Painting

painting

Painting is an artistic surface design that is predominantly determined by color, in contrast to the predominantly linear design of drawings or graphics, as well as to the three-dimensional arts of architecture and sculpture.

The methods characterized by direct application of paint are used e.g. differentiated according to the image carrier, such as wall, panel or book painting. In the field of arts and crafts, a distinction is made between porcelain, lacquer or silk painting depending on the carrier material. Despite its connection to the surface, painting is characterized by its illusionistic abilities.

Wall painting appeared earliest, having its origins in cult and myth. The Palaeolithic rock paintings and the painting in oriental advanced cultures are well known. The technique of fresco painting was also used early on. After long use of a mixed technique of fresco painting and secco painting, it was favored by Renaissance painters.

Since the 17th century, the walls and ceilings have been painted with casein-lime paints. From ancient panel painting, v. a. preserved mummy portraits. The ancient tradition of panel painting continued in the Byzantine icons. Wall and book painting were leading in the Western West. From the 12th century the panel painting appeared as an altarpiece. As in book illumination, the backgrounds were gilded.

In the 15th century, canvas stretched in wooden frames was used as a picture carrier, and a mixed technique of tempera and oil paints was used as the paint carrier. The development of capturing physical and spatial reality was expanded by new means (one-point perspective in the Renaissance, pure oil painting in the 17th century in the Netherlands). From the 16th century, secular themes were increasingly being portrayed alongside religious ones. The renunciation of suggestive illusionism meant an epochal break in abstract painting in the early 20th century. The autonomous means of design were now colour, line and surface.

In addition to the renewed inclusion of pictorial tendencies, a pluralism of styles and techniques has developed since the late 1960s. By including foreign materials, using new paints and experimenting with mixed forms and transitions to other art genres, painting received new accents. The borders to other forms of art blur partly also through the employment of the new media.