History of Art Unit 1

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Modern sculpture

  • Stone- long lasting
  • Figurative, styalised, abstracted
  • Primative, naive, infantile
  • Symbolic
  • Idealised
  • Open or closed pose
  • Highly stylised
  • Narrative
  • Weathered/ roughly hewn
  • Appropriate to the environment
  • Rejection of traditional materials
  • One block- reductive process
  • Multiple blocks- additive process
  • Visible tool marks
  • Truth to materials, an aesthetic in its on right
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Classical sculpture

  • Figurative
  • Controsposto
  • Idealised- muscular, athletic, iliac crest
  • Severe style
  • Central axis
  • Tonal modelling with light affects
  • Bronze- timeless, heroic, masculine, high tensile strength, pantina, durable, can be left outside- orginal modelling material made out of plaster/clay
  • Marble- beauty, approximates flesh, translucent, low tensile strength, brittle, soft allows for detail
  • Plinth stabalises
  • Scale- life size, monumental or miniature
  • Pyramidal composition
  • Definition
  • Undercutting- creates drama through shadows
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Gender

  • Light to accentuate feminine/ masculine qualities
  • Feminine decor- e.g. accessories, pastels, chonoiserie wallpaper
  • Rococo style- soft and floral
  • Dress could be sensuous, flowing, masculine or contemporary
  • Emphasis of feminine curvlinear forms
  • Makeup
  • Gender typical activities
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Composition

  • Organised/ highly composed
  • Harmonious/ balanced
  • Central axis
  • Duagonals/ gestures to lead the eye
  • Repetition of colour
  • Echoing/ mirroring of poses
  • Framing/ flanking elements
  • Bright/ vivid colours stand out
  • How is eye led from foreground to background
  • Hierarchal scaling
  • Vertical/ horizontal emphasis
  • Rule of thirds
  • Golden ratio
  • Juxtapositioning
  • Positioning orientation
  • View into another room
  • Has the image been cropped
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Colour and brushwork

  • Shadow created by darker lines
  • Cloissonism
  • Saturated, vivid, vibrant, muted
  • Warm or cool colours
  • Expressive or controlled
  • Naive application
  • Naturalistic or abstracted
  • Earthy colours (e.g. ochre, sienna)
  • Modulated- blocks of colour
  • Thick impasto or flat
  • Limited or varied palette
  • Flat or graduated
  • Impasto, glaze or opaque
  • Monotone or polychromatic
  • Lustre or lumiousity
  • Prismatic colours (like the rainbow)
  • Colour used to create a mood or sensation, a psychological impact
  • Optical mixing (e.g. pointalism) or colour patches
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Spatial recession

  • Foreshortening
  • Elliptical objects
  • Linear perspective (diagonal lines in the pictural space)
  • One point perspective- where the lines converge
  • Vanishing point
  • Othogonal lines
  • Aerial perspective
  • Protrouding/ recessed spaces
  • Distance from the picture plane
  • Viewpoint- is it panoramic?
  • Scaling of figures/ objects
  • Tonal gradation/ modelling
  • Cool colours in the background, warm colours in the foreground
  • Space that extends beyond the frame (e.g. views into other rooms)
  • Trompe l'oeil
  • Use of horizontals and diagonals
  • Use of eliptical shapes
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Light and tone

  • Divine light (e.g. through the clouds)
  • Theatrical/ melodramatic- to create an atmosphere of drama
  • Highlights gestures/ expressives/ key narrative
  • Creates a sense of mystery and ambiguity
  • Creates a sense of illusion of depth
  • Spotlighted
  • Direction of light source
  • Type of light- ambient or artifical
  • Chairoscuro/ tenebroso- typical of Baroque
  • Texture and surfaces revealed
  • Night or day
  • Strong, soft or diffused
  • Front or back lit
  • Expressive or controlled
  • Penumbrous (partial shadow)
  • Naturally rendered?
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