Greece. Greek art began in the Cycladic and Minoan civilization, and gave birth to Western classical art in the subsequent Geometric, Archaic and Classical periods. It absorbed influences of Eastern civilizations, of Roman art and its patrons, and the new religion of Orthodox Christianity in the Byzantine era and absorbed Italian and European ideas during the period of Romanticism, until the Modernist and Postmodernist. Greek art is mainly five forms: architecture, sculpture, painting, pottery and jewelry making. Further information: Cycladic art, Minoan civilization, Mycenean Greece, Archaic Greek art, Ancient Greek art, Ancient Greek sculpture, Ancient Greek pottery, and Hellenistic art Artistic production in Greece began in the prehistoric pre-Greek Cycladic and the Minoan civilizations, both of which were influenced by local traditions and the art of ancient Egypt. There are three scholarly divisions of the stages of later ancient Greek art that correspond roughly with historical periods of the same names. These are the Archaic, the Classical and the Hellenistic. The Archaic period is usually dated from 1000 BC. The Persian Wars of 480 BC to 448 BC are usually taken as the dividing line between the Archaic and the Classical periods, and the death of Alexander the Great in 323 BC is regarded as the event separating the Classical from the Hellenistic period. Of course, different forms of art developed at different speeds in different parts of the Greek world, and varied to a degree from artist to artist. There was a sharp transition from one period to another. The art of ancient Greece has exercised an enormous influence on the culture of many countries from ancient times until the present, particularly in the areas of sculpture and architecture. In the West, the art of the Roman Empire was largely derived from Greek models. In the East, Alexander the Great's conquests initiated several centuries of exchange between Greek, Central Asian and Indian cultures, resulting in Greco-Buddhist art, with ramifications as far as Japan. Following the Renaissance in Europe, the humanist aesthetic and the high technical standards of Greek art inspired generations of European artists. Pottery was either blue with black designs or black with blue designs. Byzantine art is the term created for the Eastern Roman Empire from about the 5th century until the fall of Constantinople in 1453. The term can also be used for the art of states which were contemporary with the Byzantine Empire and shared a common culture with it, without actually being part of it, such as Bulgaria, or Russia, and also Venice, which had close ties to the Byzantine Empire despite being in other respects part of western European culture. It can also be used for the art of people of the former Byzantine Empire under the rule of Ottoman Empire after 1453. In some respects, the Byzantine artistic tradition has continued in Russia and other Eastern Orthodox countries to the present day. Byzantine art grew from the art of ancient Greece and, at least before 1453, never lost sight of its classical heritage, but was distinguished from it in a number of ways. The most profound of these was that the humanist ethic of ancient Greek art was replaced by the Christian ethic. If the purpose of classical art was the glorification of man, the purpose of Byzantine art was the glorification of God. In place of the nude, the figures of God the Father, Jesus Christ, the Virgin Mary and the saints and martyrs of Christian tradition were elevated and became the dominant-indeed almost exclusive-focus of Byzantine art. One of the most important forms of Byzantine art was, and still is, the Cretan school as the leading school of Greek post-Byzantine painting after Crete fell to the Ottomans in 1669. Like the Cretan school, it combined Byzantine traditions with an increasing Western European artistic influence, and also saw the first signiand the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. Main articles: Cretan School, Heptanese School, and Modern Greek art Cretan School describes the school of icon painting, also known as Post-Byzantine art, which flourished while Crete was under Venetian rule during the late Middle Ages, reaching its climax after the Fall of Constantinople, becoming the central force in Greek painting during the 15th, 16th and 17th centuries.