Easel painting is a technique where paint is applied to a movable surface in order to create an independent painting. The name of this type comes from the word “loom,” which is most often an artist’s easel. Today easel painting is the most widespread art.

Thanks to the mobility of the works, the paintings became accessible to a wide audience. Also, thanks to the ability to move the canvases, restoration is greatly facilitated easel painting, especially in comparison with works of monumental art.

Types of painting

Painting is one of the most ancient ways of self-expression and conveying one’s own vision of reality. She teaches how to portray the world by using visual images, techniques and techniques that make up the language of fine art. It has been created and developed by artists and theorists over thousands of years, and today it allows modern painters to create their own “narrative.”

Traditionally, the following types of painting are distinguished:

• Decorative - created to decorate surfaces and objects that serve another purpose. This painting is used in the interior, on furniture, accessories, clothing, etc.
• Theater - creating scenery and costumes for productions.
• Monumental - performed on fixed surfaces of buildings, both facade and interior. This is the most ancient type art, traditionally called fresco. Monumental painting also includes mosaics, stained glass and panels.
• Easel art exists regardless of where it was created. This is the most widespread, developed and genre-rich type of painting.

Definition and characteristics of easel painting

An easel work is an independent object of art. It can move in space and even cross state borders. That's what it is main characteristic easel painting is that it should not be tied to the place of creation.

A painting is the subject and result of such art. Today there is no unanimous opinion about which techniques and materials are considered to be easel painting and which are considered graphics. We will adhere to the opinion that easel painting is the application of any type of paint to any movable surface, regardless of material and size. Thus, works created in watercolor, gouache and even pastel are examples of this technique.

Story

The history of easel painting began with the use of stone slabs and wooden panels. The works that laid the foundation for the modern understanding of such art are icons. The oldest non-stationary image of Christ dates back to the 6th century and was made on a wooden panel covered with specially treated fabric.

The first paintings on wood were of a religious nature, but were not icons. The innovator of easel painting was the representative of the Proto-Renaissance era, Giotto di Bondone. He created several works - all of them were done in tempera on thin poplar wood panels covered with canvas treated with a mixture of plaster and animal glue. This technology was used to create icons in Byzantium.

Types of easel painting

Depending on the materials used to create the painting, easel painting is divided into several types:

• Based on the type of surface, paintings are distinguished on canvas, cardboard, paper, wood, silk, parchment, metal panels and stone. As a basis for easel painting Almost any mobile surface that does not perform any additional functions will do.
• Depending on the paints used, easel painting can be oil, watercolor, tempera, acrylic and pastel. Less commonly used are compositions such as gouache and ink.

In addition, easel painting allows the use of a number of auxiliary materials, such as brushes, sponges, rollers, cardboard strips, palette knives and aerosol cans.

Features of the performance technique

With the development of art, the technology of easel painting has also changed. Modern world expands access to knowledge and materials, providing fertile ground for experimentation and the search for new opportunities. Today, easel paintings can be created using stencils and patterns. Colors are extracted from new materials and pigments. It’s hard not to get lost in such a whirlpool of funds and resources.

However, oil paintings, as well as easel tempera painting, have gone through centuries of development. That is why today there is a traditional, or academic, technique of easel painting, which involves following a number of rules and traditions. Oil paints are the most popular due to their ease of application and ability to retain colors for a long time. Tempera, in turn, is more complex. The technique of creating easel tempera painting has a number of specific rules - for example, darkening the tone of a pigment is best achieved by shading or applying one layer to another.

Genres of easel painting

The genre richness of easel painting is due to its mobility. After all, it is easier to move an easel into the forest than trees indoors. Thus, easel painting expands the possibilities for painting canvases from life. This is especially important for genres such as landscape, portrait and still life.

Among those that had the greatest influence on the formation and development of easel painting, it is necessary to highlight religious and mythological genres, as well as historical, portrait and subject. For modern easel painting, portraits, landscapes and still lifes are of particular importance.

Portrait

This genre is very dynamic, sometimes its boundaries blur and merge with genres such as mythological, allegorical and religious. The essence of a portrait is to use artistic means to depict on canvas a person with his characteristic forms, facial features and character traits.

In easel painting, the appearance of the model, its tangible and visible characteristics, merge with the internal features that characterize it. All this is directly dependent on the author’s perception, as well as the artist’s connection with the model and the portrait.

Scenery

Works made in this genre depict nature. Like portraits, landscapes often blur the boundaries of strict genre definitions and characteristics. Probably due to the fact that for many centuries it was used only as a filler of space in a painting, now that it is an independent genre, it is still used to create a background in works of other genres.

The landscape depicts nature in several of its guises - untouched by man, transformed by man and interacting with him. Among the subgenres it is worth noting sea, city and rural landscapes.

Still life

From French this name is translated as “dead nature”. This genre of easel painting focuses on the depiction of inanimate objects. As an independent technique, still life took shape in the 17th century thanks to the efforts of Northern European masters. During the Renaissance, it was popular in decorative painting and often became a decoration for furniture and tableware.

Other popular genres of easel painting include everyday life, illustration, allegory and animal painting.

The name "easel painting" comes from the main element, or tool, that takes part in the creation of paintings. Of course, we're talking about about an easel, which is less commonly called a machine. A canvas or a sheet of paper is attached to its surface, onto which paint is then applied. Easel painting is all the paintings that are currently available in museums and private collections around the world. Therefore, it is sometimes difficult to imagine the number of all genres and varieties that form the basis of this type of art.

Modern art historians have decided to divide painting into various subtypes, which are named depending on the technique used to execute the painting, as well as the type of paints used. As a result, a certain chronology was formed, because over time more and more easel paintings appeared ancient world, the Middle Ages and the Renaissance are divided into two subgroups - tempera and oil. The artist either used dry paints, that is, tempera paints, which he diluted with water, or he used oil paints, as well as a number of chemical solvents for them.

Tempera easel painting is a complex science that requires a lot of skills, as well as great patience of the master who paints the picture. In ancient times, tempera paints were mixed with various natural products, which included egg yolks and whites, honey, wine, and so on. Water was certainly added to this composition, as a result of which the paint became soaked and became suitable for application to canvas. could form a beautiful and unique pattern only if they were applied in separate layers or small strokes. Therefore, tempera art is characterized by clear lines and transitions, clearly defined boundaries and the absence of smoothly transitioning shades. Due to the fact that they are tempera, they can begin to crumble. Also, many works of art based on tempera have faded, losing their former colors and shades.

Oil easel painting dates back to the fourteenth century, when Van Jan Eyck first used oil to create his masterpieces. are still used by all world artists, since with their help you can convey not only color transitions in a picture, but also make it three-dimensional and alive. Paints based on natural oils can be applied in layers of varying thicknesses, mixed and used to create smooth color transitions. This allows the artist to put his emotions and experiences onto the canvas in full, making the picture rich and unique.

But, despite all its advantages, oil over time, like tempera, loses its color qualities. The main disadvantage of such paints is also considered to be the craquelure that appears on the surface of the paintings. Cracks can form at the transition from one color to another, turning the picture into a fragmented “stained glass window”. Therefore, easel paintings painted in oil are varnished, so the painting can be preserved in its original form for a longer period.

Modern art, which has become much more diverse and innovative, is very different from the art of yesteryear. However, despite more progressive materials and colors, the paintings of our days do not look as alive and full of emotions and experiences as the works of art of past centuries.

- this is one of the main types of fine art; is an artistic depiction of the objective world using colored paints on a surface. Painting is divided into: easel, monumental and decorative.

- mainly represented by works done with oil paints on canvas (cardboard, wooden boards or bare). It is the most popular type of painting. It is this type that is usually applied to the term " painting".

is a technique of painting on walls when decorating buildings and architectural elements in buildings. Particularly common in Europe fresco - monumental painting on wet plaster with water-soluble paints. This drawing technique has been well known since antiquity. Later, this technique was used in the design of many Christian religious churches and their vaults.

Decorative painting - (from Latin word from decoro - to decorate) is a way of drawing and applying images to objects and interior details, walls, furniture and other decorative objects. Refers to decorative and applied arts.

Possibilities pictorial art Easel painting from the 15th century, from the moment of mass use of oil paints, reveals especially clearly. It is in it that a special variety of content and deeply developed form is available. The basis of pictorial artistic means are colors (the possibilities of paints), in inextricable unity with chiaroscuro, and line; color and chiaroscuro are developed and developed by painting techniques with a completeness and brightness inaccessible to other types of art. This determines the perfection of volumetric and spatial modeling inherent in realistic painting, the vivid and accurate rendering of reality, the possibility of realizing the plots conceived by the artist (and methods of constructing compositions) and other visual advantages.

Another difference in the differences between types of painting is the technique of execution according to the types of paints. Not always enough common features for determining. The border between painting and graphics in each individual case: for example, works made in watercolors or pastels can belong to both areas, depending on the artist’s approach and the tasks he sets. Although drawings on paper are related to graphics, the use various techniques Painting sometimes blurs the differences between painting and graphics.

It must be taken into account that the semantic term “painting” itself is a word in the Russian language. It was taken for use as a term during the formation of fine art in Russia during the Baroque era. The use of the word "painting" at that time applied only to a certain type of realistic painting. But originally it comes from the church technique of painting icons, which uses the word “write” (related to writing) because this word is a translation of the meaning in Greek texts (those are “lost in translation”). Development in Russia of its own art school and the inheritance of European academic knowledge in the field of art, developed the scope of the Russian word “painting”, incorporating it into educational terminology and literary language. But in the Russian language, a peculiarity of the meaning of the verb “to write” was formed in relation to writing and drawing pictures.

Genres of painting

In the course of the development of fine art, several classical genres of paintings were formed, which acquired their own characteristics and rules.

Portrait is a realistic depiction of a person in which the artist tries to achieve a resemblance to the original. One of the most popular genres of painting. Most customers used the talent of artists to perpetuate their own image or, wanting to get an image loved one, relative, etc. Customers sought to obtain a portrait likeness (or even embellish it) leaving a visual embodiment in history. Portraits various styles are the most massive part of the exhibition of most art museums and private collections. This genre includes such a type of portrait as self-portrait - an image of the artist himself, painted by himself.

Scenery- one of the popular painting genres in which the artist seeks to depict nature, its beauty or peculiarity. Different kinds nature (the mood of the season and weather) have a bright emotional impact for any viewer - this psychological feature person. The desire to get an emotional impression from landscapes has made this genre one of the most popular in artistic creativity.

- this genre is in many ways similar to landscape, but has key feature: Paintings depict landscapes involving architectural objects, buildings or cities. A special focus is street views of cities that convey the atmosphere of a place. Another direction of this genre is the depiction of the beauty of the architecture of a particular building - its appearance or images of its interiors.

- a genre in which the main subject of the paintings is a historical event or its interpretation by the artist. What’s interesting is that it belongs to this genre great amount paintings on biblical theme. Since in the Middle Ages biblical stories were considered “historical” events and the main customers of these paintings were the church. "Historical" biblical subjects are present in the works of most artists. Second birth historical painting occurs during the times of neoclassicism, when artists turn to well-known historical subjects, events from antiquity or national legends.

- reflects scenes of wars and battles. The peculiarity is not only the desire to reflect a historical event, but also to convey to the viewer the emotional elevation of feat and heroism. Subsequently, this genre also becomes political, allowing the artist to convey to the viewer his view (his attitude) on what is happening. We can see a similar effect of political emphasis and the strength of the artist’s talent in the work of V. Vereshchagin.

is a genre of painting with compositions from inanimate objects, using flowers, products, and dishes. This genre is one of the latest and was formed in Dutch school painting. Perhaps its appearance is caused by the peculiarity of the Dutch school. The economic boom of the 17th century in Holland led to a desire for affordable luxury (paintings) among a significant number of the population. This situation attracted a large number of artists, causing intense competition among them. Models and workshops (people in appropriate clothes) were not available to poor artists. When painting paintings for sale, they used improvised means (objects) to compose the paintings. This situation in the history of the Dutch school is the reason for the development of genre painting.

Genre painting - the subject of the paintings are everyday scenes everyday life or holidays, usually with the participation ordinary people. Just like still life, it became widespread among Dutch artists in the 17th century. During the period of romanticism and neoclassicism, this genre takes on a new birth; paintings strive not so much to reflect everyday life how much to romanticize it, introduce it into the plot certain meaning or morality.

Marina- a type of landscape in which images are depicted marine species, coastal landscapes overlooking the sea, sunrises and sunsets at sea, ships or even naval battles. Although there is also a separate battle genre, but naval battles still belong to the “marina” genre. The development and popularization of this genre can also be attributed to the Dutch school of the 17th century. He was popular in Russia thanks to the work of Aivazovsky.

— a feature of this genre is the creation of realistic paintings depicting the beauty of animals and birds. One of interesting features This genre is the presence of paintings depicting non-existent or mythical animals. Artists who specialize in images of animals are called animalists.

History of painting

The need for realistic images has existed since ancient times, but had a number of disadvantages due to the lack of technology, systematic schools and education. In ancient times, one can more often find examples of applied and monumental painting with the technique of drawing on plaster. During antiquity, higher value given to the talent of the performer, artists were limited in the technology of making paints and the opportunity to receive a systematic education. But already in antiquity, specialized knowledge and works were formed (Vitruvius), which will be the basis for a new flourishing European art during the Renaissance. Decorative painting received significant development during Greek and Roman antiquity (the school was lost in the Middle Ages), the level of which was reached only after the 15th century.

Painting of a Roman fresco (Pompeii, 1st century BC), an example of the level of technology of ancient painting:

The "Dark Ages" of the Middle Ages, militant Christianity and the Inquisition lead to prohibitions on studying artistic heritage antiquity. The vast experience of ancient masters, knowledge in the field of proportions, composition, architecture and sculpture are prohibited, and many artistic values destroyed because of their dedication to ancient deities. A return to the values ​​of art and science in Europe occurs only during the Renaissance (rebirth).

For artists early renaissance(revival) we have to make up for and revive the achievements and level of ancient artists. What we admire in the works of artists early Renaissance, was the level of the masters of Rome. A good example the loss of several centuries of development of European art (and civilization) during the “dark ages” of the Middle Ages, militant Christianity and the Inquisition - the difference between these pictures of the 14th centuries!

The emergence and spread of the technology for making oil paints and the technique of painting with them in the 15th century gave rise to the development of easel painting and special kind artists' products - colored oil paintings on primed canvas or wood.

Painting received a huge leap in qualitative development during the Renaissance, largely thanks to the work of Leon Battista Alberti (1404-1472). He was the first to set out the foundations of perspective in painting (the treatise “On Painting” of 1436). The European art school owes to him (his work on systematizing scientific knowledge) the emergence (revival) of realistic perspective and natural proportions in artists’ paintings. A famous and familiar drawing by Leonardo da Vinci "Vitruvian Man"(human proportions) of 1493, dedicated to the systematization of Vitruvius’ ancient knowledge of proportions and composition, was created by Leonardo half a century later than Alberti’s treatise “On Painting”. And Leonardo’s work is a continuation of the development of the European (Italian) art school of the Renaissance.

But bright and mass development painting received, starting from the 16th-17th centuries, when the technique became widespread oil painting, various technologies for making paints appeared and schools of painting were formed. It was the system of knowledge and art education (drawing techniques), combined with the demand for works of art among the aristocracy and monarchs, that led to the rapid flourishing of fine art in Europe (the Baroque period).

The unlimited financial capabilities of European monarchies, aristocracies and entrepreneurs became an excellent basis for further development painting in the 17th-19th centuries. And the weakening influence of the church and a secular lifestyle (multiplied by the development of Protestantism) allowed the birth of many subjects, styles and movements in painting (Baroque and Rococo).

In the course of the development of fine arts, artists have formed many styles and techniques that lead to to the highest level realism in works. By the end of the 19th century (with the advent of modernist movements), interesting transformations began in painting. Availability of art education, mass competition and high requirements

to the artist's skill among the public (and buyers) give rise to new directions in modes of expression. Fine art is no longer limited only by the level of technique; artists strive to introduce special meanings, ways of “looking” and philosophy into works. What often comes at the expense of the level of performance, becomes speculation or a method of shocking. The variety of emerging styles, lively discussions and even scandals give rise to the development of interest in new forms of painting.

Modern computer (digital) drawing technologies belong to graphics and cannot be called painting, although many
computer programs

and equipment allow you to completely repeat any painting technique with paints.

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. painting – 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. They are 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) – painting technique, using 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 painting 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) – art materials, used in graphics and painting. Most often produced in the form of crayons or pencils without a rim, shaped like bars with a round or square 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 yolk diluted with water. chicken egg 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 predominant until late XVII V.

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 – painting on architectural structures or other reasons. 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 Holy Mother of God. Fresco on the upper and southern side of the Arc de Triomphe

A secco

A secco (from Italian a secco – dry) – Wall art, 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 " 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 the front subject plan. 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 an all-round view, in which a flat pictorial background is combined with a volumetric one. subject first plan. Panorama creates the illusion of real space surrounding the viewer in a full circle of the horizon. Panoramas are used mainly to depict events covering a large area and big number 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 the 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 in costume and makeup sketches individual character characters, their social status, style of the era and much more.
In Russia, the flourishing of theatrical and decorative art occurred in turn of XIX-XX centuries At this time, work began in the theater outstanding artists M.A. 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

Thumbnail – painting 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)

Monumental painting- This 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 arts. What is important here is the achievement of stylistic and figurative unity of monumental painting and architecture, a synthesis of the arts. Monumental painting, in addition to its connection with architecture (stylistic, compositional and thematic), must have a generalization of images, stylization appropriate to the situation color scheme and scale with surrounding objects.

Easel painting is a type of painting that, unlike monumental painting, is not associated with architecture, has an independent character, independent meaning and is perceived regardless of the environment.. Works of easel painting (paintings) can be transferred from one interior to another and shown in other countries. . The term “easel painting” comes from the machine (easel) on which paintings are created.

Miniature (from the Latin minium - red paints used in the design of handwritten books) - in fine arts paintings, sculptures and graphic works of small forms, as well as the art of their creation.

Portrait miniature is 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 image, in accordance with the author’s compositional decision (or the customer’s wishes), can be inscribed in a circle, oval, rhombus, octagon, etc. A classic portrait miniature is considered to be a miniature made on a thin ivory plate.

Like a painting, a miniature portrait can be intimate or ceremonial; one-, two- or multi-figure; have a plot basis or not have one. As in a large, “adult” portrait, the depicted face can be placed against a neutral, landscape background or in an interior. And although a miniature portrait is subject to the same basic laws of development and the same aesthetic canons as the entire portrait genre as a whole, it nevertheless differs from it both in the essence of artistic decision and in its field of application - a miniature is always more intimate in nature .

Illumination (from Latin illumino - I illuminate, make bright, decorate) is the process of making colored miniatures (illuminations) and ornamentation in medieval handwritten books.

Illuminated manuscripts are handwritten medieval books decorated with colorful miniatures and ornaments. In the Russian tradition, in addition to the term “illuminated”, the term “illuminated” is often used for handwritten books with miniatures facial manuscripts. With the invention of printing handwritten books gradually fell out of use.

To create books, paints from natural pigments were used, resulting in red, blue, green, yellow and other colors that were amazing in saturation and depth. In addition, silver and gold were used to create miniatures.