From Cave Paintings to the Internet A Chronological and Thematic Database on the History of Information and Media Art Outline

Acheulean or Mode 2 Industries
(Circa 1,650,000 BCE – 100,000 BCE)

The Earliest Use of Pigments
(Circa 400,000 BCE – 350,000 BCE)

The Earliest Known Forms of Human Adornment
(Circa 132,000 BCE – 98,000 BCE)

Early Attempt to Record Information or Early Art?
(Circa 75,000 BCE – 73,000 BCE)

The Earliest Examples of Figurative Art
(Circa 38,000 BCE – 33,000 BCE)

Information Recorded in Cave Paintings
(Circa 30,000 BCE)

The Earliest Zoomorphic / Anthropomorphic Sculpture
(Circa 30,000 BCE)

The Oldest Known Ceramic Figurine
(29,000 BCE – 25,000 BCE)

The Earliest Representation of Spun Thread
(25,000 BCE)

The Venus of Willendorf
(Circa 24,000 BCE – 22,000 BCE)

One of the Earliest Known Realistic Representations of a Human Face
(Circa 23,000 BCE)

Cylcons
(Circa 18,000 BCE)

A Wallpainting that Could be a Landscape or a Map
(Circa 6,200 BCE)

One of the Earliest Surviving Examples of Narrative Relief Sculpture and Egyptian Hieroglyphs
(Circa 3,200 BCE)

One of the Earliest Surviving Works of Narrative Relief Sculpture, Looted in the Iraq War
(Circa 3,200 BCE – 3,000 BCE)

"The World's First Typewritten Document" - James Chadwick
(Circa 2,000 BCE – 1,700 BCE)

Wooden Drawing Board with a figure of Thutmose III
(Circa 1,450 BCE)

Self-Portrait of an Egyptian Scribe with his Autograph Signature
(Circa 1,292 BCE – 1,069 BCE)

The Earliest Chinese Inscriptions in Bronze
(Circa 1,200 BCE – 1,045 BCE)

The Oldest Known Evidence of the Phoenician Alphabet
(Circa 1,000 BCE)

Early Example of Assembly Line Production
(215 BCE – 210 BCE)

The Portland Vase: Classical Conoisseurship, Influence, Destruction & Conservation
(30 BCE – 25 CE)

The Romance Papyrus
(Circa 100 CE – 200 CE)

Possibly the Earliest Record of Rabbinic Texts
(244 CE – 256 CE)

The Earliest Egyptian Printed Cloth
(Circa 350 CE)

The Earliest Dated Codex with Full-Page Illustrations
(354 CE)

The Oldest Surviving Illustrated Biblical Manuscript
(Circa 398 CE)

The Charioteer Papyrus
(Circa 400 CE)

Herald of Christianity and Magus
(Circa 400 CE)

The Oldest Surviving Consular Diptych -- an Object that Could be Used as a Writing Tablet
(406 CE)

The Earliest Treasure Bookcovers Made of Ivory
(Circa 450 CE)

The Only Illustrated Homer from Antiquity
(493 CE – 508)

Probably the Most Beautiful of the Earliest Surviving Scientific Codices
(Circa 512)

Considered the Oldest, Well-Preserved Illustrated Biblical Codex
(Circa – 540)

The First Surviving Metal Bookcovers
(Circa 550)

One of the Oldest Surviving Illuminated Manuscripts of the New Testament
(Circa 555)

The Ashburnham Pentateuch
(Circa 580 – 620)

The Syriac Bible of Paris
(Circa 585)

The Earliest Western Metalwork Bookcovers
(Circa 600)

Possibly the Oldest Irish Manuscript
(Circa 650)

Creation of the Lindisfarne Gospels
(715 – 720)

The Earliest Known Example of an Historiated Initial and the Earliest Witnesses to Bede's Text
(Circa 750)

The Stockholm Codex Aureus, Looted Twice by Vikings
(Circa 750)

One of the Great Treasures of Early Carolingian Metalwork
(760)

The Gellone Sacramentary: a Masterpiece of Carolingian Manuscript Illumination
(Circa 790)

The First Treasure Binding Associated with its Original Codex
(790 – 795)

The Book of Kells
(Circa 800)

Charlemagne Renews Book and Library Culture
(800 – 877)

Carmina Figurata Word Pictures
(Circa 810)

An Unusual, Energetic Style of Illustration
(Circa 816 – 841)

"A Perfect Relationship between Text and Picture"
(Circa 820 – 830)

Lavishly Illuminated for Charles the Bald
(846)

Byzantine Iconophile Psalter from the Time of the Iconoclasm
(Circa 850)

The Codex Aureus of St. Emmeram
(Circa 870)

The Magnificent Upper Cover of the Lindau Gospels
(Circa 875)

Possible Inspiration for Picasso's Guernica?
(June 19, 960)

The Earliest Picture Cycle of the Life of Christ in Manuscript Illumination
(Circa 977 – 993)

Construction of the First Camera Obscura
(1012 – 1021)

Book-Shaped Reliquary from the Circle of the Master of the Registrum Gregorii
(Circa 1020)

The Norman Conquest Recorded on the Bayeux Tapestry
(1077)

Medieval Handbook of Applied Arts Including Book Production
(1100 – 1120)

The Hunterian Psalter
(Circa 1170)

The Suanpan
(Circa 1200)

Le Roman de la Rose: A Medieval Best Seller
(Circa 1230 – 1275)

A Celebrated Medieval Map & the Greatest Extant 13th Century Pictorial Manuscript
(Circa 1300)

The Oldest Surviving Ashkenazi Illuminated Manuscript
(Circa 1300)

The Metz Pontifical: An Unfinished Medieval Masterpiece
(Circa 1303 – 1316)

The Earliest Depiction of Eyeglasses in a Painted Work of Art
(1352)

The Most Famous Late Medieval Illuminated Manuscript
(Circa 1413 – 1416)

The Earliest Dated European Woodblock Print
(1418)

The Earliest Known Artist to Produce Copperplate Engravings
(1435 – 1455)

Description of Textile Printing
(1437)

Model Book for Manuscript and Printed Book Illumination
(Circa 1450)

The Giant Bible of Mainz
(April 4, 1452 – July 9, 1453)

Three Ways that Printing Changed Manuscript Culture
(Circa 1470)

Some of the Earliest Evidence of Collaboration between Author and Printer
(1474)

Leonardo Builds a Programmable Mechanical Automaton
(1478)

Leonardo's Anatomical Drawings
(Circa 1485 – 1516)

The First Illustrated Travel Book: An International Bestseller
(February 11, 1486)

Discovery of a Lost Painting by Michelangelo?
(1487 – 1488)

The Most Complete Pattern Book from Medieval Britain
(Circa 1490)

The Nuremberg Chronicle
(July 12 – December 1493)

The "Book Fool"
(February 11, 1494)

The Persistence of Illuminated Manuscript Production
(Circa 1499)

The Illustration of a Printing Office and Bookshop in a Printed Book
(February 18, 1499)

Michelangelo's David
(September 13, 1501 – September 8, 1504)

Collecting Books and Prints in the Early Sixteenth Century
(Circa 1510 – 1539)

The First Work Since the Time of Galen to Show Original Anatomical Information Based upon Personal Investigation and Observation
(1521)

The Aesthetic Anatomy of Human Proportion
(1528)

First Accurate, Detailed Woodcuts of Plants Taken Directly from Nature
(1530 – 1536)

With Self-Portraits of the Artists
(1542)

Unprecedented Blending of Scientific Exposition, Art and Typography
(June 1543)

A Condensation or Road-Map to the Fabrica
(June 1543)

Erotic Images Made Acceptable by their Adaptation for Medical Purposes
(1545)

Renaissance Surgery and Graphic Arts
(1545)

Masterpiece of High Renaissance Manuscript Illumination
(1546)

Classic of Mannerist Book Illustration and Printing
(June 28, 1560)

Depiction of Record Keeping by Pieter Breughel the Younger
(1620 – 1640)

At Attempt to Record All Human Knowledge in Visual Form
(Circa 1625 – 1665)

Mezzotint Invented
(1642)

The First Treatise on Engraving and Etching
(1645)

The First Published Illustrated Catalogue of an Art Collection
(1660)

The First Book on Mezzotint
(1662)

The First Book on Print Collecting
(1666)

Anatomy in the Style of Dutch Still-Life Painting
(1685)

Reflecting Surrealism Centuries Before Surrealism Became Fashionable
(1701 – 1725)

The Three Primary Colors
(1708)

Invention of Color Printing
(1719)

Possibly the First Color-Printed Mezzotint Published
(1721)

First Published Description of Color Printing
(1725)

First Use of Color Printing in a Medical or Scientific Book
(1736)

The Cool, Elegant Aesthetic of Anatomy
(1747)

The First Catalogue Raisonne in Western Art History
(1751)

Anatomy for Artists including Fantastical Elements
(1779)

Operations of a French Enlightenment Printing Shop Depicted
(Circa 1782)

In One Gigantic Reading Room the Entire "Memory of the World"
(1785)

Early Archaeological Exploration of Fertility Rites
(1786)

Invention of Lithography
(1796)

Lithography by Zinc Plates
(1803)

Invention of Chromolithography
(1818)

Invention of Chromolithography?
(1818)

Steel Engraving
(Circa 1820)

Genesis of the "Three-Age" System in Archaeology
(1836)

Daguerreotypes: The First Commonly Used Photographic Process
(January 7, 1839)

Negatives Might be Used to Produce Multiple Images
(January 31, 1839)

The First Illustrated News Publication
(May 12, 1842)

The First Relief Half-Tone
(1854)

Foundation of the National Portrait Gallery
(December 2, 1856)

Probably the Earliest Paper on Paleolithic Mobiliary Art
(1864)

"Ridgway Colors"
(1912)

The Armory Show
(February 17 – March 15, 1913)

Origins of the X-Planes and the Space Shuttle
(1933)

The Bettmann Archive; the Beginning of the Visual Age
(1938)

Perhaps the First Computer-Controlled Aesthetic System
(1953)

The First to Draw the Human Body Using a Computer
(1964)

The First Book on Computer Graphics
(1965)

The Machine as Seen at the End of the Mechanical Age
(1968)

The First Serious Exhibition of Computer Art
(August 2 – October 20, 1968)

Fractals
(1975)

The First Digital Image Database of Cultural Materials
(1987)

Encoded Sculpture
(November 3, 1990)

The First Full-Time Online Webcam Girl
(April 1996 – 2003)

Rome Reborn on Google Earth
(1997)

Digital Scriptorium
(November 1997)

The Digital Michelangelo Project
(1998)

Grand Text Auto
(May 2003)

Pixar at MOMA
(December 14, 2005)

Damage to Codex Atlanticus Caused by Efforts at Preservation
(April 2006)

The "Print Clock" Method
(June 20, 2006)

The World's Oldest Oil Paintings Restored After Taliban Dynamite
(February 19, 2008)

Raphael's Madonna of the Goldfinch Restored 450 Years after it was Nearly Destroyed
(October 30, 2008)

A Virtual Exhibition
(November 18, 2008)

Probably the Most Expensive Single Volume Printed Edition Ever Published
(December 2, 2008)

The BBC Intends to Place 200,000 Oil Paintings on the Internet
(January 28, 2009)

Discovery of a Previously Unknown Self- Portrait of Leonardo
(February 28, 2009)

The First Magazine Cover Created as iPhone Art
(June 1, 2009)

Discovery of Unknown Portrait by Leonardo Confirmed by a Fingerprint
(October 13, 2009)

The Finest Roman Cameo Glass Vase Discovered
(October 13, 2009)

David Hockney's iPhone Art
(October 22, 2009)

The First Superman Comic Book sells for $1,000,000.
(February 22, 2010)

The Most Successful Art Forger Ever
(May 12 – August 22, 2010)