Introduction to Art Historical Terms

Art History II

Form= What does it LOOK like?

Content= What does it MEAN?

Formal Elements• Line• Shape• Color• Value• Texture • Mass • CompositionThe artist manipulates all of these visual elements to make the art look the way it does.

Formal Elements

• Line

= A continuous mark

Can be described as thick or thin, steady or broken, organic (curved) or geometric (straight), and much more.

Formal Elements• Shape

= an enclosed spaceCan also be described as organic or geometric. Can be simple or complex, etc.

Formal Elements

• ColorWe all know what color is, right? Right?

Technically, color consists of: • hue (red, yellow, blue, etc.)• intensity (how bright or dull it is)• and value (lightness or darkness)

Optional fun video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gf33ueRXMzQ

Formal Elements• Value = shades of light and dark

Formal Elements• Texture

= what it would feel like (if you were allowed to touch it [actual texture])

OR what it looks like it would feel like (implied texture)

Formal Elements • Mass= How much space is inhabited. Can also be literal or implied.

Formal Elements• Composition is the overall arrangement of forms.

One of these has a very organized composition. The other has a rather busy compositon.

Subject vs. Content

• Subject is the literal image depicted.

• Content is the implied message. The content is dependent on historical context.

Example:

The formal elements of Michelangelo’s David include organic lines, a lack of color, and a balanced composition.

The subject is a muscular young man.

The content is the Biblical David, but one can’t know that without the historical context of Christianity.

Historical Context

• The religious, political, and socio-economic factors that affect the subject/content and formal elements of works of art.

• For example, in our study of Renaissance art, most of the subject matter will be influenced by the patronage of the Christian Church.

Types of Perspective

Perspective refers to various pictorial devices for creating the illusion of 3-dimensional depth on a 2-dimensional surface.

AKA: making a flat painting look 3D

Different techniques have been used throughout history. Read more about intuitive and linear perspective in your textbook.

• In this course, you will be asked to analyze the form, subject/content, and historical context of various works of art. Your discussion board assignments will often consist of comparing/contrasting two works of art in these terms.

Quick P/review of Art History I

…it’s okay if you haven’t taken Art History I. Either way, here is a quick recap so that we’re all on the same page.

Polykleitos, Doryphoros (Spear-Bearer), ca. 450-40 B.C., Classical Greek

Ancient Greek art was all about the ideal. Instead of portraits of individuals, Greek artists created ideal representations of youth, power, and beauty. This reflected their Humanist philosophy: their belief that man was the center of the universe and was created in the image of the gods.

Polykleitos was the first known artist to a record an ideal set of proportions for depicting the human form. This is called a canon of proportions.

Augustus of Primaporta, early 1st Century CE,

Imperial Roman

Ancient Roman artists, on the other hand, were very much interested in individual identity, inspired by ancestor worship. They created many portraits of recognizable individuals: still idealized but more detailed and more specific.

Constantine the Great, 325-36 CE

Marble8’ 6“

Late Roman

With the rise of Christianity in the late Roman Empire, there was more abstraction or distortion of forms. This reflected Christianity’s emphasis on things unseen, as opposed to the material world.

Constantine is considered the first Christian emperor, and his exaggerated eyes emphasize his spiritual and psychological rather than physical traits.

Crucifixion with Angels and Mourning Figures,

outer cover, Lindau Gospels

c. 870-880

Gold, pearls, and gems

Early Medieval

After the fall of the Roman Empire, the Christian Church became the dominant religious and cultural

institution in Western Europe. Art became very abstract, not due to a

lack of skill, but due to a lack of interest in the human body

(flesh=sin, so let’s leave out the details of the the flesh).

Virgin and Child, France, 1339

Gothic

In the late Medieval or Gothic period, there is a slightly renewed interest in naturalistic human forms (observed

from nature), partly due to the rediscovery of Humanism.

Thomas Aquinas read the works of the Ancient Greek philosopher Aristotle and

began to advocate rational inquiry as the basis of faith. This leads to an

interest in the natural world and forms the foundation of the Renaissance!

Giotto di Bondone

Virgin and Child Enthroned

Italy, c. 1310, Tempera and gold on wood

Gothic

By the beginning of the 14th century, Giotto experimented with intuitive perspective to create a more believable sense of three-dimensional depth than the vertical perspective used in earlier Medieval art.

Cimabue (left), c. 1280 vs. Giotto (right), c. 1310

Compare and contrast: which one is more naturalistic? Why?

Intuitive perspective is based on the premise that objects appear smaller as they get further from the viewer. Therefore, a straight, horizontal line may appear vertical as it recedes into the distance.

Giotto uses this concept to more clearly define the space around the Virgin. Notice the vertical lines of the throne. Notice how the angels actually overlap a little bit.

Unit 1 will be all about the Renaissance.

You will discover that Renaissance artists combined Christian doctrine with Classical Greek and Roman Humanism.