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A Swiss Phenomenon: Bauernmalerei (Peasant Painting), Walter Angst

Swiss American Historical Society Review

Ever since, some 50,000 years ago, the paleolithic Cro-Magnon aborigine of Altamira (a large cave near Santander in Northern Spain) painted magnificent pictures of wild animals on their cave walls, people of all kinds from many lands have used colorants to embellish the interiors of dwellings. The use of pigments mixed with various binders for decorating peoples' surroundings as an expression of the human desire for beauty has fluctuated throughout the centuries, but has never totally abated.