Rhinoceroses, lions and mammoth feature on the walls of the Chauvet cave, in southern France

Painted and engraved images, on the rock face in a cave near Twyfelfontein in Namibia, date from this period

The walls of the complex of caves at Lascaux in France are covered, over the years, with a vast number of paintings of animals

The walls of Altamira, an extensive cave in Spain, are decorated with paintings and engraved images of horses, deer and above all bison

The Egyptians paint murals on the walls of tombs, designed to help the occupants in the next world

Wrestlers are painted on the walls of an Egyptian tomb, performing most of the holds and falls still in use today

A bull-fighting fresco in the palace of Knossos is linked with the island's cult of the bull

Egyptian tombs include paintings of a kind to help the occupants in the next world, whether in the Book of the Dead or on the walls

The eruption of a volcano, on the island of Thera, entombs and preserves houses with frescoes in the Minoan city of Akrotiri

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

Realistic portraits, done in hot wax and preserved in coffins at Fayyum, vividly depict inhabitants of Roman Egypt

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

The walls of caves at Ajanta are profusely decorated with Buddhist murals

At Dunhuang, an oasis on the Silk Road, as many as 500 caves are decorated with Buddhist murals

The Book of Durrow, one of the earliest of the great Celtic manuscripts, is written and illuminated in Ireland

The Lindisfarne Gospels are written and illuminated by Celtic monks on the Scottish island of Lindisfarne

Mosaic begins to yield to fresco, as the chief medium for the decoration of Christian churches

Tabriz under the Mongol Il-khans is the first centre of Persian miniature painting

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

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

The English king, Richard II, commissions a diptych (the Wilton Diptych) showing himself being presented to the Virgin and Child

The final style of medieval painting, common to all Europe, is known as International Gothic because of its slender and elegant figures

The three Limburg brothers illustrate for the duke of Berry the Très Riches Heures, one of the masterpieces of International Gothic

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

Robert Campin, also known as the Master of Flémalle, brings to Flemish painting a natural and everyday quality which is entirely new