Appropriate methods for analyzing works of visual art |
- GENRE: know the traditional aims and conventions of the major types or genres of work produced in the historical and regional contexts covered by the course (e.g. Renaissance status portraits, Gothic cathedrals); and articulate how a given work or monument sustains, transforms, or breaks those conventions in the pursuit of its particular aims
- FORM/STYLE: thoroughly and accurately perceive the media, techniques, and formal elements of a given work (composition, texture, scale, etc.); use appropriate technical vocabulary for describing them (contrapposto, nave, painterly brushwork); and relate them to the contextual meaning/purpose and expressive content of the work
- CONTEXT: relate works to the ideas and practices of their original contexts (social, cultural, political, religious, etc.); and account for how a given work sought to affect or influence the ideas and practices of its original context |