Painting is one of the oldest and most universal artistic expressions of humanity. Through it, human beings have represented their view of the world, their emotions, their beliefs, and their surroundings. It is both a technique and a visual language that has evolved constantly, adapting to new ideas, materials, and social contexts.
Origins and Historical Evolution
🔸 Prehistoric Painting
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The oldest known paintings date back more than 40,000 years.
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Found in caves such as Altamira (Spain) and Lascaux (France).
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They depicted animals, human hands, and hunting scenes, created with natural pigments.
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They had a symbolic, ritual, or magical value.
🔸 Painting in Antiquity
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In Egypt, painting was narrative and symbolic, used in temples, tombs, and papyri.
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In Greece and Rome, mural painting (frescoes) was realistic and decorative. Perspective and anatomy began to be explored.
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In Eastern art (India, China, Japan), painting developed with a strong spiritual and philosophical connection, using ink and brush.
🔸 The Middle Ages
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Dominated by religious art (Byzantine and Gothic).
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Flat colors and symbolic figures were used, without realistic perspective.
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Illuminated manuscripts were an important form of painting during this period.
🔸 The Renaissance (14th–16th centuries)
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Perspective, volume, and anatomical proportion were rediscovered.
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Great masters such as Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo, and Raphael.
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Oil painting became the dominant technique.
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Art adopted a humanist and scientific approach.
🔸 Baroque and Rococo
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More emotional and dramatic art, with strong contrasts of light and shadow (chiaroscuro).
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Painters such as Caravaggio, Rembrandt, Velázquez, and Rubens.
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In the Rococo, the style became lighter, more decorative, and elegant (Fragonard, Watteau).
🔸 Neoclassicism and Romanticism (18th–19th centuries)
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Neoclassicism sought a return to rationality and classical style (e.g., David).
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Romanticism focused on emotion, nature, and the sublime (e.g., Delacroix, Goya).
🔸 Realism and Impressionism
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Realism portrayed everyday life without idealization (Courbet, Millet).
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Impressionism broke with academic rules, focusing on light and color painted outdoors (Monet, Degas, Renoir).
🔸 20th Century: Modernity and the Avant-Garde
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Multiple movements emerged: Post-Impressionism, Fauvism, Expressionism, Cubism, Dadaism, Surrealism, Abstraction, etc.
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Key figures: Picasso, Matisse, Kandinsky, Dalí, Pollock, Frida Kahlo.
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Traditional rules were broken: painting became experimental, conceptual, and subjective.
🔸 Contemporary Art
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Painting coexists with new media: installation, digital art, performance.
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Contemporary artists use painting as a means of protest, identity, and personal or cultural exploration.
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The boundaries between genres and techniques are increasingly blurred.
Websites of Interest
Editorial Luis Bonilla. Expertos en enseñanza, formación a distancia, y con variedad de cursos online.