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

Simone Martini, Maesta, c. 1315-16, fresco in the Sala del Mappamondo of the Palazzo Pubblico

Late Gothic art in Italy

Donatello, Madonna of the Clouds, c. 1425--35, marble, 33.1 x 32 cm / 13 1/16 x 12 5/8 inches (Museum of Fine Arts, Boston)

The Renaissance in Italy (1400s)

Raphael, Galatea, c. 1513, fresco, 3 x 2.2 m, Villa Farnesina, Rome

The Renaissance in Italy (1500s)

Giovanni Bellini, San Zaccaria Altarpiece, 1505, oil on wood transferred to canvas, 16 feet 5-1/2 inches x 7 feet 9 inches (San Zaccaria, Venice) (detail)

The Renaissance in Venice

Jan van Eyck, The Madonna in the Church, c. 1438, oil on oak panel, 31 x 14 cm (Gemäldegalerie, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Nationalgalerie)

The Northern Renaissance (1400s)

Albrecht Dürer, Melencolia I, 1514, engraving, 24 x 18.5 cm (The Metropolitan Museum of Art)

The Northern Renaissance (1500s)

Bronzino, Portrait of Eleonora of Toledo with her son Giovanni, 1544-45, oil on panel, 115.00 x 96.00 cm (Galleria degli Uffizi)

The Late (High) Renaissance + Mannerism

Johannes Vermeer, Girl with a Pearl Earring, c. 1665, oil on canvas, 44.5 x 39″ (Mauritshuis, The Hague)

Baroque art

Antoine Watteau, Pilgrimage to Cythera, 1717, oil on canvas, 4'3" x 6' 4 1/2" (Louvre, Paris)

Rococo

Jacques-Louis David, The Intervention of the Sabine Women, 1799, Oil on canvas, 12 feet, 8 inches x 17 feet and 3/4 of an inch (Musée du Louvre, Paris)

Neoclassicism

William Hogarth, Marriage a-la-Mode, c. 1743, series of six paintings, oil on canvas, 69.9 x 90.8 cm (The National Gallery, London)

British art in the 18th century

Caspar David Friedrich, Woman at a Window, 1822, oil on canvas, 44 x 73 cm (Alte Nationalgalerie, Berlin)

Romanticism in Europe

Julia Margaret Cameron, Mrs. Herbert Duckworth, 1867, albumen silver print from glass negative, 32.8 c 23.7 cm (The Metropolitan Museum of Art)

Early photography

Detail, Sir John Everett Millais, Ophelia, 1851-52, oil on canvas, 762 x 1118 mm (Tate Britain, London)

Victorian art

Detail, Gustave Courbet, A Burial at Ornans, begun late summer 1849, completed 1850, exhibited at the Salon of 1850-51, 124 x 260 inches, oil on canvas (Musée d'Orsay, Paris)

Realism in Europe

Charles Garnier, Paris Opéra (now Palais Garnier), 1860-75 under Napoleon III.

Art of the Second Empire (1852-1870)

Detail, Claude Monet, Cliff Walk at Pourville, 1882, oil on canvas, 26-1/8 x 32-7/16 inches / 66.5 x 82.3 cm (Art Institute of Chicago)

Impressionism

Detail, Vincent van Gogh, Starry Night, 1889, oil on canvas, 73.7 x 92.1 cm (The Museum of Modern Art)

Post-Impressionism

Detail, Jean-Baptiste Carpeaux, Dance, 1865-69, marble, 420 x 298 cm. (Musée d'Orsay, Paris)

Nineteenth-Century French sculpture

Detail, Fernand Khnopff, I Lock the Door Upon Myself, 1891 (Neue Pinakothek, Munich)

Symbolism + Art Nouveau

Olmec mask, c. 1200 - 400 B.C.E., jadeite, 4 x 3-3/8 x 1-1/4 inches found in offering 20 buried c. 1470 C.E. at the Aztec Templo Mayor (Museo del Templo Mayor, Mexico City)

Art of North America before European colonization

Detail, Nasca, Mantle ("The Paracas Textile"), 100-300 C.E., cotton, camelid fiber, 58-1/4 x 24-1/2 inches / 148 x 62.2 cm, found south coast, Paracas, Peru (Brooklyn Museum)

South America before European colonization

Virgin of Guadalupe, late 17th century, 190 cm high, oil paint, gilding, and mother of pearl on panel (Franz Mayer Museum, Mexico City)

Art of the Spanish colonies in the ...

Detail, Bandolier Bag, Western Great Lakes, late 19th century, broadcloth, wool, cotton, beads, brass buttons

Native American art after 1600

Detail, John Singleton Copley, A Boy with a Flying Squirrel (Henry Pelham), 1765, 77.15 x 63.82 cm / 30-3/8 x 25-1/8 inches (Museum of Fine Arts, Boston)

Art of the British colonies in America ...

Detail, Thomas Cole, View from Mount Holyoke, Northampton, Massachusetts, after a Thunderstorm—The Oxbow, 1836, oil on canvas, 130.8 x 193 cm (The Metropolitan Museum of Art)

Art of the United States—1800-1900

Detail, José María Velasco, The Valley of Mexico from the Santa Isabel Mountain Range (Valle de México desde el cerro de Santa Isabel),1875, oil on canvas, 137.5 x 226 cm (Museo Nacional de Arte, INBA, Mexico City)

Art of Mexico in the 19th century

Detail, Henri Matisse, The Red Studio, 1911, oil on canvas, 181 x 219.1 cm (The Museum of Modern Art)

Fauvism + Expressionism

Detail, Pablo Picasso, Les Demoiselles d'Avignon, 1907, oil on canvas, 243.9 x 233.7 cm (The Museum of Modern Art)

Cubism and its impact

La Trahison des images (Ceci n’est pas une pipe), René Magritte, Belgian, 1929, oil on canvas

Dada + Surrealism

Detail, Paul Klee, Twittering Machine (Die Zwitscher-Maschine), 1922, 25 1/4 x 19" watercolor, ink, and gouache on paper (MoMA)

German art between the wars

Diego Rivera, Man, Controller of the Universe, 1934, fresco, 480 x 1145 cm (Museo del Palacio de Bellas Artes, Mexico City)

Latin American modernism

Detail, Grant Wood, American Gothic, 1930, oil on beaver board, 78 x 65.3 cm / 30-3/4 x 25-3/4 inches (The Art Institute of Chicago)

American art to World War II

Detail, Andy Warhol, Campbell's Soup Cans, 1962. Synthetic polymer on thirty-two canvases, Each canvas 20 x 16 inches

Abstract Expressionism to Minimalism

Bruce Nauman, The True Artist Helps the World by Revealing Mystic Truths, 1967, neon and clear glass tubing suspension supports; 149.86 x 139.7 x 5.08 cm (Philadelphia Museum of Art)

Conceptual and Performance Art

Jackie Winsor, #1 Rope, 1976, wood and hemp, 40-1/4 x 40 x 40 inches (SFMOMA, San Francisco)

Post Minimalism: 1966-1980

Francis Bacon, Triptych - August 1972, 1972, oil on canvas, 72 x 61 x 22 in. (183 x 155 x 64 cm), (Tate Modern, London)

Art of post-war Europe

Song Su-Nam, Summer Trees, 1979, ink on paper, 2 feet 1-5/8 inches high (British Museum) © Song Su-Nam

Global vanguards after 1945

Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum Monitor Building

Architecture and design, 1900-1980

The David Vases, 1351 (Yuan dynasty), porcelain, cobalt and clear glaze, 63.6 x 20.7 cm each, Jingdezhen, Jiangxi province, China (British Museum)

Art of China

Detail, Portrait of Sin Sukju (detail), second half of the 15th century, hanging scroll, ink and color on silk, 167 x 109.5 cm, Goryeong Sin Family Collection, Cheongwon, Treasure no. 613.

Art of Korea

Detail, Haniwa: Tomb Sculpture of a Seated Warrior, Japan, late Tumulus period, c. 500-600 C.E., coil-built eathenware with applied decoration, 31 x 14 3/8 x 15 inches / 78.7 x 36.5 x 38.1 cm (Los Angeles County Museum of Art)

Art of Japan

Ashokan pillar, c. 279 B.C.E. - 232 B.C.E, Vaishali, India (where Buddha preached his last sermon). Photo: Rajeev Kumar, CC: BY-SA 2.5)

Art of South Asia

Churning of the Ocean of Milk (detail), Angkor Wat, Siem Reap, Cambodia, 1116-1150 (photo: John Brennan, CC BY-ND 2.0)

Art of Southeast Asia

Elephant (Aka) Mask, Kuosi Society, Bamileke Peoples, Grassfields region of Cameroon, 20th century, cloth, beads, raffia, fiber, 146.7 x 52.1 x 29.2 cm (Brooklyn Museum)

Art of Africa

Mask (Buk, Krar, or Kara), mid to late 19th century, Mabuiag Island, Torres Strait, turtle shell, wood, cassowary feathers, fiber, resin, shell, paint, 54.6 x 63.5 x 57.8 cm (The Metropolitan Museum of Art)

Art of Oceania