History

 The history of painting reaches back in time to artifacts from pre-historic humans, and spans all cultures. It
represents a continuous, though periodically disrupted tradition from Antiquity.
 Across cultures, and spanning continents and millennia, the history of painting is an ongoing river of creativity,
that continues into the 21st century.
 Until the early 20th century it relied primarily on representational, religious and classical motifs, after which time
more purely abstract and conceptual approaches gained favor.
 Developments in Eastern painting historically parallel those in Western painting, in general, a few centuries
earlier. African art, Islamic art, Indian art, Chinese art, and Japanese art each had significant influence on
Western art, and, eventually, vice-versa.
 Initially serving utilitarian purpose, followed by imperial, private, civic, and religious patronage, Eastern and
Western painting later found audiences in the aristocracy and the middle class.
 From the Modern era, the Middle Ages through the Renaissance painters worked for the church and a wealthy
aristocracy. Beginning with the Baroque era artists received private commissions from a more educated and
prosperous middle class.
 Finally in the west the idea of "art for art's sake" began to find expression in the work of the Romantic painters
like Francisco de Goya, John Constable, and J.M.W. Turner.
 During the 19th century the rise of the commercial art gallery provided patronage in the 20th century.
Pre-history
 The oldest known paintings are at the Grotte Chauvet in France, claimed by some historians to be about 32,000
years old. They are engraved and painted using red ochre and black pigment and show horses, rhinoceros,
lions, buffalo, mammoth or humans often hunting.
 There are examples of cave paintings all over the world—in France, India, Spain, Portugal, China, Australia etc.
Various conjectures have been made as to the meaning these paintings had to the people that made them.
Prehistoric men may have painted animals to "catch" their soul or spirit in order to hunt them more easily or the
paintings may represent an animistic vision and homage to surrounding nature, or they may be the result of a
basic need of expression that is innate to human beings, or they could have been for the transmission of
practical information.
 In Paleolithic times, the representation of humans in cave paintings was rare. Mostly, animals were painted, not
only animals that were used as food but also animals that represented strength like the rhinoceros or large
Felidae, as in the Chauvet Cave. Signs like dots were sometimes drawn. Rare human representations include
handprints and half-human / animal figures. The Chauvet Cave in the Ardèche Departments of France contains
the most important preserved cave paintings of the Paleolithic era, painted around 31,000 BC. The Altamira
cave paintings in Spain were done 14,000 to 12,000 BC and show, among others, bisons. The hall of bulls in
Lascaux, Dordogne, France, is one of the best known cave paintings from about 15,000 to 10,000 BC.
 If there is meaning to the paintings, it remains unknown. The caves were not in an inhabited area, so they may
have been used for seasonal rituals. The animals are accompanied by signs which suggest a possible magic
use. Arrow-like symbols in Lascaux are sometimes interpreted as calendar or almanac use. But the evidence
remains inconclusive.[13] The most important work of the Mesolithic era were the marching warriors, a rock
painting at Cingle de la Mola, Castellón, Spain dated to about 7000 to 4000 BC. The technique used was
probably spitting or blowing the pigments onto the rock. The paintings are quite naturalistic, though stylized. The
figures are not three-dimensional, even though they overlap.
 The earliest known Indian paintings (see section below) were the rock paintings of prehistoric times, the
petroglyphs as found in places like the Rock Shelters of Bhimbetka, (see above) and some of them are older
than 5500 BC. Such works continued and after several millennia, in the 7th century, carved pillars of Ajanta,
Maharashtra state present a fine example of Indian paintings, and the colors, mostly various shades of red and
orange, were derived from minerals.
Eastern Painting
 The history of Eastern painting includes a vast range of influences from various cultures and religions.
Developments in Eastern painting historically parallel those in Western painting, in general a few centuries
earlier. African art, Islamic art, Indian art, Chinese art, Korean Art, and Japanese art each had significant
influence on Western art, and, vice-versa.
 Chinese painting is one of the oldest continuous artistic traditions in the world. The earliest paintings were not
representational but ornamental; they consisted of patterns or designs rather than pictures. Early pottery was
 painted with spirals, zigzags, dots, or animals. It was only during the Warring States Period (403-221 B.C.) that
artists began to represent the world around them.
 Japanese painting is one of the oldest and most highly refined of the Japanese arts, encompassing a wide
variety of genre and styles. The history of Japanese painting is a long history of synthesis and competition
between native Japanese aesthetics and adaptation of imported ideas.
 The history of Korean painting is dated to approximately 108 C.E., when it first appears as an independent form.
Between that time and the paintings and frescoes that appear on the Goryeo dynasty tombs, there has been
little research. Suffice to say that until the Joseon dynasty the primary influence was Chinese painting though
done with Korean landscapes, facial features, Buddhist topics, and an emphasis on celestial observation in
keeping with the rapid development of Korean astronomy.

East Asian Painting

 China, Japan and Korea have a strong tradition in painting which is also highly attached to the art of calligraphy
and printmaking (so much that it is commonly seen as painting).
 Far east traditional painting is characterized by water based techniques, less realism, "elegant" and stylized
subjects, graphical approach to depiction, the importance of white space (or negative space) and a preference
for landscape (instead of human figure) as a subject. Beyond ink and color on silk or paper scrolls, gold on
lacquer was also a common medium in painted East Asian artwork. Although silk was a somewhat expensive
medium to paint upon in the past, the invention of paper during the 1st century AD by the Han court eunuch Cai
Lun provided not only a cheap and widespread medium for writing, but also a cheap and widespread medium
for painting (making it more accessible to the public).

Chinese Painting
 The earliest (surviving) examples of Chinese painted artwork date to the Warring States Period (481 - 221 BC),
with paintings on silk or tomb murals on rock, brick, or stone.
 They were often in simplistic stylized format and in more-or-less rudimentary geometric patterns.
 They often depicted mythological creatures, domestic scenes, labor scenes, or palatial scenes filled with
officials at court.

Japanese Painting
 Japanese painting is one of the oldest and most highly refined of the Japanese arts, encompassing a wide
variety on genre and styles.
 As with the history of Japanese arts in general, the history Japanese painting is a long history of synthesis and
competition between native Japanese aesthetics and adaptation of imported ideas.

South Asian Painting

Indian Painting
 Indian paintings historically revolved around the religious deities and kings. Indian art is a collective term for
several different schools of art that existed in the Indian subcontinent.
 The paintings varied from large frescoes of Ajanta to the intricate Mughal miniature paintings to the metal
embellished works from the Tanjore school.
 The paintings from the Gandhar–Taxila are influenced by the Persian works in the west. The eastern style of
painting was mostly developed around the Nalanda school of art.
 The works are mostly inspired by various scenes from Indian mythology.
 The earliest Indian paintings were the rock paintings of prehistoric times, the petroglyphs as found in places like
the Rock Shelters of Bhimbetka, and some of them are older than 5500 BC.

Egypt, Greece and Rome

 Ancient Egypt, a civilization with very strong traditions of architecture and sculpture (both originally painted in
bright colours) also had many mural paintings in temples and buildings, and painted illustrations on papyrus
manuscripts. Egyptian wall painting and decorative painting is often graphic, sometimes more symbolic than
realistic. Egyptian painting depicts figures in bold outline and flat silhouette, in which symmetry is a constant
characteristic. Egyptian painting has close connection with its written language - called Egyptian hieroglyphs.
Painted symbols are found amongst the first forms of written language. The Egyptians also painted on linen,
 remnants of which survive today. Ancient Egyptian paintings survived due to the extremely dry climate. The
ancient Egyptians created paintings to make the afterlife of the deceased a pleasant place. The themes
included journey through the afterworld or their protective deities introducing the deceased to the gods of the
underworld. Some examples of such paintings are paintings of the gods and goddesses Ra, Horus, Anubis,
Nut, Osiris and Isis. Some tomb paintings show activities that the deceased were involved in when they were
alive and wished to carry on doing for eternity. In the New Kingdom and later, the Book of the Dead was buried
with the entombed person. It was considered important for an introduction to the afterlife.
 To the north of Egypt was the Minoan civilization on the island of Crete. The wall paintings found in the palace
of Knossos are similar to that of the Egyptians but much more free in style. Around 1100 B.C., tribes from the
north of Greece conquered Greece and the Greek art took a new direction. Ancient Greece had great painters,
great sculptors (though both endeavours were regarded as mere manual labour at the time), and great
architects. The Parthenon is an example of their architecture that has lasted to modern days. Greek marble
sculpture is often described as the highest form of Classical art. Painting on pottery of Ancient Greece and
ceramics gives a particularly informative glimpse into the way society in Ancient Greece functioned. Black-figure
vase painting and Red-figure vase painting gives many surviving examples of what Greek painting was. Some
famous Greek painters on wooden panels who are mentioned in texts are Apelles, Zeuxis and Parrhasius,
however no examples of Ancient Greek panel painting survive, only written descriptions by their contemporaries
or later Romans. Zeuxis lived in 5-6 BC and was said to be the first to use sfumato. According to Pliny the
Elder, the realism of his paintings was such that birds tried to eat the painted grapes. Apelles is described as
the greatest painter of Antiquity for perfect technique in drawing, brilliant color and modeling.
 Roman art was influenced by Greece and can in part be taken as a descendant of ancient Greek painting.
However, Roman painting does have important unique characteristics. The only surviving Roman paintings are
wall paintings, many from villas in Campania, in Southern Italy. Such painting can be grouped into 4 main
"styles" or periods and may contain the first examples of trompe-l'œil, pseudo-perspective, and pure landscape.
Almost the only painted portraits surviving from the Ancient world are a large number of coffin-portraits of bust
form found in the Late Antique cemetery of Al-Fayum.

Middle Ages
 The rise of Christianity imparted a different spirit and aim to painting styles.
 Byzantine art, once its style was established by the 6th century, placed great emphasis on retaining traditional
iconography and style, and has changed relatively little through the thousand years of the Byzantine Empire
and the continuing traditions of Greek and Russian Orthodox icon-painting.
 Byzantine painting has a particularly hieratic feeling and icons were and still are seen as a reflection of the
divine. There were also many wall-paintings in fresco, but fewer of these have survived than Byzantine
mosaics.
 In general Byzantium art borders on abstraction, in its flatness and highly stylised depictions of figures and
landscape. However, there are periods, especially in the so-called Macedonian art of around the 10th century,
when Byzantine art became more flexible in approach.

Renaissance
 The Renaissance is said by many to be the golden age of painting.
 Roughly spanning the 14th through the mid-17th century. In Italy artists like Paolo Uccello, Fra Angelico,
Masaccio, Piero della Francesca, Andrea Mantegna, Filippo Lippi, Giorgione, Tintoretto, Sandro Botticelli,
Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo Buonarroti, Raphael, Giovanni Bellini, and Titian took painting to a higher level
through the use of perspective, the study of human anatomy and proportion, and through their development of
an unprecedented refinement in drawing and painting techniques.
 Renaissance painting reflects the revolution of ideas and science (astronomy, geography) that occur in this
period, the Reformation, and the invention of the printing press.
 Dürer, considered one of the greatest of printmakers, states that painters are not mere artisans but thinkers as
well.
 With the development of easel painting in the Renaissance, painting gained independence from architecture.
Baroque and Rococo
 Baroque painting is associated with the Baroque cultural movement, a movement often identified with
Absolutism and the Counter Reformation or Catholic Revival;[30][31] the existence of important Baroque painting in
non-absolutist and Protestant states also, however, underscores its popularity, as the style spread throughout
Western Europe.
 Baroque painting is characterized by great drama, rich, deep color, and intense light and dark shadows.
 Baroque art was meant to evoke emotion and passion instead of the calm rationality that had been prized
during the Renaissance.
 During the period beginning around 1600 and continuing throughout the 17th century, painting is characterized
as Baroque.
 Among the greatest painters of the Baroque are Caravaggio, Rembrandt, Frans Hals, Rubens, Velázquez,
Poussin, and Jan Vermeer.
 During the 18th century, Rococo followed as a lighter extension of Baroque, often frivolous and erotic.
 Rococo developed first in the decorative arts and interior design in France. Louis XV's succession brought a
change in the court artists and general artistic fashion.
 The 1730s represented the height of Rococo development in France exemplified by the works of Antoine
Watteau and François Boucher.
 Rococo still maintained the Baroque taste for complex forms and intricate patterns, but by this point, it had
begun to integrate a variety of diverse characteristics, including a taste for Oriental designs and asymmetric
compositions.

19th century:
Neo-classicism, History painting, Romanticism, Impressionism, Post Impressionism, Symbolism
 By the mid-19th-century painters became liberated from the demands of their patronage to only depict scenes
from religion, mythology, portraiture or history.
 The idea "art for art's sake" began to find expression in the work of painters like Francisco de Goya, John
Constable, and J.M.W. Turner.
 Romantic painters turned landscape painting into a major genre, considered until then as a minor genre or as a
decorative background for figure compositions.
 Some of the major painters of this period are Eugène Delacroix, Théodore Géricault, J. M. W. Turner, Caspar
David Friedrich and John Constable. Francisco de Goya's late work demonstrates the Romantic interest in the
irrational, while the work of Arnold Böcklin evokes mystery and the paintings of Aesthetic movement artist
James McNeill Whistler evoke both sophistication and decadence. In the United States the Romantic tradition of
landscape painting was known as the Hudson River School:[34] exponents include Thomas Cole, Frederic Edwin
Church, Albert Bierstadt, Thomas Moran, and John Frederick Kensett. Luminism was a movement in American
landscape painting related to the Hudson River School.
 Pissarro adopted some of the experiments of Post-Impressionism.
 Slightly younger Post-Impressionists like Vincent van Gogh, Paul Gauguin, and Georges Seurat, along with
Paul Cézanne led art to the edge of modernism; for Gauguin Impressionism gave way to a personal symbolism;
Seurat transformed Impressionism's broken color into a scientific optical study, structured on frieze-like
compositions;
 Van Gogh's turbulent method of paint application, coupled with a sonorous use of color, predicted
Expressionism and Fauvism, and Cézanne, desiring to unite classical composition with a revolutionary
abstraction of natural forms, would come to be seen as a precursor of 20th-century art.
 In the late 19th century there also were several, rather dissimilar, groups of Symbolist painters whose works
resonated with younger artists of the 20th century, especially with the Fauvists and the Surrealists. Among them
were Gustave Moreau, Odilon Redon, Pierre Puvis de Chavannes, Henri Fantin-Latour, Arnold Böcklin, Edvard
Munch, Félicien Rops, and Jan Toorop, and Gustave Klimt amongst others including the Russian Symbolists
like Mikhail Vrubel.
 Symbolist painters mined mythology and dream imagery for a visual language of the soul, seeking evocative
paintings that brought to mind a static world of silence. The symbols used in Symbolism are not the familiar
emblems of mainstream iconography but intensely personal, private, obscure and ambiguous references. More
a philosophy than an actual style of art, the Symbolist painters influenced the contemporary Art Nouveau
movement and Les Nabis. In their exploration of dreamlike subjects, symbolist painters are found across
 centuries and cultures, as they are still today; Bernard Delvaille has described René Magritte's surrealism as
"Symbolism plus Freud".

20th-century Modern and Contemporary

 At the beginning of the 20th century Henri Matisse and several other young artists revolutionized the Paris art
world with "wild", multi-colored, expressive, landscapes and figure paintings that the critics called Fauvism.
 Pablo Picasso made his first cubist paintings based on Cézanne's idea that all depiction of nature can be
reduced to three solids: cube, sphere and cone.
 Giorgio de Chirico 1914, pre-Surrealism
 By 1907 Fauvism no longer was a shocking new movement, soon it was replaced by Cubism on the critics'
radar screen as the latest new development in Contemporary Art of the time.

Abstraction
 They advocated pure abstraction and universality by a reduction to the essentials of form and colour; they
simplified visual compositions to the vertical and horizontal directions, and used only primary colors along with
black and white.

Pop Art
This movement rejected abstract expressionism and its focus on the hermeneutic and psychological interior, in favor of
art which depicted, and often celebrated material consumer culture, advertising, and iconography of the mass
production age.

Neo Expressionism
 In the late 1960s the abstract expressionist painter Philip Guston helped to lead a transition from abstract
expressionism to Neo-expressionism in painting, abandoning the so-called "pure abstraction" of abstract
expressionism in favor of more cartoonish renderings of various personal symbols and objects. These works
were inspirational to a new generation of painters interested in a revival of expressive imagery.

African Art
 African traditional culture and tribes do not seem to have great interest in two-dimensional representations in
favour of sculpture and relief.
 However, decorative painting in African culture is often abstract and geometrical.
 Another pictorial manifestation is body painting, and face painting present for example in Maasai and Kĩkũyũ
culture in their ceremony rituals.
 Ceremonial cave painting in certain villages can be found to be still in use.
 Note that Pablo Picasso and other modern artists were influenced by African sculpture and masks in their
varied styles. Contemporary African artists follow western art movements and their paintings have little
difference from occidental art works.

Influence on Western art

At the start of the 20th century, artists like Picasso, Matisse, Vincent van Gogh, Paul Gauguin and Modigliani became
aware of, and were inspired by, African art. In a situation where the established avant garde was straining against the
constraints imposed by serving the world of appearances, African Art demonstrated the power of supremely well
organised forms; produced not only by responding to the faculty of sight, but also and often primarily, the faculty of
imagination, emotion and mystical and religious experience. These artists saw in African art a formal perfection and
sophistication unified with phenomenal expressive power.