ArtThe collection
All periods
Thirty-three eras of human image-making, arranged floor by floor.
Deep Time
40,000 BCE – 3,000 BCE
The Ancient World
3,500 BCE – 500 CE
3,500 BCE – 539 BCE
Mesopotamian Art
Gods, kings, and ziggurats rising from the mud of two rivers
3,100 BCE – 30 BCE
Ancient Egyptian Art
Order, eternity, and the afterlife carved in stone
3,000 BCE – 1,100 BCE
Aegean Art
Bull-leapers and octopuses before the Greek world began
1,600 BCE – 220 CE
Ancient Chinese Art
Bronze, jade, and ancestor rites cast for eternity
1,500 BCE – 1532
Pre-Columbian Art
Temples, gold, and gods carved into the Americas' deep past
900 BCE – 100 BCE
Etruscan Art
Vivid tomb frescoes from Italy's forgotten forerunners of Rome
900 BCE – 31 BCE
Ancient Greek Art
The human body, measured, idealized, and set in motion
509 BCE – 476 CE
Ancient Roman Art
empire's face, cast in concrete, marble, and portrait bronze
321 BCE – 550 CE
Ancient Indian Art
empire's edicts and enlightenment's face, carved in stone
The Middle Ages
300 CE – 1400
200 CE – 526 CE
Early Christian Art
faith goes public, from catacomb symbols to gold-ground mosaic
300 CE – 800 CE
Migration Period Art
portable gold and knotted beasts, art made to travel
330 CE – 1453
Byzantine Art
faith held in gold mosaic for eleven centuries
500 CE – 1400
Medieval Art
a thousand years of faith, craft, and quiet transformation
618 CE – 907 CE
Tang Dynasty Art
cosmopolitan splendor along the Silk Road's imperial capital
750 CE – 1258
Islamic Golden Age Art
geometry, script, and light, refined across three continents
790 CE – 1100
Viking Art
gripping beasts and knotted ships, carved by seafaring smiths
960 CE – 1279
Song Dynasty Art
quiet mountains, refined ceramics, an empire that prized restraint
1000 – 1200
Romanesque Art
thick walls, round arches, saints carved to endure
1140 – 1500
Gothic Art
soaring stone, colored light, and faces turning almost human
The Early Modern World
1400 – 1750
1368 – 1644
Ming Dynasty Art
blue-and-white porcelain and a court reasserting Chinese order
1400 – 1600
The Renaissance
Europe relearns antiquity and invents the modern artist
1526 – 1857
Mughal Art
Persian precision meets Indian color under imperial patronage
1600 – 1750
The Baroque Era
Drama, light, and motion staged for church and crown
1603 – 1868
Edo Period Art
Two and a half centuries of peace, painted and printed
1720 – 1780
The Rococo Era
Pastel silk, garden flirtation, and aristocratic leisure
The Long 19th Century
1750 – 1914
1750 – 1830
The Neoclassical Era
Reason, virtue, and Rome revived after the excavations
1780 – 1850
The Romantic Era
Feeling, nature, and the sublime over classical reason
1837 – 1901
Victorian Art
empire, industry, and sentiment rendered in oil and iron
1871 – 1914
Belle Époque Art
Europe's last golden peace, gilded in gaslight and curling line
