AP Art History

Contextual Analysis

Contextual Analysis 2

Essential Questions when looking

at works of art and architecture

Contextual Analysis 3

Why does this work of art look the way it does?

Contextual Analysis 4

Why is the work

significant ?

How does it speak for its time and generation ?

Contextual Analysis 5

How do ideas or beliefs shared by the artist, their immediate community or society shape the work of art ?

Contextual Analysis 6

What influences the artist’s and patron’s choice

of subject matter?

Contextual Analysis 7

What role do historical and political events (including religious, cultural and economic developments)

influence the presentation of that subject matter ?

Contextual Analysis 8

How do issues of gender, class, ethnicity and/or sexual orientation influence the choice and presentation of the subject matter ?

Contextual Analysis 9

How do buildings and architectural programs (including

sculptural decoration) express the values and political agendas

of their patrons ?

Contextual Analysis 10

Four ways to think about “context”

1: Physical location of the work of art in its original setting

Where was the work of art originally situated?

Contextual Analysis 11

Four ways to think about “context”

2: Artist and patron of the work of art

Who was the artist?Who was the patron

or the work?

Contextual Analysis 12

Four ways to think about “context”

3: Historical events which influence the work of art

What is the subject matter of the work of art and

is it historical relevant ?

Contextual Analysis 13

Four ways to think about “context”

4: Concepts and ideas which surround the work

What religious, social or philosophical ideas within

the culture influence the content or presentation of

the work of art?

Contextual Analysis 14

Function:

Context determines function, or plays a significant role in shaping the intended purpose of a work of art or architecture.

Contextual Analysis 14

Function:

The purpose / function the work of art is intended to serve within the society or audience is best understood by understanding the context of the work of art, artist and patron.

Contextual Analysis 15

Content:Content (what the work of art

is about – specifically it’s subject matter) is often determined by the function or the intended purpose of the work of art within the culture.

Contextual Analysis 15

Content:

Works of architecture do not have “content” but architects choose architectural styles and building motifs to support the buildings function

Contextual Analysis 16

Modeling the concept of context

Sumerian Votive Offerings

Contextual Analysis 17

Making connections between:

Contextual issuesFunction of the work of artAppearance of the work of

art(formal analysis

/style)

Passage from the Epic of Gilgamesh

Enkidu slept alone in this sickness and he poured out his heart to Gilgamesh.

“Last night I dreamed again, my friend. The heavens moaned and the earth replied; I stood alone before an awful being; his face was somber like the black bird of the storm. He fell upon me with the talons of an eagle and he held me fast, pinioned with his claws, till I smothered; then he transformed me so that my arms became wings covered with feathers. He turned his stare towards me, and he led me away to the palace of Irkalla, the Queen of Darkness, to the house from which none who enters ever returns, down the road from which there is no coming back.

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Passage from the Epic of Gilgamesh continued

There is the house whose people sit in darkness; dust is their food and clay their meat. They are clothed like birds with wings for covering, they see no light, they sit in darkness. I entered the house of dust and I saw the kings of the earth, their crowns put away for ever; rulers and princes, all those who once wore kingly crowns, and ruled the world in the days of old…..O my brother, let some great prince, some other, come when I am dead, or let some god stand at our gate, let him obliterate my name and write his own instead”

Contextual Analysis 18

Style:

Style is the presentation of content

Style

Formal analysis

is the foundation of

Stylistic analysis

How to Analyze Sculpture

What to look for and talk about when

looking at works of sculpture

Formal Analysis

Formal Analyzing -- Sculpture

Stance / presentation Proportion (of the figure)

Anatomical detail / correctness

Movement / gesture Facial expression

Formal Analyzing -- Sculpture

Negative / positive space

Organic / geometric

form Material / technique

Formal Analyzing -- Sculpture

Function

Meaning / content

Context

Contextual Analysis 20

Egyptian Art

1: Geographic isolation

2: Economic security

3: Deeply held religious traditions

4: Hierarchical society

5: Geological substructure

6: Belief in afterlife

Devices used to declare sacred space

1: the concept of exclusivity

How do you make a building or parts of at building “exclusive” ?

Devices used to declare sacred space

2: material wealth / decoration

What is the role of ornament and/or

“luxury” ?

Devices used to declare sacred space

3: ritual and ceremony (liturgy)

How does the building’s design reflect religious events and liturgy of the religion it is built for ?

Devices used to declare sacred space

4: history / iconographic symbolism

How is the design of the building shaped by historic and religious symbolism ?

“Education doesn’t make you happy. Nor does freedom. We don’t become happy just because we’re free, if we are, or because we’ve been educated, if we have – but because education may be the means by which we realize we are happy. It opens our eyes, our ears; it tells us where delights are lurking, convinces us that there is only one freedom of any importance whatsoever – that of ht mind.

Iris Murdock “ The Importance of Education”