550 BC Murals in Etruscan tombs
The murals of Etruscan tombs, such as the Tomb of the Lionesses in Tarquinia, give a lively glimpse of an earlier tradition in Greek art

250 Christians paint catacombs
The Christians of Rome use the catacombs as tomb chambers, and decorate the walls with murals on New Testament themes

1305 Scrovegni employs Giotto
Enrico degli Scrovegni employs Giotto to paint the cycle of frescoes in his chapel in Padua

1308 Siena employs Duccio
The cathedral authorities in Siena commission from Duccio the great altarpiece which becomes known as the Maestà

1423 Brancacci employs Masaccio
Masaccio paints some of the frescoes in the chapel of a Florentine silk merchant, Felice Brancacci, in Santa Maria del Carmine

1436 Alberti explains perspective
Perspective fascinates Italian Renaissance painters after the publication of Alberti's treatise on the subject, De Pictura

1443 Fra Angelico in San Marco
The Dominican convent of San Marco, in Florence, is provided with a serenely beautiful series of frescoes by Fra Angelico and his assistants

1450 Piero in San Sepolcro
Piero della Francesca paints masterpieces in his small home town of San Sepolcro

1450 Uccello fascinated by perspective
Paolo Uccello is interested in the laws of perspective, in works such as The Battle of San Romano

1460 Oil paint moves south
Oil paints, long familiar in the Netherlands, begin to be adopted in Italy in place of tempera

1460 Mantegna's art both classical and modern
Andrea Mantegna combines an interest in classical detail and recently discovered perspective

1465 Antonello da Messina uses oil paint
The Sicilian artist Antonello da Messina adopts the Flemish technique of painting in oils

1470 Botticelli impresses in Florence
Sandro Botticelli is established as one of the leading painters of Florence, working in particular for the Medici

1472 Leonardo joins painters' guild
Leonardo da Vinci joins the painters' guild in Florence, probably after training with Verrocchio

1475 Giovanni Bellini in Venice
Giovanni Bellini becomes the key figure in the development of the Renaissance style in Venice

1480 Birth of Venus and Spring
Botticelli paints the Birth of Venus and Spring for the villa of a Medici cousin of Lorenzo the Magnificent

1489 Leonardo dissects corpses
Leonardo da Vinci begins an unprecedented series of detailed anatomical drawings, based on corpses dissected in Rome

1505 Mona Lisa smiles back
Leonardo captures the enigmatic smile of Lisa Gherardini, known now as the Mona Lisa

1508 Michelangelo tackles Sistine ceiling
Michelangelo begins work in Rome on the ceiling of the Sistine chapel

1508 Raphael summoned to Rome
Raphael is summoned to Rome by Julius II and is given a major commission for frescoes

1509 Raphael's Stanze in Vatican.
Raphael begins work on the frescoes in the pope's apartment in the Vatican, known as the Stanze ('Rooms')

1510 Giorgione and Titian in Venice
Giorgione and Titian introduce the richness of colour which characterizes the high Renaissance style in Venice

1510 Michelangelo and mannerism
The startling colour contrasts in Michelangelo's Sistine ceiling anticipate one of the main characteristics of Italian mannerism

1510 Giorgione dies
The painter Giorgione dies after a short but extremely influential life in Venice

1517 Leonardo moves to France
Leonardo da Vinci moves to France, on the invitation of Francis I

1520 Development of mannerism
Mannerism develops in Italy in the work of the painters Pontormo and Rosso Fiorentino

1604 Carracci ceiling for Farnese palace
Annibale Carracci completes an influential ceiling fresco in the Farnese palace in Rome

1608 Rubens pioneers baroque in Rome
The Flemish painter Peter Paul Rubens completes an altarpiece in Rome which is an early masterpiece of the baroque

1622 Van Dyck begins five-year stay in Genoa
The Flemish painter Anthony van Dyck begins a five-year stay, and a successful career as a portrait painter, in Genoa

1624 Poussin moves to Rome
Nicolas Poussin arrives in Rome, where he develops the tradition of French classicism

1627 Claude follows Poussin to Rome
Claude Lorrain, basing himself like Poussin in Rome, paints classical landscapes suffused in light

1720 Canaletto concentrates on canals
Canaletto begins to specialize in views of the Venetian canals, finding his main customers among the British

1751 Tiepolo paints bishop's walls
Giovanni Battista Tiepolo begins a series of frescoes to decorate the prince bishop's residence in Würzburg

1754 Guardi paints views of Venice
Francesco Guardi, previously a painter of figures, begins to specialize in view of Venice, his native city

1806 Ingres moves to Rome
French painter Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres moves to Rome and lives there for 18 years

1819 Turner visits Venice
J.M.W. Turner makes the first of several visits to Venice, and discovers a rich seam of inspiration

1912 Balla's Dynamism of a Dog
Giacomo Balla attempts to paint movement in his futurist Dynamism of a Dog on a Leash