The Origin of Painting (also known as The Maid of Corinth) 1775

David Allan’s painting, based on Pliny the Elder’s account, depicts a young woman in Corinth who traces the shadow of her lover on a wall, using a piece of charcoal. Allan's painting is made with oil paint, a material prized for its versatility and luminosity since the early Renaissance, requiring extensive labor in pigment preparation and layering. The artist skillfully uses the medium to capture the subtleties of light and shadow, essential to this narrative about the birth of representation. The act of tracing, a fundamental technique in early art education, is elevated here to a profound moment of artistic creation. It is a method accessible to almost anyone, yet within the painting it signifies the start of a tradition that would later require academic training, the management of workshops, and the employment of assistants. Allan seems to consider how the everyday act of tracing a line becomes the foundation for the complex social structure of art.