Visual Art Across the Ages

By Shelley Esaak, About.com Guide to Art History

Here is where we discuss what got done in art, when, where and, often, why. You'll find some nice big timelines of art history, articles about individual movements, answers to some of your burning Art Speak questions, general homework help and more.

1. Timelines of Art History
2. Movements and Periods in Western Art History
3. Art Speak Fluency

Timelines of Art History

From the Paleolithic age to Post-9/11, here are 32,000 years' worth of artistic doings split into five easy pieces.

• Ancient Art - 30,000 B.C.-ca. 400 A.D.
• Late Antique to Early Renaissance Art - 400-1400
• Renaissance to Early Modern Art - 1400-1880
• Modern Art - 1880-1970
• Contemporary Art - 1970-Present

Movements and Periods in Western Art History

Fast facts, dates, founding motives and characteristics for some of those named chunks of chronology you'll meet while navigating through art history.

• A Brisk Walk Through 32,000 Years
• Paleolithic Art
• Mesolithic Art
• Neolithic Art
• Ancient Greek Art

• Proto-Renaissance Art
• Early Renaissance Art
• The Italian High Renaissance
• The Late Renaissance and Mannerism
• What's the Difference Between an Era, a Period and a Movement?

Art Speak Fluency

Because visual art has its own language, and most of us find translations to plain English useful.

• What Is Art?
• What Is Visual Art?
• What Is Representational Art?
• What Are the "Elements" of Art?
• What Are the Functions of Art?

• What Is Artistic License?
• What Is "Modern" Art?
• What Is "Contemporary" Art?
• What Is a Catalogue?
• The Art History Glossary