Mastering Art Description: Vocabulary and Critique Structure
Analyzing Artwork: Structure and Vocabulary Toolkit
Six Essential Elements for Painting Analysis
When describing a painting, focus on these six key elements:
- Composition
- Perspective
- Light and Shadow
- Color Palette
- Scale and Measure (Medida)
- Emotional Impact
Template for Describing a Painting
This artwork is a painting by the [Artist Name] and its title is [Artwork Title]. This oil on canvas (or other medium), which was painted in [Year], depicts a [Type of Scene] scene.
Compositional Analysis
- In the foreground
Quattrocento Masters: Architecture, Sculpture, and Painting in 15th-Century Italy
The Quattrocento: Italian Renaissance Art (15th Century)
The Quattrocento (15th Century) was the period when Italy developed a new art form, drawing heavily on the classical heritage of the past.
Renaissance Architecture: Principles and Style
Order, proportion, symmetry, and the unit will be the foundations of Renaissance architecture.
Architectural Characteristics
- Structural Elements: The use of classical orders: Doric, Ionic, Corinthian, Tuscan, and Composite.
- Vaulting and Ceilings: The arch, coffered
Communication Fundamentals: Theory, Conflict, and Persuasion
Elements of the Communication Process
- Source (Sender): As the source of the message, you need to be clear about why you are communicating and what you want to communicate. You also need to be confident that the information you are communicating is useful and accurate.
- Message: The message is the information that you want to communicate.
- Channel: Different channels have different strengths and weaknesses. For example, it is not particularly effective to give a long list of directions verbally, while
The Trueba Legacy: Character Dynamics in The House of the Spirits
The Trueba Family: Patriarchy and Prophecy
Esteban Trueba: The Authoritarian Patriarch
Esteban Trueba, the only son of an impoverished oligarchic family due to the wastefulness of an alcoholic father, is forced to work from adolescence to recuperate his fortune by operating a mine in northern Mexico. That wealth allows him to retrieve the family farm, Las Tres Marías, where much of the story unfolds. Subsequently, he comes to occupy a seat as senator, embodying all the features of a conservative
Read MoreMiron’s Discobolus: Analysis of Classical Greek Sculpture
The Discobolus by Miron
1. General Documentation
- Artist: Miron (c. 460 BC)
- Period: Classical Greek (Fifth century BC)
- Original Medium: Bronze (Lost)
- Surviving Copies: Marble
- Type: Freestanding Sculpture
- Dimensions (Textual Source): 53 cm high
- Location: Museo Nazionale Romano delle Terme, Italy.
2. Formal Analysis
Brief Description of the Work
The sculpture represents the figure of a naked athlete captured at the moment of releasing the discus. In the marble copies, a marble support or “throne” is placed behind
Read MoreRoman Sculpture: Characteristics, Portraiture, and Relief Art
General Characteristics of Roman Sculpture
Double Artistic Influence
- Etruscan (most popular): Influences realism derived from the copy of Etruscan funerary masks, the origin of bust portraits, and the representation in bronze of fantastic animals.
- Greek, particularly Hellenistic (more educated): Reflected in the taste for allegories and mythological themes, and moving figures.
- Highly developed sculptural technique, especially in reliefs.
- The materials and techniques used by the Romans, like the Greeks,