Ch.3 - Minoan Art

We don’t know much about the Minoans but they came from the region on Crete and were a nation of traders, sailors and pirates whose art was thus influenced by many culture.

Influence of cultures

Breaking away from Egyptian style

The figures and animals here, show vigour and look more real than the ‘frozen’ Egyptian style.

They must have learnt something from the Egyptian art for, their picture, despite its rapid movement, is an orderly scene and not just a wild tangle of animals and figures.

Movement in figures

Like Egyptian art, these forms too, cling to the wall and follow definite rules.

Better composition

For the Minoans, hunting as a sport and painting was done for pleasure. It tells us of the thrill of the chase and enjoyment of nature.

Happy and graceful shapes and clear colours made them good wall decorations.

Thrill of the chase

The most common type of painting, other than on pottery, were frescoes.

Frescoes; Very orderly composition

Common Octopus motif on pottery

Pottery painting is most important in the development of painting during this period.

Linear patterns of spirals, triangles, curved lines, crosses, fishbone motifs etc. were most commonly found painted on the pots in the Early Minoan painting.

Naturalistic designs like fish, squid, birds, and lilies then came about. In the Late Minoan period, flowers and animals were still the most characteristic, but the variability had increased.

Influenced Greek art

Strong geometric simplification of naturalistic shapes and monochromatic paintings became very common during the later phase. 

This style became important because of its influence on Greek art.

Ch. 2 - The Egyptian Style

Many of the Egyptian paintings were made on the wall of a temple or tomb in a place called Hierakonpolis, on the banks of the river Nile, almost 6000 years ago.

Hierakonpolis tomb painting

The early Egyptian paintings here, were lively and had small figures of animals and people in action against large blank backgrounds. 

We can’t tell if the figures are supposed to be connected because there is no ‘setting’, no indication of landscape or even ground to stand on. But there is no messy overlapping and figures are spread evenly across the whole surface.

But these of paintings gave way to a new style of the later Egyptian era which is more familiar to us and is commonly known as the Egyptian style.

Telling a story through various actions

As compared to the cave paintings, the figures are not as real looking. There is no shading and figures seem to be flat against the wall. 

The artist has left out many details and the painting style appears to be a kind of shorthand like in today’s comic strips; they tell a story in each continuing frame.

Hieroglyphics were used as a background to assist the story.

The tomb paintings were probably meant to tell a story which is also indicated in the fact that the Egyptians invented the earliest form of writing, hieroglyphics, with pictures.

Because the figures were used so often, they began to look less and less real and became stylized or conventional, thus turning into the alphabet.

 Now, let us understand a bit about Egyptian culture and beliefs to fully comprehend their paintings and style...

Osiris, Horus and Pharaoh

It was a custom that when a man died, he would take everything he possessed to his grave so that his spirit could lead a good afterlife. Since he couldn’t take everything, he had memories and events of his life painted. 

Some themes though, included journey through the afterworld or protective deities introducing the deceased to the gods of the underworld (such as Osiris).

Orderly, flat figures

The Egyptian artist knew that a life-like painting would give a static view of the way it looked at a particular moment, which was not what he wanted. 

He gave the figures a side face with eyes and body forward and a comic strip like painting, so that all important parts were covered and it gave a complete story.

He made the painting more orderly than real life so that the spirit doesn't miss anything. The figures are planted solidly on the ground line. 

Horus (strong flat colour

The figures are flat but the use of colour makes it stand out from the background.

There were six colors the Ancient Egyptians used in their paintings: red, green, blue, yellow, black, and white. 

They made these colors out of mineral compounds and because of that, they last very long. 

The Egyptians later learned to create mixed colors from the primary ones, such as grey, pink, and brown.

Animals used as symbols

The Egyptian artist also used a symbolism to establish a sense of order. 

 Symbolism, ranging from the pharaoh's regalia (symbolizing his power to maintain order) to the individual symbols of Egyptian gods and goddesses, is omnipresent in Egyptian art. 

Animals were usually also highly symbolic figures in Egyptian art.

Colours were more expressive rather than natural. 

Osiris (green colour skin to indicate divinity)

Red skin implied vigorous tanned youth, whereas yellow skin was used for women or middle-aged men who worked indoors.

Blue, green or gold indicated divinity because of its unnatural appearance and association with precious materials.

The use of black for royal figures expressed the fertility of the Nile from which Egypt was born. 

Stereotypes were employed to indicate the geographical origins of foreigner.

Overlapping figures

He overlaps figures only if they are performing the same action. 

Some are extra large because they are important. If he wants to show something far away, like trees, he puts them above the figure not behind.

Important figures are painted larger

The artist then, does not tell us what he sees but what he knows.

Art here followed a strict set of rules of organization and painting which we call the ‘Egyptian style’.

Ch. 1 - The Cave Paintings

The cave paintings of the prehistoric man are very interesting to study as they are the first paintings ever done and have not lost their influence. In fact, today’s contemporary art seems to drift in that direction with a similar style.

Shaded Bison

Paintings of that era from the Neolithic age onwards are full of animals which look powerful and life like. They have a strong line and outline and are filled in with either a block colour or are sometimes shaded. The lines are done in strong charcoal that was the leftover burnt stick from the fire and the fill in colour was dull and natural, made of mud and natural pigments.

Strong, bold line

They painted their pictures in the interiors of the cave which were dark and difficult to get into. This suggests that they did not have them for decorative purposes or paint for pleasure otherwise they would have painted near the entrance where the paintings could be seen.

We think the pictures were for a hunting magic because some animals have sticks or spears in them. There are also many paintings of hunting scenes and generally, human figures appear only in hunting positions. They probably believed that if they painted an animal and ‘killed’ it by jabbing spears and knives into them they would be more successful in hunting.

Strong line; Movement; One on top of the other

They therefore painted only for a one time purpose, therefore one on top of the other, to save space. It is remarkable that they would take so much paint it only for a one time use but they probably believed that the more real it looked, the more successful they’d be.

These paintings have much variety probably because they depended on what the artist saw, knew and felt and how much the artist saw, knew and felt.

    

TODAY…

Animals like horses, bulls and cows seem to have taken the art world by storm and one distinct feature of most of the animal works of prominent artists is, they have a strong definite line. This gives depth and strength to their animals.

Also, in the animal paintings of today’s masters, there is movement like we see in the hunting or migrating scenes of the cave paintings.

Work by M. F. Hussain

Work by Sunil Das

Work by Sunil Das

The Roots

Art is and has always been the expression of man that has written out on the pages of time, a tale that was begun by Mother Earth herself when she painted the landscape with the green trees, splattered it with bright coloured flowers and fruits, sketched the blue hills and white peaked mountains, coloured the sky every hue of the rainbow from dawn to dusk and made the sparkling waters mirror this colourful transition.

The prehistoric man attempted to continue this tradition by writing his own story through the forms of man n beast on cave walls with just the mud and basic colours that nature gave him. The mud soon took form, crafted by his hands and then his discovery of tools gave shape to stone and metal as well. Thus we have the advent of sculpture. As civilisations emerged and discoveries made, handicrafts became an important occupation and one of the varied art forms.

Let us flip through a few pages of the story and analyze them…

What is Art?

There is really no such thing as Art. There are only artists. Once these were men who took coloured earth and roughed out forms of animals on cave walls and have evolved into what you see them as today. Art is the product rendered by the skill and imagination of the artist. Art is creativity…art is spirit…art is life…

Art is a story…a story that started out once upon a time and is still being written. Not a one man story but a tale which is told from generation to generation, differs from culture to culture and yet remains the universal truth that unites us all and transcends the petty barriers we create… It is a story of this race called mankind and this is our story…