Jessica Saraga will be talking about The ‘Hierarchy of Genres’: the Royal Academies’ high art pecking order of subjects in Western Art, and how it was challenged.

The classification of subject matter in painting was established in the French Royal Academy in the 17th century and closely embraced by the Royal Academy in Britain in the 18th century. It was based on the idea that ‘man is the measure of all things’, so the highest ranked subjects were whatever showed humanity in its most noble and profound moments. Animal and landscape painting came in well down the scale, and as for the inanimate objects of still life, whether organic fruits and flowers or the fabricated accoutrements of daily living, they were relegated to the bottom rung of the ladder. This lecture explores the influence on the art world of this ‘Hierarchy of Genres’, and how succeeding generations of artists ignored, rejected or rose above its rigidity. Inspired by every aspect of the natural world around them it was these artists who would produce the much loved landscapes and still life hanging in our galleries and reproduced on many living room walls.