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An essay on painting or sculpture will benefit from some of the following considerations of description and form. Then, you can move to interpretation of the meaning, the artistic motivation, and the relation of the work to its historical period or artistic movement. The following exercise can be followed for its own sake, or to generate notes that would form the basis for an essay. |
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Description ... |
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Describe outstanding details that you notice in the artwork. |
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Describe the lines, forms, volumes, and colors, setting aside, for a while, the subject matter. How do these geometric factors combine to form an overall effect? |
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Describe static items and items in motion. |
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Describe the mood (supernatural, peaceful, etc.), spatial considerations (compressed forms, illusions of depth, vortices, etc.), lights and shadow. |
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Describe the medium or media used by the artist, and its effect on the artwork. |
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Form ... |
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Describe theprevailing geometric form in this artwork, if there is one. |
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Is this artwork symmetrical? unbalanced? distorted? |
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Describe the unifying aspects of this artwork. |
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Meaning ... |
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Discuss any symbols or allegorical segments and what you think is their intended meaning. Discuss any metaphors and what they may suggest. |
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Based on your analysis this far, discuss what the artwork communicates: its subject matter's range of meaning, its social content, and meanings based on its formal elements. |
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Based on some research, discuss the motivations and expressed aims of the artist and the place of this artwork within its historical period or art movement (Baroque, Romantic, etc.).. |
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Final Considerations ... |
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Do you judge that the form and content of the work is appropriate to what you think is its meaning? |
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Having studied this artwork, describe its effect on you due to its treatment of a subject. In addition, describe how your visual appreciation has expanded due to your study of expressive features of this artwork. |
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Describe how your visual appreciation has expanded due to your study of expressive features of this artwork. |