We got an introduction to the classification of periods in art history by playing a game. We worked in pairs with a game board, where a chronology of representative works was arranged around a square. Dick showed works of art on a screen, and each pair had to agree on what period the work was from, then the whole class gave their guesses and we discussed it. After classifying about twenty works, we had a pretty strong “spatial” sense of “where” in time the various periods fall relative to each other, and what some of the general identifying characteristics are.

The chronology starts in the bottom right corner, and moves clockwise. I’ve followed Dick’s labeling in blocking the periods out in the lists below.

1. Nature dominated
   Paleolithic
   Egyptian
   Aegean
   Greek geometric
   Greek archaic
2. Man dominated
   Greek classic
   Greek Hellenistic
   Roman
3. God dominated
   Early Christian / Byzantine
   Romanesque
   Gothic
   Late Gothic
   Early Renaissance
4. Man dominated
   High Renaissance
   Mannerism
   Baroque
   Neo-classic
   Romanticism
   Realism
   Impressionism
   Post-impressionism
   Fauvism
5. Science dominated
   Futurism
   Cubism
   Surrealism
   De Stijl
   Dada
6. Science & technology dominated
   Abstract expressionism
   Pop art / Op art
   Conceptual
   Photo-realism
   Post-modernism

What is the central concern of the art of this time? What world view is represented in this work? How does the artist understand his fate and role in the world: Man as a victim of nature? Man as a servant of God? Man imposing his will over nature? Is the art concerned with faithfully representing reality, or the significance of reality? These are some of the important questions to consider in deciding which period a work is from.