Introduction to Art History

By Moiss Rodrguez
Isabel Glvez
Ingrid Mondolis

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

Leonardo da Vinci
Mona Lisa
Oil on poplar
c. 1503

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

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

Purposes and Functions of

Art
Spiritual
Sustenance
All of the
worlds
major
religions
have used
art to
inspire and
instruct
the faith

Purposes and Functions of

Art
Personal &
Cultural
Expression

Purposes and Functions of

Art
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. 166885.

Formal Analysis of Painting

Looking at a work of art to try to
understand what the artist wants
to convey visually
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.

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 threedimensional objects

4. Space and Mass: Perspective

Perspective is the technique that
artists use to project the illusion of
three-dimensional space onto a twodimensional surface.
Perspective helps to create a sense
of deptha sense of receding space.
Artists achieve perspective in
several different ways:
1. by making objects in the foreground
larger than those in the background
2. by making objects at the bottom of the
composition larger than those at the top
3. by using lighter colors and fuzzier edges
to suggest the distant objects and space
4. 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 depthan 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 figures 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 Raphaels
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.

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, artists own
ideas/feelings or viewers
ideas/feelings
Exaggerates to get the essence of a
form

Expressionism

Websites About Art

Chris Whitcombes 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 Hardens Artchive is an image resource
arranged alphabetically by artist, as well as by school and/or
era.
Olgas Gallery - Like Hardens Artchive. (Dont 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.