Art History Cheat Sheet Name:__________________
Foundations
The history of art is immense, the earliest cave paintings pre-date writing by
almost 27,000 years!
Art Periods/
Characteristics
Movements
Chief Artists
Historical Events
and Major
Works
Prehistoric
(30,000 b.c.–
2500 b.c.)
Mesopotamian
(3500 b.c.–539
b.c.)
Cave painting,
fertility goddesses,
megalithic
Lascaux Cave
Painting,
Woman of
Ice Age ends
(10,000 b.c.–8,000
b.c.); New Stone
structures
Willendorf,
Stonehenge
Age and first
permanent
settlements (8000
b.c.–2500 b.c.)
Warrior art and
narration in stone
relief
Standard of Ur,
Gate of Ishtar,
Stele of
Hammurabi's
Code
Sumerians invent
writing (3400 b.c.);
Hammurabi writes
his law code (1780
b.c.); Abraham
founds monotheism
Egyptian (3100
b.c.–30 b.c.)
Art with an afterlife
focus: pyramids and
tomb painting.
Evolution of realism
from idealism (stiff
bodies, formulaic
poses).
Menkaure &
Wife, Great
Pyramids, Bust
of Nefertiti,
Hunting Scene
from Tomb of
Nebaum
Narmer unites
Upper/Lower Egypt
(3100 b.c.);
Rameses II battles
the Hittites (1274
b.c.); Cleopatra
dies (30 b.c.)
Greek Art (850
b.c.–31 b.c.)
Archaic rigidness,
Classical idealism
and balance,
Hellenistic
expression
Kouros, Myron’s
Discus thrower,
Polyclitus’s
Spear Thrower,
Dying Gaul,
Lancoon and his
Sons
Athens defeats
Persia at Marathon
(490 b.c.);
Peloponnesian
Wars (431 b.c.–404
b.c.); Alexander the
Great's conquests
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Art History Cheat Sheet Name:__________________
Foundations
(336 b.c.–323 b.c.)
Roman (500
b.c.– a.d. 476)
Roman sculptures:
derived from Greek
art, realism: real
people, politicians,
senators, clothes as a
sign of power. Roman
painting: some depth
Statue of Augustus,
Fresco from the Villa
of Mysteries
Julius Caesar
assassinated (44
b.c.); Augustus
proclaimed Emperor
(27 b.c.); Diocletian
splits Empire (a.d.
292); Rome falls (a.d.
476)
South Asian
Art (653 b.c.–
a.d. 700)
Buddhist and Hindu
art: large statues of
Buddha, Shiva,
Vishnu etc. in temples
Standing Buddha,
Shiva Nataraja
Birth of Buddha (563
b.c.); Silk Road
opens (1st century
b.c.); Buddhism
spreads to China
(1st–2nd centuries
a.d.)
p. 72-73
Islamic cermaics,
mosaics, flower and
geometric motifs,
calligraphy
The Dome of the
Rock, Jug with
molded Decorations,
Seljuq style Qu’ran
Birth of Islam (a.d.
610) and Muslim
Conquests (a.d. 632–
a.d. 732)
Early
American Art
(b.c.1700- a.d.
Ceremony art in
temples, mosaics,
carvings and large
Nazca’s
Hummingbird,
Teotihuacan’s
Olmec civilization
(1700-400 bc.)
givesrise to
500)
land forms
anthropomorphic
mask, Maya’s
Temple of the Jaguar
Teotihuacan and
Mayans in central
America. Chavìn
give rise to the
Moche and Nazca in
S. America.
p.74-75
Early Islamic
(476-1200)
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Art History Cheat Sheet Name:__________________
Foundations
Early Middle
Ages/
Medieval Art
(500 – 1200)
Christian Art: evolution
from symbols to icons,
lack of authorship,
decorative motifs
inspired by Viking art.
Mosaics.
Christian
Subterranean
symbols. Osberg
Ship, Book of Kells.
Mosaic of Emperor
Justinian and
Attendants.
Justinian partly
restores Western
Roman Empire (a.d.
533–a.d. 562);
Iconoclasm (a.d.
726–a.d. 843); Viking
Raids (793–1066);
Battle of Hastings
(1066);
Late
Medieval/PreRenaissance
Art (12001400)
Emergence of
different artists, styles,
and development of
linear perspective.
Romanesque:
decorative doors,
small windows,
geometric designs.
Gothic: flying
Cimabue’s Madonna
and Child in Majesty
Crusades I–IV
(1095– 1205);
Giotto’s Jesus before
Calf
Black Death (13471351); Hundred
Years’ War (13371453)
Early and
High
Renaissance
(1400–1550)
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Gislebertus’s Last
Judgement
Carving of Eve
buttresses, tall and
elegant, stained glass,
pointed arches
Chartres Cathedral
Rebirth of classical
culture, development
of linear perspective,
individual artists,
about humanism,
Raphael’s School of
Athens, Botticelli’s
Birth of Venus, Da
Vinci’s Mona Lisa,
Bosch’s Garden of
Gutenberg invents
movable type (1447);
Turks conquer
Constantinople
(1453); Columbus
knowledge (not only
about religion)
Early Delights
lands in New World
(1492); Martin Luther
starts Reformation
(1517)
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Art History Cheat Sheet Name:__________________
Foundations
Mannerism
(1527–1580)
Reaction against
classicism, contorted
bodies, elongation,
artificial light and
colors
Parmigiano’s
Madonna withthe
Long Neck, St.
Francis Receiving the
Stigma,
Archimboldo’s
Spring, Allegory of
the Immaculate
Conception
Magellan
circumnavigates the
globe (1520–1522)
Baroque
(1600–1750)
Splendor and flourish
for God; art as a
weapon in the
religious wars, dark
paintings,
mythological and
allegorical subjects
Bernini’s Ecstasy of
St. Theresa,
Caravaggio’s
Beheading of St.
John the Baptist,
Vermeer’s Girl with
the Pearl Earrings,
Sala di Apollo,
Aurora
Thirty Years' War
between Catholics
and Protestants
(1618–1648)
Rococo
Airy, light, creamy
colors, delicate. Less
serious topics than the
Baroque. Grand Tour:
focus on nature and
scholarly
Return of the
Bucintoro on
Ascension Day, An
Experiment on a Bird
in the Air Pump,
Ruined Gallery of the
Villa Adriana
Louis XIV at throne
(1638-1710s)
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Art History Cheat Sheet Name:__________________
Foundations
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