The hierarchy of genres
Even though painters constantly went beyond the limits of their assigned
speciality, the hierarchy of genres remained an essential criterion in
eighteenth-century painting.
Jean-Antoine Watteau was the only one to
invent a short-lived genre known as the fête galante . The genres
were graded in order of importance, starting at the top:
history painting
, the
portrait,
genre painting,
still-life and
landscape.