Decorative painting - a short digression into the history

Decorative (from the Latin "decoro" - "decorate") painting is part of an architectural ensemble or a piece of decorative and applied art. Its main purpose is to decorate and emphasize the construction of the building or function of the object, therefore decorative painting is closely associated with works of applied art or architectural structures. In the latter case, such a painting is called monumental, not only because of its size, but also because of its connection with architecture, which often features features of monumentalism. Both physically and in content, this painting is inseparable from the object for which it was performed, and in this its difference from easel painting. It is this functional relationship that determines the plot, and technique, and the form, and ways of performing a work of art.

Decorative painting in its development counts several millennia. The most ancient samples are found on the walls of caves, and although the exact time of their application is still impossible to determine, scientists believe that they belong to the Paleolithic. These relatively realistic images, scratched with sharp tools or applied by black soot and red clay, can no doubt be called painting. A more elaborate kind is the genre painting of Ancient Egypt - the murals of funerary constructions depicting scenes of fishing, hunting, working life, military operations. Despite many conventionalities of depicting figures, Egyptian drawings are not devoid of realism and quite accurately convey the movements and characteristic poses of both people, animals, and birds. Decorative antique painting of Greece and Ancient Rome was widely used to decorate public and residential buildings, but at the same time it served religious and political purposes. The decorative compositions and the picturesque ornament placed on walls and vaults have received great development. Over time, the colored stones of the mosaic were supplemented with pieces of glass of various colors.

In Western Europe, the early Middle Ages characterized by the fact that decorative painting on the walls gives way to painted glass - stained glass. This is due to the lack of light: window openings in temples before the 12th century were of small size, and the wall painting was poorly illuminated. The stained-glass windows, on the other hand, glowed with bright colors. In civilian buildings the murals replaced the carpets, which covered the cold stone walls. First they were brought from the East, and then they started to do in Europe. Predominantly the subjects reproduced religious themes, but gradually began to appear illustrations of knightly feats, symbolic images of crafts and arts, virtues and vices, gradually they acquired artistic realism. In Russia, fresco decorative painting received its development even earlier than in Western Europe. After adopting her practice from Byzantium, the Rusich immediately introduced her vision of the world into it. Russian artists were alien to the abstract, conventional nature of the Byzantine mosaics and frescoes, they brought in them clarity and simplicity of expression of ideas. It is no coincidence that painting is a Russian word that points to the realism of this art, its connection with living images. Monumental and decorative painting from ancient times and is still involved in the design of architectural space and the organization of an ideologically-saturated environment for man.