still lifes is the lowest type of painting according to the hierarchy of genres.
the lowest type of painting according to the hierarchy of genres is?
still lifes
the hierarchy of genres also had a corresponding hierarchy of formats: large format for history paintings, small format for still lifes. this had occasionally been breached in the past, especially in large flemish works, and the monumental "the young bull" of the dutch artist paulus potter, as well as the larger of the two "butchers' shop" canvases of annibale carracci. but for the most part the relative prices obtainable for the different genres ensured the hierarchy of size also; it would not have been economic to paint a very large subject from the lower genres, except for commissioned group portraits. rubens' largest landscapes were painted for his own houses.
hierarchy of genres
there is a lowest type, whose individuals have no members and are members of the second lowest type. individuals of the lowest type correspond to the urelements of certain set theories. each type has a next higher type, analogous to the notion of successor in peano arithmetic. while st is silent as to whether there is a maximal type, a transfinite number of types poses no difficulty. these facts, reminiscent of the peano axioms, make it convenient and conventional to assign a natural number to each type, starting with 0 for the lowest type. but type theory does not require a prior definition of the naturals.
st type theory