Fantastic art is a loosely defined art genre. The first "fantastic" artist is generally believed to be Hieronymus Bosch.
Other artists who have been labeled fantastic include Brueghel, Giuseppe Arcimboldo, Matthias Grünewald, Hans Baldung Grien, Francisco de Goya, Gustave Moreau, Max Magnus Norman, Henry Fuseli, Odilon Redon, Max Klinger, Arnold Böcklin, William Blake, Gustave Doré, Giovanni Battista Piranesi, Salvador Dalí, Arik Brauer, Johfra, Odd Nerdrum, and Mati Klarwein.
Fantasy has been an integral part of art since its beginnings, but has been particularly important in mannerism, romantic art, symbolism and surrealism. fantastic art celebrates fantasy, imagination, dreamworlds, the grotesque, visions and other-worldliness. With symbolism, it shares its choice of themes such as mythology, occultism and mysticism.
In French, the genre is called le fantastique, in English it is sometimes referred to as visionary art, grotesque art or mannerist art.
Fantastic art should not be confused with fantasy art, which is the domain of science-fiction and fantasy illustrators such as Boris Vallejo and others.
