Art32 genres · six rooms · one salon
What is this painting about?
Every genre of art — portraits, storms at sea, skulls beside candles, dragons and spaceships — with its conventions, hidden symbols, and the masterpieces that made it.
Room I
The Grand Hierarchy
The academy's official ranking of subjects — from noble history painting down to the humble still life.
History Painting
Gods, generals, and moral lessons, painted as big as possible
Portraiture
A face, frozen forever, arguing for its own importance.
Genre Painting
Kitchens, taverns, and card games, treated as worthy subjects.
Landscape
Nature, framed and composed, standing in for the sublime.
Animal Art
Beasts painted with the dignity usually reserved for kings.
Still Life
Fruit, flowers, and skulls, arguing quietly about mortality.
Room II
The Portrait Rooms
Faces and figures: everyone who ever wanted to be remembered.
Self-Portrait
The artist as sitter, mirror as accomplice.
Group Portrait
A room full of people all pretending not to pose.
Portrait Miniature
A whole likeness small enough to hide in your palm.
Equestrian Portrait
Power looks better on horseback.
Pet Portrait
Because the family dog deserved oil paint too.
Caricature
Flattery's evil twin, drawn with a sharper pencil.
Room III
Story & Belief
Myths, saints, allegories and battles — pictures that argue and preach.
Room IV
Places & Light
Sea, city, night and the rooms we live in.
Room V
Things & Nature
Flowers, feasts, skulls and specimens — meaning hidden in objects.
Vanitas
A still life that whispers you won't last.
Memento Mori
Every skull is a memo from the inevitable.
Flower Painting
Flowers, painted just past their prime.
Food in Art
Appetite rendered in oil, sugar, and light
Botanical Illustration
Nature rendered precise enough to identify, beautiful enough to frame
Room VI
Modern Subjects
The genres the academy never saw coming.
Abstract Art
Paint about paint, feeling made visible without a subject
Figurative Art
The body and world painted as they actually look
Fantasy Art
Worlds and creatures that never existed, painted like they did
Sci-Fi Art
Tomorrow imagined today, chrome, stars, and impossible machines
AIConcept Art
Designing imaginary worlds so someone else can build them.
Sports Art
The body in motion, immortalized mid-triumph.