TOKYO: Forget Renaissance Europe. The world’s first oil paintings go back nearly 14 centuries to murals in Afghanistan’s Bamiyan caves, a Japanese researcher says.
Buddhist images painted in the central Afghan region, dating back to around 650 AD, are the earliest examples of oil used in art history, says Yoko Taniguchi, an expert at Japan’s National Research Institute for Cultural Properties.
A group of Japanese, European and American scientists are collaborating to restore damaged murals in caves in the Bamiyan Valley, famous for its two gigantic statues of the Buddha that were destroyed by the Taliban in 2001.
In the murals, thousands of Buddhas in vermilion robes sit cross-legged, sporting exquisitely knotted hair. Other motifs show crouching monkeys, men facing one another or palm leaves delicately intertwined with mythical creatures.
The paintings incorporate a mix of Indian and Chinese influences, and were most likely the works of artists traveling on the Silk Road, which was the largest trade and cultural route connecting the East and the West.
The Los Angeles-based Getty Conservation Institute analyzed 53 samples extracted from the murals. Using gas chromatography methods, the researchers found that 19 had oil in the paint.
No pictures of those paintings could be found.. but these are the Bamiyan caves
http://www.wayfaring.info/wp-content/uploads/2006/12/bamiyan02.jpg
interesting