The human being has always felt the need to represent

all that surrounds him, finding in drawing, the most

interesting means to carry

out this desire. The first

drawing goes back to the

Superior Paleolithic,

35.000 years ago, when the

Homo sapiens represented

on the cave surfaces of the

caves or on the skin of the coats, animals that he hunted.

An example of this artistic manifestation can be found in

the cave paintings of the caves of Altamira, in Cantabria

(Spain).

Later, the Egyptians knew how to take profit of this art

to decorate the most imposing constructions in the

history; the pyramids. It had passed thousands of years

and the drawing had evolved substantially. From the

single-coloured and static composition of the prehistory,

a new stride had been made to the balance, thoroughness

and coloring of the theological representations in temples

and sanctuaries. There was a need to detail the figure of

gods to thank them the splendor of the Egyptian empire

It was necessary to advance to the sixth century BC to

find in the Greeks the maximum representatives of the

balance in drawing. Worried to center in the human

candid expression, they denude it from any ostentation or

supernatural connotation, they are able to achieve their

target and they obtain what was considered to be the

harmonic balance.

The Romans, 500 years later, contributed to the diversity

it was lacking. And army and a discipline were required

to maintain an empire on such an extensive territory in

order to subdue so many diverse

cultures under the same authority.

That facilitated, in certain part,

the abandonment of the artistic

and ornamental stuff to come

closer to a more practical and

more useful doctrine for that

time; Solid constructions were

necessary to maintain the

authority from the continuous attacks of the invaders.

They obtained in the drawing the means to reflect what

the useful constructions needed to be. The first maps

arose and with them the architecture was born. The

technical drawing required a bigger technique and

mathematical knowledge about what had been forged

until that moment.

A greater number of complete works is preserved from

the Middle Ages. During this period, vivacious

representations prevail. Spectacularity and garnish is

imposed without giving any opportunity to colour to act;

Line is in charge of standing out the detail. The Arab

invasion introduces a revolutionary support to drawing

and painting: the paper. This is a

Chinese invention that will

facilitate illustration to stop

being an exclusive activity

which monks did on skin and

cane parchments. The general

population can achieve it.

Starting from that moment, it

can be shown the radiance of

color. It is also necessary to highlight the introduction to

the general use of the metallic fountain pen and the ink

as we know it at the moment.

From Italy, and advancing among the Gothic period,

(second half of XV century), the Renaissance is

disarticulated of the religious stuff. Now the important

thing is to recognize the beauty and to know how to

express it. Being based on the Greco-Roman artistic

civilization (the old thing revives), the natural and

concise is imposed again. The magnates allow their busts

to be reflected in multitude of portraits. Of the mere

forgotten decoration, the feminine nude begins to

appropriate of the main topics in the creations and one

returns to the study of the human figure. The drawing

ascends to the volumetric thanks to the new techniques

of colouring. The game of lights and shades, together

with the perspective, makes reality nearer to drawing. A

manifestation of artists demonstrates this new

development: El Greco, Miguel Angel, Sandro Boticelli,

and Leonardo da Vinci.

The last one stands out from the others because of his

investigation desire. He picks up under his works

anatomy studies, invention of devices and a new way of

using the illumination in drawing. The “esfumato"

dissipates the closed line of the contour of the drawing to

increase depth and what it will pursue from then on: the

approach to the natural thing. Therefore the drawing

stops to be something spontaneous and subjective to

become a true discipline.

The Baroque stretches out until the VII century. It uses

exaggeratedly all the resources contributed by the

Renaissance to express a wide range of attitudes, from

the calamity of poverty until the splendor of wealth.

Rightness and uniformity are broken in the pictorial

representations and it tried to the maximum to move and

to attract the spectator.

From the XIX century onwards the continuous

uniformity that had followed the history of drawing is

broken. It forks in multitude of styles: romanticism,

realism, impressionism, expressionism, fauvism, cubism,

futurism, surrealism... Nevertheless, all they make use of

what had so far been contributed as a tool to express new

approaches of the society they were living in.