How to do visual (formal) analysis in art history — Transcript

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1. 0:04- [Steven] We're in the National Gallery in London,
2. 0:07standing in front of Giovanni Bellini's
3. 0:09the Madonna of the Meadow.
4. 0:11This is a Renaissance painting from Venice.
5. 0:13But we wanted to talk about it,
6. 0:15as a vehicle to highlight the tools of visual analysis.
7. 0:19- [Beth] So here's what we're not gonna talk about.
8. 0:22We're not gonna talk about iconography,
9. 0:24how this painting fits in with the history of paintings
10. 0:27of the Madonna and Child.
11. 0:29We're not gonna talk about the symbolism that we might see
12. 0:31in some of the animals in the background.
13. 0:34We're not gonna talk about the commission
14. 0:36or who the patron was.
15. 0:37- [Steven] We're not gonna talk about the political,
16. 0:39social, or economic context in which this painting was made.
17. 0:43Instead, we're gonna focus on the things we can see.
18. 0:46So we're gonna talk about scale, composition,
19. 0:49pictorial space, form, line, color,
20. 0:52light, tone, texture, and pattern.
21. 0:55- [Beth] Let's start with the issue of scale.
22. 0:57So here we can talk about the scale of the painting,
23. 0:59and the scale of the figures,
24. 1:01and what we see in the painting.
25. 1:02- [Steven] Well, we're in a gallery with paintings
26. 1:04of all different sizes, there are very large altar pieces,
27. 1:07and there are some very small paintings as well.
28. 1:09This is a moderately sized painting,
29. 1:11and that changes where we stand
30. 1:13in relationship to the painting.
31. 1:15When you stand in front of a very large painting,
32. 1:17you tend to stand back, we want to take it all in.
33. 1:20Whereas when you walk up to a very small painting,
34. 1:23we tend to come in very close, to see as much as we can.
35. 1:26- [Beth] We see a female figure
36. 1:27who's smaller than life size.
37. 1:29- [Steven] But she fills a third of the frame.
38. 1:32- [Beth] And that brings us to the composition.
39. 1:34Not only does she fill a third of the frame,
40. 1:37but the clothing that she's wearing, the drapery spreads out
41. 1:40across the bottom length of the painting.
42. 1:42- [Steven] Creating, in essence, a pyramid.
43. 1:44The base of a pyramid is broad.
44. 1:46- [Beth] And pyramids are a very stable form.
45. 1:49We also notice that the child in her lap is contained
46. 1:53within the pyramidal shape of her body.
47. 1:55So there is an intimacy that is created
48. 1:58between the female figure and the child.
49. 2:01- [Steven] The artist has placed her very close
50. 2:03to the foreground, so that she towers over the horizon line,
51. 2:07and is clearly the primary subject.
52. 2:09But there is also a significant amount of landscape
53. 2:12that surrounds her, that, in a sense, frames her.
54. 2:15Bellini has created this pyramidal foreground,
55. 2:17in front of a series of what are really horizontal bands,
56. 2:21that move back into space.
57. 2:23You see a band in the foreground of greenery,
58. 2:25then there's a band of pebbles,
59. 2:27then there's a band of tilled farmland,
60. 2:29and even the clouds create horizontal bands in the sky.
61. 2:33- [Beth] She's framed on one side by trees,
62. 2:35and on the other side by the vertical forms
63. 2:37of the architecture.
64. 2:39- [Steven] Another way we can talk about composition,
65. 2:41is to think about the way in which the artist
66. 2:42has composed the bodies of the figures.
67. 2:45Look at the lovely, gentle tilt to the Virgin Mary's head,
68. 2:48which corresponds to the angle of the Christ Child's head.
69. 2:51But I'm also struck by the volume in between the hands
70. 2:54of the Virgin Mary, who holds her fingertips together,
71. 2:57defining an internal space, that has the same kind of volume
72. 3:01as her own head and that of the child.
73. 3:04- [Beth] The diagonal line that forms the slope
74. 3:06of her right shoulder corresponds to the diagonal line
75. 3:09of her forearm, and the diagonal line of the child's body.
76. 3:13So we have this echoing of forms,
77. 3:15that helps to unify the composition.
78. 3:18- [Steven] Let's turn next to pictorial space.
79. 3:21- [Beth] We should acknowledge
80. 3:22that we're looking at a flat surface.
81. 3:24And that what the artist is doing
82. 3:25is creating an illusion of three-dimensional form
83. 3:28and an illusion of space on this flat surface.
84. 3:32Let's start with the figure,
85. 3:33she's seated on the ground with the child on her lap.
86. 3:36So we have, immediately, a sense of one thing
87. 3:39in front of another because of overlapping.
88. 3:42- [Steven] But in addition, the pictorial space
89. 3:43is defined by what we would call
90. 3:45atmospheric and linear perspective.
91. 3:47If we look at the sky at the top of the painting,
92. 3:50the sky that is closest to us, it has deep, rich blues.
93. 3:53And as the sky moves back in space,
94. 3:56towards the horizon, it becomes paler.
95. 3:58Look at the mountains in the distance,
96. 4:00how they've become paler and bluer.
97. 4:02This is a technique that's meant to replicate
98. 4:04the natural phenomena of looking at a great distance,
99. 4:07looking through more atmosphere.
100. 4:09Details become less vivid, color becomes paler,
101. 4:12things become bluer.
102. 4:13- [Beth] We also notice a little bit of linear perspective
103. 4:16if we look at the plowed field.
104. 4:18Where we see diagonal lines that appear to recede
105. 4:21into the distance, that lead our eye back into space.
106. 4:25- [Steven] Those lines are called orthogonals.
107. 4:27They meet at a vanishing point,
108. 4:29which in the context of this painting,
109. 4:31is obscured by the Virgin Mary and Child in the foreground.
110. 4:33But which nevertheless creates a sense of logic,
111. 4:36and places us, the viewer, in a particular point in space,
112. 4:39in relationship to the image that we're seeing.
113. 4:41- [Beth] Let's turn next to the question of form.
114. 4:44- [Steven] Generally, when we speak about form,
115. 4:45we're thinking about the representation of solids in space,
116. 4:48and it's instructive to think
117. 4:50about the variety of types of form
118. 4:52that the artist is representing.
119. 4:54- [Beth] Well we have the natural forms, we have trees,
120. 4:56and grass, and fields, and mountains, and clouds.
121. 5:01We also have figurative forms,
122. 5:02the Madonna and Child in the foreground,
123. 5:05but we also have built forms,
124. 5:06we have the architecture in the background.
125. 5:09Some of these forms are rounded and curvilinear,
126. 5:12like the Virgin Mary and the Christ Child,
127. 5:14or even the clouds.
128. 5:16And some of them are rectilinear like the architecture
129. 5:19in the background.
130. 5:20- [Steven] Some of them feel very solid,
131. 5:21like the figures in the foreground.
132. 5:23And some of the form is far more delicate,
133. 5:25look at the handling, for example,
134. 5:27of the leaves on the trees.
135. 5:28- [Beth] Those forms are established
136. 5:30just by touches of color from the artist's brush.
137. 5:33- [Steven] Now form is often defined by line.
138. 5:36- [Beth] And, in fact, there are contour lines used
139. 5:39to demarcate and separate forms.
140. 5:42So, for example, separating the Virgin Mary's drapery
141. 5:46from the grass that she sits on.
142. 5:47And we also have places where we have line on its own,
143. 5:51for example, in the branches of the tree.
144. 5:53Line is also sometimes the corners of forms,
145. 5:57I'm looking at the line that forms the edge
146. 5:59of the squared turret.
147. 6:01- [Steven] Next we wanted to talk about color.
148. 6:04- [Beth] One is immediately struck by the rich blue
149. 6:07of the Virgin's mantle.
150. 6:08But also the deep blue of the sky.
151. 6:10And that contrast with the earth colors,
152. 6:13the browns and the greens that we see in the fields
153. 6:16around and behind her.
154. 6:17- [Steven] There are essentially three main color groups.
155. 6:20There's the brilliant blue of the Virgin's mantle,
156. 6:23of the sky, of the mountains.
157. 6:24There's the red of her undergarment.
158. 6:27And then there's the yellows of the flesh,
159. 6:29of the fields, and of the architecture.
160. 6:31These are the three primary colors.
161. 6:32- [Beth] We see white in the shawl that she wears
162. 6:35around her head, and also in the clouds.
163. 6:38So Mary is connected with the heavens.
164. 6:41- [Steven] Color is in someways a function of light,
165. 6:43and here the artist has created a sense
166. 6:45of the broad light of a clear day.
167. 6:48- [Beth] The light from the sun seems
168. 6:49to be coming from the left, maybe a little bit forward
169. 6:51from the figures.
170. 6:52- [Steven] And high in the sky.
171. 6:54- [Beth] And we see the clouds illuminated from above,
172. 6:57there in shadow below, similarly with the Virgin Mary,
173. 7:00if we look at her right forearm,
174. 7:02it's illuminated from above, but in shadow below.
175. 7:05- [Steven] And so the artist has taken pains to create
176. 7:07a consistent of use of light and shadow.
177. 7:10That is, shadow is always in accordance
178. 7:12with the source of that light.
179. 7:14- [Beth] Look at Virgin Mary's face,
180. 7:16her right cheek is illuminated,
181. 7:18but the left side of her cheek is in shadow,
182. 7:21and we have the sense of moving tones
183. 7:23from light into darkness,
184. 7:25what art historians often call chiaroscuro.
185. 7:28And this helps to create a form
186. 7:29that looks three-dimensional,
187. 7:31that appears to exist in space.
188. 7:33- [Steven] But light and color
189. 7:35are both closely related to tone as well.
190. 7:38- [Beth] And tone refers to the amount
191. 7:39of light and darkness in a color.
192. 7:42- [Steven] And we can see that in many parts
193. 7:44of this painting, we can see it in the cloak
194. 7:46of the Virgin Mary, but it's probably most subtly handled
195. 7:49in the representation of flesh.
196. 7:51Looking at the beautiful rendering
197. 7:53of the Virgin Mary's face, and the smooth brushwork,
198. 7:57makes me aware of the variety of textures
199. 7:59within this painting.
200. 8:01And the contrast that the artist is creating
201. 8:03between the smooth textures of the flesh,
202. 8:06or of the cloth that the figures wear,
203. 8:08in comparison to the rough, pebbly surface
204. 8:10that we see in the middle ground.
205. 8:11- [Beth] Or we could look at the featheriness
206. 8:13of the leaves on the trees which are yet another texture.
207. 8:16- [Steven] Texture's a tool that artists can use
208. 8:19to create a sense of veracity,
209. 8:21as they define different kinds of form.
210. 8:23- [Beth] And texture is intimately related to the materials
211. 8:26that the artist is using.
212. 8:27Here, we know it's oil paint, which is well suited
213. 8:30to the depiction of different textures.
214. 8:32- [Steven] Let's talk next about pattern.
215. 8:34You might not expect to see pattern in a landscape,
216. 8:38which is filled with natural forms
217. 8:40because pattern is the repetition
218. 8:42of a form over and over again.
219. 8:44Often to create a decorative field.
220. 8:46- [Beth] Here, we see ornamentation
221. 8:49in the Virgin Mary's blue robe, we see some gold embroidery.
222. 8:53- [Steven] But if you look closely,
223. 8:54there is a soft, organic pattern,
224. 8:57especially in the foreground, in the foliage.
225. 9:00- [Beth] We do see the repetition of leaf forms,
226. 9:02and grass forms, that look almost like a carpet,
227. 9:05like a decorative field, than the unruliness of nature.
228. 9:09- [Steven] And one of the results of pattern,
229. 9:11is that it is often in conflict with pictorial space,
230. 9:14with the illusionistic depth that the artist renders.
231. 9:16And even here, it seems as if that green field stands up
232. 9:20a little bit, in a way that remind us
233. 9:22that this is in fact a two-dimensional surface.
234. 9:25So by looking at scale, at composition, at pictorial space,
235. 9:28at form, line, color, light, tone,
236. 9:31at the textures and the patterns,
237. 9:33we have an opportunity to look closely at the painting.
238. 9:35But these are only a few of the tools
239. 9:37that art historians use to discuss and explore works of art.