let there be art!: part four - art history from cave paintings to gothic art

"Art is the most intense form of individualism the world has known."

• Oscar Wilde, playwright, wit

"I tried to abandon my skin of a modern citizen, tried to experience the feeling of the artist, to enter the dialogue between the rock and the man."

• Michel Lorblanchet, archaeologist

This is the fourth and last part of a series on the art movements that shaped the arts that we know today (note: "movements" is used loosely). I only focused on painting as it is the form I'm most familiar with, and the discussions are just overviews (very brief overviews, I must add). Nonetheless, I hope you stil find this informative and worth your while. And don't forget to enjoy the pictures.

Scholars believe that the cave paintings found in France and in Spain were painted with fingers or brushes made of reeds and twigs or directly blown on. Moreover, the discovered that the mostly brightly-colored images of mammals such as horses and bisons, were composed of powdered minerals mixed with plant juices, animal fats and blood among many others. Although debates are ongoing as to the absolute nature of the images, it is generally acknowledged that they may have been part of magic rituals.

The first cave paintings to be legitmized as Paleolithic Art were those found in Altamira in Spain, discovered by a landowner in 1879, and the ones in La Mouthe in Dordogne in France discovered in 1895.

The major impact of the cave paintings on history is that they point to modern man's cave-dwelling ancentors' faculty to record their thoughts through images, signs and symbols.

Throughout ancient Egypt, temples were constructed for the gods where they could appear on earth while tombs were constructed for the dead. The walls of the temples and tombs were decorated with painted scenes that might be flat or in relief where images were painted on different levels of the wall surface (in raised relief, figures were made to stand out by cutting away the backgroun; in sunk relief, figures were cut back to a lower level than the background).

It is believed that artists sketched out scenes using grids that aided in achieving better proportions. They applied paint onto dry plaster in broad strokes, one color at a time, using thick brushes. Comment subjects of these wall paintiings were mythological and everyday scenes such as hunting and farming. The images could be described as conceptual rather than realistic as can be seen in their depiction of the human figure where the frontal and profile views of the most prominent anatomical features were combined.

The Minoans are credited to have first produced an almost realistic representation of the world around them. Palaces and houses were often decorated with bright murals depicting landscapes and animals in bright colors, and contours that indicate life and movement. The Minoans are also credited with revolutionizing the technique to capture motion by painting instantaneous moments of action and rendering sleeker figures that emphasized mobility. Most Minoan frescoes (painting done on fresh plaster) were found in ruins of once prosperous private homes.

The Minoan pictorial elements and fresco techniques are said to have been adopted on the greek mainland. Other popular scenes include fighting and hunting scenes. Remains of pottery discovered by archaeologists also enhance the notion on the Minoans' accomplished ability to paint.

Although only fragments remain of ancient Greek art, scholars have been able to categorized Greek painting into wall and panel painting and vase painting.

Some complete surviving examples of wall and panel paintings in frescoes show skillful technique in drawing, with cleater depiction of the human anatomy and realistic elements of landscape. Literary sources from the period identified several great painters including Polyglonotus, who is credited for giving characters to faces, and Apollodorus who is considered to be the first to have perfected highlighting and shading. Unfortunately, none of both these artists' works have survived.

Although clay pots have endured better than walls, they are not considered as significant as the latter because of their different demands. The vase was curved, had limited space and was fired or baked in high temperature which therefore restricted its capacity to impart knowledge in terms of the kinds of color used and subject matter.

Archaeologists have excavated a compendium of Roman painting from villas, domus and insula buried by Mount Vesuvius' eruption in AD79. Scenes from daily life, myths, landscapes, rituals and still-life populate unearthed mosaic floors and wall frescoes. These walls and floors clearly show that it was the Romans who first used the technique known as aerial perspective in which spatial effects are achieved by making indistinct or blurred the outlines and colors of more distant figures and objectts.

Other than mural painting, the Romans were also akin to portrait painting which helped historians chronicle the Romam Imperial Period. Portraits were painted using the encaustic technique, a method involving the combination of pigment and hot wax.

Early Christian Art are art works produced for the Christian church. Majority of Early Christian painting functioned as decorations in catacombs and walls of churches. They fall in three categories, namely: fresco, mosaic and illuminated manuscripts and their subject were representations of events in the Old and New Testament and secular subjects. Two major qualities of these paintings are the stylization of the figures, which were mostly shown frontally, and an illusion that tends to leave the viewer with a feeling of weightlessness or a floating sensation outside of time.

Byzantine Art originated in Constantinople, the former Greek town of Byzantium which Roman emperor Constantinople the Great chose as his new capital. Paintings and other art forms were created to cater to the requirements of the Eastern or Othordox church. Sacred personages were the popular subjects and were rendered in stylized and conceptual techniques which were mostly in adherence to strict frontal perspective. Overall quality can be described as bordering on opulence and magnificence in keeping the imperial court.

During the Midde Ages. the art produced can be classified according to its stylistic traits. Intricate calligraphic designs were the trademarks of the Anglo-Irish Art popular in monasteris in various parts of the British isles during the 7th to 9th century. Illuminated manuscripts that were produced can characteristically be described as having flat but elaborate linear patterns with Celtic and Germanic elements. Subjects were inspired by classical themes while some presented an energetic drawing style.

Due to the advent of a cathedral structure that gave more emphasis to windows, manuscript illumination took a back seat in the arts and gave wato stained glass, or windows composed of panels of dyed and/or painted glass held together by cast lead and mountained in a metal framework. The popularity of the trend extended to lay artists who established workshops all over France that catered to royal patrons.

Nevertheless, non-stained glass painting still thrived though their subjects shifted to depicting secular subjects. The most famous proponents were Ambrogio Lorenzetti who painted frescoes and Simone Martini. The eventual diffusion of artistic currents paved the way for the International Gothic style which started in Paris and introduced the artist's more accute observation of human beings and of nature.