VISUAL LITERACY

VISUAL LITERACY

MASTER TEACHER 2010BRANDY SITTS

Paleolithic

• Venus of Willendorf•28,000- 25,000 BCE•Characteristics:

• Served as fertility image.• No facial features• Ball-like shapes

Islam

•Dome of the Rock•687-692•Characteristics

• 1st great achievement of Islamic architecture• Octagonal dome• Interior is vivid and colorful

Ancient Africa

•Nok Head•500-200•Characteristics

• Flaring nostrils and triangle eyes are unique to Nok art

• African culture liked heads

•

Ancient India

•Shiva as Nataraja•1000•Characteristics

• Nataraja means Lord of the Dance

• Portable image• Dwarf that she is standing on

represents ignorance

High Renaissance Sculpture

•David by Michelangelo•1501-1504•Characteristics

• Formal references to classical antiquity

• Compositionally and emotionally connected to an unseen presence

• Head turned to show pent up energy

Late Gothic

•Arnolfini and His Bride by Jan Van Eyck•1434•Characteristics:

• Almost every object portrayed sanctity

• Symbolism• Purpose: Record and

sanctify marriage• Dog: Fidelity, Shoe: Holy

Ground

Neoclassicism

•Oath of the Horatii by David•1784•Characteristics:

• Conflicts between heart and patriotism• Statuesque figures- men: Rigid, Angular

Romanticism (Spanish)

•The Third of May 1808 by Goya•1808•Characteristics:

• Encouraged empathy of the Spanish by portraying horrified expressions and enhanced drama through stark use of darks and lights

Romanticism

•Characteristics:• Actual historical event• Subdued palette and prominent shadow lend ominous pall to the

scene• Emotionally charged• Comments on slavery Apathy

• Raft of the Medusa by Gericault•1818-1819

Fauvism

•Red Room by Matisse•1908-1909

•Characteristics:• Color = Warmth• Colors contrast richly and intensely• Depicts objects in simplified and schematized fashion and flattening out

form

Photo Realism•Fanny Finger Painting by Close•1985•Characteristics:

• One moment it’s a spitting image of a person, the next it’s an animated pattern of spots

Cubism•Spanish Civil War•World’s Fair in France•Shows anguish of residents murdered in Basque Country of Spain

•Guernica by Picasso•1937