This course walks from the cave painters to the late Renaissance. Before the walk starts, you need one habit that works for every work you will meet: formal analysis. "Form" here means how a work is made: its line, shape, color, light, space, composition, scale and material. Formal analysis looks hard at those things first and saves the question of meaning for last.
Art historians often work in three steps. Describe: say plainly what is there, so that anyone looking would agree. Analyze: say how the parts are arranged and what that does to your eye. Interpret: say what the work might mean, pointing back to what you described. (The Color and Design course adds a fourth step, judging.)
Key idea
Why it works
Looking closely: The Arnolfini Portrait. It is small, about 82 by 60 centimeters, painted in oil on an oak panel. A man and a woman stand in a room lit by a window at the left. They are in rich clothes: his fur-trimmed dark robe and tall hat, her green gown lined with fur. Their hands meet at the center. Lines of the floorboards and the bed run back toward the mirror, so the eye travels into the room and lands on the tiny reflection. The colors are deep and glowing, and the light catches brass, glass and fur in different ways. That is the description and analysis. Only now do we interpret: the picture shows wealth and a formal moment between two people. Scholars still debate whether it records a marriage, a betrothal or something else.
| Look at | Ask yourself |
|---|---|
| Line and shape | Where are the strong edges? Straight or curved? |
| Color and light | Where does the light come from? Which colors repeat? |
| Space | Is it flat or deep? What is near and what is far? |
| Composition | Where is the focal point? What leads your eye there? |
| Scale and material | How big is it? What is it made of, and how does that show? |
Worked example: Three steps with one detail
- Describe. A round, curved mirror hangs on the back wall in a frame with ten small scenes. In it we see the couple from behind and two figures in a doorway.
- Analyze. It sits near the center, just above the joined hands, and the room's lines lead to it. Its curve bends the whole room into a small circle.
- Interpret. The two figures stand where a visitor would stand. With the words "Jan van Eyck was here" above, many think one of them is the painter, a witness to the scene.
Answer: Describe the mirror and its reflection, analyze its place and its curve, then interpret the figures as possible witnesses.
Common mistake