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 wide variety and completeness of phenomena, impressions, effects that painting is capable of embodying. The whole world of feelings, characters, relationships, experiences is available to painting. She has access to the most subtle observations of nature, eternal ideas, impressions, subtle shades of mood.
The word "painting" is derived from the words "lively" and "write". “To paint,” Dahl explains, “to depict correctly and vividly with a brush or with words, with a pen.” For a person who paints, depicting correctly means accurately conveying the external appearance of what he saw, its most important features. It was possible to correctly convey them by 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 is impossible. Painting, one of the types of fine art, helps to truly reflect the color of the real world.
Color - the main graphic and expressive means in painting - has tone, saturation and lightness; he kind of fuses into a whole everything that is characteristic of an object: both that which can be depicted by a line and that which is inaccessible to it.
Painting, like graphics, uses light and dark lines, strokes and spots, but unlike her, these lines, strokes and spots are colored. They convey the color of the light source through glare and brightly lit surfaces, mold the volumetric form with the object (local) color and the color reflected by the environment, establish spatial relationships and depth, 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 true artistic generalization of the phenomena of life is the basis of the foundations of realistic painting.
1. TYPES OF PAINTING
Painting is subdivided into monumental, decorative, theatrical and decorative, miniature and easel painting.
Monumental painting is a special kind of large-scale paintings that adorn 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 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, the connection with architecture require large color masses, strict simplicity and laconic composition, clarity of contours and generalization of plastic form.
Decorative painting It is used to decorate buildings, interiors in the form of colorful panels, which, with a realistic image, create the illusion of a wall breakthrough, a visual increase in the size of a room, or, on the contrary, with deliberately flattened forms confirm the flatness of the wall and the enclosure of space. Patterns, wreaths, garlands and other types of decor, adorning works of monumental painting and sculpture, tie together all the elements of the interior, emphasizing their beauty and consistency with architecture.
Theatrical and decorative painting (scenery, costumes, make-up, props, made according to the artist's sketches) helps to deeper reveal the content of the performance. The special theatrical conditions for the perception of the scenery require taking into account the many points of view of the audience, their great distance, the effects of artificial lighting and colored lights. The scenery gives an idea of \u200b\u200bthe place and time of the action, activates the viewer's perception of what is happening on the stage. The theatrical artist strives to sharply 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, detailed illustrations, miniatures. The painting technique of miniature was skillfully used by Russian artists of the first half of the 19th century to create small (mostly watercolor) portraits. Pure deep colors of watercolors, their exquisite combinations, jewelry subtlety of writing distinguish these portraits, full of grace and nobility.
Easel painting, performed on an easel machine, 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: actual and fictional by the artist, inanimate objects and people, modernity and history - in short, life in all its manifestations. In contrast to graphics, easel painting has a richness of color, which helps emotionally, psychologically, multifaceted and subtly convey the beauty of the world around.
In terms of technique and means of execution, painting is subdivided into oil, tempera, fresco, wax, mosaic, stained glass, watercolor, gouache, pastel. These names came from a binder or from the method of using material and technical means.
Oil painting it is performed with paint wiped off with vegetable oils. Thick paint liquefies when oil or special thinners and varnishes are added to it. Oil paint can be used on canvas, wood, cardboard, paper, metal.
Tempera painting is done with paint cooked on egg yolk or casein. Tempera paint is water-soluble and applied pasty or liquid on a wall, canvas, paper, wood. Tempera in Russia created wall paintings, icons and patterns on household items. Nowadays, tempera is used in painting and graphics, in decorative and applied arts and in design and decoration.
Fresco painting decorates interiors in the form of monumental and decorative compositions applied on wet plaster with water paints. The fresco has a pleasant matte surface and is durable in indoor conditions.
Wax painting (encaustic) was used by the artists of Ancient Egypt, as evidenced by the famous "Fayum portraits" (1st century AD). The binder in encaustic is bleached wax. Wax paints are applied in a molten state to a heated base, after which they are cauterized.
Mosaic painting, or mosaic, is assembled from individual pieces of smalt or colored stones and fixed on a special cement ground. Transparent smalt, inserted into the ground at different angles, reflects or refracts light, causing the color to flash and flicker. Mosaic panels can be found in the metro, in theater and museum interiors, etc. Stained glass painting is a piece of decorative art designed to decorate window openings in any architectural structure. The stained-glass window is made up of pieces of colored glass, held together by a strong metal frame. The luminous flux, piercing the colored surface of the stained-glass window, draws decoratively spectacular, multi-colored patterns on the floor and walls of the interior.
MATERIAL IN PAINTING WORKS.
By technique and means of execution, painting is divided into oil, tempera, fresco, wax, mosaic, stained glass, watercolor, gouache, pastel.
Easel painting materials: wood was originally used; it was used in Egypt, Ancient Greece.
In the early Renaissance in the XIV century, a picture 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, walnut. in the early days, thick boards were used, not cut on the back side. in the Netherlands, France, from the 16th century, oak boards were used. in Germany, linden, beech, spruce).
Since the 18th century, wood has lost its popularity. "Canvas" appears. It is already found among ancient artists. Canvas is combined with wood. In this era, however, canvas is used occasionally. The canvas reaches widespread use only in the XV-XVI 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 painting of the Middle Ages and the early Renaissance, a large, polished soil of plaster and chalk dominates. In the XIII-XIV centuries, gold was used to cover a white primer. At the end of the 14th century, the gold primer gradually disappears. Instead of plaster or chalk, they are primed with oil paint. At the end of the 16th century, paint primers with oil paints gained full acceptance in Italy. The popular was the reddish-brown primer. (BOLUS)
A decisive step was taken at the beginning of the 18th century, a bifurcation was made to the technique of three pencils.
XVIII century - the heyday of the bed. (The largest masters Chardin, Latour, Lyotard).
Watercolor begins very late, later than pastel. The technique of watercolors has been known for a very long time. It was known already in Ancient Egypt, in China. Watercolors were used by medieval miniaturists.
Since the end of the 15th century, the popularity of oil painting has increased. In the 16th century, displaces tempera.
French romantics of the early 19th century were fond of bitumen (or asphalt).
BASIC PERSPECTIVES IN PAINTING
Perspective is the science of depicting objects in space on a plane or any surface in accordance with those apparent reductions in their sizes, changes in the outlines of shape and cut-off relations that are observed in nature.
(The classical perspective corresponds to a certain intellectual level, within the framework of which one's own point of view cannot differ from others, and its practical implementation in reality can be a kind of self-sufficient technical perfection.
Dynamic perspective is a particular form of primitive perspective.
Painting is one of the ancient arts, which over the course of many centuries has undergone evolution from the rock paintings of the Paleolithic to the latest trends of the XX and even the XXI century. This art was born practically with the advent of humanity. Ancient people, not even fully realizing themselves as a man, felt the need to depict the world around them on the surface. They painted everything they saw: animals, nature, hunting scenes. To paint, they used something similar to paints made from natural materials. They were earthy paints, charcoal, black soot. Brushes were made from animal hair, or simply painted with your fingers.
As a result of the changes, new types and genres of painting arose. The ancient period was followed by the period of Antiquity. The desire of painters and artists arose to reproduce the real life around it, such as it is seen by a person. The striving for the accuracy of rendering gave rise to the foundations of perspective, the foundations of black and white constructions of various images and the study of this by artists. And they, first of all, studied how to depict volumetric space on the plane of the wall, in fresco painting. Some works of art, such as volumetric space, chiaroscuro, began to be used to decorate rooms, centers of religion and burial.
The next important period in the past of painting is the Middle Ages. At this time, painting was of a more religious nature, and the worldview began to be reflected in art. The artists' creativity was directed to icon painting and other melodies of religion. The main important points that the artist had to emphasize were not so much an accurate display of reality, but rather the transfer of spirituality even in the most diverse paintings. The canvases of the masters of that time were striking in their expressive contours, color and brilliance. Painting of the Middle Ages seems to us flat. All the characters of the artists of that time are on the same line. And therefore, many works seem somewhat stylized to us.
The period of the gray Middle Ages was followed by the brighter Renaissance period. The Renaissance era once again brought a turning point in the historical development of this art. New moods in society, a new worldview began to dictate to the artist: what aspects of painting to reveal more fully and clearly. Painting genres such as portrait and landscape will become independent styles. Artists express the emotions of a person and his inner world through new ways of painting. The 17th and 18th centuries saw an even more serious growth in painting. During this period, the Catholic Church loses its significance, and artists in their works increasingly reflect the true views of people, nature, everyday and everyday life. During this period, such genres as baroque, rococo, classicism, mannerism were also formed. Romanticism arises, which is later replaced by a more spectacular style - impressionism.
At the beginning of the twentieth century, painting changed dramatically and a newer direction of contemporary art appeared - abstract painting. The idea of \u200b\u200bthis trend is to convey harmony between man and art, to create harmony in combinations of lines and color highlights. This art has no objectivity. She does not pursue the exact transmission of the real image, but on the contrary - conveys what is in the artist's soul, his emotions. Shapes and colors are important for this art form. Its essence is to convey previously familiar objects in a new way. Here, artists are given complete freedom of their imaginations. This gave impetus to the emergence and development of modern trends, such as avant-garde, underground, abstract art. From the end of the twentieth century to the present, painting is constantly changing. But, despite all the new achievements and modern technologies, the artists still remain faithful to classical art - oil and watercolor painting, create their masterpieces using paints and canvases.
Natalia Martynenko
History of Fine Arts
The history of painting is an endless chain that began with the very first paintings made. Each style grows out of the styles that came before it. Every great artist adds something to the accomplishments of earlier artists and influences later artists.
We can enjoy painting for its beauty. Its lines, shapes, colors and composition (arrangement of parts) can please our senses and linger in our memories. But the enjoyment of art increases when we learn when and why and how it was created.
Many factors have influenced the history of painting. Geography, religion, national characteristics, historical events, the development of new materials - all this helps to shape the artist's vision. Throughout history, painting has reflected the changing world and our ideas about it. In turn, the artists have provided some of the best records of the development of civilization, sometimes revealing more than the written word.
Prehistoric painting
The cave dwellers were the earliest painters. Colored drawings of animals, dating from 30,000 to 10,000 BC, have been found on the walls of caves in southern France and Spain. Many of these drawings are remarkably well preserved because the caves have been sealed for centuries. Early humans painted the wild animals they saw around them. Very crude human figures, made in positions of life, have been found in Africa and eastern Spain.
Cave artists filled the cave walls with drawings in rich, bright colors. Some of the most beautiful paintings are in the Altamira Cave, Spain. One detail shows a wounded bison no longer able to stand - probably a hunter's victim. It is colored reddish brown and outlined simply, but skillfully, in black. The pigments used by cave artists are ocher (iron oxides ranging in color from light yellow to dark orange) and manganese (dark metal). They were crushed into a fine powder, mixed with a lubricant (possibly with a fatty oil), and applied to the surface with some kind of brush. Sometimes the pigments took the form of crayon-like sticks. The fat mixed with the powdered pigments made the paint liquid and the pigment particles stick together. The inhabitants of the cave made brushes from animal hairs or plants, and sharp tools from silicon (for drawing and scratching).
As early as 30,000 years ago, humans invented the basic tools and materials for painting. Methods and materials have been refined and improved over the following centuries. But the discoveries of the cave dweller remain the main ones for painting.
Egyptian and Mesopotamian Painting (3400-332 BC)
One of the first civilizations appeared in Egypt. Much is known about their lives from the written records and art left behind by the Egyptians. They believed that the body must be preserved so that the soul can live after death. The Great Pyramids were complex tombs for the wealthy and powerful Egyptian rulers. Much Egyptian art was created for the pyramids and tombs of kings and other important people. To be absolutely sure that the soul will continue to exist, artists created images of a dead person in stone. They also reproduced scenes from human life in wall paintings in burial chambers.
Egyptian visual art techniques have remained unchanged for centuries. In one method, watercolor paint was applied to clay or limestone surfaces. In another process, outlines were carved into stone walls and painted with watercolors. A material called gum arabic was probably used to adhere paint to a surface. Fortunately, the dry climate and sealed tombs prevented some of these watercolor paintings from deteriorating from the dampness. Many hunting scenes from the walls of the tombs at Thebes, dating from around 1450 BC, are well preserved. They show how hunters chase birds or fish. These plots can still be identified today because they were carefully and carefully painted.
The Mesopotamian civilization, which lasted from 3200 to 332 BC, was located in a valley between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers in the Middle East. Houses in Mesopotamia were built mainly of clay. As the clay was softened by the rain, their buildings collapsed into dust, destroying any wall paintings that might have been very interesting. What has survived is decorated pottery (painted and fired) and colorful mosaics. Although mosaics cannot be considered painting, they often have an impact on it.
Aegean civilization (3000-1100 BC)
The third great early culture was the Aegean civilization. The Aegeans lived on islands off the coast of Greece and on the peninsula of Asia Minor at about the same time as the ancient Egyptians and Mesopotamians.
In 1900, archaeologists began excavating the palace of King Minos at Knossos in Crete. Excavations have uncovered works of art painted around 1500 BC. in the unusually free and graceful style of the time. Apparently the Cretans were a carefree, nature-loving people. Among their favorite themes in art were marine life, animals, flowers, sports games, and mass processions. At Knossos and other Aegean palaces, paintings were painted on wet plaster walls with paints of minerals, sand and earthy ocher. The paint soaked into the wet plaster and became a permanent part of the wall. These paintings were later called frescoes (from the Italian word for "fresh" or "new"). The Cretans liked the bright yellows, reds, blues and greens.
Greek and Roman Classical Painting (1100 BC - 400 AD)
The ancient Greeks decorated the walls of temples and palaces with frescoes. From ancient literary sources and from Roman copies of Greek art, it can be said that the Greeks painted small pictures and made mosaics. The names of the Greek masters and few of their lives and works are known, although very little Greek painting survived the centuries and the aftermath of wars. The Greeks did not write much in the tombs, so their work was not protected.
Painted vases are all that remain from Greek painting today. Pottery making was a large industry in Greece, especially in Athens. The containers were in great demand, were exported, as well as butter and honey, and for domestic purposes. The earliest vase painting was done in geometric shapes and ornaments (1100-700 BC). Vases were also decorated with human figures in brown glaze on light clay. By the 6th century, vase painters often painted black human figures on natural red clay. The details were carved into clay with a sharp tool. This allowed the red to appear in the depths of the relief.
The red-figured style eventually replaced the black one. That is, on the contrary: the figures are red, and the background is black. The advantage of this style was that the artist could use a brush to create paths. The brush gives a looser line than the metal tool used in the black curly vases.
Roman wall paintings have been found mainly in villas (country houses) in Pompeii and Herculaneum. In 79 AD, these two cities were completely buried by the eruption of Mount Vesuvius. The archaeologists who excavated the area were able to learn a lot about ancient Roman life from these cities. Almost every house and villa in Pompeii had paintings on its walls. Roman painters carefully prepared the surface of the wall, applying a mixture of marble dust and plaster. They polished the surfaces to a marble finish. Many of the paintings are copies of Greek paintings from the 4th century BC. The graceful postures of the figures painted on the walls of the Villa of the Mysteries in Pompeii inspired artists from the 18th century when the city was excavated.
The Greeks and Romans also painted portraits. A small number of these, mostly Greek-style portraits of mummies by Egyptian artists, have survived around Alexandria, in northern Egypt. Founded in the 4th century BC by Alexander the Great of Greece, Alexandria has become a leading center of Greek and Roman culture. The portraits were painted using the encaustic technique on wood and were installed in the form of a mummy after the death of the person depicted. Encaustic paintings made in paint mixed with melted beeswax have a very long shelf life. Indeed, these portraits still look fresh, although they were taken as far back as the second century BC.
Early Christian and Byzantine painting (300-1300)
The Roman Empire declined in the 4th century AD. At the same time, Christianity was gaining strength. In 313, the Roman emperor Constantine officially recognized the religion and converted to Christianity himself.
The rise of Christianity greatly influenced art. Artists were commissioned to decorate the walls of churches with frescoes and mosaics. They made panels in church chapels, illustrated and decorated church books. Under the influence of the Church, artists had to communicate the teachings of Christianity as clearly as possible.
The early Christians and Byzantine painters continued the mosaic technique they learned about from the Greeks. Small flat pieces of colored glass or stone were placed on wet cement or plaster. Other hard materials were sometimes used, such as pieces of baked clay or shells. In Italian mosaic, the colors are especially deep and full. Italian artists made the background with pieces of gilded glass. They depicted human figures in rich colors against a glittering gold backdrop. The overall effect was flat, decorative, and unrealistic.
Mosaics by Byzantine artists were often even less realistic and even more decorative than those of the early Christians. Byzantine is the name given to the style of art that developed around the ancient city of Byzantium (now Istanbul, Turkey). The mosaic technique matched perfectly the Byzantine taste for the magnificently decorated churches. The famous mosaics of Theodora and Justinian, made around 547 AD, show a taste for wealth. The jewelery on the figures glistens, and the colored court dresses sparkle against the glittering gold backdrop. Byzantine artists also used gold in frescoes and panels. Gold and other precious materials were used during the Middle Ages to separate spiritual items from the everyday world.
Medieval painting (500-1400)
The first part of the Middle Ages, from about the 6th to the 11th century AD, is usually called the Dark. During this time of unrest, art was kept mainly in monasteries. In the 5th century A.D. Warran tribes from Northern and Central Europe roamed the continent. They have dominated Western Europe for hundreds of years. These people produced art in which the main element is the pattern. They were particularly fond of the structures of intertwining dragons and birds.
The best of Celtic and Saxon art can be found in manuscripts from the 7th and 8th centuries. Book illustrations, lighting, and miniature painting, practiced since late Roman times, spread throughout the Middle Ages. Lighting is the decoration of text, caps and margins. The colors used were gold, silver and bright. A miniature is a small picture, often a portrait. The term was originally used to describe the decorative block around the initials in the manuscript.
Charlemagne, who was crowned Holy Roman Emperor in the early 9th century, tried to revive the classical art of the late Roman and early Christian periods. During his reign, miniature painters imitated classical art, but they also conveyed personal feelings through their objects.
Very little wall painting has survived from the Middle Ages. Churches built during the Romanesque period (11-13th centuries) had several great frescoes, but most of them have disappeared. In churches of the Gothic period (XII-XVI centuries), there was not enough space for wall paintings. Book illustration was the main work of the Gothic painter.
Among the best illustrated manuscripts were the books of hours - collections of calendars, prayers, and psalms. A page from an Italian manuscript shows elaborate initials and a finely detailed marginal scene of Saint George slaying a dragon. The colors are shiny and gem-like, like in stained glass, and gold shimmers over the page. Delicately thin leafy and floral designs border on text. Artists probably used magnifying glasses to do such complex, detailed work.
Italy: Cimabue and Giotto
Italian painters at the end of the 13th century were still working in the Byzantine style. Human figures were made flat and decorative. The faces rarely showed expression. The bodies were weightless and seemed to float rather than stand firmly on the ground. In Florence, the painter Cimabue (1240-1302) tried to modernize some of the old Byzantine methods. Angels in "Madonna Enthroned" are more active than usual in the paintings of that time. Their gestures and faces show a little more human feelings. Cimabue added a new sense of monumentality or grandeur to his paintings. However, he continued to follow many Byzantine traditions, such as the gold background and the patterned arrangement of objects and figures.
It was the great Florentine painter Giotto (1267-1337) who actually broke with the Byzantine tradition. His fresco series in the Arena Chapel in Padua leaves Byzantine art far behind. These scenes from the lives of Mary and Christ have real emotions, tension and naturalism. All the qualities of human warmth and sympathy are present. People don't seem completely unreal or heavenly. Giotto shaded the contours of the figures, and he placed deep shadows in the folds of the clothes to give a sense of roundness and strength.
For his small panels, Giotto used pure egg tempera, a medium that was perfected by the Florentines in the 14th century. The clarity and vibrancy of its colors should have greatly influenced people accustomed to the dark colors of Byzantine panels. Tempera paintings give the impression that soft daylight is falling on the stage. They have an almost flat appearance, in contrast to the gloss of oil painting. Egg tempera remained the main paint until oil almost completely replaced it in the 16th century.
Late medieval painting north of the Alps
At the beginning of the 15th century, artists in Northern Europe worked in a style completely different from Italian painting. Nordic artists achieved realism by adding countless details to their paintings. All hair was gracefully contoured and every detail of drapery or flooring was precisely set. The invention of oil painting made detailing easier.
The Flemish artist Jan van Eyck (1370-1414) made a major contribution to the development of oil painting. When tempera is used, colors must be applied separately. They cannot shade each other well because the paint dries quickly. With oil that dries slowly, the artist can achieve more complex effects. His portraits of 1466-1530 were executed in Flemish oil technique. All details and even mirroring are clear and precise. The color is durable and has a hard, enamel-like surface. The primed wood panel was prepared in the same way that Giotto prepared his panels for tempera. Van Eyck created the painting in layers of a subtle color called glaze. Tempera was probably used in the original undergrowth and for highlights.
Italian Renaissance
While van Eyck was working in the North, Italians were entering a golden age of art and literature. This period is called the Renaissance, which means revival. Italian artists were inspired by the sculpture of the ancient Greeks and Romans. The Italians wanted to revive the spirit of classical art, which celebrates human independence and nobility. Renaissance artists continued to paint religious scenes. But they also emphasized earthly life and the achievements of people.
Florence
Giotto's achievements in the early 14th century marked the beginning of the Renaissance. Italian artists of the 17th century continued it. Masaccio (1401-1428) was one of the leaders of the first generation of Renaissance painters. He lived in Florence, a wealthy trading city where Renaissance art began. By the time of his death in the late twenties, he had revolutionized painting. In his famous fresco, The Tribute Money, he sets solid sculptural figures in a landscape that seems to stretch far into the distance. Masaccio may have studied perspective with the Florentine architect and sculptor Brunelleschi (1377-1414).
The fresco technique was very popular during the Renaissance. It was especially suitable for large paintings because the colors in the fresco are dry and perfectly flat. The image can be viewed from any angle without glare or reflections. Also frescoes are affordable. Usually, the artists had several assistants. The work was done in parts because it had to be finished while the plaster was still wet.
Masaccio's full "three-dimensional" style was typical of the new progressive movement of the 15th century. Fra Angelico's style (1400-1455) is a more traditional approach used by many early Renaissance painters. He was less concerned with perspective and more interested in decorative patterns. His "Coronation of the Virgin" is an example of tempera in the most beautiful performance. Cheerful, intense colors set against gold and accented with gold. The picture looks like an enlarged miniature. Long, narrow shapes have little in common with Masaccio. The composition is organized in wide lines of movement circling around the central figures of Christ and Mary.
Another Florentine who worked in the traditional style was Sandro Botticelli (1444-1515). Flowing rhythmic lines connect sections of "Spring" Botticelli. The figure of Spring, carried by the westerly wind, sweeps from the right. The three graces dance in a circle, the flowing folds of their dresses and the graceful movements of their hands express the rhythms of the dance.
Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519) studied painting in Florence. He is known for his scientific research and inventions as well as his paintings. Very few of his paintings have survived, in part because he often experimented with different ways of creating and applying paint, rather than using tried and true methods. The Last Supper (written between 1495 and 1498) was done in oil, but unfortunately Leonardo painted it on a damp wall that cracked the paint. But even in poor condition (before restoration), the painting had the ability to arouse emotions in everyone who sees it.
One of the distinguishing features of Leonardo's style was his method of depicting lights and darkness. The Italians called it semi-dark lighting "sfumato", which means smoky or hazy. The figures in Madonna of the Rocks are veiled in a sfumato atmosphere. Their shapes and features are softly shaded. Leonardo achieved these effects using very subtle gradations of light and dark tones.
Rome
The culmination of Renaissance painting took place in the 16th century. At the same time, the center of art and culture moved from Florence to Rome. Under Pope Sixtus IV and his successor, Julius II, the city of Rome was gloriously and richly decorated by Renaissance artists. Some of the most ambitious projects of this period began during the papacy of Julius II. Julius commissioned the great sculptor and painter Michelangelo (1475-1564) to paint the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel and carve a sculpture for the tomb of the Pope. Julius also invited the painter Raphael (1483-1520) to help decorate the Vatican. With assistants, Raphael painted four rooms of the Pope's apartments in the Vatican Palace.
Michelangelo, a Florentine by birth, developed a monumental painting style. The figures in his painting are so solid and voluminous that they look like sculptures. The Sistine ceiling, which took Michelangelo 4 years, consists of hundreds of human figures from the Old Testament. To complete this grandiose fresco, Michelangelo had to lie on his back in the scaffolding. The pensive face of Jeremiah among the prophets that surround the ceiling is considered by some experts to be a self-portrait of Michelangelo.
Raphael came to Florence from Urbino as a very young man. In Florence, he absorbed the ideas of Leonardo and Michelangelo. By the time Raphael went to Rome to work at the Vatican, his style had become one of the greatest in beauty of execution. He especially loved his beautiful portraits of the Madonna and Child. They have been reproduced by the thousands and can be seen everywhere. His Madonna del Granduca is successful due to its simplicity. Timeless in its peacefulness and purity, it is as attractive to us as to the Italians of the era of Raphael.
Venice
Venice was the main northern Italian city of the Renaissance. It was visited by artists from Flanders and other regions who knew about Flemish experiments with oil paint. This stimulated the early use of oil technology in the Italian city. The Venetians learned how to paint on tightly stretched canvas rather than on the wood panels commonly used in Florence.
Giovanni Bellini (1430-1515) was the greatest Venetian painter of the 15th century. He was also one of the first Italian painters to use oil on canvas. Giorgione (1478-1151) and Titian (1488-1515), who is the most famous of all Venetian painters, were apprentices at Bellini's workshop.
Oil master Titian painted huge canvases in warm, rich colors. In his mature paintings, he sacrificed detail for stunning effects such as Madonna Pesaro. He used large brushes to make large strokes. His colors are especially rich because he patiently created glazes in contrasting colors. Usually the glazes were applied to the brown tempered surface, which gave the painting a uniform tone.
Another great Venetian painter of the 16th century was Tintoretto (1518-1594). Unlike Titian, he usually worked directly on canvas without preliminary sketches or outlines. He often distorted his forms (twisted them) for the sake of composition and drama of the plot. His technique, which includes broad strokes and dramatic contrasts of light and dark, seems very modern.
The painter Kyriakos Theotokopoulos (1541-1614) was known as El Greco ("Greek"). Born on the island of Crete, which was occupied by the Venetian army, El Greco was trained by Italian artists. As a young man, he went to study in Venice. The combined influence of Byzantine art that he saw around him in Crete and Italian Renaissance art made El Greco's work outstanding.
In his paintings, he distorted natural forms and used even stranger, more unearthly colors than Tintoretto, whom he admired. Later, El Greco moved to Spain, where the gloom of Spanish art influenced his work. In his dramatic vision of Toledo, a storm rages over the deadly silence of the city. Cold blues, greens, and blues and whites carry the chill over the landscape.
Renaissance in Flanders and Germany
The golden age of painting in Flanders (now part of Belgium and northern France) was the 15th century, the time of van Eyck. In the 16th century, many Flemish painters imitated Italian Renaissance painters. However, some Flemings continued the Flemish tradition of realism. Then genre painting spread - scenes from everyday life that were sometimes charming and sometimes fantastic. Hieronymus Bosch (1450-1515), who preceded genre painters, had an unusually vivid imagination. He came up with all sorts of strange, grotesque creatures for The Temptation of St. Anthony ". Pieter Bruegel the Elder (1525-1569) also worked in the Flemish tradition, but added perspective and other Renaissance characteristics to his genre scenes.
Albrecht Durer (1471-1528), Hans Holbein the Younger (1497-1543) and Lucas Cranach the Elder (1472-1553) were the three most important German painters of the 16th century. They did much to soften the gloomy realism of early German painting. Dürer visited Italy at least once, where he was impressed by paintings by Giovanni Bellini and other northern Italians. Through this experience, he instilled in German painting a knowledge of perspective, a sense of color and light, and a new understanding of composition. Holbein absorbed even more Italian achievements. His sensitive drawing and ability to select only the most important details made him a master portraitist.
Baroque painting
The 17th century is known in art as the Baroque period. In Italy, the painters Caravaggio (1571-1610) and Annibale Carracci (1560-1609) presented two contrasting points of view. Caravaggio (real name Michelangelo Merisi) always drew inspiration directly from the realities of life. One of his main problems was to copy nature as accurately as possible without glorifying it in any way. Carracci, on the other hand, followed the ideal of Renaissance beauty. He studied ancient sculpture and works by Michelangelo, Raphael, and Titian. Caravaggio's style admired many artists, especially the Spaniard Ribera and the young Velazquez. Carracci inspired Nicolas Poussin (1594-1665), a famous French painter of the 17th century.
Spain
Diego Velazquez (1599-1660), court painter to King Philip IV of Spain, was one of the greatest of all Spanish painters. A fan of Titian's work, he was a master at using rich, harmonious colors. No artist could better create the illusion of rich tissue or human skin. The portrait of the little prince Philippe Prosper shows this skill.
Flanders
The paintings of the Flemish artist Peter Paul Rubens (1577-1640) are the embodiment of the full-color baroque style. They are bursting with energy, color and light. Rubens broke with the Flemish tradition of painting small pictures. His canvases are huge, filled with human figures. He received more orders for large paintings than he could handle. Therefore, he often drew only a small color sketch. Then his assistants transferred the sketch to a large canvas and finished the painting under the direction of Rubens.
Holland
The achievements of the Dutch painter Rembrandt (1606-1669) are among the most outstanding in history. He had a wonderful gift - to accurately capture and convey human emotions. Like Titian, he worked for a long time on the creation of multi-layered paintings. Earthy colors - ocher yellow, brown and brownish-red - were his favorites. His paintings are mostly made in dark colors. The importance of the dark layered parts makes his technique unusual. The accent is conveyed by bright lighting in relation to bright areas.
Jan Vermeer (1632-1675) was part of a group of Dutch artists who painted modest scenes of everyday life. He was a master in painting any texture - satin, Persian carpets, bread crusts, metal. The overall impression of Vermeer's interior is a sunny, upbeat room filled with iconic household items.
18th century painting
In the 18th century, Venice produced several excellent artists. The most famous was Giovanni Battista Tiepolo (1696-1770). He decorated the interiors of palaces and other buildings with grandiose colorful frescoes representing scenes of wealth. Francesco Guardi (1712-1793) was very skillful with the brush, with just a few spots of color he could conjure up the idea of \u200b\u200ba tiny figure in a boat. The spectacular views of Antonio Canaletto (1697-1768) celebrated Venice's past glories.
France: Rococo style
In France, a taste for pastel colors and intricate finishes in the early 18th century led to the development of the Rococo style. Jean Antoine Watteau (1684-1721), court painter to King Louis XV, and later François Boucher (1703-1770) and Jean Honore Fragonard (1732-1806) were associated with Rococo trends. Watteau wrote dreamy visions, a life in which everything is fun. The style is based on picnics in parks, forest parties, where cheerful gentlemen and elegant ladies have fun in nature.
Other 18th-century artists depicted scenes of ordinary middle-class life. Like the Dutch Vermeer, Jean Baptiste Simeon Chardin (1699-1779) appreciated simple home scenes and still lifes. His colors are sober and calm compared to Watteau.
England
In the 18th century, the British first developed a separate school of painting. The core consisted mainly of portrait painters influenced by Venetian Renaissance painters. Sir Joshua Reynolds (1723-1792) and Thomas Gainsborough (1727-1788) are the most famous. Reynolds, who traveled to Italy, followed the ideals of Renaissance painting. His portraits, charming and touching, are not particularly interesting in color or texture. Gainsborough, on the other hand, had a talent for brilliance. The surfaces of his paintings glow with a radiant color.
19th century painting
The 19th century is sometimes seen as the period during which contemporary art began to take shape. One of the important reasons for the so-called revolution in art during this time was the invention of the camera, which forced artists to reconsider the purpose of painting.
A more important development was the widespread use of prefabricated paints. Until the 19th century, most artists or their assistants made their own paints by grinding pigment. Early commercial paints were inferior to hand paints. Artists in the late 19th century discovered that the dark blues and browns of earlier paintings turned black or gray over the years. They started using solid colors again to preserve their work, sometimes because they tried to more accurately reflect sunlight in street scenes.
Spain: Goya
Francisco Goya (1746-1828) was the first great Spanish painter to emerge from the 17th century. As a favorite painter of the Spanish court, he made many portraits of the royal family. The royal characters are equipped with elegant clothes and beautiful jewelry, but on some of their faces, vanity and greed are all that is reflected. In addition to portraits, Goya painted dramatic scenes such as May 3rd, 1808. This painting depicts the execution by a group of Spanish rebels by French soldiers. Bold contrasts of light and dark and gloomy colors, laced with red splashes, evoke a dark horror of the spectacle.
Although France was a great center of art in the 1800s, English landscape painters John Constable (1776-1837) and Joseph Mallord William Turner (1775-1851) made valuable contributions to 19th century painting. Both were interested in painting light and air, two aspects of nature that 19th century artists explored in their entirety. The constable used a technique known as division, or broken color. He used contrasting colors over the main background color. He often used a palette knife to apply color tightly. The painting "Hay Wain" made him famous after being shown in Paris in 1824. This is a simple village haymaking scene. Clouds drift over meadows covered with spots of sunlight. Turner's paintings are more dramatic than those of Constable, who painted the majestic sights of nature - storms, seascapes, blazing sunsets, high mountains. Often, a golden haze partially obscures objects in his paintings, making them appear to be floating in endless space.
France
The period of Napoleon's reign and the French Revolution marked the emergence of two opposing trends in French art - classicism and romanticism. Jacques-Louis David (1748-1825) and Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres (1780-1867) were inspired by ancient Greek and Roman art and the Renaissance. They accentuated details and used color to create solid shapes. As a favorite artist of the revolutionary government, David often wrote the historical events of that period. In his portraits, such as Madame Recamier, he strove to achieve classical simplicity.
Theodore Guericault (1791-1824) and the romantic Eugene Delacroix (1798-1863) rebelled against David's style. For Delacroix, color was the most important element in painting and he did not have the patience to imitate classical statues. Instead, he admired Ruben and the Venetians. He chose colorful, exotic themes for his paintings that sparkle with light and full of movement.
The Barbizon painters were also part of a general romantic movement that lasted from about 1820 to 1850. They worked near the village of Barbizon at the edge of the Fontainebleau forest. They drew inspiration from nature and completed paintings in their studios.
Other artists experimented with everyday common objects. The landscapes of Jean Baptiste Camille Corot (1796-1875) reflect his love for nature, and his studies of the human body show a kind of balanced serenity. Gustave Courbet (1819-1877) called himself a realist because he portrayed the world as he saw it - even its harsh, unpleasant side. He limited his palette to just a few gloomy colors. Edouard Manet (1832-1883) also took the basis for his stories from the outside world. People were shocked by his colorful contrasts and unusual techniques. The surfaces of his paintings often have a flat, patterned texture of brush strokes. Manet's techniques for applying light effects to form influenced young artists, especially the Impressionists.
Working in the 1870s and 1880s, a group of artists known as the Impressionists wanted to depict nature exactly as it was. They went much further than Constable, Turner and Manet in the study of the effects of light in color. Some of them have developed scientific theories of color. Claude Monet (1840-1926) often painted the same species at different times of the day to show how it changes under different lighting conditions. Whatever the subject, his paintings are composed of hundreds of tiny strokes placed next to each other, often in contrasting colors. At a distance, strokes blend to create the impression of solid shapes. Pierre Auguste Renoir (1841-1919) used Impressionist techniques to capture the feast of Parisian life. In his Dance at the Moulin de la Galette, people in brightly colored clothes crowded and danced merrily. Renoir painted the whole picture with small strokes. Dots and strokes of paint create a texture on the surface of the painting that gives it a special look. The crowds seem to melt into sunlight and shimmering color.
20th century painting
A number of artists soon became dissatisfied with Impressionism. Artists such as Paul Cezanne (1839-1906) felt that Impressionism did not describe the strength of forms in nature. Cézanne loved to paint still lifes because they allowed him to focus on the shape of the fruit or other objects and their location. The objects of his still lifes look solid because he reduced them to simple geometric shapes. His technique of placing stains of paint and short strokes of rich color side by side shows that he learned a lot from the Impressionists.
Vincent Van Gogh (1853-90) and Paul Gauguin (1848-1903) reacted to the realism of the Impressionists. Unlike the Impressionists, who said they viewed nature objectively, Van Gogh cared little for precision. He often distorted objects to express his thoughts more creatively. He used impressionist principles to place contrasting colors next to each other. Sometimes he would squeeze paint from tubes directly onto the canvas, like in The Field of Yellow Corn.
Gauguin did not care about the spotty color of the Impressionists. He applied color fluidly in large flat areas that he separated from each other with lines or dark edges. Colorful tropical peoples provided much of his plots.
Cezanne's method of creating space using simple geometric shapes was developed by Pablo Picasso (1881-1973), Georges Braque (1882-1963) and others. Their style became known as Cubism. Cubists painted objects as if they could be seen from multiple angles at once, or as if they were taken apart and assembled on a flat canvas. Often the objects turned out to be dissimilar to anything that exists in nature. Occasionally, Cubists cut figures out of fabric, cardboard, wallpaper, or other materials and pasted them onto canvas to make a collage. The textures were also varied by adding sand or other substances to the paint.
More recent trends have been to place less emphasis on the topic. Composition and image technique began to receive more emphasis.
- Acrylic painting: history, technique, advantages of acrylic
Although the concept of "genre" appeared in painting relatively recently, certain genre differences have existed since ancient times: images of animals in caves of the Paleolithic era, portraits Ancient egyptand Mesopotamia from 3 thousand BC, landscapes and still lifes in Hellenistic and Roman mosaics and frescoes. The formation of the genre as a system in easel painting began in Europe in the 15th and 16th centuries. and ended mainly in the 17th century, when, in addition to the division of fine art into genres, the concept of the so-called. "High" and "low" genres, depending on the subject of the image, theme, plot. Historical and mythological genres were referred to "high" genres, portrait, landscape, still life - to "low" ones. This gradation of genres lasted until the 19th century. albeit with exceptions.
So, in the 17th century. in Holland, it was the “low” genres (landscape, genre, still life) that became the leading ones in painting, and the ceremonial portrait, which formally belonged to the “low” genre of portrait, did not belong to that. Having become a form of displaying life, painting genres, with all the stability of general features, are not unchanged, they develop along with life, changing as art develops. Some genres die off or acquire a new meaning (for example, a mythological genre), new ones appear, usually within pre-existing ones (for example, within a landscape genre, architectural landscape and marina). Works appear that combine various genres (for example, a combination of a genre with a landscape, a group portrait with a historical genre).
Self-portrait (from French autoportrait) - a portrait of oneself. Usually a pictorial image is meant; however, self-portraits are also sculptural, literary, cinematic, photographic, etc.
Rembrandt "Self-portrait".
ALLEGORY (Greek allegoria - allegory) - the expression of abstract ideas using specific artistic images. Example: "justice" is a woman with scales.
Moretto da Brescia "Allegory of Faith"
ANIMALISTIC (from lat. animal - animal) - a genre associated with the image of animals in painting, sculpture and graphics.
D. Stubbs. Mares and foals in a landscape by the river. 1763-1768
BATTLE (from French bataille - battle) - dedicated to the depiction of military operations and military life.
Averyanov Alexander Yurievich. href \u003d "http://www.realartist.ru/names/averyanov/30/"\u003e Waterloo.
DOMESTIC - associated with the image of a person's daily life.
Nikolai Dmitrievich DMITRIEV-ORENBURGSKY (1837-1898).Fire in the village
GALLANT - "courteous, polite amiable, courteous, interesting" is outdated. associated with the image of exquisite lyrical scenes from the life of court ladies and gentlemen in the artistic work of mainly the 18th century.
Gerard ter Borch the Younger. Gallant soldier.
HISTORICAL - one of the main genres of fine art, dedicated to historical events of the past and present, socially significant phenomena in the history of peoples.
Pavel Ryzhenko. Peresvet's victory.
CARICATURE - a genre of fine art that uses the means of satire and humor, grotesque, cartoon, an image in which a comic effect is created by exaggeration and sharpening of characteristic features. Caricature makes fun of a character's flaw or depravity in order to attract him and the people around him, in order to make him change for the better.
MYTHOLOGICAL - dedicated to the events and heroes that myths tell about. Gods, demiurges, heroes, demons, mythical creatures, historical and mythological characters. In the 19th century, the mythological genre served as the norm for high, ideal art.
Alexander Ivanov. Bellerophon goes on a campaign against the Chimera.
STILL LIFE - the genre of fine art, images of inanimate objects placed in a real everyday environment and organized into a certain group; painting depicting household items, flowers, fruits, game, caught fish, etc.
Aenvanck, Theodoor
Nude (nude) - an art genre in sculpture, painting, photography and cinema, depicting the beauty of the naked human body, mostly female.
Venus of Urbino ", Titian
PASTORAL (French pastorale - shepherd, rural) - a genre in literature, painting, music and theater, the image of the idyllic life of shepherds and shepherdesses in nature.
LANDSCAPE (French paysage, from pays - country, area), - a genre dedicated to the image of any area: rivers, mountains, fields, forests, rural or urban landscape.
Href \u003d "http://solsand.com/wiki/doku.php?id\u003dostade&DokuWiki\u003d7593bff333e2d137d17806744c6dbf83"\u003e Adriana van Ostade
PORTRAIT (fr. portrait, "to reproduce something line in line") - a genre of fine art dedicated to the image of a person or a group of people; varieties - self-portrait, group portrait, ceremonial, intimate, fancy-dress portrait, portrait miniature.
Borovikovsky V. "Portrait of M. I. Lopukhina"
PICTURE-THEMED PICTURE - the definition of a kind of crossing of traditional genres of painting, which contributed to the creation of large-scale works on socially significant topics with a clearly expressed plot, plot action, multi-figure composition. Briefly: - mixing of traditional genres of painting of everyday life, historical, battle, compositional portrait, landscape, etc.
Robert, Hubert - Inspection of the old church
CHARGE or FRIENDLY CHARGE (fr. charge) - a humorous or satirical image in which the characteristic features of the model are changed and emphasized within the normal range, in order to play a trick, and not humiliate and insult, as is usually done in cartoons.
Painting is distinguished by a variety of genres and types. Each genre is limited by its own range of subjects: the image of a person (portrait), the world around (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. So it is called for the reason that it is performed on a machine - easel. The basis is wood, cardboard, paper, but most often canvas stretched on a stretcher. An easel painting is an independent work performed in a specific genre. She has a richness of color.
Oil paints
Most often, easel painting is executed with oil paints. You can use oil paints on canvas, wood, cardboard, paper, metal.
Oil paints
Oil paints - 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 wood, metal and other surfaces.
V. Perov "Portrait of Dostoevsky" (1872). Canvas, oil
But a picturesque picture can also be created using tempera, gouache, pastels, watercolors.
Watercolor
Watercolor paints
Aquarel (French Aquarelle - watery; Italian acquarello) is a painting technique that uses special watercolor paints. When dissolved in water, they form a transparent suspension of a thin pigment, due to this, the effect of lightness, airiness and subtle color transitions is created.
J. Turner "Lake Lucerne" (1802). Watercolor. Tate Britain (London)
Gouache
Gouache (fr. Gouache, ital. Guazzo water paint, splash) is a type of adhesive water-soluble paints, more dense and 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 texture, but when it dries, the colors whiten (lighten) a little, which the artist should take into account when drawing. With the help of gouache paints, you can overlap dark tones with light ones.
Vincent Van Gogh "Corridor in Azulum" (black chalk and gouache on pink paper)
Pastel [uh]
Pastel (from Lat. Pasta - dough) - art materials used in graphics and painting. Most often it is produced in the form of crayons or rimless pencils in the form of 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 Latin temperare - to mix paints) - water-borne paints prepared on the basis of dry powder pigments. The binder of tempera paints is a chicken egg yolk diluted with water or a whole egg.
Tempera paints are one of the oldest. Before the invention and distribution of oil paints up to the XV-XVII centuries. tempera paints were the main material for easel painting. They have been used for over 3 thousand years. The famous murals of the sarcophagi of the ancient Egyptian pharaohs are made with tempera paints. Tempera was mainly easel painting by Byzantine masters. In Russia, the technique of tempera writing was predominant until the end of the 17th century.
R. Streltsov "Daisies 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 in this technique. It originated in Ancient Greece.
"Angel". Encaustic technique
We draw your attention to the fact that you can find another classification, according to which watercolors, gouache and other techniques using water-based paper and paints are classified as graphics. They combine the peculiarities of painting (richness of tone, construction of form and space with color) and graphics (the active role of paper in the construction of an image, the absence of a specific relief of a smear characteristic of a painted surface).
Monumental painting
Monumental painting - painting on architectural structures or other bases. This is the oldest type of painting, known from the Paleolithic. Due to its stationarity and durability, numerous examples of it remained from almost all cultures that created developed architecture. The main techniques of monumental painting are fresco, and secco, mosaic, stained glass.
Fresco
Fresco (from Italian fresco - fresh) - painting on wet plaster with water paints, one of the techniques of wall painting. When dry, the lime contained in the plaster forms a thin transparent calcium film, which makes the fresco durable.
The fresco has a pleasant matte surface and is durable in indoor conditions.
Gelati Monastery (Georgia). Church of the Most Holy Theotokos. Fresco on the upper and south side of the Arc de Triomphe
A secco
A sekko (from Italian a secco - on dry) - wall painting, performed, in contrast to a fresco, on hard, dried plaster, re-moistened. Paints are used, ground on vegetable glue, egg or mixed with lime. Secco allows you to paint more surface area in a working day than with fresco painting, but it is not such a durable technique.
The asecco technique developed in medieval painting along with fresco and was especially widespread in Europe in the 17th-18th centuries.
Leonardo da Vinci's The Last Supper (1498). Technique a secco
Mosaic
Mosaic (French mosaïque, Italian mosaico from Latin (opus) musivum - (work) dedicated to the muses) is a decorative, applied and monumental art of different genres. Images in a mosaic are formed by arranging, collecting and fixing colored stones, smalt, ceramic tiles and other materials on the surface.
Mosaic panel "Cat"
Stained glass
Stained glass (fr. Vitre - window glass, from Latin vitrum - glass) - a work of colored glass. For a long time, stained glass has been used in temples. During the Renaissance, stained glass existed as painting on glass.
Stained-glass window DK "Mezhsoyuzny" (Murmansk)
Diorama and panorama are also types of painting.
Diorama
The building of the diorama "Storming Sapun Mountain on May 7, 1944" in Sevastopol
A diorama is a ribbon-like pictorial painting curved in a semicircle with a foreground subject plan. The illusion of the spectator's presence in the natural space is created, which is achieved by the 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 are: "Storming Sapun Mountain" (Sevastopol), "Defense of Sevastopol" (Sevastopol), "Fights for Rzhev" (Rzhev), "Breaking the Siege of Leningrad" (Petersburg), "Storming Berlin" (Moscow), etc.
Panorama
In painting, a panorama is called a painting with a circular view, in which a flat pictorial background is combined with a three-dimensional subject first plan. The panorama creates the illusion of a real space surrounding the viewer in a full circle of the horizon. Panoramas are mainly used to depict events covering a large area and a large number of participants.
Museum-panorama "Battle of Borodino" (museum building)
In Russia, the most famous panoramas are the Battle of Borodino Panorama Museum, The Volochaevskaya Battle, The Defeat of the Nazi Troops at Stalingrad in the Battle of Stalingrad Panorama Museum, The Defense of Sevastopol, and the Trans-Siberian Railway Panorama.
Franz Roubaud. Panoramic canvas "Battle of Borodino"
Theatrical and decorative painting
Decorations, costumes, make-up, props help to deeper reveal the content of the play (film). The scenery gives an idea of \u200b\u200bthe place and time of the action, activates the viewer's perception of what is happening on the stage. The theatrical artist strives to sharply express the individual character of the characters, their social status, the style of the era, and much more in sketches of costumes and make-up.
In Russia, the heyday of theatrical and decorative art falls on the turn of the XIX-XX centuries. At this time, the outstanding artists M.A. Vrubel, V.M. Vasnetsov, A. Ya. Golovin, L.S. Bakst, N.K. Roerich.
M. Vrubel "The City of Candy". Set design for N.A. Rimsky-Korsakov's "The Tale of Tsar Saltan" for the Russian Private Opera in Moscow. (1900)
Miniature
Miniature is a small-scale painting. Especially popular was miniature portrait - a portrait of a small format (from 1.5 to 20 cm), distinguished by a special subtlety of writing, a peculiar technique of execution and the use of means inherent only in this pictorial form.
The types and formats of miniatures are very diverse: they were painted on parchment, paper, cardboard, ivory, metal and porcelain, using watercolors, gouache, special art enamels or oil paints. The author can enter the image, in accordance with his decision or at the request of the customer, in a circle, oval, rhombus, octagon, etc. A classic portrait miniature is a miniature made on a thin ivory plate.
Emperor Nicholas I. Fragment of miniature by G. Morselli
There are several miniature techniques.
Lacquer miniature (Fedoskino)
Miniature with a portrait of Princess Zinaida Nikolaevna (Yusupov's jewelry)
There are works of art that seem to hit the viewer on the head, dumbfounded and amazed. Others drag out into thought and in search of semantic layers, secret symbolism. Some paintings are covered with secrets and mystical riddles, while others surprise with an exorbitant price.
We carefully reviewed all the main achievements in world painting and selected two dozen of the strangest paintings from them. Salvador Dali, whose works completely fall into the format of this material and are the first to come to mind, were not included in this collection on purpose.
It is clear that “strangeness” is a rather subjective concept, and each has its own amazing pictures that stand out from a number of other works of art. We will be glad if you share them in the comments and tell us a little about them.
"Scream"
Edvard Munch. 1893, cardboard, oil, tempera, pastel.
National Gallery, Oslo.
The Scream is considered a landmark event in Expressionism and one of the most famous paintings in the world.
There are two interpretations of what is depicted: the hero himself is seized with horror and silently screams, pressing his hands to his ears; or the hero closes his ears from the cry of peace and nature sounding around. Munch wrote four versions of The Scream, and there is a version that this picture is the fruit of a manic-depressive psychosis from which the artist suffered. After a course of treatment at the clinic, Munch did not return to work on the canvas.
“I was walking along the path with two friends. The sun was setting - suddenly the sky turned blood red, I paused, feeling exhausted, and leaned against the fence - I looked at the blood and flames over the bluish-black fjord and the city. My friends went further, and I stood, trembling with excitement, feeling an endless cry piercing nature, ”Edvard Munch said about the history of the painting.
Where did we come from? Who are we? Where are we going?"
Paul Gauguin. 1897-1898, oil on canvas.
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.
At the direction of Gauguin himself, the painting should be read from right to left - three main groups of figures illustrate the questions posed in the title.
Three women with a child represent the beginning of life; the middle group symbolizes the daily existence of maturity; in the final group, according to the artist's plan, "an old woman approaching death seems to be reconciled and devoted to her thoughts", at her feet "a strange white bird ... represents the uselessness of words."
A deeply philosophical picture of the post-impressionist Paul Gauguin was painted by him in Tahiti, where he fled from Paris. Upon completion of the work, he even wanted to commit suicide: "I believe that this canvas is superior to all my previous ones and that I will never create something better or even similar." He lived for another five years, and so it happened.
"Guernica"
Pablo Picasso. 1937, canvas, oil.
Reina Sofia Museum, Madrid.
Guernica presents scenes of death, violence, atrocity, suffering and helplessness, without specifying their immediate causes, but they are obvious. It is said that in 1940, Pablo Picasso was summoned to the Gestapo in Paris. Speech immediately turned to the picture. "Did you do this?" - "No, you did it."
A huge painting-fresco "Guernica", painted by Picasso in 1937, tells about the raid of a volunteer unit of the Luftwaffe on the city of Guernica, as a result of which the six thousandth city was completely destroyed. The painting was completed in just a month - the first days of work on the painting, Picasso worked for 10-12 hours, and already in the first sketches one could see the main idea. It is one of the best illustrations of the nightmare of fascism, as well as human cruelty and grief.
"Portrait of the Arnolfini couple"
Jan van Eyck. 1434, wood, oil.
London National Gallery, London.
The famous painting is completely and completely filled with symbols, allegories and various references - right up to the signature “Jan van Eyck was here”, which turned the painting not just into a work of art, but into a historical document confirming the reality of the event at which the artist was present.
The portrait, presumably of Giovanni di Nicolao Arnolfini and his wife, is one of the most complex works of the Western Northern Renaissance school of painting.
In Russia, in the past few years, the painting has gained great popularity due to the portrait resemblance of Arnolfini to Vladimir Putin.
"Demon sitting"
Mikhail Vrubel. 1890, canvas, oil.
State Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow.
"Hands resist him"
Bill Stoneham. 1972.
This work, of course, cannot be ranked among the masterpieces of world painting, but the fact that it is strange is a fact.
There are legends around the painting with a boy, a doll and palms pressed against the glass. From "they die because of this picture" to "children on it are alive." The picture looks really creepy, which gives rise to a lot of fears and conjectures in people with a weak psyche.
The artist insisted that the painting depicts himself at the age of five, that the door is a representation of the dividing line between the real world and the world of dreams, and the doll is a guide that can guide the boy through this world. The arms represent alternative lives or possibilities.
The painting rose to prominence in February 2000 when it was put up for sale on eBay with a backstory telling that the painting was "haunted." "Hands Resist Him" \u200b\u200bwas bought for $ 1,025 by Kim Smith, who was then simply inundated with letters with terrible stories and demands to burn the painting.