Painting is perhaps the most ancient form of art. Even in the primitive era, our ancestors made images of people and animals on the walls of caves. These are the first examples of painting. Since then, this type of art has invariably remained a companion to human life. Examples of painting today are numerous and varied. We will try to cover this type of art as much as possible, talk about the main genres, styles, trends and techniques in it.
Painting techniques
Let's first look at the basic painting techniques. One of the most common is oil. This is a technique that uses oil-based paints. These paints are applied in strokes. With their help, you can create a variety of different shades, as well as convey the necessary images with maximum realism.
Tempera- another popular technique. We talk about it when emulsion paints are used. The binder in these paints is egg or water.
Gouache- a technique widely used in graphics. Gouache paint is made with an adhesive base. It can be used to work on cardboard, paper, bone or silk. The image is durable and the lines are crisp. Pastel- This is a technique of drawing with dry pencils, and the surface must be rough. And, of course, it’s worth mentioning watercolors. This paint is usually diluted with water. A soft and thin layer of paint is obtained using this technique. Particularly popular Of course, we have listed only the main techniques that are used most often in painting. There are others too.
What are paintings usually painted on? The most popular painting is on canvas. It is stretched onto a frame or glued to cardboard. Note that in the past, wooden planks were used quite often. Today, not only painting on canvas is popular; any other flat materials can be used to create images.
Types of painting
There are 2 main types of it: easel and monumental painting. The latter is related to architecture. This type includes painting the ceilings and walls of buildings, decorating them with images made from mosaics or other materials, stained glass windows, etc. Easel painting is not associated with a specific building. It can be moved from place to place. There are many varieties of easel painting (otherwise called genres). Let's look at them in more detail.
Genres of painting
The word "genre" is French in origin. It is translated as “genus”, “species”. That is, under the name of the genre there is some kind of content, and by pronouncing its name, we understand what the picture is about, what we will find in it: humans, nature, animals, objects, etc.
Portrait
The most ancient genre of painting is portraiture. This is an image of a person who resembles only himself and no one else. In other words, a portrait is an image in painting of an individual appearance, since each of us has an individual face. This genre of painting has its own varieties. The portrait can be full-length, bust-length, or only one face can be painted. Let us note that not every image of a person is a portrait, since an artist can create, for example, “a person in general” without copying him from anyone else. However, when he depicts a specific representative of the human race, he works specifically on a portrait. Needless to say, there are numerous examples of painting in this genre. But the portrait presented below is known to almost every resident of our country. We are talking about the image of A. S. Pushkin, created in 1827 by Kiprensky.
You can also add a self-portrait to this genre. In this case, the artist depicts himself. There is a couple portrait, when the picture shows people in pairs; and a group portrait, when a group of people is depicted. One can also note the ceremonial portrait, a type of which is equestrian, one of the most solemn. It was very popular in the past, but such works are rare now. However, the next genre we will talk about is relevant at any time. What are we talking about? This can be guessed by going through the genres that we have not yet named when characterizing painting. Still life is one of them. This is what we will talk about now, continuing to look at painting.
Still life
This word is also of French origin, it means “dead nature,” although the meaning would be more accurate “inanimate nature.” Still life is an image of inanimate objects. They are very diverse. Let us note that still lifes can also depict “living nature”: butterflies quiet on the petals, beautiful flowers, birds, and sometimes you can see a person among the gifts of nature. However, this will still be a still life, since the image of a living thing is not the most important thing for the artist in this case.
Scenery
Landscape is another French word that means "view of the country." It is similar to the German concept of "landscape". Landscape is an image of nature in its diversity. The following varieties join this genre: architectural landscape and the very popular seascape, which is often called one word “marina”, and the artists working in it are called marine painters. Numerous examples of painting in the seascape genre can be found in the works of I.K. Aivazovsky. One of them is "Rainbow" from 1873.
This painting is done in oil and is difficult to execute. But creating landscapes in watercolor is not at all difficult, so in school drawing lessons this task was given to each of us.
Animalistic genre
The next genre is animalistic. Everything is simple here - this is an image of birds and animals in nature, in their natural environment.
Everyday genre
The everyday genre is a depiction of scenes from life, everyday life, funny “incidents”, home life and stories of ordinary people in an ordinary environment. Or you can do without stories - just capture everyday activities and affairs. Such paintings are sometimes called genre painting. As an example, let’s take Van Gogh’s work “The Potato Eaters” (1885) presented above.
Historical genre
The themes of painting are varied, but the historical genre stands out separately. This is a depiction of historical heroes and events. The battle genre is adjacent to it; it presents episodes of war and battle.
Religious and mythological genre
In the mythological genre, works of painting are written on the themes of ancient and ancient tales about gods and heroes. It should be noted that the image is of a secular nature, and in this way it differs from the images of deities presented on the icon. By the way, religious painting is not only about icons. It brings together various works written on religious subjects.
Clash of genres
The richer the content of a genre, the more its “companions” appear. Genres can merge, so there is painting that cannot be placed within the framework of any of them. In art there is both general (techniques, genres, styles) and individual (a specific work taken separately). A separate picture also contains something in common. Therefore, many artists may have the same genre, but the paintings painted in it are never similar. The culture of painting has such features.
Style
Style is an aspect of the visual perception of paintings. It can combine the works of one artist or the works of artists of a certain period, movement, school, or locality.
Academic painting and realism
Academic painting is a special direction, the formation of which is associated with the activities of European art academies. It appeared in the 16th century at the Bologna Academy, whose people sought to imitate the masters of the Renaissance. Since the 16th century, methods of teaching painting began to be based on strict adherence to rules and regulations, following formal patterns. art in Paris was considered one of the most influential in Europe. She promoted the aesthetics of classicism that dominated France in the 17th century. Paris Academy? Having contributed to the systematization of education, it gradually turned the rules of the classical direction into dogma. Thus, academic painting became a special direction. In the 19th century, some of the most prominent manifestations of academicism were the works of J. L. Jerome, Alexandre Cabannel, and J. Ingres. The classical canons were replaced by realistic ones only at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries. It was realism that became the basic method of teaching in academies at the beginning of the 20th century and turned into a dogmatic system.
Baroque
Baroque is a style and era of art characterized by aristocracy, contrast, dynamic images, simple details when depicting abundance, tension, drama, luxury, a fusion of reality and illusion. This style appeared in Italy in 1600 and spread throughout Europe. Caravaggio and Rubens are its most prominent representatives. Baroque is often compared to expressionism, however, unlike the latter, it does not have too repulsive effects. Paintings of this style today are characterized by the complexity of lines and an abundance of ornaments.
Cubism
Cubism is an avant-garde art movement that emerged in the 20th century. Its creator is Pablo Picasso. Cubism made a real revolution in sculpture and painting in Europe, inspiring the creation of similar movements in architecture, literature, and music. Art painting in this style is characterized by recombined, broken objects that have an abstract form. When depicting them, many points of view are used.
Expressionism
Expressionism is another important movement of modern art that appeared in Germany in the first half of the 20th century. At first it covered only poetry and painting, and then spread to other areas of art.
Expressionists depict the world subjectively, distorting reality to create greater emotional effect. Their goal is to make the viewer think. Expression in expressionism prevails over image. It can be noted that many works are characterized by motifs of torment, pain, suffering, screaming (the work by Edvard Munch, presented above, is called “The Scream”). Expressionist artists are not at all interested in material reality; their paintings are filled with deep meaning and emotional experiences.
Impressionism
Impressionism is a style of painting aimed primarily at working in the plein air (open air), rather than in the studio. It owes its name to the painting “Impression, Sunrise” by Claude Monet, which is shown in the photo below.
The word "impression" in English is impression. Impressionistic paintings primarily convey the artist’s sense of light. The main features of painting in this style are the following: barely visible, thin strokes; changes in lighting, accurately conveyed (attention is often focused on the effect of the passage of time); open composition; simple common goal; movement as a key element of human experience and perception. The most prominent representatives of such a movement as impressionism are Edgar Degas, Claude Monet, Pierre Renoir.
Modernism
The next direction is modernism, which originated as a set of trends in various fields of art in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The Parisian "Salon of the Rejected" was opened in 1863. Artists whose paintings were not allowed into the official salon exhibited here. This date can be considered the date of the emergence of modernism as a separate movement in art. Otherwise, modernism is sometimes called “another art.” His goal is to create unique paintings, unlike others. The main feature of the works is the author’s special vision of the world.
Artists in their work rebelled against the values of realism. Self-awareness is a striking characteristic of this direction. This often leads to experimentation with form, as well as a penchant for abstraction. Representatives of modernism pay special attention to the materials used and the work process. Some of its most prominent representatives are considered to be Henry Matisse (his work “The Red Room” of 1908 is presented above) and Pablo Picasso.
Neoclassicism
Neoclassicism was the main direction of painting in Northern Europe from the mid-18th century to the end of the 19th. It is characterized by a return to the features of the ancient Renaissance and even the times of classicism. In architectural, artistic and cultural terms, neoclassicism emerged as a response to Rococo, which was perceived as a shallow and pretentious style of art. Neoclassical artists, thanks to their good knowledge of church laws, tried to introduce canons into their works. However, they avoided simply reproducing classical motifs and themes. Neoclassical artists tried to place their paintings within the framework of tradition and thus demonstrate their mastery of the genre. Neoclassicism in this regard is directly opposed to modernism, where improvisation and self-expression are considered virtues. Its most famous representatives include Nicolas Poussin and Raphael.
Pop Art
The last direction we will consider is pop art. It appeared in Britain in the mid-50s of the last century, and in the late 50s in America. Pop art is believed to have originated as a reaction to the ideas of abstract expressionism that were dominant at the time. Speaking about this direction, it is impossible not to mention In 2009, “Eight Elvises,” one of his paintings, was sold for $100 million.
Genres of painting appeared, gained popularity, faded away, new ones emerged, and subtypes began to be distinguished within existing ones. This process will not stop as long as a person exists and tries to capture the world around him, be it nature, buildings or other people.
Previously (until the 19th century), there was a division of painting genres into the so-called “high” genres (French grand genre) and “low” genres (French petit genre). This division arose in the 17th century. and was based on what subject and plot were depicted. In this regard, the high genres included: battle, allegorical, religious and mythological, and the low genres included portrait, landscape, still life, animalism.
The division into genres is quite arbitrary, because elements of two or more genres may be present in a painting at the same time.
Animalism, or animalistic genre
Animalism, or animalistic genre (from the Latin animal - animal) is a genre in which the main motif is the image of an animal. We can say that this is one of the most ancient genres, because... drawings and figures of birds and animals were present in the life of primitive people. For example, in the well-known painting by I.I. Shishkin’s “Morning in a Pine Forest”, nature is depicted by the artist himself, and the bears are depicted by a completely different artist, who specializes in depicting animals.
I.I. Shishkin “Morning in a pine forest” How can a subspecies be distinguished? Hippic genre(from the Greek hippos - horse) - a genre in which the center of the picture is the image of a horse.
NOT. Sverchkov “Horse in the stable” Portrait
Portrait (from the French word portrait) is a picture in which the central image is of a person or group of people. A portrait conveys not only external resemblance, but also reflects the inner world and conveys the artist’s feelings towards the person whose portrait he is painting.
I.E. Repin Portrait of Nicholas II The portrait genre is divided into individual(image of one person), group(image of several people), by the nature of the image - to the front door when a person is depicted in full growth against a prominent architectural or landscape background and chamber, when a person is depicted chest- or waist-deep against a neutral background. A group of portraits, united according to some characteristic, forms an ensemble, or a portrait gallery. An example would be portraits of members of the royal family.
Stands out separately self-portrait, in which the artist depicts himself.
K. Bryullov Self-portrait Portrait is one of the oldest genres - the first portraits (sculptural) were already present in ancient Egypt. Such a portrait acted as part of a cult about the afterlife and was a “double” of a person.
Scenery
Landscape (from the French paysage - country, area) is a genre in which the central image is the image of nature - rivers, forests, fields, sea, mountains. In a landscape, the main point is, of course, the plot, but it is no less important to convey the movement and life of the surrounding nature. On the one hand, nature is beautiful and arouses admiration, but on the other hand, it is quite difficult to reflect this in a picture.
C. Monet “Field of poppies at Argenteuil” A subspecies of landscape is seascape or marina(from French marine, Italian marina, from Latin marinus - sea) - an image of a naval battle, the sea or other events unfolding at sea. A prominent representative of marine painters is K.A. Aivazovsky. It is noteworthy that the artist wrote many of the details of this painting from memory.
I.I. Aivazovsky "The Ninth Wave" However, artists often strive to paint the sea from life, for example, W. Turner for his painting “Blizzard. The steamer at the entrance to the harbor gives a distress signal after getting into shallow water,” spent 4 hours tied to the captain’s bridge of a ship sailing in a storm.
W. Turner “Blizzard. A steamer at the entrance to the harbor gives a distress signal after getting into shallow water." The water element is also depicted in a river landscape.
Separately allocate cityscape, in which the main subject of the image is city streets and buildings. A type of urban landscape is Veduta– an image of a city landscape in the form of a panorama, where the scale and proportions are certainly maintained.
A. Canaletto “Piazza San Marco”There are other types of landscape - rural, industrial and architectural. In architectural painting, the main theme is the image of the architectural landscape, i.e. buildings, structures; includes images of interiors (interior decoration of premises). Sometimes Interior(from the French intérieur - internal) is distinguished as a separate genre. Another genre is distinguished in architectural painting — Capriccio(from Italian capriccio, whim, whim) - architectural fantasy landscape.
Still life
Still life (from the French nature morte - dead nature) is a genre dedicated to the depiction of inanimate objects that are placed in a common environment and form a group. Still life appeared in the 15-16th centuries, but as a separate genre it emerged in the 17th century.
Despite the fact that the word “still life” is translated as dead nature, in the paintings there are bouquets of flowers, fruits, fish, game, dishes - everything looks “like living”, i.e. like the real thing. From the moment of its appearance to this day, still life has been an important genre in painting.
K. Monet “Vase with Flowers” As a separate subspecies we can distinguish Vanitas(from Latin Vanitas - vanity, vanity) is a genre of painting in which the central place in the picture is occupied by a human skull, the image of which is intended to remind of the vanity and frailty of human life.
The painting by F. de Champagne presents three symbols of the frailty of existence - Life, Death, Time through the images of a tulip, a skull, an hourglass.
Historical genre
Historical genre is a genre in which the paintings depict important events and socially significant phenomena of the past or present. It is noteworthy that the picture can be dedicated not only to real events, but also to events from mythology or, for example, described in the Bible. This genre is very important for history, both for the history of individual peoples and states, and for humanity as a whole. In paintings, the historical genre is inseparable from other types of genres - portrait, landscape, battle genre.
I.E. Repin “The Cossacks write a letter to the Turkish Sultan” 
K. Bryullov “The Last Day of Pompeii” Battle genre
The battle genre (from the French bataille - battle) is a genre in which the paintings depict the culmination of a battle, military operations, a moment of victory, scenes from military life. Battle painting is characterized by the depiction of a large number of people in the picture.
A.A. Deineka "Defense of Sevastopol" Religious genre
A religious genre is a genre in which the main storyline in the paintings is biblical (scenes from the Bible and the Gospel). The theme relates to religious and icon painting, the difference between them is that paintings of religious content do not participate in religious services, and for the icon this is the main purpose. Iconography translated from Greek. means "prayer image". This genre was limited by the strict framework and laws of painting, because is intended not to reflect reality, but to convey the idea of God's principle, in which artists are looking for an ideal. In Rus', icon painting reaches its peak in the 12th-16th centuries. The most famous names of icon painters are Theophanes the Greek (frescoes), Andrei Rublev, Dionysius.
A. Rublev “Trinity” How the transitional stage from icon painting to portrait stands out Parsuna(distorted from Latin persona - person, person).
Parsun of Ivan the Terrible. author unknown Everyday genre
The paintings depict scenes of everyday life. Often the artist writes about those moments in life of which he is a contemporary. The distinctive features of this genre are the realism of the paintings and the simplicity of the plot. The picture can reflect the customs, traditions, and structure of everyday life of a particular people.
Household painting includes such famous paintings as “Barge Haulers on the Volga” by I. Repin, “Troika” by V. Perov, “Unequal Marriage” by V. Pukirev.
I. Repin “Barge Haulers on the Volga” Epic-mythological genre
Epic-mythological genre. The word myth comes from the Greek. "mythos", which means tradition. The paintings depict the events of legends, epics, traditions, ancient Greek myths, ancient tales, plots of works of folklore.
P. Veronese "Apollo and Marsyas" Allegorical genre
Allegorical genre (from the Greek allegoria - allegory). Paintings are painted in such a way that they have a hidden meaning. Insubstantial ideas and concepts, invisible to the eye (power, good, evil, love), are conveyed through the images of animals, people, and other living beings with such inherent characteristics that have symbolism already fixed in the minds of people and help to understand the general meaning of the work.
L. Giordano “Love and vices disarm justice” Pastoral (from the French pastorale - pastoral, rural)
A genre of painting that glorifies and poetizes simple and peaceful rural life.
F. Boucher “Autumn Pastoral” Caricature (from Italian caricare - to exaggerate)
A genre in which, when creating an image, a comic effect is deliberately used by exaggerating and sharpening features, behavior, clothing, etc. The purpose of caricature is to offend, in contrast, for example, to caricature (from the French charge), the purpose of which is simply to make fun. Closely related to the term “caricature” are such concepts as popular print and grotesque.
Nude (from the French nu - naked, undressed)
The genre in which paintings depict the naked human body is most often female.
Titian Vecellio "Venus of Urbino" False, or trompe l'oeil (from French. trompe-l'œil - optical illusion)
A genre whose characteristic features are special techniques that create an optical illusion and make it possible to erase the line between reality and image, i.e. the misleading impression that an object is three-dimensional when it is two-dimensional. Sometimes blende is distinguished as a subtype of still life, but sometimes people are also depicted in this genre.
Per Borrell del Caso "Running from Criticism" To complete the perception of decoys, it is advisable to consider them in the original, because reproduction is unable to fully convey the effect that the artist depicted.
Jacopo de Barberi "The Partridge and the Iron Gloves" Thematic picture
A mixture of traditional genres of painting (domestic, historical, battle, landscape, etc.). In another way, this genre is called a figurative composition, its characteristic features are: the main role is played by a person, the presence of action and a socially significant idea, relationships (conflicts of interests/characters) and psychological accents are necessarily shown.
V. Surikov “Boyaryna Morozova” Painting
(from Russian: live and write) - a type of fine art that consists of creating paintings, paintings that most fully and life-like reflect reality.
A work of art made with paints (oil, tempera, watercolor, gouache, etc.) applied to any hard surface is called painting. The main expressive means of painting is color, its ability to evoke various feelings and associations enhances the emotionality of the image. The artist usually draws up the color required for painting on a palette, and then turns the paint into color on the painting plane, creating a color order - coloring. According to the nature of color combinations, it can be warm and cold, cheerful and sad, calm and tense, light and dark.
The images in the painting are very visual and convincing. Painting is capable of conveying volume and space, nature on a plane, revealing the complex world of human feelings and characters, embodying universal ideas, events of the historical past, mythological images and flights of fancy.
Painting is divided into easel and monumental. The artist paints on canvas stretched on a stretcher and mounted on an easel, which can also be called a machine. Hence the name “easel painting”.
And the word “monumental” itself speaks of something big and significant. Monumental painting is large paintings on the internal or external walls of buildings (frescoes, panels, etc.). A work of monumental painting cannot be separated from its base (wall, support, ceiling, etc.). The themes chosen for monumental paintings are also significant: historical events, heroic deeds, folk tales, etc. Directly related to monumental painting are mosaics and stained glass, which can also be classified as decorative art. What is important here is the achievement of stylistic and figurative unity of monumental painting and architecture, a synthesis of the arts.
It is necessary to distinguish between such types of painting as decorative painting, icon painting, miniature painting, and theatrical and decorative painting. Each type of painting is distinguished by its specific technical execution and solution of artistic and figurative problems.
Unlike painting as an independent type of fine art, the pictorial approach (method) can be used in its other types: in drawing, graphics and even in sculpture. The essence of the pictorial approach lies in depicting an object in relationship with the surrounding spatial light-air environment, in a subtle gradation of tonal transitions.
The variety of objects and events of the surrounding world, the keen interest of artists in them led to the emergence during the 17th-20th centuries. genres of painting: portrait, still life, landscape, animalistic, everyday (genre painting), mythological, historical, battle genres. In works of art there may be a combination of genres or their elements. For example, a still life or landscape can successfully complement a portrait image.
According to the technical techniques and materials used, painting can be divided into the following types: oil, tempera, wax (encaustic), enamel, glue, water paints on wet plaster (fresco), etc. In some cases, it is difficult to separate painting from graphics. Works made in watercolor, gouache, and pastel can relate to both painting and graphics.
Painting can be single-layer, done immediately, or multi-layer, including underpainting and glazing, transparent and translucent layers of paint applied to the dried paint layer. This achieves the finest nuances and shades of color.
Important means of artistic expression in painting are, in addition to color [color], the spot and character of the stroke, the treatment of the paint surface (texture), valers showing subtle changes in tone depending on the lighting, reflexes that appear from the interaction of adjacent colors.
The construction of volume and space in painting is associated with linear and airy perspective, spatial properties of warm and cold colors, light and shadow modeling of form, and the transfer of the overall color tone of the canvas. To create a picture, in addition to color, you need a good drawing and an expressive composition. The artist, as a rule, begins work on the canvas by searching for the most successful solution in sketches. Then, in numerous pictorial studies from life, he works out the necessary elements of the composition. Work on a painting can begin with drawing the composition with a brush, underpainting and directly painting the canvas using one or another pictorial means. Moreover, even preparatory sketches and sketches sometimes have independent artistic significance, especially if they belong to the brushes of a famous painter.
Painting is a very ancient art, which has evolved over many centuries from Paleolithic rock paintings to the latest trends in 20th century painting. Painting has a wide range of possibilities for realizing ideas from realism to abstractionism. Enormous spiritual treasures have been accumulated in the course of its development.
In ancient times, a desire arose to reproduce the real world as a person sees it. This caused the emergence of the principles of chiaroscuro, elements of perspective, and the emergence of volumetric-spatial pictorial images. New thematic possibilities for depicting reality through pictorial means have opened up. Painting served to decorate temples, dwellings, tombs and other structures, and was in artistic unity with architecture and sculpture.
Medieval painting was predominantly of religious content. It was distinguished by the expression of sonorous, mainly local colors, and expressiveness of contours.
The background of frescoes and paintings, as a rule, was conventional, abstract or golden, embodying the divine idea in its mysterious flickering. The symbolism of color played a significant role.
During the Renaissance, there was a sense of the harmony of the universe, anthropocentrism (man is at the center of the mixing of pure colors, and the effects of texture transfer. Artists went out to paint their paintings in the open air.
At the end of the XIX-XX centuries. the development of painting becomes especially complex and contradictory. Various realistic and modernist movements are gaining their right to exist.
Abstract painting appeared (see avant-garde, abstract art, underground), which marked the rejection of figurativeness and the active expression of the artist’s personal attitude to the world, emotionality and conventionality of color, exaggeration and geometrization of forms, decorativeness and associativity of compositional solutions.
In the 20th century The search for new colors and technical means of creating paintings continues, which will undoubtedly lead to the emergence of new styles in painting, but oil painting still remains one of the most favorite techniques of artists.
The process of development of European painting in the 17th - 18th centuries. becomes more complex, national schools emerge, each with its own traditions and characteristics. Painting proclaimed new social and civil ideals, psychological problems deepened, and the feeling of conflicting relationships between the individual and the surrounding world. Appeal to the diversity of real life, especially to the everyday environment of a person, led to the clear formation of a system of genres: landscape, still life, portrait, everyday genre, etc. Various painting systems were formed: dynamic Baroque painting with its characteristic open, spiral composition; Rococo painting with a play of exquisite nuances of color and light tones; painting of classicism with a clear, strict and clear design.
In the 19th century painting played an active role in public life. Romanticism painting was distinguished by an active interest in the dramatic events of history and modernity, the contrast of light and shadow, and the richness of color.
Sculpture and symphony, painting and story, film and palace, performance and dance - all these are works of various types of art.
Arts are classified according to different criteria. Fine Arts show external reality in artistic images, non-fine arts express the inner world. Non-fine arts: music, dance and literature, as well as architecture. There are also mixed (synthetic) types of arts: cinema, theater, ballet, circus, etc.
Within each art form there are divisions called genres in accordance with the themes and objects of the image. This is what we will talk to you about today.
Kinds of art
Fine arts
Painting
Perhaps this is one of the most widespread forms of art. The very first works of painting date back to ancient times; they were discovered on the walls of caves of ancient people.
Monumental painting, which developed in the form of mosaics And frescoes(painting on wet plaster).
St Nicholas. Fresco of Dionysius. Ferapontov Monastery
Easel painting– these are paintings of different genres, painted on canvas (cardboard, paper) most often with oil paints.
Genres of painting
In modern painting there are the following genres: portrait, historical, mythological, battle, everyday, landscape, still life, animalistic genre.
Portrait genre reflects the external and internal appearance of a person or group of people. This genre is widespread not only in painting, but also in sculpture, graphics, etc. The main task of the portrait genre is to convey external resemblance and reveal the inner world, the essence of a person’s character.
I. Kramskoy “Portrait of Sofia Ivanovna Kramskoy”
Historical genre(depiction of historical events and characters). Of course, genres in painting are often intertwined, because... when depicting, for example, some historical event, the artist has to turn to the portrait genre, etc.
Mythological genre– illustration of myths and legends of different peoples.
S. Botticelli “Birth of Venus”
Battle genre- an image of battles, military exploits, military operations, glorifying battles, the triumph of victory. The battle genre can also include elements of other genres - domestic, portrait, landscape, animal, still life.
V. Vasnetsov “After the massacre of Igor Svyatoslavich with the Polovtsians”
Everyday genre– depiction of scenes from a person’s everyday, personal life.
A. Venetsianov “On the arable land”
Scenery– depiction of nature, the environment, views of the countryside, cities, historical monuments, etc.
And Savrasov “The rooks have arrived”
Marina- seascape.
Still life(translated from French - “dead nature”) - an image of household items, labor, creativity, flowers, fruits, dead game, caught fish, placed in a real everyday environment.
Animalistic genre– image of animals.
Graphic arts
The name of this type of fine art comes from the Greek word grapho - I write, I draw.
Graphics include primarily drawings and engravings, in which the design is created mainly using a line on a sheet of paper or a cutter on a solid material, from which the image is imprinted onto a sheet of paper.
Types of graphics
Engraving- a design is applied to the flat surface of the material, which is then covered with paint and stamped on paper. The number of impressions varies depending on the engraving technique and material. The main materials for engraving are metal (copper, zinc, steel), wood (boxwood, palm, pear, cherry, etc.), linoleum, cardboard, plastic, plexiglass. The engraving board is processed by mechanical means, steel tools or acid etching.
Printmaking– a print from an engraving board (engraving, lithography, silk-screen printing, monotype), which is an easel work of artistic graphics. The print is printed from a board that the artist himself engraved; often he also makes the impressions. Such works are usually signed, author's copies and are considered originals. Prints are available in black and white and color.
Book graphics- design of the book, its decorative design, illustrations.
Industrial graphics – creation of product labels, brand names, publishing marks, packaging, advertising publications, forms and envelopes. It comes into contact with advertising and is included in the design system.
Bookplate- a sign indicating the owner of the book. The bookplate is attached to the inside of a book binding or cover. Book characters are engraved on wood, copper, linoleum, zincographic or lithographic methods.
Bookplate of Greta Garbo
Poster- an image designed for general attention, created for propaganda or educational purposes.
Linocut- engraving on linoleum.
Lithography– type of engraving: drawing a picture on a stone and making an impression from it.
Woodcut– wood engraving.
Katsushika Hokusai "The Great Wave off Kanagawa", woodcut
Etching– type of engraving on metal, engraving method and impression obtained by this method.
Computer graphics– images are compiled on a computer and shown dynamically or statically. When creating this type of graphics, it is possible to see how the image is formed at all stages and make unlimited adjustments.
Sculpture
This type of art also originated in ancient times. Many images of animals sculpted from clay or carved from stone have been found, quite accurately conveying their appearance. Many female figurines have been preserved that embody the powerful feminine principle. Perhaps these are primitive images of goddesses. Ancient sculptors exaggerated their fertile powers, depicting them with powerful hips, and archaeologists call them “Venuses.”
Venus of Willendorf, about 23 thousand years BC. e., Central Europe
Sculpture is divided into round, freely placed in space, and relief, in which three-dimensional images are located on a plane.
As in painting, in sculpture there are easel and monumental forms. Monumental sculpture designed for streets and squares, such a monument is created for a long time, so it is usually made of bronze, marble, granite. Easel sculpture– these are portraits or small genre groups made of wood, plaster and other materials.
Monument to the postman. Nizhny Novgorod
Arts and crafts
The creators of works of decorative and applied art set themselves two goals: to create a thing that is necessary for everyday life, but this thing at the same time must have certain artistic qualities. Everyday objects should not only serve a person practically, but also decorate life, delight the eye with the perfection of shapes and colors.
Of course, now many works of decorative and applied art have mainly aesthetic significance, but this was not always the case.
Main types of decorative and applied arts
Batik– hand painting on fabric
Work using the hot batik technique (using wax)
Beading
Embroidery
Knitting
Lace making
Carpet weaving
Tapestry
Quilling- the art of making flat or three-dimensional compositions from long and narrow strips of paper twisted into spirals.
Quilling technique
Ceramics
Mosaic
Jewelry Art
Lacquer miniature
Palekh lacquer miniature
Artistic painting on wood
Artistic painting on metal
Zhostovo tray
Artistic carving
Artistic processing of leather
Artistic painting on ceramics
Artistic metal processing
Pyrography(burning on wood, leather, fabric, etc.)
Working with glass
Upper half of a window at Canterbury Cathedral, UK
Origami
Photographic art
The art of artistic photography. The genres are basically the same as in painting.
Graffiti
Images on walls or other surfaces. Graffiti refers to any type of street painting on walls, on which you can find everything from simple written words to elaborate drawings.
Graffiti
Comic
Drawn stories, stories in pictures. Comics combine the features of such art forms as literature and fine art.
Artist Winsor McCay "Little Sammy Sneezes"
Non-fine arts
Architecture
Architecture– the art of designing and constructing buildings. Architectural structures can exist in the form of individual buildings or in the form of ensembles. But sometimes ensembles develop historically: buildings built at different times form a single whole. An example is Moscow's Red Square.
Architecture allows us to judge the technical achievements and artistic styles of different eras. The Egyptian pyramids, built about 5 thousand years ago, and the temples of Ancient Greece and Rome have survived to this day. Any city in any country is famous for its architectural structures.
Palace Square in St. Petersburg
Literature
In the broadest sense of the word: the totality of any written texts.
Types of literature: fiction, documentary prose, memoirs, scientific and popular science, reference, educational, technical.
Genres of literature
A literary work can be classified as a particular genre according to various criteria: by form (short story, ode, opus, essay, story, play, short story, novel, sketch, epic, epos, essay), by content (comedy, farce, vaudeville , sideshow, sketch, parody, sitcom, comedy of characters, tragedy, drama), by gender.
Epic kind: fable, epic, ballad, myth, short story, story, short story, novel, epic novel, fairy tale, epic.
Lyrical gender: ode, message, stanzas, elegy, epigram.
Lyric-epic genus: ballad, poem.
Dramatic gender: drama, comedy, tragedy.
Music
Music– this is art, the means of embodying artistic images for which are sound and silence, organized in a special way in time. But in general, it is impossible to give one exhaustively precise definition of the concept “music”. This is a special type of creative activity, including a craft and profession.
The type and stylistic variety of music is great.
Classic (or serious)– professional musical compositions born in the culture of Europe mainly from the New Age (the turn of the 16th-17th centuries) and in the Middle Ages;
Popular– predominantly song and dance musical genres.
Extra-European (non-European)– music of those peoples (East) whose culture differs from the culture of Western European civilization.
Ethnic (folk)– folklore musical works of different peoples, emphasizing the originality of an ethnic group, nation, tribe.
Variety (easy)– music of an entertaining nature, intended for relaxation.
Jazz– performing traditions of American blacks reinterpreted by Europeans, based on a synthesis of African and European musical elements.
Rock– music of small vocal and instrumental groups of young people, characterized by the obligatory presence of percussion and electric musical instruments, primarily guitars.
Avant-garde (experimental)- direction in professional composing in the 20th century.
Alternative– new musical compositions or performances (sound presentations, “performances”), fundamentally different from all types of music known today.
Types of music can also be determined by the function it performs: military, church, religious, theater, dance, film music, etc.
Or by the nature of the performance: vocal, instrumental, chamber, vocal-instrumental, choral, solo, electronic, piano, etc.
Each type of music has its own genres. Let's take an example genres of instrumental music.
Instrumental music- This is music performed on instruments, without the participation of the human voice. Instrumental music can be symphonic or chamber music.
Chamber music– compositions intended for performance in small spaces, for home, “room” music playing. Chamber music has great potential for conveying lyrical emotions and subtle mental states of a person. The genres of chamber music include: sonatas, quartets, plays, quintets, etc.
Sonata– one of the main genres of instrumental chamber music. Usually consists of 3 (4) parts.
Etude– a musical piece designed to improve technical skills in playing an instrument.
Nocturne(French “night”) is a genre of a small one-part melodious lyrical piece for piano.
Prelude(Latin for “introduction”) – a short instrumental piece. Improvisational introduction to the main piece. But it can also be an independent work.
Quartet– a piece of music for 4 performers.
Within each type of music, their own styles and trends can arise and develop, distinguished by stable and characteristic structural and aesthetic features: classicism, romanticism, impressionism, expressionism, neoclassicism, serialism, avant-garde, etc.
Choreography
Choreography is the art of dance.
Spectacular (mixed or synthetic) arts
Theater
A spectacular form of art, which is a synthesis of various arts: literature, music, choreography, vocals, visual arts and others.
Puppet show
Types of theaters: drama, opera, ballet, puppet theater, pantomime theater, etc. The art of theater has been known for a long time: theater was born from the most ancient ritual festivals, which in allegorical form reproduced natural phenomena or labor processes.
Opera
An art form in which poetry and dramatic art, vocal and instrumental music, facial expressions, dancing, painting, scenery and costumes are fused into a single whole.
Teatro alla Scala (Milan)
Stage
This type of art of small forms is predominantly popular and entertaining. Variety includes the following directions: singing, dancing, circus on stage, illusionism, conversational genre, clowning.
Circus
A type of entertainment art, according to the laws of which an entertaining performance is built. The content of modern circus performances is the demonstration of magic tricks, pantomime, clowning, reprise, demonstration of exceptional abilities, often associated with risk (physical strength, acrobatics, balancing act), trained animals.
Film art
A type of entertainment art, which is also a synthesis of the arts: literature, theater, dance, fine arts (scenery), etc.
Ballet
Type of performing arts; a performance whose content is embodied in musical and choreographic images. The basis of a classical ballet performance is a certain plot, a dramatic concept. In the 20th century a plotless ballet appeared, the dramaturgy of which was based on the development inherent in the music.
Painting is distinguished by a variety of genres and types. Each genre is limited to its own range of subjects: the image of a person (portrait), the surrounding world (landscape), etc.
Varieties (types) of painting differ in their purpose.
In this regard, there are several types of painting, which we will talk about today.
Easel painting
The most popular and famous type of painting is easel painting. It is called this way because it is performed on a machine - an easel. The base is wood, cardboard, paper, but most often canvas stretched on a stretcher. An easel painting is an independent work made in a specific genre. It has a richness of color.
Oil paints
Most often, easel painting is done with oil paints. You can use oil paints on canvas, wood, cardboard, paper, and metal.
Oil paints
Oil paints are suspensions of inorganic pigments and fillers in drying vegetable oils or drying oils or based on alkyd resins, sometimes with the addition of auxiliary substances. Used in painting or for painting wooden, metal and other surfaces.
V. Perov “Portrait of Dostoevsky” (1872). Canvas, oil
But a picturesque picture can also be created using tempera, gouache, pastels, and watercolors.
Watercolor
Watercolor paints
Watercolor (French Aquarelle - watery; Italian acquarello) is a painting technique that uses special watercolor paints. When dissolved in water, they form a transparent suspension of fine pigment, which creates the effect of lightness, airiness and subtle color transitions.
J. Turner “Firvaldstät Lake” (1802). Watercolor. Tate Britain (London)
Gouache
Gouache (French Gouache, Italian guazzo water paint, splash) is a type of adhesive water-soluble paint, denser and more matte than watercolor.
Gouache paints
Gouache paints are made from pigments and glue with the addition of white. The admixture of white gives the gouache a matte velvety quality, but when drying the colors become somewhat whitened (lightened), which the artist must take into account during the drawing process. Using gouache paints you can cover dark tones with light ones.
Vincent Van Gogh "Corridor at Asulum" (black chalk and gouache on pink paper)
Pastel [e]
Pastel (from Latin pasta - dough) is an artistic material used in graphics and painting. Most often it comes in the form of crayons or rimless pencils, shaped like bars with a round or square cross-section. There are three types of pastels: dry, oil and wax.
I. Levitan “River Valley” (pastel)
Tempera
Tempera (Italian tempera, from the Latin temperare - to mix paints) - water-based paints prepared on the basis of dry powder pigments. The binder for tempera paints is the yolk of a chicken egg diluted with water or a whole egg.
Tempera paints are one of the oldest. Before the invention and spread of oil paints until the 15th-17th centuries. tempera paints were the main material for easel painting. They have been used for more than 3 thousand years. The famous paintings of the sarcophagi of the ancient Egyptian pharaohs were made with tempera paints. Tempera painting was mainly done by Byzantine masters. In Russia, the technique of tempera painting was dominant until the end of the 17th century.
R. Streltsov “Chamomiles and violets” (tempera)
Encaustic
Encaustic (from ancient Greek ἐγκαυστική - the art of burning) is a painting technique in which wax is the binder of paints. Painting is done with melted paints. Many early Christian icons were painted using this technique. Originated in Ancient Greece.
"Angel". Encaustic technique
We draw your attention to the fact that you can find another classification, according to which watercolor, gouache and other techniques using paper and water-based paints are classified as graphics. They combine the features of painting (richness of tone, construction of form and space with color) and graphics (the active role of paper in constructing the image, the absence of the specific relief of the brushstroke characteristic of a painting surface).
Monumental painting
Monumental painting is painting on architectural structures or other foundations. This is the oldest type of painting, known since the Paleolithic. Thanks to its stationarity and durability, numerous examples of it remain from almost all cultures that created developed architecture. The main techniques of monumental painting are fresco, secco, mosaic, stained glass.
Fresco
Fresco (from Italian fresco - fresh) - painting on wet plaster with water paints, one of the wall painting techniques. When dried, the lime contained in the plaster forms a thin transparent calcium film, making the fresco durable.
The fresco has a pleasant matte surface and is durable in indoor conditions.
Gelati Monastery (Georgia). Church of the Blessed Virgin Mary. Fresco on the upper and southern side of the Arc de Triomphe
A secco
And secco (from Italian a secco - dry) is wall painting, performed, unlike frescoes, on hard, dried plaster, re-moistened. Paints are used, ground on vegetable glue, egg or mixed with lime. Secco allows you to paint a larger surface area in a working day than with fresco painting, but is not as durable a technique.
The a secco technique developed in medieval painting along with fresco and was especially widespread in Europe in the 17th-18th centuries.
Leonardo da Vinci "The Last Supper (1498). Technique a secco
Mosaic
Mosaic (French mosaïque, Italian mosaico from Latin (opus) musivum – (work) dedicated to the muses) is decorative, applied and monumental art of various genres. Images in a mosaic are formed by arranging, setting and fixing multi-colored stones, smalt, ceramic tiles and other materials on the surface.
Mosaic panel "Cat"
Stained glass
Stained glass (French vitre - window glass, from Latin vitrum - glass) is a work of colored glass. Stained glass has been used in churches for a long time. During the Renaissance, stained glass existed as painting on glass.
Stained glass window of the Mezhsoyuzny Palace of Culture (Murmansk)
The types of painting also include diorama and panorama.
Diorama
The building of the diorama “Storm of Sapun Mountain on May 7, 1944” in Sevastopol
Diorama is a ribbon-shaped, semicircularly curved pictorial picture with a foreground subject. The illusion of the viewer’s presence in natural space is created, which is achieved by a synthesis of artistic and technical means.
Dioramas are designed for artificial lighting and are located mainly in special pavilions. Most dioramas are dedicated to historical battles.
The most famous dioramas: “Storm of Sapun Mountain” (Sevastopol), “Defense of Sevastopol” (Sevastopol), “Battles for Rzhev” (Rzhev), “Breaking the Siege of Leningrad” (St. Petersburg), “Storm of Berlin” (Moscow), etc.
Panorama
In painting, a panorama is a picture with a circular view, in which a flat pictorial background is combined with a three-dimensional subject foreground. Panorama creates the illusion of real space surrounding the viewer in a full circle of the horizon. Panoramas are used mainly to depict events that cover a large area and a large number of participants.
Panorama Museum "Battle of Borodino" (museum building)
In Russia, the most famous panoramas are the Panorama Museum “Battle of Borodino”, “Battle of Volochaev”, “The Defeat of Nazi Troops at Stalingrad” in the Panorama Museum “Battle of Stalingrad”, “Defense of Sevastopol”, panorama of the Trans-Siberian Railway.
Franz Roubo. Panorama canvas “Battle of Borodino”
Theatrical and decorative painting
Scenery, costumes, makeup, props help to further reveal the content of the performance (film). The scenery gives an idea of the place and time of the action, and activates the viewer’s perception of what is happening on stage. The theater artist strives to acutely express the individual character of the characters, their social status, the style of the era, and much more in sketches of costumes and makeup.
In Russia, the flourishing of theatrical and decorative art occurred at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries. At this time, outstanding artists M.A. began working in the theater. Vrubel, V.M. Vasnetsov, A.Ya. Golovin, L.S. Bakst, N.K. Roerich.
M. Vrubel “City of Lollipop”. Set design for the opera by N.A. Rimsky-Korsakov's "The Tale of Tsar Saltan" for the Russian Private Opera in Moscow. (1900)
Miniature
A miniature is a pictorial work of small forms. Portrait miniatures were especially popular - a portrait of a small format (from 1.5 to 20 cm), distinguished by a special subtlety of writing, a unique execution technique and the use of means inherent only to this pictorial form.
The types and formats of miniatures are very diverse: they were painted on parchment, paper, cardboard, ivory, metal and porcelain, using watercolor, gouache, special artistic enamels or oil paints. The author can inscribe the image, in accordance with his decision or at the request of the customer, into a circle, oval, rhombus, octagon, etc. A classic portrait miniature is considered to be a miniature made on a thin ivory plate.
Emperor Nicholas I. Fragment of a miniature by G. Morselli
There are several miniature techniques.
Lacquer miniature (Fedoskino)
Miniature with a portrait of Princess Zinaida Nikolaevna (Jusupov jewelry)