General courses on the history of art for non-specialists have their own specifics, which is primarily expressed in the need for a teacher, reading such a course, to search for a common platform for the presentation of all stages, periods and styles of the universal history of art. Only on the basis of the same principles of presentation throughout the course, students could be impressed with the integrity of gained knowledge, which will allow them to keep it in memory, in the soul and in the heart. Before the teacher, reading such general course, there is a problem, similar to the one that perplexed at the turn of 19th-20th centuries Wöllflin, Riegl or Dvořák. They were looking for common patterns and factors in the development of art, the teacher is looking for a common methodology of presentation of the material, which ideally should be based on the knowledge of the general laws of the evolution of art, which at the present moment are not opened and which, according to modern scientists, apparently do not exist. The author of article believes that it makes sense to try to start from the tasks and goals that in one period or another were set by the art customers or pursued by the art. In this case, quite a coherent picture of the general history of art arises.