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HISTORY OF IMAGES
The earliest known forms of imagery were prehistoric paintings. Prehistoric
cave paintings required specific artistic skills, but they also served practical
purposes. In fact, most paintings prior to 1300 C.E. were needed for a
reason, such as to explain hunting techniques or religious ceremonies. An
elaborately painted Egyptian tomb featuring a gilded mummy mask served
primarily to facilitate the corpse's journey from life on earth to the hereafter.
It was decorative, yet practical. Like the Egyptian tomb paintings, most
ancient art was left on coffins, walls, wood, and pottery. Not until the Middle
Ages (500-1500 C.E.) did anyone think to paint a canvas and frame it.
Most painters in the ancient world were craftsmen, similar to goldsmiths, and
worked through a royal commission. They did not occupy the same place in
society as today's artists, who are often considered daring freethinkers
beholden to neither royal rules nor government conventions. In the past,
those in charge, rather than the artists themselves, often determined artistic
styles.
A Survey of Ancient Painting
Archaeologists have discovered few paintings from the 20,000 years
beginning with the creation of the earliest known cave paintings and
concluding with the end of prehistory. Beginning in the 4th century B.C.E.,
however, early civilizations in the Mediterranean and Europe produced
several paintings that have survived until today. In fact, there are so many
that art historians and archaeologists have been able to identify styles
associated with specific cultures.
Remains of enormous sculptures and buildings abound in the ancient world,
but the Egyptian civilization was really the first to demonstrate a consistent
style in painting. As the longest-running artistic act in the ancient world, the
Egyptians sustained a highly recognizable and rigid artistic style for almost
3000 years.
Some Egyptian writings and illustrations on papyrus survive today. Most of
their paintings, however, can be found only by prying into tombs and
temples for a look at the walls. These paintings were often used to decorate
and preserve the known world for the afterlife.
Beginning around 2800 B.C.E., the Minoan and Mycenaean civilizations in
mainland Greece and the Aegean Sea developed another style and purpose
for art. Remarkably lively wall paintings, known more commonly as frescoes,
survive from c. 1600-1400 B.C.E. in the remains of their palaces and homes.
While Egyptian artwork is highly detailed, their figures are still and appear
rigid. Minoan art, on the other hand, is extraordinary for its sense of
movement and its emphasis on the living world.
Out of the Minoan tradition came the development of Greek painting (c. 600100 B.C.E.), which ancient texts describe as unsurpassed in skillful
execution. The remains of Greek painting from around 700-500 B.C.E. are
scarce and fragmentary. Many works that were painted on wood rotted away,
and those on wall frescoes were shattered when the buildings they decorated
were destroyed. Indisputably, however, the Greeks of this period made more
innovations in painting than any previous civilization and were unchallenged
in that respect until the Renaissance.
Just as Minoan art inspired Greek art, Greek art strongly shaped Roman art.
Roman paintings, mosaics, and manuscripts continued Greek artistic
traditions and carried them to the far reaches of the Roman Empire,
influencing the Middle East, North Africa, and eventually medieval Europe.
With the advent of Christianity, both the Roman Empire and the artistic
tendencies of the era underwent a major transformation. Christianity shifted
religious emphasis from the body to the soul. Likewise, the emphasis in art
moved from the corporeal to the spiritual. The illustration of the Gospels was
also necessary in order to spread the beliefs to the new converts, most of
whom were illiterate.
After the Roman Empire collapsed, Europe's greatest inheritance was the
Roman-Christian tradition, which was heavily infused with classical ideas and
Christian artistic styles. Despite some scholarly belief that the Middle Ages
was a period of artistic decline, the existence of beautiful painted
manuscripts and glowing altars from that period suggests otherwise.
Painting before 1300 C.E. did not develop in a single, steady progression.
Shifting cultural needs and ideas fostered different ideas about what should
be painted and how subjects should be rendered.
Dabbles on a cave wall or illustrations in a manuscript. These are art. Ancient
painting is a reminder that since the beginning of human existence people
everywhere feel a need to depict their world.
Even before t here was writi ng, the re was art.
Prehistoric Painting
It's 25,000 B.C.E., give or take a few thousand years. A tribe lives in
southern Europe. They have chased some wild animals out of a cave and
taken up residence inside. This tribe has fashioned crude clothing from
animal pelts and rough tools from stones lying around. The sick and
malnourished members of the tribe die young and often violently.
Yet, hundreds of feet into the frightening black depths of the cave, in the
light of sputtering animal-fat lamps, some members of the tribe are wielding
sticks dipped in a mixture of dirt, rocks, and fat, and painting on the rough
ceilings and walls. They are creating the earliest surviving paintings produced
by humankind.
Such works occur not only in one cave, but also in over 130 caves discovered
to date. The most notable paintings are found at the caves of Lascaux in
southern France and Altamira in northern Spain. What did the earliest artists
draw, and what inspired them to do it?
These artists depicted what probably mattered most to them: the animals
their tribe hunted, including bison, deer, wild boars, and horses. Some of the
figures are quite large — one bull at Lascaux is 18 feet long! More surprising
is the quality of many drawings: the proportions are correct, the poses are
lifelike, and the outlines are firm and vigorous. Figures are occasionally
shaded to suggest the roundness of the animal, stippled to indicate the
texture of its pelt, and even drawn on a natural protrusion of the rock surface
to give its form more fullness. In contrast to the animals, the few human
images are small, roughly drawn stick figures, sometimes carrying spears or
bows.
Why did early humans expend the time and effort to execute these drawings?
Archaeologists may never know for sure, but they can fashion educated
guesses. Surely, these paintings were not mere wall decorations. ("Gorgar,
dear, we could use a nice bison picture over the sleeping straw.") In fact, at
Altamira traces of human habitation exist in only one painted room. This
separation of living quarters from painted areas suggests that the paintings
served a ritual function, either to ensure a good hunt or to promote the
fertility of the animals the tribe hunted.
Scholars suggest the paintings functioned as a "how-to" guide to hunting.
Paintings in which human figures with weapons appear certainly support a
connection with the hunt.
The fact is, scholars don't know for sure why these prehistoric paintings were
created, and it is likely that they never will. Those who study cave paintings
don't know how the earliest people believed the world worked, what they
hoped for, what they thought controlled life, and what they thought
happened after death. Prehistoric means that writing had not been invented
yet, so there was no way for early humans to record why they spent time
painting. In the end, the full significance of the cave paintings will remain a
mystery.
Whatever their function in the past, the cave paintings are significant today
for the simple, but incredible, fact that they exist. Hunger, cold, wild animals,
and even darkness could not deter humans from picking up brushes and
depicting their world.
You can read much more about the fascinating history of the first form of
imagery @ http://www.beyondbooks.com/art11/2.asp There is Egyptian,
Roman, Greek…. Art history