Realism in the visual arts

Visual arts

The visual arts are art forms that create works which are primarily visual in nature, such as ceramics, drawing, painting, sculpture, printmaking, design, crafts, and often modern visual arts and architecture...

 is a style that depicts the actuality of what the eyes can see. The term is used in different senses in art history

Art history

Art history has historically been understood as the academic study of objects of art in their historical development and stylistic contexts, i.e. genre, design, format, and style...

; it may mean the same as illusionism

Illusionism (art)

For the performing art of magic, see Magic Illusionism in art history means either the artistic tradition in which artists create a work of art that appears to share the physical space with the viewer., or more broadly the attempt to represent physical appearances precisely - also called mimesis...

, the representation of subjects with visual mimesis

Mimesis

Mimesis , from μιμεῖσθαι , "to imitate," from μῖμος , "imitator, actor") is a critical and philosophical term that carries a wide range of meanings, which include imitation, representation, mimicry, imitatio, receptivity, nonsensuous similarity, the act of resembling, the act of expression, and the...

 or verisimilitude

Verisimilitude

Verisimilitude is the quality of realism in something .-Competing ideas:The problem of verisimilitude is the problem of articulating what it takes for one false theory to be closer to the truth than another false theory...

, or may mean an emphasis on the actuality of subjects, depicting them without idealization

Idealization

Idealization is the process by which scientific models assume facts about the phenomenon being modeled that are strictly false. Often these assumptions are used to make models easier to understand or solve. Many times idealizations do not harm the predictive accuracy of the model for one reason or...

, and not omitting their sordid aspects which continued the values placed always on the traditions of genre painting

Genre painting

Genre works, also called genre scenes or genre views, are pictorial representations in any of various media that represent scenes or events from everyday life, such as markets, domestic settings, interiors, parties, inn scenes, and street scenes. Such representations may be realistic, imagined, or...

. Works may be realist in either of these senses, or both.