Citation Information
Article Title: Painting
Website Name: Encyclopaedia Britannica
Publisher: Encyclopaedia Britannica, Inc.
Date Published: 28 January 2019
URL: https://www.britannica.com/art/painting
Access Date: August 24, 2019
Additional Reading General reference
Both Kimberley Reynolds with Richard Seddon, Illustrated Dictionary of Art Terms (1981, reissued 1984); and Ralph Mayer, A Dictionary of Art Terms and Techniques (1969, reissued 1981), include modern art references. Two works by Harold Osborne (ed.), The Oxford Companion to Art (1970), and The Oxford Companion to Twentieth-Century Art (1981), provide extensive bibliographies. Also see René Huyghe (general ed.), Larousse Encyclopedia of Prehistoric and Ancient Art, rev. ed. (1966, reissued 1981); Larousse Encyclopedia of Byzantine and Medieval Art, rev. ed. (1966, reissued 1981); Larousse Encyclopedia of Renaissance and Baroque Art (1964, reissued 1981); and Larousse Encyclopedia of Modern Art (1965, reissued 1981). Design
Good surveys of the subject include Frederick Malins, Understanding Paintings: The Elements of Composition (1981); and Johannes Itten, Design and Form: The Basic Course at the Bauhaus, rev. ed. (1975; originally published in German, 1963). Works on colour include Josef Albers, The Interaction of Color (1963, reissued with rev. plate section, 1975); Johannes Itten, The Art of Color (1961, reissued 1973; originally published in German, 1961); Faber Birren, Creative Color (1961), and (ed.), A Grammar of Color: A Basic Treatise on the Color System by Albert H. Munsell (1969); Robert L. Herbert, Neo-Impressionism (1968); William Innes Homer, Seurat and the Science of Painting (1964, reprinted 1978); and Barbara Rose, “The Primacy of Color,” Art International, 8:22–26 (1964). The influence of photography on painting is examined in Aaron Scharf, Art and Photography (1968, reissued 1974); and Karen Tsujimoto, Images of America: Precisionist Painting and Modern Photography (1982). Mediums
Standard works on most painting materials, supports, surfaces, and techniques include Ralph Mayer, The Artist’s Handbook of Materials and Techniques, 4th rev. ed. (1982), with extensive bibliography; Hilaire Hiler, The Painter’s Pocket Book of Methods and Materials, 3rd ed. rev. by Colin Hayes (1970); Kurt Herberts, The Complete Handbook of Artist’s Techniques (1958; trans. from the German); Maria Bazzi, The Artist’s Methods and Materials (1960; originally published in Italian, 1956), with a bibliography of important treatises on mediums and techniques; Frederic Taubes, A Guide to Traditional and Modern Painting Methods (1963); and Max Doerner, The Materials of the Artist and Their Use in Painting, rev. ed. (1949, reprinted 1969; originally published in German, 4th ed., 1933). For discussion of tempera, see the appropriate sections in Daniel V. Thompson, The Materials of Medieval Painting (1936; reprinted as Materials and Techniques of Medieval Painting, 1956). Watercolour painting is treated in Walter Koschatzky, Watercolor: History and Technique (1970; originally published in German, 1969). For treatment of ink painting, see Fei Ch’eng Wu, Brush Drawing in the Chinese Manner (1957); and Osvald Síren, Chinese Painting: Leading Masters and Principles, 7 vol. (1973). Fred Gettings, Polymer Painting Manual (1971), is a thorough and well-illustrated guide to acrylic painting. Works on other mediums include Jean Guichard-Melli, Matisse Paper Cutouts (1984; originally published in French, 1983); and Harriet Janis and Rudi Blesh, Collage, rev. ed. (1967). Forms
William G. Archer, Indian Miniatures (1960), and Indian Paintings from the Punjab Hills: A Survey and History of Pahari Miniature Painting (1973); Mark Zebrowski, Deccani Painting (1983); Janet Woodbury Adams, Decorative Folding Screens: In the West from 1600 to the Present Day (U.S. title: Decorative Folding Screens: 400 Years in the Western World, 1982); Elise Grilli, The Art of the Japanese Screen (1971); Roselee Goldberg, Performance: Live Art, 1909 to the Present (1979); and Adrian Henri, Environments and Happenings (U.S. title: Total Art: Environments, Happenings, and Performance, 1974). Imagery
E.H. Gombrich, Art and Illusion, 4th ed. (1972); Gyorgy Kepes (ed.), Sign, Image, Symbol (1966); Leon M. Zolbrod, Haiku Painting (1983); Lucy R. Lippard et al., Pop Art (1960, rev. ed. 1970); and J.H. Matthews, Eight Painters: The Surrealist Context (1982). Subject matter
Howard Daniel, Encyclopedia of Themes and Subjects in Painting (1971), a concise survey of Western mythological and religious subjects; David Rosand, Painting in Cinquecento Venice (1982); Svetlana Alpers, The Art of Describing: Dutch Art in the Seventeenth Century (1983); Norman Bryson, World and Image: French Painting of the Ancient Régime (1982); Michael Levey, The Painter Depicted: Painters as a Subject in Painting (1982); John Pope-Hennessy, The Portrait in the Renaissance (1966, reissued 1979), includes interpretive discussions of the works and extracts from the artists’ letters; Kenneth Clark, Landscape into Art (1949, reissued 1975); A. Richard Turner, The Vision of Landscape in Renaissance Italy (1966, reprinted 1974); Joseph S. Czestochowski, The American Landscape Tradition (1982); Roger Boulet, The Canadian Earth: Landscape Paintings by the Group of Seven (1982); Michael Jacobs, Nude Painting (1979); and Kenneth Clark, The Nude: A Study of Ideal Art (1976). Symbolism
Erwin Panofsky, Studies in Iconology (1939, reissued 1972), and Meaning in the Visual Arts (1955, reprinted 1982); F.D.K. Bosch, The Golden Germ (1960); Carl G. Jung et al., Man and His Symbols (posthumous ed. 1964, reprinted 1979), with excellent illustrations; Rudolf Wittkower, Allegory and the Migration of Symbols (1977), includes Eastern imagery; Paul Frankl, The Gothic: Literary Sources and Interpretations Through Eight Centuries (1960); George Ferguson, Signs and Symbols in Christian Art (1954, reprinted 1973); Joan Evans, Monastic Iconography in France: From the Renaissance to the Revolution (1970); and Jitendra Nath Banerjea, The Development of Hindu Iconography, 2nd rev. ed. (1956, reprinted 1974). Writings