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Mural painting refers to paintings on walls, ceilings, or other large permanent surfaces. These style of apinting can be traced back to prehistoric times such as the paintings on the Caves of Lascaux in southern France.The term Mural came into being with the Mexican muralista art movement.
There are many varieties of murals but two of the most popular ones are frescos and tempera.
Fresco
It is a technique where the painting is done when the plaster on the wall is still wet therefore the colors intermingles permanently with the plaster and is permanent.
Tempera
Egg yolk and vinegar was mixed with oil colors and painted on dry plaster. That way it can be easily when necessary.
The last Supper –one of the worlds most famous Mural Painting
The Last Supper- this Leonardo da Vinci painting is a pictorial depiction of Jesus Christ's speech at the last supper. Novelist Dan Brown in his blockbuster novel “The Da Vinci Code” committed an error, he claimed that Da Vinci's' masterpiece was a fresco which in fact it wasn't, It was what we call a tempera.
Da Vinci chose to depict the most poignant moment of the last supper; the scene of Jesus announcing that there is a traitor around them. Da Vinci chose to deviate from the norm of depicting the last suppers as a peaceful and benign scene. His "violent" version with the disciples all screaming and yelling, created a lot of controversy. Da Vinci chose to ignore another long established iconographical composition of the Christian Paintings - the arrangement of the disciples around a circular or square table. Da Vinci chose to show a frontal view so that the expression of each of the apostles was clear.
The Ajanta Frescos
The hallowed caves of Ajanta ,Maharashtra India houses probably the worlds oldest and most celebrated specimens of frescos.
The walls of the caves are covered with mural paintings suggesting a fair state of preservation from decay. The scenes depicted are mostly didactic, devotional, and ornamental. The themes are from the Jataka stories (the stories of the Buddha's former existences as Boddhisattva), life of the Gautam Buddha, and those of his veneration.
Innumerable walls around the world are adorned with coloful paintings and each one of them celebrates creativity. The walls of tribal villages in Rajasthan and Maharshtra have been made uniquely lively with Pithora and Warli Paintings for centuries and this very art finds resonance in the walls of Sistine Chapel which houses Michelangelos celebrated frescos. Indeed Mural Painting is a joyous celebration of Art.
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