A Brief History of Art

Part I : Antiquity

I have always been fascinated with art in the form of drawing and paintings. When I started to research into the subject, the amount of stuff out there is mind boggling. It is impossible to cover all aspects of art in a Blog. I have divided the Blog into several parts and will develop it as I go along over the next few months. This will form the first part of the free “Complete book of drawing and painting for Beginners” to be released towards the end of 2020.

I will try to take you through drawings and paintings in human history rather than all forms of art. Figurative art probably developed faster and progresses more than paintings and drawings. The earliest figurative art are from bot Homo Erectus as well as the Neanderthals. Homo sapiens made their mark with Venus of Berkhet Ram (250,000 years BP), Venus of Tan-Tan (250,000 years BP) and the famous Lion Man of Hohlenstein (38,000 years BP). This progressed rapidly into art through seals of Mesopotamia (6000 BCE to 2000 BCE) and Harappan Civilisation (3500 BCE to 1900 BCE). They also produced numerous figurines – mostly small size during that period. One cannot ignore the contribution of Egyptian civilisation (6000 BCE to 2000 BCE) in both figurative art and paintings.

Pre-historic art

[image error]Humans have been demonstrating their skill at art for thousands of years. Ever since Homo Erectus stood up and started to walk around and use the “forelegs” as hands, they have been free to explore and express their feeling in the form of art. The earliest known deliberate engravings that can be loosely called art dates back to the Homo Erectus 500,000 years ago in the form of engraved shells. This was at least 200,000 years before modern humans appeared in Africa (Homo Sapiens). While it is disputed if this can be considered “art” in its true sense is up for[image error] debate, it certainly makes one wonder if whoever scribbled these lines was trying to say something with the scribble. There has been some suggestion taking the “paintings” even further back to 700,000 years before present to some of the engraving found in Bhimbetka caves in India.

The next humans with some evidence of “art” is from our cousins, the Neanderthals – dating to about 130,000 years before present. These are again disputed as to the originators of the “art work.”

Modern humans left Africa around 65,000 years ago, but not before leaving some legacy behind. The oldest know work of art by Homo Sapiens dates back to 70,000 years before present – found in a cave in St Fleur in South Africa.

Everyone has heard of the famous Altamira caves in Spain dating back to over 35,000 years before present. [image error]The colours used in these cave paintings are still vivid and look as if they were painted yesterday. The artist or artists have used Red Ochre which has permanency helped by the atmosphere of the cave which would explain the reason for their preservation. The cave paintings of Bhimbetka range from 34,000 years before present to about 10,000 years before present. The images range from simple stick men to complex battle scenes with horse riders, elephants, and men.

Sumerians have left us with a huge amount of art in the form of pottery and jewellery. Their temples or Ziggurats for their Gods were massive. But unlike the Egyptian pyramids, lacked any intricate drawings or paintings. They left their mark on metal shields, pilaster, and seals. The famous Standard of Ur [image error]is a metal box with intricate inlay of Lapis Lazuli and other precious metals and stones. The famed city of Babylon had numerous palaces with elaborate frescoes and pilaster columns adorned with many motifs along the length of the pilaster columns. Assyrians of around the same period had huge palaces lined with stones instead of brick and these walls were lined with fine sculpture, most of them painted. Their walls were also covered colourful with tiles and designs filled with inlay and onlay work.

[image error]Egyptians buried their Pharaohs as well as important priests and officers in pyramids – going back to 3800 BCE. But it was not untill the 3rd Dynasty (around middle of third millennium BCE) that the pyramids took the shape as we see them today. These pyramids were massive with tunnels and passages leading to the central tomb room for the individual. Some of the pyramids held more than one tomb.

[image error]The large pyramids of Giza are among the famed ones with elaborate passages and chambers which were covered with delicate paintings, mostly showing the passage of time and death rites and also expounded the heroics of the owner of the tomb. As did the burial chambers of the valley of the kings.

Moving east to the Indus and Sarasvati valley[image error] of India, the mighty Harappans have left their mark in a much smaller and somewhat less of a grand scale as far as art is concerned. Most of the art is depicted on pottery and ceramic seals. Over 3500 such seals have been discovered so far. They are mostly quite small, not more than a square inch and had not only figures of the mythical unicorn, bison, tigers, snakes, elephants, Rhinoceros, antelope, [image error]crocodile among the recurring ones. The famous dancing girl figure has become symbolic of the civilisation.

There seems to be a vacuum from about the end of third millennium BCE and beginning of first millennium BCE with the demise of the mighty Harappan civilisation. Gangetic civilisation has left a significant amount of artwork in their temples and coins. [image error]The Buddhist movement, thrown into prominence by the great emperor Ashoka around fourth century BCE and grew exponentially over the following three centuries to cover a large proportion of the known world at the time. They have left their mark with numerous temples (cave temples), stupas (steles) and universities. The temple architecture and art took its own form with a significant Greek influence and we know of it now as the Gandharan style.

Chinese civilisation seemed to develop an entirely different pathway dating back to the Neolithic period 10,00 years before present. They obviously knew pottery, hand made rather than wheel turned, during the Neolithic period. Pottery from this period was unad[image error]orned, but as the civilisation progresses the art seemed to progress at an enormous speed particularly with their metallurgy. They have left their style of art among so many terracotta figurines and the most famous of them are the terracotta army of Qin dynasty

Bronze age civilisations of the Mediterranean, particularly the Mycenaean[image error] civilisation (1700 to 1400 BCE) produced enormous corpus of wall paintings in rich buildings. They filled their houses and lofty palaces with intricate drawings and painting. Most of the work was done using ochre – Red and Yellow, but they also used other colours to some extent. Almost all of [image error]the pottery found had designs of exquisite artwork.

Most precious paintings of the Greek were panel paintings. Unfortunately, they have not survived the passage of time as they were not protected, and we can only imagine their grandeur by reading their writings of the period. Paintings over pottery gives us an idea of their aesthetics and beauty, but not the grandeur of the huge panels described in their books. But their sculptures more than make up for it.

Romans have left us a plethora of their art in the form of grand palaces, colosseums, and temples. They also covered their palace walls with frescoes depicting their Gods and heroes. The Pantheon of Rome is a prime example.[image error]

This brings us quite nicely to the next stage where paintings that we see began, the medieval era with the decline of the Roman civilisation. We will start the Part 2 with the medieval art which should be exciting with the art taking off across the globe with several civilisations trying put their imprint on a global scale.