Impressionism:

Embracing Change

Royal Academy: Art Hierarchy

The royal academy of art was founded in the year 1648 in France. The royal academy was considered as
a significant part of the monarchy. The kings and the ruling parties analyzed the fact that art was a good
means of understanding and managing the public opinion.

The royal academy was therefore depicted as an important political asset. The royal academy controlled
the different aspects of art, such as teaching and learning process of art and displaying the art at periodic
intervals of time. This act of organizing an art show at a certain interval of time is known as the Salon. In
this particular journal, we will discuss in details about the Royal academy art hierarchy.

There exists a hierarchy of genre and the subject matter in the Royal academy. According to the
hierarchy, there are different types of genres such as History painting, Portraiture, Genre painting,
Landscape painting, Animal painting and Still life painting. The history paintings are placed in the highest
position in the hierarchy. The still life paintings are at the lower levels of the hierarchy.

History painting

The historical paintings include noble

historic moments, ancient mythologies and
biblical subjects. The paintings are intended
for display in the public places such as
churches, gallery walls and at events like
annual Salons. The paintings that display
the symbolic messages about the good and
evil are given the highest designation under
the category of historical paintings.

Portraiture

Portrait painting is the next highest genre in

the Royal academy art hierarchy. The
students have to pass through a rigorous
course of training to master the portrait painting skill. Generally, the students start with drawing from the
plaster casts and copying the already established portraits before working with the live models.

Genre painting

The genre painting includes scenes from the everyday life. These may contain people, landscapes,
animals and their combinations. Normally, a genre painting has a person or a group of people performing
certain activities.

http://www.hierarchystructure.com/royal-academy-art-hierarchy/
 Impressionism: Embracing Change

Landscape painting

Landscape painting is in the fourth position in the Royal academy art hierarchy. In the landscape
paintings, there are no human figures. These paintings include everything that can be found in physical
geography such as cityscapes, waterscapes and seascapes.

Animal painting

Among the various animal paintings, the horse paintings are more popular. The animal paintings were
ranked low due to the late inclusion in the hierarchical system. But, the animal painters are honored and
valued as like the painters of the other genre.

Still life painting

The still life paintings do not contain any living objects. They are small scale paintings and do not require
much imagination. Still life paintings are ranked lowest in the Royal academy art hierarchy. However,
these are also an important part of the Royal academy art hierarchy.

http://www.hierarchystructure.com/royal-academy-art-hierarchy/