Publisher's Synopsis
The art of painting frescos has extraordinarily ancient roots, dating back to civilizations from the Near East, the Greeks, the Etruscans and the Romans. Like all genres of painting, the subjects depicted in frescos evolved over the centuries. In the 14th century, painting was firmly linked to popular religious beliefs and was accompanied by appropriate captions - sayings from the Bible and others of a more apocryphal nature. Thus we begin with the Byzantine Masters and Oratorio of San Sylvester on to Giotto, the Renaissance in Tuscany, Fra Angelico in the Convent of St. Mark, Piero della Francesca's Legends of the True Cross, the Sistine Chapel in the 15th century; development of the "modern manner" with Michelangelo and Raphael, the movement from claccism to the supremacy of decorative art, and finally, Tiepolo in the 18th century.
