Dates in Art History
When we start out at the very beginning, prehistory, it is unwritten. There was no record keeping and no way of keeping track of time. When you try to put a year to an event or try to place an era, we will use BCE or CE. BCE means Before Common Era and CE means Common Era. You may also know these terms, respectively, the same as BC and AD. BC refers to Before Christ and AD refers to Anno Domini, which means "the year of our Lord." These are Christian terms and because we are looking at the world's history and not the history of just Christians, it is more inclusive and correct to use the terms BCE and CE. So, you can see that the years before 1 is before the common era and as we move closer to the present day, it is more towards the common era.
When you're writing dates, it is imperative that you write BCE if you're referring to anything before year 1 (there is no year 0). It is not necessary to always write CE, except when you mean to be perfectly clear. This will happen often at the turn such as during the Ancient Roman era. Another example, if you mean to write 1333 BCE during the Egyptian Armarna period and you leave off BCE, you're writing 1333, which is during the Renaissance. BIG difference.
The second most confusing part of dates is centuries. For example, the year 734 is in the 8th century, the year 2018 is in the 21st century. This is because the year 1-99 is our first set of one hundred years, therefore it is the 1st century. The years 100-199 is in the second set of 100 years (2nd century), and so on.
When you're writing dates, it is imperative that you write BCE if you're referring to anything before year 1 (there is no year 0). It is not necessary to always write CE, except when you mean to be perfectly clear. This will happen often at the turn such as during the Ancient Roman era. Another example, if you mean to write 1333 BCE during the Egyptian Armarna period and you leave off BCE, you're writing 1333, which is during the Renaissance. BIG difference.
The second most confusing part of dates is centuries. For example, the year 734 is in the 8th century, the year 2018 is in the 21st century. This is because the year 1-99 is our first set of one hundred years, therefore it is the 1st century. The years 100-199 is in the second set of 100 years (2nd century), and so on.
Critical dates
*The following list of dates has been adapted from Dr. Robert Coad. I've added, subtracted, and adjusted many of the dates from the original list.
This list of dates is a very general assigned year that is meant to help students place major time periods on a timeline. They have been determined by major events during that time and/or are near the start or during the high point of that era. For example, the Carolingian critical date is 800 because Charlemagne, King of the Franks, was crowned in that year.
This list of dates is a very general assigned year that is meant to help students place major time periods on a timeline. They have been determined by major events during that time and/or are near the start or during the high point of that era. For example, the Carolingian critical date is 800 because Charlemagne, King of the Franks, was crowned in that year.
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BEFORE COMMON ERA
25,000 Paleolithic 5000 Neolithic 3000 Sumeria 2500 Old Kingdom Egypt Cycladic 1900 Babylon 1500 New Kingdom Egypt Minoan 1333 Armana Period Egypt 1250 Mycenean 900 Geometric Greek 700 Orientalizing Greek 550 Archaic Etruscan 539 Persia 480 Severe Greek 450 Classical Greek 350 Late Classical Greek 250 Hellenistic Greek Roman Republic |
COMMON ERA
250 Roman Late Empire 350 Early Christian 550 Byzantine 622 Beginning of Islam 600 Merovingian 800 Carolingian 1000 Ottonian 1100 Romanesque 1140 Early Gothic 1200 High Gothic 1250 Late Gothic 1300 Giotto/ Early Ren. 1450 15th c. Italian Ren. 1450 15th c. N. Euro. Ren. 1515 High Renaissance 1530 Mannerism 1550 16th c. N. Euro. Ren. 1650 Counter Ref. Baroque N. Bourgeois Baroque N. Aristocratic Baroque 1730 Rococo 1750 18th c. styles 1800 Neoclassical 1830 Romanticism 1650 Counter Ref. Baroque N. Bourgeois Baroque N. Aristocratic Baroque |
1730 Rococo 1750 18th c. styles 1800 Neoclassical 1830 Romanticism 1837 Photography 1850 Realism 1874 Impressionism 1886 Post-Impressionism 1890s Symbolism 1900 Art Nouveau 1905 Fauvism 1910 Cubism 1914 Futurism/German Exp. 1916 Dada 1925 Harlem Renaissance 1930 Constructivism/ Suprematism 1930 Surrealism/ Bauhaus 1930 DeStijl 1930 Mexican Muralists 1950 Abstract Expressionism 1960 Pop Art, Happenings 1970 Earth Art 1980 Post Modernism- present |
