N OT E S :: Art History One . Fifth Edition
p. XXVI - XLI
What is Art?
Is defined by "the quality, production, expression, or realm of what is beautiful, or of more than ordinary significance."
Global perspective / across past and present cultures
p. XXVII
Labeling objects as art is usually meant to signal that they transcend in some profound way their practical function, often embodying cherished cultural ideas or asserting foundational values.
What is beauty?
Thus, impacts what we feel is important. It is culturally learned and experienced.
Art appreciation does not require knowledge of the historical context of an artwork... Art history does.
What is Art History?
WAYS OF SEEING
COLOR / HUE -> additive system
Color Mapping + light
p. XXII
Starter Kit
FORM = the term encompasses quality and attributes of a composition by using the elements and principles of visual design
LINE & SHAPE = direction and movement
COLOR = hue / primary / secondary / complimentary / analogous colors
VALUE = lightness and darkness / tints and tones
TEXTURE = actual and implied
SPACE = actual and implied
MASS = volume / weight of solid matter, illusionary/implied or actual
SCALE = comparative size between forms and images
COMPOSITION = organization or arrangement of visual forms and images
CONTENT = subject matter - may be of representational of a social, political, religious, economic, cultural theme or may be purely formal of an abstract nature
STYLE = Period and Regional style
Representational
Idealization
Illusionistic
Formal / Abstract
MEDIUM & TECHNIQUE = use of materials and how they are employed. Medium = singular material &
p. XXIII
Two Dimensional Pictorial Devices that Depict Recession in Space
Overlapping
diminution = scale
vertical perspective = lower subject appears closer
atmospheric perspective = objects in distance have less clarity
divergent perspective
intuitive perspective
linear perspective
See class BLOG page on The Elements & Principles of Visual Design
What is Art?
Is defined by "the quality, production, expression, or realm of what is beautiful, or of more than ordinary significance."
Global perspective / across past and present cultures
p. XXVII
Labeling objects as art is usually meant to signal that they transcend in some profound way their practical function, often embodying cherished cultural ideas or asserting foundational values.
What is beauty?
Thus, impacts what we feel is important. It is culturally learned and experienced.
Art appreciation does not require knowledge of the historical context of an artwork... Art history does.
What is Art History?
Paintings and sculpture, creative works created by humans date back to 30,000 years ago.
WAYS OF SEEING
The history of art can be a history of artists and their works, of styles and stylistic change, of materials and techniques, of images and themes, their meanings, the contexts in which they arose, the cultures and patrons."
Art historians analyze human created works - we can only try to reconstruct meaning through the knowledge we already have.
Historians assess and interpret through cultural context.
Studies of genes and fossils agree that Homo sapiens evolved in Africa 200,000 years ago. Although these earliest humans looked like us, it’s not clear they thought like us.
"Viewers can react to what they see, interpret the work in the light of their own experience, and judge it a success or failure. But the enjoyment and appreciation of artworks in museum settings are relatively recent phenomena, as is the creation of artworks solely for museum-going audiences to view." > Gardener's Art through the Ages
Art Appreciation vs. Art History
"The central aim of art history is to determine context and cultural circumstances 'persisting events' of human history."
Why?
Works of art shed light on the cultures that made them.
Art production also may challenge preexisting cultural notions with the human creative production of ideas and forms.
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| Keith Haring (1958 - 1990) NYC subway drawing |
"An ancient potter decorating a vase for sale at a village market speaks about the athletes in the earliest Olympics."
Disciplines of art production
In the late 20th century and 21st c. art historians and critics of culture, are constantly expanding expanding what the art object is.
How old is it?
How is this determined?
i. Physical evidence
ii. Documentary evidence and official records
iii. Internal evidence notes identifiable objects, people, architecture, etc. discovered within the work of art.
iv. Stylistic evidence notes the artist's distinctive manner or style.
STYLE
These are ways of pin pointing historical identification:
These are ways of pin pointing historical identification:
Period style defines the characteristics of the artistic manner within a cultural context.
Regional style describes style and variety that are tied to an area or region.
Provenance defines the historical ownership of the work and often place of origin.
Personal style not period, nor region sets creative making apart from other forms in characterized style.
Do you see problems in identifying creative production this way?
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| Pablo Picasso (1881 - 1973), Family of Saltimbanque ROSE PERIOD 1904 - 1906 |
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| Pablo Picasso, Afficionado
ANALYTICAL CUBIST style 1908 - 1912
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p.XXIX
In art history, the work of art is seen as an embodiments of the values, goals, and aspirations of its time and place of origin.
i. assessment of physical properties
ii. analysis of formal visual structure
iii. identification of subject matter / conventional symbolism
iv. integration within a cultural context
p. XXVIII
In 1971, Whitney Museum of American Art mounted an exhibition by art historians Jonathan Holstein and Gail van der Hoof called "Abstract Design in American Quilts."
International Quilt Study Center & Museum
World Quilts: The American Story
Let us return to the question
What is beauty?
In art history, the work of art is seen as an embodiments of the values, goals, and aspirations of its time and place of origin.
i. assessment of physical properties
ii. analysis of formal visual structure
iii. identification of subject matter / conventional symbolism
iv. integration within a cultural context
p. XXVIII
In 1971, Whitney Museum of American Art mounted an exhibition by art historians Jonathan Holstein and Gail van der Hoof called "Abstract Design in American Quilts."
International Quilt Study Center & Museum
World Quilts: The American Story
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| Abstract Design in American Quilts . The Whitney Museum of American Art . 1971 |
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| Paul Klee: Fire at Full Moon, 1933 |
Let us return to the question
What is beauty?
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| Te Pehi Kupe, Self-Portrait, 1826 |
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John Henry Sylvester, Portrait of Te Pehi Kupe, 1826 watercolor on paper
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| Contemporary Mau Moko The world of Maori tattoo. In the traditional Maori world the moko, facial or body tattoo, was the genre and part of everyday life. Individuals have/had some patterning on their skin. Men wore elaborate designs on their faces. Women's were usually less complex but elegant, and both sexes had extensive body work. After almost dying out in the 20th century,Maori skin art is now experiencing a powerful revival, with many young, urban Maori displaying the Moko as a spectacular gesture of ethnic pride and identity... |
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| Te Taupura life mask at the Rotorua Museum. Ta Moko is the traditional chiseling and inking of the face and body of the Maori of New Zealand. |
SUBJECT MATTER
narrative . action . time . place . people involved > is Representational
vs. Abstract & non-objective works
Has no subject matter, rather the subject is the creative work itself.
The formal elements that make up the work: Line - Shape - Volume - Mass - Space - Texture - Color - Value - Composition
The formal elements that make up the work: Line - Shape - Volume - Mass - Space - Texture - Color - Value - Composition
The Genre
Art historical categories of pictorial subject: religious, historical, myth, genre (daily life), portraiture landscape, still life
Iconography = the writing of images
The study of symbols - images that represent other ideas within creative production or communicate ideas.
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| c. 2012 update Who designed the Twitter bird? |
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| Original "Larry" = 2006 "The original Larry, to which the present icon bears little resemblance, was created by Simon Oxley, a British graphic designer who has since produced many mascots for online companies. The blue bird was just one illustration he offered for sale on the iStock website in 2006, where someone at Twitter bought it for approximately $15" |
Icons = Symbols, Signs and signifiers
(Christianity: Saint John = eagle, Luke = ox, Mark = lion, Matthew = a winged man) > This will be evident when we get to Medieval art
Personifications = abstract ideas codified in human form
Who is the maker?
Who is the work attributed to?
How can we identify an anonymous work? Base knowledge on internal evidence, shared geographical evidence, stylistic evidence, etc.
How can we identify an anonymous work? Base knowledge on internal evidence, shared geographical evidence, stylistic evidence, etc.
Who paid for it?
Speaks to the concept surrounding The $value$ of Art
Speaks to the concept surrounding The $value$ of Art
The patrons of a work of art, obviously, help shape what is good in terms of style and subject matter. Example: Portraits busts from ancient Roman world would not have been created for the lower class Bruno or Aynnemarie.
Often times the patron describes the prescribed manner in which the work will be produced.
Isn't this problematic?
It is based in old ways of making, and thus, doesn't give rise to new forms.
Isn't this problematic?
It is based in old ways of making, and thus, doesn't give rise to new forms.
In our Western world people in power dictated what would be made.
Pharaohs, Popes, patrons, The Church, emperors, monks
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| Jen Pepper . Performing Objects: Color Ranges throughout the Ages . ICELAND knit Icelandic wool, felted, worn and photographed |
The Words Art Historians Use
Essential vocabulary to describe - textually/audibly interpret a visual image or form
Formal Analysis
Deconstructive analysis of visual forms
You will do some writing in this way. Follow the deconstructive analysis page of how to describe a visual image/form.
Form
Refers to an objects structure (not shape). Form describes a 3D object or the illusion of three dimensionality.
Composition
How a maker composes a creative form. This can be made either on a flat surface (2D) or in three dimensions (3D) as in something that exists in space, occupies space and has actual form.
Material -> singular Media -> plural
The materials that an artist/designer moves around in order to make something. This may include the ground, also known as the substrate. Tools may also fit into this category, for instance a cell phone that takes a digital video file. Depending on the choice of material, a work may be expressed in very different ways.
Technique
The way in which a maker employs the materials, personal handling of material. Form, material and technique interrelate and are central in the analysis of any human made form.
LINE
".... a line is a dot out for a walk." Paul Klee
A path of a moving point
It describes direction of a plane in space (actual or illusionistic)
It can vary in width = expresses visual weight
COLOR / HUE -> additive system
Color Mapping + light
Primary colors -> RYB1 . 1 . 1
Secondary colors -> OGV 2 . 2 . 2
NYC Barry McGee installation
[painters mix or use ADDITIVE color --- a theatrical lighting professional uses the SUBTRACTIVE use of color to create white light]
Complimentary color pairing -> 1 + 2
Analogous colors -> share borders (they're neighbors)
Cazenovia College freshman
Moses Harris Color Wheel, print + published
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| Moses Harris Color Wheel - watercolor |
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| Schiffermueller . Color Wheel . 15th century |
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Phillippe Otto Runge Farbenkugel (ColorWheel) . 1777 - 1810
Christian Faur . Pointlist crayons
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TONE - usually refers to a darker VALUE
TINT - usually refers to a lighter VALUE
INTENSITY / SATURATION refers to the purity of color degree of brightness or dullness
local color -> actual color of something
VALUE / light & darkness of a color
TONALITY = degree of lightness or darkness
color + light - optical transparency
local color -> actual color of something
optical color -> visual color or imaginative color of an object
VALUE / light & darkness of a color
TONALITY = degree of lightness or darkness
optical movement
color perception (illusionary)
intensity of hue + saturation
successive contrast
color perception (illusionary)
intensity of hue + saturation
successive contrast
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| Cazenovia College student work |
monochromatic (limited color palette) vs. polychromatic (multiple color palette)
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| student work
expresses VALUE of BLUE and BLACK in 11 steps
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TEXTURE
actual
implied
the variety of surface quality
SPACE
actual
implied as in pictorial (imaginary) space
Linear perspective depicts illusionary space
Linear perspective depicts illusionary space
MASS & VOLUME
actual
implied
PERSPECTIVE & FORESHORTENING
Linear Perspective
One point -> Parallel perspective
Two point -> Oblique perspective
Three point -> Aerial perspective -- Computer Generation gaming for instance.
Foreshortening is another illusionary device that causes a form to compact in a pictorial space
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| student drawing |
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| Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio (1592-1595 - 1610) The Conversion on the Way to Damascus - 1601 |
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| Andrea Mantegna (1431 - 1506) - The Dead Christ The Lamentation of Christ (also known as the Lamentation over the Dead Christ, or the Dead Christ) is a painting of about 1480 by the Italian Renaissance artist Andrea Mantegna. While the dating of the piece is debated, it was completed between 1475 and 1501, probably in the early 1480s. |
PROPORTION & SCALE
CARVING & CASTING
RELIEF SCULPTURE
ARCHITECTURAL DRAWINGS
ART HISTORY & OTHER DISCIPLINES
p. XXII
Starter Kit
FORM = the term encompasses quality and attributes of a composition by using the elements and principles of visual design
LINE & SHAPE = direction and movement
COLOR = hue / primary / secondary / complimentary / analogous colors
VALUE = lightness and darkness / tints and tones
TEXTURE = actual and implied
SPACE = actual and implied
MASS = volume / weight of solid matter, illusionary/implied or actual
SCALE = comparative size between forms and images
COMPOSITION = organization or arrangement of visual forms and images
CONTENT = subject matter - may be of representational of a social, political, religious, economic, cultural theme or may be purely formal of an abstract nature
STYLE = Period and Regional style
Representational
Idealization
Illusionistic
Formal / Abstract
MEDIUM & TECHNIQUE = use of materials and how they are employed. Medium = singular material &
p. XXIII
Two Dimensional Pictorial Devices that Depict Recession in Space
Overlapping
diminution = scale
vertical perspective = lower subject appears closer
atmospheric perspective = objects in distance have less clarity
divergent perspective
intuitive perspective
linear perspective
See class BLOG page on The Elements & Principles of Visual Design