Ancient Painting

Ancient Greek and European art is regarded as the best art that gave birth to all modern European art. The best painters, sculptors and architects created the things entire mankind admires nowadays. One of the best examples is Parthenon which being the greatest Greek example of architecture presents a lot of drawings and pictures engraved on its walls. In the same way as Egyptian and all other Ancient art trends, the Ancient Greek painting demonstrated the most burning questions people had to deal with, including scenes from battles, mythological plots, diseases, local conflicts and so on. In general, painting was one of the most popular forms of self-expression as there were no Mass Media or transport we have present days. Anyway, people were social beings and were keen on self-expression and communication even at those long-ago times.
The earliest examples of the Ancient Greek and Roman painting are found on pottery and ceramics. These "jugs" convey the spirit and jist of those societies. Unfortunately, there were found no examples of Ancient Greek panel painting survival. However, we have the later examples of Roman pictures carpened on the wood. There are only several Greek names of the artists that survived to our days with no surviving examples unfortunately. Still, the recollections left by their contemporaries are shocking. They are Apelles, Zeuxis and Parrhasius.
The Roman painting has several unique traits. The only preserved Roman paintings are wall paintings. They can be grouped into 4 "trends" that contain the first examples of trompe-l'oeil, pseudo-perspective, and amazing landscape. They are not so picturesque as Greek ones, but prove to be more realistic and impressive.