Isabella Flores
The earliest known paintings are cave paintings, with the oldest being over 40,000 years old, and perhaps as old as 73,000 years old. These paintings, created by Homo sapiens, Denisovans, and Neanderthals, often feature hand stencils, simple geometric shapes, and depictions of animals. They are found in various locations around the world, including Indonesia, France, Spain, Australia, Botswana, and India. While it is challenging to pinpoint the exact oldest painting, these prehistoric artworks provide valuable insights into the creativity, spirituality, and abstract thoughts of our ancient ancestors.
| Characteristics | Values |
|---|---|
| Age | 40,000+ years ago |
| Location | Sulawesi, Indonesia; Chauvet Cave, France; Coliboaia Cave, Romania; Arnhem Land, Australia; Blombos Cave, South Africa; Diepkloof Rock Shelter, South Africa; El Castillo, France; Sittanavasal Cave, India; Bhimbetka, India; Turobong, South Korea; Namibia; Germany; Spain; France; Portugal; Indonesia; Algeria; Libya; Chad; Tanzania; Azerbaijan; Turkey |
| Creators | Homo sapiens, Denisovans, Neanderthals |
| Materials | Ochre, clay, charcoal, ivory, stone |
| Subjects | Animals, humans, abstract shapes, spiritual symbols |
| Techniques | Finger tracing, modelling, engravings, bas-relief sculpture, hand stencils, paintings in two or three colours |
| Oldest painting | The Lindisfarne Gospels, Religion, Vellum and pigment, 700 AD |
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What You'll Learn
The oldest cave paintings
Cave paintings are a type of parietal art, which includes petroglyphs and engravings, found on the walls and ceilings of caves. They are often of prehistoric origin, created by Homo sapiens, Denisovans, Neanderthals, and other species in the Homo genus. The oldest known cave paintings are more than 40,000 years old and are found in the caves in the district of Maros in Sulawesi, Indonesia. These paintings are often constructed from hand stencils and simple geometric shapes.
In 2021, cave art of a pig found in Sulawesi, Indonesia, was dated to over 45,500 years ago, making it one of the oldest cave paintings in the world. The Lion Man of the Hohlenstein Stadel is another outstanding piece of art from this early period, showcasing craftsmanship and talent that rivals much later artworks.
The next phase of surviving European prehistoric painting, the rock art of the Iberian Mediterranean Basin, dates from 10,000 to 5,500 years ago. This art was painted in rock shelters under cliffs or shallow caves, as opposed to the deep caves used in earlier times. The art from this period is less naturalistic, focusing on assemblies of smaller, less detailed figures, with a mix of humans and animals.
In 2018, a study found that the oldest examples of non-figurative cave art in the Iberian Peninsula were approximately 64,000 years old. These paintings, found in Spain, predate the arrival of modern humans in Europe and are believed to have been made by Neanderthals.
The Apollo 11 Cave in Namibia contains cave paintings estimated to be 25,500 to 27,500 years old. In 2011, archaeologists discovered a rock fragment at Blombos Cave in South Africa with lines drawn by a human hand using an ochre crayon. This rock painting is dated to 73,000 years ago, making it the oldest known rock painting in the world.
The oldest known figurative cave paintings were discovered in the Lubang Jeriji Saléh cave on the Indonesian island of Borneo. These paintings, which include an unknown animal and an image of a bull, are dated to be over 40,000 years old, with the bull dated to 40,000 years ago and the unknown animal possibly as old as 52,000 years.
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Prehistoric art in Europe
There are indeed paintings that are over 2000 years old, with some dating back to the prehistoric era. Prehistoric art refers to art produced in preliterate, prehistorical cultures, continuing until the culture develops writing or record-keeping methods, or comes into significant contact with another culture that has these methods.
One of the most famous examples of parietal art in Europe is the Grotte Chauvet in France, which dates back to between 35,000 and 30,000 years ago. The paintings in Chauvet were modified repeatedly over thousands of years, with some of the finer paintings dating earlier than the cruder ones. Other notable cave painting sites in Europe include Lascaux, Dordogne, France (c. 15,000 BCE), Le Tuc d'Audoubert, France (c. 13,000 BCE), and Coliboaia Cave in Romania (about 32,000 years old).
Rock art in Europe includes the abstract geometric motifs of Atlantic rock art, found in Portugal, Spain, France, Britain, and Ireland. This art often includes cup-and-ring motifs and is sometimes found alongside figurative carvings. The rock art of the Iberian Mediterranean Basin, created between 10,000 and 5,500 years ago, features assemblies of smaller, less detailed figures, with a mix of humans and animals. The art is often found in rock shelters under cliffs or shallow caves.
The purpose of prehistoric art in Europe is not always clear, but some theories suggest that it was related to rituals promoting fertility and successful hunting. The difficult-to-access locations of some cave paintings suggest that they may not have been intended as simple decorations. Some scholars also theorize that the art may have marked routeways and boundaries within prehistoric societies.
Prehistoric Art Beyond Europe
Beyond Europe, prehistoric art has been discovered in various regions, including Australia, Indonesia, South Africa, Namibia, India, and South Korea. The oldest known rock painting is a 73,000-year-old ochre crayon drawing found in Blombos Cave, South Africa. In Indonesia, the Pettakere cave on the island of Sulawesi contains paintings that are up to 40,000 years old, similar in age to the oldest European cave art.
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Ancient art in Africa
Africa, as the birthplace of Homo sapiens, is home to some of the world's oldest art forms. The images depicted in these works give insight into the lifestyles, practices, and beliefs of the earliest civilizations.
Rock art is the earliest art form in Africa. The oldest images scientifically dated are from Namibia's Apollo 11 caves and are estimated to be 24,000 to 27,000 years old. However, most experts believe that Africa's rock art may be older than 50,000 years. In 2011, archaeologists discovered a small rock fragment at Blombos Cave in South Africa, with lines drawn by a human hand using an ochre crayon dating back 73,000 years. This makes it the oldest known rock painting.
In addition to rock art, ancient African art includes masks, sculptures, cave paintings, pottery, and textiles. For example, in 5000 BCE, Egyptians began to gather flax and weave it into linen, and the art of ancient Egypt depicted people wearing clothes. Cameroonians also made fabric from tree bark, and other tribes created textiles from animal skin and fur. These textiles were transformed into costumes for ceremonies, everyday clothing, and decorations.
Africa's art history is diverse and rich, with various forms and practices. Some art forms have entertainment value, while others carry political or ideological significance, ritual importance, or aesthetic value. Unfortunately, much of this heritage is being lost due to natural erosion and the pressures of civilization.
Some notable examples of ancient African art include the Manda Guéli Cave in the Ennedi Mountains, which displays a vast array of animals on its walls and ceiling, including elephants, bison, horses, cattle, and camels, and the world's largest rock art petroglyph carving in the form of a giraffe in Niger, Africa.
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Roman paintings
While Roman paintings do exist, they are not as well-known as other forms of Roman art, such as architecture. Most surviving Roman paintings are frescoes that adorned the interiors of private homes in Roman cities and the countryside. These frescoes were often painted on the plaster walls of luxurious villas, featuring decorative patterns and depictions of villas, porticos, landscape gardens, woods, and coastlines. One of the most remarkable examples of Roman frescoes was discovered in 2021 in London, where archaeologists pieced together thousands of fragments of 2,000-year-old wall plaster. The frescoes feature beautifully painted details of musical instruments, birds, flowers, fruit, and candelabras.
The history of Roman painting is primarily that of wall paintings, with few complete pieces surviving outside of Italy. In the Western provinces of the Roman Empire, most fragments date from after 200 AD. However, there are a large number of Fayum mummy portraits from Roman Egypt, which are bust portraits on wood added to mummies by the Romanized middle class. These portraits, despite their local character, likely represent a broader Roman style in painted portraits.
Roman painting saw the development of landscapes, incorporating techniques of perspective. While true mathematical perspective developed 1,500 years later, Roman artists used shading and coloration to create the illusion of depth. Some landscapes depicted nature, while others showcased architectural vistas or scenes from mythology, such as the Odyssey. Roman painters also adapted and copied earlier Greek artworks, incorporating a North West European or local twist.
Roman art also included panel paintings, which could be original creations or adaptations of Hellenistic works. These paintings likely served as prototypes for the myths depicted in frescoes. Roman artists likely carried copybooks with them to reproduce popular paintings and patterns.
In addition to frescoes and panel paintings, ancient literary references mention Roman paintings on wood, ivory, and other materials. However, none of these works done on wood or ivory in Italy during the 4th and 5th centuries have survived.
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Ancient art in Asia
The history of Asian art includes a wide range of arts from diverse cultures, regions, and religions across the continent of Asia. The art of Mesopotamia is considered the oldest in Asia, excluding prehistoric art. The first modern human occupation in Northeast Asia dates back to around 40,000 years ago, with the early Yana culture of northern Siberia dated to circa 31,000 BCE. By 21,000 BCE, the Mal'ta culture, centred around the Angara River near Lake Baikal in Southern Siberia, created some of the first works of art in the Upper Paleolithic period, including the 23,000-year-old Venus figurines of Mal'ta, crafted from mammoth ivory.
In the Philippines, ancient people were making giant warships as early as the 4th century AD, with the earliest archaeological evidence found in Butuan, dated to 320 AD. The Laguna Copperplate Inscription, dated 900 AD, is the oldest artifact with a written script found in the Philippines. The Butuan Ivory Seal, dated between the 9th and 12th centuries AD, is the earliest known ivory art in the country, featuring carvings of an ancient script.
The Art Institute of Chicago's collection of Asian art includes nearly 30,000 objects spanning five millennia. The collection features important early Chinese bronzes from the Shang dynasty, such as a wine goblet and a nao or bell from the Zhou period, acquired in the 1920s. Indian and Islamic paintings, as well as Japanese woodblock prints, are also part of the institute's holdings.
Vietnamese art has a rich history, including silk painting, sculpture, pottery, ceramics, woodblock prints, architecture, music, dance, and theatre. The Nguyễn dynasty witnessed a revival of ceramics and porcelain art, with Vietnamese ceramics imported by imperial courts across Asia.
Bali became an artist enclave in the 1920s, attracting avant-garde artists such as Walter Spies, Rudolf Bonnet, and Adrien-Jean Le Mayeur. During their stay in the mid-1930s, anthropologists Gregory Bateson and Margaret Mead collected over 2000 paintings from Batuan and Sanur.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art's Department of Ancient West Asian Art in New York houses approximately 7,000 works dating from the eighth millennium BCE to the emergence of Islam in the seventh century CE. The collection includes objects from Iraq, Iran, Turkey, Syria, Yemen, and Central Asia, showcasing the ancient art of this diverse region.
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Frequently asked questions
Yes, there are many paintings from over 2000 years ago. The earliest known paintings are cave paintings, which date back tens of thousands of years.
The oldest cave paintings have been found in Sulawesi, Indonesia, and are dated to be at least 37,900 BC. Other very old cave paintings have been found in Spain, France, Namibia, Australia, India, and South Africa.
The oldest non-cave paintings are the Wall in the House of Sallust, painted between 400 and 100 BC, and the Asuka Beauties, painted between 600 and 700 AD.
The oldest cave paintings in Europe are in France and Spain and are dated to be around 30,000 to 32,000 years old. The oldest non-cave paintings from Europe are the manuscripts known as the Lindisfarne Gospels, which are over 1300 years old.
