Knowing a work of art’s history and context can add so much to an understanding of it.  But with thousands of years of art history, and a whole globe full of artists, no one can ever hope to know everything.

That’s why it’s always so nice to find a good art history resource, and the Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History on The Metropolitan Museum of Art’s website is a great one.  It’s a remarkable exploration of the history of art, from prehistory to the present, covering the entire world, examining art in terms of chronology, geography and theme.  The Metropolitan Museum’s staff have created numerous timelines and many thematic essays and indexes, all illustrated by nearly 6000 works of art from The Museum’s own collection.  In addition, there is also a bibliography containing close to 2000 Metropolitan Museum of Art publications, as well as others.

The whole site is very well organized, and makes an enormous amount of information very easy to navigate through.  It works very well if you have a specific question in mind, and is also a fascinating site to just wander around in, seeing what you end up discovering.  When I was last there, I ended up discovering some amazing Inkan art, something I know little about.  The Timeline is well worth a look.