Figurative art
{{short description|Art that depicts real object sources}}
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| caption1 = Ein Meerhafen ("A Seaport"), a figurative landscape by the Austrian artist Johann Anton Eismann (1604–1698), which depicts buildings, people, ships, and other features that can be distinguished individually; by contrast, the abstract landscape below suggests its subject matter without directly representing it
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Figurative art, sometimes written as figurativism, describes artwork (particularly paintings and sculptures) that is clearly derived from real object sources and so is, by definition, representational. The term is often in contrast to abstract art:
Since the arrival of abstract art the term figurative has been used to refer to any form of modern art that retains strong references to the real world.{{Cite web |url=http://www.tate.org.uk/collections/glossary/definition.jsp?entryId=104 |archive-url=http://webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/20120203094030/http://www.tate.org.uk/collections/glossary/definition.jsp?entryId=104 |url-status=dead |archive-date=3 February 2012 |title=Glossary:Figurative|author=Tate|access-date=21 October 2012}}
Painting and sculpture can therefore be divided into the categories of figurative, representational and abstract, although, strictly speaking, abstract art is derived (or abstracted) from a figurative or other natural source. However, "abstract" is sometimes used as a synonym of non-representational art and non-objective art, i.e. art which has no derivation from figures or objects.
Figurative art is not synonymous with figure painting (art that represents the human figure), although human and animal figures are frequent subjects.
Formal elements
The formal elements, those aesthetic effects created by design, upon which figurative art is dependent, include line, shape, color, light and dark, mass, volume, texture, and perspective,Adams, Laurie Schneider, The Methodologies of Art, pages 17–19. Westview Press, 1996, although these elements of design could also play a role in creating other types of imagery—for instance abstract, or non-representational or non-objective two-dimensional artwork. The difference is that in figurative art these elements are deployed to create an impression or illusion of form and space, and, usually, to create emphasis in the narrative portrayed.
{{Infobox artwork
| title = Sleeping Venus
(a.k.a. Dresden Venus)
| image = Giorgione_-_Sleeping_Venus_-_Google_Art_Project_2.jpg
| image_size = 300px
| caption = First known reclining nude in Western Art. Introduced the female nude as subject.
| artist = Giorgione
| year = c. 1510
| dimensions = {{convert|108.5|×|175|cm|in|abbr=on}}
| italic title = no
}}
Evolution
File:Le Bain Turc, by Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres, from C2RMF retouched.jpg, Le Bain Turc (The Turkish bath), 1862, oil on canvas, 108 × 110 cm, Louvre, Paris]]
Figurative art is itself based upon a tacit understanding of abstracted shapes: the figure sculpture of Greek antiquity was not naturalistic, for its forms were idealized and geometric.Clark, Kenneth, The Nude: A Study in Ideal Form, pages 31–2. Princeton University Press, 1990. Ernst Gombrich referred to the strictures of this schematic imagery, the adherence to that which was already known, rather than that which is seen, as the "Egyptian method", an allusion to the memory-based clarity of imagery in Egyptian art.[http://www.gombrich.co.uk/showdoc.php?id=68 The Gombrich Archive: Press statement on The Story of Art] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081006212330/http://www.gombrich.co.uk/showdoc.php?id=68 |date=October 6, 2008 }}
Eventually idealization gave way to observation, and a figurative art which balanced ideal geometry with greater realism was seen in Classical sculpture by 480 B.C. The Greeks referred to the reliance on visual observation as mimesis. Until the time of the Impressionists, figurative art was characterized by attempts to reconcile these opposing principles.
From the early Renaissance, Mannerism and the Baroque through 18th-, 19th- and 20th-century painting Figurative art has steadily broadened its parameters. An important landmark in the evolution of figurative art is the first known reclining nude in Western painting in Sleeping Venus (1510) by Giorgione.{{Cite book|title=Reclining Nude|date=2002|publisher=Thames & Hudson|others=Ferrara, Lidia G.|isbn=978-0500237977|edition=Di 1 ban|location=London|oclc=966186187}} It introduced the female nude as subject and started a long line of famous paintings.
Nicolas Poussin (1594–1665), a French painter in the classical style whose work predominantly features clarity, logic, and order, and favors line over color, served as an alternative to the more narrative Baroque style of the 17th century. He was a major inspiration for such classically oriented artists as Jacques-Louis David, Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres and Paul Cézanne. The rise of the Neoclassical art of Jacques-Louis David ultimately engendered the realistic reactions of Gustave Courbet and Édouard Manet leading to the multi-faceted figurative art of the 20th century.
In November, 2018, scientists reported the discovery of the oldest known figurative art painting, over 40,000 (perhaps as old as 52,000) years old, of an unknown animal, in the cave of Lubang Jeriji Saléh on the Indonesian island of Borneo.{{cite news |last=Zimmer |first=Carl |author-link=Carl Zimmer |title=In Cave in Borneo Jungle, Scientists Find Oldest Figurative Painting in the World - A cave drawing in Borneo is at least 40,000 years old, raising intriguing questions about creativity in ancient societies. |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2018/11/07/science/oldest-cave-art-borneo.html |date=7 November 2018 |work=The New York Times |access-date=8 November 2018 }}{{cite journal |author=Aubert, M.|display-authors=etal|title=Palaeolithic cave art in Borneo |url=https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-018-0679-9 |date=7 November 2018 |journal=Nature |access-date=8 November 2018 |doi=10.1038/s41586-018-0679-9 |volume=564 |issue=7735|pages=254–257 |pmid=30405242|bibcode=2018Natur.564..254A |s2cid=53208538|url-access=subscription }}
Architecture, townscape
{{main|Architecture painting}}
File:Durer-Castle-Innsbruck.jpg|Albrecht Dürer (1494) Courtyard of Innsbruck Castle
File:Jan van der Heyden - The Church at Veere.jpg|Jan van der Heyden (1652) The Church at Veere
File:Alte Pinakothek Venedig.JPG|Canaletto (c. 1737) View of the Piazzetta and The Bassin of San Marco in Venice
File:Burgos Cathedral painting Bossue.jpg|alt=|Burgos Cathedral (1851) by François Bossuet
History painting
{{main|History painting}}
File:San Romano Battle (Paolo Uccello, London) 01.jpg|Paolo Uccello (1438–1440) The Battle of San Romano
File:Jacques-Louis David - Oath of the Horatii - Google Art Project.jpg|Jacques-Louis David (1786) Oath of the Horatii
File:John Everett Millais - Christ in the House of His Parents (`The Carpenter's Shop') - Google Art Project.jpg|John Everett Millais (1854–1860) Christ In The House Of His Parents
File:Lourens Alma Tadema - De Egyptische weduwe..jpg|Lawrence Alma-Tadema (1872) The Egyptian Widow
Human forms
{{main|Figure painting|Sculpture}}
File:Roman fresco with a Woman on a Balcony - Getty Villa Collection.jpg|Ancient Roman woman on a balcony (9–14 CE), Getty Villa
File:Kenyon Cox nude study2.jpg|Kenyon Cox (1896) Nude study
File:Joseph Csaky, 1911-1912, Groupe de femmes, Groupe de trois femmes, Groupe de trois personnages..jpg|Joseph Csaky (1911–1912) Groupe de femmes (Group of Women), plaster
File:Raymond Duchamp-Villon, 1914, Femme assise, plaster, 65.5 cm (25.75 in), photograph by Duchamp-Villon.jpg|Raymond Duchamp-Villon (1914) Femme assise, plaster
File:Ian-Hornak-Acrylic-Canvas-Marcia-Sewing-Variation-III-1978.jpeg|Ian Hornak (1978) Marcia Sewing, Variation III
File:Statue from Ain Ghazal in Louvre Abu Dhabi.jpg|ʿAin Ghazal statues, from approximately 9000 years ago
File:'David' by Michelangelo Fir JBU004.jpg|David (1504), by Michelangelo
File:"Seated Dress Impression with Drapery" by Karen LaMonte.jpg|alt=|Seated Dress Impression with Drapery (2005), by Karen LaMonte
File:Mother and her child.jpg|alt=|Mother and her child by Leah Michlson.
Landscape, seascape
{{main|Landscape art}}
File:Albrecht Altdorfer 007.jpg|Albrecht Altdorfer (c. 1528), Danube landscape near Regensburg
File:Pieter Bruegel the Elder- The Harvesters - Google Art Project.jpg|Pieter Bruegel the Elder (1565) The Harvesters
File:The Fighting Temeraire, JMW Turner, National Gallery.jpg|J. M. W. Turner (1839) The Fighting Temeraire
File:Monet - Regen bei Eretat.jpg|Claude Monet (1886) Rain at Eretat
File:Vincent van Gogh (1853-1890) - Wheat Field with Crows (1890).jpg|alt=|Wheat Field with Crows (1890) by Vincent van Gogh
File:Georgia O'Keeffe, Palo Duro Canyon, 1916-1917.tif|alt=|Palo Duro Canyon (1916) by Georgia O'Keeffe
Still life
{{main|Still life}}
File:Alexander Coosemans - Still Life with Lobster and Oysters.jpg|Alexander Coosemans (c. 1660) Still Life with Lobster and Oysters
File:Cezanne, Nature morte au compotier.jpg|Paul Cézanne (1879) Nature morte au compotier
File:Henri Matisse, 1899, Still Life with Compote, Apples and Oranges, oil on canvas, 46.4 x 55.6 cm, The Cone Collection, Baltimore Museum of Art.jpg|Henri Matisse (1899) Still Life with Compote, Apples and Oranges
Cave painting
{{main|Cave painting}}
File:Lascaux painting.jpg|Upper Paleolithic art, c. 17,300 years old, showing aurochs, horses, and deer. Lascaux, France
File:Bestias11.JPG|Neolithic rock art, over 7,000 years old. Cave of Beasts, Egypt
See also
{{Portal|Art}}
Notes and references
{{Reflist}}