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Q. What is art?
There is no accepted definition or meaning of the term "art".
It involves concepts of beauty and aesthetics that are highly subjective
- both to individuals and different cultures. For a basic classification
of the different art forms, plus a discussion of the main issues, including
the importance of the Renaissance, aesthetics, the use of jargon in art-reviews,
and questions about abstract and traditional forms, see: Definition
and Meaning of Art.
Q. Where can
I find a glossary of art terms?
For a list of terminology in fine arts, see: Art
Glossary. For a list of terms used in oils, watercolours and acrylics,
see: Painting Glossary. For pigments,
see: Colour Glossary. For more about
the theory and practice of colourism, see: Colour
in Painting.
Q. When does "modern
art" begin?
There is no exact meaning or definition of the term "Modern Art."
Traditionally, it denotes the period between approximately 1860 and the
mid-to-late 1960s, during which artists rejected past Renaissance-based
traditions, in favour of new forms of artistic expression. For a more
comprehensive explanation, see: Modern Art: Types
& History.
Q. What is
"contemporary art"?
Although there is no universal definition of the term "contemporary
art", most art historians and critics use it to describe works produced
after the mid-to-late 1960s, although some disagreement persists as to
the exact cut-off date. Museums and auction houses like Sotheby's and
Christie's use the term to denote art produced after 1945. For more, see:
Contemporary Art: Types & History.
Q. What is
"avant-garde" art?
Avant-garde art means highly modernistic contemporary art. Derived from
the French word meaning "vanguard", the term originally expressed
the notion that innovation by progessive artists was beneficial for mainstream
art (which evolves more slowly). Very quickly, however, it was seen as
a means of undermining the arts establishment - a role it performs to
this day. See also: Damien Hirst:
Biography and Postmodernism.
Q. What is the
most valuable art in the world?
In general, the most valuable artworks
are owned by the major museums and galleries, such as the Louvre (Paris),
the Musee d'Orsay (Paris), the Uffizi Gallery (Florence), the Hermitage
(St Petersburg), the Tate Gallery (London) and the Pinakothek museums
in Munich, to name but a few. For a list of the most valuable paintings
sold at auction - at Christie's
or Sotheby's - or by private
treaty, see:
• Top 10 Most Expensive
Paintings
• Top 20 Most Expensive
Paintings
Q. Where can I find
a Timeline listing important dates in the history of art?
For a comprehensive listing of all major events in the evolution and development
of Western visual art, see: History
of Art Timeline.
Q. Where can
I find a Timeline for the history of prehistoric art?
For a chronological list of dates of art and culture during the Paleolithic,
Mesolithic, Neolithic, Bronze Age and Iron Age eras of the Stone Age,
see: Prehistoric Art Timeline.
Q. Where can I
find a list of the world's top art museums?
For a review of the most famous public galleries and museums in Europe,
USA, South America and Australia, covering antiquities, Old Master works,
modern, contemporary and avant-garde art, see: Art
Museums.
Q. Where
can I find a list of the world's best paintings?
For our list of the top 300 canvases in oils, watercolours, acrylics and
mixed media, by the best painters, from 1300 to the 21st century, see:
Greatest Paintings Ever.
Q.
Where can I find a list of the world's best sculptures?
For our list of the top 100 figurines, statuettes, statues and reliefs,
in stone, marble, bronze, wood, steel and contemporary media, by the best
3-D artists, see: Greatest Sculptures
Ever.
Where can
I find a list of the world's greatest sculptors?
For the top marble/stone sculptors, wood carvers and bronze artists, see:
Greatest Sculptors.
Q.
Who are the world's best artists of all time?
For a list of the Top 10 world's
greatest artists, including the greatest painter and sculptor ever, please
see: Best Artists of All Time:
Top 10.
Q. Who
are the best history painters?
For the great figures in narrative "istoria" painting, including
historical, allegorical, and mythological works, see: Best
History Painters: Top 10.
Q. Who
are the greatest portrait artists?
For a list of the finest exponents of portraiture, see: Best
Portrait Artists: Top 10.
Q. Who
are the finest still life painters?
For the ten greatest exponents of this type of painting, see: Best
Still Life Painters: Top 10.
Q. Who
are the 10 top landscape artists?
For a list of the greatest landscapes, see: Best
Landscape Artists: Top 10.
Q. Who are
the best genre-painters?
For the ten top artists, see: Best Genre
Painters: Top 10.
Q. What are the fine
arts?
Traditionally, the fine arts include drawing, painting, sculpture and
architecture. The term stems from the 18th century, when it was first
employed to distinguish between these 'higher' forms and the 'lower' forms
of applied or decorative arts.
Q. What are the
liberal arts?
This term derives from Renaissance times (and ultimately Classical Antiquity),
when a distinction was drawn between "art which was worthy of a free
man" ("homo liber" means free man in Latin), and other
"vulgar" arts ("vulga" means common people in Latin).
The first visual art disciplines to be deemed liberal arts (around 1500),
after much persuasion by Leonardo
Da Vinci and others, were painting and sculpture.
Q. What is
the meaning of "aesthetics"?
Aesthetics (or esthetics) - a term derived from the Greek word aisthesis,
meaning "perception" - is the branch of philosophy devoted to
the study of art and beauty. It seeks to provide answers to questions
such as: "what is art?", "what is the value of painting
or sculpture?", "how to assess a work of art?", "what
is the purpose of art (if any)?" and so on.
Q. What is folk art?
The term folk art essentially denotes "art made by the people",
as distinguished from elite or professional works which typically comprise
the main type of art in developed societies. It includes crafts, decorative
artworks, fabric designs, sculpture (commonly wood-based), wood block
prints, painting (though not usually fine art products), furniture, toys,
dolls and metalwork, to name but a few areas.
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Q. What is naive
art?
The term naive art is commonly used by critics and historians to describe
paintings produced by societies (or individual artists) lacking in conventional
representational skills. For instance, landscape paintings by the elderly
Tory Island painter James Dixon
(1887-1970), jungle scenes and the famous "Sleeping Gypsy" by
Henri Rousseau (1844-1910)
and marine works by Alfred Wallis (1855-1942) have been labelled as naive
art. In contradistinction, the terms "pseudo naïve", or
"faux naif" mean contrived naivity - as in works by sophisticated
artists that deliberately use primitive methods of composition and representation.
Q. What is primitive
art?
This term is sometimes used misleadingly as a synonym for naive art. More
accurately, primitive art denotes works produced in less civilized societies
- such as cave paintings from the Stone Age, wooden sculpture from Native-American
Indians, Aboriginal engravings, tribal African
art, and so on. See also: Ancient Art.
Q. What is Tribal
Art?
Tribal Art is a rather vague term which generally refers to traditional
arts and crafts created by indigenous natives belonging to tribal societies
of ancient origins. It commonly denotes tribal arts from the continent
of Africa, the South Pacific Island, Indonesia, Australia, the Americas
and Alaska. It is also known as Primitive Native Art. for more, see: Tribal
art.
Q. What is Oceanic
Art?
This term describes traditional arts and crafts created by indigenous
tribes or differing ethnic groups who live on islands in the Pacific Ocean.
Ethnologists typically separate Oceania into three different zones: Melanesia,
Micronesia and Polynesia. Oceanic art has strong associations with the
native cultures of South-East Asia. For more, see: Oceanic
art.
Q. What is
Renaissance Art?
The term Renaissance art commonly encompasses all art produced during
the period of the Italian and Northern Renaissance: in Italy, roughly
1400-1530; in Northern Europe, roughly 1450-1580. Some art historians
include 14th century Italian art - like the paintings produced by Giotto
(1270-1337) - others don't. For a comprehensive guide, see: Renaissance
Art.
Q. What is religious
art?
This is a vague popular term which refers to any architecture, painting,
sculpture, ceramics, stained glass, or illuminated texts (to name but
a few forms), with a religious content. Art movements with a particularly
high percentage of religious artworks, include: Gothic Art (associated
with the post-Dark Ages religious revival), Renaissance Art (the Church
of Rome), and Baroque Art (Catholic Counter-Reformation). For more, see:
History of Art.
Q. What is Islamic
art?
This is a general term for artworks created in regions that follow
the religion of Islam, usually by Muslim artists. Two of the greatest
Moslem art forms are: architecture and Qur'anic calligraphy. For more
details, see: Islamic Art. For a list of
the world's greatest library and museum collections, see: Museums
of Islamic Art.
Q. Where can
I find information about Celtic art?
For the origins, history and artworks by the Ancient Celts, see: Celtic
Art.
Q. What
are Celtic spirals?
They are a traditional design motif invented in Paleolithic times and
later adopted by artists among the Ancient Celts. For details, see: Celtic
Designs.
Q. What exactly
is "representational art"?
In sculpture or painting, the term "representational art" describes
pictures that are clearly recognizable, such as a human figure, a banana,
a car, a donkey and so on. These pictures need not be true to life - a
banana may be painted red, or a car might have 10-feet high wheels - but
they must be clearly recognizable as bananas or cars. In contrast, "non-representational"
or "abstract art" refers to images that have no clear identity,
and must therefore be "interpreted" by the spectator. For more,
see: Representational Art.
Q. What is "street
art"?
The term street art commonly refers to forms of 20th and 21st century
contemporary art produced, staged or performed in public places, such
as streets, parks or other similar urban spaces. Typically, it denotes
unofficial, even illicit, events or creations. Seen mainly in the United
States, popular forms include: wheatpasting and street poster art, stencil
graffiti, flash mobbing and street installations.
Q. What is Art
Nouveau?
Rooted in the 19th century Arts and Crafts Movement in Britain, Art Nouveau
was an elaborate design style in the decorative and applied arts, as well
as painting, drawing and illustration. It started in the 1890s, reached
its peak in 1905-6 and declined with the advent of World War I. For more,
see: Art Nouveau.
Q. What is Art Deco?
The term Art Deco refers to a fashionable style of design and interior
decoration during the 1920s and 1930s, influenced by the garish colours
of Fauvism, the geometry of Cubism and the machine-like forms of Constructivism.
The actual name wasn't coined until the 1960s. For more, see: Art
Deco.
Q. What was the
Bauhaus?
The Bauhaus was an avant-garde German art school founded in Weimar by
the architect Walter Gropius (1883-1969). For details, see: Bauhaus
Design School.
Q. What is Art Brut?
The term Art Brut was invented by the wine-merchant-turned-painter Jean
Dubuffet (1901-85), to refer to amateur works of art - created by psychotics
and other marginalised individuals - of which he was an avid collector.
Q. What is Outsider
Art?
This term was invented by art critic
Roger Cardinal in 1972 as an English translation of Art Brut. However,
Dubuffet's term is more specific, referring only to artworks created by
institutionalised patients, whereas Outsider Art (also known as "Visionary"
or Intuitive" art) also includes works by self-taught artists with
highly unconventional ideas, or complex fantasy worlds, unconnected with
the general art world. Very often, Outsider artists remain "undiscovered"
until they die.
Q. What is Art
Informel?
A French term meaning "formless art", which was invented by
the critic Michel Tapie in his 1952 book "An Autre Art", when
referring to the European equivalent of the American style of painting
known as Abstract Expressionism. For more, see: Art
Informel.
Q. What's the difference
between arts and crafts?
Craft is traditionally distinguished from art on account of the fact that
(supposedly) a craftsman can predict what he is going to create, whereas
an artist can't. Although this might be true for certain crafts (eg. candle-making,
chair-making, felt-making etc.), it is quite untrue for others (eg. ceramics).
For a discussion of this issue, plus lots more information about craftwork
in general, see: Crafts: History &
Types.
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Q. What is "animation"?
Animation (derived from the Latin word, "animare", to breathe
life into) is the art of making a film from a series of still drawings.
For more, see: Animation Art.
Q. What are
the main styles of architecture?
Early civilizations - like Egyptian, Sumerian, Minoan, Greek, Roman and
Byzantine - had their own unique styles of architecture. Thereafter, the
main architectural styles usually include Romanesque, Gothic, Renaissance,
Baroque, Rococo, and Neoclassical. In the 19th century, we see a number
of repeats of old styles, including: The Greek Revival and the Gothic
Revival, as well as a Neo-Renaissance and Neo-Romanesque Revival, plus
the Second Empire style (1850-80) in France. In the 20th Century, the
principal architectural schools and movements include: 1900-1920 Art Nouveau;
1900-1925 Early Modernism; 1900-1925 Continental Avant-Garde (De Stijl,
Neue Sachlichkeit); 1900-2000 Steel-frame Skyscraper Architecture; 1919-1933
Bauhaus (Walter Gropius); 1925-1940 Modernism and Art Deco; 1928-1940
Totalitarian Architecture (Germany, USSR); 1945-1970 Late Modernism; 1945-2000
High Tech Corporate Design Architecture; 1960-2000 Postmodernism; 1970-2000
Minimalism; 1980-2000 Deconstructivism; 1990-2000 Blobitecture. For more,
see: Architecture History, Movements
and Styles.
Q. What is
"assemblage"?
Assemblage is a type of 3-D art composed from everyday objects which are
typically 'found' by the artist (objets trouvés). For more, see:
Assemblage Art.
Q. What is
"calligraphy"?
Originating in China, calligraphy is the art of stylized writing, requiring
the correct formation of characters, the ordering of the various parts,
and general harmony of proportions. The two leading forms of calligraphy
derive from the Arabic and Oriental languages. For more, see: Calligraphy:
Styles and History.
Q. What's the
difference between ceramics and pottery?
In art, there is no difference between ceramics and pottery. Both involve
shaping, firing and glazing/decorating clay bodies. Pioneered by craftsmen
in China and ancient Greece, ceramic art is one of the most difficult
artforms to master. For a full explanation, see: Ceramic
Art. For details of classical ceramics, see: Greek
Pottery; for more about clay sculpture in China, see: Chinese
Pottery.
Q. What is "collage"?
The word "collage" denotes a composition of assorted materials
- usually things like newspaper clippings, photographs, pieces of textile
or fabric, and perhaps solid objects - affixed to a sheet of paper or
board or canvas. First used by Georges Braque and Pablo Picasso during
their synthetic Cubism
phase, Collage is also associated with Henri Matisse, as well as the modern
art styles of Dada, Surrealism,
Pop-Art and assemblage. For more,
see: Collage Art.
Q. What
is the meaning of "conceptual art"?
Conceptualism is a modern form of contemporary art which accords greater
priority to an idea presented by visual means, than the actual work itself.
Originating with Marcel Duchamp (1887-1968), the term was first used by
Edward Kienholz, in the late 1950s. For more, see: Conceptual
Art: Meaning and History.
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Q. What are the
main types of drawing media? Which artists were best at sketching?
In ancient Greece, artists used a metal stylus to draw on papyrus. During
the Renaissance period, the stylus was used with a variety of different
metallic alloys to create other dry media like metalpoint and silverpoint.
Apprentice artists typically used an empty stylus to practice drawing
by making easily removable indentations on wax tablets. Nowadays, draughtsmen
use charcoal, chalks, pastels, and pen and ink. Other alternatives are
wax or conte crayons, markers, graphite sticks, and various types of inked
pens. The world's best sketchers include such masters as Leonardo Da Vinci,
Michelangelo, Albrecht Durer, Rembrandt, Edgar Degas, Egon Schiele, and
David Hockney. For more,
see: Drawing Guide.
Q. What is figure
drawing?
The term "figure drawing" commonly refers to the Life class
taught in most academies and schools of fine art, during which students
draw a live model sitting in front of them. This classical instructional
method is seen as the best way to acquire the skill of drawing the human
body and mastering its line, shape and depth. Perhaps the single greatest
example of figurative drawing is the series of pictures created by Michelangelo
for the ceiling and wall of the Sistine Chapel in the Vatican. For more,
see: Figure Drawing.
Q. What is
Figurative Painting?
This term is commonly used to describe a general category of paintings
in which the human form is a dominant feature. The category includes:
portraiture, subject-paintings, "conversation pieces", and genre-pictures.
For a historical guide to figuration in England, see: English
School of Figurative Painting: 18th/19th Century.
Q. What does "disegno"
mean?
Derived from the Italian for fine art drawing, "disegno" also
includes the notion of "design". Very simply, it refers to the
entire intellectual process of composing and executing the drawing or
painting. In contrast, "colorito" refers to the less important
art of "colouring" or "painting". For more, see: Disegno.
Q. What is "graphic
art"?
The term 'graphic art' (from the German "Graphik", originating
from graphikos, the Greek for drawing) refers to those forms of visual
expression that depend for their effect on line and tone, rather than
colour. For more about graphics, see: Graphic
Art.
Q. In contemporary
art, what is a "happening"?
A happening is a type of "performance art", usually a carefully
planned entertainment during which the artist performs (or manages) a
theatrical artistic event. The difference between performance art, happenings
and theatre, is sometimes quite unclear, and can depend entirely on context.
For more, see: Performance and Happening.
Q. What is
"installation"?
Installations are a new genre of contemporary art. Typically, they incorporate
a range of 2-D and 3-D materials arranged so as to influence the way we
experience or perceive a particular space, and to provoke questions about
our attitude to aspects of life. For more, see: Installation
Art.
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Q. What is "environmental
or land art"?
Sometimes called "earthworks", this is a contemporary art form
which appeared in America during the 1960s, when a number of artists (like
Robert Smithson [1938-73]) - determined to heighten public awareness of
the natural world by intervening in the landscape. It was also seen as
a way to evade the commercialism of galleries and dealers. For more, see:
Land/Environmental Art.
Q. Is photography
considered to be an art?
Yes, photography is now regarded as a form of visual art, in which images
are captured on photographic film as an alternative to the traditional
2-D media of canvas, paper or board. Although it achieved this status
thanks to pioneering work by photographers like Ansel Adams, Henri Cartier-Bresson
and Man Ray, the medium is often employed as part of mixed-media compositions
in the area of assemblage, collage, and installation. See: Fine
Art Photography.
Q. What is "printmaking"?
The term "printmaking" refers to the replication of images onto
paper, parchment, fabric or other supports. The resulting prints, though
not 'original' in the sense of a fine art painting or drawing, are considered
nevertheless to be works of art in their own right. Forms of printmaking
include: woodcuts, engraving, etching, mezzotint, aquatint, drypoint,
lithography, screen-printing, digital prints and foil imaging. For more,
see: Printmaking: History, Types.
Q. What is "public
art"?
In effect, the term 'Public Art' describes all works of art purchased
with public funds, irrespective of where it is situated in the community,
or who sees it. Usually, however, the artwork is site-specific and is
commissioned by municipal authorities for public display. Examples include
"The Spike" in Dublin, designed by Ian Ritchie. Recently, a
number of European countries have introduced public art funding regulations
such as the Percent for Art Scheme. For more, see: Public
Art Guide.
Q. What are
the main types of sculpture?
Pre-dated only by cave painting, sculptures traditionally have been carved
or chiseled from a variety of natural materials, including animal bones,
clay, stone, wood, and precious metal. New tools and technology enabled
sculptors in China and ancient Greece to begin casting in bronze. Today,
contemporary artists use a huge range of materials, including: car-parts,
stainless steel, plastics, stained glass, foam rubber, concrete, sand
and ice. For more about the different sculptural media, plus details of
famous sculptors, see: Sculpture Guide.
Q. How is stained
glass made?
Coloured/stained glass is made by adding certain chemicals (eg. metallic
oxides) to the regular glass mixture of sand, limestone and sodium carbonate.
For example, the addition of copper gives blue and/or green, while lead
produces pale yellow. For details, see: Stained
Glass Materials and Methods. Stained glass reached its apogee during
the Gothic era of architecture, in French Cathedrals like Chartres and
Notre Dame de Paris. For more, see: Stained
Glass Art.
Q. What is "video
art"?
Like installation, with which it is often associated, this genre is another
new form of contemporary art, pioneered by the likes of Wolf Vostell,
Andy Warhol and Nam June Paik. Typically the video artist creates and
edits film sequences in order to convey social messages. For more, see:
Video Art and Artists.
Q. Where can
I find a list of the best art book publishers?
For a selected compilation of the top publishers, see: Best
Arts Books Publishers.
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Q. What is "encaustic
painting"?
A common painting method of the ancient world, used by painters in Egypt,
Greece, Rome and Byzantium, encaustic paint contains hot beeswax as a
binding medium to hold coloured pigments and to facilitate their application
to a surface, usually wood panels or walls. For more, see: Encaustic
Painting.
What is "fresco"?
The word Fresco (Italian for 'fresh') describes a form of painting in
which pigments are mixed solely with water (no binding agent used) and
then applied directly onto freshly laid lime-plaster ground (surface)
- usually a plastered ceiling or wall or ceiling. The liquid paint is
absorbed by the plaster and as the plaster dries the pigments are retained
in the wall. Frescoes were common throughout Classical Antiquity, especially
in Greece - although few remain - and in Southern Europe up to and including
the Renaissance. However, due to the damper climate of Northern Europe,
fresco art never gained the same popularity among Dutch or German artists.
Fot more, see: Fresco Painting.
What is "ink
and wash" painting?
The term ink and wash painting describes
an Oriental painting method, also called "brush painting," which
employs black ink, commonly applied with long-haired brushes onto paper
or silk. The work is then usually mounted on scrolls, which are hung or
rolled up. For more, see: Ink and
Wash Painting.
Q. What is "panel
painting"?
The term "panel painting" usually denotes a picture painted
on a single wooden panel (or a diptych [two panels] or triptych [three
panels]). It was the most popular type of portable painting media until
superceded by canvas in the fifteenth century. For more, please see: Panel-Paintings.
Q. What is tempera
painting?
Tempera (sometimes known as egg tempera) superceded the encaustic method,
and was itself superceded by oil paints. Derived from the Latin word temperare,
meaning 'to mix in proportion', tempera contains a binding agent composed
of a mixture of water, egg yolks or whole eggs. For more, see: Tempera
Painting.
Q. What are the advantages
of using oil paints?
Oil paint (typically a mixture of pigments and vegetable oils like linseed,
walnut, poppyseed) is used mainly for its flexibility and depth of colour.
It can be applied in many different ways, from thin glazes to thick impasto,
and being very slow to dry, artists can continue working oils for much
longer than other types of paint. Oils also produce greater richness and
tonal variety of colour. For more, see: Oil
Painting: History & Artists. For a review of the basic types of
painting, their history and examples of famous painters, see: Fine
Art Painting.
Q. What are
the benefits of using watercolours?
Watercolours are cheaper, easier (historically) to obtain, dry faster
and are easier to use than oils. Modern watercolour painting began with
Albrecht Dürer (1471-1528) and reached its apogee under Joseph Mallord
William Turner (1775-1851). Unfortunately, watercolour paint tends to
fade with time. For more, see: Watercolour
Painting.
Q. What sort of
painting method is gouache?
Gouache refers to a type of paint consisting of pigment combined (like
watercolour paints) with gum arabic. Unlike watercolours, however, gouache
contains chalk to make it opaque and more reflective. For more, see: Gouache
Painting.
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Q. What is "acrylic
paint"?
Acrylic paints emerged during the 1940s and have since been adopted by
many modern artists, in all painting genres. Unlike oils, acrylic paint
doesn't crack and it dries very quickly. And unlike watercolours it doesn't
fade. Furthermore, improvements in the quality and range of acrylic pigments
have improved the colour quality. Even so, oils remain superior in both
gloss and tonality. For more, see: Acrylic
Painting.
Q. Where
can I find a list of artist pigments, including lakes and glazes?
For a list of natural and synthetic artist-palette colours, see: Colour
Pigments, Types, History.
Q. What is "plein-air
painting"?
En plein air is a French term meaning "in the open air", so
plein air painting means working outdoors directly from nature. The tradition
started with the Romantics in the late 18th, early 19th century: an early
pioneer was John Constable
(1776-1837). The genre was developed by French artists at Barbizon, Grez-sur-Loing,
Pont-Aven, Louveciennes, St. Malo and Concarneau, and by Impressionists
like Claude Monet, Pierre Renoir and Camille Pissarro. For more, see:
Plein-air Painting.
Q. In painting,
what is perspective?
Perspective is a method of depicting three dimensions on a two-dimensional
surface, as in drawing or painting: viz, the process of creating "depth"
or background. Benefiting from the medieval study of optics, Renaissance
artists like Filippo Brunelleschi
(1377-1446) and Piero
della Francesca (1420-92) initiated a number of rules of perspective
governing recession and diminution in a picture. Most types of linear
perspective are based on the illusion of parallel lines at right angles
to the picture plane meeting at a "vanishing point" in the distance.
Q. What are genres?
The term "genres" is a fancy name for "types/subjects of
paintings". The main genres are: history painting, portraiture, everyday
scenes (confusingly called genre-paintings), landscape and still life.
For more, see: Painting Genres.
Q. What is meant
by the "Hierarchy of the Genres"?
This term refers to the ranking-system (based on traditions of Greek and
Roman art) adopted by the great European Academies, such as the Academy
of Art in Rome, the Academy of Art in Florence, the French Académie
des Beaux-Arts, and the Royal Academy in London. Devised in 1669, by the
art-expert Andre Felibien, Secretary to the French Academy, it ranked
the genres in the following order: (1) History Painting; (2) Portraits;
(3) Genre Painting; (4) Landscapes; (5) Still Life. For more information
and examples, see: Hierarchy
of the Genres.
Q. What
type of picture is a genre-painting?
Genre-paintings are smaller-scale pictures depicting scenes from everyday
life: a street scene, a tea party, a wedding feast, people going about
their normal business, and so on. A genre work must include people, thus
a street scene without people would be an urban landscape. A famous 20
century genre-painter is Edward
Hopper (1882-1967). For more, see Genre-Painting.
Q. What's the
difference between a landscape and a genre painting?
Some landscapes containing people are almost impossible to distinguish
from genre paintings. As a rule of thumb, if people are included in a
scenic view merely as "staffage" (accessories), and are in no
way integral to the picture, the work is a landscape. For more, see: Landscape
Painting.
Q. What is
portraiture?
Portraiture describes portrait paintings or drawings of people: commonly
executed as full-length, threequarter-length, head and shoulders, or head
and neck. Portraits were an important source of patronage for artists,
at least until the advent of photography. For more, see: Portrait
Art.
Q. What are still-life
paintings?
The term still-life commonly refers to a picture portraying an arrangement
of objects (usually flowers or kitchen utensils, but almost any object
may be included) laid out on a table. It derives from the Dutch word Stilleven,
employed from the mid-17th century onward, to describe paintings previously
called simply 'Fruit' or 'Flower Pieces', or 'Breakfast Pieces', Bancket
(banquet) or Pronkstilleven pieces, or, if with religious overtones
- Vanitas. For more, see: Still
Life Painting.
Q. What
is a history painting? Must it depict a historical scene?
The term "history painting" is rather misleading, as it does
not necessarily mean the painting of 'historical situations'. It actually
comes from the Italian word "istoria", meaning narrative - one
which typically involves several figures in action and emotionally engaged.
Thus any such scene from mythology, or literature, qualifies as a history
work. For more, see: History Painting.
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