Where do you find frescoes?

Answer 1

Frescoes are painted on ceilings and walls. It's quite an ancient art style, with its earliest known examples dating back to 1500 B.C.E. That's how old the Knossos frescoes from the island of Crete are.

Subsequent to the depictions of the bull hopping ancient Cretan young men and women are the frescoes of Morocco and the wall paintings on ancient Pharaonic Egyptian tombs. Also subsequent to Crete's pioneering frescoes are those of ancient Greece, where many haven't survived the passage of time. In fact, evidences of ancient Greek fresco work tends to rely upon such preserved frescoes as that of a young sea diver at the ancient Greek colony of Paestrum, in southern Italy.

Italy is a major source for frescoes. Italian frescoes indeed range from ancient Roman examples in Herculaneum and Pompeii, to Roman catacombs and Christian frescoes whose style also is found on the island of Cyprus; and in the Turkish cities of Antioch, Cappadocia, and Ephesus. That's just referring to the ancient examples of this ceiling and wall art. Later, medieval and Renaissance fresco art may be found in Italian cities as diverse as Arezzo, Firenze, Mantua, Milano, Orvieto, Padua, Pisa, Ravenna, and Siena.

Many frescoes also may be found in Mexico. Among the oldest examples are the wall paintings of the ancient Aztec and Mayan civilizations. Among the more recent, best known examples are what's known as the Mexican murals. Still viewable today are the wall frescoes by Mexico's Revolutionary artists Jose Clemente Orozco [November 23, 1883-September 7, 1949], Diego Rivera [December 8, 1886-November 24, 1957], and David Siqueiros [December 29, 1896-January 6, 1974].

Another famous example of fresco painting that's even more modern than Mexico's murals is the Foujita chapel. It's the chapel that Leonard Tsuguoharu Foujita [November 27, 1886-January 29, 1968] frescoed in Reims, in 1966. The national government of France in fact includes the Foujita chapel on its list of national historic monuments.