In the visual arts, the characteristics of a particular work of art — materials used, techniques employed, period, geographic origin and others — which, when considered together, enables a viewer to place that artwork into a meaningful context within the overall flow of art history.
For example: Impressionism is a style of primarily oil painting characterized by loose brushwork with an emphasis on an immediate response to informal subject matter that was practiced between approximately 1864 and 1917 in France.