Painters and sculptors, designers and architects - all these people bring beauty and harmony into our lives every day. Thanks to them, we look at statues in museums, admire paintings, and marvel at the beauty of ancient buildings. Contemporary fine art amazes us, classical art makes us think. But in any case, human creations surround us everywhere. Therefore, it is useful to understand this issue.

Types of fine arts

Fine art is spatial. That is, it has an objective form that does not change over time. And it is precisely by how this form looks that types of fine art are distinguished.

They can be divided into several categories. For example, by the time of appearance. Until the 19th century, only three types were considered the main ones: sculpture, painting and architecture. But the history of fine arts developed, and soon graphics joined them. Later, others emerged: arts and crafts, theatrical decoration, design and others.

Today there is no consensus on which types of fine art should be distinguished. But there are several basic ones, the existence of which does not cause any controversy.

Painting

Drawing is a type of fine art in which images are conveyed using paints. They are applied to a hard surface: canvas, glass, paper, stone and much more.

Different paints are used for painting. They can be oil and watercolor, silicate and ceramic. At the same time, there is wax painting, enamel painting and others. It depends on what substances are applied to the surface and how they are fixed there.

There are two directions in painting: easel and monumental. The first unites all those works that were created on various canvases. Its name comes from the word “machine”, which means easel. But monumental painting is a fine art that is reproduced on various architectural structures. These are all kinds of temples, castles, churches.

Architecture

Construction is a monumental art form whose purpose is to construct buildings. This is practically the only category that has not only aesthetic value, but also performs practical functions. After all, architecture involves the construction of buildings and structures for the life and activities of people.

It does not reproduce reality, but expresses the desires and needs of humanity. Therefore, the history of fine art is best traced through it. At different times, the way of life and ideas about beauty were very different. It is for this reason that architecture makes it possible to trace the flight of human thought.

This species is also highly dependent on the environment. For example, the shape of architectural structures is influenced by climatic and geographical conditions, the nature of the landscape, and much more.

Sculpture

This is an ancient fine art, samples of which have a three-dimensional appearance. They are made by casting, chiselling, hewing.

Mostly stone, bronze, wood or marble are used to make sculptures. But recently, concrete, plastic and other artificial materials have become equally popular.

The sculpture has two main varieties. It can be circular or embossed. In this case, the second type is divided into high, low and mortise.

As in painting, there are monumental and easel directions in sculpture. But decorative items are also distinguished separately. Monumental sculptures in the form of monuments decorate the streets and mark important places. Easel ones are used to decorate rooms from the inside. And decorative ones decorate everyday life like small plastic objects.

Graphics

This is a decorative fine art that consists of drawings and artistic printed images. Graphics differ from painting in the materials, techniques and forms used. To create engravings or lithographs, special machines and equipment are used to print images. And the drawings are made with ink, pencil and other similar materials that make it possible to reproduce the shapes of objects and their illumination.

Graphics can be easel, book and applied. The first is created thanks to special devices. These are engravings, drawings, sketches. The second decorates the pages of books or their covers. And the third is all kinds of labels, packaging, brands.

The first works of graphics are considered to be rock paintings. But her highest achievement is vase painting in Ancient Greece.

Arts and crafts

This is a special type of creative activity, which consists of creating various household items. They satisfy our aesthetic needs and often have utilitarian functions. Moreover, they were previously made precisely for practical reasons.

Not every fine art exhibition can boast of the presence of decorative and applied items, but every home has them. These include jewelry and ceramics, painted glass, embroidered items and much more.

Fine and applied arts most of all reflect the national character. The fact is that its important component is folk arts and crafts. And they, in turn, are based on the customs, traditions, beliefs and way of life of the people.

From theatrical and decorative art to design

Throughout history, more and more new types of fine art appear. With the formation of the first temple of Melpomene, theatrical and decorative art arose, which consists of making props, costumes, scenery and even makeup.

And design, as one of the types of art, although it appeared in ancient times, was only recently singled out into a separate category with its own laws, techniques and features.

Genres of fine art

Each work that comes from the master’s pen, hammer or pencil is dedicated to a specific topic. After all, when creating it, the creator wanted to convey his thoughts, feelings, or even the plot. It is by these characteristics that genres of fine art are distinguished.

For the first time, any systematization of a huge amount of cultural heritage was thought about in the Netherlands in the 16th century. At this time, only two categories were distinguished: high and low genres. The first included everything that contributed to the spiritual enrichment of a person. These were works dedicated to myths, religion, and historical events. And for the second - things related to everyday life. These are people, objects, nature.

Genres are forms of displaying life in the visual arts. And they change with it, develop and evolve. Entire eras of fine art pass while some genres acquire new meaning, others die out, and others emerge. But there are several main ones that have passed through the centuries and still exist successfully.

History and mythology

The high genres of the Renaissance included historical and mythological. It was believed that they were intended not for the common man in the street, but for a person with a high level of culture.

The historical genre is one of the main ones in the fine arts. It is dedicated to recreating those events of the past and present that are of great importance for a people, country or individual locality. Its foundations were laid back in Ancient Egypt. But it was fully formed already in Italy, during the Renaissance, in the works of Uccello.

The mythological genre includes those works of fine art that reflect legendary subjects. The first examples of it appeared already in ancient art, when epics became ordinary instructive stories. But the most famous are the works of the Renaissance. For example, frescoes by Raphael or paintings by Botticelli.

The subjects of works of art of the religious genre are various episodes from the Gospel, the Bible and other similar books. In painting, his famous masters were Raphael and Michelangelo. But the genre was also reflected in engravings, sculpture and even architecture, given the construction of temples and churches.

War and life

The depiction of war in art began in antiquity. But this topic was actively developed in the 16th century. All kinds of campaigns, battles and victories found expression in sculptures, paintings, engravings and tapestries of the time. Works of art on this topic are called the battle genre. The word itself has French roots and is translated as “war.” Artists who paint such paintings are called battle painters.

In contrast, there is an everyday genre in the fine arts. It represents works that reflect everyday life. It is difficult to trace the history of this trend, because as soon as a person learned to use tools, he began to capture his harsh everyday life. The everyday genre in fine art allows you to get acquainted with the events that took place thousands of years ago.

People and nature

Portrait is the image of a person in art. This is one of the most ancient genres. Interestingly, it originally had cult significance. Portraits were identified with the soul of a deceased person. But the culture of fine art has developed, and today this genre allows us to see images of people of past eras. Which gives an idea of ​​the clothing, fashion and tastes of that time.

Landscape is a genre of fine art in which nature is the main subject. It originated in Holland. But landscape painting itself is very diverse. Can depict both real and fantastic nature. Depending on the type of image, rural and urban landscapes are distinguished. The latter includes such subspecies as industrial and veduta. In addition, they talk about the existence of panoramic and chamber landscapes.

The animalistic genre is also distinguished. These are works of art depicting animals.

Marine theme

Seascapes primarily represent early Dutch painting. The fine art of this country gave rise to the marina genre itself. It is characterized by reflections of the sea in all forms. Marine artists paint seething elements and serene water surfaces, noisy battles and lonely sailboats. The first painting of this genre dates back to the sixteenth century. On it Cornelis Antonis depicted the Portuguese fleet.

Although the marina is more of a genre of painting, you can find water motifs not only in paintings. For example, decorative arts often use elements of seascapes. These can be tapestries, jewelry, engravings.

Items

Still life is mainly also a genre of painting. Its name is translated from French as “dead nature.” In fact, the heroes of still lifes are various inanimate objects. Usually these are everyday things, as well as vegetables, fruits and flowers.

The main characteristic of a still life can be considered its apparent plotlessness. Nevertheless, this is a philosophical genre that at all times has reflected the connections between man and the outside world.

Prototypes of still lifes can be found in the monumental painting of Pompeii. Later this genre became part of other paintings. For example, religious paintings. But the name behind it was established only in the 16th century.

Fine art is a way of understanding reality and man’s place in it. It allows you to recreate reality using various visual images. Works of this art find a place not only in museums or exhibitions, but also on city streets, in homes and libraries, books and even envelopes. They are all around us. And the least we can do is learn to appreciate, understand and preserve the amazing heritage that we inherited from the great masters of past eras.

Image on a plane of objects of the material and spiritual world. One of the main types of fine art. Painting is divided into numerous types and genres. Oil painting is a work painted with oil paints. Wall painting is a work of painting executed directly on a specially prepared masonry surface of a wall, ceiling or vault of a building. Another name is monumental painting. Tempera painting is the main technique of icon painting in Russia. The basis of tempera paint is the yolk of a chicken egg diluted with kvass. During the work process, paints are applied gradually, in multi-layers and in a certain order. Since the 17th century To this day, the final layer is sometimes done with oil paints. The icon is written on a specially treated board.

Great definition

Incomplete definition ↓

Painting

Pictores and Pictura.

The art of life among the Greeks was in close connection with sculpture, sharing with it an ideal worldview and was in this infant state for a very long time. Before the Persian Wars, painters seemed to use one-color paint with which they drew outlines, while shadows were indicated by shading. The most ancient place of this art in Greece was, in all likelihood, the Dorian Peloponnese, mainly Corinth and Sikyon; the Corinthian Cleanthes, they say, was the first to draw silhouettes, Ardicus and Telephanes improved linear drawings, Cleophantus invented one-color painting (monochromy), Kiomnus of Cleon was the first to give movement and inclination to his figures and was the first to pay attention to the drapery of the figures. Until the 94th century, when the Athenian Apollodorus introduced the brush, all of Jeanne's art consisted of drawing images using a stylus on a board previously coated with paint; The paints themselves were applied in bulk and not seamlessly using a sponge. In general, in the paintings of the most ancient painters there are only 4 colors ( Plin. 35, 7, 32): white and black, yellow and red. Even Zeuxis himself used these only colors, but if anyone used a larger number of colors, he was in danger of detracting from the height of art by increasing his attractiveness. Works of this type of art included partly wall paintings (mainly alfresco), and partly paintings painted on boards; the former were written on fresh plaster, and the latter on wood and embedded in the walls, for example, of temples. Pictures were painted on boards with glue paints; later encaustic paintings were painted with wax paints, which were ground with dry leads and then melted using a brazier. Age of Pericles, therefore the middle and 2nd half of the 5th century. BC, is considered the time of greatest prosperity of this art, along with the prosperity of all fine arts in general, which served as a support for painting. Large-sized paintings also belong to this time; not only painted halls appeared, but also actual art galleries (pinakotheks). Mention should be made of Pinenus, the brother of Phidias, and the Thasian Polygiotas (who received the right of citizenship in Athens in 463), known from the picture they painted together "Marathon Battle" V??????? in Athens. The latter was famous for his art of painting women in see-through clothes; he eliminated the immobility in facial expression borrowed from the Egyptians by drawing his mouth somewhat open; his paintings were truly portraits (in one, for example, you can easily recognize Elpinika, Kimon’s sister), painted from life, but carried away into an ideal world. Pausanias (10, 25) has preserved an excellent description of one of the largest paintings located in Lesha ( cm.?????, Lesha) at Delphi, which depicted the conquered and smoking Troy and the Greeks at the Hellespont, laden with booty and surrounded by prisoners, at the moment when they are preparing to sail: “The artist was quite able to depict here the contrast between the groups of Greeks in the foreground and the destruction of Troy, the devastated streets of which are visible through the walls broken in places. The ship of Menelaus stood near the shore, ready to sail; near it one can see Helen, the culprit of the war, surrounded by wounded Trojans; in another group of Greek leaders, Cassandra is visible; Almost everyone remains deeply silent, with the exception of Neoptolemus, who still pursues and kills the Trojans. On the other side of the Lesha the entrance to the underworld was depicted, to the kingdom of darkness with Odysseus on the shore of the Acheron, Tartarus with his terrible torments and Elisius with the shadows of the blessed. In the first of these paintings more than 100 figures were drawn, in the other more than 80: each figure, according to ancient custom, had a name attached to it". In addition, Polygnotus' father Aglaophon and the latter's grandson of the same name were known as painters. The latter was mainly credited with two paintings, one of which depicted Alcibiades as a winner at the games. Wed Cic. Brut. 18. Cic. de or. 3,7. Quint. 12, 10. In general, housing complemented architecture; her works served to decorate both private buildings and galleries and temples. While plastic arts quickly advanced in their development, painting developed slowly and reached the height of perfection soon after the Peloponnesian War, that is, only when plastic art, after its highest prosperity, began to decline somewhat. Contemporaries and followers of Polygnotus were: Mykon from Aegina, his remarkable paintings were: "Antinoe", "Argonauts", "Asterope", "Pelius", "Theseus", "Acast" etc.; he painted partly and ??????? in Athens, where he depicted the Battle of the Amazons and the Battle of Marathon, and he was especially successful in depicting horses; his son; further Onatus of Aegina and Dionysius of Colophon; independently then acted as a decorative painter Agafarch ( cm. Agatharchus, Agatharchus), who also satisfied the requirements of luxury, which had already begun to penetrate the private life of the Greeks; but even more outstanding in this regard is the above-mentioned Apollodorus, called the skiagraph, because in addition to the invention of the brush, art in the distribution of light and shadow was also attributed to him. His primus species exprimere instituit, Pliny says about him (35, 9, 36), primusque gloriam penicillo iure contulit; neque ante eum tabula ullius ostenditur, quae teneat oculos. His disciple Zeuxis from Heraclea in Magna Graecia, who lived c. 397, although, however, he belonged to a different school, namely the Ionian, prone to tenderness and pomp, as opposed to the Attic school; he was especially good at depicting the female body. Proof of this is what he wrote at the request of the Crotonians. "Elena"(was placed in the famous temple of Hera Lakinia), representing perfect beauty in the form of an earthly woman; in the same way he embodied the highest idea of ​​chaste modesty in the image of Penelope. Zeuxis does not have a variety of epic compositions, like Polygnotus’s, just as expressions of various mental states are not visible in his paintings; his main attention was paid to the picturesqueness, the external side of the object, to the illusion; Compared to later times, he lacked an artistic and varied juxtaposition of colors. About his competition with Parrhasius ( cm. Parrhasius). The latter and Timanthos of Sicyon were his contemporaries; about the paintings of the latter, between which "Sacrifice of Iphigenia", where he depicted Agamemnon with his face covered to express great sadness, already in antiquity the opinion was expressed that they make the viewer guess more than how much is actually expressed in them; the viewer's imagination complements the unsaid, not only because these paintings depicted something ideal, but also because they contain a wealth of motives. The main merit of the Sikyon school, on the contrary, consisted in the strictly scientific execution of the drawing and in its most thorough clarity. The founder of this school was Eupompus of Sicyon, and its main representative was Pamphilus, who was the first to methodically study art and apply his theoretical and geometric knowledge to drawings; His student Melanphius was most outstanding in his skillful arrangement and composition of paintings and contributed greatly to the improvement of color. He is ranked, by the way, among those 4 painters (Apelles, Echion, Nicomachus) who used only 4 colors. During the time of Alexander the Great, Jeanne reached the highest degree of attractiveness and charm, thanks mainly to Apelles, a native of the island of Kos, a student of Pamphilus (356-308). He combined the merits of both schools, while trying to penetrate even deeper into the true meaning of life and breathe the richness and variety of life into his works; he combined loyalty to nature with creative power, which earned him a special favor from Alexander; the latter especially praised his paintings for their grace, ?????; in the foreground he had the perfection of form, and not the ideality of content. In technique, both in relation to the drawing itself and in relation to the choice of colors for spectacular scenes, he was a master of his craft. In the temple of Artemis of Ephesus he painted an image of Alexander throwing the feathers of Zeus, and the raised hand and lightning that appeared on the surface aroused the greatest surprise. He also painted Alexander’s generals in various positions, sometimes separately, sometimes in groups. His exemplary works with ideal content included "Artemis", surrounded by a choir of young women making sacrifices, and Aphrodite Anadyomene emerging from the sea; this last picture, according to the verdict of all the ancients, was considered a model of grace; however, the lower part of this picture remained unfinished, death kidnapped Apelles at work, and none of the subsequent artists dared to take on the task of finishing it. Initially, it was in the temple of Aphrodite on the island of Cos, from where Augustus transferred it to Rome and ordered Caesar, who was numbered among the gods, to be placed in the temple. More to the Sicyon school belonged: Euphranor, whose glory lay in the subtlety of his depiction of gods and heroes; Echion, from whose works the painting of the newlywed is remarkable (a free imitation of which is, perhaps, the Aldobrandian wedding in the Vatican Museum in Rome) and Pausius of Sikyon, who was the first, they say, to decorate the ceilings in the rooms, mostly with figures of boys, flowers and arabesques, and he was mainly famous for his flower paintings ( Plin. 35, 40 mentions the beautiful Glyceria, skilled in weaving wreaths, whose image he presented to the competition); he was famous for bringing the encaustic method to a high degree of development. At this time, i.e. approx. 370-330, the Theban Aristides also flourished, remarkable mainly for his art of depicting battles and conquests of cities and his masterful ability to give life and expressiveness to his paintings, although his distribution of colors was not particularly successful. His painting depicting the battle of the Macedonians with the Persians contained up to 100 figures; The sad scene during the destruction of the city was considered his masterful work, and the main group depicting a dying mother and a baby catching her breast attracted special attention; but she pushes him away for fear that he might suck blood instead of milk. Around this time, Protogenes from the city of Kavna in Caria achieved even greater fame, who until the age of 50 supported his existence with the most ordinary works; but the famous Apelles recognized this and, appreciating his art, bought some paintings from him for a significant sum of money, showing his fellow citizens their inability to appreciate the works of Protogenes and at the same time trying to arouse in them the suspicion that he wanted to pass them off as his own. This helped the poor man make a name for himself among his fellow citizens. Above his best painting, where he depicted Ialisa ( cm. Ialis) a hunter with a dog panting on the side, he worked for 7 or even 11 years. When Demetrius Poliorcetes was besieging Rhodes, he could not decide to attack from the side where he knew this painting was located, and because of this he did not win. He sent guards to guard the artist, whose workshop was in the most dangerous place outside the city walls, and even personally visited him. During the time of Pliny, this painting was in Rome, in the temple of the world, but already during the time of Plutarch it was destroyed by fire. His picture "The Resting Satyr", which he placed on one column, was written by him during the siege, when weapons thundered all around, and was also considered an exemplary work. The main merit of Protogen, as well as Apelles, was not so much in the richness of thought or poetic content, but in the charming artistic execution, and the illusion was brought to the highest degree; but with Apelles this was a consequence of his natural talent, and with Protogenes this was achieved by his greatest patience and remarkable diligence. While everyone was surprised at his diligence and perseverance in his works, in the works of his contemporary, Nicomachus, a native of the city of Thebes, who lived at the end of the 4th century. BC, the son and student of Aristodemus, were most amazed at the speed of execution combined with remarkable artistry. They were written - "The Rape of Proserpina", in the Capitol, in the Temple of Minerva; "Goddess of Victory", riding a four-wheeler, and "Skilla" in the temple of the goddess of peace. Further remarkable are: Theon from the island of Samos, who aroused surprise with the liveliness of his imagination and lived during the time of the Macedonian kings Philip and Alexander; he owns: "Mad Orestes" and kifared "Thamiris", Nicias, originally from Athens (painted animals and battles encaustic; many of his paintings were in Rome; one of the best was "The Kingdom of Shadows according to Homer"; they praised the color, position and roundness of figures in his paintings, especially female ones), Antiphilus ( "The Boy Stoking the Fire", "Workshop for woolen work") and Ctesilochus (caricatured the birth of Dionysus from the thigh of Zeus). In all likelihood, Aetion (??????) with his famous painting belongs to the Alexandrian time - "The Marriage of Alexander and Roxana" (Cic. Brut. 18, where some, however, read Echion; Lucian de Merc. cond. 42.imagg. 7). From then on, art begins to decline and is no longer distinguished by grace and ingenuity, but only by care in decoration. Thus, Peyraijk conveyed scenes from everyday life with a brush, depicted with remarkable skill the workshops of shoemakers, barbers, kitchens, markets, etc., which was especially appreciated by the Romans, who respected not so much the intricacy of the composition as the correctness and clarity of the drawing; Thus, he became the best master of real genre painting, the so-called riparography. As for the Romans, we should mainly point out their lack of understanding of works of art; Even the capture of Corinth could not produce a beneficial revolution in art for a long time. Very often there were examples when soldiers and generals not only did not respect, but even destroyed the precious works of J. Mummius did not understand, for example, how Attalus of Pergamon could value so dearly the painting of Aristides depicting Bacchus; Believing that some secret power was hidden in her, he took her with him and placed her in the temple of Ceres. But soon afterwards the Romans, and in this case, quite clearly demonstrated their greedy system of colossal accumulation of other people's treasures; they began to decorate their homes, dining rooms, dachas, etc. with precious paintings. That is why, in general, one can only point to individual names of artists, such as, for example, Timomachus from Byzantium, famous for his ability to touchingly depict curbed passions, as he proved in his painting "Furious Ajax", which Caesar ordered to be installed in Rome; Timomachus lived in the last century BC. During the time of Augustus, Ludius was famous. Meanwhile, during the reign of the emperors, many Greek painters moved to Rome, whose talent and taste can be understood by the elegant decorations in the famous baths of Titus. Mosaics also developed in a similar way for purposes of luxury; point primarily to Coca of Pergamon, who painted an image of a pool with doves on the floor of one room, but the best work of mosaic was considered to be the image of a whole "Iliad" on the floors of the magnificent ship of King Hieron II of Syracuse. Our information about the sources and objects of ancient history is extremely scarce. The newly discovered remains of paintings near Athens on Greek tombstones are not particularly valuable, but numerous drawings on Greek clay vessels already indicate some craftsmanship, and mural paintings found in Herculaneum and Pompeii do not belong to the time of the prosperity of this art and can be considered as more or less light indoor decorations. In general, even in painting, the ancients were distinguished by the choice of beautiful figures, the simplicity of scenes and compositions, and the correctness of drawing, but in the application of the laws of perspective in paintings of large sizes, in the shadows resulting from a certain combination and fusion of colors, and mainly in poetic depth, they were far inferior the latest art. Wed art history Schnaase, Kugler´a, L?bke and others; especially Brunn, Geschichte der. griech. K?nstler, II, p. 3-316 and W?rmann, die Malerei des Alterhums (in Woltmann´a Gesch. der Malerei, vol.?, 1879, p. 32-140).

Great definition

Incomplete definition ↓

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 wood, metal and other surfaces.

V. Perov “Portrait of Dostoevsky” (1872). Oil on canvas
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. Particularly popular was portrait miniature - a portrait of a small format (from 1.5 to 20 cm), distinguished by the 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)

PAINTING AND ITS TYPES?

Painting is the art of a plane and one point of view, where space and volume exist only in illusion.

A great variety and completeness of phenomena, impressions, effects that painting can embody. The whole world of feelings, characters, relationships, experiences is accessible to painting. She has access to the most subtle observations of nature, eternal ideas, impressions, and subtle shades of mood.

The word “painting” is derived from the words “vividly” and “write”. “To paint,” explains Dahl, “to depict faithfully and vividly with a brush or words, a pen.” For the painter, depicting correctly means accurately conveying the external appearance of what he saw and its most important features. It was possible to convey them correctly using graphic means - line and tone. But it is impossible to convey vividly with these limited means the multicolor of the surrounding world, the pulsation of life in every centimeter of the colored surface of an object, the charm of this life and constant movement and change. Painting, one of the types of fine art, helps to truthfully reflect the color of the real world.

Color - the main visual and expressive means in painting - has tone, saturation and lightness; it seems to fuse into a whole everything characteristic of an object: both what can be depicted by a line and what is inaccessible to it.

Painting, like graphics, uses light and dark lines, strokes and spots, but unlike it, these lines, strokes and spots are colored. They convey the color of a light source through glare and brightly lit surfaces, sculpt a three-dimensional form with subject (local) color and color reflected by the environment, establish spatial relationships and depth, and depict the texture and materiality of objects.

The task of painting is not only to show something, but also to reveal the inner essence of what is depicted, to reproduce “typical characters in typical circumstances.” Therefore, a truthful artistic generalization of the phenomena of life is the basis of the foundations of realistic painting.

1. TYPES OF PAINTING

Painting is divided into monumental, decorative, theatrical and decorative, miniature and easel.

Monumental painting is a special type of large-scale paintings that decorate the walls and ceilings of architectural structures. It reveals the content of major social phenomena that have had a positive impact on the development of society, glorifies them and perpetuates them, helping to educate people in the spirit of patriotism, progress and humanity. The sublimity of the content of monumental painting, the significant size of its works, and the connection with architecture require large color masses, strict simplicity and laconicism of composition, clarity of contours and generality of plastic form.

Decorative painting used to decorate buildings and interiors in the form of colorful panels, which with realistic images create the illusion of breaking through the wall, visually increasing the size of the room, or, on the contrary, using deliberately flattened forms, they assert the flatness of the wall and the enclosure of the space. Patterns, wreaths, garlands and other types of decor that decorate works of monumental painting and sculpture tie together all the elements of the interior, emphasizing their beauty and consistency with the architecture.

Theatrical and decorative painting(scenery, costumes, makeup, props, made according to the artist’s sketches) helps to further reveal the content of the performance. The special theatrical conditions for perceiving the scenery require taking into account multiple points of view of the audience, their great distance, the influence of artificial lighting and colored backlights. 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.

Miniature painting received great development in the Middle Ages, before the invention of printing. Handwritten books were decorated with the finest headpieces, endings, and detailed miniature illustrations. Russian artists of the first half of the 19th century skillfully used the miniature painting technique to create small (mainly watercolor) portraits. Pure deep watercolor colors, their exquisite combinations, and the exquisite fineness of the writing distinguish these portraits, full of grace and nobility.

Easel painting, performed on a machine - an easel, uses wood, cardboard, paper as a material basis, but most often canvas stretched on a stretcher. An easel painting, being an independent work, can depict absolutely everything: factual and fictional by the artist, inanimate objects and people, modernity and history - in a word, life in all its manifestations. Unlike graphics, easel painting has a richness of color, which helps emotionally, psychologically, multifacetedly and subtly convey the beauty of the world around us.

According to technique and means of execution, painting is divided into oil, tempera, fresco, wax, mosaic, stained glass, watercolor, gouache, pastel. These names were derived from the binder or from the method of using material and technical means.

Oil painting done with paint washed with vegetable oils. Thick paint thins out when oil or special thinners and varnishes are added to it. Oil paint can be used on canvas, wood, cardboard, paper, and metal.

Tempera painting is done with paint prepared with egg yolk or casein. Tempera paint is dissolved with water and applied paste or liquid onto the wall, canvas, paper, wood. In Rus', tempera was used to create wall paintings, icons and patterns on everyday objects. Nowadays, tempera is used in painting and graphics, in decorative and applied arts and in artistic design.

Fresco painting decorates interiors in the form of monumental and decorative compositions applied to wet plaster with water-based paints. The fresco has a pleasant matte surface and is durable in indoor conditions.

Wax painting(encaustic) was also used by artists of Ancient Egypt, as evidenced by the famous “Fayum portraits” (1st century AD). The binder in encaustic painting is bleached wax. Wax paints are applied in a molten state to a heated base, after which they are burned.

Mosaic painting, or mosaic, is assembled from individual pieces of smalt or colored stones and fixed on a special cement primer. Transparent smalt, inserted into the ground at different angles, reflects or refracts light, causing the color to flare and shimmer. Mosaic panels can be found in the subway, in theater and museum interiors, etc. Stained glass painting is a work of decorative art intended to decorate window openings in any architectural structure. Stained glass is made from pieces of colored glass held together by a strong metal frame. The luminous flux, breaking through the colored surface of the stained glass window, draws decoratively spectacular, multi-colored patterns on the floor and walls of the interior.

MATERIAL IN PICTURES.

According to technique and means of execution, painting is divided into oil, tempera, fresco, wax, mosaic, stained glass, watercolor, gouache, pastel.

Materials for easel painting: wood was originally used. It was used in Egypt and Ancient Greece.

During the early Renaissance in the 14th century, a painting and a frame for it were made from one piece. (in Italy of the 15th-16th centuries, poplar was most often used, less often willow, ash, and walnut. In the early days, thick boards were used, not planed on the back side. In the Netherlands, France, from the 16th century, oak boards began to be used. In Germany, linden, beech, spruce).

Since the 18th century, wood has been losing its popularity. “Canvas” appears. It is already found among ancient artists. Canvas is combined with wood. In this era, canvas is still used sporadically. Canvas reached widespread use only in the 15th-16th centuries. Used for tempera.

From the second half of the 16th century, copper boards appeared for small paintings (especially popular in Flanders).

In the 19th century, cardboard was sometimes used for sketching.

In the painting of the Middle Ages and the early Renaissance, a rich polished ground of gypsum and chalk dominates. In the 13th-14th centuries, gold was used to cover the white primer. At the end of the 14th century, the gold primer gradually disappeared. Instead of plaster or chalk, they prime with oil paint. At the end of the 16th century, colorful priming with oil paints gained full recognition in Italy. Reddish-brown primer was popular. (BOLUS)

The decisive step was taken at the beginning of the 18th century, with the bifurcation to the three-pencil technique.

The 18th century was the heyday of the bed (the greatest masters were Chardin, Latour, Lyotard).

Watercolor begins very late, later than pastel. The watercolor technique has been known for a very long time. It was already known in Ancient Egypt and China. Watercolor was used by medieval miniaturists.

Since the end of the 15th century, the popularity of oil painting has been increasing. In the 16th century it replaced tempera.

French romantics of the early 19th century were fond of bitumen (or asphalt).

MAIN TYPES OF PERSPECTIVE IN PAINTING

Perspective is the science of depicting objects in space on a plane or any surface in accordance with the apparent changes in their sizes, changes in shape and light-and-shadow relationships that are observed in nature.

(Classical perspective corresponds to a certain intellectual level, within which one’s own point of view cannot differ from others, and its practical implementation can in fact represent a type of self-sufficient technical perfection.

Dynamic perspective is a special form of primitive perspective.

Painting - type of fine art, whose works are created using paints applied to any hard surface. In works of art created by painting, color and design, chiaroscuro, expressiveness of strokes, texture and composition are used, which allows one to reproduce on a plane the colorful richness of the world, the volume of objects, their qualitative, material originality, spatial depth and light-air environment. Painting can convey a state of staticity and a feeling of temporary development, peace and emotional and spiritual saturation, the transient immediacy of a situation, the effect of movement, etc.; In painting, complex storytelling and complex plots are possible.

According to the nature of the substances that bind the pigment (coloring matter), according to the technological methods of fixing the pigment on the surface, oil painting, painting with water paints on plaster - wet (fresco) and dry (a secco), tempera, glue painting, wax painting, enamels, painting with ceramic and silicate materials, etc.

Color is the most specific means of expression for painting. Its expression, the ability to evoke various feelings and associations enhances the emotionality of the image, determines the visual, expressive and decorative possibilities of painting. In works of art, color forms an integral system (color). Usually a number of interrelated colors and their shades are used (colorful scale), although there is also painting in shades of the same color (monochrome). Another expressive means of painting is drawing (line and chiaroscuro), together with color, rhythmically and compositionally organizes the image; the line delimits volumes from each other, is often the constructive basis of a pictorial form, and allows one to reproduce in general or in detail the outlines of objects and their smallest elements. Chiaroscuro allows you not only to create the illusion of three-dimensional images, to convey the degree of illumination or darkness of objects, but also creates the impression of movement of air, light and shadow. An important role in painting is also played by the painter’s spot or stroke, which is his main technical technique and allows him to convey many aspects. The brushstroke contributes to the plastic, three-dimensional sculpting of the form, conveying its material character and texture, and in combination with color it recreates the coloristic richness of the real world. The nature of the brushstroke (smooth, continuous or impasto, separate, etc.) also contributes to the creation of the emotional atmosphere of the work, the conveyance of the artist’s immediate feelings and mood, his attitude towards what is depicted.

Work of painting consists of a base (canvas, wood, paper, cardboard, stone, etc.), usually covered with primer, and a paint layer, sometimes protected by a protective film of varnish. The visual and expressive possibilities of painting, the features of the writing technique, largely depend on the properties of paints, which are determined by the degree of grinding of pigments and the nature of the binders, on the tool the artist uses, on the thinners he uses; the smooth or rough surface of the base and primer affects the techniques of applying paints and the texture of the work of painting, and the translucent color of the base or primer affects the coloring. The process of creating a painting or wall painting can fall into several stages, especially clear and consistent in medieval tempera and classical oil painting (drawing on the ground, underpainting, glazing). There is also painting of a more impulsive nature, which allows the artist to directly and dynamically embody his life impressions through simultaneous work on drawing, composition, sculpting forms and coloring (a lla prima).

The breadth and completeness of coverage of reality is reflected in the abundance of inherent genre painting, which are determined by subject of the image:
. historical genre,
. everyday genre,
. battle genre,
. portrait,
. scenery,
. still life.

Distinguish painting: monumental and decorative(wall paintings, lampshades, panels), intended to decorate architecture and play an important role in the ideological and figurative interpretation of an architectural building; easel(paintings), usually not associated with any specific place in the artistic ensemble; decorative(sketches of theater and film sets and costumes); iconography; miniature. Types of painting also include diorama And panorama.