Tour: The Emergence of New Genres
| Overview | Start Tour | ||
 |
 |
 |
| 1 | 2 | 3 |
 |
 |
 |
| 4 | 5 | 6 |
| « | back to French and Italian painting of the 17th century | |||
Overview
The late sixteenth and seventeenth centuries saw the emergence of new types of painting in Italy. For the first time since antiquity, landscape, still life, and genre pictures all became established as independent subjects worthy of attention by the finest artists. Elements of these had always been present in other kinds of pictures: landscape backdrops were prominent, for example, in depictions of the Flight into Egypt and other religious subjects. Portrait painters incorporated as still-life elements objects that helped define a sitter’s position, prestige, or profession. Similarly, genre scenes—the word genre describes realistic depictions of ordinary people and everyday activities—sometimes appeared as background vignettes with moralizing undercurrents.
(continue)
Captions
