History painting is a genre in painting defined by subject matter rather than an artistic style, depicting a moment in a narrative story, rather than a static subject such as a portrait. The term derives from the wider senses of the word historia in Latin and Italian, and essentially means "story painting", rather than the painting of scenes from history in its narrower sense in modern English, for which the term historical painting may be used, especially for 19th century art. There is almost always a number of figures shown, often a large number. Depictions of moments in religious narratives, above all the Life of Christ, are included in the definition, as are narrative scenes from mythology, and these two groups were for long the most frequently painted; works such as Michelangelo's Sistine Chapel ceiling are therefore history paintings, as are most very large paintings before the 19th century. The term essentially covers large paintings in oil on canvas or fresco produced between the Renaissance and the late 19th century, after which the term is generally not used even for the many works that still meet the basic definition.
The history painting was traditionally regarded as the highest form of Western painting, occupying the most prestigious place in the hierarchy of genres, and considered the equivalent to the epic in literature. In his Della Pictura of 1436 Leon Battista Alberti had argued that multi-figure history painting was the noblest form of art, as being the most difficult, which required mastery of all the others, because it was a visual form of history, and because it had the greatest potential to move the viewer. He placed emphasis on the ability to depict the interactions between the figures by gesture and expression.[1] This view remained general until the 19th century, when artistic movements began to struggle against the establishment institutions of academic art, which continued to adhere to it. In some 19th or 20th century contexts the term may refer specifically to paintings of scenes from secular history, rather than those from religious narratives, literature or mythology.
Contents |
The term is generally not used in art history in speaking of medieval painting, although the Western tradition was developing in large altarpieces, fresco cycles, and other works, as well as miniatures in illuminated manuscripts. It comes to the fore in Italian Renaissance painting, where a series of increasingly ambitious works were produced, many still religious, but several, especially in Florence, which did actually feature near-contemporary historical scenes such as the set on The Battle of San Romano by Paolo Uccello, and the abortive Battle of Cascina by Michelangelo and Battle of Anghiari by Leonardo da Vinci, neither of which were completed. Writers such as Giorgio Vasari followed public opinion in judging the best painters above all on their production of large canvases of history painting, and artists continued for centuries to strive to make their reputation by producing such works, often neglecting genres to which their talents were better suited.
By the late 18th century, with both religious and mytholological painting in decline, there was an increased demand for paintings of scenes from history, including contemporary history. The unheroic nature of modern dress was regarded as a serious difficulty. When, in 1770, Benjamin West proposed to paint "The Death of General Wolfe" in contemporary dress, he was firmly instructed to use classical costume by many people. He ignored these comments and showed the scene in modern dress. Although George III refused to purchase the work, West succeeded both in overcoming his critics' objections and inaugurating a more historically accurate style in such paintings. Other artists depicted scenes, regardless of when they occurred, in classical dress and for a long time, especially during the French Revolution, history painting often focused on depictions of the heroic male nude. Théodore Géricault's The Raft of the Medusa (1818–1819) was a sensation, appearing to update the history painting for the 19th century, and showing anonymous figures only famous for being victims of what was then a famous and controversial disaster at sea. Conveniently their clothes had been worn away to classical-seeming rags by the point the painting depicts.
In the mid-nineteenth-century there arose a style known as historicism, which marked a formal imitation of historical styles and/or artists. Another development in the nineteenth century was the blending of this genre with that known as genre painting: the depiction of scenes of everyday life. Grand depictions of events of great public importance were supplemented with scenes depicting more personal incidents in the lives of the great, or the everyday life in historical settings. The artists who depicted them sometimes connected the change with the moral messages conveyed by the public events; they asserted that moral messages were also instructive in the ordinary life, and indeed, were even superior because more people would be able to apply the lesson implicit in a depiction of family life than in one of a heroic death on the battle field.
A history painter is not only a painter of historical motifs but depicts, in a "grand" style, man in general, and particularly the great events of Greek and Roman fable and history, the capital subjects of scripture history, a scene from a great literary work, or a famous event in the life of a baroque potentate. The subject commonly ought to be either some instance of heroic action or heroic suffering, with characters painted in classical poses. Artists frequently take great liberties with historical facts in portraying the scene.
History painting was the dominant form of academic painting (the painting that came from the various national academies) in the 18th century, in particular, but also in the post-revolutionary France as well. As such, history painting was a target for later movements. The Impressionists rejected all historical subjects and tableau, aside from Édouard Manet's war paintings. In other nations, such movements as the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood in England focused on subjects from national literature and myth, rather than classical subjects. At the turn of the 20th century, it was possible to see paintings emerging from the official national academies depicting Nausicaa at the same time that other painters were leaving the studio to paint in available light and focus only on humble subjects and pure sensation. History painters like Henri Jean-Baptiste Victoire Fradelle, Antoine-Jean, Baron Gros, Jacques-Louis David, Claude Joseph Vernet, Carle Vernet, Pierre-Narcisse Guérin and others attracted a following of students among younger painters several of whom developed the Romantic movement in the early 19th century. Artists including Théodore Géricault, Eugène Delacroix, and Paul Delaroche initially were considered History painters.