Practice question · Sort into groups
Sort each picture description by the academic genre it belongs to.
Groups: History painting · Portrait · Genre scene · Still life
- Figures in Livy scene
- Kitchen peeling scene
- Magistrate portrait
- Fruit, glass on table
- Tavern card players
- Allegory of Justice
Hints
- History painting covers scripture, myth and allegory as well as history.
- Ordinary life without an elevated subject is genre.
Show the answer
History painting: Figures in Livy scene, Allegory of Justice
Portrait: Magistrate portrait
Genre scene: Kitchen peeling scene, Tavern card players
Still life: Fruit, glass on table
Why
The allegory belongs in the top category, which surprises people: "history painting" is a term of art covering anything with narrative and moral content and multiple figures in action, whatever its source. Getting that right is the difference between reading the hierarchy and guessing at it.
Practise Themes, Genres and the Hierarchy
The app has 5 more questions on this lesson, and keeps your place in the course. Art History I is free to start.
More questions on Themes, Genres and the Hierarchy
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