Some numbers, dates and periods

Sometimes when we talk about an art object we are wondering when it was created?

Was it yesterday? Or 150 years ago? Or 1500 years ago? What were the conditions the author was surrounded by when he was living and creating this art-work?

For this it’s good to start from brief general periodization of art.

Please keep in mind that all the dates are subjects for discussion. The art historians nowadays are arguing about when certain period started and when it finished. So all the dates below are approximate.

We will look now at the Western art (European art + regions that are following European cultural traditions, for example North America):

Prehistoric art – 2.5 million – 500 BCE

Stone age, Neolithic, Bronze Age and Iron Age

                (no ice-age)

Ancient Classic Art:

                Art of ancient Egypt - about 3000 BCE to 30 CE

                Ancient Greek art - approximately 700 BCE to 100 CE

                Ancient Rome – 1st to 5th centuries CE

Medieval art – 500 – 1500

Byzantine – 500 - 1100

Early medieval art – 700-800

Romanesque - 1000 – 1200

Gothic - 1200 - 1430

Renaissance - 1400 – 1600 years

                Early (or Proto-) Renaissance – 1300 – 1400

                Northern Renaissance – 1450 – 1600

                High Renaissance – 1475 – 1530

               

Mannerism, Baroque, and Rococo

Mannerism - 1520 – 1600

Baroque – 1600 – 1725  

Rococo – 1720 – 1760

Neoclassicism, Romanticism, Academism and Realism

Neoclassicism- 1760 – 1830

Romanticism – 1800 – 1850

Academism – 1800s

Realism – 1840 – 1870

Modern Art - 1860s to the 1970s

Impressionism - 1870 – 1900

Postimpressionism – 1880 – 1920

Fauvism – 1904 – 1910  

Cubism – 1908 – 1920 

Expressionism – 1905 – 1925

Surrealism – from 1920

Art Deco – 1920 – 1935 

Abstract art – as of 1910

Pop-art – 1956 – 1960

                Contemporary art – now