Painting is the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a surface (support base). In art, the term describes both the act and the result, which is called a painting. Paintings may have for their support such surfaces as walls, paper, canvas, wood, glass, lacquer, clay or concrete. Paintings may be decorated with gold leaf, and some modern paintings incorporate other materials including sand, clay, and scraps of paper.

Painting is a mode of expression, and the forms are numerous. Drawing, composition or abstraction and other aesthetics may serve to manifest the expressive and conceptual intention of the practitioner. Paintings can be naturalistic and representational (as in a still life or landscape painting), photographic, abstract, be loaded with narrative content, symbolism, emotion or be political in nature.

A portion of the history of painting in both Eastern and Western art is dominated by spiritual motifs and ideas; examples of this kind of painting range from artwork depicting mythological figures on pottery to Biblical scenes rendered on the interior walls and ceiling of The Sistine Chapel, to scenes from the life of Buddha or other scenes of eastern religious origin.

History of Painting

The oldest known paintings are at the Grotte Chauvet in France, claimed by some historians to be about 32,000 years old. They are engraved and painted using red ochre and black pigment and show horses, rhinoceros, lions, buffalo, mammoth or humans often hunting. However the earliest evidence of painting has been discovered in two rock-shelters in Arnhem Land, in northern Australia. In the lowest layer of material at these sites there are used pieces of ochre estimated to be 60,000 years old. Archaeologists have also found a fragment of rock painting preserved in a limestone rock-shelter in the Kimberley region of North-Western Australia, that is dated 40 000 years old. There are examples of cave paintings all over the world—in France, Spain, Portugal, China, Australia, and India.

In Western cultures oil painting and watercolor painting are the best known media, with rich and complex traditions in style and subject matter. In the East, ink and color ink historically predominated the choice of media with equally rich and complex traditions.

Frederick Ronald (Fred) Williams OBE (23 January 1927 – 22 April 1982) was an Australian painter and printmaker. He was one of Australia’s most important artists, and one of the twentieth century’s major painters of the landscape. He had more than seventy solo exhibitions during his career in Australian galleries, as well as the exhibition Fred Williams – Landscapes of a Continent at the Museum of Modern Art in New York in 1977.

Fred Williams was born in 1927 in Melbourne. From 1943 to 1947 he studied at the National Gallery School, Melbourne, at first part-time and then full-time from 1945 at the age of 16. The Gallery School was traditional and academic, with a long and prestigious history. He also began lessons under George Bell the following year, who had his own art school in Melbourne. This continued until 1950. Bell was a conservative modern artist but a very influential teacher.

Between 1951 and 1956, Williams studied part-time at the Chelsea School of Art, London (now Chelsea College of Art and Design) and in 1954 he did an etching course at the Central School of Arts and Craft. He subsidised his art practice by working in a picture-framer’s shop. He returned to Melbourne in 1957.

He had work included in the ‘Recent Australian Painting’ exhibition at the Whitechapel Gallery, London, and ‘Australian Painting: Colonial, Impressionism, Modern’ at the Tate Gallery.

He married Lyn Watson in 1960, and they had three daughters: Isobel, Louise and Kate. In 1963 the couple moved to Upwey, Victoria in the Dandenong Ranges outside Melbourne, a location that would have a decisive impact on his work. In 1964 they travelled through Europe on a Helena Rubenstein Scholarship. In 1969 Williams moved to Hawthorn, an inner suburb of Melbourne.

In 1976 he was named an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE), and awarded a Doctorate of Law (Honoris Causa) by Monash University in 1980.

Williams won the Wynne Prize for landscape painting twice; in 1966 with Upwey Landscape and in 1976 with Mt. Kosciusko.

His painting Upwey Landscape (1965) sold for $1,987,700 in one of the final auctions of Christie’s in Australia in April 2006, which was the second highest price for an Australian work. The previous highest price for one of Williams’ paintings was $5,875,000 for You Yangs Landscape in 1963.

He died in 1982, in Hawthorn from lung cancer at age 55.

How do we decide what colours we mix to achieve the required colour. Do we do it by instinct, a bit of this colour, a little of that ? Here are some tips to help you put a little more science into the art of colour mixing.

Don’t Use More Than Three Colours in a Mixture. The more pigments you mix together, the muddier your colours will become. To keep your mixes looking fresh and clean use just two colours (You can add white if necessary).

Use a Key Colour in all Mixes. Add a small amount of the same colour to all your mixes. For example, try adding a small amount of burnt umber to all your mixes. Take this approach across the whole painting and you’ll create a painting with a keyed colour range. Each colour will therefore have a least a little in common with its neighbours and (hopefully) this will pull your painting together.

Use a Coloured Ground for your Painting. Before you start to paint, give your canvas a coat or a stain of another colour. This will affect your painting in two ways: Firstly, the underpainting will unify all the coloours you place on top. Secondly, as you add colours over the top, the colour underneath will inevitably show through and change the colour perceived by the viewer. For example, a light wash of viridian green and burnt sienna will give a dark leafy greenness to a forest scene.

Use a Limited Set of Colours. Try using a very limited palette of colours. Try using the earth colours (yellow ochre, olive green, venetian red, raw umber, burnt sienna, raw sienna) and maybe french ultramarine. You’ll be amazed at the range of colours you can achieve, but just as importantly, the colours you mix will be more ‘together’.

Use Complementary Colours Side-by-side. Complementary colours are ‘opposite’ colours. For example, the opposite or red is green, the opposite of blue is orange. Place two opposite colours next to each other on your canvas and the eye will perceive both colours as more intense. Don’t just think of this phenomenon in terms of bright, primary colours, try it in subtle tints and shades. For example, I recently contrasted a pale blue shirt against a white background by adding a little cadmium orange to the white mixture. The effect was to ‘lift’ the blue shirt slightly and move it away from the very slightly orangey background.

Mix Complementary Colours to Make Darks. Mix cadmium red with pthalo green to get a colour that is very near to black, but twice as interesting. Add white to get a beautiful grey. Or try mixing ultramarine with burnt umber to give a fantastic dark that can be warm (add more umber) or cool (add more ultramarine).

Use a Lighter Tone to Separate Two Colour Areas. A trick used by some artists is to slightly lighten the of a colour at the border with another. For example, look closely at ‘The Geographer’ by Vermeer. At the edge of the blue gown Vermeer adds a little white to the colour of the distant wardrobe. This has the effect of intensifying the blue colour and putting distance between the figure and his background, opening up a three dimensional space the brings the nearby figure into sharper relief.

Use warm and cool colours to introduce depth. The mantra is “warm colours advance and cool colours recede”. Its boring (and perhaps a cliché) but it does work!

Use complementary colours to model shapes. Rather than using shadow colours to suggest the gentle curve of someone’s cheek in a portrait, mix a little ultramarine or viridian green into the flesh colour mix. The effect will be more subtle.

Practice Your Colour Mixes. Don’t experiment with colour mixes on your best pictures, paint colour swatches instead. For example, mix pure ultramarine with pure viridian green and paint a stripe on a cheap, throwaway surface. Then add a little white to the mixture and paint another stripe next to the first. Gradually introduce more white into the mixture until the mixture is almost white.

Finally, Remember to Forget the Rules! Be prepared to forget everything you ever learnt about colours and colour mixing. Okay, so warm colours advance and cool colours recede? Try painting a sunset.

Juan Luna y Novicio (October 23, 1857 – December 7, 1899) was one of the great heroes of the Philippine Revolution and one of the first internationally-recognized Philippine painters. A native of Badoc, Ilocos Norte, Juan Luna was the third among the seven children of Joaquin Luna de San Pedro y Posada and Laureana Novicio y Ancheta. Both parents were from families that were well-off, thus each brought to the family a modest fortune.

Personal Background

In 1861, the Luna family left the north for Manila, believing that in this progressive city their children would receive a good education. Juan Luna was sent to Ateneo Municipal de Manila where he obtained his Bachelor of Arts degree (equivalent to the present-day high school diploma). His parents seemed to have envisioned him entering an ecclesiastical career; however, Juan had shown early interest in painting and drawing, influenced by his brother, Manuel Luna, who, according to Dr. José Rizal, was a better painter than Juan himself.

Luna later enrolled at Escuela Nautica (Academia Naval) and became a sailor. With Manuel, he sailed the South China Sea and the Indian Ocean and saw the picturesque views and scenic places in Hongkong, Amoy, Singapore, Batavia, and Colombo. Nevertheless, Luna’s passion for the arts continued. Whenever he was anchored in Manila Bay, he took drawing lessons under the illustrious painting teacher of Ermita, Manila, Lorenzo Guerrero. He also enrolled in the Academy of Fine Arts (Academia de Dibujo y Pintura) in Manila where he was influenced and taught how to draw by the Spanish artist Agustin Saez. Unfortunately, Luna’s vigorous brush strokes displeased the maestro, and this probably was the reason why Luna was discharged from the Academia. However, Guerrero was impressed by his skill and urged Luna’s parents to send him to Spain for further study.

Juan Luna as an Artist

Probably it was in 1883 when Luna started the painting demanded of him by the Ayuntamiento. But it was some years before he would complete it. In May 1884, he shipped the large canvas of the Spoliarium to Madrid for the year’s Exposición Nacional de Bellas Artes. There, he was the first recipient of the three gold medals awarded in the concourse. Luna’s triumph in this exposition heightened the spirit of the Filipino community in Madrid, and Luna gained recognition among the connoisseurs and art critics present. On 25 June 1884, the Filipinos organized an event celebrating the victorious Luna, attended by about seventy people, Filipinos and Spaniards alike. That night, Rizal prepared a speech for his friend, stressing two significant things: (1) the glorification of genius; and (2) the grandeur of the fatherland.

Luna developed a friendly relationship with the King of Spain and was later commissioned by the Spanish Senate to undertake a large canvas, the La Batalla de Lepanto, which greatly challenged him. He moved to Paris in 1885 and opened his own studio at No. 65 Boulevard Arago, near that of Felix Resurreccion Hidalgo. A year after, he finished the piece El Pacto de Sangre in accordance with the agreement he had with the Ayuntamiento of Manila. Depicted in this piece was the blood compact ceremony between Datu Sikatuna and Miguel Lopez de Legaspi. It now adorns the Malacañang Palace. He also sent two other paintings in addition to the one required. The second canvas sent to Manila was a portrait of Don Miguel Lopez de Legaspi reconstructed by Luna from his recollection of Legaspi’s portrait he saw in the hall of the Cabildo and the third was of Governor general Ramon Blanco.

In 1887, Luna once again traveled back to Spain to enter in that year’s Exposition two of his pieces, the La Batalla de Lepanto and Rendicion de Granada, which both won. He celebrated his triumph with his Filipino friends in Madrid, and Graciano Lopez-Jaena delivered a speech for him.

Luna’s paintings are generally described as being vigorous and dramatic. With its elements of Romanticism, his style shows the influence of Delacroix, Rembrandt, and Daumier.

Full Name: Vincent Willem Van Gogh
Born: March 30th 1853 in Groot Zundert, Brabant Holland
Died: July 27th 1890 in Auvers-sur-Oise, France

Vincent Willem van Gogh was a Dutch Post-Impressionist artist. Some of his paintings are now among the world’s best known, most popular and expensive works of art.

The 19th century European society of Van Gogh’s time was not ready to accept his truthful and emotionally morbid way of depicting his art subjects. His internal turbulence is clearly seen in most of his paintings, which set the stage for the direction of a new style of painting called Expressionism. It is characterized by the use of symbols and a style that expresses the artist’s inner feelings about his subject. The whole of Van Gogh`s painted works – over 800 canvases – were produced in the very short time span of only 8 years. Indeed his total output of over 2000 drawings and paintings originate from the period 1880-1890.

Alongside these runs his great published correspondence of 800 letters, mainly to his brother Theo, and it is through this that we learn much about, although never fully understand, the tormented spirit of this eccentric genius, Vincent Van Gogh. They reveal how, having been unable to enter the ministry of the church, he gradually became taken over by his work, inextricably enslaved by its demands, in search of the ultimate `truth` and feeling “the positive consciousness of the fact that art is something greater and higher than our own adroitness or accomplishments or knowledge”.

This belief led him to a great modesty and he used to sign himself, if at all, only “Vincent”, always knowing that his life on earth would be very short. The parish priest of Auvers-sur-Oise called him accursed and even refused to provide his hearse for Vincent`s funeral. Therefore, an understanding of the paintings by Van Gogh requires insight into his turbulent life, because his style of painting is exemplified by a projection of the painter’s inner experience onto the canvas he paints. In Vincent Van Gogh’s own words, he said, “What lives in art and is eternally living, is first of all the painter, and then the painting.” To understand an artist of Expressionism we must first explore their biography.

Many of us can identify with the roadblocks that Vincent Van Gogh experienced in his many career and romantic pursuits, all ending in failure. His reaction to these experiences however, demonstrates a biological and psychological abnormality, causing behaviors that alienated those around him. As he became more isolated from society and began to pour all of his energies into painting, his eccentricities and outbursts developed pathological traits, which caused him first, to be institutionalized, and second, it led to his suicidal death at the young age of 37.

His career in the art world began in 1869 when, on the recommendation of his uncle `Cent`, a founder and shareholder, he was employed by the Goupil & Co art gallery as a clark in their Hague branch. Theo joined the Brussels office in 1873. Being transferred to London to complete his training, he fell in love with Eugénie, the daughter of his landlady, but was rejected. This led him to a period of great despair and depression, so much so that he could not attend to his duties effectively and he was transferred to Paris in 1875, where he lived in a small room in Montmatre. He was forced to resign in 1876 and immediately returned to England.

Vincent`s emotional turmoil did however bear artistic fruits in the form of a remarkable gift for perception – seeing powerfully what most others did not observe at all – “sad but always cheerful” he described himself and he turned to the religious scriptures for solace, secretly harbouring the ambition to become a clergyman like his father. However, he did manage to find employment in Ramsgate, on the south coast, where he tough French, spelling and arithmetic in a small school – and was able also to linger on the beach and watch the sea. From there he found employment as assistant to the Methodist preacher Reverend Jones at Isleworth, where he came into close contact with the great squalor and poverty of his parishioners, inspiring him to a desire to live in the service of the most destitute. However, returning home to Holland for Christmas, his parents managed to talk him out of this impecunious existance and again his uncle Cent obtained for him a clerk`s job in a booksellers in Dordrecht.

Fernando Amorsolo y Cueto (May 30, 1892 – April 26, 1972) is one of the most important artists in the history of painting in the Philippines. Amorsolo was a portraitist and painter of rural Philippine landscapes. He is popularly known for his craftsmanship and mastery in the use of light. Born in Paco, Manila, he earned a degree from the Liceo de Manila Art School in 1909.

Biography

Fernando Amorsolo was born on May 30, 1892 in Paco, when Manila was still under Spanish sovereignty, to Pedro Amorsolo, a bookkeeper, and Bonifacia Cueto. Amorsolo spent his childhood in Daet, Camarines Norte, where he studied in a public school and was tutored at home in Spanish reading and writing. After his father’s death, Amorsolo and his family moved to Manila to live with Don Fabian de la Rosa, his mother’s cousin and a Philippine painter. At the age of 13, Amorsolo became an apprentice to De la Rosa, who would eventually become the advocate and guide to Amorsolo’s painting career. During this time, Amorsolo’s mother embroidered to earn money, while Amorsolo helped by selling watercolor postcards to a local bookstore for 10 centavos each. Amorsolo’s brother, Pablo, was also a painter.

Amorsolo’s first success as a young painter came in 1908, when his painting Leyendo el periódico took second place at the Bazar Escolta, a contest organized by the Asociacion Internacional de Artistas. Between 1909 and 1914, Amorsolo enrolled at the Art School of the Liceo de Manila, where he earned honors for his paintings and drawings.

After graduating from the Liceo, he entered the University of the Philippines’ School of Fine Arts, where De la Rosa worked at the time. During college, Fernando Amorsolo’s primary influences were the Spanish court painter Diego Velazquez, John Singer Sargent, Anders Zorn, Claude Monet, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, but mostly his contemporary Spanish masters Joaquín Sorolla Bastida and Ignacio Zuloaga. Amorsolo’s most notable work as a student at the Liceo was his painting of a young man and a young woman in a garden, which won him the first prize in the art school exhibition during his graduation year. To make money during school, Amorsolo joined competitions and did illustrations for various Philippine publications, including Severino Reyes’ first novel in Tagalog, Parusa ng Diyos (God’s Punishment), and Iñigo Ed. Regalado’s Madaling Araw (Dawn). He also illustrated for the religious Pasion books. Amorsolo graduated with medals from the University of the Philippines in 1914.

Leonardo was born in Vinci, Italy on April 15th, 1452, the illegitimate son of a young notary. Leonardo grew up in an environment rich with scholarly texts and art, provided by his father, who himself taught Leonardo how to paint, and by his father’s family. When he was in his late teens, Leonardo was sent to Florence to be an apprentice in the studio of famous renaissance sculptor Andrea del Verrocchio, where he met with other Renaissance artists Botticelli and Ghirlandaio, and continued honing his skills, which were proving to be greater than his teacher’s…

Leonardo’s first moment in the sun came when Verroccio asked him to help paint an angel in his “Baptism of Christ” piece. Leonardo so impressed his master that Verrochio himself decided he would never paint again. Leonardo continued working with Verrochio for a few years, and then the two parted ways.

Leonardo went on to be in the service of the Duke Ludovico Sforza of Milan, where he remained for 16 years. Leonardo didn’t only paint for the Duke, but he also designed machinery, weapons, and a fair bit of architecture. Science and art were merged in an unending output of impressive works and studies. Leonardo’s designs were so ahead of their time, that they even included plans for various assault vehicles, flying machines, and even a submarine.

Duke Sforza died shortly after the completion of one of Leonardo’s most famous work, The Last Supper; Leonardo who had now lost his patron, and decided to leave Milan. He eventually returned to Florence after having traveled, lived, and worked for various patrons throughout Italy.

Shortly after his return to Florence, he and Michelangelo were commissioned to paint frescos on the walls of the new city hall. While he was working on his mural depicting the battle of Anghiari, which had been commissioned in part by Niccolo Machiavelli, Leonardo also painted his most famous work, the Mona Lisa.

A short while later, Leonardo’s father passed away, leaving his family to fight over the distribution of his assets, of which none went to Leonardo. It was only later and following the death of his uncle that Leonardo would inherit land and money.

Leonardo later went to Rome, and was given living quarters in the Vatican by Pope Leo X, so that he could further explore the arts while working on commissioned pieces for the Church. Leonardo did not create many new paintings during this period, concentrating on his drawings instead; it was quite difficult for Leonardo to pursue his studies of scientific subjects and anatomy while in the employ of the Pope, as the Church frowned upon the dissection of human cadavers.

But Leonardo who had had many patrons ranging from Duke Sforza, to the evil Cesare Borgia, was one who had no trouble adapting to his surroundings, and he did create several drawings including The Deluge, in which he portrayed the cataclysmic biblical event.

Source: http://www.famouspainter.com/leonardo.htm

Oil painting is the process of painting with pigments that are bound with a medium of drying oil — especially in early modern Europe, linseed oil. Often an oil such as linseed was boiled with a resin such as pine resin or even frankincense; these were called ‘varnishes’ and were prized for their body and gloss. Other oils occasionally used include poppyseed oil, walnut oil, and safflower oil. These oils confer various properties to the oil paint, such as less yellowing or different drying times. Certain differences are also visible in the sheen of the paints depending on the oil. Painters often use different oils in the same painting depending on specific pigments and effects desired. The paints themselves also develop a particular feel depending on the medium.

Oil paint Although oil paint was first used in western Afghanistan sometime between the 5th and 9th Centuries, it did not gain popularity until the 15th century. Its practice likely migrated westward during the Middle Ages. Oil paint eventally became the principal medium used for creating artworks as its advantages became widely known. The transition began with Early Netherlandish painting in northern Europe, and by the height of the Rennaisance oil painting techniques had almost completely replaced tempera paints in the majority of Europe.

TECHNIQUES

Traditional oil painting techniques often begin with the artist sketching the figure onto the canvas with charcoal or a “clean”, which is thinned paint. Oil paint can be mixed with turpentine, linseed oil, artist grade mineral spirits or other solvents to create a thinner, faster drying paint. Then the artist builds the figure in layers. A basic rule of oil paint application is ‘fat over lean.’ This means that each additional layer of paint should be a bit oilier than the layer below, to allow proper drying. As a painting gets additional layers, the paint must get oilier (leaner to fatter) or the final painting will crack and peel. There are many other painting media that can be used in oil painting, including cold wax, resins, and varnishes. These additional media can aid the painter in adjusting the translucency of the paint, the sheen of the paint, the density or ‘body’ of the paint, and the ability of the paint to hold or conceal the brushstroke. These variables are closely related to the expressive capacity of oil paint. When looking at original oil paintings, the various traits of oil paint allow one to sense the choices the artist made as they applied the paint. For the viewer, the paint is still, but for the artist, the oil paint is a liquid or semi-liquid and must be moved ‘onto’ the painting

Traditionally, paint was transferred to the painting surface using paint brushes, but there are other methods, including using palette knives, rags, etc. Oil paint remains wet longer than many other types of artists’ materials, enabling the artist to change the color, texture or form of the figure. At times, the painter might even remove an entire layer of paint and begin anew. This can be done with a rag and some turpentine for a certain time while the paint is wet, but after a while, the hardened layer must be scraped. Scraping may also be used to smooth a portrait before scumbling and glazing. Many oil paintings reveal evidence of scraping on close inspection, particularly when the surface itself is examined. Oil paint dries by oxidation, not evaporation, and is usually dry to the touch in a day to two weeks. It is generally dry enough to be varnished in six months to a year. Art conservators do not consider an oil painting completely dry until it is 60 to 80 years old.

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oil_painting

A room looks wonderful with a fresh coat of paint. But if you have a “Love-Hate” relationship with painting, you’ll want to read our tips on getting a great finished product. You might even enjoy the project as much as the finished product!

Start Out Right

* You’ll enjoy the job more if you get everything together at the start. Organize a tool station in the middle of the area you’ll be working in. Gather together your paint, brushes, rollers, hammers, screwdrivers, plastic bags, plastic wrap, rags, paint can opener, and drop cloths.

Plan a Day for Prep

* Don’t try to get everything done in one day. Use the day before painting day to gather furniture in the center of the room, patch cracks and holes, put blue painter’s tape around doors and windows, and cover wall and ceiling light fixtures (light bulbs removed, of course!) with large plastic bags.

Clear the Decks

* If you can, clear out all the furniture and accessories. Take everything off the walls. If you can’t move everything out, place the furniture and lamps in the middle of the room and cover them with a good drop cloth. Be sure that you tape the cloth around the furniture. Then put a second cover of plastic or old sheet over everything.

Remove All Hardware

* It may seem easier to paint around door knobs or cabinet hinges, but unless you’re a professional, very experienced painter, you’re bound to get drips around. So carry around some zip top bags and remove all cabinet knobs and hinges, door knobs, light switch plates and outlet covers, and light fixtures. Place the pieces together in separate bags and clearly mark the contents and location (top left cabinet, bathroom door, etc) you took them from. This is a great time to clean the hardware! Put them back when you’re done painting.

Get Yourself Ready

* No matter how hard you try, you’re bound to get drips (or more) of paint on whatever you’re wearing. So take off all jewelry. Reserve some old, but comfortable, clothes for your painting jobs. Slip-on shoes are easy to take off if you need to leave the room. You won’t have to worry about tracking drops of paint into other rooms. When you paint the ceiling, put a scarf, shower cap, or old baseball hat over your hair and some plastic over your eyeglasses.

Don’t Paint Over Problem Walls

* If your walls have holes or cracks, fix them before you start with the paint. Any home center or paint store has knowledgeable personnel to guide you to the best products for the job. Wide cracks and large holes can be “bridged” with fiberglass tape, spackle will fill small holes and cracks, and texturizing products are available to match your existing wall finish.

Many qualities that we now associate with art—originality, individual expression, something to contemplate rather than use—began to take shape only about 1500 and flourished in the 1700s. Before that time objects of great beauty and symbolic significance generally served purposes other than artistic self-expression. Art was more closely woven into the fabric of society, and artists were workers, although people admired them for a skill that at times seemed almost magical.

1. Antiquity: Skill or Technique

In ancient Greece, the word techne is the closest equivalent to art. Techne, which means work or technical skill, can be applied to the fashioning of any sort of object. But the Greeks had a special appreciation of mimesis (the imitation of reality) in painting and of especially pleasing proportions in sculpture and architecture.

The ancient Romans used the word ars, but ars still referred to a technique or a method of working, not to the expressive, creative activities that we now associate with art. Roman writer Pliny the Elder provides most of our knowledge about artists from the classical (ancient Greek and Roman) period. He wrote about the arts of painting and sculpture in the section on metallurgy in his Natural History. Although Pliny praises the skills of particular painters and sculptors, he does not single out painting or sculpture as being better than pottery, metalwork, or other crafts.

2.The Middle Ages: Craftsmanship

During the Middle Ages (about 350 to 1450), Christianity dominated Western culture. Thus the main purpose of the visual arts was to teach people, many of whom could not read, about religion. Art taught by means of delight, drawing people’s attention and helping them understand the spiritual through fascinating forms (whether delicately refined saints or monstrous devils), ornately carved and painted decoration, precious materials (including gold, ivory, and gems), and colored light pouring forth from stained glass.

No particular form of art was considered superior during the Middle Ages. High value was placed on small-scale luxury objects such as illuminated manuscripts, jewelry, and metal objects used in church services. The great medieval cathedrals—buildings that required the skills of hundreds of craftsmen—became the pride of entire cities. Wealthy people decorated their homes with huge tapestries that told stories from mythology. Even clothing could be elaborately decorated and express a person’s status and moral views.

Craftsmen, carefully trained in specialized medieval workshops, made the objects we now call art. Our word masterpiece comes from this medieval workshop tradition. The term refers to an object made by a craftsman at the end of his training to show he had acquired the skills to be called a master. During the Middle Ages a masterpiece could be a statue, a stained glass window, or a pair of shoes.

3. The Renaissance: Genius and Design

The importance of skill and craftsmanship continued well into the Renaissance, a period of artistic and literary revival that began in the 1400s. During the Renaissance, the visual arts were often associated with other trades based upon the type of material they used. For example, in the guilds (trade associations) of 15th-century Italy painters were grouped with doctors because both used chemicals, and sculptors who worked in bronze were grouped with makers of armor. However, the position of artists began to change in the 15th century. Painters and sculptors associated informally with poets, who occupied a higher social status because poetry had long been considered a higher art. Books were written to explain the theory of art and architecture, and artists claimed that they were inspired geniuses and not merely workers.

During the 16th century, Italian theorists began to group architecture, painting, and sculpture as the arts of disegno (“design”)—that is, as creative activities that required an artist to visualize an idea and to transfer this idea to a drawing. (The Italian word disegno means both design and drawing.) Italian Renaissance writers also regarded narrative painting as more valuable than other kinds of painting, such as portraiture or landscape. Narrative painting told a story—mythological, historical, or religious—and thus could teach morals just as literature could. This type of painting, called istoria in Italian or history painting in English, was considered the highest form of painting until the late 19th century.

4. The 17th to 19th Century: The Fine Arts

By the 17th century, artists across Europe were seeking more creative freedom. They viewed the workshops of the Middle Ages and Renaissance as restrictive. Some artists gained freedom by working at the courts of monarchs and the nobility, while others made art to sell directly to individual collectors. Such freedom could mean a loss of artistic quality, however. As a result, art academies became increasingly important as a way to enter into the profession without conforming to guild regulations.

Academies emphasized ideas, particularly ideas that connected the visual arts to the sciences or to literature, fields that enjoyed much higher status than the visual arts. At the same time, the academies wanted to separate themselves from the workshops, where sign painting and figure painting were seen as two variations on the same craft. The Académie des Beaux-Arts (Academy of Fine Arts), founded in 1648 in Paris, France, especially emphasized this distinction; it gave the arts of painting, sculpture, and architecture the name beaux-arts, meaning “fine arts.”

5. The 19th Century: Self-Expression

The French Academy of Fine Arts enjoyed special favors from the French government, and because of this connection it became part of the establishment (dominant institutions). During the 19th century artists in France fought against these institutions. In the early 19th century artists of the romantic movement (Romanticism), such as Eugène Delacroix, emphasized passionate expression. They often chose subjects that criticized the government, although their method of painting generally followed academic principles of composition and technique.

At mid-century Gustave Courbet and other French artists promoted their individuality: They not only chose subjects that the government might see as offensive, but also used techniques and compositions that went against academic teaching. Starting in the 1860s Édouard Manet and the painters who became known as impressionists (see Impressionism) broke away from the Academy and established alternatives to government-sponsored exhibitions and competitions. These alternatives eventually evolved into the modern commercial gallery system in which artists provide works to dealers who exhibit and sell the works to any buyer who can afford them.

6.The 2oth and 21st Century: New Media, New Art Forms

In the 20th and 21st centuries many trends have developed, including some that seek to destroy our definitions of art. Artists of the dada movement, which flourished in the early 20th century, created works and sponsored events that pointed out the absurdity of all definitions. One of the most famous dada works was exhibited in 1917 by French-born artist Marcel Duchamp: a urinal turned on its back, titled “Fountain,” and signed with a fictitious name (R. Mutt) that plays on the urinal manufacturer’s name (J. R. Mott) rather than Duchamp’s own name. Pop artists revived the dada spirit during the 1960s, with Jasper Johns’s painted flags and Andy Warhol’s painted soup can labels.

Contemporary artists, aware of earlier traditions, can choose to work in traditional media (including painting, sculpture, printmaking, and now photography), combine media (collage and assemblage), or avoid the traditional categories entirely. For example, some artists create so-called environments that we can walk around or through. Others, such as Bulgarian-born Christo and American Robert Smithson, have rearranged the natural landscape in ways that cannot really be called architecture, landscape architecture, or sculpture. Art critics have coined the terms land art and earthworks for such endeavors. Still other artists have focused attention on the monetary value we give to what we call art, by creating works that cannot be sold, as some conceptual artists did in the last decades of the 20th century (see Conceptual Art). Artists today can ignore the line that the academies drew to separate fine art from craft, or they can affirm essential differences between one art form and another according to their beliefs.

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