PAI NTING

PRE-HISTORIC PERIOD

CAVE ART? Also known as ―parietal art‖ is a general term used to describe any kind of man-made
image on the walls, ceiling or floor of a cave or a rock shelter. It can be found in every continent. It can
be found in every continent except Antartica except Antartica.

Cave is uncharacteristically large, and the quality, quantity, and condition of the artwork found on its
walls have been called spectacular. Hundreds of animal paintings have been catalogued, depicting at
least thirteen different species—not only the familiar herbivores that predominate Paleolithic cave art,
but also many predatory animals, such as cave lions, panthers, bears, and cave hyenas.

Factors affecting cave art : Geological environment, Climate and local cultural traditions. Different
types : Hand prints and markings, Abstract sign, figurative painting, Rock engraving, Rock engraving,
and relief sculpture.

1. PALEOLITHIC OR OLD STONE AGE

- The History of Painting. Painting emerged in prehistory, when nomadic people made use of paintings
on rocky walls. They made drawings with charcoal leaving marks in the caves where they passed.
It is believed that the first painting, which is also known as Rock Painting or Rock Art, was made in
shelter, caves, which were used by nomadic people to protect themselves.
The first paintings were done on the walls and ceilings of the caves.
- first accomplishments in human creativity
-Typically cave painting are varied in : experience of the artist, the contour of the rock surface, the
availability of light and the abundance of raw materials.
-Most common themes in cave paintings are large wild animals, animals interacting with each other,
and human paintings are rare.
- Pigments used are red and yellow ochre, manganese or carbon for black, and china clay for white.
Some of the colours may have been mixed with fat.
- Painting medium was applied by finger, chewed sticks, or fur for brushes. Sometimes the silhouette
of the animal was incised in the rock first, and in some caves many of the images were only engraved in
this fashion, taking them out of a strict definition of ―cave painting.‖

Examples:

Lascaux (circa 15,000 BCE), in southwestern France, is an interconnected series of caves with one of
the most impressive examples of artistic creations by Paleolithic humans. Discovered in 1940, the cave
contains nearly two thousand figures, which can be grouped into three main categories—animals,
human figures, and abstract signs. Over nine hundred images depict animals from the surrounding
areas, such as horses, stags, aurochs, bison, lions, bears, and birds—species that would have been
hunted and eaten, and those identified as predators. The paintings contain no images of the surrounding
landscape or the vegetation of the time.

ThChauvet-Pont-d’Arc Cave (circa 30,000 BCE) in the Ardèche department of southern France
contains some of the earliest known paintings, as well as other evidence of Upper Paleolithic life. The
Chauvet Cave is uncharacteristically large, and the quality, quantity, and condition of the artwork found
on its walls have been called spectacular. Hundreds of animal paintings have been catalogued, depicting
at least thirteen different species—not only the familiar herbivores that predominate Paleolithic cave art,
but also many predatory animals, such as cave lions, panthers, bears, and cave hyenas.
As is typical of most cave art, there are no paintings of complete human figures in Chauvet. There are a
few panels of red ochre hand prints and hand stencils made by spitting pigment over hands pressed
against the cave surface. Abstract markings—lines and dots—are found throughout the cave.
Altamira (circa 18,000 BCE) is a cave in northern Spain famous for its Upper Paleolithic cave
paintings featuring drawings and polychrome rock paintings of wild mammals and human hands. The
cave has been declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO.

The long cave consists of a series of twisting passages and chambers. Human occupation was limited to
the cave mouth, although paintings were created throughout the length of the cave. The artists used
polychromy—charcoal and ochre or haematite—to create the images, often diluting these pigments to
produce variations in intensity, creating an impression of chiaroscuro. They also exploited the natural
contours in the cave walls to give their subjects a three-dimensional effect.

- These first paintings discovered by archaeologists, are vibrant paintings using more than three colors.
These are paintings that have tried to imitate nature with maximum realism, based on observations
made during the hunt. In a cave in Altamira in Spain, there is a rock painting of the Bison (ancestor of
the Cow) and is impressive for its size, volume and for using the chiaroscuro technique.
In other places, the paintings made by humans, highlight the success of hunters, in others show animals
marked by arrows. Whatever the justification, the desire to make art, or the desire to register the daily
life of that time, Rock Art preserved for millennia has allowed us today to transform these places into
the first museums of humanity.

A large part of these discovered paintings bring figures of animals, plants, objects with varying degrees
of realism, there are also graphic and abstract representations, complex scenes, many archaeologists and
scientists discuss the meaning of these paintings. But in general they think that they may be linked to
rituals to attract good hunting, fertility, ward off danger, or simply give symbolic language to ideas,
feelings or everyday life.

Interpretations
Like all prehistoric art, the purpose of these paintings remains obscure. In recent years, new research
has suggested that the Lascaux paintings may incorporate prehistoric star charts. Some anthropologists
and art historians also theorize that the paintings could be an account of past hunting success, or they
could represent a mystical ritual to improve future hunting endeavours. An alternative theory, broadly
based on ethnographic studies of contemporary hunter-gatherer societies, is that the paintings pertained
to shamanism

2. MESOLITHIC OR MIDDLE STONE AGE

- describing specific cultures that fall between the Paleolithic and the Neolithic Periods.
- Art from this period reflects the change to a warmer climate and adaptation to a relatively sedentary
lifestyle, population size, and consumption of plants
- Themes : Human, usually groups of humans engaged in hunting, dancing and various other rituals, as
well as everyday activities.
-The painting technique varied - both in the painting tools adopted (feathers, reeds, pads/brushes) and
the colour pigments used generally representation was non-naturalistic and highly stylized.
Examples: Cueva De Las Manos (Cave of Hands) , Valley of Pinturas River, Patagonia 7,300 BCE,
THE MAN OF BICORP, The Dancers of Cogul

The painting technique varied - both in the painting tools adopted (feathers, reeds, pads/brushes) and the
colour pigments used: for more, see: Prehistoric colour palette - but generally representation was non-
naturalistic and highly stylized. The humans looked more like stick-figures or matchstick men. In fact,
many of the men and women in Mesolithic rock paintings look more like pictographs or petrograms
than pictures. Other figures seen in Mesolithic tribal art include various anthropomorphic hybrid
figures, as well as X-ray style figures characteristic of aboriginal rock art of the late Stone Age. For
more, see the pictographs among Ubirr Rock Art (c.30,000 BCE but unconfirmed) and Kimberley Rock
Art (c.30,000 BCE also unconfirmed).

Not all Mesolithic rock paintings and petroglyphs were executed at open air sites. Artists continued to
decorate caves that provided essential shelter or were established places of residence. The Mesolithic
rock engravings at Wonderwerk Cave (8,200 BCE), for example, were done in a cave that had been
inhabited by humans for some 2 million years. The stencilled hand paintings (8,000 BCE) in the
Kalimantan Caves and Gua Ham Masri II Cave (8,000 BCE) in Indonesia, were created in rock shelters
in the middle of inhospitable jungle terrain. Note also the Fern Cave hand stencils (from 10,000 BCE)
in North Queensland, Australia. See also: Oceanic Art.

Examples:
The Dancers of Cogul is a good example of the depiction of movement in static art. In this scene, nine
women are depicted, something new in the art of this region, some painted in black and others in red.
They are shown dancing around a male figure with an abnormally large phallus, a figure that was rare if
not absent in Paleolithic art. Along with humans, several animals, including a dead deer or buck
impaled by an arrow or atlatl, are depicted.

The Argentinian Cueva de las Manos (Cave of Hands) in the valley of the Pinturas River, Patagonia,
which contains a host of hand stencils and handprints, carbon-dated to 7,300 BCE. Other images
include prehistoric abstract signs like geometric shapes and zigzag motifs.

The Man of Bicorp holding onto lianas to gather honey from a beehive as depicted on an 8000-year-
old cave painting near Valencia, Spain.

3. NEOLITHIC OR NEW STONE AGE

- The Neolithic or New Stone Age was a period in human development from around 10,000 BCE until
3,000 BCE. Considered the last part of the Stone Age, the Neolithic period is signified by a progression
in behavioural and cultural characteristics including the cultivation of wild and domestic crops and the
use of domesticated animals. Prehistoric art, the term "Neolithic art" describes all arts and crafts created
by societies who had abandoned the semi-nomadic lifestyle of hunting and gathering food in favour of
farming and animal husbandry. Not surprisingly therefore, ancient pottery including terracotta sculpture
was the major artform of the Neolithic, although human creativity of the age expressed itself in a good
many different types of art, including prehistoric engravings and hand stencils, as well as a variety of
mobiliary art (sculpted statuettes, personal adornments). In addition, the construction of religious
temples, shrines and tombs to serve the new sedentary culture led to the development of megalithic art
and a form of monumental stone architecture using megaliths (petroforms)

-Diminishing amount of cave painting

Examples:
Catal Huyuk (Catalhoyuk) Archeological Site (c.7,500-5,700 BCE). This UNESCO World Heritage
Site, with an estimated population of around 10,000 and composed entirely of mud-brick buildings, is
the most extensive and best-preserved Neolithic site found to date. Excavations showed that all rooms
had been kept meticulously clean, while the dead were buried in pits beneath the floors and hearths.
Colourful murals were painted on interior and exterior walls throughout the settlement. Some one
hundred clay figurines of women - such as "The Enthroned Goddess of Catal Huyuk" (c.7,000 BCE), a
Mother Goddess figure about to give birth while seated on a throne - were sculpted in marble, blue and
brown limestone, alabaster, calcite, basalt and terracotta. Another 1900 figurines were sculptures of
animals. Although no temples have been identified, heavily decorated chambers may have been shrines
or public places of worship

- Mural paintings featured hunting scenes, aurochs and stags, as well as images of men with erect
phalluses. A painting of the village, against a scenic background featuring the twin mountain peaks
of Hasan Dag is reputed to be the world's first example of landscape painting. The inhabitants of
Catal Huyuk cultivated crops and domesticated sheep and cattle, although hunting continued to be a
major food-gathering activity.

• Burrup Peninsula Rock Engravings

One of the world's largest collections of petroglyphs dating from Paleolithic, Mesolithic and Neolithic
periods. Pilbara, Western Australia.
• Ubirr Rock Paintings
Aboriginal paintings created throughout the Stone Age up to the modern era. Arnhem Land, Northern
Territory.
• Bradshaw Paintings
 MESOPOTAMIAN PAINTING

- Mesopotamia means ―between two rivers‖ because meso means center or between. The ancient art of
Mesopotamia incorporates that of Sumeria, Akkad, Babylonia and Assyria, until the sixth century BCE,
when Babylon fell to the Persians.
- The art of Mesopotamia from this period is recognizable by the distinctive painting technique applied
to the pottery. These zig-zag and circular patterns were created in a domestic capacity on a slow wheel.
It would eventually become a popular style throughout the region. It was during this early period that
farmers first established a settlement to attend to their agricultural practices. Although eventually
bypassed in size by the nearby city of Ur, it remained an influential center for religious matters.

- The earliest known civilization of Mesopotamia grew up around Sumer, in the south of modern-day
Iraq, from about 5,000 BCE. A series of cultures grew up, distinguished by their painted pottery. At
Uqair the whole temple was adorned with mural painting. Cylinder seals were carved with designs and
these are our main source for the iconography of the different periods.

- Painting was used as wall art, although little survives, and for creating painted pottery. Predominant
colors include red, white, and blue. Themes include people, worship, animals and geometrical patterns.

EGYPTIAN PAINTING
- Ancient Egypt is most famous for its monumental Egyptian Architecture (c.3000 BCE - 160 CE),
and its associated Egyptian sculpture. It is also the first civilization with a recognizable style of art.
In paintings, artists depicted the head, legs and feet of their human subjects in profile, while
youportraying the eye, shoulders, arms and torso from the front. Other conventions dictated how
Gods, Pharaohs and ordinary people should be portrayed, and regulated the size, colour and
figurative positions of these images accordingly. Women were painted with fair skin, men with dark
skin. Much of Egyptian art in tombs and temples (hieroglyphs, papyrus scrolls, murals, panel
paintings and sculptures) reflects religious themes, especially those concerning the afterlife. In
modern times, a number of outstanding Egyptian encaustic wax paintings, known as the Fayum
Mummy portraits, dating from 50 CE, have been found preserved in coffins. These pictures offer a
fascinating glimpse into the styles, customs and culture of the day.

- In this context, note that all forms of Egyptian art, such as architecture, painting, metalwork,
ceramics and Egyptian sculpture - were regulated by a highly conservative set of traditional rules
and conventions, which favoured order and form over artistic expression.
- Egypt Style in Paintings and Relief
- Paintings demonstrated two-dimensional art and as a result it represented the world quite differently.
Egyptian artists used the two-dimensional surface to provide the most representative aspects of each
object in the scene.

Does the painted art also show the same conventions?

- Egyptian artists worked in two dimensions only and so the best characterisation of the object was the
view the artist used. Again they used the ideas of frontality, axiality and proportionality. So when
creating the human form the artist showed the head in profile with full view eye line parallel with the
shoulder line while the chest, waist, hips and limbs are in profile. However, if there is neck jewellery
to be shown it is shown in full (Figure 8).

Scenes were ordered in parallel lines, known as registers. These registers separate the scene as well
as provide ground lines for the figures. Scenes without registers are unusual and were generally only
used to specifically evoke chaos; battle and hunting scenes will often show the prey or foreign
armies without ground lines. Registers were also used to convey information about the scenes—the
higher up in the scene, the higher the status; overlapping figures imply that the ones underneath are
further away, as are those elements that are higher within the register.

Keen observation, exact representation of actual life and nature, and a strict conformity to a set of
rules regarding representation of three dimensional forms dominated the character and style of the
art of ancient Egypt. Completeness and exactness were preferred to prettiness and cosmetic
representation. The use of mathematics to create the art is also very evident in many of the
incomplete art forms indicating that Egyptian artists used some mathematical formulas to create
order in their art.
 Because of the highly religious nature of Ancient Egyptian civilization, many of the great works of
Ancient Egypt depict gods, goddesses, and Pharaohs, who were also considered divine. Ancient
Egyptian art is characterized by the idea of order. Clear and simple lines combined with simple
shapes and flat areas of colour helped to create a sense of order and balance in the art of ancient
Egypt.

Symbolism played an important role in establishing a sense of order this ranged from the pharaoh’s
regalia (symbolizing power to maintain order) to the individual symbols of Egyptian gods and
goddesses. Animals were also highly symbolic figures in Egyptian art.

Colours of the subjects were more expressive rather than natural. So a red skin implied hard working
tanned youth, whereas yellow skin was used for women or middle-aged men who worked indoors.
The presence of blue or gold indicated divinity. The use of black for royal figures expressed the
fertility of the Nile. Stereotypes of people were employed to indicate geographical origins.

Difference in scale was commonly used for conveying hierarchy. The larger the scale of the figures,
the more important they were. Kings were often shown at the same scale as the deities, and both are
shown larger than the elite and far larger than the general populace and in smallest scale are shown
servants, entertainers, animals, trees, and architectural details. So the size indicates relative
importance in the social order.

Ancient Egyptian art forms are characterized by regularity and detailed depiction of gods, human
beings, heroic battles, and nature. A high proportion of the surviving works were designed and made
to provide peace and assistance to the deceased in the afterlife. The artists’ desire was to preserve
everything from the present as clearly and permanently as possible. Ancient Egyptian art was
designed to represent socioeconomic status and belief systems.

The Egyptians used the distinctive technique of sunken relief, well suited to very bright sunlight.
The main figures in reliefs adhere to the same figure convention as in painting.

Papyrus was used by ancient Egyptians and it was exported to many states in the ancient world for
writing and painting. Papyrus is a relatively fragile medium generally lasting around a century or
two in a library, and though used all over the classical world has only survived when buried in very
dry conditions, and then, when found, is often in poor condition.

ANCIENT GREEK PAINTINGS

- - Ancient historians such as Pausanians and Pliny have stated that ―Panel paintings‖ were the most
respected and common art form of the ancient greek, painted in tempera and encaustic wax.
Unfortunately, very few even made it to 20th century.
- - Subject matters: Battle pieces, mythological painting with small group of figures, still life,
portrait, landscape and stage scenery.
- Most of greek sculptures were originally painted in bright and vivid colors, in a technique known
as polychromy. The paint was used to color clothing and hair and even skin. The greek painters also
painted ceramic vases. their painting are more on aesthetic idealism using proportionality, balance
and mathematical perspective.
- - The painters used techniques like foreshortened perspective, illusion, human anatomy, use of
shading and shadows to create 3-dimensional painting.

- Famous Greek Painters:

- 1. Cimon of Cleone - he was most well-known for his unique depictions of the human figure.
- 2. Agatharchus- He is noted as the first artist to use perspective on a large scale, and also pioneered
the idea of bringing out the shadows of objects by placing them against the sun.
- 3. Apollodorus - He was known for his masterful use of shadows in his compositions, known as
Skiagraphia.
- 4. Zeuxis - was revered for his ability to paint still-lifes with great realism.
 Four Greek Period:

1. GEOMETRIC PERIOD
- Geometric Art has been assigned the years of 900-700 BC. Its name is utterly descriptive of the art
created during this phase. Pottery decoration moved beyond simple shapes to also include animals and
humans. Everything, however, was rendered with the use of simple geometric shapes.
- The Greek Geometric period from about 900-700 BCE emerged during the early development of
Greek city-states, or polis. In the early history of these city-states, several aspects of Greek culture are
beginning to form, such as the written word, trade, and religion. Major temples to the gods are erected
as well as sanctuaries.

2. ARCHAIC PERIOD
- Archaic Art, from c. 700-480 BC, began with an Orientalizing Phase (735-650 BC). The Archaic
phase is best known for the beginnings of realistic depictions of humans and monumental stone
sculptures. It was during the Archaic period that the limestone kouros (male) and kore (female) statues
were created, always depicting young, nude, smiling persons.
- In contrast to the geometric designs of the Geometric period, the Archaic period ushered in more
natural art styles. During this period from 600-480 BCE, Greeks began to carve large freestanding
sculptures of human subjects from stone. Male nude statues, called kouros, and female clothed statues,
called kore, began to emerge.

3. CLASSICAL PERIOD
- Classical Art (480-323 BC) was created during a "golden age", from the time Athens rose to
prominence to Greek expansion and right up until the death of Alexander the Great. It was during this
period that human statues became so heroically proportioned. Of course, they were reflective of Greek
Humanistic belief in the nobility of man and, perhaps, a desire to look a bit like gods. They were also
the result of the invention of metal chisels finally capable of working marble.

4. HELLENISTIC PERIOD
- Hellenistic Art (323-31 BC)—quite like Mannerism—went a wee bit over the top. By the time
Alexander had died and things got chaotic in Greece as his empire broke apart, Greek sculptors had
mastered carving marble. They were so technically perfect that they began to sculpt impossibly heroic
humans. People simply do not look as flawlessly symmetrical or beautiful in real life as those sculptures
portray, which may explain why the sculptures remain so popular after all these years.
- Prior to the beginning of the Hellenistic period, Alexander the Great greatly expanded the Greek
empire. This led to the fostering of cultural and artistic influences from regions such as the Middle East
and even India. The death of Alexander the Great marks the beginning of the Hellenistic period, from
323-31 BCE.

ANCIENT ROMAN PAINTINGS

- - Believed to be heavily influenced by the Greeks

- - Very few existed in Roman Paintings like for Roman Frescoes and Pompeii wall paintings.
- Themes and Subjects are wide in variety offering : paintings of landscapes, portraits, mythological
animals, real animals, Still-lifes and everyday scenes.Scenes of rural landscapes, shepherds, temples,
and herds.

- FOUR STYLES of Roman wall painting: The Pompeian Styles are four periods which are
distinguished in ancient Roman mural painting. They were originally delineated and described by the
German archaeologist August Mau (1840–1909) from the excavation of wall paintings at Pompeii,
which is one of the largest groups of surviving Roman frescoes.
- The wall painting styles have allowed art historians to delineate phases of interior decoration leading
up to the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 AD between stylistic shifts in Roman art during late
Republican and Augustan periods.
- The four main styles of Roman wall painting defined are: structural (or incrustation), architectural,
ornamental, and intricate. Each style following the first contains aspects of the previous styles. The
first two styles (incrustation and architectural) were from the Republican period (related to
Hellenistic Greek wall painting) and the last two (ornamental and intricate) from the Imperial
period.[1]

- 1. First Style – The First style, also referred to as structural, incrustation or masonry style, was most
popular from 200 BC until 80 BC. It is characterized by the trompe-l'œil simulation of marble
(marble veneering). The marble-like look was acquired by the use of stucco moldings, which caused
portions of the wall to appear raised.[5] Other simulated elements (e.g. suspended alabaster discs in
vertical lines, 'wooden' beams in yellow and 'pillars' and 'cornices' in white), and the use of vivid
color, were considered signs of wealth. Those who were not as wealthy mainly used variations of the
colors yellow, purple, and pink.

- 2. Second Style – The Second style, architectural style, or 'illusionism' dominated the 1st century
BC, where walls were decorated with architectural features and trompe-l'œil (trick of the eye)
compositions. Early on, elements of this style are reminiscent of the First Style, but this slowly starts
to be substituted element by element. This technique consists of highlighting elements to pass them
off as three-dimensional realities – columns for example, dividing the wall-space into zones – and
was a method widely used by the Romans.

- The second style retained the usage of marble blocks. The blocks were typically lined along the base
of the wall and the actual picture was created on flat plaster.[5] However, many paintings from this
style involved illusions of imaginary scenes.[4] Painters wanted to give off the illusion that the
viewer was looking through a window at the scenery depicted. They also added objects that are
commonly seen in real life such as vases and shelves along with items that appeared to be sticking
out of the wall.[2][4] This style was intended for viewers to feel as though the actions in the painting
were taking place around them.

3. Third style – The Third style, or ornate style, was popular around 20–10 BC as a reaction to the
austerity of the previous period. It leaves room for more figurative and colorful decoration, with an
overall more ornamental feeling, and often presents great finesse in execution. This style is typically
noted as simplistically elegant.

Its main characteristic was a departure from illusionistic devices, although these (along with figural
representation) later crept back into this style. It obeyed strict rules of symmetry dictated by the
central element, dividing the wall into three horizontal and three to five vertical zones. The vertical
zones would be divided up by geometric motifs or bases, or slender columns of foliage hung around
candelabra. In this particular style, more wall space is left plainly colored, with no design. When
designs were present, they tended to be small, plain pictures or scenes such as a candelabrum or
fluted appendages.[5] Delicate motifs of birds or semi-fantastical animals appeared in the
background. Plants and characteristically Egyptian animals were often introduced, part of the
Egyptomania in Roman art after Augustus' defeat of Cleopatra and annexation of Egypt in 30 BC.

These paintings were decorated with delicate linear fantasies, predominantly monochromatic, that
replaced the three-dimensional worlds of the Second Style. Also included in this style are paintings
similar to the one found in Cubiculum 15 of the Villa of Agrippa Postumus in Boscotrecase (c. 10
BC). These involve a delicate architectural frame over a blank, monochromatic background with
only a small scene located in the middle, like a tiny floating landscape. Black, red, and yellow
continued to be used throughout this period, but the use of green and blue became more prominent
than in previous styles.[3]

- 4. Fourth style – Characterized as a Baroque reaction to the Third Style's mannerism, the Fourth
Style in Roman wall painting (c. 60–79 AD) is generally less ornamented than its predecessor. The
style was, however, much more complex. It revives large-scale narrative painting and panoramic
vistas while retaining the architectural details of the Second and First Styles. In the Julio-Claudian
phase (c. 20–54 AD), a textile-like quality dominates and tendrils seem to connect all the elements
 on the wall. The colors warm up once again, and they are used to advantage in the depiction of
scenes drawn from mythology, landscapes, and other images.[5]
- Intricate paintings appeared busier and used the wall in its entirety to be complete.[4] The overall
feeling of the walls typically formed a mosaic of framed pictures. The lower zones of these walls
tended to be composed of the First Style. Panels were also used with floral designs on the walls. A
prime example of the Fourth Style is the Ixion Room in the House of the Vettii in Pompeii. One of
the largest contributions seen in the Fourth Style is the advancement of still life with intense space
and light. Shading was very important in the Roman still life. This style was never truly seen again
until the 17th and 18th centuries with the Dutch and English decoration.

Prepared by: MACOTE, Baenisah L.

GROUP 1 GEC 106 – Gg4