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Browse the history of art

Jade Cong, c. 2500 B.C.E., Liangzhu culture, Neolithic period, China (British Museum)

Prehistoric art

The Standard of Ur, 2600-2400 B.C.E., shell, limestone, lapis lazuli, and bitumen, 21.59 x 49.53 x 12 cm (British Museum, London) (detail)

Ancient Near Eastern Art

Hunefer's Judgement in the presence of Osiris, Book of the Dead, 19th Dynasty, New Kingdom, c. 1275 B.C.E., papyrus, Thebes, Egypt (British Museum)

Ancient Egyptian art

Cycladic period figures, marble, (National Archaeological Museum, Athens)

Ancient Aegean art

Ancient Greek Art

Ad Deir (The Monastery), Petra

Nabataean art

Sarcophagus of the Spouses, c. 520 B.C.E., Etruscan, painted terracotta, 3 feet 9-1/2 inches x 6 feet 7 inches, found in the Banditaccia necropolis, Cerveteri (Museo Nazionale di Villa Giulia in Rome)

Etruscan art

Ludovisi Battle Sarcophagus: Battle of Romans and Barbarians, c. 250-260, preconneus marble, 150cm high (Palazzo Altemps: Museo Nazionale Romano, Rome).

Ancient Roman art

Funerary bust of Aqmat, daughter of Hagagu, descendant of Zebida, descendant of Ma'an, with Palmyrenian inscription. Stone, late 2nd century C.E., from Palmyra, Syria (The British Museum)

Palmyra

Martin Engelbracht, Diorama showing a sukkah interior, paper, c.1730, Augsburg, Germany, 236 x 297 cm (The Jewish Museum, London).

Judaism and art

Detail of a miniature of Guillaume de Lorris or Jean de Meun at work writing the text, from the Roman de la Rose, Netherlands (Bruges), c. 1490 – c. 1500, Harley MS 4425, f. 133r - See more at: http://britishlibrary.typepad.co.uk/digitisedmanuscripts/2014/06/the-burden-of-writing-scribes-in-medieval-manuscripts.html#sthash.qPulQr9P.dpuf

Medieval books

Lawrence(?) close, back lunette, The Mausoleum of Galla Placidia The Mausoleum of Galla Placidia, 425 C.E., Ravenna, Italy

Early Christian art

Christ's face (close), Deësis mosaic, Hagia Sophia Undated Byzantine mosaic, 4.08 x 5.95m

Byzantine art

Sutton Hoo Ship Burial, c. 700 (British Museum, London)

Early medieval art

Jeweled upper cover of the Lindau Gospels, c. 880, Court School of Charles the Bald, 350 x 275 mm, cover may have been made in the Royal Abbey of St. Denis (Morgan Library and Museum, New York).

Carolingian art

Bronze doors, 1015, commissioned by Bishop Bernward for Saint Michael's, Hildesheim (Germany)

Ottonian art

Damned, Lintel, Last Judgment Tympanum, Central Portal, West Facade, Cathédrale St-Lazare, Autun

Romanesque art

The Dome of the Rock (Qubbat al-Sakhra), Umayyad, stone masonry, wooden roof, decorated with glazed ceramic tile, mosaics, and gilt aluminum and bronze dome, 691-2, with multiple renovations, patron the Caliph Abd al-Malik, Jerusalem (photo: Brian Jeffery Beggerly, CC BY 2.0))

Islam: early period

Mihrab, detail with central frame close, 1354--55, Isfahan, Iran

Islam: medieval period

Mimar Sinan, Süleymaniye Mosque for the Sultan Süleyman the Lawgiver, 1558, Istanbul

Islam: late period