mural painting

Decoration of the wall designed for a specific site and incorporated into the architecture; unlike an easel painting, a mural's composition is influenced by its surroundings. Traditionally painted directly onto the wall surface, murals may also be created with mosaic, collage, and photographs, or painted onto a canvas and later fixed into position, a method more frequently used in modern times. Fresco (painting onto wet plaster) is the principal technique of traditional murals, although other media include tempera, encaustic, and oil. Murals have been popular for centuries, but as they are distinct from decorative, domestic easel paintings, they are more usually found in palaces, churches, or the interiors of important public buildings; the earliest appear in ancient Egyptian tombs of the 3rd century BC.

Two main forms of mural can be identified. The first is flat in style, emphasizing the wall surface and using large areas of flat colour, as in the murals of ancient Egypt and Crete, or the monumental works of the French painter Puvis de Chavannes in the second half of the 19th century. A second form of mural painting gives the illusion of imaginary perspective, breaking down the flatness of the wall. Baroque painting or the rococo style as represented by Tiepolo favoured these more three-dimensional murals.

The Muralists were a prominent group of Mexican mural painters, working in the early 20th century. They include Diego Rivera, José Clemente Orozco, and David Alfaro Siqueiros.