizable, by artists to convey meaning to a largely illiterate population.

“Owing to the limited vocabulary of figural types [and motifs], invention for the Hittite artist usually was a matter of combining and manipulating the units to form more complex compositions'^[35]

Many of these recurring images revolve around the depiction of Hittite deities and ritual practices. There is also a prevalence of hunting scenes in Hittite relief and representational animal forms. Much of the art comes from settlements like Alaca Höyük, or the Hittite capital of Hattusa near modern-day Boğazkale. Scholars do have difficulty dating a large portion of Hittite art, citing the fact that there is a lack of inscription and much of the found material, especially from burial sites, was moved from their original locations and distributed among museums during the nineteenth century.

• Vessel terminating in the forepart of a stag; circa 14th–13th century BCE; silver with gold inlay; height: 18 cm; Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York City)

• Seal of Tarkasnawa, King of Mira; circa 1220 BC; silver; height: 1 cm, diameter: 4.2 cm; Walters Art Museum (Baltimore, USA)

• Three reliefs from the Adana Archaeology Museum (Turkey)

• The İvriz relief, king Warpalawas (right) before the god Tarhunzas

Bactrian[edit]

The Bactria–Margiana Archaeological Complex is the modern archaeological designation for a Bronze Agecivilization of Central Asia, dated to c. 2300–1700 BCE, located in present-day northern Afghanistan, eastern Turkmenistan, southern Uzbekistan and western Tajikistan, centred on the upper Amu Darya (Oxus River). Its sites were discovered and named by the Soviet archaeologist Viktor Sarianidi (1976).^{[citation needed]}

BMAC materials have been found in the Indus Valley Civilisation, on the Iranian Plateau, and in the Persian Gulf.^[36] Finds within BMAC sites provide further evidence of trade and cultural contacts. They include an Elamite-type cylinder seal and a Harappan seal stamped with an elephant and Indus script found at Gonur-depe.^[37] The relationship between Altyn-Depe and the Indus Valley seems to have been particularly strong. Among the finds there were two Harappan seals and ivory objects. The Harappan settlement of Shortugai in Northern Afghanistan on the banks of the Amu Darya probably served as a trading station.^[38]

A famous type of Bactrian artworks are the 'Bactrian princesses'. Wearing large stylized dresses with puffed sleeves, as well as headdresses that merge with the hair, they embody the ranking goddess, character of the central Asian mythology that plays a regulatory role, pacifying the untamed forces.

• Axe with eagle-headed demon & animals; late 3rd millennium-early 2nd millennium BCE; gilt silver; length: 15 cm; Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York City)

• Camel figurine; late 3rd–early 2nd millennium BCE; copper alloy; 8.89 cm; Metropolitan Museum of Art

• Monstrous male figure; late 3rd–early 2nd millennium BCE; chlorite, calcite, gold and iron; height: 10.1 cm; Metropolitan Museum of Art

• Female figurine of the 'Bactrian princess' type; 2500-1500; chlorite (dress and hat) and limestone (had, hands and a leg); height: 13.33 cm; Los Angeles County Museum of Art (USA)

Celtic[edit]

Celtic art is associated with the peoples known as Celts; those who spoke the Celtic languages in Europe from pre-history through to the modern period. It also refers to the art of ancient peoples whose language is uncertain, but have cultural and stylistic similarities with speakers of Celtic languages.

Celtic art is a difficult term to define, covering a huge expanse of time, geography and cultures. A case has been made for artistic continuity in Europe from the Bronze Age, and indeed the preceding Neolithic age; however archaeologists generally use 'Celtic' to refer to the culture of the European Iron Age from around 1000 BCE onwards, until the conquest by the Roman Empire of most of the territory concerned, and art historians typically begin to talk about 'Celtic art' only from the La Tène period (broadly 5th to 1st centuries BCE) onwards.^[39] Early Celtic art is another term used for this period, stretching in Britain to about 150 CE.^[40] The Early Medieval art of Britain and Ireland, which produced the Book of Kells and other masterpieces, and is what 'Celtic art' evokes for much of the general public in the English-speaking world, is called Insular art in art history. This is the best-known part, but not the whole of, the Celtic art of the Early Middle Ages, which also includes the Pictish art of Scotland.^[41]

• The Amfreville helmet; by La Tène culture; late 4th century BCE; bronze, iron, gold leaf and enamel; height: 21.4 cm; National Archaeological Museum of France (Saint-Germain-en-Laye, France)

• Detail of the Battersea Shield; 4th to 3rd century BCE; copper alloy and emanel; height: 77.5 cm; British Museum (London)

• The Mšecké Žehrovice Head; 150-50 BCE; marlstone; height: 23.4 cm, width: 17.4 cm; National Museum of the Czech Republic (Prague)

• The Desborough mirror; 20 BCE-20 AD; copper alloy; height (with handle): 35 cm; British Museum

Achaemenid[edit]

Achaemenid art includes frieze reliefs, metalwork, decoration of palaces, glazed brick masonry, fine craftsmanship (masonry, carpentry, etc.), and gardening. Most survivals of court art are monumental sculpture, above all the reliefs, double animal-headed Persian column capitals and other sculptures of Persepolis (see below for the few but impressive Achaemenid rock reliefs).^[42]

Although the Persians took artists, with their styles and techniques, from all corners of their empire, they produced not simply a combination of styles, but a synthesis of a new unique Persian style.^[43] Cyrus the Great in fact had an extensive ancient Iranian heritage behind him; the rich Achaemenid gold work, which inscriptions suggest may have been a specialty of the Medes, was for instance in the tradition of earlier sites.

There are a number of very fine pieces of jewellery or inlay in precious metal, also mostly featuring animals, and the Oxus Treasure has a wide selection of types. Small pieces, typically in gold, were sewn to clothing by the elite, and a number of gold torcs have survived.^[42]

• Relief from Persepolis (Iran) that represents people who carry bowls and amphoraes

• Frieze of archers; circa 510 BCE; from the Palace of Darius at Susa; Louvre

• Gold bracelet, part of the Oxus Treasure; 5th to 4th century BCE; gold; width: 11.6 cm; British Museum (London)

• Column capital; 5th to 4th century BCE; stone; height: 1.75 m; from Persepolis; National Museum of Iran (Teheran)

Rome[edit]

Roman art is sometimes viewed as derived from Greek precedents, but also has its own distinguishing features. Roman sculpture is often less idealized than the Greek precedents, being very realistic. Roman architecture often used concrete, and features such as the round arch and dome were invented.

Roman artwork was influenced by the nation-state's interaction with other people's, such as ancient Judea. A major monument is the Arch of Titus, which was erected by the Emperor Titus. Scenes of Romans looting the Jewish temple in Jerusalem are depicted in low-relief sculptures around the arch's perimeter.

Ancient Roman pottery was not a luxury product, but a vast production of 'fine wares' in terra sigillata were decorated with reliefs that reflected the latest taste, and provided a large group in society with stylish objects at what was evidently an affordable price. Roman coins were an important means of propaganda, and have survived in enormous numbers.

• Augustus of Prima Porta; circa 20 BCE; white marble; height: 2.06 m; Vatican Museums (Vatican City)

• Head of a woman; early 1st century AD; marble; overall: 21 cm; Cleveland Museum of Art (Ohio, USA)

• Iphigeneia carried to the sacrifice; 1st century; fresco; height: 140 cm, width: 138 cm; Naples National Archaeological Museum (Italy)

• Pair of snake bracelets; 1st century; gold; 8.2 cm; Walters Art Museum (Baltimore, USA)

• Panoramic view of the Pantheon (Rome), built between 113 and 125

• The Equestrian Statue of Marcus Aurelius; circa 170; gilt bronze; height: 3.5 cm; Capitoline Museums (Rome)

• Sarcophagus with garlands; 200–225; marble; 134.6 x 223.5 cm; Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York City)

• Triumph of Neptune standing on a chariot pulled by two sea horses; mid-3rd century; Sousse Archaeological Museum (Tunisia)

Olmec[edit]

The olmecs were the earliest known major civilization in Mesoamerica following a progressive development in Soconusco. They lived in the tropical lowlands of south-central Mexico, in the present-day states of Veracruz and Tabasco. It has been speculated that the Olmecs derive in part from neighboring Mokaya or Mixe–Zoque. The Olmecs flourished during Mesoamerica's formative period, dating roughly from as early as 1500 BCE to about 400 BCE. Pre-Olmec cultures had flourished in the area since about 2500 BCE, but by 1600–1500 BCE, early Olmec culture had emerged, centered on the San Lorenzo Tenochtitlán site near the coast in southeast Veracruz.^[44] They were the first Mesoamerican civilization, and laid many of the foundations for the civilizations that followed.

The Olmec culture was first defined as an art style, and this continues to be the hallmark of the culture.^[45] Wrought in a large number of media – jade, clay, basalt, and greenstone among others – much Olmec art, such as The Wrestler, is naturalistic. Other art expresses fantastic anthropomorphic creatures, often highly stylized, using an iconography reflective of a religious meaning.^[46] Common motifs include downturned mouths and a cleft head, both of which are seen in representations of were-jaguars.^[45]

• Colossal Head N° 1 of San Lorenzo. A historican person, likely an Olmec leader, is depicted in this monumental sculture found at San Lorenzo (in Tabasco, Mexico), a principal olmec center

• Seated figurine; 12th–9th century BCE; painted ceramic; height: 34 cm, width: 31.8 cm, depth: 14.6 cm; Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York City)

• Bird-shaped vessel; 12th–9th century BCE; ceramic with red ochre; height: 16.5 cm; Metropolitan Museum of Art

• Kunz axe; 1200–400 BCE; polished green quartz (aventurine); height: 29 cm, width: 13.5 cm; British Museum (London)

European[edit]

Medieval[edit]

With the decline of the Roman Empire, the Medieval era began, lasting for a millennium. Early Christian art begins the period, followed by Byzantine art, Anglo-Saxon art, Viking art, Ottonian art, Romanesque art and Gothic art, with Islamic art dominating the eastern Mediterranean.

In Byzantine and Gothic art of the Middle Ages, the dominance of the church resulted in a large amount of religious art. There was extensive use of gold in paintings, which presented figures in simplified forms.

Byzantine[edit]

Byzantine art refers to the body of Christian Greek artistic products of the Eastern Roman (Byzantine) Empire,^[47] as well as the nations and states that inherited culturally from the empire. Though the empire itself emerged from Rome's decline and lasted until the Fall of Constantinople in 1453,^[48] the start date of the Byzantine period is rather clearer in art history than in political history, if still imprecise. 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.

Icons (from the Greekεἰκώνeikōn 'image', 'resemblance') are the most important visual elements in Byzantine religious practice, central to Orthodox worship since the end of Iconoclasm in the ninth century. Consistent in their format in order to preserve a sense of portraiture and the familiarity of favoured images, they have nevertheless transformed over time.

Carried by patriarchs in Eastern processions, read by monks in secluded caves and held by emperors at important ceremonies, sacred books, often beautifully illustrated, were central to Byzantine belief and ritual. Few manuscripts seem to have been produced in the Early Byzantine period between the sixth and eighth centuries CE, but there was a flourishing of painted books in the ninth century, following the end of Iconoclasm.

An unusual characteristic of Byzantine art are the golden backgronds. Clear glass was often backed with gold leafs to create a rich, shimmering effect.

• Portrait bust of a woman with a scroll; late 4th–early 5th century; marble from Mount Pentelicus; overall: 53 x 27.5 x 22.2 cm; Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York City)

• Church of St John the Baptist in Kerch (Crimea, Russia), noted for the candy-striping in its façade. Dating to 717 AD it is said to be one of the oldest churches in Eastern Europe

• Box with scenes of Adam and Eve; circa 1000; ivory and wood; overall: 14.3 x 46.7 x 20.3 cm; Cleveland Museum of Art (USA)

• The Virgin and Child on the throne; 12th century; lapis lazuli; from Novgorod; Moscow Kremlin Museums (Russia)

• Fragment of a mosaic that represents Christ Pantocrator ('ruler over all'); 12th century; Hagia Sophia (Istanbul, Turkey)

• Madonna and Child Enthroned; 1250-1275; tempera on poplar wood; height: 124.8 cm, width: 70.8 cm; National Gallery of Art (Washington, D.C.)

• Page of an Armenian illuminated manuscript; 1637–1638; tempera colors, gold paint, and gold leaf on parchment; height: 25.2 cm; Getty Center (Los Angeles)

• Genealogy of the state of Muscovy; by Simon Ushakov; 1668; tempera on wood; height: 105 cm, width: 62 cm; Tretyakov Gallery (Moscow)

Anglo-Saxon[edit]

Anglo-Saxon art covers art produced within the Anglo-Saxon period of English history, beginning with the Migration period style that the Anglo-Saxons brought with them from the continent in the 5th century, and ending in 1066 with the Norman Conquest of a large Anglo-Saxon nation-state whose sophisticated art was influential in much of northern Europe. The two periods of outstanding achievement were the 7th and 8th centuries, with the metalwork and jewellery from Sutton Hoo and a series of magnificent illuminated manuscripts, and the final period after about 950, when there was a revival of English culture after the end of the Viking invasions. By the time of the Conquest the move to the Romanesque style is nearly complete. The important artistic centres, in so far as these can be established, were concentrated in the extremities of England, in Northumbria, especially in the early period, and Wessex and Kent near the south coast.

• Buckle of Sutton Hoo; 580-620; gold and niello; length: 13.1 cm; British Museum (London)

• The helmet of Sutton Hoo; early 7th century AD; coppery alloy, iron, gold and garnet; height: 31.8 cm; British Museum

• Shoulder-clasps from Sutton Hoo; early 7th century; gold, glass & garnet; length: 12.7 cm; British Museum

• The Incipit to Matthew from the Book of Lindisfarne; late 7th century; ink and pigments on vellum; 34 x 25 cm; British Library (London)

Ottonian[edit]

Ottonian art is a style in pre-romanesqueGerman art, covering also some works from the Low Countries, northern Italy and eastern France. It was named by the art historian Hubert Janitschek after the Ottonian dynasty which ruled Germany and northern Italy between 919 and 1024 under the kings Henry I, Otto I, Otto II, Otto III and Henry II.^[49] With Ottonian architecture, it is a key component of the Ottonian Renaissance (c. 951–1024). However, the style neither began nor ended to neatly coincide with the rule of the dynasty. It emerged some decades into their rule and persisted past the Ottonian emperors into the reigns of the early Salian dynasty, which lacks an artistic 'style label' of its own.^[50] In the traditional scheme of art history, Ottonian art follows Carolingian art and precedes Romanesque art, though the transitions at both ends of the period are gradual rather than sudden. Like the former and unlike the latter, it was very largely a style restricted to a few of the small cities of the period, and important monasteries, as well as the court circles of the emperor and his leading vassals.

• Book-shaped reliquary; circa 1000; ivory, gilded silver, pearls, rubies, emeralds, crystals, onyx, cornelian and oak; overall: 31.6 x 24.4 x 7.5 cm; Cleveland Museum of Art (USA)

• Gospel Book of Henry II; circa 1020; illumination on parchment; Vatican Library (Rome)

• The Cross of Mathilde; 11th century; oak, gold sheets, glass, bronze, enamel and other materials; height: 45 cm, width: 30.5 cm; Essen Cathedral Treasury (Germany)

• The Bernward Column; 1000-1200; copper alloy; height: 3.8 m; Hildesheim (Lower Saxony, Germany)

Viking art[edit]

Viking art, also known commonly as Norse art, is a term widely accepted for the art of ScandinavianNorsemen and Viking settlements further afield—particularly in the British Isles and Iceland—during the Viking Age of the 8th–11th centuries CE. Viking art has many design elements in common with Celtic, Germanic, the later Romanesque and Eastern European art, sharing many influences with each of these traditions.^[51]

• The Stora Hammars stones; circa 750; limestone; height: 3.7 m; Lärbro (Sweden)

• Plaque decorated with confronted monster heads; 8th-late 9th century; whale bone; 22 × 18.3 × 0.8 cm; Walters Art Museum (Baltimore, USA)

• Animal head post; circa 820; wood; height: 51 cm; Viking Ship Museum (Oslo, Norway)

• Terminal for an open ring brooch; circa 950; silver, gold and niello; overall: 5 x 3.7 x 3.6 cm; Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York City)

Romanesque[edit]

The Romanesque was the first pan-European style to emerge after the Roman Empire, spanning the mid-tenth century to the thirteenth. The period saw a resurgence of monumental stone structures with complex structural programmes.

Romanesque churches are characterized by rigod articulation and geometric clarity, incorporated into a unified volumetric whole. The architecture is austere but enlivened by decorative sculpting of capitals and portals, as well as frescoed interiors. Geometric and foliate patterning gives way to increasingly three-dimensional figurative sculpture.

From the mid-eleventh to the early thirteenth centuries, Romanesque paintings were two-dimensional, defined by bold, linear outlines and geometry, particularly in the handling of drapery; symmetry and frontality were emphasised. Virtually all Western churches were painted, but probably only a few wall painters were monks; instead, itinerant artists carried out most of this work. Basic blocking out was done on wet plaster with earth colours. A limited palette, dominated by white, red, yellow ochres and azure, was employed for maximum visual effect, with dense colouring forming a backdrop of bands, a practice that originated in late Classical art as an attempt to distinguish earth and sky.

During the later eleventh and twelfth centuries, the great age of Western monasticism, Europe experienced unprecedented economic, social and political change, leading to burgeoning wealth among landowners, including monasteries. There was increasing demand for books, and economic wealth allowed many manuscripts to be richly illuminated.

• Maria Laach Abbey (near Andernach, Germany), one of the most iconic Romanesque churches

• Christ in Majesty Tympanum; 1120-1132; stone: width: 9.6 m; Vézelay Abbey (Burgundy, France)

• Miniature of Saint John the Evangelist; before 1147; illumination on parchment; 35.5 cm; Avesnes-sur-Helpe (France)

• The stoning of Saint Stephen; 1160s; fresco; height: 1.3 m; Saint John Abbey (Val Müstair, Canton of Grisons, Switzerland)

Slavic[edit]

Slavic architecture is a mix of Byzantine and Pagan architecture. Some characteristics taken from the Slavic pagan temples are the exterior galleries and the plurality of towers. Most iconic buildings are the Russian and Ukrainian cathedrals. These cathedrals are well known for their unsusual onion domes, which are decorated with geometric and colorful patterns. It is not completely clear when and why onion domes became a typical feature of Russian architecture. Byzantine churches and the architecture of Kievan Rus were characterized by broader, flatter domes without a special framework erected above the drum. In contrast to this ancient form, each drum of a Russian church is surmounted by a special structure of metal or timber, which is lined with sheet iron or tiles. Russian architecture used the dome shape not only for churches but also for other buildings.

The use and making of icons entered Kievan Rus' following its conversion to Orthodox Christianity from the Eastern Roman (Byzantine) Empire in 988 CE. As a general rule, these icons strictly followed models and formulas hallowed by usage, some of which had originated in Constantinople. As time passed, the Russians—notably Andrei Rublev and Dionisius—widened the vocabulary of iconic types and styles far beyond anything found elsewhere. The personal, improvisatory and creative traditions of Western European religious art are largely lacking in Russia before the seventeenth century, when Simon Ushakov's painting became strongly influenced by religious paintings and engravings from Protestant as well as Catholic Europe.

• The Zbruch Idol, an example of a bałwan; 9th century; limestone; height: 2.67 m; Archaeological Museum of Kraków (Poland)

• Front of a temple pendant with two birds flanking a tree of life; 11th–12th century; cloisonné enamel & gold; overall: 5.4 x 4.8 x 1.5 cm; made in Kiev (Ukraine); Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York City)

• Saint Basil's Cathedral from the Red Square (Moscow). Its extraordinary onion-shaped domes, painted in bright colors, create a memorable skyline, making St. Basil's a symbol both of Moscow and Russia as a whole

• Holy Trinity, Hospitality of Abraham; by Andrei Rublev; c. 1411; tempera on panel; 1.1 x 1.4 m (4 ft 8 in x 3 ft 8​³⁄₄ in); Tretyakov Gallery (Moscow)

Renaissance[edit]

The Renaissance is the return to a valuation of the material world, and this paradigm shift is reflected in art forms, which show the corporeality of the human body, and the three-dimensional reality of landscapes. Art historians often periodize Renaissance art by century, especially with Italian art. Italian Renaissance and Baroque art is traditionally referred to by centuries: trecento for the fourteenth century, quattrocento for the fifteenth, cinquecento for the sixteenth, and seicento for the seventeenth.

• Door of the Florence Baptistery called Gates of Paradise; 1425-1452; gilded bronze; height: 5.2 m; Florence (Italy)

• The Arnolfini Portrait; by Jan van Eyck; 1434; oil on panel; 82.2 x 60 cm; National Gallery (London)

• The The Birth of Venus; by Sandro Botticelli; 1484-1485; tempera on panel; height: 172.5 cm, length: 278.5 cm; Uffizi Gallery (Florence, Italy)

• David; by Michelangelo; 1501-1504; marble; 517 cm × 199 cm; Galleria dell'Accademia (Florence)

• Mona Lisa; by Leonardo da Vinci; c. 1503–1506, perhaps continuing until c. 1517; oil on poplar panel; 77 cm × 53 cm; Louvre

• The Garden of Earthly Delights; by Hieronymus Bosch; c. 1504; oil on panel; 2.2 x 1.95 m (7 ft 2​¹⁄₂ in.) – central panel; Museo del Prado (Madrid, Spain)

• The School of Athens; by Raphael; 1509-1510; fresco; 5.8 x 8.2 m; Apostolic Palace (Vatican City)

• Summer; by Giuseppe Arcimboldo; oil on panel; 67 x 50.8 cm; Kunsthistorisches Museum (Vienna, Austria)

Baroque, Rococo, and Neoclassicism[edit]

Baroque and Rococo were 2 highly ornamental and theatrical styles of decoration which combine scrolling curves, gilding, white and pastel colors and sculpted molding. Neoclassicism draw inspiration from the 'classical' art and culture of classical antiquity. Neoclassicism was born largely thanks to the writings of Johann Joachim Winckelmann, at the time of the rediscovery of Pompeii and Herculaneum, but its popularity spread all over Europe as a generation of European art students finished their Grand Tour and returned from Italy to their home countries with newly rediscovered Greco-Roman ideals.^[52][53]

• The Palace of Versailles (France), the most iconic Baroque building. It was the principal royal residence of France from 1682, until the start of the French Revolution in 1789

• The Death of Adonis; by Giuseppe Mazzuoli; inception in the 1710s; marble; Hermitage Museum (Sankt Petersburg, Russia)

• Armchair; c. 1750–1760; carved and gilded beech, covered in blue damask not original to the armchair; from southwestern German; Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York City)

• The Swing; by Jean-Honoré Fragonard; 1767–1768; oil on canvas; height: 81 cm (31​⁷⁄₈ in.), width: 64 cm (25​¹⁄₄ in.); Wallace Collection (London)

• French jewel coffer on stand; by Martin Carlin; circa 1775; oak veneered with tulipwood, gilt bronze, soft-paste porcelain, velvet and other materials; 95.6 x 55.9 cm; Metropolitan Museum of Art

• Jacques-Louis David; Oath of the Horatii; 1784; oil on canvas; height: 330 cm, width: 425 cm; Louvre

• Neoclassical vase; 1828; produced in the Imperial Porcelain Factory (Saint Petersburg, Russia)

• Enterance of the Sturdza house, a 1883 Baroque Revival building, in the past a regular house of Bucharest (Romania), now a bookshop

Romanticism and realism[edit]

The 18th and 19th centuries included Romanticism, and Realism in art.

Middle Eastern[edit]

Pre-Islamic Arabia[edit]

The art of Pre-Islamic Arabia is related to that of neighbouring cultures. Pre-Islamic Yemen produced stylized alabaster heads of great aesthetic and historic charm. Most of the pre-Islamic sculptures are made of alabaster.

Archaeology has revealed some early settled civilizations in Saudi Arabia: the Dilmun civilization on the east of the Arabian Peninsula, Thamud north of the Hejaz, and Kindah kingdom and Al-Magar civilization in the central of Arabian Peninsula.The earliest known events in Arabian history are migrations from the peninsula into neighbouring areas.^[54] In antiquity, the role of South Arabian societies such as Saba (Sheba) in the production and trade of aromatics not only brought such kigdoms wealth but also tied the Arabian peninsula into trade networks, resulting in far-ranging artistic influences.

It seems probable that before around 4000 BCE the Arabian climate was somewhat wetter that today, benefitting from a monsoon system that has since moved south.^{[citation needed]} During the late fourth millennium BCE permanent settlements began to appear, and inhabitants adjusted to the emerging dryer conditions. In south-west Arabia (modern Yemen) a moister climate supported several kingdoms during the second and first millennia BCE. The most famos of these is Sheba, the kingdom of the biblical Queen of Sheba. These societies used a combination of trade in spices and the natural resources of the region, including aromatics such as frankincense and myrrh, to build wealthy kingdoms. Mārib, the Sabaean capital, was well positioned to tap into Mediterranean as well as Near Eastern trade, and in kingdoms to the east, in what is today Oman, trading links with Mesopotamia, Persia and even India were possible. The area was never a part of the Assyrian or Persian empires, and even Babylonian control of north-west Arabia seems to have been relatively short-lived. Later Roman attempts to control the region's lucrative trade foundered. This impenetrability to foreign armies doubtless augmented ancient rulers' bargaining power in the spice and incense trade.

Although subject to external influences, south Arabia retained characteristics particular to itself. The human figure is typically based on strong, square shapes, the fine modeling of detail contrastingwith a stylized simplicity of form.

• Stele of a male wearing a baldric; 4th millenium BCE; sandstone; height: 92 cm; from Al-`Ula (Saudi Arabia); in a temporary exhibition in the National Museum of Korea (Seoul), named Roads of Arabia: Archaeological Treasures of Saudi Arabia

• Standing female figure wearing a strap and a necklace; 3rd–2nd millennium BCE; sandstone and quartzite; height: 27.5 cm, width: 14.3 cm, depth: 14.3 cm; from Mareb (Yemen); Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York City)

• Incense burner; mid-1st millennium BCE; bronze; height: 27.6 cm, width: 23.7 cm; depth: 23.3 cm; from Southwestern Arabia; Metropolitan Museum of Art

• Decorated capital of a pillar from the royal palace of Shabwa; stratigraphic context: first half of the 3rd century BCE; National Museum of Yemen (Aden)

Islamic[edit]

Some branches of Islam forbid depictions of people and other sentient beings, as they may be misused as idols. Religious ideas are thus often represented through geometric designs and calligraphy. However, there are many Islamic paintings which display religious themes and scenes of stories common among the three Abrahamic monotheistic faiths of Islam, Christianity, and Judaism.

The influence of Chinese ceramics has to be viewed in the broader context of the considerable importance of Chinese culture on Islamic arts in general.^[55] The İznik pottery (named after İznik, a city from Turkey) is one of the best well-known types of Islamic pottery. Its famous combination between blue and white is a result of that Ottoman court in Istanbul who greatly valued Chinese blue-and-white porcelain.

• Mihrab (prayer niche); 1354-1355; mosaic of polychrome-glazed cut tiles on stonepaste body, set into mortar; 343.1 x 288.7 cm, weight: 2041.2 kg; from Isfahan (Iran); Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York City)

• Persian miniature of the Mi'raj of the Prophet by Sultan Mohammed, showing Chinese-influenced clouds and angels; 1539-1543; opaque watercolor and ink on paper; height: 28.7 cm; British Library (London)

• İznik dish; 16th century; stonepaste, polychrome-painted under transparent glaze; height: 6 cm, diameter: 27.9 cm; Metropolitan Museum of Art

• Carpet; 17th century; cotton (warp and weft) and wool (pile), asymmetrically knotted pile; length: 247.65 cm, width: 142.87 cm; Metropolitan Museum of Art

Siberian-Eskimo[edit]

The art of the Eskimo people from Siberia is in the same style as the Inuit art from Alaska and north Canada. This is because the Native Americans traveled through Siberia to Alaska, and later to the rest of the Americas.^{[citation needed]}

Including the Russian Far East, the population of Siberia numbers just above 40 million people. As a result of the 17th-to-19th-century Russian conquest of Siberia and the subsequent population movements during the Soviet era, the demographics of Siberia today is dominated by native speakers of Russian. There remain a considerable number of indigenous groups, between them accounting for below 10% of total Siberian population, which are also genetically related to Indigenous Peoples of the Americas.

Americas[edit]

The history of art in the Americas begins in pre-Columbian times with Indigenous cultures. Art historians have focused particularly closely on Mesoamerica during this early era, because a series of stratified cultures arose there that erected grand architecture and produced objects of fine workmanship that are comparable to the arts of Western Europe.

Preclassic[edit]

The art-making tradition of Mesoamerican people begins with the Olmec around 1400 BCE, during the Preclassic era. These people are best known for making colossal heads but also carved jade, erected monumental architecture, made small-scale sculpture, and designed mosaic floors. Two of the most well-studied sites artistically are San Lorenzo Tenochtitlán and La Venta. After the Olmec culture declined, the Maya civilization became prominent in the region. Sometimes a transitional Epi-Olmec period is described, which is a hybrid of Olmec and Maya. A particularly well-studied Epi-Olmec site is La Mojarra, which includes hieroglyphic carvings that have been partially deciphered.

Classic[edit]

By the late pre-Classic era, beginning around 400 BCE, the Olmec culture had declined but both Central Mexican and Maya peoples were thriving. Throughout much of the Classic period in Central Mexico, the city of Teotihuacan was thriving, as were Xochicalco and El Tajin. These sites boasted grand sculpture and architecture. Other Central Mexican peoples included the Mixtecs, the Zapotecs, and people in the Valley of Oaxaca. Maya art was at its height during the “Classic” period—a name that mirrors that of Classical European antiquity—and which began around 200 CE. Major Maya sites from this era include Copan, where numerous stelae were carved, and Quirigua where the largest stelae of Mesoamerica are located along with zoomorphic altars. A complex writing system was developed, and Maya illuminated manuscripts were produced in large numbers on paper made from tree bark. Many sites ”collapsed” around 1000 CE.

Postclassic[edit]

At the time of the Spanish conquest of Yucatán during the 16th and 17th centuries, the Maya were still powerful, but many communities were paying tribute to Aztec society. The latter culture was thriving, and it included arts such as sculpture, painting, and feather mosaics. Perhaps the most well-known work of Aztec art is the calendar stone, which became a national symbol of the state of Mexico. During the Spanish conquest of the Aztec Empire, many of these artistic objects were sent to Europe, where they were placed in cabinets of curiosities, and later redistributed to Western art museums. The Aztec empire was based in the city of Tenochtitlan which was largely destroyed during the colonial era. What remains of it was buried beneath Mexico City. A few buildings, such as the foundation of the Templo Mayor have since been unearthed by archaeologists, but they are in poor condition.

Art in the Americas[edit]

Art in the Americas since the conquest is characterized by a mixture of indigenous and foreign traditions, including those of European, African, and Asian settlers. Numerous indigenous traditions thrived after the conquest. For example, the Plains Indians created quillwork, beadwork, winter counts, ledger art, and tipis in the pre-reservation era, and afterwards became assimilated into the world of Modern and Contemporary art through institutions such as the Santa Fe Indian School which encouraged students to develop a unique Native American style. Many paintings from that school, now called the Studio Style, were exhibited at the Philbrook Museum of Art during its Indian annual held from 1946 to 1979.

Aztec[edit]

Arising from the humblest beginnings as a nomadic group of 'uncivilizated' wanderers, the Aztecs created the largest empire in Mesoamerican history, lasting from 1427/1428 to 1521. Tribute from conquered states provided the economic and artistic resources to transform their capital Tenochtitlan (0ld Mexico City) into one of the wonders of the world. Artists from through mesoamerica creted stunning artworks for their new maters, fashioning delicate golden objects of personal adornment and formidable sculptures of firece gods.

The Aztecs entered the Valley of Mexico (the area of modern Mexico City) in 1325 and within a centry had taken control of this lush region brimming with powerful city-states. Their power was based on umbending faith in the vision of their patron deity Huitzilopochtli, a god of war, and in their own unparalleled military prowess.

The grandiosity of the Aztec state was reflected in the comportment of the nobility and warriors who had distinguished themselves in battle. Their finelty woven and richly embellished clothing was accentuated by iridescent tropical bird feathers amd ornate jewellery made of gold, silver, semi-precious stones and rare shells.

Aztec art may be direct and dramatic or subtle and delicate, depending on the function of the work. The finest pieces, from monumental sculptures to masks and gold jewellery, display outstanding craftsmanship and aesthetic refinement. This same sophistication characterizes Aztec poetry, which was renowned for its lyrical beauty and spiritual depth. Aztec feasts were not complete without a competitive exchange of verbal artistry among the finely dressed noble guests.

• Double-headed serpent; 1450–1521; cedro wood (Cedrela odorata), turquoise, shell, traces of gilding & 2 resins are used as adhesive (pine resin and Bursera resin); height: 20.3 cm, width: 43.3 cm, depth: 5.9 cm; British Museum (London)

• Page 12 of the Codex Borbonicus, (in the big square): Tezcatlipoca (night and fate) and Quetzalcoatl (feathered serpent); before 1500; bast fiber paper; height: 38 cm, length of the full manuscript: 142 cm; Bibliothèque de l'Assemblée nationale (Paris)

• Aztec calendar stone; 1502–1521; basalt; diameter: 358 cm ; thick: 98 cm; discovered on 17 December 1790 during repairs on the Mexico City Cathedral; National Museum of Anthropology (Mexico City)

• Tlāloc effigy vessel; 1440–1469; painted earthenware; height: 35 cm; Museo del Templo Mayor (Mexico City)

Mayan[edit]

Ancient Maya art refers to the material arts of the Maya civilization, an eastern and south-eastern Mesoamerican culture that took shape in the course of the later Preclassic Period (500 BCE to 200 CE). Its greatest artistic flowering occurred during the seven centuries of the Classic Period (c. 200 to 900 CE). Ancient Maya art then went through an extended Post-Classic phase before the upheavals of the sixteenth century destroyed courtly culture and put an end to the Mayan artistic tradition. Many regional styles existed, not always coinciding with the changing boundaries of Maya polities. Olmecs, Teotihuacan and Toltecs have all influenced Maya art. Traditional art forms have mainly survived in weaving and the design of peasant houses.

The jade artworks count among the most wonderful works of art the Maya have left us. The majority of items found date back to the Classic period, but more and more artefacts dating back to the Preclassic are being discovered. The earliest of these include simple, unadorned beads found in burials in Cuello (Belize) dating back to between 1200 and 900 BC. At the time, stone cutting was already highly developed among the Olmecs, who were already working jade before the Maya. In Mesoamerica, jade is found solely as jadeite; nephrite, the other variety known as jade, does not exist there. However, in this area of Mesoamerica 'jade' is a collective term for a number of other green or blue stones. Jade objects were placed in burials, used in rituals and, of course, as jewelry. As well as being used for beads, which were often strung together to make highly ornate pendants and necklaces, they were also used for ear spools, arm, calf and foot bands, belts, pectorals (chest jewelry), and to adorn garments and haddresses.

Ancient Maya art is renowned for its aesthetic beauty and narrative content. Of all the media in which Maya artists worked, their paintings on pottery are among the most impressive because of their technical and aesthetical sophistication. These complex pictoral scenes accompanied by hieroglyphic texts recount historic events of the Classic period and reveal the religious ideology upon which the Maya built a great civilization.

• Portrait of K'inich Janaab Pakal I; 615-683; stucco; height: 43 cm; National Museum of Anthropology (Mexico City)

• Jade plaque of a Maya king; 400-800 (Classic period); height: 14 cm, width: 14 cm; found at Teotihuacan; British Museum (London)

• Codex-style vase with a mythological scene; 7th–8th century; cdramic; height: 19 cm, diameter: 11.2 cm; Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York City)

• Relief showing Aj Chak Maax presenting captives before ruler Itzamnaaj B'alam III of Yaxchilan; 22 August 783; limestone with traces of pigment; height: 1.15 m; Kimbell Art Museum (Fort Worth, Texas, USA)

Costa Rica and Panama[edit]

Long considered a backwater of culture and aesthetic expression, Central America's dynamic societies are now recognized as robust and innovative contributors to the arts of ancient Americas. The people of pre-Columbian Nicaragua, Costa Rica and Panama developed their own distinctive styles in spite of the region being a crossroads for millennia. Its peoples were not subsumed by outside influences but instead created, adopted and adapted al manner of ideas and technologies to suit their needs and temperaments. The region's isiosyncratic cultural traditions, religious beliefs and sociopolitical systems are reflected in unique artworks. A fundamental spiritual tenet was shamanism, the central principle of which decreedthat in a trance state, transformed into one's spirit companion form, a person could enter the supranatural realm and garner special power to affect worldly affairs. Central American artists devised ingenious ways to portray this transformation by merging into one figure human and animal characteristics; the jaguar, serpent and avian raport (falcon, eagle or vulture) were the main spirit forms.

• Bird pendant; 1st–5th century; jadeite; height: 6.7 cm, width: 1.9 cm, depth: 4.7 cm; from Costa Rica; Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York City)

• Pectoral; 5th-10th century; gold alloy; overall: 25.1 x 26.7 cm; from Sitio Conte (Panama); Cleveland Museum of Art (Ohio, USA)

• Vessel shaped like a turtle's carapace; 11th-14th century; painted ceramic; overall: 22.9 x 29.2 cm; from Panama; Cleveland Museum of Art

• Pendant with 2 bat-head worriors who carry spears; 11th–16th century; gold; overall: 7.62 cm (3 in.); from the Chiriqui Province (Panama); Metropolitan Museum of Art

Colombia[edit]

Gold — the perpetually brilliant metal of status, wealth and power — inspired the Spanish to explore the globe and was an essential accoutrement of prestige, authority and religious ideology among the people of Central America and Colombia.

In Colombia, gold was important for its relationship to thedivine force of the sun. It was part of a complex ideology of universal binary oppositions: male-female, light-dark, the earth and spirit worlds. Gold body adornments were cast in complex forms, their iconography communicating social, political and spiritual potency through portrayals of powerful shaman-rulers, lineage totems and supranatural protector spirits.

• Yotoco animal-headed figure pendant; 1st–7th century; gold; height: 6.35 cm; Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York City)

• Quimbaya lime container; 5th–9th century; gold; height: 23 c; Metropolitan Museum of Art

• Muisca male figure (tunjo); 10th–mid-16th century; gold; height: 14.9 cm; Metropolitan Museum of Art

• Tairona pendant; 10th–16th century; gold; height: 14 cm; Metropolitan Museum of Art

Andean regions[edit]

The ancient civilizations of Peru and Bolivia nurtured unique artistic traditions, including one of the world's most aesthetically impressive fibre art traditions, seen on artifacts from clothing to burial shrouds to architectural embellishment. The origins of Andean civilization reach back before 3000 BC. Harnessing the challenging environments – which included the world's driest coastal desert, desolate windswept highlands and formidable mountains – Andean pre-Columbian people excelled in agriculture, marine fishing and animal husbandry. By 1800 BC ritual and civic buildings elevated on massive adobe platforms dominated the larger settlements, particularly in the coastal river valleys. Two of the first important cultures from this land are the Chavín and the Paracas culture.

The Moche controlled the river valleys of the north coast, while the Nazca of southern Peru held sway along the coastal deserts and contiguous mountains, inheriting the technological advances – in agriculture and architecture – as well as the artistic traditions of the earlier Paracas people. Both cultures flourished around 100–800 AD. Moche pottery is some of the most varied in the world. The use of mold technology is evident. This would have enabled the mass production of certain forms. The Following the decline of the Moche, two large co-existing empires emerged in the Andes region. In the north, the Wari (or Huari) Empire. The Wari are noted for their stone architecture and sculpture accomplishments, but their greatest proficiency was ceramic. The Wari produced magnificent large ceramics, many of which depicted images of the Staff God.

The Chimú were preceded by a simple ceramic style known as Sicán (700–900 AD) which became increasingly decorative until it became recognizable as Chimú in the early second millennium. The Chimú produced excellent portrait and decorative works in metal, notably gold but especially silver. The Chimú also are noted for their featherwork, having produced many standards and headdresses made of a variety of tropical feathers which were fashioned into bired and fish designs, both of which were held in high esteem by the Chimú.

• The Raimondi Stela; by Chavín culture; 5th-3rd century BCE; granite; height: 1.95 (6 ft. 6 in.); Museo Nacional de Arqueología, Antropología e Historia del Perú (Lima, Peru)

• 1953 aerial photograph by Maria Reiche, one of the first archaeologists to study the Nazca lines. In this photo appears the line named 'The monkey'

• Ceremonial mantle with representations of supernatural beings; by Paracas culture; 100 BC-100 AD; embroidered plain cotton weave; height: 12.8 cm, width: 12.9 cm; Lima Art Museum (Lima, Peru)

• Moche portrait vessel of a ruler; by Moche culture; 100 BC-500 AD; ceramic & pigment; Art Institute of Chicago (USA)

• Anthropomorphic figure; from the Wari empire; 7th-10th century; burned clay; from Mantaro Valley; Museum Rietberg (Zürich, Switzerland)

• Funerary mask; by Sican culture; 900-1100; gold, silver and cinnabar; height: 29.2, width: 49.5 cm; Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York City)

• Ceremonial knife (tumi); by Sican culture; 10th–13th century; gold, turquoise, greenstone & shell; height: 33 cm (1 ft. 1 in.); Metropolitan Museum of Art

• Figurines of a man and a llama; from the Inca empire; 1400–1532; gold; Cleveland Museum of Art (Ohio, USA)

Amazonia and the Caraibbes[edit]

The tropical climate of the Caraibbean islands and the Amazonian rainforest is not favorable to the preservation of artefacts made from wood and other materials. What survived reveals complex societies whose people created art rich in mythological and spiritual meaning.

The Taino people, who occupied the Caraibbean islands when the Spanish arrived, were agriculturalists whose society was centred on hereditary chiefs called caciques. Their towns included impressively constructed ceremonial plazas in which ball games were played and religious rituals carried on, linking their culture to that of the Maya from the Yucatán Peninsula. Much of Taino art was associated with shamanic rituals and religion, including a ritual in which a shaman or a cacique enters into a hypnotic state by inhaling the hallucinogetic cohoba powder. Sculptures representing the creator god Yocahu often depict a nude male figure in a squatting position with a slightly concave dish on top of his head, to hold the cohoba powder. Other figures (always male) stand rigidly frontal, the ostentatious display of their genitals apparently to the importance of fertility. The purpose of these rituals was communication with the ancestors and the spirit world. Chiefs and shamans (often the same person) sometimes interceded with spirit beings from a sculpted stool, or duho.

Meanwhile, the Marajoara culture flourished on Marajó island at the mouth of the Amazon River, in Brazil. Archeologists have found sophisticated pottery in their excavations on the island. These pieces are large, and elaborately painted and incised with representations of plants and animals. These provided the first evidence that a complex society had existed on Marajó. Evidence of mound building further suggests that well-populated, complex and sophisticated settlements developed on this island, as only such settlements were believed capable of such extended projects as major earthworks.^[57] The pottery that they made is decorated with abastract lines and spirals, suggesting that they probably consumed hallucinogetic plants. The Marajoara culture produced many kinds of vessels including urns, jars, bottles, cups, bowls, plates and dishes.

• Spatula; 10th-15th century; manatee bone; overall: 19.1 x 3.2 x 11 cm; Cleveland Museum of Art (Ohio, USA)

• Taino deity figure (Zemi); 15th–16th century CE; wood & shell; probably from the Dominican Republic; Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York City)

• Marajoara cylindrical vessel; 400–1000 CE; ceramic with creamy white slip under reddish brown paint; height: 38.5 cm; from the Marajó island (Brazil)

• Large funerary vessel; 400-1400; ceramic with creamy white slip under reddish brown paint; height: 89 cm; from the Marajó island

United States and Canada[edit]

The most famous native American art style from the United States and Canada is the one of the Northwest Coast, famous for their totems and color combinations.

The art of the Haida, Tlingit, Heiltsuk, Tsimshian and other smaller tribes living in the coastal areas of Washington State, Oregon, and British Columbia, is characterized by an extremely complex stylistic vocabulary expressed mainly in the medium of woodcarving. Famous examples include totem poles, transformation masks, and canoes. In addition to woodwork, two dimensional painting and silver, gold and copper engraved jewelry became important after contact with Europeans.

The Eastern Woodlands, or simply woodlands, cultures inhabited the regions of North America east of the Mississippi River at least since 2500 BCE. While there were many regionally distinct cultures, trade between them was common and they shared the practice of burying their dead in earthen mounds, which has preserved a large amount of their art. Because of this trait the cultures are collectively known as the Mound builders.

• Mogollon bowl with a geometric design and a pronghorn antelope; 1000-1150; earthenware; diameter: 31.2 cm, overall: 12.5 x 32 cm; Cleveland Museum of Art (Ohio, USA)

• Kwakwaka'wakw whale figure; 19th century; cedar wood, hide, cotton cord, nails & pigment; 60 x 72.4 x 206 cm; Brooklyn Museum (New York City)

• Kwakwaka'wakw totem in Ottawa (Canada)

• Hopi vassel; 19th century; ceramic with pigments; from Arizona; Iris & B. Gerald Cantor Center for Visual Arts (California)

Inuit[edit]

Inuit art refers to artwork produced by Inuit people, that is, the people of the Arctic previously known as Eskimos, a term that is now often considered offensive outside Alaska. Historically, their preferred medium was walrus ivory, but since the establishment of southern markets for Inuit art in 1945, prints and figurative works carved in relatively soft stone such as soapstone, serpentinite, or argillite have also become popular. The range of colors is cold, most encountered being: black, brown, grays, white and gray-blue.

The Winnipeg Art Gallery has a large public collection of contemporary Inuit art.^[58] In 2007, the Museum of Inuit Art opened in Toronto,^[59] but closed due to lack of resources in 2016.^[60] Carvings Nunavut, owned by Inuk Lori Idlout, opened in 2008 and has grown to have the largest private collection in Nunavut. The Inuit owned and operated gallery includes a wide selection of Inuit made art that has millions in inventory.^[61]

• Old Bering Sea head; 2nd–4th century; ivory (walrus); height: 6.35 cm (2​¹⁄₂ in.); Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York City)

• Punuk knife handle; 11th–12th century; walrus ivory; height: 3.8 cm, width: 14 cm; Metropolitan Museum of Art

• Yupik mask with seal or sea otter spirit; late 19th century; wood, paint, gut cord, & feathers; Dallas Museum of Art (Texas, USA)

• Yupik boat mask of a shaman; 1883; Ethnological Museum of Berlin (Germany)

Asian art[edit]

Eastern civilization broadly includes Asia, and it also includes a complex tradition of art making. One approach to Eastern art history divides the field by nation, with foci on Indian art, Chinese art, and Japanese art. Due to the size of the continent, the distinction between Eastern Asia and Southern Asia in the context of arts can be clearly seen. In most of Asia, pottery was a prevalent form of art. The pottery is often decorated with geometric patterns or abstract representations of animals, people or plants. Other very widespread forms of art were, and are, sculpture and painting.

Central Asia[edit]

Superb samples of Steppes art – mostly golden jewellery and trappings for horse – are found over vast expanses of land stretching from Hungary to Mongolia. Dating from the period between the 7th and 3rd centuries BCE, the objects are usually diminutive, as may be expected from nomadic people always on the move. Art of the steppes is primarily an animal art, i.e., combat scenes involving several animals (real or imaginary) or single animal figures (such as golden stags) predominate. The best known of the various peoples involved are the Scythians, at the European end of the steppe, who were especially likely to bury gold items.

Among the most famous finds was made in 1947, when the Soviet archaeologist Sergei Rudenko discovered a royal burial at Pazyryk, Altay Mountains, which featured – among many other important objects – the most ancient extant pile rug, probably made in Persia. Unusually for prehistoric burials, those in the northern parts of the area may preserve organic materials such as wood and textiles that normally would decay. Steppes people both gave and took influences from neighbouring cultures from Europe to China, and later Scythian pieces are heavily influenced by ancient Greek style, and probably often made by Greeks in Scythia.

• Final (kulan); 6th-5th century BCE; bronze; 14.5 x 9 cm; Los Angeles County Museum of Art (USA)

• Scythian dress ornaments; 5th century BCE; gold; height: 2.54 cm; Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York City)

• Warrior statue; 8th-10th century; from the Kosh-Agach region (Altai); Hermitage (Sankt Petersburg, Russia)

• Suzani (ceremonial hanging); late 1700s; cotton; 92 x 63; from Uzbekistan; Indianapolis Museum of Art (USA)

Indian[edit]

Early Buddhists in India developed symbols related to Buddha. Bhutanese painted 'thangkas' that shows Buddhist iconography. The major survivals of Buddhist art begin in the period after the Mauryans, from which good quantities of sculpture survives from some key sites such as Sanchi, Bharhut and Amaravati, some of which remain in situ, with others in museums in India or around the world. Stupas were surrounded by ceremonial fences with four profusely carved toranas or ornamental gateways facing the cardinal directions. These are in stone, though clearly adopting forms developed in wood. They and the walls of the stupa itself can be heavily decorated with reliefs, mostly illustrating the lives of the Buddha. Gradually life-size figures were sculpted, initially in deep relief, but then free-standing.^[62]Mathura was the most important centre in this development, which applied to Hindu and Jain art as well as Buddhist.^[63] The facades and interiors of rock-cut chaitya prayer halls and monastic viharas have survived better than similar free-standing structures elsewhere, which were for long mostly in wood. The caves at Ajanta, Karle, Bhaja and elsewhere contain early sculpture, often outnumbered by later works such as iconic figures of the Buddha and bodhisattvas, which are not found before 100 CE at the least.

• Seated Buddha; circa 475; sandstone; height: 1.6 m; Sarnath Museum (India)

• Nataraja; circa 11th century; copper alloy; height: 68.3 cm, diameter: 56.5 cm; Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York City)

• Statue of Ganesh; 11th century; sandstone Rietberg Museum (Zürich, Switzerland)

• Portrait of Shah Jahan on the Peacock Throne; 19th century; height of the page: 37.2 cm, height of the painting: 16.5 cm; Metropolitan Museum of Art

Nepalese, Bhutanese, and Tibetan[edit]

For more than a thousand years, Tibetan artists have played a key role in the cultural life of Tibet. From designs for painted furniture to elaborate murals in religious buildings, their efforts have permeated virtually every facet of life on the Tibetan plateau. The vast majority of surviving artworks created before the mid-20th century are dedicated to the depiction of religious subjects, with the main forms being thangka, distemper paintings on cloth, Tibetan Buddhist wall paintings, and small statues in bronze, or large ones in clay, stucco or wood. They were commissioned by religious establishments or by pious individuals for use within the practice of Tibetan Buddhism and were manufactured in large workshops by monks and lay artists, who are mostly unknown.

The art of Tibet may be studied in terms of influences which have contributed to it over the centuries, from other Chinese, Nepalese, Indian, and sacred styles. Many bronzes in Tibet that suggest Pala influence, are thought to have been either crafted by Indian sculptors or brought from India.^[64]

Bhutanese art is similar to the art of Tibet. Both are based upon Vajrayana Buddhism, with its pantheon of divine beings. The major orders of Buddhism in Bhutan are Drukpa Kagyu and Nyingma. The former is a branch of the Kagyu School and is known for paintings documenting the lineage of Buddhist masters and the 70 Je Khenpo (leaders of the Bhutanese monastic establishment). The Nyingma order is known for images of Padmasambhava, who is credited with introducing Buddhism into Bhutan in the 7th century. According to legend, Padmasambhava hid sacred treasures for future Buddhist masters, especially Pema Lingpa, to find. The treasure finders (tertön) are also frequent subjects of Nyingma art.

• Figurine; 14th–15th century; gilt-copper alloy; height: 13.5 cm, width: 9.8 cm; Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York City)

• Altar; 1700-1899; metal, stones and filigree; length: 130.7 cm; British Museum (London)

• Travelling shrine; 17th–18th century; copper and silver, partly gilded; Rietberg Museum (Zürich, Switzerland)

• Painted medicine Buddha mandala with goddess Prajnaparamita in center; 19th century; Rubin Museum of Art (New York City)

Chinese[edit]

In Eastern Asia, painting was derived from the practice of calligraphy, and portraits and landscapes were painted on silk cloth. Most of the paintings represent landscapes or portraits. The most spectacular sculptures are the ritual bronzes and the bronze sculptures from Sanxingdui. A very well-known example of Chinese art is the Terracotta Army, depicting the armies of Qin Shi Huang, the first Emperor of China. It is a form of funerary art buried with the emperor in 210–209 BCE whose purpose was to protect the emperor in his afterlife.

Chinese art is one of the oldest continuous traditional arts in the world, and is marked by an unusual degree of continuity within, and consciousness of, that tradition, lacking an equivalent to the Western collapse and gradual recovery of classical styles. The media that have usually been classified in the West since the Renaissance as the decorative arts are extremely important in Chinese art, and much of the finest work was produced in large workshops or factories by essentially unknown artists, especially in Chinese ceramics. The range and quality of goods that decorated Chinese palaces and households, and their inhabitants, is dazzling. Materials came from across China and far beyond: gold and silver, mother of pearl, ivory and rhinoceros horn, wood and lacquer, jade and soap stone, silk and paper.

• Changxin Palace lamp; circa 172 BC; bronze and gold; height: 48 cm; Hebei Provincial Museum (China)

• Votive stele with Buddha Shakyamuni; dated 542 (Eastern Wei Dynasty); limestone; Museum Rietberg (Zürich, Switzerland)

• Statuettes of dancers; 8th century (Tang Empire); ceramic; Historical Museum of Bern (Switzerland)

• Covered box with pavilion and figures; 1300s (the Yuan dynasty); carved lacquer; Tokyo National Museum (Tokyo)

• The David Vases; 1351 (the Yuan dynasty); porcelain, cobalt blue decor under glaze; height: 63.8 cm; British Museum (London)

• Two flasks with dragons; 1403-1424; underglaze blue porcelain; height (the left one): 47.8 cm, height (the right one): 44.6 cm; British Museum

• Pilgrim flask decorated with peaches and pomegrenates, made with the cloisonné technique; 1st half of the 17th century (the Ming Dynasty); Museum Rietberg

• Peaceful Start for the New Year; by Ding Guanpeng; 1748; ink and color on paper; height: 179.3 cm; National Palace Museum (Taipei, Taiwan)

Japanese[edit]

Japanese art 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—modern Japanese cartooning and comics—along with a myriad of other types.

The first settlers of Japan, the Jōmon people (c. 11,000–300 BCE). They crafted lavishly decorated pottery storage vessels, clay figurines called dogū. Japan has been subject to sudden invasions of new ideas followed by long periods of minimal contact with the outside world. Over time the Japanese developed the ability to absorb, imitate, and finally assimilate those elements of foreign culture that complemented their aesthetic preferences. The earliest complex art in Japan was produced in the 7th and 8th centuries in connection with Buddhism. In the 9th century, as the Japanese began to turn away from China and develop indigenous forms of expression, the secular arts became increasingly important; until the late 15th century, both religious and secular arts flourished. After the Ōnin War (1467–1477), Japan entered a period of political, social, and economic disruption that lasted for over a century. In the state that emerged under the leadership of the Tokugawa shogunate, organized religion played a much less important role in people's lives, and the arts that survived were primarily secular.

• Fudo Myoo (Acala), king of mystical knowledge; late 12th century (Fujiwara period); cypress wood with remains of colored frame; Museum Rietberg (Zürich, Switzerland)

• Kakiemon octagonal bottle with long neck, decorated with flowering trees; 1675–1725; glazed porcelain; Rijksmuseum (Amsterdam, the Netherlands)

• Three Beauties of the Present Day; by Kitagawa Utamaro; circa 1793; height: 3.87 cm (15.23 in), width: 2.62 cm (10.31 in); Toledo Museum of Art (Toledo, Ohio, USA)

• Inrō; 19th century; wood, lacquer and gold; Historical Museum of Bern (Switzerland)

Korean[edit]

Korean arts include traditions in calligraphy, music, painting and pottery, often marked by the use of natural forms, surface decoration and bold colors or sounds.

The earliest examples of Korean art consist of stone age works dating from 3000 BCE. These mainly consist of votive sculptures and more recently, petroglyphs, which were rediscovered.

This early period was followed by the art styles of various Korean kingdoms and dynasties. Korean artists sometimes modified Chinese traditions with a native preference for simple elegance, spontaneity, and an appreciation for purity of nature.

The Goryeo Dynasty (918–1392) was one of the most prolific periods for a wide range of disciplines, especially pottery.

The Korean art market is concentrated in the Insadong district of Seoul where over 50 small galleries exhibit and occasional fine arts auctions. Galleries are cooperatively run, small and often with curated and finely designed exhibits. In every town there are smaller regional galleries, with local artists showing in traditional and contemporary media. Art galleries usually have a mix of media. Attempts at bringing Western conceptual art into the foreground have usually had their best success outside of Korea in New York, San Francisco, London and Paris.

• Statue of Maitreya in meditation; 6th-7th century; gilt bronze; height: 83.2 cm; National Museum of Korea (Seoul)

• Melon-shaped vase; 1100s; celadon; 25.2 cm; Cleveland Museum of Art (Ohio, USA)

• Water-moon Kwanseumǔm; early 14th century; hanging scroll, ink and colours on silk; 1.14 x 0.55 m; Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York City)

• Jar; 15th century; painted and glazed porcelain; height: 24.5 cm; National Museum of Korea

South-east Asian[edit]

The arts of South-east Asia, a region stretching from Burma (aka Myanmar) and the Indonesian island of Sumatra in the west to Papua New Guinea and the Philippines in the east, is extraordinarily rich and varied, owing much to the cultural influences from India that came with the introduction of Hinduism and Buddhism in the early centuries AD. Here live populations of widely diverse ethnic origins, speaking hundreds of different languages and existing at different stages of cultural evolution. With only a few exceptions, these peoples have been subjected in the course of their long histories to outside cultural influences of varying intensity from the Islamic world, China and the West, as well as from India. Much of South-east Asian art is religious in nature. The penetration of Hindu and Buddhist influences from India has been especially profound in the mainland countries of Burma, Thailand, Cambodia and Laos. Chinese influences has been more limited, except Vietnam, which was under Chinese hegemony from the 2nd century BC to the tenth century AD.

Early South-east Asian rulers built state temples to establish their legitimacy and give material expression to their power and authority. These were often decorated with relief sculptures of great vitality and originality, which nevertheless always conformed to established iconographic conventions for the depiction of Hindu and Buddhist themes.

South-east Asian artists have long excelled at fresco painting and painting on lacquer, particularly in the Buddhist countries of the mainland and in Hindu Bali. Frescoes and generally painted on the inner walls of the galleries surrounding temple enclosures, while painted lacquer is mainly applied to wooden objects: panels, cabinets, chests, doors and shutters. The subject matter of both forms of painting in generally confined to depictions of Hindu deities; stories from the Hindu epics, the Ramayana and the Mahabharata; episodes from the life of the historical Buddha and tales of his previous lives (jatakas); and other Hindu and Buddhist themes.

• Figurine; from Java (Indonesia); 9th century; bronze; height: 11.4 cm; Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York City)

• Seated deity; late 9th; sandstone; from Champa (Quang Nam Province, Temple Complex of Dong-du'o'ng); Rietberg Museum (Zürich, Switzerland)

• Ring; from Java; second half of the 9th–first quarter of the 10th century; gold; height: 0.3 cm, diameter: 2.7 cm; Metropolitan Museum of Art

• Tollitama pediment; from Cambodia; 976; pink sandstone; 196 x 269 cm; Musée Guimet (Paris)

• A page of the Phra Malai Manuscript; opaque watercolor and ink on paper; covers: gilded and lacquered paper; c. 1860–1880; 13.97 x 68.26 x 6.35 cm; Los Angeles County Museum of Art (USA)

• Kain sarong prada (ceremonial skirt cloth); from Indramaya (Java, Indonesia); late 19th century; cotton, gold leaf, plain weave, batik (resist dyed); Honolulu Museum of Art (Hawaii, USA)

• Mask of Prabu Dewakusuma, prince of Jenggala; circa 1890; painted wood; from eastern Java; Museum Rietberg

• Five wayang puppets from Eastern Java: Kumbakarna, Batara guru, Rama, Anoman and Raguwati; in Bern Historical Museum (Switzerland)

Africa[edit]

African art includes both sculpture, typified by the brass castings of the Benin people, as well as folk art. Concurrent with the European Middle Ages, in the eleventh century CE a nation that made grand architecture, gold sculpture, and intricate jewelry was founded in Great Zimbabwe. Impressive sculpture was concurrently being cast from brass by the Yoruba people of what is now Nigeria. Such a culture grew and was ultimately transformed to become the Benin Kingdom, where elegant altar tusks, brass heads, plaques of brass, and palatial architecture was created. The Benin Kingdom was ended by the British in 1897, and little of the culture's art now remains in Nigeria. Today, the most significant arts venue in Africa is the Johannesburg Biennale.

Sub-Saharan Africa is characterized by a high density of cultures. Notable are the, Dogon people from Mali; Edo, Yoruba, Igbo people and the Nok civilization from Nigeria; Kuba and Luba people from Central Africa; Ashanti people from Ghana; Zulu people from Southern Africa; and Fang people from Equatorial Guinea (85%), Cameroon and Gabon; the Sao civilization people from Chad; Kwele people from eastern Gabon, Republic of the Congo and Cameroon.

The myriad forms of African art are components of some of the most vibrant and responsive artistic traditions in the world and are integral to the lives of African people. Created for specific purposes, artworks can reveal their ongoing importance through physical transformations that enhance both their appearance and their potency. Many traditional African art forms are created as conduits to the spirit world and change appearance as materials are added to enhance their beauty and potency. The more a work is used and blessed, the more abstract it becomes with the accretion of sacrificial matter and the wearing down of original details.

• Seated figure; by Nok culture; 5th century BC-5th century AD; terracotta; height: 38 cm; Musée du quai Branly (Paris)

• Plaque with warriors and attendants; from the Kingdom of Benin; 16th–17th century; brass; height: 47.6 cm; Metropolitan Museum of Art

• Prestige chair; by Babanki people; circa 1800; wood: overall: 80.7 x 53.3 x 44.5 cm; Cleveland Museum of Art (Ohio, USA)

• Headrest; by Luba people; 19th century; wood; height: 18.5 cm (7.2 in), width: 19 cm (7.4 in), thickness: 8 cm (3.1 in); Musée du quai Branly

• Mask; by Fang people; circa 1895; wood coloured with kaolin; height: 78 cm; Ethnological Museum of Berlin (Germany)

• Mask; by Kwele people; early 20th century; painted wood; height: 63 cm; Muséum d'Histoire naturelle de La Rochelle (La Rochelle, France)

• Mask; by Yaka people; early 20th century; wood, raffia & color pigments; Museum Rietberg (Zürich, Switzerland)

• Buffalo mask; possibly by Bwa people; early-mid 1900s; fibres and painted wood; Cleveland Museum of Art

Oceania[edit]

The Art of Oceania includes the geographic areas of Micronesia, Polynesia, Australia, New Zealand, and Melanesia. One approach treats the area thematically, with foci on ancestry, warfare, the body, gender, trade, religion, and tourism. Unfortunately, little ancient art survives from Oceania. Scholars believe that this is likely because artists used perishable materials, such as wood and feathers, which did not survive in the tropical climate, and there are no historical records to refer to most of this material. The understanding of Oceania's artistic cultures thus begins with the documentation of it by Westerners, such as Captain James Cook, in the eighteenth century. At the turn of the twentieth century the French artist Paul Gauguin spent significant amounts of time in Tahiti, living with local people and making modern art—a fact that has become intertwined with Tahitian visual culture to the present day.^{[citation needed]} The indigenous art of Australia often looks like abstract modern art, but it has deep roots in local culture.

The art of Oceania is the last great tradition of art to be appreciated by the world at large. Despite being one of the longest continuous traditions of art in the world, dating back at leasf fifty millennia, it remained relatively unknown until the second half of the 20th century.

The often ephemeral materials of Aboriginal art of Australia makes it difficult to determine the antiquity of the majority of the forms of art practised today. The most durable forms are the multitudes of rock engravings and rock paintings which are found across the continent. In the Arnhem Land escarpment, evidence suggests that paintings were being made fifty thousand years ago, antedating the Palaeolithic rock paintings of Altamira & Lascaux in Europe.

• Head; 9th–11th century; vesicular basalt; height: 19.7 cm, width: 15.5 cm; from Hawaii; Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York City)

• Moais at Rano Raraku (the Easter Island). The Moais are monolithic human figures carved by the Rapa Nui people on Easter Island between the years 1250 and 1500^[65][66]

• Māori part of treasure chests; circa 1850; from the New Zealand; Musée du quai Branly (Paris)

• Uli figure; c. 19th century; painted wood, cowrie snail, cap of the turbo-snail and bast fibers; from New Ireland Province (Papua New Guinea); Rietberg Museum (Zürich, Switzerland)

• Monkey mask; Papua New Guinea, Lavongai Island (New Hanover)circa 19th; wood, rotan, bark rind, banana fibers, lime, hematite and blue pigments; from Lavongai Island (Papua New Guinea); Museum Rietberg

• Battle shield; 19th-early 20th centuries; wood, grass and raffia; from Kambrambo (Lower Sepik Region, Papua New Guinea); Museum Rietberg

• Masi (barkcloth); 20th century; from Fiji; Honolulu Museum of Art (Hawaii, USA)

• Painting of a kangaroo totemic ancestor; 1915; painting on bark; 92.5 × 35.5 × 5.5 cm; Alligator Rivers (Arnhem Land, Noni, Australia); Musée du quai Branly (Paris)

Modern and contemporary[edit]

Origins[edit]

Art historians disagree when Modern art began, some tracing it as far back as Francisco Goya in the Napoleonic period, the mid-19th century with the industrial revolution or the late 19th century with the advent of Impressionism. The French Revolution of 1789 gave rise to further revolutions in thought. In the arts, these included a new self-consciousness about artistic styles and individuality.^[67] Art historian H. Harvard Arnason says 'a gradual metamorphosis took place in the course of a hundred years', marked by significant events such as the completion in 1784 of Jacques-Louis David's painting The Oath of the Horatii; the exhibition of Gustave Courbet's painting The Artist's Studio in 1855; and the exhibition of Édouard Manet's painting Le déjeuner sur l'herbe in the Salon des Refusés in Paris in 1863.^[68]

19th century[edit]

The story of the 19th century art is one of profound eclecticism, characterized by change, contradiction and immensely varied influences and responses. During the 19th century, the Romantic tendency of early modern artists such as Turner and Delacroix was succeeded by newer art movements: Arts and Crafts, Art Nouveau, Realism, Impressionism, post-Impressionism, Symbolism, and other movements. Western artists were influenced by Eastern decorative arts, especially Japanese prints.

Impressionism is characterized by relatively small, thin, yet visible brush strokes, open composition, emphasis on accurate depiction of light in its changing qualities (often accentuating the effects of the passage of time), ordinary subject matter, inclusion of movement as a crucial element of human perception and experience, and unusual visual angles. Impressionism originated with a group of Paris-based artists whose independent exhibitions brought them to prominence during the 1870s and 1880s. The Impressionists sought to convey movement, spontaneity, and transient effects of light in their work. Their style was adopted by artists in many countries, alongside national movements such as the Hudson River School and the Ashcan School in the US. Radicals in their time, early Impressionists violated the rules of academic painting. They constructed their pictures from freely brushed colours that took precedence over lines and contours, following the example of painters such as Eugène Delacroix and J. M. W. Turner. They also painted realistic scenes of modern life, and often painted outdoors.

The Arts and Crafts movement promoted traditional craftsmanship, the use of locally available materials, and integrity in the way in which things were made. It began in the late-19th century Britain, when writers such as John Ruskin and William Morris rejected mass-production and the often poor quality, machine-made items that were found in many homes and shops. Morris, in particular, believed in the importance of the individual craftsman, and advocated a return to hand craftsman, which, he argued, would not only produce better furniture, pottery, textiles, and other items, but would also help people to lead better, more fulfilling lives. Mass-production, he maintained, was responsible for a decline in values. Many Arts and Crafts designers drew upon the influence of medieval craftsmanship, and their objects and interiors exploited the distinctive qualities of natural materials, from beautifully finished oak to hand-woven tapestries. Others, however, looked further afield for inspiration, incorporating vivid colours inspired by Islamic art, or ancient Egyptian motifs in their work. Knots, swirls, Celtic crosses, and entrelac (interlanced designs) inspired by ancient Celtic art featured in the work of many Arts and Craftsdesigners, notably Archibald Knox, especially on metalwork.

• The Red Square in Moscow; by Fyodor Alekseyev; 1801; oil on canvas; height: 81.3 cm, width: 110.5 cm; Tretyakov Gallery (Moscow)

• Hebe; by Antonio Canova; 1800-1805; marble; height: 158 cm; Hermitage Museum (Saint Petersburg, Russia)

• Liberty Leading the People; by Eugène Delacroix; 1830; oil on canvas; height: 260 cm, width: 325 cm; Louvre

• The Great Wave off Kanagawa; by Katsushika Hokusai; circa 1830–1832; full-colour woodblock print; Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York City)

• The Ballet Class; by Edgar Degas; 1871-1874; oil on canvas; 85 x 75 cm; Musée d'Orsay (Paris)

• Paris Street; Rainy Day; by Gustave Caillebotte; 1877; oil on canvas; 2.12 x 2.76 m; Art Institute of Chicago (USA)

• Dance at Le moulin de la Galette, by Pierre-Auguste Renoir; 1876; oil on canvas; height: 131 cm; Musée d'Orsay

• Elegant Art and Craft wardrobe; by Benn Pitman; 1884; Cincinnati Art Museum (USA)

• In stand by; by Nicolae Grigorescu; circa 1888-1893; 135.5 x 65 cm; National Museum of Art of Romania (Bucharest)

• The Starry Night; by Vincent van Gogh; 1889; oil on canvas; height: 73.7 cm; Museum of Modern Art (New York City)

• Frontal view of the Central University Library of Bucharest (Romania), by Paul Gottereau, built between 1891 and 1894

• Lilies of the Valley, a Fabergé egg; by Peter Carl Fabergé; 1898; enamel, gold, diamonds, rubies & pearls; 15.1 cm (5.9 in) when is closed; Fabergé Museum (Saint Petersburg, Russia)

Early 20th century[edit]

The history of 20th-century art is a narrative of endless possibilities and the search for new standards, each being torn down in succession by the next. The art movements of Fauvism, Expressionism, Cubism, abstract art, Dadaism and Surrealism led to further explorations of new creative styles and manners of expression. Increasing global interaction during this time saw an equivalent influence of other cultures into Western art, such as Pablo Picasso being influenced by Iberian sculpture, African sculpture and Primitivism. Japonism, and Japanese woodcuts (which had themselves been influenced by Western Renaissance draftsmanship) had an immense influence on Impressionism and subsequent artistic developments. The influential example set by Paul Gauguin's interest in Oceanic art and the sudden popularity among the cognoscenti in early 20th century Paris of newly discovered African fetish sculptures and other works from non-European cultures were taken up by Picasso, Henri Matisse, and many of their colleagues. Later in the 20th century, Pop Art and Abstract Expressionism came to prominence.

Many styles appeared in this period, including Art Nouveau, which developed between 1890 and 1915. It is a polemic reaction to academic art of the 19th century, inspired by natural forms and structures, particularly the curved lines of plants and flowers. From the stylistic features of Art Nouveau developed Art Deco, which rejects the sinuous, elegant and naturalistic lines for a more geometric style.

When a group of painters including Henri Matisse, Maurice de Vlaminck, André Derain and Kees van Dongen showed their work at the 1905 Autumn Salon in Paris, in a room that also displayed Italianate sculptures by Albert Marque, a critic joked that he had found `Donatello chez les fauves’ (Donatello at home with the wild beasts). The spontaneous brushwork and strident, unnaturalistic colours of these `wild beasts’, the Fauves, heralded the first avant-garde movement to break with Impressionism. The Fauves often painted the same subjects as those explored by the Impressionists and the Post-Impressionists, but their imprecise brushstrokes were broader, their forms simpler, though often more defined, their palettes brighter and less naturalistic, with clashing colours.

Cubism consisted in the rejection of perspective, which leads to a new organisation of space where viewpoints multiply producing a fragmentation of the object that renders the predilection for form over the content of the representation obvious. Pablo Picasso, Georges Braque and other Cubist artists were inspired by the sculptures of Iberia, Africa and Oceania exhibited in the Louvre and the ethnographic museum in the Trocadéro, and which were being offered at flee markets and in sale rooms.

The inception of Surrealism goes back to the Surrealist Manifesto written by Andre Breton in Paris in 1924. It establishes itself as a new attitude towards life which, starting from Sigmund Freud's theories, re-evaluates the unconscious, dreams and the imagination. Chance is the principal regulator of life and art, beyond reason and logic. According to the Surrealists, in focusing on the visible, tangible world, human civilization had blocked out a world of superior (`sur’) realities that could be found through dreams, which they termed `the marvellous’. Salvador Dalí, René Magritte and Max Ernst are among the most famous representatives of this movement.

• Afternoon dress; 1900-1903; silk, linen and rhinestones; Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York City)

• Hair ornament; by René Lalique; circa 1902; gold, emeralds and diamonds; Musée d'Orsay (Paris)

• Art Nouveau dining room, 1903-1906, by Eugène Vallin, in Musée de l'École de Nancy (France)

• Lamp; 1904-1915; leaded favrile Tiffany glass with bronze; diameter of the base: 37.1 cm; Metropolitan Museum of Art

• Woman with a Hat; by Henri Matisse; 1905; oil on canvas; 80.56 x 59.69 cm; San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (USA)

• The Assan house from Bucharest (Romania), by Ion D. Berindey and built in the French Neoclassical between 1906 and 1914

• Les Demoiselles d'Avignon; by Pablo Picasso; 1907; oil on canvas; 244 x 234 cm; Museum of Modern Art (New York City)

• The Kiss; by Constantin Brâncuși; 1907; stone; height: 28 cm; Craiova Art Museum (Romania)

• The Dream; by Henri Rousseau; 1910; oil on canvas; 204.5 x 298.5 cm; Museum of Modern Art (New York City)

• Photo of the interior of the apartment of Eugène Atget, taken in 1910

• Self-portrait; by Boris Kustodiev; 1912; tempera; 100 x 85 cm; Uffizi Gallery (Florence, Italy)

• Female head; by Amedeo Modigliani; 1912; limestone; height: 68.3 cm, width: 15.9 cm, depth: 24.1 cm; Metropolitan Museum of Art

• The Violinist; by Marc Chagall; 1912-1913; oil on checked tablecloth; 1.88 x 1.58 m; Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam (The Netherlands)

• Street, Berlin; by Ernst Ludwig Kirchner; 1913; oil on canvas; 1.21 x 0.91 m; Museum of Modern Art (New York City)

• Unique Forms of Continuity in Space; by Umberto Boccioni; 1913; bronze; height: 1.09 m; Museum of Modern Art (New York City)

• On White II; by Wassily Kandinsky; 1923; oil on canvas; 105 × 98 cm; Musée national d'Art moderne (Paris)

Late 20th and early 21st centuries[edit]

Rapid advances in science and technology led to the late Modern and Postmodern period. In these periods, the art and cultures of the world went through many changes, and there was a great deal of intermixture between cultures, as new communications technologies facilitated the national and even global dissemination of music, art and style. The separation of regional cultures that had marked the 19th century was replaced by a global culture. Postmodernism describes a broad movement that developed in the mid- to late-20th century across philosophy, the arts, architecture, and criticism which marked a departure from modernism.^[69][70][71] One contemporary view of Postmodern art shows that it can be understood as an expansion of technology-based media enabling multiple new forms of art simultaneously.^[72] The transition from linear art movements of the early 20th century modern era to multiple simultaneous movements of the last 20th century Postmodern is shown in a Timeline of 20th.C Art and New Media.^[73]

• Cakes; by Wayne Thiebaud; 1963; oil on canvas; 1.52 x 1.83 m; National Gallery of Art (Washington, D.C.)

• Dona i Ocell; by Joan Miró; 1983; Parc Joan Miró (Barcelona, Spain)

• Pencils; by Guerrino Boatto; 1 august 1986; acrylic on scholler; 70 x 50 cm; private collection

• Rose; by Isa Genzken; 1993; in front of Neue Leipziger Messe (Leipzig, Germany)

See also[edit]

References[edit]

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2. ^ ^abBrahic, Catherine (3 December 2014). 'Shell 'art' made 300,000 years before humans evolved'. New Scientist. Retrieved 29 September 2018.
3. ^Yiśraʼel (Jerusalem), Muzeʼon; Museum (Jerusalem), Israel (1986). Treasures of the Holy Land: Ancient Art from the Israel Museum. Metropolitan Museum of Art. p. 29. ISBN9780870994708.
4. ^'Horse from Hayonim Cave, Israel, 30,000 years' in Israel Museum Studies in Archaeology. Samuel Bronfman Biblical and Archaeological Museum of the Israel Museum. 2002. p. 10.
5. ^'Hayonim horse'. museums.gov.il.
6. ^Bar-Yosef, Ofer; Belfer-Cohen, Anna (1981). The Aurignacian at Hayonim Cave. pp. 35–36.
7. ^Sale, Kirkpatrick (2006). After Eden: The Evolution of Human Domination. Duke University Press. p. 57. ISBN9780822339380.
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11. ^N. Branan (2010). 'Neandertal Symbolism: Evidence Suggests a Biological Basis for Symbolic Thought'. Scientific American.
12. ^Blundell, Geoffrey (2006). Origins: The Story of the Emergence of Humans and Humanity in Africa. Juta and Company Ltd. p. 63. ISBN9781770130401.
13. ^Gardner & Kleiner 2009, p. 2.
14. ^Gardner & Kleiner 2009, pp. 3–4.
15. ^McCoid, Catherine Hodge; McDermott, Leroy D. (1996). 'Toward Decolonizing Gender: Female Vision in the Upper Paleolithic'. American Anthropologist. 98 (2): 319–326. doi:10.1525/aa.1996.98.2.02a00080. JSTOR682890.
16. ^Honour, H.; Fleming, J. (2005). A World History of Art. Laurence King. ISBN978-1-85669-451-3. Retrieved 2015-11-20.
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18. ^Onians 2004, pp. 20–25.
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20. ^Azcárate (1983), pp. 24–28.
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22. ^Azcárate (1983), pp. 36–44.
23. ^Azcárate (1983), pp. 29–34.
24. ^McIntosh, Jane (2008). The Ancient Indus Valley: New Perspectives. ABC-CLIO. p. 248. ISBN978-1-57607-907-2.
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26. ^ ^abMarshall, John (1931). Mohenjo Daro and the Indus Civilization Vol-i (1931). p. 45.
27. ^ ^abGregory L. Possehl (2002). The Indus Civilization: A Contemporary Perspective. p. 111. ISBN9780759101722.
28. ^Possehl, Gregory L. (2002). The Indus Civilization: A Contemporary Perspective. Rowman Altamira. pp. 111–112. ISBN9780759101722.
29. ^Marshall, Sir John. Mohenjo-Daro and the Indus Civilisation, 3 vols, London: Arthur Probsthain, 1931
30. ^'Phoenician Art'(PDF). The New York Times. 1879-01-05. Retrieved 2008-06-20.
31. ^Boardman, John (1993). The Oxford History of Classical Art. Oxford: Oxford University Press. pp. 350–351. ISBN0-19-814386-9.
32. ^Waldman & Mason 2006, p. 208.
33. ^MacKenzie 1986, p. 25.
34. ^Mountain 1998, p. 59.
35. ^Alexander, Robert L. (1986). The Sculpture and Sculptors of Yazılıkaya. Newark: University of Delaware Press. p. 122.
36. ^C.C. Lamberg-Karlovsky, 'Archaeology and Language: The Indo-Iranians', Current Anthropology, vol. 43, no. 1 (Feb. 2002).
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38. ^V. M. Masson, 'The Bronze Age in Khorasan and Transoxiana,' chapter 10 in A.H. Dani and Vadim Mikhaĭlovich Masson (eds.), History of civilizations of Central Asia, volume 1: The dawn of civilization: earliest times to 700 BCE (1992).
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41. ^Laings, 6–12
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50. ^Suckale-Redlefsen, 524
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58. ^History – Winnipeg Art Gallery
59. ^Museum of Inuit Art
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Further reading[edit]

Art A Brief History 6th Edition Pdf Free Download Free

• Adams, Laurie. Art across Time. 3rd ed. Boston: McGraw-Hill, 2007.
• Bell, Julian. Mirror of the World: A New History Of Art. 2nd ed., London, Thames & Hudson, 2010. ISBN978-0-500-28754-5
• Gardner, Helen; Kleiner, Fred S. (2009). Gardner's Art through the Ages: A Global History (13th ed.). Australia: Thomson/Wadsworth.
• Gombrich, E.H. The Story of Art. 15th ed. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, 1990.
• Honour, Hugh, and John Fleming. The Visual Arts: A History. 5th ed. New York: Henry N. Abrams, 1999.
• Honour, Hugh, and John Fleming. A World History of Art. 7th ed. Laurence King Publishing, 2005, ISBN1-85669-451-8, 978-1-85669-451-3
• Janson, H.W., and Penelope J.E. Davies. Janson's History of Art: The Western Tradition. 7th ed. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Prentice Hall, 2007.
• Oliver Grau (Ed.): MediaArtHistories, Cambridge/Mass.: MIT-Press, 2007.
• La Plante, John D. Asian Art. 3rd ed. Dubuque, IA: Wm. C. Brown, 1992.
• Phaidon Editors. 30,000 Years of Art: The Story of Human Creativity Across Time & Space, 2nd ed. London: Phaidon Press, 2015
• Miller, Mary Ellen. The Art of Mesoamerica: From Olmec to Aztec. 4th ed, World of Art. London: Thames & Hudson, 2006.
• Onians, John (2004). Atlas of World Art. London: Laurence King Publishing. ISBN978-1-85669-377-6.
• Pierce, James Smith, and H.W. Janson. From Abacus to Zeus: A Handbook of Art History. 7th ed. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Prentice

Art A Brief History 6th Edition Pdf Free Download For Windows

Hall, 2004.

• Pohl, Frances K. Framing America: A Social History of American Art. New York: Thames & Hudson, 2002.
• Stokstad, Marilyn. Art History. 3rd ed. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Education, 2008.
• Thomas, Nicholas. Oceanic Art, World of Art. New York: Thames and Hudson, 1995.
• Thuillier, Jacques, Histoire de l'art, Paris: Flammarion, 2002. ISBN2-08-012535-4
• Thuillier, Jacques, History of Art, Paris: Flammarion, 2002. ISBN2-08-010875-1
• Wilkins, David G., Bernard Schultz, and Katheryn M. Linduff. Art Past, Art Present. 6th ed. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Education, 2008.

External links[edit]

Art A Brief History 6th Edition Pdf Free Download For Mac

• 'Art: The history of ideas in literature and the arts in aesthetic theory and literary criticism' – The Dictionary of the History of Ideas

Timelines[edit]

• Timeline of Art History from Metropolitan Museum of Art

NOTE: You are purchasing a standalone product; MyArtsLab does not come packaged with this content. If you would like to purchase both the physical text and MyArtsLab, search for ISBN-10: 0134127137 / ISBN-13: 9780134127132. That package includes ISBN-10: 0133843750 / ISBN-13: 9780133843750 and ISBN-10: 0133847896 / ISBN-13: 9780133847895.
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For Art History Survey courses
The most student-friendly, contextual, and inclusive art history survey text on the market
Now in its sixth edition, Art: A Brief History continues to balance formal analysis with contextual art history in order to engage a diverse student audience. Authors Marilyn Stokstad and Michael Cothren, both scholars as well as teachers, share a common vision that survey courses should be filled with as much enjoyment as learning, and that they should foster an enthusiastic, as well as an educated, public for the visual arts. By treating the visual arts as one component of a vibrant cultural landscape (which also includes politics, religion, economics, and more), Art: A Brief History helps students recognize and appreciate the central role that art and architecture have played in human history.
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