The presentation of the history of painting
provides a suitable introduction. It will demonstrate that
throughout the far-reaching period of man's artistic efforts
painting has been foremost as a mode of creativity.
Below is a brief description of the history
painting - confined to the medium of tempera - which will
furnish a framework for study. The summary follows the method
of historical continuity, beginning with the earliest times
and including our present era. This is but one possible means
to introduce the subject. Other approaches may be initiated.
By comparing and contrasting select examples, one may view
painting as an expression of man's belief, ideals, and ideas.
Or, the history of painting may be studied primarily as the
illustration of many different times and societies.
Painting as an art medium has a tradition that
extends far back into prehistory. It was employed to depict
images and symbols, usually of a religious nature, and to
record events pertaining to daily life. The numerous works of
art that still survive from the Stone Age and, particularly,
from the ancient world attest to the variety of styles of
painting and the uses they were put to.
Paleolithic art (about 15,000 - 10,000 B.C.) is
exemplified by cave paintings such as those discovered at
Altamira in northern Spain and at La Mouthe, Font de Gaume,
Les Combarelles, and Lascaux in the Dordogne region of
France. Most often depicted upon the cavern walls were
marvelously drawn animal forms dominated by boldness of line
and color, which was limited to red, red-brown, and black
pigments. When man eventually turned to settled communities,
he did not hesitate to practice the art of wall painting for
decorating the interiors of houses and shrines. This is shown
by recent excavations of early settlements in Turkey (about
7000-5500 B.C.), which reveal a well-established tradition of
painting.
With the emergence of recorded history (about 3100
B.C.), the artist became more knowledgeable in the use of
materials and in the techniques of painting. He was able to
manipulate the medium to satisfy whatever demands were
imposed upon him. For the painters of ancient Egypt and the
Near East, all efforts were devoted primarily to the
decoration of ceilings and walls of royal tombs, temples, and
palaces. Scenes in Egyptian paintings often proclaim secular
events surrounding the life of the Pharaoh, although there
were also included themes having religious significance.
Often a sense of elegance and grace permeates these
paintings. The paintings reveal, too, the sensitive manner in
which the Egyptian artist depicted the wonders of the natural
world. While comparatively little painted decoration has
survived in Mesopotamia, indications are that room interiors
of the elaborate structures of Babylonia and Assyria were
embellished with bold, geometric designs, occasionally
combined with representations of human figures and other
naturalistic forms.
The painting medium used throughout the ancient
world consisted of tempera, a mixture composed of color
pigments extracted from minerals, egg yolk used as an
adhesive, and water to liquefy the paint. The distinctive
qualities of this medium, which permits the placing of one
layer upon another, are its opacity, produced by repeated
coats of a single tone; it opalescence, produced by painting
lighter tones over a dark, single tone; its transparency,
produced by painting darker tones over a lighter, single
tone. The surface to be painted upon was often prepared with
a thin coating of plaster or gesso. The easiest method of
working was to apply the paints to the dry surface, a
technique sometimes described as fresco secco. In later
periods, the tempera was applied upon the gesso while it was
still wet, a technique that made greater demands upon the
artist. This method is known as true fresco. Frequently the
paintings were done in fresco and then retouched in secco.
Decorating wall surfaces with fresco paintings became more
prominent in time, and examples of this style of painting are
known throughout the Roman, Byzantine, Romanesque, and
Renaissance periods.
The most noteworthy paintings of the Roman period
are those unearthed at Herculaneum and Pompeii, the cities
buried by the great eruption of Vesuvius in 79 A.D. The finds
of mural art in Pompeii offer a complete survey of two
centuries of Greco-Roman painting. The artistic tastes
revealed in the paintings are exceptional and range from the
use of architectural perspective for purposes of decoration
to complex figure compositions illustrating scenes of ancient
mythology.
The monastic art that typifies the paintings of
the Byzantine period (about 700-1450 A.D.) us generally
identified with the frescoes found in the churches and
monasteries of the Eastern Mediterranean. Closely allied with
mural paintings are small panel paintings, also made with the
tempera medium. Wood panels consisting variously of hard
pine, olive, nut tree, poplar, or plane served as the ground,
and, although the methods of preparing the panels differed
widely, the real variations detected in the techniques of
Byzantine painting were provided by new combinations of
color.
Parallel with the development of Byzantine art in
the East was the rise and growth of Islam. The artists of
Muslim art sought the medium of tempera to illuminate
manuscripts and books conspicuous for their delicate and
jewel-like treatment.
The traditional use of tempera for mural and panel
painting continued in Western Europe during the Romanesque
period, but it was in Italy that the medium was given new
impetus in the matter of representation. The transition into
a renewed creative activity, which was begun quietly in the
thirteenth and fourteenth centuries by such masters as the
Florentine Giotto (about 1276-1337) and the Sienese painters
Duccio di Buoninsegna (about 1255-1318) and Simone Martini
(about 1284-1344), finally attained its greatest achievement
in the Quattrocento and early part of the Cinquecento. The
inception of the Early Renaissance, marked by the frescoes of
Masaccio (1401-1428), brought a new spirit into the art that
flourished in the century that followed, culminating in the
paintings of Michelangelo (1475-1564), particularly his
ceiling fresco of the Sistine Chapel and the Last Judgment.
With the introduction of paints possessing an oil
base - an event that occurred during the fifteenth century in
Flanders - by such masters as the brothers Hubert (died 1426)
and Jan van Eyck (died 1441) and Rogier van der Weyden
(1399-1464), tempera painting gradually lost its prominence
as the medium for making major works of art and was
superseded by oil painting, which remains the prevalent
material to the present day. Tempera was still retained,
however, particularly for large wall decorations by such
noteworthy artists as the Venetian Tiepolo (1696-1770),
renowned for his fresco decorations, and the Spaniard Goya
(1746-1828), who painted the frescoes of the cupola of S.
Antonio de la Florida in Madrid.
At the turn of this century, fresco painting for
huge murals was revived by a school of Mexican artists, which
included, among others, Jose Orozco (1883-1949) and Diego
Rivera (1886-1957). The subjects of their murals show the
influence of politics in their homeland. In recent years a
few artists have returned to tempera painting as the medium
for their works. Among the more important artists are the
Americans Ben Shahn (1898-1969) and Andrew Wyeth (born 1917).
While the paintings of the former artist are often flat and
poster-like, tending toward subjects dealing with social
criticism, the realism revealed in the latter's works adopts
an illustrative technique that strives for a more personal
art. Another American artist, Mark Tobey (born 1890), has
employed a more relaxed, spontaneous effect in the use of
tempera for his paintings.
To what extent tempera painting will be practiced
in the future remains uncertain. Its distinctive
characteristics have enabled tempera to survive the era of
oil painting, a medium which in turn appears to be in
competition with a newer medium, acrylics. Notable for
tempera is the ease with which it can be manipulated and the
many uses to which it can be put, even when combined with
other materials (such as wax to produce encaustic). One may
suppose, then, that tempera painting will continue to attract
the attention of artists, thus assuring the medium a place in
the future development of painting.
