1000 – 1200     Romanesque

1150 – 1500        Gothic

1350 – 1600      Renaissance

1300 – 1700      Haute-epoch

These are the major periods of art to cover the first 750 years of the second millennia with undoubted argument over which timescale they spanned dependent upon art, architecture and professional opinion. The Romanesque period showed a vigorous vibrant style which tended to follow Byzantine iconography such as Christ in Majesty. The Gothic period that followed on from the Romanesque was much freer in its depiction of Religious stories and was seen in frescoes, panel painting and stained glass. There then came a period known as International Gothic style prior to the Renaissance. The Renaissance (rebirth) originated in Italy and took it’s art from Classical antiquity and developed the artistic skills of proportion and foreshortening.