Greek and Roman Classical Painting (1100 B.C.-A.D. 400)
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The History of Painting
The history of painting is a never-ending chain that began with the very first pictures ever made. Each style grows out of the styles that came before it. Every great artist adds to the accomplishments of earlier painters and influences later painters.
We can enjoy a painting for its beauty alone. Its lines, forms, colors, and composition (arrangement of parts) may appeal to our senses and linger in our memories. But enjoyment of art increases as we learn when and why and how it was created.
A painting always describes something. It may describe the artist's impression of a scene or person. It also describes the artist's feelings about the art of painting itself.
Many factors have influenced the history of painting. Geography, religion, national characteristics, historic events, the development of new materials—all help to shape the artist's vision. Throughout history, painting has mirrored the changing world and our ideas about it. In turn, artists have provided some of the best records of the development of civilization, sometimes revealing more than the written word.
Prehistoric Painting
Cave dwellers were the earliest artists. Colored drawings of animals, dating from about 30,000 to 10,000 B.C., have been found on the walls of caves in southern France and in Spain. Many of these drawings are amazingly well preserved because the caves were sealed up for many centuries. Early people drew the wild animals that they saw all around them. Very crude human figures, drawn in lifelike positions, have been found in Africa and eastern Spain.
The cave artists filled the cave walls with drawings in rich, bright colors. Some of the most beautiful paintings are in the Cave of Altamira, in Spain. One detail shows a wounded bison, no longer able to stand—probably the victim of a hunter. It is painted in reddish brown and outlined simply but skillfully in black. The pigments used by cave painters were earth ochers (iron oxides varying in color from light yellow to deep orange) and manganese (a metallic element). These were crushed into a fine powder, mixed with grease (perhaps animal fat), and put on with some sort of brush. Sometimes the pigments were used in sticks, like crayons. The grease mixed with the powdered pigments made the paint fluid and the pigment particles stick together. The cave dwellers must have made brushes out of animal hairs or plants, and sharp tools out of flint for drawing and scratching lines.
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As far back as 30,000 years ago, people had invented the basic tools and materials for painting. Techniques and materials were refined and improved in the centuries following. But the discoveries of the cave dweller remain basic to painting.
Egyptian Painting (3400-332 B.C.)
Egyptian techniques of painting remained the same for centuries. In one method watercolor paint was put on mud-plaster or limestone walls. In another process outlines were cut into stone walls, and the designs were painted with watercolor washes. A material called gum arabic probably was used to make the paint stick to a surface. Fortunately, the dry climate of the region and the sealed tombs have prevented some of these watercolor paintings from being destroyed by dampness. A number of hunting scenes from the walls of tombs in Thebes of about 1450 B.C. are well preserved. They show hunters stalking birds or spearing fish of many varieties. These varieties can still be identified today because they were so accurately and carefully painted.
The Aegean Civilization (3000-1100 B.C.)
The third great early culture was the Aegean civilization.
Evidently the Cretans were a lighthearted, nature-loving people. Among their favorite themes in art were sea life, animals, flowers, athletic games, and processionals. At Knossos and other Aegean palaces, paintings were made on wet plaster walls with paints made of mineral substances, sand, and earth ochers. The paint soaked into the wet plaster and became a permanent part of the wall. This kind of painting was later called fresco, an Italian word meaning "fresh" or "new." The Cretans liked bright yellow, red, blue, and green.
Greek and Roman Classical Painting (1100 B.C.-A.D. 400)
The ancient Greeks decorated their temples and palaces with mural (wall) paintings. We can tell from ancient literary sources and from Roman copies of Greek art that the Greeks painted small pictures and made mosaics. The names of the Greek master painters and something of their lives and works are also known, although very little Greek painting has survived the effects of time and wars. The Greeks did not paint much in tombs, so their works were not protected.
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Painted vases are about all that remains of Greek painting. Pottery making was a large industry in Greece, especially in Athens. The earliest style of vase painting was known as the geometric style (1100-700 B.C.). Vases were decorated with bands of geometric shapes and human figures in a brown glaze on light-colored clay. By the 6th century, vase painters were using the black-figured style, in which human figures were painted in black on the natural red clay. The details were cut into the clay with a sharp instrument. This allowed the red beneath to show through.
The red-figured style eventually replaced the black. It is just the opposite; the figures are red and the background black. The advantage of this style was that the painter could use a brush to make the outlines. A brush gives a freer line than the metal tool used in black-figured vases.
Roman mural paintings were found chiefly in the villas (country homes) of Pompeii and Herculaneum. In A.D. 79 these two cities were completely buried by an eruption of the volcano Vesuvius. Archeologists who have excavated the area have been able to learn much about ancient Roman life from these cities. Almost every house and villa in Pompeii had paintings on its walls. Roman painters carefully prepared the wall surface by applying a mixture of marble dust and plaster. They put the mixture on in layers and polished it to a marble like finish.
The Romans painted portraits. A small number of them, mostly mummy portraits done in the Greek style by Egyptian artists.
История живописи
История живописи - бесконечная цепочка, начавшаяся с самых первых сделанных картин. Каждый стиль вырастает из стилей, которые были перед ним. Каждый великий художник добавляет к достижениям более ранних художников и влияет на более поздних художников.
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Мы можем наслаждаться живописью только за ее красоту. Ее линии, формы, цвета и композиция (расположение частей) могут нравиться нашим чувствам и задерживаться в наших воспоминаниях. Но наслаждение искусством возрастает, когда мы узнаем, когда и почему и как оно было создано.
Картина всегда что-то описывает. Она может описывать впечатление художника о сцене или человеке. Она также описывает чувства художника о самом искусстве живописи.
На историю живописи повлияли многие факторы. География, религия, национальные особенности, исторические события, разработка новых материалов - все это помогает формировать видение художника. На протяжении всей истории живопись отражала меняющийся мир и наши представления об этом. В свою очередь, художники предоставили одни из лучших записей о развитии цивилизации, иногда раскрывая больше, чем письменное слово.
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