Art 100 The Basics of Visual Literacy 1. Description

Art 100
The Basics of Visual Literacy
1. Description- the “what” questions of a print/ artwork
2. Analysis- what, how, and why
a. Form:
i. Visual Elements
1. Line, light/ value, color, form/space, time
ii. Composition
1. Symmetrical vs. A-Symmetrical
b. Content
i. Subject matter
1. Natural subject matter -what anyone can plainly see
2. Iconography- symbolism used in artwork
ii. Cultural Context
1. Social, political, religious, intellectual framework
2. The artists intentions/ role in society
c. Style/ Technique
i. Period vs. Regional vs. Personal
ii. Stylization - how the subject matter is treated in the relation to
the object in nature
1. Realistic (direct source), naturalistic, idealized, abstract,
nonrepresentational
Neolithic “Most significant change in the human history”
1. The Neolithic Revolution
a. Permeant Settlement (Architecture)
b. Agriculture & Animal Domestication
c. Specialization (Pottery/ Ceramics)
i. Architecture Material
1. Wood, mud, stone, & plaster
ii. Architecture Technique
1. Wattle & Dub Construction
a. Sticks woven like baskets, mud is covered on the
inside and outside
2. Post & Lintel Construction (Stonehenge)
3. Corbelled Construction
d. Shrine rooms appear more
e. Megaliths- large stone
f. Passage Grave- taken post & lintel elements to create an open grave
space
g. Henge- a circle of megaliths
i. Mortice and tenon (Legos)
Ancient Near East “Emergence of the Neolithic Period”
1. Cuneiform - written language
2. Metallurgy (bronze age
Iron Age)
3. City States & Empires
1. Ashlar Masonry, Limestone, Granite, Electrum at the tip
(alloy of silver & gold)
d. Great Sphynx – attached to pyramids
i. Carved out of natural sandstone
1. Softer, easily corroded
2. Sandstorms and other natural weathering caused
reduction
i. Sand covered base locking in moisture
3. Nemes – “head dress” shows of the pharaoh which they
only whores
e. Stylistic Conventions
i. Canon of Proportions – a set of rule/ guidelines to follow when
creating artwork
ii. Egyption C.O.P. used a grid system with boxes/ squares (fists tall
by fists wide)
1. Rigidity and the power of Egyptian culture
a. Men with dark skin (working outside)
b. Women with light skin (indoor chores)
2. Has changed over time sometimes dramatically
a. King Hatshepsut – queen pharaoh & has breasts
b. Akhenaton, Temple of Aton
i. Changes in the god they worshipped ( from
many gods to one god)
ii. The art has made Nefertiti (wife) idealistic
New Kingdom 1539 – 1075 BCE
1. Tutankhamun Tomb (Ruled from 9 yr. old to 18 yrs. old)
a. Found food, gold, preserved body in tomb/ temple area
b. Anthropoid Coffin – coffin is size & shape as the person within it
i. 7 layer protection with 1/8th inch gold on the last inner-coffin
ii. Death mask
1. Materials: gold, stone, channel, semi-precious stones and
metals
2. Technique: Egyptian Cloisonné
2. Ancient Egyptian Architecture
a. Temple of Amen-Re (Sun god of Egypt)
i. Built & expanded for generations
ii. Believed to completed by Ramsies
1. Pylons – two trapezoid shape bound by post & lintel
2. Façade – face of the building
3. Obelisk – pairs of pillars on front of pylon temple,
sometimes has art
a. harder to create
b. uses a single piece of stone
4. Servers as a sun gate since it serves as a temple to
Amen-Re
b. Hypostyle Hall – columned hallway (post & lintel) had so an extreme
abundance
by
red-clay-colored figures reserved on
a black background
c. Technique:
i. Incising – a technique in which a design or inscription
is cut into a hard surface with a
sharp instrument
ii. Depth – the Greeks struggled with it
iii. Foreshortening – objects twisted, one arm may look
bigger than the other
iv. Skiagraphia – “light writing” light and dark and shading
3. Greek Sculpture/ Painting
i. Kuros vs. Kore (male vs. female)
1. Grave markers or stand-alone works of art shown in
your 20’s no matter how old you die
ii. Archaic Smile 600 – 480 BCE
iii. Contrapposto – body is bent appendages, shifted weight
one side of body can relax while rest does the heavy lifting
iv. Ratios – certain width and length like the Egyptian grid
system
v. Symmetria – asymmetrical form that is balanced
vi. Dynamic Balance
vii. Naked – “man is the pinnacle of creation”
viii. Female was looked at to be less pure compared to male
b. Composition:
i. Encaustic – was pigment painted on the sculpture
c. Material:
i. Bronze
1. Technique:
a. Lost-wax casting – replacing wax sandwiched
between two clay models and then wax is
melted out
4. Greek Architecture: Temples Pg. 104
a. Plan View
i. Cella Design – closed interior space
1. Cult Statue – goes in the center part of the temple
2. Chryselephantine – gold, ivory, & crystal. The highest
tier of building materials
ii. Peristyle Design – row of columns that go around the cella
b. Elevation – front view
i. Platform – basic structure & stairs leading up to the temple
ii. Column – 3 styles of Greek Architecture
1. Doric – circled top, wider towards the bottom, slight bend
towards the capital
2. Ionic – volute, scroll like features, vertical throughout the
column, Continuous Frieze