The history of painting is a mighty river of time, consisting of names, styles, and movements, which originates in deep antiquity, at a time when people created their first paintings on the walls of caves. This river has only one bank, the other is lost in infinity. Over time, the human understanding of the world of art and its place in it changed and evolved. With the expansion of consciousness, the development of art followed. Throughout the centuries, each painting style provided the ground for a new, newly emerged style or movement; each great painter added something of their own, sometimes unique, to the achievements of earlier artists and influenced later masters. Painting, as a constant companion of human civilization, had different purposes and roles at all stages of human evolution. For more than one century, the great masters of the past created works that continue to amaze with the brilliance of painting and the flight of spirit. Epochs changed one another; new generations of artists sought new visual means and ways to reflect the changing reality. Over the centuries, schools of painting and movements in art changed: the Renaissance and Baroque, Rococo and Classicism, Romanticism and Realism, Impressionism and Symbolism, Expressionism and Surrealism. But from Bosch to Van Gogh, the main task of the artist was to breathe life into the created image, line, color. The works of those who succeeded in this became masterpieces of world art. The artists whose immortal works are presented in this colorful mini-album seem to open a door for us into their era, into the marvelous world of magical colors they created.
