,
Naqada II culture, Egypt (). '', Syria, fresco painted .
Bronze Age fresco from
Akrotiri, on the
Aegean island of
Santorini (classically Thera), dated to the Neo-Palatial period (). The settlement of Akrotiri was buried in volcanic ash (dated by
radiocarbon dating to ) by the
Minoan eruption on the island, which preserved many Minoan frescoes like this. fresco of Velia Velcha from the
Tomb of Orcus,
Tarquinia Egypt and ancient Near East The first known Egyptian fresco was found in Tomb 100 at
Hierakonpolis, and dated to . Several of the themes and designs visible in the fresco are otherwise known from other
Naqada II objects, such as the
Gebel el-Arak Knife. It shows the scene of a "
Master of Animals", a man fighting against two lions, individual fighting scenes, and Egyptian and foreign boats. Ancient Egyptians painted many tombs and houses, but those wall paintings are not frescoes. An old fresco from
Mesopotamia is the
Investiture of Zimri-Lim (modern
Syria), dating from the early 18th century BC.
Aegean civilizations The oldest frescoes done in the
buon fresco method date from the first half of the second millennium BCE during the
Bronze Age and are to be found among
Aegean civilizations, more precisely
Minoan art from the island of
Crete and other islands of the
Aegean Sea. The most famous of these, the
Bull-Leaping Fresco, depicts a sacred ceremony in which individuals jump over the backs of large bulls. The oldest surviving Minoan frescoes are found on the island of
Santorini (classically known as Thera), dated to the Neo-Palatial period (). While some similar frescoes have been found in other locations around the Mediterranean basin, particularly in Egypt and Morocco, their origins are subject to speculation. Some art historians believe that fresco artists from Crete may have been sent to various locations as part of a trade exchange, a possibility which raises to the fore the importance of this art form within the society of the times. The most common form of
fresco was
Egyptian wall paintings in
tombs, usually using the
a secco technique.
Classical antiquity of "
Sappho" from
Pompeii, Frescoes were also painted in
ancient Greece, but few of these works have survived. In southern Italy, at
Paestum, which was a
Greek colony of the
Magna Graecia, a tomb containing frescoes dating back to 470 BC, the so-called
Tomb of the Diver, was discovered in June 1968. These frescoes depict scenes of the life and society of ancient Greece, and constitute valuable historical testimonials. One shows a group of men reclining at a
symposium, while another shows a young man diving into the sea.
Etruscan frescoes, dating from the 4th century BC, have been found in the
Tomb of Orcus near
Veii, Italy. built in the 4th century BC in
Bulgaria Roman wall paintings, such as those at the magnificent Villa dei Misteri (1st century BC) in the ruins of
Pompeii, and others at
Herculaneum, were completed in
buon fresco. Roman (Christian) frescoes from the 1st to 2nd centuries AD were found in catacombs beneath Rome, and Byzantine icons were also found in
Cyprus,
Crete,
Ephesus,
Cappadocia, and
Antioch. Roman frescoes were done by the artist painting the artwork on the still damp plaster of the wall, so that the painting is part of the wall, actually colored plaster. A historical collection of Ancient Christian frescoes can be found in the
Churches of Göreme.
India built and painted during the
Gupta Empire in the 6th century AD Thanks to large number of ancient rock-cut cave temples, valuable ancient and early medieval frescoes have been preserved in more than 20 locations of India. The frescoes on the ceilings and walls of the
Ajanta Caves were painted between and are the oldest known frescoes in India. They depict the
Jataka tales that are stories of the
Buddha's life in former existences as
Bodhisattva. The narrative episodes are depicted one after another although not in a linear order. Their identification has been a core area of research on the subject since the time of the site's rediscovery in 1819. Other locations with valuable preserved ancient and early medieval frescoes include
Bagh Caves,
Ellora Caves,
Sittanavasal,
Armamalai Cave,
Badami Cave Temples and other locations. Frescoes have been made in several techniques, including tempera technique. The later
Chola paintings were discovered in 1931 within the circumambulatory passage of the
Brihadisvara Temple in India and are the first Chola specimens discovered. Researchers have discovered the technique used in these frescos. A smooth batter of limestone mixture was applied over the stones, which took two to three days to set. Within that short span, such large paintings were painted with natural organic pigments. During the
Nayak period, the Chola paintings were painted over. The Chola frescos lying underneath have an ardent spirit of
saivism expressed in them. They probably synchronised with the completion of the temple by
Rajaraja Cholan the Great. The frescoes in
Dogra/ Pahari style paintings exist in their unique form at
Sheesh Mahal of Ramnagar (105 km from
Jammu and 35 km west of Udhampur). Scenes from epics of
Mahabharat and
Ramayan along with portraits of local lords form the subject matter of these wall paintings.
Rang Mahal of Chamba (
Himachal Pradesh) is another site of historic
Dogri fresco with wall paintings depicting scenes of
Draupti Cheer Haran, and
Radha- Krishna Leela. This can be seen preserved at National Museum at New Delhi in a chamber called
Chamba Rang Mahal. During the Mughal Era, frescos were used for making interior design on walls and inside the ceilings of domes.
Sri Lanka ,
Syria The Sigiriya Frescoes are found in
Sigiriya in
Sri Lanka. Painted during the reign of
King Kashyapa I (ruled 477 – 495 AD). The generally accepted view is that they are portrayals of women of the royal court of the king depicted as celestial nymphs showering flowers upon the humans below. They bear some resemblance to the Gupta style of painting found in the
Ajanta Caves in
India. They are, however, far more enlivened and colorful and uniquely Sri Lankan in character. While some scholars contend that these frescos are the only surviving secular art from antiquity found in Sri Lanka today, others argue that they are Buddhist in nature (potentially representing goddesses from Tusita heaven) The painting technique used on the Sigiriya paintings is "fresco lustro". It varies slightly from the pure fresco technique in that it also contains a mild binding agent or glue. This gives the painting added durability, as clearly demonstrated by the fact that they have survived, exposed to the elements, for over 1,500 years. Located in a small sheltered depression a hundred meters above ground only 19 survive today. Ancient references, however, refer to the existence of as many as five hundred of these frescoes.
Middle Ages in
Sofia,
UNESCO World Heritage List landmark. from
Sant Climent de Taüll, in
MNAC Barcelona on Christ's Grave, c 1235 AD,
Mileševa monastery in
Serbian The late
Medieval period and the
Renaissance saw the most prominent use of fresco, particularly in Italy, where most churches and many government buildings still feature fresco decoration. This change coincided with the reevaluation of murals in the
liturgy.
Romanesque churches in
Catalonia were richly painted in 12th and 13th century, with both decorative and educational—for the illiterate faithfuls—roles, as can be seen in the
MNAC in
Barcelona, where is kept a large collection of Catalan romanesque art. In Denmark too,
church wall paintings or
kalkmalerier were widely used in the Middle Ages (first Romanesque, then Gothic) and can be seen in some 600 Danish churches as well as in churches in the south of Sweden, which was Danish at the time.
Early modern Europe , a masterpiece of medieval culture of
Artsakh. Fresco painting continued into the
Baroque in southern Europe, for churches and especially palaces.
Gianbattista Tiepolo was arguably the last major exponent of this tradition, with huge schemes for palaces in Madrid and
Würzburg in Germany. Northern
Romania (historical region of
Moldavia) boasts about a dozen
painted monasteries, completely covered with frescos inside and out, that date from the last quarter of the 15th century to the second quarter of the 16th century. The most remarkable are the monastic foundations at
Voroneţ (1487),
Arbore (1503),
Humor (1530), and
Moldoviţa (1532).
Suceviţa, dating from 1600, represents a late return to the style developed some 70 years earlier. The tradition of painted churches continued into the 19th century in other parts of Romania, although never to the same extent. Henri
Clément Serveau produced several frescos including a three by six meter painting for the
Lycée de Meaux, where he was once a student. He directed the
École de fresques at , and decorated the
Pavillon du Tourisme at the 1937 (Paris),
Pavillon de la Ville de Paris; now at
Musée d'Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris. In 1954 he realized a fresco for the Cité Ouvrière du Laboratoire Débat, Garches. He also executed mural decorations for the
Plan des anciennes enceintes de Paris in the
Musée Carnavalet. The
Foujita chapel in
Reims completed in 1966, is an example of modern frescos, the interior being painted with religious scenes by the
School of Paris painter
Tsuguharu Foujita. In 1996, it was designated an historic monument by the French government.
Mexican muralism José Clemente Orozco,
Fernando Leal,
David Siqueiros and
Diego Rivera the famous Mexican artists, renewed the art of fresco painting in the 20th century. Orozco, Siqueiros, Rivera and his wife
Frida Kahlo contributed more to the history of Mexican fine arts and to the reputation of Mexican art in general than anybody else. Channeling pre-Columbian Mexican artworks including the true frescoes at Teotihuacan, Orozco, Siqueiros, River and Fernando Leal established the art movement known as
Mexican Muralism.
Contemporary There have been comparatively few frescoes created since the 1960s but there are some significant exceptions. The American artist, Brice Marden's monochrome works first shown in 1966 at Bykert Gallery, New York were inspired by frescos and "watching masons plastering stucco walls." While Marden employed the imagistic effects of fresco,
David Novros was developing a 50-year practice around the technique. David Novros is an American painter and a muralist of geometric abstraction. In 1968 Donald Judd commissioned Novros to create a work at 101 Spring Street, New York, NY soon after he had purchased the building. Novros used medieval techniques to create the mural by "first preparing a full-scale cartoon, which he transferred to the wet plaster using the traditional pouncing technique," the act of passing powdered pigment onto the plaster through tiny perforations in a cartoon. The surface unity of the fresco was important to Novros in that the pigment he used bonded with the drying plaster, becoming part of the wall rather than a surface coating. This site-specific work was Novros's first true fresco, which was restored by the artist in 2013. The American painter,
James Hyde first presented frescoes in New York at the Esther Rand Gallery, Thompkins Square Park in 1985. At that time Hyde was using true fresco technique on small panels made of cast concrete arranged on the wall. Throughout the next decade Hyde experimented with multiple rigid supports for the fresco plaster including composite board and plate glass. In 1991 at John Good Gallery in New York City, Hyde debuted true fresco applied on an enormous block of Styrofoam. Holland Cotter of the New York Times described the work as "objectifying some of the individual elements that have made modern paintings paintings." While Hyde's work "ranges from paintings on photographic prints to large-scale installations, photography, and abstract furniture design" his frescoes on Styrofoam have been a significant form of his work since the 1980s. The frescoes have been shown throughout Europe and the United States. In ArtForum David Pagel wrote, "like ruins from some future archaeological dig, Hyde's nonrepresentational frescoes on large chunks of Styrofoam give suggestive shape to the fleeting landscape of the present." Over its long history, practitioners of frescoes always took a careful methodological approach. Hyde's frescoes are done improvisationally. The contemporary disposability of the Styrofoam structure contrast the permanence of the classical fresco technique. In 1993, Hyde mounted four automobile sized frescoes on Styrofoam suspended from a brick wall. Progressive Insurance commissioned this site-specific work for the monumental 80- foot atrium in their headquarters in Cleveland, Ohio. ==Selected examples of frescoes==