Fine Art Painting
History, Styles, Movements, Famous Painters in Oils & Watercolours.

Fine Art Painting

During the Renaissance, the art of painting, (colorito in Italian) was considered secondary to the art of drawing (disegno): for example, fine arts classes at the Academies were exclusively devoted to draftsmanship and rarely dealt with the use of colour pigment. To learn how to paint, most students had to join a studio or 'atelier' of an established painter. Not until 1863 did oil painting become part of the curriculum of the French Academy, the Ecole des Beaux-Arts.

Types of Painting

The basic types of paint vary according to how pigment is mixed with water.

They include: (1) encaustic painting (uses wax as a binding medium), a common method in Egyptian, Greek and Byzantine panel-painting; (2) tempera painting (egg yolks), a popular method for fresco work; (3) oil-painting (dry pigments with refined vegetable oil), the universal medium from the 16th century onwards; (4) watercolour painting (with gum arabic to bind pigments), which was practised by Albrecht Durer in the early sixteenth century but later became highly fashionable in England during the 19th century; (5) gouache (like watercolour but with added chalk); (6) ink and wash (uses ground carbon mixed with water), the favoured method of Chinese painting; and (7) acrylic painting (uses synthetic resin material) developed in the 1940s.

Of these painting methods, the most widely used is still oils; not only because oil paint gives an unmatched richness and depth of colour, but also because it can be built up in a series of layers, or even applied extra thickly - a process known as impasto. In addition, due to its longer drying time, artists can work on the canvas for weeks if not months to perfect its appearance.

History and Styles of Painting

The history of art has witnessed an increasingly wide range of painting styles or movements. Beginning with pre-historic cave painting (eg. in the Altamira, Chauvet and Lascaux caves), it encompasses the styles of ancient Egypt, Minoan, Mycenean and Etruscan art, and the classical style of Greek art. After centuries of stagnation, the late 14th century witnessed the pre-Renaissance masterpieces of Giotto, followed by the Early Renaissance; the 16th century saw the High Renaissance and Mannerism; the 17th century was the era of Baroque and Dutch Realism; the 18th century (settecento) introduced Rococo, Neo-Classicism and Romanticism; the 19th century was the age of Realism, Impressionism, Post-Impressionism and Fauvism; while the 20th century introduced Expressionism, Cubism, Surrealism, Dada, Abstract Expressionism, Pop Art as well as numerous abstract art styles and graffiti street painting.

Painting Genres

Pictures are traditionally classified according to subject into five basic genres (types of painting). These were ranked by the arts academy authorities as follows: (1) history painting; (2) portrait art; (3) genre-painting of everyday life; (4) landscape; and (5) still life. This hierarchy was established during the Italian Renaissance and annunciated in 1669 by Felibien, secretary to the prestigious French Academy of Fine Arts. The rationale behind this hierarchy reflected the importance placed upon a painting's message - still life being considered to have the least potential for promoting an inspirational message. Also figure painting was considered a superior art form to the portrayal of landscapes and still lifes.

Famous Painters

Art auctioneers typically divide celebrated painters into three basic groups: Old Masters, meaning those who practised before the modern era (c.1300-1830) and whose reputations have stood the test of time; famous artists from the 19th century; and 20th century artists. Supreme exponents of the art of painting include:

Old Masters

Proto-Renaissance
Giotto di Bondone (1267-1337) (Fresco painter, new realistic style);
Jan van Eyck 1390-1441)(master of oils, portraiture);
Early Renaissance
Piero della Francesca (Italian, 1420-92) (Linear perspective pioneer);
Alessandro Botticelli (1445-1510) (Mythological history painting);
Leonardo da Vinci (Italian, 1452-1519) (All round genius);
Raphael (Italian, 1483-1520) (Child prodigy, painted Vatican apartments);
High Renaissance
Michelangelo Buonarroti (Italian, 1475-1564)(Genius sculptor, figure-painter);
Titian (Italian, c.1477-1576) (Venetian Colourist);
Northern Renaissance
Roger Van der Weyden (1400-1464) (Emotive religious art);
Hieronymous Bosch (Dutch, 1450-1516) (Moraliser and fantasy painter);
Albrecht Dürer (German, 1471-1528) (German master printmaker);
Lucas Cranach the Elder (German, 1472-1553) (Court portraitist);
Hans Holbein The Younger (Swiss, 1497-1543) (Portrait Painter);
Pieter Bruegel the Elder (Flemish, c.1525-1569) (Genre-artist);
Mannerist
Jacopo Tintoretto (Italian, 1518-1594) (Dramatic religious paintings);
El Greco (Domenikos Theotocopoulos) (Greek, 1541-1614) (Religious art);
Caravaggio (Italian, 1573-1610) (Innovative history painter);
Baroque
Peter Paul Rubens (Flemish, 1577-1640) (Master of Baroque portraits);
Nicolas Poussin (French, 1594-1665) (Master of Academic art style);
Diego Velázquez (Spanish, 1599-1660) Master of Portraiture);
Rembrandt van Rijn (Dutch, 1606-1669) (Chiaroscuro genius, portraitist);
Dutch Realists
Frans Snyders (Flemish, 1579-1657) (Baroque animal painter);
Jan Vermeer (1632-1675) (Greatest Dutch Realist genre-artist);
Still Life
Jean Chardin (French, 1699-1779) (one of the greatest still life artists);
Rococo
Jean-Antoine Watteau (1684-1721) (Noted for rococo landscapes)
Neo-Classicist
Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres (1780-1867) (Academic art specialist);
Francisco Goya (Spanish, 1746-1828) (history painter and portrait artist);
Jacques-Louis David (1748-1825) (classical history paintings).

Examples of Famous Modern Painters

Celebrated nineteenth century painters include the Romantic landscape artist JMW Turner (1775-1851), the Romantic history painter Eugene Delacroix (1798-63), the Realists Gustave Courbet (1819-77) and Jean-Francois Millet (1814-75), the modern artist Edouard Manet (1832-83), the Impressionists Claude Monet (1840-1926) and Edgar Degas (1834-1917), Neo-Impressionist and Pointillist Georges Seurat (1859-91), the Post-Impressionists Toulouse-Lautrec (1864-1901), Paul Gauguin (1848-1903), Vincent Van Gogh (1853-1890) and Paul Cezanne (1839-1906), and the Fauvist Henri Matisse (1869-1954). Master painters of the twentieth century include: the Expressionists Wassily Kandinsky (1866-1944), Edvard Munch (1863-1944), the German Expressionists Max Beckmann (1884-1950) and Ernst Ludwig Kirchner (1880-1938), the bohemian Amedeo Modigliani (1884-1920), the Cubists Georges Braque (1882-1963) Pablo Picasso (1881-1973), the Surrealist Salvador Dali (1904-89); the abstract painter Piet Mondrian (1872-1944) and the modern artists Jackson Pollock (1912-56), Mark Rothko (1903-70), Andy Warhol (1928-87), De Kooning (1904-97), and the Columbian fantasy artist Fernando Botero (b.1932).

Famous Irish Painters

Among the most celebrated exponents of Irish painting, are: James Barry (history painter), William Orpen (academic portraitist), Paul Henry (Romantic West of Ireland landscapes), Roderic O'Conor (Impressionist and colourist), Jack Butler Yeats (Expressionist), Walter Osborne (plein-air Impressionist), Francis Bacon (Surrealist figure painter), Louis Le Brocquy (semi-abstract artist), Sean Scully (abstract painter).

• For more information about classical painting and sculpture, see: Guide to Irish Fine Art.

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