What is a portrait. Styles and genres of portraiture

A portrait (derived from the French word portrait) is an artistic depiction of a person with the transfer of his inner world.
In the portrait, a person can be depicted chest-deep, waist-deep, hip-deep, knee-deep, full-length.
The portrait can have a different turn of the head: full face, a quarter turn to the right or left, half a turn, three quarters, in profile.
The format of the portrait can be different: rectangular vertical, rectangular horizontal, square, oval or round.
The portrait is divided by size: portrait miniature, easel portrait (painting, graphics, sculpture), monumental portrait (monument, fresco, mosaic).
The portrait is divided according to the method of execution: oil, pencil, pastel, watercolor, dry brush, engraved, miniature, photographic, etc.
The portrait can be painted in various styles: academicism, realism, impressionism, expressionism, modern, abstractionism, surrealism, cubism, pop art, etc.

There are various classificationsportrait:

self-portrait- a graphic, pictorial or sculptural image of the artist, made by him with the help of a mirror or a system of mirrors.

Allegorical portrait- a kind of costume portrait, in which the image of the person being portrayed is presented in the form of an allegory.

military portrait- a kind of ceremonial portrait - a portrait in the image of a commander.

group portrait- a portrait that includes at least three characters.

child portrait

Donor's portrait- a kind of religious portrait, in which the person who made the donation was depicted in the picture (for example, next to Jesus).
Donator (from lat. donator - donor) - the customer, organizer and patron of the construction of a Catholic church or the customer and donor of a work of fine or decorative art decorating the temple.

In the photo - Piero della Francesca "Altar of Montefeltro". On the right, on his knees, the donor is the Duke of Montefeltro.

Female portrait

individual portrait- a portrait that includes one character.

intimate portrait- a chamber portrait with a neutral background, expressing a trusting relationship between the artist and the person being portrayed.

historical portrait- a portrait of a historical figure.

chamber portrait- a portrait using a half-length, chest or shoulder image of a person. Usually in a chamber portrait the figure is given against a neutral background.

- (derived from Italian. caricare - to exaggerate) - a satirical or humorous portrait.

colossal portrait- a portrait of huge size (usually in sculpture).

Equestrian portrait- a kind of ceremonial portrait.

Costumed portrait- a portrait in which a person is presented as an allegorical, mythological, historical, theatrical or literary character. Typically, the names of such portraits include the words "in the form" or "in the image."

Coronation portrait- a solemn image of the monarch on the day of accession to the throne, in coronation regalia, usually in full growth.

Ktitorsky portrait- a kind of religious portrait, in which the person who made the donation was depicted in the picture.
Ktitor (from the Greek κτήτωρ - owner, founder, creator) - a person who allocated funds for the construction or repair of an Orthodox church or monastery, or for decorating it with icons, frescoes, objects of decorative and applied art.
In the photo - Ktitor Radivoi with his family and Metropolitan Kalevit with a model of the church (Kremikovskiy Monastery).

— a portrait of a small format (up to 20 cm), usually it is watercolor, ink or lottery graphics: etching, lithography, woodcut, etc.
A miniature portrait can be chamber or formal, have a plot basis or not. As in a large portrait, the depicted face can be placed against a neutral, landscape background or in an interior. And although the miniature portrait is subject to the same basic laws of development and the same aesthetic canons as the entire portrait genre as a whole, but differs from it both in terms of the essence of the artistic solution and in its area of ​​application, the miniature is always more intimate.

- a kind of costumed portrait in which a person is presented as a mythological character.

male portrait

hunting portrait

Ceremonial portrait, representative portrait- a portrait showing a person in full growth, on a horse, standing or sitting. Usually in a formal portrait, the figure is given against an architectural or landscape background.

Depending on the attributes, the ceremonial portrait can be: coronation; throne; equestrian; soldier in the form of a commander.
The hunting portrait adjoins the front one, but it can also be chamber.

Companion portrait- two portraits painted on different canvases, but coordinated among themselves in composition, format and color. Usually paired portraits depict spouses.

- a kind of ceremonial portrait, in which the person being portrayed is usually depicted waist-high and with a large number of accessories.

portrait-painting- a portrait, where the person portrayed is presented in a semantic and plot relationship with the surrounding household items, nature, architecture, people, etc.

Portrait walk- a portrait of a walking person against the backdrop of nature. This type of portrait originated in England in the 18th century and gained popularity in the era of sentimentalism.

Posthumous portrait, retrospective portrait- a portrait made after the death of the depicted people according to their lifetime images or completely composed by the author.

Family portrait

Soviet portrait - the image of a new man, the builder of communism, the bearer of such qualities as collectivism, socialist humanism, internationalism, revolutionary purposefulness.

throne portrait- a kind of ceremonial portrait - a solemn image of a monarch sitting on a throne.

Caricature- a satirical or good-natured-humorous image in which, while observing external similarities, the most characteristic features of a person are changed and highlighted.

Since the social position of the portrayed person influenced certain methods of presenting his image, sometimes the class principle was used in the classification:

• merchant portrait
• portrait of a clergyman
• jester's portrait
• portrait of a poet

© Material prepared by ART-SPb studio

Portrait art originated in ancient times. But the path to a realistic portrait was very long.

A portrait in the fine arts is an image of a person or group of people. Through the external appearance of a person, the portrait also shows his inner world.

About the term

The word "portrait" (portrait) in European culture originally meant "pictorial reproduction" of any object, including an animal. And only in the XVII century. André Félibien, the French art historian and official court historian of King Louis XIV, suggested using the term "portrait" exclusively for "the depiction of a (concrete) human being."
The images of the faces of Jesus Christ, the Mother of God and the saints are not portraits - they are not painted from a specific person, these are only generalizing images. The exception is the portraits of the saints of the New Age, created during their lifetime.

The history of the formation of the portrait genre

The first samples of the portrait belong to ancient Egyptian sculpture. But we will talk about sculpture in a separate article.

The medieval portrait was mostly devoid of personalization, although the frescoes and mosaics of Byzantine, Russian and other churches are characterized by a clear physiognomic certainty and spirituality: the artists gradually give the saints the facial features of real people.
Starting from the X-XII centuries. the portrait in Western Europe begins to develop more intensively: it is preserved in tombstones, on coins and in book miniatures. His models are mainly noble persons - rulers and members of their families, retinue.
Gradually, the portrait begins to penetrate into easel painting. One of the first examples of an easel portrait of this period is the "Portrait of John the Good", the second king of France.

Unknown artist. "Portrait of John the Good" (circa 1349)
As for the portrait genre in the East, the situation there was more favorable: the surviving portraits date back to 1000 AD, and the medieval Chinese portrait is generally very specific.

Unknown artist. "Portrait of the Buddhist Monk Wuzhun Shifan" (1238)
This portrait impresses not only with the ability to depict the individual features of the character's appearance, but also with the ability to convey the inner world of a person, his intellect.
Ancient Peruvian culture of the Indians mochica(I-VIII centuries) was one of the few ancient civilizations of the New World where portraits existed.

Genre Development

The portrait genre reached its peak during the Renaissance. This is understandable: after all, the ideology of the era has changed - a person has become a person and a measure of all things, so his image was given special importance. Although the first portraits still repeated the images of ancient coins and medals (profile images).

Piero della Francesca "Portrait of Duke Federigo Montefeltro" (1465-1466)
In the era of the early Renaissance, there was a “exit from the profile to the front”, which indicated the formation of the European portrait genre. In addition, the technique of oil painting arose at this time - the portrait becomes more subtle and psychological.
In the portrait work of the masters of the High Renaissance (Leonardo da Vinci, Raphael, Giorgione, Titian, Tintoretto), the genre was further developed. In portrait images, intelligence, human dignity, a sense of freedom, and spiritual harmony are clearly expressed.
The most famous portrait in the world from this period is the Mona Lisa by Leonardo da Vinci.

Leonardo da Vinci "Mona Lisa" (1503-1519). Louvre (Paris)
Famous German portrait painters of this period are A. Dürer and Hans Holbein Jr.

Albrecht Durer "Self-portrait" (1500)
In the era of Mannerism (XVI century), forms of group and historical portraits arose. A well-known portrait painter of that time was the Spanish painter of Greek origin El Greco.

El Greco, The Apostles Peter and Paul (1592). State Hermitage Museum (Petersburg)
In the 17th century The highest achievements in portrait painting belong to the Netherlands. The perception of the world of the portrait of that time is already filled with a different content compared to the Renaissance: the view of reality was no longer harmonious, the inner world of a person became more complicated. There is a democratization of the portrait - this is especially noticeable in Holland. People of various social strata of society and age groups appear on the canvases.

Rembrandt "The Anatomy Lesson of Doctor Tulp" (1632)
The number of commissioned portraits is increasing. Artists (Diego Velasquez, Hals) begin to create portraits-types of people from the people. A form of self-portrait is being developed (Rembrandt, his student Karel Fabricius, Anthony van Dyck, Nicolas Poussin). Ceremonial portraits are created, as well as family portraits.

Rembrandt "Saskia in a red hat" (1633-1634)
The greatest Flemish portrait painters were Peter Paul Rubens and Anthony van Dyck, the Dutch - Rembrandt, Franz Hals. The Spanish painter of the period, Diego Velasquez, is considered one of the greatest portrait painters in the history of the genre. In the portraits of Velazquez, artistry and psychological completeness are clearly felt.

D. Velasquez "Self-portrait" (1656)
At the beginning of the XVIII century. portrait as a genre is degrading. This is especially true for realistic portraits. Why did this happen?
Increasingly, portraits began to be painted to order. And who are the customers? Certainly not poor. Aristocrats and bourgeois demanded one thing from the artist: flattery. Therefore, portraits of this time are usually cloying, lifeless, theatrical. Ceremonial portraits of the powerful of this world become the standard of the portrait genre - this is where its decline comes from.

G. Rigaud "Portrait of Louis XIV" (1701)
But the decline of the genre did not mean its complete destruction. The Age of Enlightenment contributed to the return of the realistic and psychological portrait. The late works of Antoine Watteau, simple and sincere "genre" portraits of Chardin, portraits of Fragonard, the English artist W. Hogarth open a new page in the portrait genre. In Spain, Goya begins to work in this genre. World-class painters appeared in Russia - D. Levitsky and V. Borovikovsky.
The portrait miniature is widely used.

D. Evreinov "Portrait of Count A. S. Stroganov". Enamel. 8.2 × 7 cm, oval. 1806. State Hermitage (Petersburg)
Classicism, which dominated the 19th century, made the portrait more strict, losing the pomp and sugaryness of the 18th century.
The most notable phenomenon in this genre was the painter Jacques Louis David.

J. L. David "Napoleon at the St. Bernard Pass" (1800)
The era of romanticism brought a critical line to the portrait. The Spaniard Goya, who created the group Portrait of the Family of Charles IV, is considered an outstanding master of this period. This work was commissioned as a ceremonial portrait, but in the end reflected the ugliness of the ruling dynasty.

F. Goya "Portrait of the family of Charles IV"
The technique of writing this portrait is magnificent, but Goya fundamentally abandoned everything that was created in the ceremonial group portrait before him. He placed the representatives of the royal family in a row, and the figures of the obese King Carlos and his ugly wife Marie-Louise became the center.
The exact psychological characteristics of each character are given. The images are authentic, written on the verge of grotesque and caricature. This is a true portrait of royalty. The French novelist Théophile Gauthier said of the main characters in this portrait that they resemble "a baker and his wife who have won a big prize in the lottery."
The portrait does not show the slightest desire to embellish Queen Marie-Louise. And only the children in Goya's painting are beautiful - Goya's sympathy for children was unchanged.
Russian portrait painters Orest Kiprensky, Karl Bryullov, Vasily Tropinin loudly declared themselves. About them - a separate article.
Of the masters of this period, J.O.D. Ingres. The name of the Frenchman Honore Daumier is associated with the emergence of the first significant examples of a satirical portrait in graphics and sculpture.
From the middle of the XIX century. a portrait of realism emerges. It is characterized by an interest in the social characteristics of the depicted, a psychological characteristic. In Russia, the Wanderers opened up new possibilities in painting, in particular, in portraiture.

Ivan Kramskoy “Portrait of the artist I.I. Shishkin" (1873)
By this time, photography was born, the photographic portrait becomes a serious competitor to the pictorial portrait, but at the same time encourages him to search for new forms that are inaccessible to photographic art.
The Impressionists introduced a new concept into the portrait genre: the rejection of maximum likelihood (which they left to a photographic portrait), but a focus on the variability of a person's appearance and his behavior in a changing environment.

K. Korovin "Portrait of Chaliapin" (1911)
Paul Cezanne sought to express in the portrait some stable properties of the model, and Vincent van Gogh tried to reflect the problems of the moral and spiritual life of modern man through the portrait.
At the end of the XIX-beginning of the XX centuries. in art, the Art Nouveau style dominated, the portrait of that time becomes laconic and often grotesque (for Toulouse-Lautrec, Edvard Munch, etc.).

Toulouse-Lautrec "Jeanne Avril" (1893)
In the XX century. the portrait is again in decline. On the basis of modernism, works arise that are nominally considered a portrait, but devoid of its qualities. They intentionally move away from the real appearance of the model and reduce its image to convention. It is believed that the photograph depicts accuracy, and the artist must show the originality and uniqueness of the depicted character. Well, something like this.

Juan Gris "Portrait of Picasso" (1912)
Among the portrait painters of the 20th century working in the realistic portrait genre, one can name the American artists Robert Henry and George Bellows, Renato Guttuso (Italy), Hans Erni (Switzerland), Diego Rivera and Siqueiros (Mexico), etc. But interest in the portrait in 1940 -1950s in general, it is falling, but interest in abstract and non-figurative art is increasing.

A portrait in painting is a form of depicting a human figure, in which the face is the central part of the image. Traditionally, they depict the face and shoulders or a person in full growth. There are several varieties: traditional, group or self-portrait. A portrait painting is specially written to show the character and unique features of a person.

History of development

Among the great painters of portraiture are the old masters of the Italian Renaissance: Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo, Bronzino, Raphael, Titian. To the north of the Alps, on the territory of Germany, Flanders, Jan van Eyck, a representative of the Netherlandish painting, German portrait painters Lucas Cranach the Elder and Hans Holbein the Younger worked.

Later works are by Rembrandt, Anthony van Dyck, Velasquez Thomas Gainsborough. Paintings in romantic, classical, abstract styles of the 19th - early 20th centuries are represented by the works of Géricault, Manet, Cezanne, Van Gogh, Gauguin, Picasso, Auerbach, Modigliani. The largest collection of portraiture is in the National Portrait Gallery in London - about 200,000 paintings.

Characteristics of the plot-thematic genre

Ancient times

The genre of the portrait was considered as public or private art for the elite. In the ancient Mediterranean civilizations of Egypt, Greece, Rome, and Byzantium, art was associated with funeral rites, worship of the gods, or a form of display of the ruler's majesty. The genre existed in the form of a sculptural image, frescoes. Private orders were carried out for the royal families of Mesopotamia, Egypt, Greece. Portrait art was public, meant to decorate public places, reflecting mores and religious values.

Examples of portraits from ancient Egypt: the sculpture of Mikerin, Akhenaten and his daughter, the bust of Nefertiti. Greek sculptures: a marble bust of Socrates, numerous busts, reliefs and statues of Greek gods from Aphrodite to Zeus. Pictures were painted on the walls, although none have survived completely intact. An exception is a series of Fayum portraits near Cairo in Egypt.
Roman art was based on practical political necessity. Busts of all emperors, from Julius Caesar to Constantine, were displayed in public places throughout the empire to honor authority.

Features of ancient Greek vase painting

Middle Ages and Renaissance art

With the onset of the Dark Ages of the Middle Ages, the portrait genre is losing influence. Painting served the needs of the church: frescoes were depicted on the walls of temples, painted in books, as miniatures, illustrated manuscripts of the Gospel.

The only major patron of the arts for most of the medieval era was the church. Examples of works from this period: icons from the monastery of St. Catherine, portraits of evangelists and apostles in Celtic Christian manuscripts. In the Romanesque and Gothic periods until the 14th century, the genre extended its influence to stained glass (Chartres Cathedral and Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris).

The Byzantine style of painting, which dominated the period from 450 to 1400, is not compatible with the norms of the art of painting. Artists believed that the spiritual and human qualities of a figure are more important, and the image of a person should be conveyed symbolically. The first realistic works belong to Giotto.

Representatives of the Dutch and German Renaissance, including Jan van Eyck, Roger van der Weyden, Lucas Cranach and Hans Holbein, worked in oils, created realistic images of a person.
By 1500, the female and male portrait had become one of the main genres of painting.

Types of landscape in painting

The art of the Renaissance manifested itself in new ideas of painting:

• linear perspective,
• light and shade,
• humanism,
• bulk image transmission.

The consequence of the emergence of ideas is an increase in the quality of painting. But the church retained its power over the fine arts.

In the 16th century

During the 16th century, a hierarchy of painting genres was developed, based on subject matter:

1. Historical, religious;
2. portraits;
3. household;
4. landscape;
5. Still lifes.

Artists sought to increase the authority of the genre. The beginning of the Reformation, and then the Counter-Reformation, turned painting into an instrument of political and ideological influence. For the 16th-17th centuries, the most representative portraits are images of the kings of European states.

In the 18th - 19th centuries

The fine art genre greatly expanded its influence during the 18th and 19th centuries. This was due to several factors: the universal use of oil and canvas; an increase in trade volumes, which formed a large group of wealthy merchants and landowners; the use of works as a way of fixing the visual appearance of a person, families. Children's portraits are popular. A portrait in the 19th century is a photo for a modern person. The development of the genre was halted by the invention of the camera.

mythological painting

The best portrait painters of the 18th and 19th centuries were Angelika Kaufmann and Elisabeth Vigée-Lebrun, the first bright artists in the history of painting.

The genre of the romantic portrait of women and men, which became very popular in 19th century England, is illustrated by the paintings of Sir Edwin Landseer - his work is one of the most striking masterpieces of fine art of the Victorian era.

In 20th century

The 20th century was the time of the collapse of the classical hierarchy of genres, as new ways of displaying reality, new themes and problems appeared.

After a series of Expressionist works, advances in photography, film and video turned the portrait into a useless anachronism.

The exception is the well-known works of Picasso, for example, the female portrait of Gertrude Stein.
Post-war events, the influence of computer technology, the media, scientific progress, new materials for the work of painters appear - fine art with acrylic, silk-screen printing, creativity with aluminum paint, collage, mixed types of painting. The trend towards the restoration of the female and male portraits in their proper place in the hierarchy of genres is illustrated in the pop art paintings of Andy Warhol, whose printed images of Elvis Presley, Marilyn Monroe, Jacqueline Kennedy, Elizabeth Taylor and Mao Tse-tung became a model for the development of the genre in the second half of the 20th century.

Pastoral in painting

The latest innovation in the development of the genre is hyperrealism, in which American and European artists work. The goal of the style is to create a new reality that will completely resemble the world around, will be a copy of a photograph of a non-existent place on the planet.

Varieties of portraits

religious

Common in the Middle Ages in Western art. Includes images of the gods of ancient polytheistic religions, biblical heroes. Examples of paintings: Ghent Altarpiece by Jan van Eyck, Lamentation of the Dead Christ by Mantegna, Sistine Madonna by Raphael, Venus Urbino by Titian.

historical

Images of great rulers, kings, generals, artists. "Pope Leo X with Cardinals" by Raphael, ancient Roman and ancient Egyptian images of rulers, "Thomas Cromwell" by Hans Holbein, "Portrait of Pope Innocent X" by Velasquez. Within the framework of the historical view, a political, childish, male portrait develops.

history painting

Celebrity Images

The works of artists in this type of portrait cover a wide time period. In the center of the canvas were singers, actors, writers. Within this species, caricature exists as a form of portrait art.

Portrait painting and drawing tell about a person, his beauty, character and aspirations. The portrait painter deals with the character of a person, his complex personality. To understand a person, to understand his essence in appearance, you need a lot of life and professional experience. The artist requires a deep knowledge of the person being depicted.

Portrait(fr. portrait - image) - a genre of fine art depicting one person or a group of people. In addition to external, individual similarities, artists strive to convey the character of a person, his spiritual world in a portrait.

There are many types of portraiture. The portrait genre includes: a half-length portrait, a bust (in sculpture), a full-length portrait, a group portrait, a portrait in an interior, a portrait against a landscape. By the nature of the image, two main groups are distinguished: ceremonial and chamber portraits. As a rule, a ceremonial portrait involves a full-length image of a person (on a horse, standing or sitting). In a chamber portrait, a half-length, chest, shoulder image is used. In a ceremonial portrait, the figure is usually given against an architectural or landscape background, and in a chamber portrait, more often against a neutral background.

According to the number of images on one canvas, in addition to the usual, individual, there are double and group portraits. Paired are called portraits painted on different canvases, if they are consistent with each other in composition, format and color. Most often these are portraits of spouses. Quite often portraits form the whole ensembles - portrait galleries.

A portrait in which a person is presented in the form of any allegorical, mythological, historical, theatrical or literary character is called a costume portrait. The names of such portraits usually include the words "in the form" or "in the image" (for example, Catherine II in the form of Minerva).

Portraits are also distinguished by size, for example, miniature. You can also highlight a self-portrait - an image by the artist of himself. The portrait conveys not only the individual features of the person portrayed or, as the artists say, models, but also reflects the era in which the depicted person lived.

The art of portraiture dates back several millennia. Already in ancient Egypt, sculptors created a fairly accurate likeness of the external appearance of a person. The statue was given a portrait resemblance so that after the death of a person, his soul could move into it, easily find its owner. Faiyum picturesque portraits made in the technique of encaustic (wax painting) in the 1st-4th centuries served the same purpose. Idealized portraits of poets, philosophers, public figures were common in the sculpture of Ancient Greece. Truthfulness and accurate psychological characteristics were distinguished by ancient Roman sculptural portrait busts. They reflected the character and personality of a particular person.

The image of a person's face in sculpture or painting has attracted artists at all times. The portrait genre flourished especially in the Renaissance, when the humanistic, effective human personality was recognized as the main value (Leonardo da Vinci, Raphael, Giorgione, Titian, Tintoretto). Renaissance masters deepen the content of portrait images, endow them with intellect, spiritual harmony, and sometimes inner drama.

In the 17th century in European painting, a chamber, intimate portrait comes to the fore, as opposed to a ceremonial, official, exalting portrait. The outstanding masters of this era - Rembrandt, Van Rijn, F. Hals, Van Dyck, D. Velasquez - created a gallery of wonderful images of simple, unfamous people, discovered in them the greatest wealth of kindness and humanity.

In Russia, the portrait genre began to develop actively from the beginning of the 18th century. F. Rokotov, D. Levitsky, V. Borovikovsky created a series of magnificent portraits of noble people. Especially lovely and charming, imbued with lyricism and spirituality were the female images painted by these artists. In the first half of the XIX century. the protagonist of portrait art becomes a dreamy and at the same time prone to heroic impulse romantic personality (in the paintings of O. Kiprensky, K. Bryullov).

The formation of realism in the art of the Wanderers was reflected in the art of portraiture. Artists V. Perov, I. Kramskoy, I. Repin created a whole portrait gallery of outstanding contemporaries. Artists convey individual and typical features of the portrayed, their spiritual features with the help of characteristic facial expressions, postures, gestures. The person was depicted in all his psychological complexity, and his role in society was also evaluated. In the XX century. the portrait combines the most controversial trends - vivid realistic individual characteristics and abstract expressive deformations of models (P. Picasso, A. Modigliani, A. Bourdelle in France, V. Serov, M. Vrubel, S. Konenkov, M. Nesterov, P. Korin in Russia).

Portraits convey to us not only images of people from different eras, reflect a part of history, but also speak about how the artist saw the world, how he treated the person being portrayed.

Painting is one of the most common types of art, with the help of which painters convey their vision of the world to the audience.

Thus, painting is a separate and very popular type of fine art, in which visual images are transmitted by the master by applying paints to the surface of the picture.

I. I. Shishkin. Landscape "Ship Grove" (1898).

All paintings that exist today can be divided into several separate genres, which have their own characteristics in the subject and image technique. Let's consider the main ones in order to have a correct idea of ​​the structure of the paintings.

So, among the modern genres of painting are the following:

• Portrait
• Scenery
• Marina
• history painting
• Battle painting
• Still life
• Genre painting
• architectural painting
• religious painting
• Animal painting
• decorative painting

Schematically, the division of genres of pictorial art will look like this:

Portrait

Many of us are familiar with such a genre of painting as a portrait. This is one of the oldest types of fine art, and it can also be found in sculpture and graphics. Previously, there were no photographs, so every rich or famous person considered it necessary to perpetuate his face and figure for posterity - and portrait painters came to his aid in this.

Moreover, the portrait can depict both real people and literary or mythical heroes. In addition, both a portrait of a person who lived in past times and our contemporary who exists today can be created.

The portrait genre has no clear boundaries, therefore, in one work, a portrait can be combined with elements of other genres of painting - landscape, still life, and so on.

Types of portraits

Among the most common types of portraiture, the following can be distinguished:

• historical portrait
• retrospective portrait
• Portrait - painting
• typical portrait
• self-portrait
• Donor's portrait
• Ceremonial portrait
• Half-dress portrait
• chamber portrait
• intimate portrait
• small-format portrait
• Portrait - miniature

Each of the types of portraiture has its own characteristic features and differences in the technique of execution. Let's consider them in more detail.

• historical portrait- contains an image of any historical figure, political figure or creative person. Such a portrait can be created according to the memoirs of contemporaries or be born in the imagination of the painter.

A. M. MATVEEV Portrait of Peter the Great (1724-1725). Canvas, oil.

• retrospective portrait- a posthumous image of a person who lived in the past, which was created according to the descriptions of eyewitnesses or according to a lifetime image. However, there are also cases of a complete composition of the portrait by the master.

Vladislav Rozhnev "Portrait of a Woman" (1973). Canvas, oil.

• Painting - portrait- a person is depicted in a plot relationship with the outside world, nature, against the background of architectural buildings or the activities of other people. In portrait paintings, the vagueness of boundaries and the combination of various genres are most clearly seen - landscape, historical and battle painting, and so on.

Boris Kustodiev. The painting is a portrait of F. I. Chaliapin (1922). Canvas, oil.

• typical portrait- the artist - the painter depicts a collective image, composed of the characteristic features of the appearance of many people, united by common ideas, activities, social status or lifestyle.

F. V. Sychkov "Portrait of a Peasant Woman".

• Costumed portrait- the depicted person is presented to the viewer in the form of a literary or theatrical character, historical figure or mythological hero. Such portraits are of particular interest for the study of costumes from other eras.

• self-portrait- a special kind of portrait painting, in which the artist depicts himself. That is, he wants to convey and convey to the audience his inner essence.

• Donor's portrait- one of the outdated forms of portraiture. Such a painting with a religious theme depicted a person who made large donations to the church. He appeared before the audience surrounded by saints, next to the Madonna or on one of the wings of the altar in a kneeling form. Wealthy people in those days saw a special meaning in creating a donor portrait, because such paintings were always perceived positively and were revered on a par with.

Pinturicchio. "Resurrection of Christ" with kneeling Pope Alexander VI.

By the nature and method of the image human figures all portraits are divided into the following types:

• Ceremonial portrait- shows a person in a standing position in full growth. At the same time, all the details of appearance and figures are written out very clearly.

• Half-dress portrait- a person is depicted to the waist, to the knees or in a sitting position, when the lower part of the legs is not visible. In such a work of portraiture, the image of the environment or accessories plays a huge role.

Rokotov F. S. "Coronation portrait of Catherine II" (1763).

• chamber portrait- the human figure is performed on a neutral background, and an abbreviated version of the image of the human figure is used - to the waist, to the chest, or even to shoulder level. In this case, the master especially clearly and carefully writes out the facial features of a person.

• intimate portrait- is used extremely rarely and is one of the varieties of a chamber portrait due to its execution on a neutral background. The creation of an intimate portrait is based on the artist's deep feelings for the person depicted or the trusting relationship between them.

Edouard Manet "Girl in a Spanish costume" (1862 - 1863).

• small-format portrait- a painting of a small size. usually done in ink, pencil, pastel or watercolor.

• Portrait - miniature- one of the most recognizable and complex types of portraiture in terms of technique. The miniature is characterized by a small image format (from 1.5 to 20 cm), as well as the extraordinary subtlety of writing and careful, almost jewelry drawing of all lines. Miniature portraits were inserted into medallions, watches, bracelets, brooches, rings and snuffboxes were decorated with them.

Jacques Augustine "Bacchae" - miniature portrait (1799). Bone, watercolor, gouache. Size 8 cm (circle).

Scenery

Landscape is a separate genre of painting, the main object of the image of which is nature in its original form or somewhat changed in the process of human activity.

Konstantin Kryzhitsky "Road" (1899).

The genre of landscape painting has been known since ancient times. However, in the Middle Ages, it somewhat loses its relevance. But already in the Renaissance, the landscape is reborn and acquires the significance of one of the most important genres in pictorial art.

Jean-Francois Millet "Spring".

Marina

Marina (from the Latin word "marinus" - "marine") is a special genre of painting in which all the events depicted, human activities and pictures of nature are dedicated to the sea. Often, the canvases depict seascapes at different times of the year and under different lighting conditions.

I. K. Aivazovsky "The Ninth Wave" (1850).

Artists who paint the sea in its various manifestations are called "marine painters". One of the most famous marine painters is Ivan Aivazovsky, who created over 6 thousand paintings on the marine theme.

Ivan Aivazovsky "Rainbow" (1873).

history painting

The genre of historical painting originated in the Renaissance, when artists sought to reflect scenes from the life of society in various periods of history in their canvases.

However, historical canvases could depict not only pictures from the life of real people, but also mythological plots, as well as an illustrated rethinking of biblical and gospel stories.

Domenico Beccafumi "The Continence of Scilio Africanus" (circa 1525).

Historical painting serves to display the events of the past, the most important for a particular people or all of humanity as a whole.

Francisco Pradilla "Baptism of Prince Juan, son of Ferdinand and Isabella" (1910).

Battle painting

One of the varieties of the historical genre is battle painting, the theme of the images of which is devoted mainly to military events, famous battles on land and at sea, as well as military campaigns. The battle genre covers the history of military clashes throughout the history of human civilization.

At the same time, battle canvases are distinguished by a large number and variety of depicted figures, as well as fairly accurate pictures of the terrain and features of a particular region.

François Edouard Picot "The Siege of Calais" (1838).

The battle artist faces several difficult tasks:

1. Show the heroism of the war and show the behavior of the most courageous warriors.
2. Capture a particularly important or turning point in a battle.
3. Reveal in your work the full historical meaning of military events.
4. Accurately and clearly express the behavior and feelings of each of the participants in the battle - both famous generals and ordinary soldiers.

Jean-Baptiste Debray » Napoleon addresses the Bavarian troops at Abensberg on April 20, 1809.

It should be noted that the genre of battle painting is considered one of the most difficult, so such canvases are created by masters for a long time - sometimes for ten years. The artist is required not only to have an excellent knowledge of the detailed history of the depicted battle, but also the ability to create multi-figured canvases with a large number of auxiliary details. These are pictures of nature, and elements of architecture, and images of weapons or military mechanisms. Therefore, the battle genre occupies a special place and stands apart from historical painting.

Still life

Still life is the creation of compositions on canvases from inanimate objects in their various combinations. The most popular are images of dishes, flowerpots with bouquets of flowers and fruits on a dish.

Cezanne "Table Corner" (1895 - 1900).

Initially, the theme of images in the still life genre arose at the turn of the 15th - 16th centuries, but the genre was finally formed into a separate direction of painting in the 17th century. The first creators of still lifes were Dutch and Flemish artists. Later, still life took an important place in the work of Russian artists.

The subjects of images in still lifes can be very rich and diverse, and are not limited exclusively to household items. It can be books, magazines and newspapers, bottles, figurines, a globe and many other objects.

David Teniers the Younger. Still life (1645 - 1650).

The main idea of ​​compositions in the Vanitas genre is the thought of the finiteness of earthly existence and humility before the inevitability of the transition to another world. The most popular still lifes with the image of a skull in the center of the composition gained in the 16th-17th centuries in Flanders and the Netherlands. A little later, French and Spanish artists began to turn to him.

Pieter Claesz "Still life with a skull".

Genre painting

In the visual arts, genre painting is considered part of the everyday genre. Since ancient times, artists have depicted scenes of everyday life of ordinary people - peasants, artisans, merchants, as well as servants of noble courtiers in the process of working or in the daily life of their families.

Gabriel Metsu "Bird Seller" (1662).

The first examples of genre paintings in the modern sense appeared in the Middle Ages, and subsequently became widespread and popular. The themes of genre paintings are characterized by an enviable variety, which arouses the interest of the audience.

Bernardo Strozzi "The Cook" (1625).

architectural painting

Architectural painting is a special pictorial genre, the theme of which is devoted to the image of buildings, structures and various architectural monuments, as well as the most interesting solutions in the historical aspect. This refers to the image of the interior design of palaces, theater and concert halls, and so on.

Thanks to such paintings, the viewer has the opportunity to personally see the monuments of architecture in their original form through the eyes of the artist himself. Works of architectural painting also help in the study of the architectural landscape of cities of bygone times.

Louis Daguerre "Fog and snow seen through a ruined Gothic colonnade" (1826).

Animal painting

The animalistic genre is a separate genre of pictorial art, which specializes mainly in depicting the animal world of our planet. In the paintings of this genre, we can see animals, birds, fish, as well as representatives of many other species in their natural habitat.

George Stubbs "Sleeping Leopard" (1777).

However, this does not mean that only wild animals are the theme of the animalistic genre. On the contrary, artists very often paint pictures dedicated to pets - cats, dogs, horses, and so on.

decorative painting

The genre of decorative painting can be divided into several types, which have their own differences:

• monumental painting
• Theatrical scenery painting
• decorative painting

The species diversity of the decorative genre is explained by the fact that artists at all times tried to decorate every object of the surrounding world.

• monumental painting- a genre of monumental art, the works of which are of a rather large-scale nature and are used as a decorative design for buildings and structures of a secular and religious nature for various purposes (and churches, office buildings and cultural structures, architectural monuments and residential buildings).

• theatrical scenery- This is a very popular type of decorative genre, which includes the creation of scenery and costume designs for characters in theatrical productions and movie characters, as well as sketches of individual mise en scenes. Artists - decorators in the theater and on the set sometimes create real masterpieces, which later become one of the best scenery of theater and cinema.

• decorative painting- represents plot compositions or ornamental decor created on various parts of buildings and structures, as well as on samples of decorative and applied art, which has its origins in folk art crafts. The main types of painted products were dishes, household items, furniture, and so on.