http://dmf.culture.fr/files/peinture_histoire.html (Einblicke ins Internet, 10/1995)
History painting
History painting
Also known as the grand genre , it was the noblest form of art. The
first painter to the king, the
directors of the Academy and of
the French Academy in Rome were always chosen from its exponents. What
distinguished it from other genres was the importance laid on the human figure,
rather than the severity of the subject, for, in the eighteenth century,
history painting did not solely infer heroism and austerity.
David,
Jean-François de Troy
, Noël Hallé,
Lemoyne,
Natoire,
Restout
, Subleyras
, Carle Van Loo
Vien ,
and Vincent
, but also
Boucher and
Jean-Honoré Fragonard
, all belonged to this category of painters.
History painting included
biblical scenes
, religious scenes,
historical scenes
or
scenes from Antiquity, occasionally
embellished with symbolic or allegorical references,
mythological scenes
and subjects borrowed from more or less modern
literary sources.