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The earliest known artworks are prehistoric cave paintings, such as those discovered at Lascaux in France and Altamira in Spain, dating back roughly seventeen thousand years. Using...
Byzantine art developed in the Eastern Roman Empire from the fourth to the fifteenth centuries and is characterized by gold backgrounds, flat figures, and rich religious iconograph...
The Renaissance (c. 1400–1600) was a cultural rebirth originating in Italy that revived interest in the art, science, and philosophy of Classical Greece and Rome. At its heart was...
Baroque art (c. 1600–1750) emerged alongside the Counter-Reformation as the Catholic Church sought to inspire awe and spiritual engagement through visually powerful imagery. Charac...
As a reaction against the perceived excess of Rococo, Neoclassicism (c. 1760–1850) drew inspiration from the art of Classical Greece and Rome, emphasizing order, symmetry, and mora...
Impressionism (c. 1860s–1880s) was a French movement that sought to capture the fleeting effects of light and color in outdoor scenes, breaking from the dark palettes and polished...
The early twentieth century saw an explosion of avant-garde movements that shattered traditional artistic conventions. Fauvism (c. 1905–1908), led by Henri Matisse, unleashed wild,...
After the Second World War, the center of the art world shifted to New York, where Abstract Expressionism (1940s–1950s) became the first major American avant-garde movement. Emphas...