25,000 years ago Stone Age sculptor and sex goddess
A Stone Age sculptor shapes a timeless image of female fecundity in the famous Willendorf Venus

3100 BC Pharaoh seen in personal triumph
The pharaoh Narmer celebrates a victory with a sculpted relief showing his personal dominance over the enemy

3000 BC Cycladic marble figures
The sculptors of the Cyclades produce stylized and formal figures, mainly female, in white marble

2500 BC Sphinx carved from rock
The largest sculpture of the ancient world, a sphinx with the face of the pharaoh Khufu, is carved in situ at Giza

1340 BC Nefertiti sits for her portrait
One of the regular sitters to the court sculptor Thutmose is the pharaoh's wife, Nefertiti

1000 BC American sculpture and big-headed Olmecs
Massive stone heads carved by the Olmecs provide a dramatic beginning to the story of American sculpture

645 BC Ashurbanipal's lion hunt in stone
Ashurbanipal commissions a magnificent relief of a lion hunt for his new palace at Nineveh

600 BC Olmec Wrestler
An Olmec sculptor creates the piece known today as the Wrestler

480 BC Male nude by Kritios
Kritios sculpts a naturalistic male nude, now the earliest surviving masterpiece in a central tradition of Greek art

477 BC Delphi charioteer in bronze
A life-size bronze of a racing chariot, with its driver and horses, is presented to Delphi to commemorate a victory in the games

446 BC Phidias sculpts Athena
Phidias sculpts a huge statue of the goddess Athena, to be the central feature of the new Parthenon

440 BC Myron sculpts (Discus Thrower
Myron sculpts the Discus Thrower, an outstanding example of the Greek ability to suggest movement

430 BC Phidias sculpts Zeus
Phidias creates a massive statue of Zeus, covered in gold and ivory, to stand in the temple at Olympia

292 BC Colossus of Rhodes
The Colossus, a giant statue of Helios the sun god, is erected beside the harbour of Rhodes

280 BC Lighthouse at Alexandria
A great lighthouse, subsequently one of the Seven Wonders of the World, is built on the island of Pharos, off Alexandria

120 BC Seven wonders of the world
Antipater, a Greek author living on the Phoenician coast, lists the seven wonders of the world

100 BC Venus of Milo
A Venus is carved in marble, and centuries later becomes an ideal of female beauty after being found on the island of Milo

100 BC Tradition of voluptuous Hindu sculpture
Hindu temple sculptors develop a sinuous and full-bodied style for the naked female form

100 Gandhara sculpture
A naturalistic style of Buddhist sculpture develops in the Gandhara region, part of modern Pakistan

100 Brutal Roman busts
Sculptors in the Roman empire develop the most brutally realistic convention in the history of portraiture

165 Marcus Aurelius on horseback
The bronze equestrian statue of Marcus Aurelius, on the Capitol in Rome, begins a long European tradition of public sculpture

230 Ardashir in rock face
Ardashir, the Persian king, commissions a relief of himself in triumphant mood - carved high on a rock face at Naqsh-e Rustam

500 Christian ivories
Small ivory panels, with Gospel scenes carved in relief, provide a delicate beginning to the story of Christian sculpture

550 Buddhist sculpture on Silk Road
Caves along the Silk Road are decorated with a profusion of carvings in the traditions of Mahayana Buddhism

1000? Stone heads on Easter Island
The huge stone heads standing on Easter Island are carved and erected at some time between the sixth and seventeenth century AD

1000 Lively figures on Romanesque columns
Lively and often fantastic figures, cunningly fitted around the capitals of columns, show the vigour of Romanesque sculpture

1000 Rock temples at Ellora
Buddhist, Hindu and Jain shrines are carved from the rock in the cave temples of Ellora, in India

1150 Gothic sculpture in Chartres
The biblical kings and queens in the west porch of Chartres cathedral are a striking early example of Gothic sculpture

1250 Brass sculpture of Ife
The Yoruba people of Ife create extraordinary sculptures in brass

1252 Cult of Amida in Japanese Buddhism
A huge bronze sculpture, known as Daibutsu and cast in Kamakura, depicts Amida, the Amitabha Buddha of Pure Land Buddhism

1259 New pulpit for Pisa
Nicola Pisano completes a pulpit for Pisa, borrowing details from Roman sarcophagi - an early example of a new interest in the classical past

1395 Burgundy employs Sluter
Philip II of Burgundy commissions from Netherlands sculptor Claus Sluter a work, the Well of Moses, which launches the northern Renaissance

1411 Donatello employed on Orsanmichele
The linen drapers of Florence commission a statue of St Mark from Donatello, who carves for Orsanmichele the first free-standing Renaissance sculpture

1499 Michelangelo's a Pietà for St Peter's
24-year-old Michelangelo provides for St Peter's in Rome an exquisite Pietà – the Virgin holding on her lap the dead Christ

1500 Brass sculpture of Benin
The people of Benin begin a lasting tradition of sculpture in brass, melted down from objects brought by traders

1501 Michelangelo carves David
Michelangelo begins work in Florence on a tall thin slab of marble, which he transforms into David

1505 Julius II commissions tomb from Michelangelo
Pope Julius II summons Michelangelo to Rome to create the pope's own elaborately sculpted tomb

1622 Bernini makes marble breathe
Bernini's youthful Pluto and Proserpina, suggesting soft flesh in cold marble, introduces the lively tradition of baroque sculpture

1667 Grinling Gibbons moves to England
Wood-carver Grinling Gibbons arrives from Holland to begin an immensely successful career in England

1731 Rysbrack sculpts momument to Newton
The Flemish-born sculptor Michael Rysbrack creates a momument to Newton in Westminster Abbey

1755 Winckelmann goes neoclassical
Johann Joachim Winckelmann publishes a book on Greek painting and sculpture which introduces a new strand of neoclassicism

1764 Catherine founds Hermitage
Catherine the Great founds the Hermitage as a court museum attached to the Winter Palace in St Petersburg

1782 Canova does nudes
Italian sculptor Antonio Canova sets up his studio in Rome and begins producing finely modelled nudes in the Greek style

1785 Sculptor sails Atlantic to do Washington
French sculptor Jean Antoine Houdon crosses the Atlantic to sculpt a statue of George Washington from the life at Mount Vernon

1815 Wellington admires nude Napoleon
Wellington is presented with a twice-life-size nude marble statue, by Canova, of his vanquished enemy Napoleon

1843 Nelson in Trafalgar Square
The statue of Nelson, by E.H. Baily, is placed on top of its column in Trafalgar Square

1885 Statue of Liberty in Paris
The Statue of Liberty, by Frédéric-Auguste Bartholdi, is assembled in Paris before being shipped across the Atlantic

1886 Statue of Liberty erected in USA
The Statue of Liberty, after crossing the Atlantic, is erected on Bedloe's island in the approach to New York harbour

1893 Eros in Piccadilly Circus
An aluminium statue of Eros, by English sculptor Alfred Gilbert, is unveiled in Piccadilly Circus

1902 Maillol exhibits in Paris
The sculptor Aristide Maillol has his first one-man exhibition, at the Galerie Vollard in Paris

1905 Epstein moves to London
The American sculptor Jacob Epstein moves from New York to settle in London

1905 Maillol succeeds at the Salon
Aristide Maillol has his first major success with a large sculpture at the Salon d'Automne in Paris

1912 Epstein designs tomb for Wilde
Jacob Epstein causes a stir with his provocatively modern angel on the tomb of Oscar Wilde in Père Lachaise

1913 Duchamp's Bicycle Wheel
Marcel Duchamp creates Bicycle Wheel, his first 'assisted readymade', consisting of the wheel screwed upside down on a painted wooden stool

1913 Boccioni sculpts continuity in space
Italian Futurist sculptor Umberto Boccioni suggests human movement in his Unique Forms of Continuity in Space

1914 Wyndham Lewis and Vorticism
Wyndham Lewis and others launch Vorticism with a new magazine, Blast

1914 Duchamp's Bottle Rack
Marcel Duchamp exhibits his first pure 'readymade', a bottle rack bought in a department store and displayed without alteration

1914 Tatlin and Constructivism
The Russian painter and sculptor Vladimir Tatlin develops an abstract style to which he gives the name Constructivism

1914 Brancusi has first solo show
The sculptor Constantin Brancusi has his first one-man exhibition, at Stieglitz's gallery in New York

1914 Epstein's Rock Drill
Jacob Epstein completes his sculpture The Rock Drill, the outstanding work of the Vorticist movement

1918 Gill's Stations of the Cross
Eric Gill completes his Stations of the Cross for Westminster Cathedral

1920 Tatlin's Monument to the Third International
Vladimir Tatlin's model for a gigantic Monument to the Third International becomes one of the most significant examples of Constructivism

1923 Duchamp's Bride Stripped Bare
Marcel Duchamp completes his large glass construction The Bride Stripped Bare by Her Bachelors, Even

1927 Mount Rushmore
Gutzon Borglum begins the massive task of carving portraits of four US presidents in the rock face at Mount Rushmore

1928 Henry Moore employed by London Underground
English sculptor Henry Moore receives his first public commission, for the headquarters of London Underground

1928 Hepworth has first solo show
English sculptor Barbara Hepworth has her first solo exhibition, at the Beaux Arts gallery in London

1928 Henry Moore's first exhibition
English sculptor Henry Moore has his first solo exhibition, at the Warren Gallery in London

1930 Matisse completes his Back series
Henri Matisse completes his Backsequence – four progressively simplified bronze relief sculptures (Nus de Dos)

1932 Calder's 'mobiles' get their name
Marcel Duchamp coins the term 'mobile' for Alexander Calder's new suspended art form

1937 Nicholson's first white relief
British artist Ben Nicholson does the first of his characteristic abstract white reliefs

1938 Hepworth and Nicholson marry
Leading British artists Barbara Hepworth and Ben Nicholson marry

1939 Hepworth and Nicholson in St Ives
Barbara Hepworth and Ben Nicholson move their studios to St Ives

1940 Moore moves to Much Hadham
After his London studio is bombed, Henry Moore moves to Much Hadham, where he works and lives for the rest of his life

1943 Picasso's Head of a Bull
Pablo Picasso transforms a bicycle's handlebars and saddle into Head of a Bull

1944 Moore's Madonna and Child
Commissioned by a church in Northampton to sculpt a Madonna and Child, British sculptor Henry Moore produces the first of his family groups

1947 Giacometti elongates his work
Swiss sculptor Alberto Giacometti begins to develop his characteristic style of tense elongated bronze sculpture

1960 Caro paints welded constructions
British artist Anthony Caro begins welding and painting abstract metal sculpture

1962 Coventry's new cathedral
Coventry's new cathedral is inaugurated, enhanced by a wide range of work by leading British artists

1982 Segal's Holocaust
George Segal's bronze monument The Holocaust is unveiled in San Francisco

1986 Tony Cragg's Raleigh
Tony Cragg's Raleigh is unveiled outside the Tate Gallery in his home town of Liverpool

1989 Serra's Tilted Arc removed
US sculptor Richard Serra's Tilted Arc is removed from Federal Plaza, New York, after legal action by local protesters

1993 Paolozzi's Wealth of Nations
Eduardo Paolozzi's vast bronze sculpture The Wealth of Nations is installed at South Kyle, near Edinburgh

1993 Whiteread casts a house in concrete
Rachel Whiteread's Untitled (House) is a concrete cast of the interior of a house in London's East End

1998 Angel of the North
Anthony Gormley's massive metal Angel of the North is erected near Gateshead in northern England