Art history traces humanity's visual expression from cave paintings to digital media. This discipline examines how artists respond to their times – revealing social structures, religious beliefs, and cultural values through brushstrokes, carved stone, and assembled materials. Each artwork becomes evidence of human experience, while artistic movements reflect broader historical shifts. Art historians decode these visual languages, connecting Renaissance perspective to scientific discovery, or Abstract Expressionism to post-war anxiety. The field bridges aesthetics and archaeology, psychology and politics, showing how creative impulses both mirror and shape civilization across millennia.