The timeline is the front door to the whole museum — a zoomable, infinite-canvas map of art history from Medieval through Contemporary. Here are three directions. Each is fully filterable by period and artist with a GSAP-style animated dropdown. Tap one to choose.
A
Horizontal Ribbon of Eras
A single gold thread runs left-to-right across an infinite canvas; each period is a weighted segment sized to its real span, and zooming in fans that segment out into artist nodes pinned to true dates. Tradeoff: reads instantly as "history," but the vertical dimension is underused until you zoom.
B
Radial / Spiral of Time
Time spirals outward from a central origin; periods are arcs of the spiral, artists are nodes along each arc placed by date. Zoom scrolls you along the spiral. Tradeoff: the most visually striking and "art-object" feeling, but date-precision reading is harder than a straight axis.
C
Stratified River of Periods
Periods are horizontal swim-lanes stacked vertically (a "river" of art history flowing left→right by date); artists sit in their period's lane at their true x-date. Zoom scales the whole river. Tradeoff: best for comparing contemporaries across periods, but the canvas is busier at first glance.