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BASICS ARTS AND HUMANITIES | ART HISTORY | ART HISTORY
BASICS | FIRST THINGS FIRST
First things first
A brief history of
Smarthistory: Art Western culture
History on Khan
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Why look at art?
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A brief history of
Western culture

Common questions
about dates

A brief history of
religion in art

What made art valuable

History has no natural divisions. A woman living in
—then and now Florence in the 15th century did not think of herself
as a woman of the Renaissance. Historians divide
What maps tell us
history into large and small units in order to make
characteristics and changes clear to themselves
Is there a difference
between art and craft? and to students. It’s important to remember that
any historical period is a construction and a
What is Cultural simplification. Below are some important basics to
Heritage?
get you started.

As you read the timeline below, please keep in

Did this article help you?
mind that equally momentous developments have
occurred in Africa, Asia,Yesthe Americas and in the
Pacific. No

Prehistoric (before c. 3000 B.C.E.)

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Prehistoric (before c. 3000 B.C.E.)

Nude Woman (Venus of Willendorf), c. 28,000-25,000 B.C.E., Limestone,

4 1/4" high (Naturhistorisches Museum, Vienna), photo: Steven Zucker 
(CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)

The term “prehistoric” refers to the time before

written history. In the West, writing was invented in
ancient Mesopotamia just before 3000 B.C.E., so
this period includes visual culture (paintings,
sculpture, and architecture) made before that date.
The oldest decorative forms we can recognize as
art come from Africa and may date back to 100,000
B.C.E. In contrast, the oldest cave paintings known
are about 40,800 years old, and although we used
to think that only our species, Homo Sapiens, made
Did this article help you?
art—anthropologists now Yes
speculate that
Neanderthals may have made at least some of
No
these very early images.

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The Neolithic revolution, one of the most profound

developments in all of human history, occurs during
the Prehistoric Era. This is when our ancestors
learned to farm and domesticate animals, allowing
them to give up their nomadic ways, and settle
down to build cities and civilizations.

Ancient (c. 3000 B.C.E. to c. 400

C.E.)
This period includes the great early civilizations of
the ancient Near East (think Babylonia), ancient
Egypt, ancient Greece, the Etruscans, and the
Romans—everything that comes after the invention
of writing and before the fall of the Roman Empire.
Keep in mind the disintegration of the Roman
Empire took centuries, but to simplify, c. 400 will
do.

Did this article help you?

Yes

Ancient Greek sculpture of  ZeusNoor Poseidon, c. 460 B.C.E., bronze, 2.09

m high, Early Classical (Severe Style), recovered from a shipwreck off

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Cape Artemision, Greece in 1928 (National Archaeological Museum,

Athens), photo: Steven Zucker (CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)

It was during this period that the ancient Greeks

first applied human reason to their observations of
the natural world and created some of the earliest
naturalistic images of human beings. This period is
often credited with the birth of Western philosophy,
mathematics, theater, science, and democracy. The
Romans in turn created an empire that extended
across most of Europe, and all the lands that
surround the Mediterranean Sea. They were expert
administrators and engineers and they saw
themselves as the inheritors of the great
civilizations that came before them, particularly,
Greece and Egypt (which they conquered).

It’s important to remember that although history is

often presented as a series of discrete stories, in
reality narratives often overlap making history both
more complex and more interesting. For example, it
was also during the Roman Empire that the figure
we now call Jesus lived. Jesus and his apostles
were Jewish men living in what is today Israel, but
which was then part of the Roman Empire.

Middle Ages (c. 400 C.E. to c. 1400

C.E.) Did this article help you?

The first half of this thousand-year

Yes
period
witnessed terrible political
No and economic upheaval
in Western Europe, as waves of invasions by
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migrating peoples destabilized the Roman Empire.

The Roman emperor Constantine established
Constantinople (now Istanbul, Turkey) as a new
capital in the East in 330 C.E. and the Western
Roman Empire broke apart soon after. In the
Eastern Mediterranean, the Byzantine Empire (with
Constantinople as its capital), flourished.

Christ (detail), Deësis (Christ with the Virgin Mary and John the Baptist), c.
1261, mosaic, imperial enclosure, south gallery, Hagia Sophia, Istanbul,
photo: Steven Zucker

Christianity spread across what had been the

Roman Empire—even among migrating invaders
(Vandals, Visigoths, etc.). The Christian Church,
headed by the Pope, emerged as the most
powerful institution in Western Europe, the
Orthodox Church dominated in the East.

Did this article help you?

Yes

No

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Byzantine Empire in 650

It was during this period that Islam, one of the three

great monotheistic religions, was born. Within little
more than a century of the death of the Prophet
Muhammad in 632 C.E., Islam had become an
empire that stretched from Spain across North
Africa, the Middle and Near East, to India. Medieval
Islam was a leader in science and technology and
established some of the world’s great centers of
learning (Cordoba, for example). Islamic culture
played an important role in preserving and
translating ancient Greek texts at a time when
much of the knowledge created during the ancient
world was lost.

Petrarch (a writer who lived in the 1300s) described

the early Medieval period as the "Dark Ages"
because to him it seemed to be a period of
declining human achievement, especially when he
compared it to the Ancient Greeks and Romans.
Did this article help you?
The “Middle Ages” got its name because
Yes
Renaissance scholars saw it as a long barbaric
period that separated them
No
from the great

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civilizations of ancient Greece and Rome that they

both celebrated and emulated.

Young nobles in procession in the Très Riches Heures du duc de

Berry, (painted by the Limbourg Brothers), folio 5, verso: May, 1412-16,
manuscript illumination on vellum, 22.5 x 13.6 cm (Musée Condé)

Medieval society was organized into clearly

defined strata. At the top was the king. Below were
lesser nobles. These lords in turn, ruled over
peasants and serfs (the vast majority of the
population). Serfs were laborers who were
Did this article help you?
permanently bound to work the land owned by
Yes
their lord. The basic unit of this system, known as
Feudalism, was the lord/vassal
No relationship. The
vassal would provide labor (in the fields or in battle)
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to the lord in exchange for land and protection.

Mobility between strata was very rare.

Of course, the thousand years of the Middle Ages

saw the creation of many great works of art and
literature, but they were different from what
Petrarch valued. The works of art created in the
Middle Ages were largely focused on the teachings
of the Church.

It is important to remember that during the Middle

Ages it was rare that anyone except members of
the clergy (monks, priests, etc.) could read and
write. Despite expectations that the world would
end in the year 1,000, Western Europe became
increasingly stable, and this period is sometimes
referred to as the Late (or High) Middle Ages. This
period saw the renewal of large scale building and
the re-establishment of sizable towns. Monasteries,
such as Cluny, became wealthy and important
centers of learning.

Within the Middle Ages, there are subdivisions in

art history, including Early Christian, Byzantine,
Carolingian, Ottonian, Romanesque and Gothic.
When we look closely at much of the art and
politics of the 1,000 years of the Middle Ages, we
find a complex and ongoing relationship with the
memory and legacy of the Didancient
this articleRoman empire
help you?

and this is the foundation

Yes for the Renaissance.

No

Renaissance (c. 1400 to 1600)

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Renaissance (c. 1400 to 1600)

In part, the Renaissance was a rebirth of interest in
ancient Greek and Roman culture. It was also a
period of economic prosperity in Europe—
particularly in Italy and in Northern Europe. In art
history, we study both the Italian Renaissance and
the Northern Renaissance. We talk about a way of
looking at the world called Humanism, which—at its
most basic—placed renewed value on human
knowledge, and the experience of this world (as
opposed to focusing largely on the heavenly
realm), using ancient Greek and Roman literature
and art as a model.

Plato, Aristotle and other ancient philosophers and mathematicians

depicted in Raphael's School of Athens, fresco, 1509-1511 (Stanza della
Segnatura, Papal Palace, Vatican)

Did this article help you?

There are only a handful

Yes of moments in history that

we can point to that changed

No
everything. The
invention and adoption of the printing press was
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certainly one. As a result of the wider availability of

books, literacy rates in Europe dramatically
increased. Readers were empowered and in many
ways we can trace the origin of our own
information revolution to 15th-century Germany and
Gutenberg’s first printing press.

In 1517 a German theologian and monk, Martin

Luther, challenged the authority of the Pope and
sparked the Protestant Reformation. His ideas
spread quickly, thanks in part to the printing press.
By challenging the power of the Church, and
asserting the authority of individual conscience (it
was increasingly possible for people to read the
bible in the language that they spoke), the
Reformation laid the foundation for the value that
modern culture places on the individual.

It is also during this period that the Scientific

Revolution began and observation replaced
religious doctrine as the source of our
understanding of the universe and our place in it.
Copernicus up-ended the ancient Greek model of
the heavens by suggesting that the sun was at the
center of the solar system and that the planets
orbited in circles around it. However, there were
still problems with getting this theory to match
observation. At the beginning of the 17th century,
Kepler theorized (correctly!) that
Did this thehelp
article planets
you? moved

in elliptical orbits (not circular

Yes ones) and that the
speed of the orbits varied
No
according to the planets’

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distance from the sun. So much for the ideal

geometries of the Greeks!

Early Modern (c. 1600 - 1800)

It might seem strange to date the beginning of the
"modern era" to so long ago, but in many ways it
was the scientific, political and economic
revolutions of the 17th and 18th centuries that have
most shaped our own society.

Art historians study the Baroque style of the 17th

century. This was a time of extended and often
violent conflict between Catholics and Protestants
made all the more complex because of the growing
power of Europe’s great monarchies. It was a time
when nations grew in size, wealth and autonomy
and when national boundaries were hardened,
prefiguring the countries we know today (France,
Spain and England for example). This was also a
period of colonization, when European powers
divided and exploited the world’s natural resources
and people for their own benefit (think especially of
the African slave trade, or the subjugation and
forced conversion of the indigenous peoples of the
Americas).

Did this article help you?

Yes

No

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Hendrik Cornelisz Vroom, The Return to Amsterdam of the Second

Expedition to the East Indies, 1599, oil on canvas (Rijksmuseum)

The 1700s is often called the Enlightenment. In

many ways, it furthers the interest in the individual
seen in the Italian Renaissance and more widely
during the Protestant Reformation. Thinkers such
as Rousseau, Voltaire and Diderot asserted our
ability to reason for ourselves instead of relying on
the teachings of established institutions, such as
the Church. In art history we study the Rococo and
Neoclassical styles.

The American and French Revolutions date to this

period. The emerging middle classes (and later the
working-classes) began a centuries-long campaign
to gain political power, challenging the control of
the aristocracy and monarchy. Successive reform
movements (in this period and the 19th century)
and revolutions gradually extended the franchise
(the right to vote). Previously suffrage had been
Did this article help you?
limited to males who owned land or who paid a
certain amount in taxes.YesIt was only in the second
half of the 19th and theNo20th centuries that

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universal suffrage became the norm in Europe and

North America.

Modern (after c. 1800)

Capitalism became the dominant economic system
during this period (though it had its roots in the
Renaissance). Individuals risked capital to produce
goods in a currency-based market which depended
on inexpensive, waged labor. Labor eventually
organized into unions (latter-day guilds) and in this
way, asserted considerable influence. More broadly
shared political power was bolstered by overall
increases in the standard of living and the first
experiments in public education.

Steam-powered machines and unskilled laborers in

factories began to replace skilled artisans. London,
Paris, and New York led the unprecedented
population growth of cities during this period, as
people moved from the countryside or emigrated
to find a higher standard of living.

Did this article help you?

Yes

No
Pablo Picasso, Guernica, 1937, oil on canvas, 349 × 776 cm
(Museo Reina Sofia, Madrid)
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The 20th Century was the most violent in history. It

included two world wars, the Cold War, the
dismantling of colonialism and the invention of the
Totalitarian state. Dictators (Mussolini, Hitler, Stalin,
Idi Amin, Pol Pot, the successive leaders of North
Korea, etc.) imposed extreme political systems that
caused mass starvation, mass dislocations and
genocide. At the same time, the 20th Century was
marked by the struggle for human rights and the
rise of global capitalism.

Where artists had previously worked under the

instructions of wealthy patrons associated with the
church or state, in this period, art became part of
the market economy, and art itself came to be seen
as personal self-expression. The high value placed
on the individual, which emerged in ancient Greece
and Rome and then again in the Renaissance,
became the primary value of Western culture.
Where artistic styles (for example, Baroque) had
once covered numerous artists working over broad
regions and periods of time, in the late Nineteenth
and through the 20th Century, successive styles of
art change with increasing speed and fracture into
a kaleidoscope of individual artistic practices.

Where do we fit in?
Did this article help you?
We are immersed in our own time and it can be
Yes
difficult to see the world around us objectively. One
No
of the modern definitions of an artist, in fact, is

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someone who is particularly insightful about their

own cultural moment. Thanks to global capitalism,
social media and the internet, we are more
interconnected and interdependent than at any
other time in history. Some see this as a utopian
moment. With internet access, we can all contribute
to and benefit from what is being called the
Information Revolution. For others, the prevalence
of technology in our lives threatens our individuality
and privacy, and reduces us to a data point that can
be monetized by corporations like Facebook,
Google, and Apple. One thing is certain, throughout
the time periods sketched above, art has meant
different things, and it is likely to be differently
defined in the future.

The history of humanity is recorded in our visual

culture. Like the fate of previous civilizations, time
will eventually destroy much of the visual culture
that we are familiar with today. Future art historians
will seek to reconstruct the world we now live in, to
better understand the nuanced meanings that are
so familiar to us. Perhaps someday an art historian
will puzzle over an internet meme, a Torqued
Ellipse by Richard Serra, or school-yard graffiti.

Essay by Dr. Beth Harris and Dr. Steven Zucker

Did this article help you?

Yes

No

Ask a question...
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Questions Tips & Thanks Top Recent

Why was neither slavery nor the genocide and subjugation

of the indigenous people of North America included in the
Early Modern or Modern period?
0 votes • 7 comments • Flag 4 years ago by nnsanders

Because it's outside the scope of the article. Keep in

mind that the author is trying to summarize all of
western history in just a few thousand words.
• 308 votes • 9 comments • Flag
4 years ago by Heather Watkins

Show all 21 answers • Answer this question

Medieval society was described as being organized into

clearly defined strata. At the top was the king. Below were
lesser nobles. These lords in turn, ruled over peasants and
serfs (the vast majority of the population). Serfs were
laborers who were permanently bound to work the land
owned by their lord. Is it possible we are seeing history
repeating itself in the U.S. today as the middle class seems
to be disappearing leaving a few with power and money and
the vast majority of the population… (more)
• 68 votes • 5 comments • Flag
4 years ago by David Boyce

History does repeat itself. Those who understand

history can predict the future.
• 81 votes • 3 comments • Flag
Did this4article
years help you?
ago by MattW329
Yes
Show all 28 answers • Answer this question
No

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6/28/2017 (1) A brief history of Western culture (article) | Khan Academy

I'm confused about the difference between 'Middle Ages'

and 'Medieval'. Is there a difference?
• 32 votes • 1 comment • Flag
4 years ago by Katie Crebbin

Middle Ages and Medieval mean the same thing.

• 57 votes • Comment • Flag
4 years ago by Steven Zucker

Show all 14 answers • Answer this question

A small error, but in the phrase, "Medieval Islam was a leader

in science and technology and established some of world’s
great centers of learning (i.e. Cordoba)". shouldn't this be
"e.g. Cordoba", not "i. e. Cordoba"?
• 28 votes • 3 comments • Flag
4 years ago by Simone Cannon de Bastardo

Yes, it should be "e.g." e.g. is short for "exempli gratia",

latin for "for example". Cordoba is provided as an
example of the "world's great centers of learning."
• 42 votes • 5 comments • Flag
4 years ago by Todd

Show all 11 answers • Answer this question

How do people decide upon and name an era?

• 18 votes • 1 comment • Flag
4 years ago by Saanzan Bari

Eras are named in a veryDid practical way and for very

this article help you?
simple, practical reasons. Prehistoric describes a time
Yes
before there was writing and so a time before written
history. Ancient meansNohistorically old (ie: very old but
still after the introduction of writing and written
documents). Modern means existing now. And in
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between we have, obviously, the middle. Each era can

be further subdivided into early, middle, and late
periods. The Renaissance was the very beginning of
the early modern era but… (more)
• 21 votes • Comment • Flag
3 years ago by kismetics

Show all 16 answers • Answer this question

who are some not-as-commonly-known renaissance artists

and where can i learn about them?
• 14 votes • 2 comments • Flag
4 years ago by TheAwesomeHorseRidingSerafina

We just made a new video about a late Medieval artist,

Pietro Cavallini who is not well known but points to the
naturalism that is so important in later Renaissance art:
http://youtu.be/pwHzN9aV1WY
• 18 votes • 1 comment • Flag
4 years ago by Steven Zucker

Show all 6 answers • Answer this question

Is architecture and music a form of art

5 votes • 1 comment • Flag
4 years ago by Swami Prithvi

Yes absolutely! Music is a performing Art and

Architecture is a visual Art.
• 22 votes • Comment • Flag
4 years ago by Matsuyama

Show all 10 answers • Answer this question

Did this article help you?

Yes

what type of style is the baroque style, never heard about it

No
..............
3 votes • Comment • Flag
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4 years ago by nakshatra gayan

The Baroque style of painting and architecture comes

from a sort of reaction against the Renaissance era, and
is typified by many distinguishing factors. Baroque
artists tended to work with very large-scale projects
and designs, and filled their art with many details, both
dramatic, and intimate. While a Renaissance artist
would have used very symmetrical lines and shapes in
his painting or building, a Baroque artist would have
done something wild with his, using more curved lines,
and many… (more)
• 19 votes • 2 comments • Flag
3 years ago by Peterson

Show all 7 answers • Answer this question

"For others, the prevalence of technology in our lives

threatens our individuality and privacy, and reduces us to a
data point that can be monetized by corporations like
Facebook, Google, and Apple". I don't understand this
phrase. Please help.
4 votes • 2 comments • Flag 4 years ago by Megh

I know that this isn't mentioned, but with the recent

NSA controversy and surveillance scandals of the same
nature, people are starting to see the potential for
people with the right skills/power to abuse the internet
technology we now know and love. For years now,
we've been sharing increasing amounts of personal
information on our phones and computers, and the
realization that this information may not be private is a
tough one for most people.
• 14 votes • 1 comment
Did this •article
Flag help you?
4 years ago by yrfdralliwnhoj
Yes

Show all 9 answers • Answer this question

No

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Why doesn't art history cover art from more than a western
view? While the Greeks articulating what we're artists in
Africa, Australia or the Americas doing? It seems like global
art history is considered up to a point then only western art
history is concentrated on.
4 votes • Comment • Flag
3 years ago by 589553834524392

Please have a look at the following areas —

• Arts of the Islamic world:
https://www.khanacademy.org/humanities/art-islam
• South and East Asia:
https://www.khanacademy.org/humanities/art-asia
• Africa, Oceania, and the indigenous Americas:
https://www.khanacademy.org/humanities/art-africa-
oceania-americas
• Global modernisms in the 21st century:
https://www.khanacademy.org/humanities/global-…
(more)
8 votes • 2 comments • Flag
3 years ago by Steven Zucker

Show all 2 answers • Answer this question

Show more comments

Why look at art? Common questions about dates

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