FORMAL AND CONTENT ANALYSIS

Chapter Four of the text describes a formal analysis as “the integrated study of the elements and principles of art”. If you have completed the last two discussion topics, you have completed two formal analyses so far. Chapter Four describes content as an artwork’s theme or message. It goes on to say that content is “conveyed primarily through the artwork’s subject matter and through its symbolic or iconographic references”.

After you have fully read the assignment and Chapter Four, chose a work of art from the list below and write both a formal analysis and a content analysis of the piece.

When writing a formal analysis (what it looks like) of the specific work, discuss when and where it was made and how big or small it is. You should also be able to describe at least one FORMAL ELEMENT and one PRINCIPLE OF COMPOSTION. Remember that the FORMAL ELEMENTS include line, shape, color, volume, value, space, texture, pattern, time and movement. The PRINCIPLES OF COMPOSITION include balance, emphasis and focal point, scale and proportion, pattern, repetition and rhythm and unity and variety. As with the last two assignments, be specific and use the vocabulary from Chapter Two to help support your argument.

When discussing the content (what it means) of the specific work, you must make your argument based on the research that you have done outside of the textbook. Be sure to properly cite your sources. 

Chose a work of art from the list below:

The Arnolfini Wedding Portrait by Jan van Eych

The School of Athens by Rafael

Judith and Her Maidservant by Artemesia Gentileschi 

Oath of the Horatii by Jacques Louis David

The Third of May by Francisco Goya

Oylmpia by Edouard Manet

Black Square by Kazimir Malevich

Cut with the Kitchen Knife through the Beer-Belly of theWeimar Republic by Hannah Hoch

The Treachery of Images by Rene Magritte

Guernica by Pablo Picasso

Autumn Rythym (Number 30) by Jackson Pollack

Whaam! by Roy Lichtenstein