Original Source
Abridged version below:
What is Academic Art?
In fine art, the term "Academic art" is traditionally used to describe the style of true-to-life but high minded realist painting and sculpture championed by the European academies of art, notably the French Academy of Fine Arts.
Characteristics of Academic Art
The most important principles of Academic art, as laid down by the French Academy, can be expressed as follows:
1. Rationality
The Academy was at pains to promote an "intellectual" style of art. In contrast, say, to the "sensuous" style of the Rococo, the "socially-aware" style of French Realism, the "visual" style of Impressionism, or the "emotional" style of Expressionism. It considered fine art to be an intellectual discipline, involving a high degree of reason, thus the "rationality" of a painting was all-important. Such rationality was exemplified by a work's subject-matter, its use of classical or religious allegory, and/or by its references to classical, historical or allegorical subjects.
2. Message
Great importance was placed upon the 'message' of the painting, which should be appropriately "uplifting" and have a high moral content. This principle was the basis for the official "Hierarchy of the Genres,” a ranking system first announced in 1669, by the Secretary to the French Academy. The genres were listed in the following order of importance: (1) History Painting; (2) Portrait art; (3) Genre Painting; (4) Landscapes; (5) Still Life Painting. The idea was that history paintings were better platforms from which to communicate a high minded message. A battle scene or a piece of Biblical art would convey an obvious moral message about (say) courage or spirituality, whereas a still-life picture of a vase of flowers would struggle to do the same.
3. Other Artistic Conventions
Over time the Academic authorities gradually built up a series of painterly rules and conventions. Here is a small selection:
• Artists should use 'idealized' rather than 'overly realistic' forms; thus realism - in faces, bodies, or details of scenes, was discouraged.
• History paintings should depict people in historical dress.
• Complex rules governed the use of linear perspective and foreshortening, in keeping with Renaissance theory.
• Bright colours should be used sparingly.
• Colour should be naturalistic: grass should be green, and so on. This alone disqualified Impressionists and Neo-Impressionists from academic approval.
• The paint surface should be smooth with no trace of brushstrokes. Impasto was out, expressive brushwork was out: the Academy insisted upon a polished finish.
How the Academies Controlled Art Education and Exhibitions
The French Academy had a virtual monopoly on the teaching, production and exhibition of visual art in France. As a result, without the approval of the Academy a budding painter could neither obtain an official "qualification", nor exhibit his works to the public, nor gain access to official patronage or teaching positions. In short, the Academy held the key to an artist's future prosperity.
How Academic Art Was Taught
Academy schools taught art according to a strict set of conventions and rules, and involved only representational art: there was no abstract art permitted.
Students began with drawing, first from prints or drawings of classical Greek sculpture or the paintings of Old Masters of the High Renaissance era. Having completed this stage, students then had to present drawings for evaluation. If successful, they then moved on to drawing from plaster casts or originals of antique statuary. Once again, they then had to present drawings for evaluation. If successful, they were allowed to copy from live male nudes (known as 'drawing from life').
Note: one side-effect of the focus on drawing from the male nude was to make it difficult for women artists to gain admittance to the Academy, until the second half of the 19th century (1861 for the London Royal Academy), due to moral issues.
Only after completing several years training in drawing, as well as anatomy and geometry, were students allowed to paint: that is, to use colour.
Salon Exhibitions
Typically, each academy of art staged a number of exhibitions (salons) during the year, which attracted great interest from art buyers and collectors. In order for a painting to be accepted by the Salon, it first had to be approved by the Salon "jury" - a committee of academicians who vetted each submission.
A successful showing at one of these displays was a guaranteed seal of approval for an aspiring artist. Since several thousand paintings would usually be on display, hung from eye-level to the ceiling, there was tremendous competition to secure prime position from the Hanging Committee, who as usual were influenced by the genre of a painting and (no doubt) by the 'academic conformity' of its artist.
HIERARCHY OF THE GENRES
Original Source
Abridged version below:
In fine art, the term 'genre' refers to the differing 'type' or 'category' into which a painting may be classified. Rather confusingly the same word appears in the phrase 'genre painting' which is itself a type of painting - specifically, pictures of everyday scenes. The established painting genres are: Landscape, Portraiture, Genre-Scenes, History, and Still Life.
The Academic Hierarchy of the Genres
This method of 'ranking' paintings according to 'type' was established in the wake of the Italian Renaissance by the great European Academies, like the Academy of Art in Rome, the Academy of Art in Florence, the French Academy in Paris, and the Royal Academy in London. It was first announced in 1669, by the art-theoretician Andre Felibien, Secretary to the French Academy.
Felibien ranked the genres as follows: (1) History Painting; (2) Portraiture; (3) Genre Painting; (4) Landscapes; (5) Still Life.
1. History Paintings
History painting, the highest category, sometimes called the grande genre, denoted paintings that portrayed an ethically uplifting message set in a historical, religious, allegorical or mythological context. For centuries, the most common examples of this genre were religious paintings, which was hardly surprising since the Church was the principal paymaster.
2. Portraiture
Portrait art, the second highest genre, included primarily the painting of heroic individuals larger-than-life for public viewing, although it lent itself also to smaller-scale private portraiture, as well as self-portraits.
3. Genre Paintings
Genre-painting concerned everyday scenes populated by ordinary people, although they might include landscape. While history and portrait pictures were ideally large (and displayed in public), genre artworks were small-scale paintings for domestic viewing.
4. Landscapes
Landscape painting, the fourth category, denoted paintings whose main theme was the portrayal of a scenic view (countryside, seascape, rivers, mountains, townscape etc) for its own sake.
5. Still Lifes
Still Life painting was considered to be the least elevating of all the genres. Typically, it concerned the representation of objects such as flowers, fruits, foodstuffs as well as kitchen and table implements. Animals and humans might also be included.
