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Collections & sources

Rather than copy images, this section links to the museums that release them freely, arranged along the usual sweep of art history.

Open collections

1. Prehistoric & ancient art

c. 40,000 BC – AD 500

Cave paintings and carved figures, then the monuments, statues and reliefs of Mesopotamia, Egypt, Greece and Rome.

Smarthistory — free essays and videos from prehistoric art onward The Metropolitan Museum of Art — collection, with open-access images (Egyptian, Greek, Roman and Near Eastern art)

2. The Middle Ages

c. 500 – 1400

Religious art in the Byzantine and Gothic traditions, which used symbolic imagery, gold leaf and grand architecture to inspire faith rather than to imitate nature.

The Metropolitan Museum of Art — medieval collections, with open-access images J. Paul Getty Museum — collection, including illuminated manuscripts, with open-content images

3. Renaissance, Baroque & Rococo

c. 1400 – 1780s

The Renaissance revived classical ideas and introduced linear perspective and humanism; the Baroque favoured drama and deep emotion, and the Rococo a lighter, ornate style.

Rijksstudio — free high-quality images from the Rijksmuseum (Dutch Golden Age) National Gallery of Art — European painting and sculpture, with open-access images

4. The nineteenth century

Neoclassicism to Impressionism

A period that moved quickly from rational order, through emotional nature and honest daily labour, to the capture of fleeting light and colour.

National Gallery of Art — nineteenth-century French and American painting, with open-access images The Met's Open Access terms — what you may do with the images

Image terms differ from museum to museum and even from object to object; read each museum's own open-access page before reusing an image. This page is deliberately structured, not exhaustive — Asian, African, Islamic and Indigenous art are natural next additions, and the religious art of the other sections of this library will be linked here.