Types of Paintings religious images portraits history paintings

Types of Paintings • religious images • portraits • history paintings • still lifes • genre* (scenes from every day life) * Genre painting is a fairly new development at the end of the 16 th century (1580’s).

Religious Images Christ Preaching Rembrandt 1652 etching

Portraits Jacques-Louis David Portrait of the Marquise d'Orvilliers 1790 Oil on canvas, 131 x 98 cm Musée du Louvre, Paris

History Paintings Benjamin West The Death of General Wolfe 1770 oil on canvas

Still Lifes A Vase of Flowers Jean-Baptiste Simeon Chardin 1760 -61 oil on canvas

Genre Jean-Baptiste Greuze The Father's Curse: The Ungrateful Son 1777 oil on canvas

What type of painting is this one? How would you categorize it?

Watteau was finally admitted to the French Academy on the basis of this painting: Pilgrimage to Cythera (1717). The subject of this painting does not fit any established category. The Academy actually invented a new category for Watteau: the fetes galantes—elegant entertainments.

Cythera is the island of love in classical mythology; the young couples have journeyed to Cythera to pay tribute to Venus, the goddess of love. The boat on the left waits to return these couples back to the every day life.

Is this meant to be a depiction of “real” life or the projection of a dream—a scene from a play?

Jean-Antoine Watteau The Festival of Love c. 1717 oil on canvas, 61 x 75 cm

Jean-Antoine Watteau Diana at her Bath 1715 -16 oil on canvas

Jean-Antoine Watteau Pilgrimage to Cythera 1718 -20 oil on canvas, 129 x 194 cm

Watteau’s work signals an artistic movement…. Jean-Antoine Watteau The Embarkation for Cythera 1718 -20 oil on canvas

Rococo

Characteristics of Rococo: • According to Stokstad, Rococo is refined, fanciful, and often playful (939). • Rococo is characterized by pastel colors, delicately curving forms, dainty figures and a light-hearted mood. • Rococo first appeared in France around 1700, primarily as a style of interior design as the French court moved from Versailles back to Paris and all the rich courtiers (think entourage but incredibly wealthy) redecorated their hotels (mansions) in the latest style of the moment. • Paintings on canvas were used to decorate the walls.

Characteristics of Rococo: • According to Gardner, Rococo appeared in France around 1700, primarily as a style of interior design (780). • Shells and shell forms are the principal motifs in Rococo ornament • Expect irregular painted shapes surmounted by sculpture (imagine a painted surface with a white, sculpted putto on top). • Painting, architecture, and sculpture will combine to form a single ensemble, (see Francois de Cuvillies, Hall of Mirrors, the Amalienburg, Nymphenburg Palace park, Munich Germany, early 18 th century). • Expect soft colors; themes of love and happy scenes in outdoor settings Hall of Mirrors a putto

Characteristics of Rococo: Compare the style Rococo painting and Baroque; both these painting were made for the French court. Hyacinthe Rigaud Louis XIV 1701 Baroque Hyacinthe Rigaud State Portrait of Louis XV 1715 Baroque moving toward Rococo; this boy will grow up to become the man who befriends Madame de Pompadour and Madame du Barry

Jean-Antoine Watteau The upper-class enjoys nature while on elaborate picnics. Subject matter: fete galante (elegant outdoor entertainment)—a subset of genre painting intended for the rich? Watteau seems to love “soft-focus” trees and hazy atmospheric effects. Watteau died when he was only thirty-seven of the same disease that everyone in Wuthering Heights dies from…. .

François Boucher • moves the viewer closer to the subject; • the content of many of his works are based on mythological scenes; • Madame du Pompadour was François Boucher’s major patron; Pompadour was an amateur artist and took lessons from Boucher (she was the mistress of Louis XV); • Boucher worked from 1735 on (and on…. ) decorating the royal palaces at Versailles and Fontainebleau; he was a court painter (which would be the opposite of self-expression—the opposite of the Chinese literati).

François Boucher Diana Resting after her Bath 1742 Oil on canvas, 56 x 73 cm

François Boucher Diana Resting after the Hunt Oil on canvas, 56 x 73 cm

François Boucher The Toilet of Venus 1751 Oil on canvas, 108, 3 x 85, 1 cm This painting and its pendant, Venus Consoling Love (National Gallery of Art, Washington, D. C. ), were commissioned by Madame de Pompadour, mistress of Louis XV, for her Château de Bellevue, near Paris. Madame de Pompadour had played the title role in La Toilette de Vénus staged at Versailles in 1750. From http: //www. metmuseum. org

François Boucher Portrait of Marquise de Pompadour 1759

Jean-Honoré Fragonard • He was an apprentice/assistant to Boucher. • Notice that the content of Fragonard’s works seems to be “interrupted” or “frozen” moments between lovers. Because it seems as if time has suddenly been stopped in his paintings, the paintings have a tremendous immediacy. • His patron was originally Madame du Barry (the last mistress of Louis XV), but unfortunately, du Barry decided the Rococo style was “over” and Neoclassicism was the new “hot” thing. Louis XV Maurice Quentin de La Tour

Jean-Honoré Fragonard The Meeting 1773 Oil on canvas, 318 x 244 cm

Jean-Honoré Fragonard The Musical Contest c. 1754 oil on canvas

Jean-Honoré Fragonard The Love Letter 1770 s Oil on canvas

Jean-Honoré Fragonard The Stolen Kiss 1787 -89 oil on canvas

Jean-Honoré Fragonard The Swing 1767 Oil on canvas

Louise Élisabeth Vigée Le Brun • In 1779 she became the painter to Queen Marie Antoinette—wife of Louis XVI. • Her portraits are often described as having an “elegant informality. ” • In 1783, Vigée Le Brun was elected to one of the four places in the French Academy available to women. • She escaped Paris with her daughter on the eve of the revolution (1789) and fled to Rome. Louise Élisabeth Vigée Le Brun Self-Portrait 1800 oil on canvas The Hermitage St. Petersburg

Louise Élisabeth Vigée Le Brun Marie Antoinette after 1783 oil on canvas, 93 x 73 cm National Gallery of Art, Washington Marie Antoinette is twenty-eight.

Louise Élisabeth Vigée Le Brun Marie Antoinette with Her Children 1787 oil on canvas We need to read this portrait as a work of propaganda. This image is not intended to construct power. What then is this image intended to communicate? Marie Antoinette is thirty-two.

Louise Élisabeth Vigée Le Brun Self-Portrait with her Daughter, Julie 1786 oil on wood

Louise Élisabeth Vigée Le Brun Portrait of a Young Woman c. 1797 oil on canvas, 82, 2, x 70, 5 cm Museum of Fine Arts, Boston

Jean-Baptiste-Siméon Chardin • He was influenced by 17 th century Dutch genre paintings (like Vermeer. ) • He painted scenes of everyday middle-class life; usually there is a gentle moral communicated in the scene. The images are quiet. • Chardin’s work is not as heavyhanded as Greuze; Chardin’s work does not have Wright’s dramatic lighting; Chardin’s work does not evoke Hogarth’s disgust of the upper classes. Self-Portrait with an Eyeshade 1775 pastel on blue paper Musée du Louvre, Paris

Jean-Baptiste-Siméon Chardin La Gouvernante (The Governess) 1739 Oil on canvas This type of work is called a genre painting.

Johannes Vermeer The Milkmaid c. 1658 Oil on canvas, 45, 5 x 41 cm Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam In many ways, Vermeer’s work can be read as genre painting. However, Vermeer’s use of light and his incredibly sculptural forms (think Piero della Francesca) elevate his work beyond the actual subject….

Jean-Baptiste-Siméon Chardin Servant Returning from the Market (La Pourvoyeuse) 1738 oil on canvas

Jean-Baptiste-Siméon Chardin The Attentive Nurse c. 1738 oil on canvas

Jean-Baptiste-Siméon Chardin The Hard-working Mother 1740 oil on canvas

Supplement your book knowledge with visual knowledge… Marie Antoinette (2006) PG-13 Sofia Coppola directs a stylized portrait of Marie Antoinette (Kirsten Dunst), the naive Austrian princess who married Louis XVI (Jason Schwartzman) to become queen of France at age 19. The film explores the effects of a luxurious yet terribly confining lifestyle on the young queen. Her resulting youthful indiscretion and frivolity ultimately led to her undoing. A Cannes Golden Palm nominee, this biopic also took Oscar honors for costume design. That’s the only one I can recommend…. the others are rated “R”…. .