Peintures

Peintures are visual artworks created by applying pigment to a surface to depict scenes, figures, or ideas. Common media include oil, acrylic, tempera, watercolor, and fresco, used on supports such as canvas, wooden panels, paper, plaster, or walls. Techniques range from glazing and layering to impasto, scumbling, and alla prima, with artists often mixing media to achieve texture, depth, and luminosity.

Historically, painting has global roots and developed through distinct periods. In Europe, medieval altarpieces gave way to the Renaissance innovations of perspective and light, followed by Baroque drama and the rise of modern and contemporary movements that explored abstraction, conceptual concerns, and new materials. Outside Europe, East Asian ink traditions, Indian miniatures, and African and Oceanic arts have influenced color, form, and handling of space. The exchange among cultures has shaped the vocabulary of painting across centuries.

Common genres include portraiture, landscape, still life, and narrative history, while later developments have emphasized abstraction, minimalism, or interdisciplinary approaches. Conservation and authentication are central in handling peintures, addressing issues such as varnish yellowing, craquelure, pigment fading, and support deterioration. Technical studies—x-ray, infrared reflectography, and pigment analysis—aid attribution and preservation, while catalogues raisonnés document a work's provenance and dating.

Peintures play a formative role in culture and education, reflecting aesthetic preferences, social contexts, and technological change. They are collected, displayed, and studied in museums, studios, and academies, and continue to influence contemporary practice through restoration, digital reproduction, and new media collaborations.