History of painting

The historical development of painting across cultures, periods, styles, techniques, and artists. It traces how images, materials, and artistic purposes changed over time.

Connect

Lascaux cave paintings: Upper Paleolithic animal images painted on cave walls in southwestern France. They show some of the earliest surviving evidence of painting.
Fresco: A mural technique in which pigments are applied to wet plaster and become integrated with the wall as it dries. Its durability made it central to large-scale painting in many periods.
Chauvet Cave: A decorated cave in southeastern France containing paintings made about 36,000 years ago. Its animal images are among the oldest known cave paintings.
Giotto: An Italian painter active around 1300, noted for giving figures greater volume and emotional presence. His work marks a major shift toward naturalistic representation in Europe.
Sculpture: A three-dimensional art form in which materials are shaped, assembled, or cast. Its physical volume contrasts with painting’s historically flat support.
Byzantine art: The art of the Byzantine Empire, known especially for religious icons, mosaics, and formalized figures. Its sacred imagery shaped medieval painting across the eastern Mediterranean.
Tempera: A painting medium made by combining pigments with a water-soluble binder, traditionally egg yolk. It dominated panel painting in Europe before oil techniques prevailed.
Indus Valley Civilization: A Bronze Age civilization centered on cities in the Indus River basin, flourishing from about 2600 to 1900 BCE. Its seals and painted pottery broaden the early history beyond European cave art.
Jan van Eyck: A fifteenth-century Netherlandish painter known for highly detailed oil paintings. His practice exemplifies the refinement of early oil painting.
Photography: The process and practice of creating images by recording light with a camera or related device. Its rise challenged painting’s role in realistic depiction.