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10,000-40,000 BC

The Paleolithic age is often considered the "dawn of art", and mainly consisted of cave paintings, but they did have a few sculptures.

It is commonly thought that they used scaffolding to reach the top of the caves. They created the paint from natural sources, mainly from charcoal and bright vegetation. These paintings were thought to be used for religious, educational or social purposes.

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Hall of Bulls, Lascaux France, c. 13,000 BC

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The smooth lines and soft shapes in the forms of the bulls, seem to highlight the animals figure and the muscle underneath. This could maybe showcase either the power of the animals, or the ideal animal to hunt.

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4,000-2340 BC

Focused mainly in Mesopotamia.

The Sumerians had some of the first known text, engraved in wet clay, then dried to create tablets. These were called Cuneiform tablets. They contained market records, laws and some religious teachings.

The Sumerians made Tell Asmar figures to place in their temples. These figures were usually small and had abstracted features and large eyes. They were thought to be used for prayers.

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This piece seems to use the colors of blue and gold to showcase royalty. They might have used this ram as the symbol for a diety.

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3,000-2,000 BC

The Mesopotamia region was a time of warfare. Art was generally used by emperors as a way to show their power, connection to deity and their right to rule. They were mainly politically motivated.

They would use Stele's as political statements and a showcase of their power. They would often depict the king with a connection to the gods. The writing on them would contain laws, history and mythology.

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With all the writing underneath the God, it could be a safe assumption that he is the creater or enforcer of these laws.

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~ 2,000-1,000 BC

Assyrians drew much of their art styles from the Sumerians and Babylonians, but adapted them for their own purposes. They mainly used it to show their wealth and power. However, they started incorporating more emotion and detail into their sculptures. They focused on preserving historical and powerful feats. Lion hunting was a privilege reserved for the king alone, and so memorializing this event would show the power and strength of the current king for centuries.

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Lion Hunt, Relief from Nineveh, c. 640 BC

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The lion in this piece has been carved out of stone, allowing to show the depth of muscles. This helps to distinguish how strong the lioness is and the even greater power of the hunters.

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2960-2649 BC

Considered the "Golden Age"

Used tombs to show power. Only wealthy people/pharos had tombs. Stored their body, as well as important belongings. They were covered with hieroglyphs and scenes of the Gods that were supposed to help the spirit of the dead travel to the underworld. They were also thought to preserve the dead's "life force". The tombs served as a permanent maker on the landscaper. It expressed the status of the individual and perpetuated their memory. The outsides were painted.

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Hippopotamus Hunt, Tomb of Ti, Saqqara, c. 2,500 BC

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The use of texture in this piece interesting. The ribs running from the top of the mural to the bottom seem to resemble reeds along the bank of the river. While the texture of the pepole and animals have faded, they are still incredibly detailed, suggesting that this took a long time and was an important event to memorialize.

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1550-1070 BC

New Kingdom tombs started being built into mountain sides. This was thought to show how the pharos looked over the kingdom. They were also decorated with paintings of the gods.

They started building temples to their gods. It would mark their claim to the throne.

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Temple of Amen-Re, Karnak, c. 1,500-1,300 BC

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The mural on the top of these collums and pillars are so detailed and organized that they seem to suggest a form of writing rather than decoration.

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3,000-1,100 BC

Located mainly on the islands off the coast of Greece and Italy. Their art started incorporating more movement and gender differentiation. The male figures were often shown in darker colors, while the woman were featured with light tones. The Minoans were a fan of the pinched waist in their art, and featured it in all of their art works.

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Bull Leapers Fresco, Knossos, c. 1,600-1,400 BC

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The forms in this mural, while leaning toward realism, apear fluid. The lines on both the bull and the bull leaper, don't seem to stop. They are long and continuous, highlighting the movement taking place.

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1,600-1,100 BC

The Myceneans populated the mainland surrounding the Minoans. They started creating large architecture, commissioned for the wealthy who could afford to have treasuries, and funeral masks. Their artwork featured lots of details, and even weapons were known to contain decorative elements.

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Warrior Vase, from Citadel, Tiryns, c. 1200 BC

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The art on this vase seems to be decorational. All of the wariers are virually the same, and made with detail to their armor, suggesting an important battle.

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600-500 BC

The archaic style evolved from Minoan and Mycenean art, but is more realistic. The sculptures have more realistic proportions, and the drapery is a little bit more loose. Their posing is similar to Egyptian in their stiff and closed posture. They do have more emotion in their face, with a half smile. This is known as the "Archaic Smile". They have started to build temples to their gods, and are using different decorative styles.

Their artwork has started to become more for decoration of either political or religious things. They are becoming more adventurous with their subject matter as well.

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He form is rather smooth and lifelike. The technique used to carve the fabric gives shows her figure. She seems to be wealthy from the clothing, hair and paint on the piece.

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480-323 BC

They started making sculptures more organic in their posing and the drapery became more exaggerated. Often they sculpted the human form with an emphasis of the perfect proportions and musculature. The sculptures were used to memorialize certain individuals who were either famous athletes, important politicians, or anyone who could afford it.

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Iktinos and Kallikrates, Parthenon, 448-432 BC, Head sculptor: Phidias

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The sculptures are rather realistic and have seen some wear and tear. They seem to dipict human movements in a moment of drama. The Clothing seems almost transparent from the way the stone was carved and showcases the human figure.

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323~146 BC

The Hellenistic style follows along with Greek and leads into Roman art styles. It often applies to the sculptures of the Gods or mythological figures. Their poses, proportions and musculature are all exaggerated and dramatic. A lot of symbolism and personification is used to tell a story. They seemed to strive for realism and to bring their gods into this world.

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This sculpture has many different components that make it interesting. The pose seems to suggest exhaustion, but not defeat. I think it's interesting that his eyes and mouth are left hollow. Almost as if this athleat is nothing more than a boxer, that he has nothing else to live for or to persue in life. The sport has taken over him completely.

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800-400 BC

The Etruscans knew of and often traded with the Greeks. They started to borrow their style and use it in their artworks. They used the Post and Lintel architecture for their temples. These temples were in a similar style to the Greeks, but had three sanctuaries instead of the one, and only a front porch, instead of a wraparound one. The Etruscans incorporated sculpture on their sarcophaguses. They utilized the archaic smile on their sculptures.

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This rendition of the Portonaccio Temple lets us guess at what it could have looked like. The figures on the roof of the temple seem to be watching over the temple as their heads are all bent downward.

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509-100 BC

The roman identity is focused on being independent, inclusive and powerful. They pride themselves on their power and influence. This is mirrored in their work. Their sculpture in this period is focused on politicians and realism. Rather than portraying an idealized version of themselves, they focus on trying to get as close as possible to the subject. They wanted to use age as a sign of wisdom, which increases the public opinion of the individual.

They also start experimenting with landscape art. They start using depth and naturalism in these pieces and are often found in social places.

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Second-Style Painting: Garden Scene, Villa of Livia, Prima Porta, c. 20 BC

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This painting pays great attention to detial, perspective and realism. The birds, trees and fruit are all real looking and seem to add a depth to the piece.

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31 BC - 200 AD

The Early Imperial Romans were focused on conquering and building their empire. Their art was mainly sculptural or architectural in these days. They still relied on styles from Greek and Republic eras. They started emphasizing theater, sports and philosophy in their art, with things like the Coliseum and the Pantheon. These offered places for the populace of Rome to gather and bond. Other architectural developments were the use of aqueducts. This provided running water to the baths.

All of these developments helped the roman identity and motivated them to keep spreading to other lands.

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This beautiful structure not only serves a practical purpose, but seems to be a collection of all the best art techniques known at that age.

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The Late Imperial Roman style was starting to be influenced by the spread of Christianity, and the fall of Rome. At the beginning of the Late Imperial era, politicians reverted back to the naturalistic proportions in sculpture, trying to revert back to the idea that age wasn't a bad thing.

They also saw the rise of Constantine, who was the main cause of Christianity spreading throughout the Roman Empire. This started to change Roman art and architecture. Everything became a bit more abstracted and soft. They were trying to do the opposite of what they'd been doing for centuries.

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This sculpture seems to highlight the age, emotion and stress that this man had lived through. The lines under his eyes, across his forehead are smooth, giving a skin like appearance, while being deep, highlighting his age.

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There wasn't a whole lot of artwork being produced in this era. Christians didn't really know how to differentiate between good artwork, and worshiping idols. Eventually they started making art of the apostles and Jesus in their churches. They would stay away from scenes of his death, as there was still some confusion on whether he was a god and could die, or human and did die. They portrayed everything in a naturalistic style, with big eyes and shorter proportions. They would portray holy instances or scenes with a golden sky or halo. They were a huge fan of patterns, especially circular ones.

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Christ as the Good Shepherd, mosaic. Mausoleum of “Galla Placidia,” Ravenna, 425-450

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The use of green, blue and gold work together to create a calm feeling when looking at this mural. These colors even extend out toward the ceiling in circular patterns.

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Churches were being built to include large windows and light. They were lavishly decorated and had depictions of Christ and bible stories everywhere. Most of them have patron saints that either funded the church, brought Christianity to the region, or were an important biblical figure.

There was a debate between Iconoclasts (don't use imagery, it's bad) and Iconophiles (use imagery, encourage connection with God). The majority of people sided with the Iconophiles, and continued to use imagery in their churches and art work.

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Pantokrator, Cathedral, Monreale, Sicily, c. 1180

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The whole cathedral is a piece of art. The archetecture all leads the eyes up, towards Christ, and heaven. Christ is the largest painting and is placed at the top of the arch, drawing the attention to him.

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Chi-rho(-iota) Page, Book of Kells, c. 800

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The intricate word in and around the lettering showcases the importance of the book and the things within.

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St. Matthew, Coronation Gospels, c. 800-10

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This dipiction of St. Matthew uses different values and shades to create the illuesion of depth and a 3-Dimensional space.

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The Romanesque style first appears in Italy, then into southern France and Spain. It is characterized by it's vaulted buildings, decorated with wall arcades and architectural sculpture. Churches started becoming larger, more ornate, and "Roman-looking". Used arches liberally. Relief sculpture became more common and popular, depicting abstracted biblical scenes and people.

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Portal, West Façade, St. Trophime, Arles, c. 1150

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The carved figures in the pillars seem to take upon the weight of the arch, which pionts to Christ.

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The early French Gothic style was characterized by the pointed arch and fine details. They wanted to start getting more light into the churches. Heavens are represented by light, and so to be closer to heaven, churches needed to let more light in. This lead to large stained glass windows, which became highly popular from then on. People would start taking inspiration from the fist few French cathedrals, and would all have a similar style. Flying buttresses were popular to stabilize the Cathedral as they tried to get higher and higher.

They started making their churches as tall as they could get them. They weren't very mathematical in their construction, which lead to a few collapses. However, the civic pride that was gained from having the most ornate, and largest church was more outweighed the costs.

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The structure of the Notre-Dame is heavily geometric. The large window is perfectly circular, creating a beautiful portal to let light into the cathedral. The arches along the side of the building seem ornamnetal but lead the eye to the windows as well as helping structrually.

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By this time, there was generally a standard of how to build a cathedral. They were no longer striving to build the tallest cathedral, but rather refining their buildings, adding beauty and meaning behind them. The architects wanted to create a sense of personal identity to the town or region. They focused on realism of particulars, rather than the overall structure when creating sculptures.

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The high valted ceilings and windows alows light to softly filter below, creating a soft ambiance. The twisted chandeliers contrast the straight pillars and geometric archetechure of the cathedral around them.

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While still building on earlier achievements, Late French Gothic, starts to deviate slightly from previous patterns of development. They start to become obsessed with fine details and don't leave a lot of negative space on their pieces. Churches started to see elaborate arrangements of overlapping and pierced planes.

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The ornimentation and design of this cathedral is very sharp. The jagged edges and angular details creates a beutiful building, but also a scary one. The lines lead upward, toward heaven, while at the same time seeming to threaten people.

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Germany took a little longer than their neighbors to embrace the Gothic style. They tended to rely heavily on the Romanesque tradition, with Ottonian elements. However, when High Gothic style started having a large impact on German architecture, they still retained a muted, almost suppressed emotional feeling to them.

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Bamberg Rider, Cathedral, Bamberg, Germany, late 13th century

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The simple lines and structure of the horse contrast agianst the detail of the rider, showcasing the importance of the mad and the power he has.

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Very conservative with their gothic styles. They like the classical style, and kind of mesh the two styles together a little. They utilize principles like continuous narrative, which is a very Gothic theme, and apply a classical look to it. They fill the frame, and leave no negative space. They apply it strategically, as if trying to get away with being gothic, while still relying on their Classical styles.

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The use of repetition on this building creates an apealing pattern and showcases wealth. The different shaped windows (circular/peaked) create interest and allow for different levels of light to enter into the building.