The birth of art : up to 500 BC -- The art of power : 500 BC-AD 1000 -- The blending of cultures : 1000-1300 -- A new beginning : 1300-1500 -- Perfecting the art : 1500-1600 -- Past and present : 1600-1800 -- Towards the modern world : after 1800.

The Chauvet cave / Jean Clottes -- The Mycerinus triad / Tom Phillips -- Olmec colossal head 8 / Michael D. Coe -- Ashurbanipal's lion hunt / Julian Reade -- The "New York kouros" / Jaś Elsner -- The "seven against Thebes" relief / Giovanni Colonna -- The Ludovisi "throne" / Robin Osborne -- The Riace bronzes / Robin Osborne -- The lady of Elche / Rubí Sanz Gamo -- The Villa of the Mysteries, Pompeii / Mary Beard -- The equestrian statue of Marcus Aurelius / Nancy H. Ramage -- The Buddha preaching the first sermon / John Guy -- The Virgin and Child with angels and two saints / Jaś Elsner -- Moche portrait vessel / Christopher B. Donnan -- The relief of Ahkal Mo' Nahb III, ruler of Palanque / Michael D. Coe -- Zhang Zeduan, Spring festival on the river / Roderick Whitfield -- Vishnu reclining on the serpent Anantha / John Guy -- The Vézelay tympanum / Jean-René Gaborit -- The Cefalù mosaics / John Julius Norwich -- The reclining Buddha of Polonnaruwa / Antony Gormley -- Unkei, Muchaku and Seshin / Donald F. McCallum -- The stained glass of Chartres Cathedral / Painton Cowen -- Ife copper mask / Suzanne Preston Blier -- Giotto, the Scrovegni Chapel frescoes / Giuseppe Basile -- Kim U-mun and other artists, Water-moon Avalokiteshvara / Youngsook Pak -- Claus Sluter, the "Well of Moses" / Susie Nash -- Hubert and Jan Van Eyck, the Ghent altarpiece / Christopher Dell -- Masaccio and Masolino, the Brancacci Chapel frescoes / Ornella Casazza -- Fra Angelico (and Lorenzo Monaco), The Deposition / Magnolia Scudieri -- Rogier van der Weyden, The descent from the cross / Gabriele Finaldi -- Donatello, David / Ulrich Pfisterer -- Aztec eagle knight / Susan Toby Evans -- Piero della Francesca, the Montefeltro altarpiece / Marilyn Aronberg Lavin -- Alessandro Botticelli, The birth of Venus / Paul Joannides -- Albrecht Dürer, Self-portrait / Ulrich Pfisterer -- Leonardo da Vinci, Portrait of Lisa del Giocondo (Mona Lisa) / Martin Kemp -- Giovanni Bellini, the San Zaccaria altarpiece / Peter Humfrey -- Hieronymus Bosch, The garden of earthly delights / Grayson Perry -- Michelangelo, the Sistine Chapel ceiling / William E. Wallace -- Raphael, The school of Athens / Ingrid D. Rowland -- Matthias Grünewald, the Isenheim altarpiece / Joseph Leo Koerner -- Titian, The Assumption of the Virgin / Francesco da Mosto -- Sultan Muhammad, The court of Gayumars / David J. Roxburgh -- Qiu Ying and Lu Shidao, Pavilions in the mountains of the immortals / Craig Clunas -- Pieter Bruegel the Elder, The proverbs / Stephan Kemperdick -- Tintoretto, The Crucifixion / Quentin Blake -- El Greco, The burial of the Count of Orgaz / Xavier Bray -- Caravaggio, The supper at Emmaus / Helen Langdon -- Artemisia Gentileschi, Judith slaying Holofernes / Germaine Greer -- Bichitr, Portrait of Jahangir preferring a Sufi shaikh to kings / Deborah Swallow -- Peter Paul Rubens, Minerva protects Pax from war ("Peace and war") / David Jaffé -- Rembrandt van Rijn, The night watch / Christopher Dell -- Gianlorenzo Bernini, The ecstasy of Saint Teresa / Marina Warner -- Nicolas Poussin, The Phocion paintings / Pierre Rosenberg -- Diego Velázquez, Las meninas / Avigdor Arikha -- Johannes Vermeer, The art of painting / Arthur K. Wheelock Jr. -- Jean-Baptiste-Siméon Chardin, The jar of olives / Pierre Rosenberg -- Utamaro, "Lovers" from Erotic book: the poem of the pillow / Julie Nelson Davis -- Francisco de Goya, The third of May, 1808 / Manuela Mena Marqués -- Caspar David Friedrich, The wanderer above the sea and mist / Werner Busch -- Eugène Delacroix, Liberty leading the people / Barthélemy Jobert -- J.M.W. Turner, The burning of the Houses of Lords and Commons, October 16, 1834 / Andrew Wilton -- Thomas Cole, The oxbow / Michael J. Lewis -- Claude Monet, Wild poppies / John House -- Edgar Degas, Le petite danseuse de quatorze ans / Quentin Blake -- Édouard Manet, A bar at the Folies-Bergère / Philip Pullman -- Vincent Van Gogh, Sunflowers / Louis van Tilborgh -- Auguste Rodin, Iris, messenger of the gods / Anthony Caro -- Paul Cézanne, Apples and oranges / Christopher Dell -- Vilhelm Hammershøi, Dust motes dancing in the sunbeams (Sunbeams) / Anne-Birgitte Fonsmark.