Painting belongs to one of the most ancient forms of art. It originated among prehistoric people, depicting hunting scenes and totem animals on the walls of caves . Over time, of course, more and more new stories appeared in it. But to distinguish between different genres of painting began relatively recently. It started in the 17th century.
The following genres in painting are traditionally distinguished: portrait, landscape, still life, historical genre, everyday genre, animalistics, fantastic painting, religious painting.
The portrait suggests that the central object in the picture is a person. Moreover, contrary to popular belief, this does not have to be an image of a person in the entire canvas. There are paintings in which the central face stands apart, or even those where a person can hardly guess at all. But the main task of the portrait, in any case, remains the image of personality and character transfer.
Initially, when landscape was included in the genres of painting, it was assumed that it should depict nature. Nowadays, this concept has become wider, and now distinguish between urban landscape, industrial landscape, sea landscape (marina), sky landscape and so on. But most artists still prefer to portray the classic expanses of fields, forests, meadows and lakes, claiming the beauty and grandeur of the world.
A still life is an image of a staged composition from inanimate elements . Like landscape, a still life is sometimes subdivided into subgenres depending on the subject, but, as a rule, this is not accepted.
The historical genre of painting, as its name implies, depicts iconic scenes from history: coronation, battle (battle genre), etc. or important figures.
In the everyday genre, the central place is occupied by random events from the everyday life of people. Eating, meeting on the street, torn shirt - all this can become an object for such a picture.
Animal artists create images of animals. Moreover, the latter include absolutely all wildlife representatives from bedbugs to whales. They are usually portrayed naturally, without any metamorphosis.
Fantastic painting is an image of any supernatural creatures or events. This genre also includes fantasy and surrealism. Scenes of fantastic painting can take place in space, the world of the future, alternative universes and other unnatural places. And the characters can be either ordinary people or fictional beings.
Religious painting includes icons, murals and paintings depicting religious subjects. This genre was most widely spread in the Renaissance, when Christian ideology dominated in Europe, inspiring such masters as Rafael, Botticelli, da Vinci.
Despite its diversity, all genres of painting serve the same purpose - chanting beauty, external or internal, and demonstrating the artist’s view of the world. After all, since a person takes a brush, it means he has something to tell people. And the genres of painting are just different languages, from which he can choose any one that is most suitable for expressing his thoughts.