What are the characteristics of traditional Mexican murals?

Mexico is a magical country, and its achievements in painting art have surpassed those of many European and American countries. Among them, her mural art is the most representative, probably because Mexico is the center of Indo-Astek culture in history, so Mexican mural art inherits the historical and cultural atmosphere well, thus showing a unique style and attracting worldwide attention.

The origin of mural art

Mural art, as one of many art forms, is actually older. The oldest human art form that can be found at present is probably mural painting. Typical ones, such as Spanish rock paintings and French rock paintings, were produced about 20,000 years ago and belong to the Paleolithic Age. The following are two representative works of ancient rock paintings:

This is a famous cave mural in altamira, Spain, which was painted about 20,000 years ago.

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This is the famous Lascaux cave rock painting in France, which was painted about 20 thousand years ago.

The above two primitive works are simple and vivid in lines, accurate in modeling, more natural in rhythm, simple and frank. If you don't give instructions, who would have thought it was sent by primitive people? Because of the age, the pigments used at the beginning have deteriorated somewhat, resulting in a vigorous and powerful feeling, which has leapt to a higher level in the overall sense. To tell the truth, even the so-called first-class painters may not be able to draw such charm now.

How did these murals come into being? Why draw? None of these can solve the real mystery, and we can only infer the initial situation by guessing. After all, this is prehistoric art, and there were no words at that time. According to the study on the painting layout of Lascaux Cave in France, it is found that all the animals that threaten human beings, such as butch, jackal, etc., are painted on the rock wall outside the cave. Docile animals, such as Lu Niu, are mostly painted on inward rock walls. This shows that these murals have certain religious taboos, and it is likely that people's fear and understanding of natural forces were expressed through these pictures.

Personally, I believe that art comes from taboo worship, but I don't recognize the "labor theory" (that is, Mr. Lu Xun's "school of navigation and navigation"). Through the interpretation of these ancient rock paintings, this feeling has been strengthened

Such an ancient mural art can be found in prehistoric art of various cultures all over the world. In recent years, many prehistoric rock paintings have been discovered in China, such as the rock paintings of General Cliff in Lianyungang, which are full of puzzling symbols. Through the interpretation of experts and scholars in recent years, it is generally believed that this painting is used to evoke souls, which also shows the significance of taboo worship:

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This is the rock painting of General Cliff in Lianyungang, which was found in 1979. It is about 20m wide and10m high. It is full of symbols. Painted about 5000 years ago, it belongs to Yangshao culture period (this is the culture of farming period).

Rock paintings have been found in China, Inner Mongolia and other places, most of which have the symbolic significance of general cliffs. This should be because the rock paintings found in China are different from those found in the West.

Similarly, a large number of Astek murals have been found in Mexico, which are not only numerous, but also high-level and decorative, which are very different from those in the West and China. The following are the murals of Mayan cultural relics in Chiapas, Mexico, which survived the war, that is, the famous bonham Parker mural, which was probably painted in 790 AD and belongs to the works in the middle of Mayan culture:

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Murals by Bonan Parker, scenes after the victory of the war. Typical American colors and decorative patterns. Fortunately, Bonan Park was a very weak part of Mayan culture in that year, and its cultural relics were not destroyed by the Mayan war and the looting and destruction of the Spanish.

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This is the most famous part of the fresco in Bonampak, which depicts the horrible images of the enemy leaders begging for mercy, prisoners beheaded and bare nails after the war. We can see that the artist's skillful skills truly draw the fear expression of the enemy and the arrogant expression of his leader, showing the skill of combining realism with decoration in Mayan murals.

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If you can't see the last work clearly, look at this line drawing copied by the archaeologist.

For another example, this sun stone has a strong Astek style, which strongly shows the American style since the Mayans:

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Astek sun stone may have been formed in14th century.

Astek's decorative style has greatly influenced the Mexican mural style. In Mexican murals, we can easily see the inheritance of these styles; Therefore, Mexican murals have won their due position in the world, thus becoming a wonderful flower in human mural art.

To sum up, mural art, as a form of painting, probably came into being with the appearance of human history; Due to the inherent regularity of art, the painting process of murals also has a distinct taboo worship atmosphere. Because art comes from sincerity, when people are full of awe of unknown natural forces, their artistic feelings are often full of amazing sincerity. This meaning can also be understood in reverse: because these arts are not for sale, not for money, but for spiritual and spiritual comfort, they are so sincere and easy to cause people to sing.

It can be inferred from the above two points that the smaller the social utility of a good work of art, the greater its artistic value; The more introverted his creative process is, the more socialized his works are. In other words, the more sincere you are and the less you pay attention to social effects, the easier it is for your work to move others, be understood by others and be successful.

Of course, these are all digressions. As far as murals are concerned, since human beings have artistic consciousness, they have created. Then, after thousands of years of evolution, this ancient art variety must be outstanding and prosperous in our world. This is also the case. In western countries, especially in Europe and America, murals can be seen everywhere in streets, subways, libraries, museums. Those talented artists used many novel materials, spread their imagination wings with their artistic feelings, and drew many works of genius, which became an important part of social civilization in these countries. Of course, the mural art in western countries is also inherited. As we all know, the three masters of the Renaissance were all masters of mural painting. For example, Leonardo da Vinci's The Last Supper is a mural of a church, which almost led to the extinction of this artistic masterpiece because of the mistake of using pigments in that year (he mixed the pigments with egg whites, which later deteriorated seriously and was probably repaired several times after it came out).