Ancient Art History: A Timeline of Masterpieces
Standard of Ur
Artist: Unknown
Period: Early Dynastic
Dates: 2400-2600 BCE
Origin: Iraq
Historical Significance:
This piece is an early example of historical storytelling. It displays agriculture, trade, and the spoils of war. The Standard of Ur was found in a royal tomb.
Victory Stele of Naram-Sin
Artist: Unknown
Period: Mesopotamian
Dates: 2254-2218 BCE
Origin: Iraq
Historical Significance:
The limestone piece displays hierarchy of scale as Naram-Sin climbs a mountain to heaven after defeating his enemies.
Ishtar Gate
Artist: Unknown
Period: Neo-Babylonian
Dates: 562-604 BCE
Origin: Babylonian Iraq
Historical Significance:
One of the city’s most important monuments, the Ishtar Gate was built from blue glazed brick. The arched design is embroidered with animals. The gate was constructed as the city was restored to its former greatness.
Palette of King Narmer
Artist: Unknown
Period: Predynastic
Dates: 3000 BCE
Origin: Egypt
Historical Significance:
One of the earliest surviving labeled works in art history. The front depicts Narmer wearing the crown of Lower Egypt reviewing the severed heads of enemies. Two animals with intertwining necks symbolize a united kingdom. The back shows Narmer now wearing the crown of Upper Egypt while he slays a captured enemy.
Khafre Enthroned
Artist: Unknown
Period: Old Kingdom
Dates: 2520-2494 BCE
Origin: Giza, Egypt
Historical Significance:
The stone statue was meant to display the body of a perfect ruler in eternal stillness that was deemed appropriate for the afterlife.
Hatshepsut’s Mortuary Temple
Artist: Unknown
Period: New Kingdom
Dates: 1473-1458 BCE
Origin: Deir el-Bahri, Egypt
Historical Significance:
Hatshepsut was the first great female monarch. Her temple is decorated with an extensive series of painted reliefs recounting her divine birth, coronation, and great deeds.
Doryphoros (Spear Bearer)
Artist: Polykleitos
Period: High Classical
Dates: 450 BCE
Origin: Italy
Historical Significance:
One of the earliest sculptures that displayed human movements and cross-balancing throughout all parts of the body.
Dying Gaul
Artist: Epigonos
Period: Hellenistic
Dates: 230 BCE
Origin: Rome
Historical Significance:
Made in victory, showing a wounded man on his shield.
Venus de Milo
Artist: Alexandros
Period: Hellenistic
Dates: 150 BCE
Origin: Melos, Greece
Historical Significance:
Marble statue of Aphrodite exposing her chest while undressing in order to show the overtly sexual female form.
Parthenon
Artist: Phidias
Period: High Classical
Dates: 447 BCE
Origin: Athens, Greece
Historical Significance:
Lavishly decorated with statues and built with mathematical precision in its harmonious design and shallow dome structure.
Head of the Elderly Patrician
Artist: Unknown
Period: Veristic
Dates: 50 BCE
Origin: Osimo, Italy
Historical Significance:
Striking realism showing every detail, including wrinkles and folds of skin that come with old age.
Column of Trajan
Artist: Apollodorus of Damascus
Period: High Imperial
Dates: 112 CE
Origin: Rome
Historical Significance:
The 128 ft. tower was created to honor Emperor Trajan’s successes. It tells the story of the Dacian Wars in 150 episodes, depicting campaigns, battles, reliefs, and sacrifices.
The Pantheon
Artist: Hadrian
Period: High Imperial
Dates: 118 CE
Origin: Rome
Historical Significance:
A concrete temple of the gods, the Pantheon has the ancient world’s largest dome surrounded by decorative panels made to represent the starry heavens.
Arch of Constantine
Artist: Constantine
Period: Late Imperial
Dates: 312 CE
Origin: Rome
Historical Significance:
Panels represent the victory and success of an emperor.
Christ as Good Shepherd
Artist: Unknown
Period: Early Christian
Dates: 425 CE
Origin: Ravenna
Historical Significance:
Mosaic featuring Jesus robed in gold and purple among his flock with a realistic landscape and shadows rooted in naturalist and classical traditions.
Hagia Sophia
Artist: Anthemius of Tralles and Isidore of Miletus
Period: Early Byzantine
Dates: 532 CE
Origin: Constantinople
Historical Significance:
Pendentive construction using domes, a standing structure of religion, reaching up to the heavens.
Justinian, Bishop Maximus, and Attendants
Artist: Unknown
Period: Byzantine
Dates: 547 CE
Origin: Ravenna
Historical Significance:
Mosaic revealing the new Byzantine aesthetic, displaying the religious and political authority of the emperor with a purple robe and halo.
Dome of the Rock
Artist: Abd al-Malik
Period: Islamic
Dates: 687 CE
Origin: Jerusalem
Historical Significance:
Marks the triumph of Islam in Jerusalem. The towering gold-colored dome is a sacred space for Christians, Jews, and Muslims.
Mihrab
Artist: Unknown
Period: Islamic
Dates: 1354 CE
Origin: Iran
Historical Significance:
Masterpiece of Iranian tilework, including calligraphy of Koran prayers capable of being seen even while kneeling.
Saint-Sernin
Artist: Unknown
Period: Romanesque
Dates: 1070 CE
Origin: France
Historical Significance:
Grand aerial view, set on the pilgrimage route to Santiago de Compostela to accommodate travelers.
Last Judgment
Artist: Gislebertus
Period: Romanesque
Dates: 1120 CE
Origin: Autun, France
Historical Significance:
Made to scare sinners to the church. God presides over the separation of the blessed and the damned.
Saint Denis
Artist: Abbot Suger
Period: Early Gothic
Dates: 1140 CE
Origin: France
Historical Significance:
Marked the beginning of Gothic architecture: rib vaults, slender columns, and stained-glass windows.
Notre-Dame
Artist: Unknown
Period: High Gothic
Dates: 1225 CE
Origin: Paris
Historical Significance:
First use of the flying buttress on the grand scale of a cathedral to counter the thrust of nave vaults and walls.
Röttgen Pietà
Artist: Unknown
Period: Late Gothic
Dates: 1300 CE
Origin: Rhineland, Germany
Historical Significance:
Church sculpture showing Mary holding a dead Christ in her lap to show the suffering and grief of Mary and Christ’s followers. Shows the human body in motion.