The history of painting reaches back in time to artifacts and artwork created by pre-historic artists, and spans all cultures. It represents a continuous, though periodically disrupted, tradition from Antiquity. Across cultures, continents, and millennia, the history of painting consists of an ongoing river of creativity that continues into the 21st century. Until the early 20th century it relied primarily on representational, religious and classical motifs, after which time more purely abstract and conceptual approaches gained favor.
Lubang Jeriji Saléh cave, in Kalimantan, Indonesia, contains one of the oldest known figurative paintings, a 40,000-year-old depiction of a bull.
The Milkmaid by Johannes Vermeer, c. 1657
Pettakere Cave are more than 44,000 years old, Maros, South Sulawesi, Indonesia
Rock Shelters of Bhimbetka, rock painting, Stone Age, India
The history of Western painting represents a continuous, though disrupted, tradition from antiquity until the present time. Until the mid-19th century it was primarily concerned with representational and traditional modes of production, after which time more modern, abstract and conceptual forms gained favor.
Johannes Vermeer's Girl with a Pearl Earring (1665–1667)
Édouard Manet's The Balcony (1868)
Aurochs Cave painting, Lascaux, France
Lascaux, horse