Criteria of Periodization in the History of European Art
Meyer Schapiro|H. W. Janson|E. H. Gombrich
1. Apart from mathematical divisions (centuries, millenniums) and the prehistoric tool site names with their numbered stages, period have been of three kinds: political-dynastic, cultural, aesthetic. Examples first are Carolingian, Ottonian, Tudor; second, Mediaeval, Renaissance; third, Romanesque, Classic, Mannerist, Baroque. Each type name originally implied a theory about art it designated. The aesthetic more common, but others survive, often changed sense. We no longer accept original meanings Romanesque Gothic, we continue to use these as conventions new historical boundaries.
New Literary History