Art History For Dummies. Jesse Bryant Wilder

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light to shadow, or from a wide wavy line to a straight one. Without varied visual rhythms, the artwork would be static (or monotone, like wallpaper, with the same visual rhythm repeated over and over), and your eyes would lock on one thing or fail to notice anything at all.

      Weighing the balance

Each part of a painting or relief has visual weight. The artist carefully distributes this weight to balance the work of art. Look at the visual weight distribution in Sandro Botticelli’s Primavera (see Chapter 11): The two male figures on opposite ends of the painting balance it like bookends. Venus stands in the center spreading love from left to right — to the trinity of Graces (on the viewer’s left) and to the goddess Flora and the nymph Chloris (on the viewer’s right). If Botticelli had placed Flora, Chloris, and the Graces on the same side of the painting, it would have appeared lopsided. Besides, Botticelli is telling two love stories in the same painting.

      

Usually, the more symmetrical and balanced a work of art (sometimes to the point of stiffness), the more likely it is that the piece of art depicts something godlike, important, or ideal, as in Leonardo da Vinci’s The Last Supper (see Chapter 11).

      Looking for contrast

      The stiffness that balance can bring with it (see the preceding section) can be balance’s biggest problem. For example, most Egyptian statues are so symmetrical that they seem rigid and unable to move. Art needs something to upset the scales a bit.

      Contrast can disrupt balance while preserving it, as in Polykleitos’s Doryphoros, or Spearbearer (see Chapter 7). The statue is balanced, but his limbs strain in opposite directions. The opposites — the cocked left knee and the cocked right arm — balance each other while creating contrast and tension.

      Contrast has other roles in art beyond disrupting and preserving balance. It creates interest and excitement. Consider these examples:

       Artists can create contrast by offsetting wavy lines with straight lines (a winding road snaking through a grid, for example) or by juxtaposing (placing side by side) organic shapes and geometric shapes (like planting a pear inside a pyramid).

       René Magritte created startling contrasts by placing a soft, curvaceous woman beside a boxy solid wall and a rock in his painting La Magie Noire, or Black Magic; the color of the wall and the woman’s lower body are almost the same. But the wall is rough and rectangular, and the woman is soft and curvy.

      That’s contrast.

      Examining emphasis

      Emphasis — something that stands out from the rest of the artwork — is important, too. Artists can achieve emphasis with striking colors, contrast, or the placement of a figure. Like the X that marks the spot on a map, emphasis draws the viewer’s attention to what’s unique and most important — to the treasure in the artwork.

      

Sometimes artists achieve emphasis by sticking something odd or striking in the middle of a painting (like a dark figure, when the other figures are well-lit) or by painting a naked woman having a picnic with men in suits (as Édouard Manet does in his famous Le Déjeuner sur l’herbe, or Luncheon on the Grass).

Decoding Meaning

      Of course, art also conveys meaning. Sometimes it tells a story (visual narrative); sometimes it suggests meaning through symbolism and metaphor like a poem. At other times, meaning seems to swim inside the feeling you get from the art — kind of like it does in music when you have a vague sense of meaning, but the feeling dominates.

      The ABCs of visual narrative

      

How do you know when an artist is telling a story? To decide whether a painting is a visual narrative, you should ask yourself three questions:

       Does the artwork suggest the passage of time (as opposed to being static, like a still life)?

       Does it seem to have a beginning and an end?

       Does it hint at something that happens outside of the picture frame?

      If the answer to any of these questions is “yes,” then the artist is probably telling a story.

      How do you read these stories? To read a narrative painting, you don’t necessarily start at the left and move toward the right the way you read a book — although sometimes you do, as in the Bayeux Tapestry (see Chapter 10). Instead, you begin at the focal point (the place where the artist leads your eye). The focal point may be the beginning of the story — but it can also be the climax.

      

The key to reading a visual narrative is to look for relationships in the painting among people and between people and their surroundings. Is someone in love, broken-hearted, jealous, or vengeful? Is she at home in her world or alienated? Also ask yourself what happened to the person in the painting just before the moment depicted, what’s happening at that moment, and what will happen next. Look for clues, like pointing figures, facial expressions, and meaningful gestures, as in Caravaggio’s Calling of Saint Matthew (see Chapter 14). Who or what is the person in the artwork looking at? Let his or her eyes lead your eyes.

      Sorting symbols

      Symbolism is often a key part of visual narrative and even of portraits and still lifes. Understanding symbols helps you enter the world and situation of the painting. Without that understanding, you may miss much of an artist’s message. For example, consider these interpretations from many observers:

       The meandering road in Leonardo da Vinci’s Mona Lisa (see Chapter 11) symbolizes the path of life, or as the Beatles called it, “The Long and Winding Road.”

       The skull in Frans Hals’s Young Man with a Skull obviously symbolizes death.

       The apple in Nicolas Poussin’s The Holy Family on the Steps (see Chapter 14) clearly suggests the Garden of Eden, even though there’s no sign of Adam and Eve or the serpent.

Chapter 3

      The Major Artistic Movements

      IN THIS CHAPTER

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