Recurrent and distinctive features in works of art (a definition for "style") can be described in relation to the following characteristics.

Temporal (time):

pre-historic (Paleolithic, Upper-Paleolithic, Neolithic, Bronze Age, Stone Age, Iron Age), Egyptian, Greek, Byzantine, Etruscan, Roman, Early Christian, Medieval, Carolingian, Ottonian, Gothic,Renaissance, Baroque, 18th century, 19th century, 20th century, Pre-Columbian, Ming, Sung, Chou, Han, Fugiwara, Kamakura, Ashikaga, and Nara.

Geographical (place):

African, American, Assyrian, Chinese, Egyptian, European, Greek, India, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Oceanic, Northern European, Persian, Peruvian, and Sumerian.

Cultural:

Balinese, Bamana, Celtic, Chinese, Egyptian, Eskimo, lbu, Kwaktuil, Maori, Mayan, Minoan, Moorish, Navajo, Peloponesian, Roman, Senufo, Sioux.

Types of Styles:

abstract, abstract-geometric, anti-mannerist, archaic, baroque, classic, impressionistic, manneristic, naturlistic, neoclassic, non-objective, painterly, realistic, representational, and romantic.

School/Custom/Tradition:

Abstract Expressionism, Ash Can, Barbizon, Bauhaus, Blaue Reiter, Byzantine, Cinema Verite, Constructivism, Hudson River, Impressionism, Coptic, Cubism, Dadaism, Expressionism, Fauvism, Florentine, Futurism, Hard-edge, Hellenistic, Minimal, Naturalism, New Realism, Op, Orphism, Pointillism, Pop, Precisionism, Primitivism, Realism, Regionalism, Siennese, Song, Surrealism, Venetian,Yamato-e.

Idioms (styles of individual artists, just a few examples):

Bergman, Bernini, Bramante, Brunelleschl, Cellini, Duccio, Fellini, Giotto, Kurosawa, Rembrandt, La Tours, Van Gogh, Frank Lloyd Wright.

Fusion of Styles:

Etruscan-Italian, French-Baroque, Greco-Roman, Hellenistic, Italian Renaissance, Northern Renaissance, Spanish Gothic.