Art Analysis: Dimensions, Material & Design

• The first impression evokes a subjective feeling and a spontaneous emotion, using striking adjectives to describe the work

Subject

• Dimensions and Shape: Height, width, circle, oval
• Material: Tempera, oil paint, ink, chalk, other materials such as sand, ash, found objects
• Inventory in an order appropriate to the work (foreground, middle ground, background, center; right, left, above, below, etc.)
• Other aspects like portrait genre and portrait type, mimicry, posture, gesture, line of sight, clothing, objects, attributes, the spatial situation

Design

• Form: Contour shape, linearly closed, sharply defined, linear style; the surface shape, patchy open, painterly style
• The materiality is supported; organic, geometric, round, angular, naturalistic, representational in every detail; abstracted/simplified/reduced, realistic, deformed/distorted

Light-Dark

• Contrast, gradual or continuous transition; light source; diffuse light, directional light; illumination direction

Color

• Color choice; color concept (chromatic, coloristic, monochrome, valeuristic)
• Color contrasts according to Itten
• Paint application; relationship of color to subject (symbolic, local, appearance, expressive color, but also: subject color, expressively enhanced, etc.)

The Relationship of Body to Space

• Especially the figure-ground problem; position in space, overlapping; size ratio; plasticity through light-dark
• Linear perspectives; polyvalent spatial representation; viewer's viewpoint; color and aerial perspective

Image Structure and Composition (Non-Verbal and Verbal)

• Image format; dominating directions; axes dividing the format like 1/4, 1/3, etc.; viewing axes; organizational structures (symmetry, asymmetry)
• Compositional schemes (orthogonal, triangular composition, circle, oval, etc.); proportion (golden ratio, etc.); color composition (placement, repetition, interlocking)

Meaning

• The Relationship Between Artistic Design and Its Message
• The immanent connection within the work
• What is shown and how is it shown?
• What is the relationship between the artistic means of expression and the function of the portrait?
• A Comparison Between Content and Form.
• Manner of representation: natural, abstract, almost non-representational, realistic, idealized, expressively alienated
• Image, symbol, expression

Context

• Artist - Society - Time
• Biographical Context: The Intentions of the Artist, Their Life, and Work
• Under what conditions was this work created (commission/self-portrait/…), in relation to the artist's biography?
• Are there written or oral statements? (letters, quotations, interviews, etc.)
• How does this portrait relate to their overall work?
• The societal context: The functions of portraits
• When was it made? Examining the historical conditions based on textual sources (iconological analysis)
• For whom was the portrait made? (social, political function).
• What purpose does the role-playing of the depicted person serve in relation to the target group? (social, political function)
• What tasks do the depicted attributes and/or attributive actions undertake? (an iconographic examination, the question of the meta-level)/compare SH S. 10-17
• The art historical context: The stylistic-historical method as a question about the work and its time
• In what typological context is the portrait to be seen (reception history)?
• What position does the work take within the development of portrait painting (cultural function)?
• It questions an art-historical evaluation, after the effect that the individual work or the entire work has on its time (epoch)