history painting

Painting genre depicting scenes taken from classical sources, mythology, the Bible, and literary classics, such as Dante's Divine Comedy. From the early Renaissance, when Alberti first documented the style, until the decline of the academic tradition in the 19th century, history painting was regarded as the highest form of painting, its purpose being to express noble themes and sentiments. Examples include David's The Oath of the Horatii (1784; Louvre, Paris), and Benjamin West's The Death of General Wolfe (1770; National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa), one of the first to depict a scene from contemporary history.

In the 15th century Alberti described history paintings, or istoria, as those that included more than one figure, but by the 17th century the term had come to mean paintings of scenes from the past, and those inspired by mythology, poetry, and religion. In the 18th century Reynolds stated that ‘a history painter paints man in general: a portrait painter, a particular man, and consequently a defective model’.