What are the genres of painting

2024 Author: Leah Sherlock | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 05:25

Painting is one of the most ancient forms of art. It originated among prehistoric people who depicted hunting scenes and totem animals on the walls of caves. Over time, of course, more and more new stories appeared in it. But to distinguish between different genres of painting began relatively recently. It started in the 17th century.

Traditionally, the following genres in painting are distinguished: portrait, landscape, still life, historical genre, everyday genre, animalistics, fantastic painting, religious painting.

The portrait suggests that the central object in the picture is a person. Moreover, contrary to popular belief, it does not have to be an image of a face in the entire canvas. There are paintings in which the central person stands aside, or even those where the person is generally hardly guessed. But the main task of the portrait, in any case, remains the image of individuality and the transmission of character.

Initially, when landscape was included in the genres of painting, it was assumed that it should depict nature. In our time, this concept has become wider, and now they distinguish between the urban landscape, industriallandscape, seascape (marina), skyscape and so on. But most artists still prefer to depict the classical expanses of fields, forests, meadows and lakes, asserting the beauty and grandeur of the surrounding world.

Still life is an image of a staged composition of elements of inanimate nature. Like landscape, still life is sometimes subdivided into subgenres based on subject matter, but this is generally not accepted.

The historical genre of painting, as its name implies, depicts iconic scenes from history: coronations, battles (battle genre), etc. or important figures.

In the everyday genre, random events from people's daily lives occupy a central place. A meal, a meeting on the street, a torn shirt - all this can be the subject of such a picture.

Animal artists create images of animals. Moreover, the latter include absolutely all representatives of wildlife from bedbugs to whales. They are usually depicted naturally, without any metamorphosis.

Fantastic painting is an image of any supernatural beings or events. This genre also includes fantasy and surrealism. Fantasy painting scenes can take place in space, the world of the future, alternate universes, and other unnatural places. And the characters can be both ordinary people and fictional creatures.

Religious painting includes icons, frescoes and paintings depicting religiousstories. This genre was most widespread during the Renaissance, when Christian ideology dominated Europe, inspiring such masters as Raphael, Botticelli, da Vinci.

Despite their diversity, all genres of painting serve the same purpose - to celebrate beauty, external or internal, and to demonstrate the artist's view of the world. After all, since a person takes up a brush, it means that he has something to tell people. And the genres of painting are just different languages, from which he can choose any one that is most suitable for expressing his thoughts.