History painting

History painting is the genre depicting significant, mostly multi-figure scenes from classical history, ancient and other mythology, the Bible and great literature. The term arose in the seventeenth century and denoted not simply pictures on a historical theme but the most prestigious kind of painting, one meant to instruct, inspire and exalt virtue through the narration of heroic deeds. In the eighteenth century the concept broadened to include more modern historical events. In the classical hierarchy of genres, history painting invariably held the highest place. The high esteem of the genre rested on the theory that the artist had to command the widest knowledge — of anatomy, composition, perspective, history and literature — together with the ability to idealize reality for the sake of moral elevation. Exemplary masters were considered to be Raphael, Nicolas Poussin and later Jacques-Louis David, whose canvases such as the Oath of the Horatii glorified civic valour in the spirit of Neoclassicism. The Briton Benjamin West became famous for depicting a contemporary event (The Death of General Wolfe) with heroic pathos. In the nineteenth century, with the rise of Realism, Impressionism and interest in the everyday, history painting gradually lost its former dominant role.