http://dmf.culture.fr/files/hierarchie.html (Einblicke ins Internet, 10/1995)

Genre painting

The hierarchy of genres

Even though painters constantly went beyond the limits of their assigned speciality, the hierarchy of genres remained an essential criterion in eighteenth-century painting. Jean-Antoine Watteau was the only one to invent a short-lived genre known as the fête galante .

The genres were graded in order of importance, starting at the top: history painting , the portrait, genre painting, still-life and landscape.