Everything You Need To Know About Paintings – Wall Mural and Mural Paintings
You never get tired of watching those beautiful paintings on the wall – do you? Well, they are indeed extremely beautiful. Drawing or painting on the walls has a history that goes down nearly 32,000 years ago, Wall Mural Painting being one of the earliest known forms of this art. Origin of this form of art can be traced through southern France around the 30,000 BC. Later evidence trace all across the world from ancient Egypt, Minoan civilizations, Pompeii; and Italy, Mexico apart from in the Hindu temples of Kerala and the famous Ajanta Caves of Maharashtra in the medieval period.
The Murals in the state of Kerala date back to between the 9th and the 14th Century A.D and mostly depict mythology and legends. They are found on the walls of temples and churches of South India, primarily Kerala. The most famous ones located in places like Thiruvananthapuram Kayamkulam, Mannarkkad Palakkad District, while the oldest and largest are to be found in the churches all across the state of Kerala.
On the other hand, Murals of the Ajanta Caves depict themes and stories from the Jataka Tales and are dated as early as the 7th Century A.D. While there are many contemporary methods of Mural Painting, there are a few methods from the past worthy of mention.
The oldest known methods include Tempera, where the pigments are bound in an aluminous medium like egg yolk or egg white diluted in water. Another technique is where one affixes a painted canvas to the wall using some kind of adhesive that hardens as it dries, like cement plaster; and thus used as a mural.
Historically, artists used several types of adhesives including rabbit skin glue. White lead ore or Cerussite was used in the 19th and 20th centuries in the mixture to help it dry. In Greco-Roman times, beeswax was heated, to which colors were added and applied on a prepared wooden or canvas surface to make murals.
In 16th-century Europe, oil painting on canvas arose as an easier method for mural painting. The advantage was that the artwork could be completed in the artist's studio and later transported to its destination and there attached to the wall or ceiling. Murals now are found in different shapes, sizes and forms and are generally used for interior designing. Some of the common types of murals thus used include Graffiti-style murals, Ethnic murals, Tile Murals etc. Thus, murals may be used to decorate one’s household and also adorn the altar, the temple or church to give it an ancient, eternal and divine touch.