The 100 most famous murals

A mural is an image designed for a wall, vault, dome or ceiling and designed with the architecture that receives it. Its size is not enough to define it: a very large easel painting remains a painting, while a more modest scene can be a mural if its format, framing and technique meet a specific location.

Fresco is just one technique among others. In buon fresco, pigments penetrate the still wet coating; dry painting occurs on an already prepared wall. Oil, tempera, encaustic and mounted canvas allow other color and recovery effects. The classification brings together these techniques without confusing them.

Architecture is a co-author. A window can separate two episodes, a dome imposes an ascending vision, a long wall transforms the reading into a journey and a chapel distributes the scenes according to the entrance, the altar and the light. The rectangular reproduction restores the image, but never entirely the situation of the body facing the decor.

Mural painting is also political and social. Grave, palace, church, town hall, university, library or museum define an audience, a commission and a function. Lorenzetti addresses his government to a city; Rivera and Orozco transform the modern wall into a collective narrative; Puvis and Sargent seek public memory for institutions.

Conservation poses particular problems. A panel can travel; a wall depends on its building. Humidity, earthquakes, war, whitewash, smoke, restoration and transfer modify the surface. Some works are still in situ, others have been detached and installed at the museum; the classification indicates their place of conservation or their original location.