Narrative Art

The most common instances of narrative art might be found in children's books, although the subjects of narrative art have most often been religious or historical.

Narrative artwork can depict continuous scenes, a single event, or several scenes at the same time.

Some experts feel that pictures do not do a good job of telling a story, because stories are told over time and pictures are seen all at one time. This may be an arbitrary view, however, because most people cannot absorb the contents of a complex work of art at one time.

In other words, viewing art can also take place over time, and this is especially true with some famous pieces of narrative art like the frescoes at the Arena Chapel and the Column of Trajan.

Narrative art can express a continuous narrative or just one scene.

Leonardo da Vinci‘s Last Supper, completed around 1498, is an example of a narrative painting that is monoscenic, meaning that it shows a single event.

Another example of a one-scene narrative painting is Washington Crossing the Delaware by Emanuel Leutze.