The human being has always felt the need to represent all that surrounds him, finding in drawing, the most interesting means to carry out this desire. The first drawing goes back to the Superior Paleolithic, 35.000 years ago, when the Homo sapiens represented on the cave surfaces of the caves or on the skin of the coats, animals that he hunted. An example of this artistic manifestation can be found in the cave paintings of the caves of Altamira, in Cantabria (Spain). Later, the Egyptians knew how to take profit of this art to decorate the most imposing constructions in the history; the pyramids. It had passed thousands of years and the drawing had evolved substantially. From the single-coloured and static composition of the prehistory, a new stride had been made to the balance, thoroughness and coloring of the theological representations in temples and sanctuaries. There was a need to detail the figure of gods to thank them the splendor of the Egyptian empire It was necessary to advance to the sixth century BC to find in the Greeks the maximum representatives of the balance in drawing. Worried to center in the human
candid expression, they denude it from any ostentation or supernatural connotation, they are able to achieve their target and they obtain what was considered to be the harmonic balance. The Romans, 500 years later, contributed to the diversity it was lacking. And army and a discipline were required to maintain an empire on such an extensive territory in order to subdue so many diverse cultures under the same authority. That facilitated, in certain part, the abandonment of the artistic and ornamental stuff to come closer to a more practical and more useful doctrine for that time; Solid constructions were necessary to maintain the authority from the continuous attacks of the invaders. They obtained in the drawing the means to reflect what the useful constructions needed to be. The first maps arose and with them the architecture was born. The technical drawing required a bigger technique and mathematical knowledge about what had been forged until that moment. A greater number of complete works is preserved from the Middle Ages. During this period, vivacious representations prevail. Spectacularity and garnish is imposed without giving any opportunity to colour to act; Line is in charge of standing out the detail. The Arab
invasion introduces a revolutionary support to drawing and painting: the paper. This is a Chinese invention that will facilitate illustration to stop being an exclusive activity which monks did on skin and cane parchments. The general population can achieve it. Starting from that moment, it can be shown the radiance of color. It is also necessary to highlight the introduction to the general use of the metallic fountain pen and the ink as we know it at the moment. From Italy, and advancing among the Gothic period, (second half of XV century), the Renaissance is disarticulated of the religious stuff. Now the important thing is to recognize the beauty and to know how to express it. Being based on the Greco-Roman artistic civilization (the old thing revives), the natural and concise is imposed again. The magnates allow their busts to be reflected in multitude of portraits. Of the mere forgotten decoration, the feminine nude begins to appropriate of the main topics in the creations and one returns to the study of the human figure. The drawing ascends to the volumetric thanks to the new techniques of colouring. The game of lights and shades, together with the perspective, makes reality nearer to drawing. A manifestation of artists demonstrates this new
development: El Greco, Miguel Angel, Sandro Boticelli, and Leonardo da Vinci. The last one stands out from the others because of his investigation desire. He picks up under his works anatomy studies, invention of devices and a new way of using the illumination in drawing. The “esfumato" dissipates the closed line of the contour of the drawing to increase depth and what it will pursue from then on: the approach to the natural thing. Therefore the drawing stops to be something spontaneous and subjective to become a true discipline. The Baroque stretches out until the VII century. It uses exaggeratedly all the resources contributed by the Renaissance to express a wide range of attitudes, from the calamity of poverty until the splendor of wealth. Rightness and uniformity are broken in the pictorial representations and it tried to the maximum to move and to attract the spectator. From the XIX century onwards the continuous uniformity that had followed the history of drawing is broken. It forks in multitude of styles: romanticism, realism, impressionism, expressionism, fauvism, cubism, futurism, surrealism... Nevertheless, all they make use of what had so far been contributed as a tool to express new approaches of the society they were living in.