History, Religious and Mythological Paintings

Individual paintings whose subject is a narrative drawn from religion, mythology, or a real historical or political event, the single highest genre in the classical French Academy hierarchy of painting genres under Charles Le Brun, which grouped religious, mythological, allegorical and historical or political narrative subjects together as one genre above portraiture, genre scenes, landscape and still life. Belongs here: biblical and devotional scenes, classical and other mythological narratives, allegories, and paintings of real historical or political events and figures. Does not belong here: portraits of a named individual sitter with no narrative event, everyday domestic or social scenes, pure landscapes or still lifes, and non-representational or abstract compositions, which are grouped under the other painting subcategories.