   #copyright

History of painting

2007 Schools Wikipedia Selection. Related subjects: Art; General history

   The history of painting reaches back in time to artifacts from
   pre-historic humans, and spans all cultures.

Pre-history

   Cave Painting

                Lascaux

   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.

Eastern painting

South Asian painting

   Shiva, the Hindu lord of destruction
   Shiva, the Hindu lord of destruction
   Agni, the Hindu fire deity.
   Agni, the Hindu fire deity.

Indian painting

   Indian paintings historically revolved around the religious deities and
   kings. Indian art is a collective term for several different schools of
   art which existed the Indian subcontinent. The paintings varied from
   large frescoes of Ellora 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.

History

   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. 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.
   Bhimbetka rock painting
   Bhimbetka rock painting

   Ajanta Caves in Maharashtra, India are rock-cut cave monuments dating
   back to the second century BCE and containing paintings and sculpture
   considered to be masterpieces of both Buddhist religious art and
   universal pictorial art.
   A fresco from Cave 1 of Ajanta.
   A fresco from Cave 1 of Ajanta.

   Madhubani painting

   Madhubani painting is a style of Indian painting, practiced in the
   Mithila region of Bihar state, India. The origins of Madhubani painting
   are shrouded in antiquity, and a tradition states that this style of
   painting originated at the time of the Ramayana, when King Janak
   commissioned artists to do paintings at the time of marriage of his
   daughter, Sita, with Sri Rama who is considered to be an incarnation of
   the Hindu god lord Vishnu.
   Mother Goddess Durga slays a demon.
   Mother Goddess Durga slays a demon.

   Rajput painting

   Rajput painting, a style of Indian painting, evolved and flourished,
   during the 18th century, in the royal courts of Rajputana, India. Each
   Rajput kingdom evolved a distinct style, but with certain common
   features.
   Rajput soldier.
   Rajput soldier.

   Rajput paintings depict a number of themes, events of epics like the
   Ramayana and the Mahabharata, Krishna’s life, beautiful landscapes, and
   humans. Miniatures were the preferred medium of Rajput painting, but
   several manuscripts also contain Rajput paintings, and paintings were
   even done on the walls of palaces, inner chambers of the forts,
   havelies, particularly, the havelis of Shekhawait.

   The colors extracted from certain minerals, plant sources, conch
   shells, and were even derived by processing precious stones, gold and
   silver were used. The preparation of desired colors was a lengthy
   process, sometimes taking weeks. Brushes used were very fine.
   Emperor Akbar.
   Emperor Akbar.

   Mughal painting

   Mughal painting is a particular style of Indian painting, generally
   confined to illustrations on the book and done in miniatures, and which
   emerged, developed and took shape during the period of the Mughal
   Empire 16th -19th centuries).

   Tanjore painting

   Tanjore painting is an important form of classical South Indian
   painting native to the town of Tanjore in Tamil Nadu. The art form
   dates back to the early 9th Century, a period dominated by the Chola
   rulers, who encouraged art and literature. These paintings are known
   for their elegance, rich colors, and attention to detail. The themes
   for most of these paintings are Hindu Gods and Goddesses and scenes
   from Hindu mythology. In modern times, these paintings have become a
   much sought after souvenir during festive occasions in South India.

   The process of making a Tanjore painting involves many stages. The
   first stage involves the making of the preliminary sketch of the image
   on the base. The base consists of a cloth pasted over a wooden base.
   Then chalk powder or zinc oxide is mixed with water-soluble adhesive
   and applied on the base. To make the base smoother, a mild abrasive is
   sometimes used. After the drawing is made, decoration of the jewellery
   and the apparels in the image is done with semi-precious stones. Laces
   or threads are also used to decorate the jewellery. On top of this, the
   gold foils are pasted. Finally, dyes are used to add colors to the
   figures in the paintings.

   The Madras School

   During British rule in India, the crown found that Madras had some of
   the most talented and intellectual artistic minds in the world. As the
   British had also established a huge settlement in and around Madras,
   Georgetown was chosen to establish an institute that would cater to the
   artistic expectations of the royals in London. This has come to be
   known as the Madras School. At first traditional artists were employed
   to produce exquisite varieties of furniture, metal work, and curios and
   their work was sent to the royal palaces of the Queen.

   Unlike the Bengal School where 'copying' is the norm of teaching, the
   Madras School flourishes on 'creating' new styles, arguments and
   trends.

   The Bengal School

   The Bengal School of Art was an influential style of art that
   flourished in India during the British Raj in the early 20th century.
   It was associated with Indian nationalism, but was also promoted and
   supported by many British arts administrators.

   The Bengal School arose as an avant garde and nationalist movement
   reacting against the academic art styles previously promoted in India,
   both by Indian artists such as Ravi Varma and in British art schools.
   Following the widespread influence of Indian spiritual ideas in the
   West, the British art teacher Ernest Binfield Havel attempted to reform
   the teaching methods at the Calcutta School of Art by encouraging
   students to imitate Mughal miniatures. This caused immense controversy,
   leading to a strike by students and complaints from the local press,
   including from nationalists who considered it to be a retrogressive
   move. Havel was supported by the artist Abanindranath Tagore, a nephew
   of the poet Rabindranath Tagore. Tagore painted a number of works
   influenced by Mughal art, a style that he and Havel believed to be
   expressive of India's distinct spiritual qualities, as opposed to the
   "materialism" of the West. Tagore's best-known painting, Bharat Mata
   (Mother India), depicted a young woman, portrayed with four arms in the
   manner of Hindu deities, holding objects symbolic of India's national
   aspirations. Tagore later attempted to develop links with Japanese
   artists as part of an aspiration to construct a pan-Asianist model of
   art.

   The Bengal School's influence in India declined with the spread of
   modernist ideas in the 1920s.

East Asian painting

   Lin Tinggui, Chinese, 1178 AD

   Ma Lin, Chinese

   Chinese, 1451 AD

   Chinese, 16th century

   Chinese, 17th century

   Chinese, 17th century

   Hiroshige, Japanese

   Hokusai, Japanese

   Chinese, 10th-11th century

   Chinese, 16th century

   Chinese, 968 AD

   Japanese, 16th century

   Japanese, 14th century

   Hokusai, Japanese

   Chinese, 1178 AD

   Han Gan, 8th century, Chinese

   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 colour 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).

   The ideologies of Confucianism, Daoism, and Buddhism played important
   roles in East Asian art. Medieval Song Dynasty painters such as Lin
   Tinggui and his Luohan Laundering (housed in the Smithsonian Freer
   Gallery of Art) of the 12th century are excellent examples of Buddhist
   ideas fused into classical Chinese artwork. In the latter painting on
   silk (image and description provided in the link), bald-headed Buddhist
   Luohan are depicted in a practical setting of washing clothes by a
   river. However, the painting itself is visually stunning, with the
   Luohan portrayed in rich detail and bright, opaque colors in contrast
   to a hazy, brown, and bland wooded environment. Also, the tree tops are
   shrouded in swirling fog, providing the common "negative space"
   mentioned above in East Asian Art.

   In Japonisme, late 19th century artists like the Impressionists, Van
   Gogh, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec and Whistler admired traditional
   Japanese Ukiyo-e artists like Hokusai and Hiroshige and their work was
   influenced by it.
   Panorama of Along the River During Ching Ming Festival, 18th century
   remake of a 12th century original by Chinese artist Zhang Zeduan
   Panorama of Along the River During Ching Ming Festival, 18th century
   remake of a 12th century original by Chinese artist Zhang Zeduan

Chinese painting

   Spring Morning in the Han Palace, by Ming-era artist Qiu Ying (1494 -
   1552 AD)
   Spring Morning in the Han Palace, by Ming-era artist Qiu Ying ( 1494 -
   1552 AD)

   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. Artwork
   during this period and the subsequent Qin Dynasty (221 - 207 BC) and
   Han Dynasty (202 BC - 220 AD) was made not as a means in and of itself
   or for higher personal expression. Rather artwork was created to
   symbolize and honour geomancy, funerary rights, representations of
   mythological deities or spirits of ancestors, etc. Paintings on silk of
   court officials and domestic scenes could be found during the Han
   Dynasty, along with scenes of men hunting on horseback or partaking in
   military parade. During the social and cultural climate of the ancient
   Eastern Jin Dynasty (316 - 420 AD) based at Nanjing in the south,
   painting became one of the official pasttimes of Confucian-taught
   bureaucratic officials and aristocrats (along with music played by the
   guqin zither, writing fanciful calligraphy, and writing and reciting of
   poetry). Painting became a common form of artistic self-expression, and
   during this period painters at court or amongst elite social circuits
   were judged and ranked by their peers.

   The establishment of classical Chinese landscape painting is accredited
   largely to the Eastern Jin Dynasty artist Gu Kaizhi (344 - 406 AD), one
   of the most famous artists of Chinese history. Like the elongated
   scroll scenes of Kaizhi, Tang Dynasty (618 - 907 AD) Chinese artists
   like Wu Daozi painted vivid and highly detailed artwork on long
   horizontal handscrolls (which were very popular during the Tang), such
   as his Eighty Seven Celestial People. Painted artwork during the Tang
   period pertained the effects of an idealized landscape environment,
   with sparse amount of objects, persons, or activity, as well as
   monochromatic in nature (example: the murals of Price Yide's tomb in
   the Qianling Mausoleum). There were also figures such as early Tang-era
   painter Zhan Ziqian, who painted superb landscape paintings that were
   well ahead of his day in portrayal of realism. However, landscape art
   did not reach greater level of maturity and realism in general until
   the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period (907 - 960 AD). During this
   time, there were exceptional landscape painters like Dong Yuan (refer
   to this article for an example of his artwork), and those who painted
   more vivid and realistic depictions of domestic scenes, like Gu
   Hongzhong and his Night Revels of Han Xizai.

   During the Chinese Song Dynasty (960 - 1279 AD), not only landscape art
   was improved upon, but portrait painting became more standardized and
   sophisticated than before (for example, refer to Emperor Huizong of
   Song), and reached its classical age maturity during the Ming Dynasty
   (1368 - 1644 AD). During the late 13th century and first half of the
   14th century, Chinese under the Mongol-controlled Yuan Dynasty were not
   allowed to enter higher posts of government (reserved for Mongols or
   other ethnic groups, such as Turks or Persians), and the Imperial
   examination was ceased for the time being. Many Confucian-educated
   Chinese who now lacked profession turned to the arts of painting and
   theatre instead, as the Yuan period became one of the most vibrant and
   abundant eras for Chinese artwork. Examples of superb art from this
   period include the rich and detailed painted murals of the Yongle
   Palace , or "Dachunyang Longevity Palace", of 1262 AD, a UNESCO World
   Heritage site. Within the palace, paintings cover an area of more than
   1000 square meters, and hold mostly Daoist themes. It was during the
   Song Dynasty that painters would also gather in social clubs or
   meetings to discuss their art or others' artwork, the praising of which
   often led to persuasions to trade and sell precious works of art.
   However, there were also many harsh critics of others art as well,
   showing the difference in style and taste amongst different painters.
   In 1088 AD, the polymath scientist and statesman Shen Kuo once wrote of
   the artwork of one Li Cheng, who he criticized as follows:

     ...Then there was Li Chheng, who when he depicted pavilions and
     lodges amidst mountains, storeyed buildings, pagodas and the like,
     always used to paint the eaves as seen from below. His idea was that
     'one should look upwards from underneath, just as a man standing on
     level ground and looking up at the eaves of a pagoda can see its
     rafters and its cantilever eave rafters'. This is all wrong. In
     general the proper way of painting a landscape is to see the small
     from the viewpoint of the large (i ta kuan hsiao), just as one looks
     at artificial mountains in gardens (as one walks about). If one
     applies (Li's method) to the painting of real mountains, looking up
     at them from below, one can only see one profile at a time, and not
     the wealth of their multitudinous slopes and profiles, to say
     nothing of all that is going on in the valleys and gorges, and in
     the lanes and courtyards with their dwellings and houses. If we
     stand to the east of a mountain its western parts would be on the
     vanishing boundary of far-off distance, and vice-versa. Surely this
     could not be called a successful painting? Mr. Li did not understand
     the principle of 'seeing the small from the viewpoint of the large'.
     He was certainly marvelous at diminishing accurately heights and
     distances, but should one attach such importance to the angles and
     corners of buildings?

   Emperor Qianlong Practicing Calligraphy, mid 18th century.
   Emperor Qianlong Practicing Calligraphy, mid 18th century.

   Although high level of stylization, mystical appeal, and surreal
   elegance were often preferred over realism (such as in shan shui
   style), beginning with the medieval Song Dynasty there were many
   Chinese painters then and afterwards who depicted scenes of nature that
   were vividly real. Later Ming Dynasty artists would take after this
   Song Dynasty emphasis for intricate detail and realism on objects in
   nature, especially in depictions of animals (such as ducks, swans,
   sparrows, tigers, etc.) amongst patches of brightly-colored flowers and
   thickets of brush and wood (a good example would be the anonymous Ming
   Dynasty painting Birds and Plum Blossoms , housed in the Freer Gallery
   of the Smithsonian Museum in Washington DC). There were many renowned
   Ming Dynasty artists; Qiu Ying is an excellent example of a paramount
   Ming era painter (famous even in his own day), utilizing in his artwork
   domestic scenes, bustling palatial scenes, and nature scenes of river
   valleys and steeped mountains shrouded in mist and swirling clouds.
   During the Ming Dynasty there were also different and rivaling schools
   of art associated with painting, such as the Wu School and the Zhe
   School.

   Classical Chinese painting continued on into the early modern Qing
   Dynasty, with highly realistic portrait paintings like seen in the late
   Ming Dynasty of the early 17th century. The portraits of Kangxi
   Emperor, Yongzheng Emperor, and Qianlong Emperor are excellent examples
   of realistic Chinese portrait painting. During the Qianlong reign
   period and the continuing 19th century, European Baroque styles of
   painting had noticeable influence on Chinese portrait paintings,
   especially with painted visual effects of lighting and shading.
   Likewise, East Asian paintings and other works of art (such as
   porcelain and lacquerware) were highly prized in Europe since initial
   contact in the 16th century.

Japanese painting

   Japanese painting (絵画, Kaiga?) 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.

Western painting

   see article Western painting

Egypt, Greece and Rome

   Ancient Egypt

                Ancient Egypt, Queen Nefertari

                                              Ancient Egypt, papyrus

                                                                    Greek art

   Knossos

                Roman art, Pompeii

                                              Roman art

                                                                    Roman art

   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 to 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. The Egyptians also painted on linen, remnants of
   which survive today. In fact painted symbols are found amongst the
   first forms of written language, and religion.

   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, 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 colour 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'oeil, psuedo-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. Although these were neither
   of the best period nor the highest quality, they are impressive in
   themselves, and give an idea of the quality that the finest ancient
   work must have had. A very small number of miniatures from Late Antique
   illustrated books also survive, and a rather larger number of copies of
   them from the Early Medieval period.

Middle Ages

   Cotton Genesis a miniature of Abraham meeting Angels]]

   Byzantine art

   Byzantine art

   Byzantine art, Mosaic

   Limbourg Brothers

   Limbourg Brothers

   Book of Hours

   Book of Hours

   Carolingian

   Carolingian Saint Mark

   Giottino

   Vitale da Bologna

   Simone Martini

   Cimabue

   Giotto

   Giotto

   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 Othodox 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.

   In post-Antique Catholic Europe the first distinctive artistic style to
   emerge that included painting was the Insular art of the British Isles,
   where the only surviving examples (and quite likely the only medium in
   which painting was used) are miniatures in Illuminated manuscripts such
   as the Book of Kells. These are most famous for their abstract
   decoration, although figures, and sometimes scenes, were also depicted,
   especially in Evangelist portraits. Carolingian and Ottonian art also
   survives mostly in manuscripts, although some wall-painting remain, and
   more are documented. The art of this period combines Insular and
   "barbarian" influences with a strong Byzantine influence and an
   aspiration to recover classical monumentality and poise.

   Walls of Romanesque and Gothic churches were decorated with frescoes as
   well as sculpture and many of the few remaining murals have great
   intensity, and combine the decorative energy of Insular art with a new
   monumentality in the treatment of figures. Far more miniatures in
   Illuminated manuscripts survive from the period, showing the same
   characteristics, which continue into the Gothic period.

   Panel painting becomes more common during the Romanesque period, under
   the heavy influence of Byzantine icons. Towards the middle of the 13th
   century, Medieval art and Gothic painting became more realistic, with
   the beginnings of interest in the depiction of volume and perspective
   in Italy with Cimabue and then his pupil Giotto. From Giotto on, the
   treatment of composition by the best painters also became much more
   free and innovative. They are considered to be the two great medieval
   masters of painting in western culture. Cimabue, within the Byzantine
   tradition, used a more realistic and dramatic approach to his art. His
   pupil, Giotto, took these innovations to a higher level which in turn
   set the foundations for the western painting tradition. Both artists
   were pioneers in the move towards naturalism.

   Churches were built with more and more windows and the use of colorful
   stained glass become a staple in decoration. One of the most famous
   examples of this is found in the cathedral of Notre Dame de Paris. By
   the 14th century Western societies were both richer and more cultivated
   and painters found new patrons in the nobility and even the
   bourgeoisie. Illuminated manuscripts took on a new character and slim,
   fashionably dressed court women were shown in their landscapes. This
   style soon became known as International style and tempera panel
   paintings and altarpieces gained importance.

Renaissance and Mannerism

   Fra Angelico

   Filippo Lippi

   Andrea Mantegna

   Masaccio The Expulsion Of Adam and Eve from Eden, before and after
   restoration

   Paolo Uccello

   Leonardo Da Vinci

   Raphael

   Michelangelo

   Albrecht Durer

   Giovanni Bellini

   Titian

   Sandro Botticelli

   Giorgione

   Jan van Eyck

   Hans Holbein the Younger

   El Greco

   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.

   Flemish, Dutch and German painters of the Renaissance such as Hans
   Holbein the Younger, Albrecht Dürer, Lucas Cranach, Matthias Grünewald,
   Hieronymous Bosch, and Pieter Brueghel represent a different approach
   from their Italian colleagues, one that is more realistic and less
   idealized. The adoption of oil painting (whose invention was
   traditionally, but erroneously, credited to Jan Van Eyck), made
   possible a new verisimilitude in depicting reality. Unlike the Italians
   whose work drew heavily from the art of ancient Greece and Rome, the
   northerners retained a stylistic residue of the sculpture and
   illuminated manuscripts of the Middle Ages.

   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. Following
   centuries dominated by religious imagery, secular subject matter slowly
   returned to Western painting. Artists included visions of the world
   around them, or the products of their own imaginations in their
   paintings. Those who could afford the expense could become patrons and
   commission portraits of themselves or their family.

   In the sixteenth century, movable pictures came into popular demand,
   which could be hung easily on walls and moved around at will, rather
   than paintings being made on permanent structures, such as altars and
   other solid structures.

   The High Renaissance gave rise to a stylized art known as Mannerism. In
   place of the balanced compositions and rational approach to perspective
   that characterized art at the dawn of the sixteenth century, the
   Mannerists sought instability, artifice, and doubt. The unperturbed
   faces and gestures of Piero della Francesca and the calm Virgins of
   Raphael are replaced by the troubled expressions of Pontormo and the
   emotional intensity of El Greco.

Baroque and Rococo

   Caravaggio

   Peter Paul Rubens

   Jan Vermeer

   Rembrandt van Rijn

   Diego Velazquez

   Nicolas Poussin

   Giovanni Battista Tiepolo

   Antoine Watteau

   Jean-Honoré Fragonard

   François Boucher

   Thomas Gainsborough

   Jean-Baptiste-Siméon Chardin

   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, Rubens, Velazquez,
   Poussin, and Vermeer. Caravaggio is an heir of the humanist painting of
   the High Renaissance. His realistic approach to the human figure,
   painted directly from life and dramatically spotlit against a dark
   background, shocked his contemporaries and opened a new chapter in the
   history of painting. Baroque painting often dramatizes scenes using
   light effects; this can be seen in works by Rembrandt, Vermeer, Le Nain
   and La Tour.

   During the 18th century, Rococo followed as a decadent sub-genre of
   Baroque, lighter, often frivolous and erotic. The French masters
   Watteau, Boucher and Fragonard represent the style, as do Giovanni
   Battista Tiepolo and Thomas Gainsborough. Jean-Baptiste-Siméon Chardin
   was considered by some as the best French painter of the 18th century -
   the Anti-Rococo.

19th century: Neo-classicism, Romanticism, Impressionism

   Jacques-Louis David 1787

   John Constable 1802

   Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres 1862

   Eugène Delacroix, 1830

   Francisco de Goya 1814

   Théodore Géricault 1819

   Caspar David Friedrich c. 1820

   J. M. W. Turner 1838

   Gustave Courbet 1849- 1850

   Albert Bierstadt 1886

   Camille Corot c. 1867

   Claude Monet 1872

   Pierre-Auguste Renoir 1876

   Edgar Degas 1876

   Édouard Manet 1882

   Vincent van Gogh 1888

   Vincent van Gogh 1889

   Paul Gauguin 1897- 1898

   Georges Seurat 1884- 1886

   Paul Cézanne 1906

   After the decadence of Rococo there arose in the late 18th century an
   ascetic neo-classicism, best represented by such artists as David and
   his heir Ingres. Ingres' work already contains much of the sensuality,
   but none of the spontaneity, that was to characterize Romanticism. This
   movement turned its attention toward landscape and nature as well as
   the human figure and the supremacy of natural order above mankind's
   will. There is a pantheist philosophy (see Spinoza and Hegel) within
   this conception that opposes Enlightenment ideals by seeing mankind's
   destiny in a more tragic or pessimistic light. The idea that human
   beings are not above the forces of Nature is in contradiction to
   Ancient Greek and Renaissance ideals where mankind was above all things
   and owned his fate. This thinking led romantic artists to depict the
   sublime, ruined churches, shipwrecks, massacres and madness.

   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
   Eugene 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. In the United States the Romantic
   tradition of landscape painting was known as the Hudson River School.
   Important painters of that school include Thomas Cole, Frederick
   Church, Albert Bierstadt, Thomas Moran, and John Frederick Kensett
   among others. Luminism was another important movement in American
   landscape painting related to the Hudson River School.

   The leading Barbizon School painter Camille Corot painted sometimes as
   a romantic, sometimes as a Realist who looks ahead to Impressionism. A
   major force in the turn towards Realism at mid-century was Gustave
   Courbet. In the latter third of the century Impressionists like Édouard
   Manet, Claude Monet, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Camille Pissarro, Alfred
   Sisley, and Edgar Degas and the slightly younger post-Impressionists
   like Vincent Van Gogh, Paul Gauguin, Georges Seurat, and Paul Cezanne
   lead art up to the edge of modernism.

20th century Modern and Contemporary

   Henri Matisse 1908

   Pablo Picasso 1907

   Georges Braque 1910

   Giorgio de Chirico 1914

   Wassily Kandinsky 1913

   Kasimir Malevich 1916

   Piet Mondrian 1921

   Paul Klee 1922

   Marcel Duchamp 1915- 1923

   Max Ernst 1923

   Rene Magritte 1928- 1929

   Salvador Dali 1931

   Grant Wood 1930

   Frida Kahlo 1940

   Edward Hopper 1942

   Francis Bacon 1953

   Willem De Kooning 1952- 1953

   Jackson Pollock 1950

   Franz Kline 1954

   Clyfford Still 1957

   Helen Frankenthaler 1952

   Robert Rauschenberg 1963

   Richard Diebenkorn 1963

   Fairfield Porter 1971- 1972

   Roy Lichtenstein 1963

   Andy Warhol 1962

   David Hockney 1967

   Josef Albers 1965

   Frank Stella 1967

   Gene Davis 1964

   Ronald Davis 1968

   Ronnie Landfield 1971

   Philip Guston 1973

   Susan Rothenberg 1979

   Eric Fischl 1981

   Anselm Kiefer 1983

   The heritage of painters like Van Gogh, Cézanne, Gauguin, and Seurat
   was essential for the development of modern art. 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.

   After cubism several movements emerged; Futurism ( Balla), Abstract (
   Kandinsky, Der Blaue Reiter), Bauhaus ( Klee), De Stijl ( Mondrian),
   Suprematism ( Malevich), Constructivism ( Tatlin), Dadaism ( Duchamp,
   Arp) and Surrealism ( De Chirico, Miró, Magritte, Dalí, Ernst). Modern
   painting influenced all visual arts, from architecture to design and
   became an experimental laboratory in which artists stretched the limits
   of this medium to his extreme. Additionally, Van Gogh's painting had
   great influence in Expressionism which can be seen in Die Brücke, a
   group lead by German painter Ernst Kirchner and in Edvard Munch or Egon
   Schiele's work.

   In the USA during the period between World War I and World War II
   painters tended to go to Europe for recognition. Artists like Marsden
   Hartley, Patrick Henry Bruce, Gerald Murphy and Stuart Davis, created
   reputations abroad. In New York City, Albert Pinkham Ryder and Ralph
   Blakelock were influential and important figures in advanced American
   painting between 1900 and 1920. During the 1920s photographer Alfred
   Stieglitz exhibited Georgia O'Keefe, Arthur Dove, Alfred Henry Maurer,
   Charles Demuth, John Marin and other artists including European Masters
   Henri Matisse, Auguste Rodin, Henri Rousseau, Paul Cezanne, and Pablo
   Picasso, at his gallery the 291.

   During the 1930s and the Great Depression, Surrealism, late Cubism, the
   Bauhaus, De Stijl, Dada, and colorist painters like Henri Matisse and
   Pierre Bonnard characterized the European art scene. While in America
   the Social Realism movement that contained both political and social
   commentary dominated the art world. Artists like Ben Shahn, Thomas Hart
   Benton, Grant Wood, George Tooker, John Steuart Curry, Reginald Marsh,
   and others became prominent. In Latin America the muralist movement
   with Diego Rivera, David Siqueiros, José Orozco, Pedro Nel Gómez and
   Santiago Martinez Delgado and the paintings by Frida Kahlo was a
   renaissance of the arts for the region, with a use of colour and
   historic, and political messages.

   Post- Second World War American painting called Abstract expressionism
   included artists like Jackson Pollock, Willem de Kooning, Arshile
   Gorky, Mark Rothko, Hans Hofmann, Clyfford Still, Adolph Gottlieb,
   Philip Guston, Robert Motherwell, and Franz Kline, among others. In
   Europe there was the continuation of Surrealism, Cubism, Dada and the
   works of Matisse. Also in Europe, Tachisme (the European equivalent to
   Abstract expressionism) took hold of the newest generation. Serge
   Poliakoff, Nicolas de Staël, Georges Mathieu, Vieira da Silva, Jean
   Dubuffet, Yves Klein and Pierre Soulages among others are considered
   important figures in post-war European painting.

   Abstract painting in America evolved into movements such as Neo-Dada,
   colour field painting, Post painterly abstraction, Op Art, hard-edge
   painting, Minimal art, shaped canvas painting, Lyrical Abstraction,
   Neo-expressionism and the continuation of Abstract expressionism. As a
   response to the tendency toward abstraction imagery emerged through
   various new movements.

   Pop-Art is exemplified by artists: Andy Warhol, Claes Oldenburg, James
   Rosenquist, Jim Dine, Tom Wesselmann and Roy Lichtenstein among others.
   Pop art merges popular and mass culture with fine art, while injecting
   humor, irony, and recognizable imagery and content into the mix. While
   throughout the 20th century many painters continued to practice
   landscape and figurative painting with contemporary subjects and solid
   technique, like Fairfield Porter, Edward Hopper, Balthus, Francis
   Bacon, Lucian Freud, Philip Pearlstein, David Hockney, Chuck Close,
   Susan Rothenberg, Eric Fischl, Vija Celmins and Alex Katz.

   During the 1960s and 1970s, there was a reaction against painting.
   Critics like Douglas Crimp viewed the work of artists like Ad
   Reinhardt, and declared the 'death of painting'. Artists began to
   practice new ways of making art. New movements gained prominence some
   of which are: Postminimalism, Earth art, Video art, Installation art,
   arte povera, performance art, body art, fluxus, mail art, the
   situationists and conceptual art among others.

   However during the 1960s and 1970s abstract painting continued to
   develop in America through varied styles. Neo-Dada, Colour field
   painting, Lyrical Abstraction, Op art, hard-edge painting, Abstract
   Illusionism, minimal painting, and the continuation of Abstract
   expressionism as well as other new movements. Artists as powerful and
   influential as Robert Motherwell, Adolph Gottlieb, Phillip Guston, Lee
   Krasner, Cy Twombly, Robert Rauschenberg, Jasper Johns, Richard
   Diebenkorn, Elmer Bischoff, Agnes Martin, Al Held, Sam Francis,
   Ellsworth Kelly, Morris Louis, Helen Frankenthaler, Gene Davis, Frank
   Stella, Kenneth Noland, Joan Mitchell, Friedel Dzubas, and younger
   artists like Brice Marden, Sam Gilliam, Sean Scully, Elizabeth Murray,
   Larry Poons, Walter Darby Bannard, Robert Mangold, Larry Zox, Ronnie
   Landfield, Ronald Davis, Dan Christensen, Joan Snyder, Ross Bleckner,
   Archie Rand, Susan Crile, and dozens of others produced vital and
   influential paintings.

   In the late 1970s and early 1980s, there was also a return to painting
   that occurred almost simultaneously in Italy, Germany, France and
   Britain. These movements were called Transavantguardia, Neue Wilde,
   Figuration Libre, Neo-expressionism and the School of London
   respectively. These painting were characterized by large formats, free
   expressive mark making, figuration, myth and imagination. All work in
   this genre came to be labeled neo-expressionism. Critical reaction was
   divided. Some critics regarded it as driven by profit motivations by
   large commercial galleries. This type of art largely disappeared after
   the art crash of the late 1980s.

   Painting still holds a respected position in contemporary art. Art is
   an open field no longer divided by the objective versus non-objective
   dichotomy. Artists can achieve critical success whether their images
   are representational or abstract. What has currency is content,
   exploring the boundaries of the medium, and a refusal to recapitulate
   the works of the past as an end goal.

Contemporary painting in the 21st Century

     * to be continued

   At the beginning of the 21st century Contemporary painting and
   Contemporary art in general continues in several contigious modes,
   characterized by the idea of pluralism. The " crisis" in painting and
   current art and current art criticism today is brought about by
   pluralism. There is no consensus as to a representative style of the
   age. There is an anything goes attitude that prevails; an "everything
   going on," and consequently "nothing going on" syndrome; except for an
   aesthetic traffic jam, with no firm and clear direction, with every
   lane on the artistic superhighway filled to capacity. Consequently
   magnificent and important works of art continue to be made albeit in a
   wide variety of styles.

   Hard-edge painting, Geometric abstraction, Hyperrealism, Photorealism,
   Expressionism, Minimalism, Lyrical Abstraction, Pop Art, Op Art,
   Abstract Expressionism, Colour Field painting, Monochrome painting,
   Neo-expressionism, Collage, Intermedia painting, Assemblage painting,
   Computer art painting, Conceptual art painting, Postmodern painting,
   Neo-Dada painting, Shaped canvas painting, environmental mural
   painting, traditional figure painting, Landscape painting, Portrait
   painting, are a few continuing and current directions in painting at
   the beginning of the 21st century.

Islamic painting

   Iran, 15th century

   Timurid, 15th century

   Shaybanid, 16th century

   Safavid, 16th century

   Safavid, 16th century

   Ottoman, 15th century

   Ottoman, 16th century

   Abbasid, 13th century

   Il-Khanid, 14th century

   Mamluk, 14th century

   Mughal, 1645 AD

   Safavid, 17th century

   Safavid, 16th century

   Safavid, 17th century

   Uzbekistan, c. 1600 AD

   Safavid, 1575 AD

   The depiction of humans, animals or any another figurative subjects is
   forbidden within Islam to prevent believers from idolatry so there is
   no religiously motivated painting (or sculpture) tradition within
   Muslim culture. Pictorial activity was reduced to Arabesque, mainly
   abstract, with geometrical configuration or floral and plant-like
   patterns. Strongly connected to architecture and calligraphy, it can be
   widely seen as used for the painting of tiles in mosques or in
   illuminations around the text of the holy Koran and other books. In
   fact abstract art is not an invention of modern art but it is present
   in pre-classical, barbarian and non-western cultures many centuries
   before it and is essentially a decorative or applied art. Notable
   illustrator M.C. Escher was influenced by this geometrical and pattern
   based art. Art Nouveau ( Aubrey Beardsley and the architect Antonio
   Gaudi) re-introduced abstract floral patterns into western art.

   Note that despite the taboo of figurative visualization, some muslim
   countries did cultivate a rich tradition in painting, though not in its
   own right, but as a companion to the written word. Iranian or Persian
   art, widely known as Persian miniature, concentrates on the
   illustration of epic or romantic works of literature. Persian
   illustrators deliberately avoided the use of shading and perspective,
   though familiar with it in their pre-islamic history, in order to abide
   by the rule of not creating any life-like illusion of the real world.
   Their aim was not to depict the world as it is, but to create images of
   an ideal world of timeless beauty and perfect order.

   In present days, painting by art students or professional artists in
   arab and non-arab muslim countries follow the same tendencies of
   Western culture art.

Iran

   Oriental historian Basil Gray believes "Iran has offered a particularly
   unique [sic] art to the world which is excellent in its kind".

   Caves in Iran's Lorestan province exhibit painted imagery of animals
   and hunting scenes. Some such as those in Fars Province and Sialk are
   at least 5,000 years old.

   Painting in Iran is thought to have reached a climax during the
   Tamerlane era when outstanding masters such as Kamaleddin Behzad gave
   birth to a new style of painting.

   Paintings of the Qajar period, are a combination of European influences
   and Safavid miniature schools of painting such as those introduced by
   Reza Abbasi. Masters such as Kamal-ol-molk, further pushed forward the
   European influence in Iran. It was during the Qajar era when "Coffee
   House painting" emerged. Subjects of this style were often religious in
   nature depicting scenes from Shia epics and the like.

Africa

   African traditional culture and tribes do not seem to had great
   interest in two-dimensional representations in favour of sculpture.
   However, decorative painting in African culture is often abstract and
   geometrical. Another pictorial manifestation is body painting, present
   for example in Maasai culture in their ceremony rituals. Note that
   Pablo Picasso and other modern artists were influenced by African
   sculpture in their styles. Contemporary African artists follow western
   art movements and their paintings have little difference from
   occidental art works.

Outline of painting history

Prehistoric painting

     * Pre-historic art
     * Cave painting

Ancient painting

     * Art of Ancient Egypt
     * Knossos
     * Mycenaean Greece
     * Pottery of ancient Greece
     * Roman art
     * Pompeian Styles
     * Fayum mummy portraits

Western painting

Medieval painting

     * Byzantine art
     * Insular art
     * Carolingian art
     * Ottonian art
     * Romanesque art
     * Gothic art
     * Early Netherlandish painting
     * Illuminated manuscript
     * Panel painting

The Renaissance

     * Early Renaissance painting
     * Renaissance Classicism
     * Italian Renaissance painting
     * Northern European Renaissance painting
     * High Renaissance painting
     * Mannerism

Baroque

     * Early Baroque
     * High Baroque

18th Century

     * Rococo
     * Neoclassicism

19th Century

     * Romanticism
     * Academic art
     * Realism
     * Naturalism (art)
     * Hudson River School
     * Luminism
     * Impressionism
     * Pre-Raphaelites
     * Symbolism
     * Post-Impressionism
     * Neo-Impressionism
     * Pointillism
     * Divisionism
     * Art Nouveau

20th century

   This list is in random order. Date given is for the start of the style
   or movement.
     * Fauvism (Les Fauves) 1905
     * Cubism 1907
     * Jack of Diamonds 1910
     * Orphism
     * Dada
     * Surrealism
     * Corealism
     * Rayonnism
     * Neoplasticism
     * Expressionism
     * Abstract art
     * Abstract Expressionism 1946
     * Post-painterly abstraction 1964
     * Neo-expressionism
     * Art Deco
     * Futurism 1909
     * Op art
     * Pop art
     * Minimalism
     * Art Brut / Folk Art / Naïve Art / Outsider Art
     * Suprematism 1913
     * Vorticism 1914
     * Tachism
     * Constructivism
     * Russian avant-garde
     * De Stijl
     * Neue Sachlichkeit
     * American realism
     * Social Realism
     * Socialist realism
     * Action painting
     * Informal art
     * Lyrical Abstraction 1967
     * Monochrome painting
     * Russian Non-Conformist
     * Signal painting
     * Photorealism
     * Concept art
     * Neue Wilde
     * Figuration Libre
     * Graffiti
     * Rectoversion
     * Stuckism 1999

   Retrieved from " http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_painting"
   This reference article is mainly selected from the English Wikipedia
   with only minor checks and changes (see www.wikipedia.org for details
   of authors and sources) and is available under the GNU Free
   Documentation License. See also our Disclaimer.
