About Art movements in order
Every art movement on this site has its own page, the same way every tarot card does. Each one gives you the dates, the key artists, a few works to look at, what the period believed about magic and the unseen, and one small exercise. The labels on each page show what kind of claim you are reading: Historical, Later tradition or Modern.
How to use this timeline
Movements are not neat boxes. Artists lived through several, changed their minds and ignored labels that critics gave them later. The dates here are approximate and many periods overlap. I treat them like a map, not a fence.
If you are new, I suggest one of two paths. Either take the free Art History for Beginners course, which walks through these periods in seven lessons, or start from a painting you already love, find its movement below, and read one page backward and one page forward. The links at the bottom of every movement page make that easy.
Three turning points to watch for
If the whole timeline feels like too much, watch for three big turns. Each one changed what pictures were for, and each one changed how artists thought about the unseen.
- From gods to God, about 300 to 600 CE. The naturalistic bodies of Greek and Roman art give way to the gold, flat, staring figures of Byzantine icons. The goal is no longer to copy the world but to open a window onto heaven.
- The world as a stage, about 1400 to 1500. In the Early Renaissance, perspective turns the picture into a box of real space, and at the same moment scholars in Florence translate the Hermetic texts and revive learned magic. Art and magic both become arts of the mind.
- The inner world, about 1880 to 1915. From Symbolism to early abstraction, many artists stop painting what they see and start painting what they feel, dream or believe lies behind appearances. Theosophy, Spiritualism and the tarot revival run right through this turn.
What each movement page gives you
Every page follows the same shape, so you always know where to look. A short “at a glance” table gives you the dates, the main media, the key artists, one caution and where to see the works. Then come the main ideas and artists, with public domain images where I could find good ones. Each page has a section on the esoteric angle, where I separate what the records show from later legends and modern uses. It ends with a small exercise you can do at your desk or in a museum, and links to the movement before and after.
A note on images
All artworks shown on these pages are in the public domain, and each one is credited with its museum and licence. Works by artists still in copyright are described in words, with the museum where you can see them. I have chosen images without nudity, so some famous works are described rather than shown. The tarot pages are the one exception: they use the original 1909 Rider-Waite-Smith cards, as printed.