1590 St Peter's is complete
The dome of St Peter's is finished, completing nearly a century of construction on Europe's largest church

1600 Oratory launches oratorio
A performance in the Oratory in Rome, with music by Emilio de' Cavalieri, is in effect the first oratorio

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

1607 Monteverdi makes opera history
Claudio Monteverdi presents Orfeo, the first opera to win a lasting place in the international repertory

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

1608 Rubens back in Antwerp
Rubens returns from Italy to Antwerp, where he soon establishes Europe's most successful and prolific studio

1618 First proscenium theatre
The Teatro Farnese in Parma is the first to have a proscenium arch, framing perspective scenery painted on flat wings

1618 Van Dyck works in Rubens' studio
The 19-year-old Flemish painter Anthony van Dyck is employed by Rubens in Antwerp as his chief assistant

1620 Hals is the man for a group portrait
The Dutch painter Frans Hals displays exceptional brilliance in his group portraits, including several of the civic guards of Haarlem

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

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

1623 Velazquez is court painter
Diego Velazquez becomes court painter to the king of Spain - a post which he will hold for the remaining thirty-seven years of his life

1625 Rubens celebrates French queen
Rubens completes a great narrative sequence of twenty-one paintings to celebrate the achievements of Marie de Médicis

1628 Rembrandt's first self-portraits
The Dutch painter Rembrandt van Rijn develops a life-long interest in self-portraiture

1629 Bernini is architect to St Peter's
The sculptor and architect Giovanni Lorenzo Bernini is given the task of adding the drama of baroque to the newly completed St Peter's in Rome

1631 Rembrandt moves to Amsterdam
Rembrandt moves from his home town of Leiden to set up a studio in Amsterdam

1632 Van Dyck moves to London
Van Dyck moves to London and becomes portrait painter to the British court and aristocracy

1634
Francesco Borromini begins work on his intricate baroque masterpiece, the Monastery of San Carlo alle Quattro Fontane (1634-43), in Rome

1634 Rembrandt marries Saskia van Uylenburgh
Rembrandt marries Saskia van Uylenburgh, who will feature in many of his paintings

1636 Rubens ceiling in Banqueting House
A painted ceiling by Rubens, celebrating the Stuart dynasty, is installed in the Banqueting House in Whitehall

1653 Vermeer paints quietly in Delft
Jan Vermeer marries and begins a quiet career as a painter and art dealer in his home town of Delft

1655 Velazquez's Toilet of Venus
Diego Velazquez paints his only surviving female nude, The Toilet of Venus (known as the Rokeby Venus)

1656 Velazquez paints himself in royal role
Velazquez, in Las Meninas, paints himself painting the king and queen of Spain

1664 Leading team head-hunted for Versailles
Louis XIV commissions a well-established team of designers to provide him with a spectacular palace and garden at Versailles

1667 Bernini colonnade for Rome pilgrims
Bernini's great curving colonnade is completed, to form the piazza in front of St Peter's

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

1679
19-year-old Alessandro Scarlatti has a great success in Rome with Gli Equivoci nel Sembiante, the first of his 115 operas

1689 Chelsea schoolgirls premiere Purcell
Young gentlewomen in Chelsea give the first performance of Purcell's Dido and Aeneas

1695
Domenico Scarlatti gets his first teacher

1697 Alessandro Scarlatti introduces a new form of prelude
In his opera La Caduta de' Decemviri, Alessandro Scarlatti introduces a new form of prelude, later known as the Italian overture, which is an important stage in the development of the symphony

1709
In a friendly keyboard contest in Rome between Handel and Domenico Scarlatti, the result is a draw – Handel being the winner on the organ and Scarlatti on the harpsichord

1710 New St Paul's completed
Christopher Wren's new domed St Paul's cathedral is completed in London

1712
The violinist Archangelo Corelli composes his Christmas Concerto, the best known of his influential group of twelve Concerti Grossi

1714
Cosmas Damian Asam begins work on a highly theatrical creation, the Benedictine Abbey of Weltenburg (1714-1735), joined by his younger brother Egid Quirin from 1721

1720 France pioneers rococo
The lighter rococo style, beginning in France, becomes an extension of the baroque

1720 Development of symphony
The symphony begins to develop as a musical form, deriving from the overtures of operas

1720 Bach's Little Keyboard Book
Johann Sebastian Bach compiles the Little Keyboard Book a set of pieces to teach his eldest son, Wilhelm Friedemann Bach

1721 Watteau paints shop sign
Jean-Antoine Watteau paints the most splendid shop sign in history, for his friend Gersaint

1721 Bach writes Brandenburg Concertos
Johann Sebastian Bach writes the six Brandenburg Concertos for his employer at the court of Köthen

1722 The Well-Tempered Clavier
J.S. Bach publishes The Well-Tempered Clavier, a collection of 24 Preludes and Fugues

1725 Vivaldi scores the seasons
Vivaldi publishes the set of violin concertos known as The Four Seasons

1727 St Matthew Passion
J.S. Bach conducts the first performance of his St Matthew Passion in the St Thomas's church in Leipzig

1727 Zadok the Priest
Handel composes Zadok the Priest for the crowning of George II, and it has been sung at every subsequent British coronation

1732 Handel develops English oratorio
With the performance of Esther Handel taps a rich new vein, the English oratorio

173538
The Asam brothers build at their own expense the tiny and brilliant baroque church of St John Nepomuk, attached to their own house in Munich

1744 2nd part of Well-Tempered Clavier
J.S. Bach publishes another set of 24 Preludes and Fugues, as an addition to his previous Well-Tempered Clavier

1746 Frederick begins Sans Souci
Frederick the Great begins to build the summer palace of Sans Souci at Potsdam

1749 Mass in B Minor
Shortly before his death (in 1750) J.S. Bach completes his Mass in B Minor, worked on over many years

1751
By the time of his death the prolific output of Domenico Scarlatti includes 555 sonatas, all but a few for his own instrument, the harpsichord