Short answers, pulled from the story.
Figurative art describes paintings and sculptures clearly derived from real object sources, making them representational by definition. Abstract art, by contrast, is often used to mean non-representational or non-objective work with no derivation from figures or objects, though strictly speaking abstract art is itself abstracted from a figurative or natural source.
Figurative art is not synonymous with figure painting, which specifically depicts the human figure. Figurative art is a broader category that includes any work derived from real-world objects; human and animal figures are frequent subjects but not the only ones.
The formal elements of figurative art include line, shape, color, light and dark, mass, volume, texture, and perspective. In figurative art these elements are deployed specifically to create an impression or illusion of form and space and to create emphasis in the narrative portrayed.
The oldest known figurative art painting is more than 40,000 years old and possibly as old as 52,000 years. It depicts an unknown animal and was found in the cave of Lubang Jeriji Saléh on the Indonesian island of Borneo; scientists reported the discovery in November 2018.
Nicolas Poussin (1594-1665) was a French painter working in the classical style whose work favored clarity, logic, and order, placing line above color. He served as a major inspiration for classically oriented artists including Jacques-Louis David, Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres, and Paul Cezanne.
Sleeping Venus (1510) by Giorgione is recognized as the first known reclining nude in Western painting. It introduced the female nude as a subject and started a long line of famous paintings in that tradition.