This is a chronological list of periods in Western art history. An art period is a phase in the development of the work of an artist, groups of artists or art movement.
Ancient Classical art
Minoan art
Aegean art
Ancient Greek art
Roman art
Medieval art
Early Christian – 260 – 525
Migration Period – 300 – 900
Anglo-Saxon – 400 – 1066
Visigothic – 415 – 711
Pre-Romanesque – 500 – 1000
Insular – 600 – 1200
Viking – 700 – 1100
Byzantine
Merovingian
Carolingian
Ottonian
Romanesque – 1000 – 1200
Norman-Sicilian – 1100 – 1200
Gothic – 1100 – 1400
International Gothic
Renaissance
Italian Renaissance – late 13th century – c. 1600 – late 15th century – late 16th century
Renaissance Classicism
Early Netherlandish painting – 1400 – 1500
Early Cretan School – post-Byzantine art or Cretan Renaissance 1400 – 1500
Mannerism and Late Renaissance – 1520 – 1600, began in central Italy
Baroque to Neoclassicism
Baroque – 1600 – 1730, began in Rome
Dutch Golden Age painting – 1585 – 1702
Flemish Baroque painting – 1585 – 1700
Caravaggisti – 1590 – 1650
Rococo – 1720 – 1780, began in France
Neoclassicism – 1750 – 1830, began in Rome
Later Cretan School, Cretan Renaissance – 1500 – 1700
Heptanese School – 1650 – 1830, began on Ionian Islands
Romanticism
Nazarene movement – c. 1820 – late 1840s
The Ancients – 1820s – 1840s
Purismo – c. 1820 – 1860s
Düsseldorf school – mid-1820s – 1860s
Hudson River School – 1850s – c. 1880
Luminism – 1850s – 1870s, United States
Modern Greek art – 1830 – 1930s, Greece
Romanticism to modern art
Norwich school – 1803 – 1833, England
Biedermeier – 1815 – 1848, Germany
Realism – 1830 – 1870, began in France
Barbizon school – 1830 – 1870, France
Peredvizhniki – 1870 – 1890, Russia
Abramtsevo Colony – 1870s, Russia
Hague School – 1870 – 1900, Netherlands
American Barbizon School 1850 – 1890s – United States
Spanish Eclecticism – 1845 – 1890, Spain
Macchiaioli – 1850s, Tuscany, Italy
Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood – 1848 – 1854, England
Modern art
Note: The countries listed are the country in which the movement or group started. Most modern art movements were international in scope.
Impressionism – 1860 – 1890, France
American Impressionism – 1880, United States
Cos Cob Art Colony – 1890s, United States
Heidelberg School – late 1880s, Australia
Luminism (Impressionism)
Arts and Crafts movement – 1880 – 1910, United Kingdom
Tonalism – 1880 – 1920, United States
Symbolism (arts) – 1880 – 1910, France/Belgium
Russian Symbolism – 1884 – c. 1910, Russia
Aesthetic movement – 1868 – 1901, United Kingdom
Post-impressionism – 1886 – 1905, France
Les Nabis – 1888 – 1900, France
Cloisonnism – c. 1885, France
Synthetism – late 1880s – early 1890s, France
Neo-impressionism – 1886 – 1906, France
Pointillism – 1879, France
Divisionism – 1880s, France
Art Nouveau – 1890 – 1914, France
Vienna Secession (or Secessionstil) – 1897, Austria
Mir iskusstva – 1899, Russia
Jugendstil – Germany, Scandinavia
Modernisme – 1890 – 1910, Spain
Russian avant-garde – 1890 – 1930, Russia/Soviet Union
Art à la Rue – 1890s – 1905, Belgium/France
Young Poland – 1890 – 1918, Poland
Hagenbund – 1900 – 1930, Austria
Fauvism – 1904 – 1909, France
Expressionism – 1905 – 1930, Germany
Die Brücke – 1905 – 1913, Germany
Der Blaue Reiter – 1911, Germany
Flemish Expressionism – 1911–1940, Belgium
Bloomsbury Group – 1905 – c. 1945, England
Cubism – 1907 – 1914, France
Jack of Diamonds – 1909 – 1917, Russia
Orphism – 1912, France
Purism – 1918 – 1926, France
Ashcan School – 1907, United States
Art Deco – 1909 – 1939, France
Futurism – 1910 – 1930, Italy
Russian Futurism – 1912 – 1920s, Russia
Cubo-Futurism – 1912 – 1915, Russia
Rayonism – 1911, Russia
Synchromism – 1912, United States
Universal Flowering – 1913, Russia
Vorticism – 1914 – 1920, United Kingdom
Biomorphism – 1915 – 1940s
Suprematism – 1915 – 1925, Russia
UNOVIS – 1919 – 1922, Russia
Dada – 1916 – 1930, Switzerland
Proletkult – 1917 – 1925, Russia
Productijism – after 1917, Russia
De Stijl (Neoplasticism) – 1917 – 1931, Netherlands (Utrecht)
Pittura Metafisica – 1917, Italy
Arbeitsrat für Kunst – 1918 – 1921
Bauhaus – 1919 – 1933, Germany
The "Others" – 1919, United States
Constructivism – 1920s, Russia/Soviet Union
Vkhutemas – 1920 – 1926, Russia
Precisionism – c. 1920, United States
Surrealism – since 1920s, France
Acéphale – 1936 – 1939, France
Lettrism – 1942 –
Les Automatistes 1946 – 1951, Quebec, Canada
Devetsil – 1920 – 1931
Group of Seven – 1920 – 1933, Canada
Harlem Renaissance – 1920 – 1930s, United States
American scene painting – c. 1920 – 1945, United States
New Objectivity (Neue Sachlichkeit) – 1920s, Germany
Grupo Montparnasse – 1922, France
Northwest School – 1930s – 1940s, United States
Social realism – 1929, international
Socialist realism – c. 1920 – 1960, began in Soviet Union
Leningrad School of Painting – 1930s – 1950s, Soviet Union
Socrealism – 1949 – 1955, Poland
Abstraction-Création – 1931 – 1936, France
Allianz – 1937 – 1950s, Switzerland
Abstract Expressionism – 1940s, Post WWII, United States