Ancient World

Four thousand years of art made before the fall of Rome, almost all of it by makers whose names are lost. Egyptian tomb painting shows people in strict profile: head and legs from the side, eye and shoulders from the front, because the aim was to record a body completely, not as it looked from one spot. Greek painters worked mostly on pottery, first black figures on red clay, then, from about 530 BC, red figures on a black ground, which let them draw muscles and the folds of cloth. Greek wall painting has almost all gone; Roman painting survives best where Vesuvius buried it, in the frescoes of Pompeii and Herculaneum with their painted architecture and gardens, and in mosaics such as the Alexander Mosaic. At the very end come the Fayum portraits of Roman Egypt, painted in wax on wood and laid over mummies: faces that look out as directly as any modern portrait.

What to look for: figures in profile and in bands (Egypt), red or black figures on a vase (Greece), fresco and mosaic with depth and shading (Rome).

1,568 works in the quiz. Play a round on Ancient World.

Artists

Phidias · Polykleitos · Praxiteles · Art of ancient Egypt · Ancient Greek art · Etruscan art · Art of Mesopotamia · Roman art · Indian art · Celtic art · Persian art · Pre-Columbian art · Aegean art · Byzantine art · Chinese art · Islamic art · Early Christian art · Pre-Romanesque art · Thutmose · Coptic art · Leochares · Scopas · Gu Kaizhi · Epigonus of Pergamum · Critius · Antenor · Apollonius of Athens · Athanadoros · Apollonius of Tralles

Best-known works

“Rosetta Stone” — Art of ancient Egypt, 195 BC
“Venus de Milo” — Ancient Greek art, 149–124 BC
“Bust of Queen Nefertiti” — Thutmose, 1349 BC
“Capitoline Wolf” — Etruscan art
“Winged Victory of Samothrace” — Ancient Greek art, 175 BC
“Laocoön and His Sons” — Athanadoros
“Standard of Ur” — Art of Mesopotamia, 2500 BC
“Apollo Belvedere” — Leochares
“Doryphoros” — Polykleitos, -450s
“Augustus of Prima Porta” — Roman art, 19 BC
“Admonitions Scroll” — Gu Kaizhi
“Merneptah Stele” — Art of ancient Egypt, 1199 BC
“Riace bronzes” — Ancient Greek art, 459 BC
“Venus Callipyge” — Ancient Greek art, -50s
“Dying Gaul” — Ancient Greek art, 229–219 BC
“Alexander Sarcophagus” — Ancient Greek art
“The Seated Scribe” — Art of ancient Egypt, 2619–2499 BC
“Serpent Column” — Roman art
“Belvedere Torso” — Apollonius of Athens
“Dendera zodiac” — Art of ancient Egypt, 49 BC
“Charioteer of Delphi” — Ancient Greek art, 477 BC
“Diadumenos” — Polykleitos, -430s
“Saqqara Bird” — Art of ancient Egypt
“Diana of Versailles” — Roman art, 125–150 AD
“Stele of the Vultures” — Art of Mesopotamia, -2460s
“Barberini Faun” — Roman art, 219 BC
“Hermes and the Infant Dionysus” — Praxiteles, 329 BC
“Apollo Sauroctonos” — Praxiteles, -350s
“Boxer at Rest” — Roman art, 328 BC
“Artemision Bronze” — Ancient Greek art, 459 BC