Introduction to Art History

Introduction to Art History
Art History Starter Kit and Methodology
Magister Ricard
Somerset Academy 2009-2010

Slide Contents
What is Art? Its Purpose and Its Function
Fundamentals of Interpretation: Formal and Contextual Analysis
Principles of Design: Style

Leonardo da Vinci
Mona Lisa
Oil on poplar
c. 1503

Claude Monet
Impression, Sunrise
Oil on canvas
1872

Andy Warhol
Superman
Screen print
1961

What is Art?
Art (art), n. 1. the quality, production, or expression of what is beautiful, appealing, or of more than ordinary significance
Work of art = visual expression of an idea
Medium = a particular material, along with its accompanying technique (plural = media)

Popular Media
Paint media
Acrylic, Enamel, Gesso, Glaze, Ink, Oil, Tempera, Watercolor
Used on: Canvas, Cloth, Glass, Metal, Paper, Wood
Drawing media
Chalk pastel, Charcoal, Colored pencil, Marker, Oil pastel, Pen and ink
Sculpture materials
Beads, Clay, Found objects, Jewels, Marble, Metals, Papier-mache, Plaster, Plastic, Sand, Stone, Textile, Wax, Wire, Wood

Medium: Watercolor
Thomas Girtin
Jedburgh Abbey from the River. 1798-99. Watercolor on paper.

What is “History”?
History (his-tuh-ree), n. 1. the branch of knowledge dealing with past events. 2. a continuous, systematic narrative of past events as relating to a particular people, country, period, person, etc., usually written as a chronological account; chronicle: a history of France; a medical history of the patient.
economic realities
historical events
social dynamics
religious and spiritual organizations
technological advancements

Purposes and Functions of Art
Communicating information
In non-literate societies, art was used for teaching
Today, photography, film & television are used for disseminating information

Spiritual Sustenance
All of the world’s major religions have used art to inspire and instruct the faith

Personal & Cultural Expression

Social & Political Purposes
Artist have criticized or influenced values or public opinion
Often it is clear & direct
Other times, it is less obvious
Monarchs who commissioned projects to symbolize their strength & power

Social & Political Influences
Paul Revere
The Bloody Massacre perpetrated in King Street, Boston, Massachusetts. 1770. Engraving.
Louis Le Vau and Jules Hardouin-Mansar
Palais de Versailles, Versailles, France. 1668-85.

II. Fundamentals of Interpretation:
Formal and Contextual Analysis

Art = Form + Content
In the most basic way art can be thought of as having two parts:
its form
its content
Form relates to the “formal” aspects of art or how the art is made.
Content relates to the subject of the art.

Formal Analysis of Painting
Looking at a work of art to try to understand what the artist wants to convey visually
Line and Shape
Color
Texture
Space and Mass
Composition
Scale

1. Line and Shape
Lines define space and may create an outline or contour, as style called “linear.”
They can be visible or implied
It may be two-dimensional, three-dimensional (as with a wire), or suggested or implied.
Wherever there is an edge, the place where one object or plane appears to end and other object or space

2. Color
Color is the event of wavelengths of light hitting an object and those wavelengths reflecting back into your eyes.
Color is also an element of art with three properties: hue, saturation, and value:
Hue is the name of the color (e.g., red, blue, or yellow.)
Saturation is the quality or brightness or dullness of the hue; sometimes called “intensity”
Value is the degree of lightness or darkness of a hue
On a color wheel, colors are divided into groups called primary (red, yellow & blue), secondary (orange, green & violet), and tertiary (mix of a primary & a secondary)
Complementary or opposite are two colors directly opposite one another on the color wheel

2. Color: Hues

2. Color: Saturation - quality or brightness or dullness of the hue (a.k.a. intensity)

2. Color: Value - degree of lightness or darkness of a hue

3. Texture
Texture is an element of art pertaining to the surface quality or “feel” of the work of art.
Texture can be described as smooth, rough, soft, etc. Some textures are real and others are simulated.
Textures that can be felt are ones that the fingers can actually touch, however, in paintings drapery and clothing often have a texture that can only be seen, as it is simulated.

4. Space and Mass
Space references to what contains objects; may be three dimensional (actual) or two dimensional (illusion)
Mass refers to the effect and degree of bulk, density, and weight of matter in space
In architecture or sculpture, it is the area occupied by a form
As opposed to plane and area, Mass is used for three-dimensional objects

4. Space and Mass: Perspective
Perspective is the technique that artists use to project the illusion of three-dimensional space onto a two-dimensional surface.
Perspective helps to create a sense of depth–a sense of receding space.
Artists achieve perspective in several different ways:
by making objects in the foreground larger than those in the background
by making objects at the bottom of the composition larger than those at the top
by using lighter colors and fuzzier edges to suggest the distant objects and space
by using mathematical or linear perspective, where the recession is directed towards a vanishing point.

4. Space and Mass: Foreshortening
Foreshortening is way of representing an object so that it conveys the illusion of depth–an object appears to be thrust forward or back into space.
Foreshortening succeeds particularly well when the near and far parts of the object contrast greatly.
Picture Space makes use of foreground, middle ground and background
Andrea Mantegna, The Lamentation over the Dead Christ, c. 1490 CE

5. Composition
How items are arranged or organized in a work of art
Symmetrical or assymetrical
Static or dynamic
Consider pictorial depth (illusion) rendering 3D on 2D surface or plane (picture plane)
Picture space is comprised of foreground, middle ground, and background and extends from beyond the picture plane

5. Composition
Composition, then, is the relationship of the parts of a painting, sculpture, or work of architecture.
Artists consider composition when they structure the relationships of colors, lines, shapes, and masses in their art.
Artists generally try to make the composition of their works pleasing by balancing the aforementioned relations.
Other times, artists will use composition to be expressive in some way, for example making some aspect of their art unbalanced or asymmetrical.

6. Scale
As an art history term, scale refers to the size of the art object at hand or the size of the objects represented in a particular art object.
Scale can also have to do with the size of a building as compared with the people who inhabit that space.
Artists often use scale to suggest relationships between figures and landscape, figures and other figures, and/or sometimes a figure’s importance.

Movement
Another quality an artist might utilize
Gives lifelike feeling to a work
Artists often search for ways to create a sense of movement, from manipulating the objects within a work to the medium itself

Analysis of Raphael’s School of Athens
Subject Matter/Content: It is not a school but a gathering of important Greek philosophers.
Materials and Technique: Raphael painted in the style of fresco. Fresco means painting on wet plaster.
Composition: The School of Athens is done in a pyramidal composition which is very characteristic of Raphael and the High Renaissance.
Use of Color: Raphael uses mostly natural colors with lots of browns and greys. He uses some orange and blue but mostly very earthly tones. Raphael did not use bright colors because he intended the mood to be more solemn.
Lines and Forms: Raphael gives his figures mass, bulk and weight by using perspective, drapery, chiaroscuro, and contropposto. The way the clothing of the figures falls on their bodies gives them a sense of underlying body structure. All the lines converge between Plato and Aristotle's heads which gives it the pyramidal composition. "There is also an interest in accurate body proportion, which is reminiscent of classical Greek works." (http://hyper.vcsun.org...)
Sense of Movement: All characters in "The School of Athens" are doing something. This indicts a great sense of motion which is visible in the poses of the figures.
Use of Space: Although the painting seems crowded in some parts (especially around Plato and Aristotle) Raphael creates a great sense of space. He has a vanishing point so the painting looks like it goes back forever. He also paints the figures in the foreground larger than the rest which adds to the sense of space.

III. Principles of Design:
Style

Style
Style refers to the consistent and characteristic handling of media, elements of form, and principles of design that make a work identifiable as the particular culture, period, region, group, or person
Style = Form and Composition
Makes a work distinctive!

Cultural Style
Societies develop their own beliefs and style of material forms (clothing, buildings, etc)
Artists are a product of their culture
Standing Vishnu, 10th Century ce, India, Tamil Nadu, Tanjore region. Bronze, H. 33" Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

Period Style
Styles change over time
Art changes because of economic & political changes, new technology, religious insight
Sometimes a desire for something new comes along

Regional Style
Geography also leads to diverse styles
May be conscious decision or caused by a mere lack of communication over distance
Ex: variations in Maya architecture; Hindu sculpture in India varies from North to South India; and abstract paintings produced in California differed from New York in the 1950s

Group Style
Sometimes artist form alliances, exhibit together and publicize their aims as a group to promote a distinct style
One of the best known group styles is Impressionism

Personal Style
Individual artists often have characteristic modes of personal expression

Two Basic Forms of Style
Representational
Seeks to create recognizable subject matter
Abstract
Seeks to capture the essence of a form, not literal representation

Representational Styles
Realism – the attempt to depict objects accurately, objectively
Naturalism – similar to Realism except often implies a grim subject
Illusionism – seeks to create a convincing representation or illusion of reality

Realism

Naturalism

Illusionism

Abstract Styles
Non-representational – does not produce recognizable imagery
Expressionism – Plays with subjectivity, artist’s own ideas/feelings or viewer’s ideas/feelings
Exaggerates to get the essence of a form

Non-Representational

Expressionism

Websites About Art
Chris Whitcombe’s web site - Dr. Whitcombe hosts the singularly best resource for art history on the Internet. (This would be my first stop if I were looking for an image or additional resources.)
ArtLex - ArtLex is a hyperlinked dictionary of art terms, and it includes abundant examples to illustrate the meanings of terms.
Artchive - Mark Harden’s Artchive is an image resource arranged alphabetically by artist, as well as by school and/or era.
Olga’s Gallery - Like Harden’s Artchive. (Don’t ask me about the name.)
Timeline of Art History (Met) - Self-explanatory
Humanities Web - Humanities Web “shows the interconnections, the web, the links, between history, the arts, and culture - and how each plays off and influences the others.”

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Introduction to Art History

by John Ricard on Aug 31, 2009

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Introduction to Art History — Presentation Transcript