Painting has been continuously practiced by humans for some 20,000 years. Together with other activities (31) ritualistic in origin but have come to be designated as artistic (such as music or dance), painting was one of the earliest ways in which man (32) to express his own personality and his (33) understanding of an existence. (34) music and dance, however, examples of early forms of painting have survived to the present day. The modern eye can derive aesthetic as well as antiquarian satisfaction (35) the 15,000-year-old cave murals of Lascaux--some examples (36) to the considerable powers of draftsmanship of these early artists. And painting, like other arts, exhibits universal qualities that (37) for viewers of all nations and civilizations. The major (38) examples of early painting anywhere are found in Western Europe. But long ago, the areas in which important paintings were executed (39) to the eastern Mediterranean Sea and neighboring regions. (40) , Western shared a European cultural tradition. Western painting is generally distinguished by its concentration (41) the representation of the human (42) , whether in the context of antiquity or the religious context of the early Christian. The Renaissance (43) this tradition through a (44) examination of the natural world and an investigation of balance in the visible world, linking painting (45) the developing sciences of anatomy. The First real (46) from figurative painting came with the growth of landscape painting. The landscape and figurative traditions developed together in an atmosphere that was increasingly (47) "painterly" qualities of the (48) of light and color. In the 20th century these Interests (49) to the development of a third major tradition in Western painting, abstract painting, which sought to (50) and express the true nature of paint and painting through action and form.