A Complete Guide to Drawing E-Book

Domingo Manera

• Herausgeber: Parkstone International
• Kategorie: Geisteswissenschaft
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 412

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2019

Beschreibung

The author has spent many years in French art schools. At present, he is a renowned Master of drawing and a Professor at the "Scuola del Libro della Società Umanitaria". This volume contains mature experiences, stepped didactics and the clarity of concepts and lines that make it unique in the world of teaching, at all levels, of the most complex drawing techniques.

Leseprobe

Domingo Manera

A COMPLETE GUIDE

TO

The author or publisher cannot be held responsible for the information (formulas, recipes, techniques, etc.) contained in the text, even though the utmost care has been taken in the writing of this work. In the case of specific - often unique - problems of each particular reader, it is advisable to consult a qualified person to obtain the most complete, accurate and up-to-date information possible. EDITORIAL DE VECCHI, S. A. U.

© Editorial De Vecchi, S. A. 2019

© [2019] Confidential Concepts International Ltd., Ireland

Subsidiary company of Confidential Concepts Inc, USA

ISBN: 978-1-64461-800-4

The current Penal Code provides: “Anyone who, for profit and to the detriment of a third party, reproduces, plagiarizes, distributes or publicly communicates, in whole or in part, a literary, artistic or scientific work, or its transformation, interpretation or artistic performance fixed in any medium or communicated by any means, without the authorization of the holders of the corresponding intellectual property rights or their assigns, shall be liable to imprisonment for a term of six months to two years or a fine of six to twenty-four months. The same penalty shall be imposed on anyone who intentionally imports, exports or stores copies of such works or productions or performances without the said authorization.” (Article 270)

Index

Foreword

First Part History Of Drawing

The Art Of Drawing

Prehistory

Ancient Art

A Thousand Years Of Middle Ages

The Plenitude Of The Renaissance

Mannerism

Baroque

Neoclassicism

Romantic Spirit

Realism

The Adventure Of Impressionism

Symbolism

The Race Of The “Isms”

Expressionism

Social Realism

Cubism

Dadaism

Surrealism

Futurism

The Last Decades Of The Twentieth Century

Second Part Drawing Exercises

Pencil Drawing

First Lesson

Second Lesson

Third Lesson

Fourth Lesson

Fifth Lesson

Sixth Lesson

The Proportions Of The Head

Pen & Ink Drawing

The Perspective

First Elements Of Perspective

Vanishing Point

Square Perspective

Chessboard

Concentric Squares

The Circle

The Cube

Parallelepipeds

Perspective Vision Of The Objects

Landscape

How Can The Horizon, The Perspective And The Vanishing Point Of An Angular View Be Found?

Equidistant Elements

Equal Dimensions

The Sphere

The Chair

Internal Front View

Angular View

An Oblique View

Perspective Of The Human Body

Anatomy Of The Human Body

Arm And Forearm

Exercise Of Anatomical Drawing

The Articulation Of The Elbow

The Anatomy Of The Hand

The Hands

Shoulder Girdle

The Chest

The Back Muscles

The Anatomy Of The Pelvis

The Thighs

The Foot And The Knee

The Neck Muscles

The Cranium

Varieties In The Shape Of The Skull

The Anatomy And The Morphology Of The Eye

The Nose

The Mouth

Applied Anatomy

Muscles Of Expression

The Masks Of Emotion

Muscles

Bones

The Proportions Of The Human Body

The Proportions Of Children

The Nude In Art

They Ink Drawing

The Drawing From Memor

The Portrait

Practical Notions

The Profile

The Variation In Proportion

The Outline In The Portrait

The Feather Portrait

The Sketch Of The Portrait

Watercoloured Pen Drawing

Importance Of The Technique

The Expression In The Portrait

Synthetic Portrait

The Impressionist Portrait

Portrait Of Children

Idealised Portrait

The Caricature

Caricature Technique

The Expression Of The Caricature

From The Caricature To The Humoristic Drawing

The Animals

The Horse

Various Techniques

The Brush

Felt-Tip Pen

Wet Paper

The Cane

The Bamboo Pen

Charcoal

The Pastel

Watercolour

Tempera

Goose Feather

A Portrait Following Four Techniques

The Ball Pen

The Geometric Drawing

Perpendicular

Angles

The Square

The Proportional Rectangles

The Elementary Geometric Figures

The Polygones

The Ellipses

The Spirals

The Mechanical Drawing

The Writing Exercise With A Lettering Guide

The Furniture And The Carpets

The Assembling

The Mouldings

The Construction Drawing

The Ortogonal Projection

The Evolution Of The Styles

The Clothing

Egypt

Greece

Rome

Exotic Dresses

The Middle Ages

Renaissance

The Baroque

Nineteenth Century

Twentieth Century

Decorative Arts

Op-Art Decoration

The Decorative Polygon

Spirograph

The Rosette

The Template

Graphic Arts

The Lettering

Different Typographic Characters

The Decoration Of A Letter

The Page Layout

The Sgrafitted Cardboard

Jewellery

The Silverware

The Baroque Silverwork

FOREWORD

I am very pleased to present this volume to the reader, dedicated to all those who desire an absolute command of drawing in any of its varied range of specialisations. This artistic discipline has today achieved unsuspected forms of expression. It is enough to remember the animated sequences of cinema and television or the overflowing boom of graphic arts.

Drawing requires new dynamic forms for visual communication front of a disparate public with increased sensibilities. I would like to point out in this regard the care in the signage and outlines of the historical and cultural or tourist buildings, where the indication as well as being functional is aesthetically pleasing.

The author has spent many years in French art schools. At present, he is a renowned Master of drawing and a Professor at the “Scuola del Libro della Società Umanitaria”. This volume contains mature experiences, stepped didactics and the clarity of concepts and lines that make it unique in the world of teaching, at all levels, of the most complex drawing techniques.

The first part, where the history of the drawing is narrated, is, in my opinion, the most complete and reasoned that I have had the opportunity to read until today. The additional engravings denote the success of a critical selection.

My thanks to the author for his hard work. While I am fully convinced that it will be crowned with unreserved success not only among students who follow him faithfully but also among competent professors, who will find a gold mine of suggestions, new notes and useful and brilliant solutions.

ALBE STEINER

FIRST PART HISTORY OF DRAWING

The Art of Drawing

1. Prehistoric painting found in the caves of Lascaux.

At first, we have to consider drawing as an art whose purpose is to represent on a surface the figure of an object, whatever the technique used. Using products of fantasy, it also serves to express moods and spirituality, based on appropriate symbols. Its possibilities are enormous. Its language, like that of music, can be considered universal. Now, every artist must have a technique that he will learn through a series of progressive exercises and wich, in general, are within reach of everybody; but it also needs to be endowed with the artistic qualities to capture, represent and, if possible, create beautiful works. These qualities are not acquired, they are, by definition, innate.

The drawing appears to be linked to the human being from time immemorial and it would not be risky to affirm that the first trials of men in the art of drawing are part of the first cultural manifestations of humanity. The term to draw comes down to describing with extreme meticulousness, what the human word, above all things and despite its immense greatness, cannot express. That is why we can also speak of drawing as a revelation, insofar as it can make us perceive recondite aspects of things. It is, sometimes, an escape valve for certain personal experiences that arise spontaneously through the features of the drawing, when this is not limited to being a simple natural copy of an object. Not in vain we give so much importance to the drawings of children because of their psychological content in the purest humanist line.

Within the panorama of the Fine Arts, drawing occupies a position of preference where ever the layout of the spaces is something fundamental; for this reason it is irreplaceable in architecture, sculpture and painting, with the exceptions that may be imposed by non-figurative painting or sculpture, which, however, can benefit from its expressive possibilities by applying the canons of linear perspective and a sense of relief with the appropriate play of light and shadows.

A simple trait on paper or a fortuitous spot can evoke images or arouse emotions. There is an easy explanation because our memory does not archive complete things in all their details and many of them can be completely muted. Looking at some vague strokes one can receive a definite impression, not because of the same traits but because of what the person affects deep inside. One can thus see a conjunction of possibilities that non-figurative art entails. One of the most attractive aspects of art is, precisely, this power to open up new horizons to the contemplation of the human spirit. When art offers us a structured image, complete and indisputable, it arouses the emotion of the sense of beauty in front of the perfect, or the veneration in front of the beloved, like portraits, historical facts or hagiographic representations. But when the artistic work breaks the boundary of the figure, it stimulates our fantasy and throws the imagination into other areas, so great that the human word is often unable to express it.

In front of a drawing we are not content with the simple external formal perfection, which after all is the result of a mechanical, a technique perhaps sharpened by an accurate sense of observation. We always want to see in it the presence of spirituality, something indefinable, which is the splendour of the flame of personal genius. An elementary figure at first sight, it can contain a huge expressive load and a great deal of spirituality, while the surcharge with which many craftsmen decorate their works can drown with their foliage authentic great flames. We always want to see, then, the fusion of the two elements: mastery and material perfection in the drawing and the stamp of personal originality that comes directly from the true artist.

Perfect drawing is the work of geniuses but geniuses do not abound. There is no need to wait, then, for an abundance of perfect works in the domains of art. All in all, drawing is an art in which all temperaments can participate as means of personal expression, which although they do not reach great heights, do not lack interest. For everything that expresses human experiences has immediately a certain interest. And even if it is not used as a vehicle for personal expansion, there is always the possibility of evaluating, analysing, tasting and assessing the content of artistic works produced by others better equipped or more determined. Many people have spent unforgettable moments, pencil in hand, letting their fantasy run over the cardboard, or contemplating what others have expressed. Children, on the other hand, do so with enviable ingenuity and spontaneity.

All the peoples and at all times have valued the drawing, although in diverse ways. As expected, the technique has been perfected to improbable limits. But from the babbling of certain elementary and primitive traits of men of prehistory to the filigrees of the great masters, we have witnessed a constant overcoming of themselves. However, it must be recognised that the sense of observation and psychological penetration have always been present, without changing its essence even if the manifestations have changed and always endowed with enormous expressive force. In some primitive manifestations we can see the drawing related to the magical meaning of some elements, even to attribute superior powers to the artists themselves.

Another interesting aspect in the study of drawing in general is the function of instinct. As a sensible tendency, the drawing always has an aim in mind, it looks for an object considered necessary or simply convenient but worthy of being desired. It involves a longing, it is something linked to the natural species itself and it acts through a complex system of reflections, which in irrational beings are automatic and uniform but in human beings, whose spontaneity can nuance and channel personal intelligence, are more flexible. And it is precisely this instinctive spontaneity filtered by intelligence that gives the drawing the possibility of being a channel through which rich personal experiences flow, the principle of great works.

Then, along with aesthetic values, we have a whole series of human values, to which we must add religious values, already perceptible in artistic manifestations of ancestral peoples who related drawing to the action of hidden forces. Among the historical peoples, from the Egyptians to modern Christian iconography, these same values have been maintained and maintained, giving rise to the creation of true works of art. We must also highlight the relationship between drawing and human education. It is an element of education and it is a quality that needs to be educated. It is not a matter of emphasising the importance that the artistic part has in the integral formation of human beings. Everything must be educated, no one is born with an “all-set” personality, everything must be brought to the surface. And educating is nothing more than externalising the possibilities that are within us, giving them body and a utility. It is all about conducting this activity towards a concrete and acceptable purpose. It can be compared to the act of raising a being, may it be a human creature, a simple-minded person or simply plant care, always maintaining the degrees of analogy. And the taste, in general, being part of the qualities of a person and the artistic taste part of the taste in general and knowing that in a person everything has to be educated, let us conclude logically that the artistic taste also has to be educated so that it yields its own fruits. Although a proverb says - I doubt very much that it is true – that “there is no accounting about taste”; it is an obvious error because a lot has been written about taste, or that philosophical saying that “there is no arguing about taste”. We should make it clear that taste is formed, deformed and reformed and that good pedagogy teaches us to form -and if the case comes to reform- our natural taste.

It is therefore necessary to have a certain amount of historical knowledge that brings to light the evolution of taste of the expressive techniques of drawing. What others did in the past, serves as an example to guide us in what we should do in the present without falling into the servile and impersonal copy. Nor should we be very concerned that in some cases and people the artistic possibilities have atrophied. Apart from whether the exception confirms the rule, unfortunately many human faculties have been lost. It is regrettable but it is more positive to collaborate and do everything possible so that every man can reach his own potential. Therefore, it is necessary for the aspiring teacher in the art of drawing to know and study the works of ancient and modern art. Knowing the schools, techniques and possibilities, you can tune into the orientations that fit your sensitivity. Our historical scheme will serve as an orientation but it does not spare you the effort of the direct, detained and repeated vision of the works of art. Good reproductions can provide you with the most difficult and distant works. You must analyse them thoroughly, capture their distinctive notes, human values and assimilate everything without being attached to any of them. Nor should you forget that the mind can be quick but the hand only obeys well and rapidly after many hours of manual exercises. You must refine more and more your quality of observation, copying from nature to achieve total perfection.

There are multiple techniques: pencil, charcoal, brushes, pastels, gouache, watercolour, pen, etc. A special chapter of this course will guide you conveniently. The most important thing is that when choosing, consider the nature of the drawing you are going to make and the manual skill in which you have most exercised.

The technical aspect of a drawing is undoubtedly worthy of interest but beyond the techniques of execution, composition, meaning and writing, that means, the individuality of the artist from his writing, deserve to be studied.

Generally, a drawing allows knowing the artist’s mind much better than a painting because the slower and more elaborate execution of the latter ends up by masking his personality.

It is important that as we move on in time, a growing number of artists prefer the pen to other drawing instruments since the cleanliness of its stroke gives more effectiveness and more personal results. To define the character and intrinsic value of a drawing, we must examine it considering, as far as possible, the intentions of the author, his personality and the period in which it was created. We need to remember that a work of art, in addition to the personality of the author, also expresses the mentality,the habits and tastes of an entire era, which constitute the aesthetic forms, called “style”. The artist can change, within certain limits, the character of his works if he follows the influences of a stronger personality than his but the imprint of his time always remains in his work. The oldest drawings within the historical period place us around the year 5000 BC and are traced with a soft brush on papyrus in ancient Egypt. The papyrus is a Cyperaceae plant that grows on the banks of rivers, swamps and ponds in warm climates and that reaches up to three metres in height. It was frequently cultivated on the banks and in the delta of the Nile. Its marrow was cut into thin strips, which overlapped and stuck crossed, formed into sheets, which, juxtaposed with each other, gave rise to rolls or long roll-up strips; They were the precursors of the book. The papyrus served for many centuries as main material for writing and drawing, excepting the commemorative wakes and codes that were sculpted or engraved in stone.

Gradually, the papyrus was replaced by parchment, a name it inherited from the city of Pergamum, where there was a large marketplace and which is obtained from the skin of untanned animals but smoothed. It would prevail, especially during the High Middle Ages.

The paper is a thin leaf obtained industrially by means of suitable vegetal fibres that during the last centuries has attained a great development.

Made in China since ancient times, the Arabs adopted it and introduced it to Spain around the year 750 and from Spain it went to Europe. To date an old drawing it is essential to examine the paper since the manufacturing process varied over time. It is particularly useful to proceed with the examination of the filigree, which is a visible trademark by transparency. At present, almost all filigrees are known with their dates of manufacture, making it thus relatively easy to determine to what time a drawing belongs.

Typically, before starting to draw, the paper was covered with a thin layer of plaster or colour tempera to give it consistency and for a better use of the pen. The tempera coat also allowed drawing with a silver tip that left a trace of a beautiful dark grey.

The ancient peoples often used the brush to write and to draw, except for certain peoples of the Middle East who used cuneiform writing, based on engraving on clay tablets that they later baked, or directly on the stone, as in the Code of Hammurabi. The Romans opted for the calamus or cane, with which they engraved on wax tablets and thus it was easy for them to erase. The goose feather was introduced in Europe in the 6th century, which would later be replaced by the metal feather. The pencil is just a thin cylinder of coloured clay or graphite wrapped in wood. References of the same appear already in the 16thcentury but it was in 1761 that Gaspar Faber established a factory of pencils, which, at the beginning of the 19th century, began to produce in series, the Monroes in the United States. The modern fountain pen is nothing more than an accidental variety that does not modify its characteristics.

The drawing or pastel painting uses soft bars, of different colours, which lend themselves to very delicate effects. This technique was already known in Germany during the seventeenth century and became very popular in Italy throughout the 18th century, especially for portraiture. At the beginning of the 19th century we found allusions to the fountain pen but its invention was due to Lewis E. Watermann around 1884, although it did not develop in multiple variants until the second half of the 20th century. After the fountain pen, the ballpoint pen has been imposed, a type of fat ink pen that constantly impregnates a ball; it turns when rubbing the paper, letting the ink run. All these techniques at the service of the artist allow us to achieve new effects that are always interesting.

Prehistory

Until the nineteenth century, the study of human beings was limited to the data provided by historical chronology. Therefore, art began not with man as such but with man as a historical subject. With the great investigations in the valleys of the Nile, Tigris and Euphrates, the artistic horizon was widened, going back several millennia but always circumscribed to the limits of history. A fortuitous event was going to change the knowledge of men before history. We enter the domains of prehistory.

When in 1879 the Marquis of Sautuola, accompanied by his daughter, a four-year-old girl, was busy looking for fossils in the Cantabrian mountains, the small stature of the girl allowed her, to crawl through some rocky outcroppings, to enter an unknown cave and discover a series of strange paintings. They were the caves of Altamira. A new, transcendental and fascinating chapter was opened for the history of art. The cave paintings as part of prehistoric art, whose existence corroborated many utensils carved in stone and bone. These were impressive samples of the drawing of men in very remote times. Dates? Do not delude yourself. For such distant times, time does not count; what counts is the works that they have provided us with. Certain global calculations allow us to have a very general idea, an approximate idea that is however very significant. It is very interesting to know that the man who in the light of a torch scribbled in those grottos quite repeated subjects was an accomplished master of drawing and an attentive observer of nature.

Beginning with what is culturally considered the oldest, we find ourselves in the Stone Age, known as Palaeolithic, which extends over thousands of years and is subdivided into different periods, peoples and cultures.

The prehistoric cave paintings belong to the group called Aurignacian, which, according to specialists, can be dated to c. 25,000 years BC., the beginning of the art of painting on rock.

These drawings and paintings that take advantage of the entrances and protrusions of the rock in search of relief, represent animals of different species, preferably related to hunting and human nutrition. We can see them in various postures, sometimes violent, even though some superposed-on others, always demonstrate a great capacity of observation. Palaeolithic painters were able to see with their eyes details that are unclear and that can be grasped only with the help of powerful means. The assemblages of the before-mentioned Altamira caves are famous in Spain, as well as those of Lascaux and Font de Gaume in France. The works are carried out in places of such difficult access that it is necessary to discard any decorative purpose or aesthetic exhibition. The fact that they have not been exposed to inclement weather explains the exceptional good condition in which they are. In the Cueva del Castillo (Santander) the figures of human hands - always the left hand - silhouetted in red are especially evocative and difficult to explain.

2. Cavern Art.

3. Profile of a bison with front horns.

4. Signs become symbols.

With a leap of not less than about ten thousand years, we reach the Magdelanian period, in which art changes its orientation. It stops being realistic to be schematised and it becomes a dynamic art that introduces the human figure into its representations. It has at the same time an informative sense since it is a sample of the illustration of the customs and clothing of the prehistoric man. The paintings of Cogul (Lerida), in which the human figures make a clear allusion to the mystery of procreation, are very significant. The Cave of the Spider of Bicorp (Valencia) gives us the schematic representation of a beekeeper who collects honey from a honeycomb after driving away the bees. These paintings, unlike the previous ones, are made outdoors or in shallow shelters in which light penetrated. At the end of the Palaeolithic era, the figure of a horse’s head neighing, found in Mas d’Azil (France), was engraved on a reindeer horn. One wonders whether to admire the sense of observation of the anonymous engraver, or the extraordinary fineness and quality of the drawing.

It can be said that the Palaeolithic, lasting for many millennia, developed the three fundamental forms of plastic representation:

–the one based on the imitation of nature, like Altamira’s paintings;

–the pictographic, which simply suggests, informs, teaches, like those of Cogul;

–ornamental or decorative, abstract type, found in certain incisions in bones or stones.

Around the year 5000 BC. the great cultural revolution of the Neolithic takes place, also called the age of the polished stone. Man becomes sedentary, knows agriculture and domesticates animals and instead of capturing his food he will produce it. They built their homes, created pottery and learnt how to weave. In the art of drawing they accentuated the schematism until it almost reached abstraction. The human figure is presented as a circumference crossed by a vertical line that bifurcates to indicate the legs; It is also very characteristic how they represented deer, by means of a graphic in the form of a comb allusive to the antlers of the animal. The figurative schemes that the artist used could be subscribed to by many contemporary artists. Neolithic men have replaced the sensations of the changing nature by the permanent strength and firmness of concepts. As he has fixed his life, he also fixes his human experiences among which is art.

At the end of this period, the bell-shaped vase culture emerged, an extraordinary representation of a fundamentally Mediterranean way of life. It is a type of ceramic in the shape of a bowl or bell decorated with areas of geometric motifs, whose incisions are filled with white paste in a display of ancient craftsmanship.

Ancient Art

It is demonstrated that the great cultural manifestations known in classical antiquity have been linked to great rivers or to the immense paths of the sea. Egypt, cradled by the Nile, to which it owes its life, lived in a constant dialogue with the world of the dead, creating an art oriented towards eternity with a stamp so original and vigorous that the passage of the centuries and the changes of taste have been able to erase.

Mesopotamia, country between rivers, embraced by the Tigris and the Euphrates, saw in those impressive plains a series of empires whose cultures cause greatest admiration insofar as they are better known. Its vitality was such that they came to dominate practically all the known lands. The world of the islands of the Aegean Sea, mainly Crete, forged a fabulous culture that our twentieth century has been able to discover and analyse. Two peninsulas, among others, stand out: the Peloponnese and the Italian Peninsula, which gave asylum to the greatest heights of Western thought, Greece and Rome, whose artistic perfection has yet to be overcome.

Egypt was born in history around 3300 BC., although there are notable elements of his previous activity. And Egypt is great not because of its numerous pyramids; nor for its temples, which are also enormous; nor for the riches that its pharaohs and great men put at the service of the dead; not by scientific discoveries; nor for its high artistic level; but for its soul, its spirit endowed with special sensitivity for the great and for the eternal, which is a way of elevating more what is already elevated and great. A people that politically knew very hard times and epochs of an extraordinary flowering but that neither in one case nor in another lost the balance in the scale of human values. That is how the Egyptians knew how to create an art that combined with rare perfection the canons of a materially conceived beauty and the claim of a faith that required to represent with the greatest possible dignity the call of the transcendental.

5. Egyptian human figure.

6. Pierced beast (of a Sumerian bas-relief).

In the art of drawing Egypt occupies one of the first positions. Its hieroglyphic writing is basically drawing. The painting on the rolls of papyrus or on the walls of the sepulchral chambers, the incisions of the bas-reliefs and the commemorative inscriptions belong to the domains of the drawing technique. It is true that they do not know the perspective but the strokes and details reveal a keen sense of observation of nature expressed in lines of charming ingenuity. It is customary to see in the Egyptians the creators of a hieratic art, mysterious, majestic if you like, always homogeneous and unnatural; a line that has remained uniform despite the many centuries of existence. However, by better analysing all the existing examples of Egyptian art, two opposing and simultaneous currents can clearly be distinguished: one that starts from the indicated postulates and manifests itself in the impressive funerary statues, loaded with symbolism, subject to inviolable laws; and another school of a naturalistic kind, less striking perhaps, less imposing but no less inspired and valuable, based on the observation of nature and everyday life and which handles subjects as simple as the lotus and papyrus, animals such as the vulture, the beetle or the snake, symbolism such as the winged globe of the sun and the image of the moon. These themes were enriched by others of their own making, such as the cross with the ring that seems to symbolise eternal life, the eye that wants to suggest the vision of God above all things; there are even representations of humble tasks such as work or family life.

We have examples of great value from both currents. Along with the hieratic and rigid statues of the seated scribes, we have a very large series of statuettes that evoke people and works outside the great official world. Particularly significant is the statue of the foreman, known as The Mayor of the Town and the remains of the culture of Tell-el-Almarna, in which the family life of Pharaoh Akenaton, his wives and daughters are presented in shades of simple and candid affection, highlighting the bust of Queen Nefertiti with its admirable precision.

Mesopotamia, however, represents a life agitated by internal and external struggles, which goes back to around 3000 BC., when the Sumerian civilisation developed, right up to the year 539 BCE., when the great Babylon fell into the hands of the Persians disappearing definitively from history. In the artistic field it does not offer us a lot of works comparable to the Egyptian ones but, in terms of quality, it has bequeathed us masterpieces of great value. A good example of this are the well-known reliefs of The Lion Hunt of Ashurbanipal, prodigies of synthesised observation and of fineness of drawing, in which the people as much as the animals express feelings of strength, fierceness and pain of extraordinary artistic quality.

We can say that Egypt offers an art in thinking on the power of the beyond, whereas Mesopotamian art looks directly at this world, the world in which the will can do everything when it has the necessary external means; therefore, we can see the absence of delicacy of feelings and the expressed feelings are based on hardness, energy and strength, coarse virility. Only in the minor arts, on certain objects dedicated to the personal use of great personalities, we can observe details of filigrees of great skill and good taste. The fact of having discovered them together with human remains make us think that they also had some faith in life in the Hereafter but their art was designed to serve time and space.

Almost parallel to the development of the Egyptian cultural world the cultural expansion of the islands of the Aegean Sea took place, especially in Crete, which spread over all the islands, Greece and Magna Graecia, formed by the Greek colonies in the Italian peninsula and Sicily. By its nature and its influence, it is considered as a precedent of the classical world.

In the history of drawing it constitutes an essential chapter. The sense of depth of field and foreshortening develops; The vivacity of human expressions increases greatly and we perceive the efforts to express the figures in movement. Despite having lost almost all of the classical painting, the remains of mural painting found in the pre-Hellenic palaces assure us that these artists had a real sense of the proportions of the human figure, which endowed it with vivacity, expressivity and movement and that presenting the faces usually in profile, when the subject required it they began to draw their backs in foreshortening. We can remember the scenes of the fights against the bulls, the votive processions and agile ornamental motifs that prelude the faculty of abstraction, which will characterise the great thinkers of classical philosophy. But what draws the most attention is the rich Cretan pottery that, thanks to its maritime trade, spread throughout the Mediterranean. It is a richly decorated pottery with wavy lines, of vegetable origin, of marine animals, mainly octopuses, whose tentacles seem to caress the vessel; decoration that is completed with other motifs such as snails, seaweed and marine flowers. The absence of war elements in the decoration is strange. We do not perceive a special taste for force or violence, it rather seems that even the masculine strength is softened in a stylisation of very elegant forms.

There is every indication to think that it was a people of distinguished life, peaceful in the interior of the island but with defensive elements facing the outside. People of merchants and artists, they had in great esteem the educational practice of sport. A town whose life began approximately around the year 3000 BC. and that disappeared from history shortly after being invaded by Achaeans towards 1400 B.C.

On the Cretan basis, Greece greatly perfected ceramics. About his painting we only have literary references but the richness of the ceramic production and the variety of it, both in the forms of vases and in the wide diversity of ornamental and drawing motifs that make up for the absence of other valuation elements, allow us to deduce that the praises that ancient writers give to Greek painting are not exaggerated. In the 7th century BC., the Doric pottery culminates, inferior to the refined Cretan production, with ornamentation of geometric type and simplified figures distributed in horizontal zones that allow chronicling the painted anecdotes. Rams, panthers, deer, wild boars, lions, parades on the smooth surface of the vessel, with interspersed monstrous figures such as centaurs, sphinxes, harpies, etc. The main centre was in Corinth, which due to its situation can be considered a bridge between East and West. The technique is perfected by introducing the habit of drawing the contours bordering on the inside of the figure and exposing the white background. This is known as an archaic style and lasts until the sixth century. Within the Greek world, art has achieved value for itself and wealthy families strive to decorate their mansions with varied ceramics. The incisions on the paste allow to highlight the musculature, the folds of the dresses, give life to the faces and enrich the artistic ensemble.

From the 6th century BC., Athenian ceramics took a new boom. The figures win in animation and the foreshortening is ever dominant; a combination of techniques create new methods; the artists begin to sign their works. In the Age of Pericles, we know the figure of Polignoto of Tarso who renews the technique of drawing in order to achieve a more perfect perspective and through the variety of shades in colour achieve the sensation of modelling. With the fashion of black figures, the ornamentation in horizontal stripes is lost and the surface of the vase as a panel of a painting on which to paint all kinds of stories is used. The famous François Vase is signed by the ceramist Klitias and the painter Ergotinus, on which we find a series of stories elegantly expressed in strips with a display of technique and good taste. There comes a time when the narrative tires and gives way to the purely decorative but the drawing is still of great quality although the artist’s concern is mainly focused on the colouring of the figures and the improvement of the perspective. The progress in this last aspect is so far-reaching that Plato reproaches the painters for deceiving the spectators in the same way that the fisherman attracts the fish with a bait. The examination of the drawings on ceramic reveals that the faces do not have the serene immobility of the past and begin to animate themselves and show feelings, while the feminine garments recover their transparency.

The conquests of naturalism clash frontally with tradition; logic and rationalism have become fundamental rules for artists and in the field of knowledge the scientific method is developed, free of all magical interference and immediate interest. It is true that the division of Greece into many free and prosperous cities favoured artistic development.

7. Ornamental octopus through different stylization.

The representation of life returned to be faithful since ideological discrepancies disappeared at the same time as tyranny. It is exactly what will happen two thousand years later with the Italian Renaissance: art becomes the purest expression of love for life.

In the drawings on ceramics of the year 430 BC., noticeable progress is perceived with respect to the previous period. The features are very elaborate but they are made in a single stroke; the anatomy is shown accurately and without exaggeration; the faces are very beautiful and the bodies draped well and well composed. The stylised decoration of the lower or upper part of the vases also reaches a high stylistic level.

With the predominance of naturalistic, individualistic and emotive elements, portraits appear on the vessels, especially those of well-known ephebes. Their name, written next to the portrait, makes it possible to date the piece of ceramics with precision.

The ability of artists to translate feelings and emotions grows ceaselessly and this new sensibility is evident in works such as the vessel made by the potter Douris and the painter Calíades, currently in the Louvre Museum, where, on the background, the mother of Memnon is represented holding the corpse of her son in her arms. Because of its composition and the expression of the faces, this drawing recalls a Pietà of Gothic painting.

In the vessels made in this period you can see the preparatory work that has carried out the artist and serves as a guide to make, in one stroke, the final drawing. During this same time a great painter like Apolodoro perfects the perspective and the games of lights and shades and in the year 425 B.C. Zeuxis, his successor, becomes sufficiently well-known and appreciated allowing himself to be paid to show his works. The draughtsmen who decorated the Greek vases have provided us, in addition to samples of their ability, with precious information about the continuous progress that were carried out in the plastic arts and, in particular, in the painting, of which we know the high level to which it had come thanks to the writings of the Greek philosophers and historians who immortalised the names of Polignoto, Zeuxis, Apelles and so many others. They have told us many anecdotes about them.

These include, for example, Parrasio and Zeuxis clashed in a contest to determine who was the best painter. Parrasio presented a curtain, drawn so naturally that his rival rushed to lift it to see the picture he was thinking of finding underneath. For his part, Zeuxis had painted a cluster of grapes with such perfection that the birds tried to peck it. Given this evidence, Parrasio did not hesitate a moment to recognise that the painting of Zeuxis was better than his since he had managed to deceive nature itself.

The interest to imitate perfectly the natural forms also induced some painters to theoretical reflection. Parrasio was one of them and he became known for a treaty on painting in which he highlights, among other things, the important function of the line that, according to him, not only delimits the figure but also accentuates its volume and enhances it. In the 4th century BC. a school of painting was opened in Sicyon, whose plans had nothing to do with those of the school in Athens. Whereas Sicyon was based on reasoning, that of Athens was based on inspiration. The techniques used were also different: in Sicyon encaustic was used and in Athens tempera was preferred, a faster procedure that allowed greater freedom of expression.

Among the students of the school of Sicyon the famous Apelles who after having frequented it for twelve years became, around 332 B.C., a painter of the court of Alexander the Great, of whom he made a very admired portrait: Alexander, like Zeus, holds the beam that illuminates his chest and face. The Greek painters were, therefore, accustomed to the representation of light.

Pliny explains how Apeles, out of solidarity with the painter Protogenes of Rhodes who was not too much appreciated and forced to sell his paintings at a low price, bought a few of his works at a high price and launched the rumour that he intended to resell them as if they were his own, causing a strong rise in the price of Protogenes’.

Ancient history also teaches us that Apelles was accused by one of his emulators, named Antifilius, of treason against Ptolemy, Alexander’s successor; however, this accusation was revealed false and Ptolemy was so ashamed of having believed it that he donated a hundred talents to Apelles and offered him his accuser as a slave.

Recalling Apeles the danger he had run, he avenged himself by painting a picture called La Calumnia, which is described below. On the right is a man with long ears like those of Midas; Near him are two women who seem to represent Ignorance and Suspicion; the man reaches out to the slander that, from afar, is directed towards him. La Calumonia is a woman of extraordinary beauty, vehement, disdainful, possessed by rage and anger that, while waving a flaming torch in her left hand, dragged by her hair, with her right hand, a young woman who raises her hands to heaven putting the gods as witness. Probably guided by the Grudge, a pale and deformed man, with a penetrating look and consumed by illness. Two other women, Betrayal and Infamy, accompany the Slander by marching around her, honouring her and protecting her. Behind, moaning painfully, she is followed by a silhouette dressed in black with a torn cloak: it cannot be other than that of Repentance. She turns around crying and looks with great shame on the Truth that advances. This is how Apelles represents the danger to which he had been exposed (Overbeck).

The high level reached by the Greek figurative art justifies the effort that the Romans made to imitate it after the conquest of Greece. Unfortunately, almost all the old paintings were destroyed.

Rome, which, unlike the other countries of great culture had not been favoured by the natural qualities of land, river or sea, non the less became an empire that dominated the world and created a culture, a legal system and an art whose effectiveness still subsists. Whatever the circumstances that influenced that agricultural town located on the unhealthy hills of Lazio, the fact is that seven of them became one of the most named cities in the world, Rome. The truth is that its spirit lives and continues to dominate many a sector of human thought.

Its contribution to the history of the drawing deserves a thorough study. The historical reliefs, the sarcophagi, the portraits, the busts of the great characters, their paintings, have a depth and variety of nuances that astonish. As in Greece, most of the paintings have also been lost but the excavations at Pompeii and Herculaneum have made it possible to supply us with remarkable precision what were the masterpieces of Roman painting. The remains preserved in the Villa Livia in Rome demonstrate the existence of a good school of landscape painters; but the strong group is in Pompeii, the city that has risen from the dead and buried cities, among whose remains we can see decorations imitating embedded marble, or the group of mythological scenes evoked in unforgettable frescoes, the richness of fine ornamental motifs that are admirable for the imagination of the craftsman and for the skill with which they are drawn. Works of special relief are the historically minded paintings of the Dionysian Mysteries and the famous Aldobrandina Weddings transferred to the Vatican.

Perhaps the most personal of Roman art are the portraits, both in the gallery of busts of diverse people that are ordered in large numbers by museums, as in the paintings that are preserved. Portraits in which the absence of any affectation or idealisation is evident, a clear interest in conserving personal traits and through them reflecting the psychology of people. It is evident that the Roman artist or the one who commissioned the portrait cared more about the person as he was than a stylisation with beautiful forms. This would necessarily disfigure the image. Remarkably, many Roman portraits come from Egypt, where the human image has always had so much value, of course, created by artists of the Roman domination, although with a certain influence of Greek painting.

Another area of exhibiting drawing is the Roman mosaic, which existed in large quantities in houses, streets and squares. Geometric motifs of ornamental type, animals, mythological and historical scenes were represented with exceptional perfection through the mosaic technique, which the Byzantines will enrich brilliantly centuries later. In general, Roman drawing maintains respect for the natural, especially in portraits, which tend to be tinged with a note of mild melancholy. It is drawing at the service of man but overcoming the appeal of pure formal beauty to give way to a sense of inner beauty much more valuable and permanent. It is a fundamentally humanistic art.

8. Theseus and the Centaur. Naples, National Museum.

9. Glass with The Garden of the Hesperides, detail. Naples, National Museum.

10. Punished love, Pompeian fresco. Naples, National Museum.

11. Flora, Pompeian fresco. Naples, National Museum.

A Thousand Years of Middle Ages

The Middle Ages bear the stamp of the Christian faith. If chronologically it begins from the Germanic invasions, we can affirm that its spiritual roots, the springs that moved the man of the Middle Ages, are related to those who animated the Christians in the catacombs. It is not surprising that the medieval artistic manifestations, especially in painting and symbolism, have a certain kinship with the stammering wall paintings of the Roman catacombs. The agape or fraternal food, the lamb of God, the dove of the Spirit of the Lord, the sun representing the glorious Christ, the doe that goes to the fountains of living water, the currents of water symbol of sacramental grace, the Phoenix symbol of the resurrection, figures of orantes, the anagram of the fish, etc. Simple drawings, unpretentious, poor technique but with a lot of soul and heart.

The Italian peninsula was devastated by Visigoths, Vandals and Ostrogoths and Rome was not free from a disaster either. Famines and plagues ravaged various regions. In the year 395, the Roman Empire had been divided into East and West. While the oriental part, Constantinople, remained splendid, at least externally, the western one fell in the year 476 into the hands of the barbarians, leaving the Eternal City reduced to a stronghold of Odoacer, which definitively sank the flamboyant Roman Empire that had survived about 1,200 years. Various and repeated struggles among the kings of Italy, reprisals and mutual outrages, turned it into a pile of ruins that became part of the Byzantine Empire through the exarchate of Ravenna. In this lamentable situation, Rome was in fact under the protection of the popes, the only institution that stood firm, which defended order and peace, which was concerned with solving social needs but which took a long time to achieve a high artistic level. In the sixth century, Gregory the Great understood the value that the religious image carries with it to teach and illustrate the Christian faith. In spite of all the iconoclastic struggles, the image has become an essential part of Christian art.

At this juncture, popes and princes compete in calling to Italy Byzantine masters to work in the figurative arts. Ravenna, Byzantine vanguard, was the centre and a model. The poor and rough paintings of the catacombs are replaced by the brilliance and splendour of the mosaic, which soon begins to coat apses and walls of the best basilicas. Technically, the drawing is great, with hieratic postures, it refuses the naturalness by pandering to some canons of frontality and stylisation that dresses them with very special characteristics. It is team work because one artist will draw the original sketch, another one will move it to the wall or apse saving the proportion and perspectives and a third is the specialised craftsman who places the coloured tiles on the wall. Both were excellent drawers in their own field. We have to recognise that the works they have achieved is the perfection of their own ideal.

12. Detail of a 6th century Byzantine mosaic.

13. Detail of a 13th century high relief (Arezzo).

The Middle Ages were very long and naturally invade everything in the life of the people. Fierce battles against invasions of other groups such as Barbarians first, Arabs afterwards, Normans and the incursions of the Turks with which the period ends. On the other hand, we admire serious attempts at overcoming: the Carolingian Renaissance, the Otto Empire and the ecclesiastical renewal of the thirteenth century. Strong explosions of faith occurred that materialised, not always with success, in cathedrals, monasteries and crusades. In scientific research, the first universities emerge. Frequent manifestations of chivalry, heroism and courtly grace come up, not always free of dominating passion, as we can see in feudalism, great epic poems and impressive castles.