Joshua C Taylor Learning to Look a Handbook for the Visual Arts Chapter 1

Similar the created universe, this volume has the appearance of historic period (my copy was published in 1957), and the 32 full-page figures of artistic works dealt with in the text are all blackness-and-white. But this isn't a serious problem for anyone with wifi. One of the greatest wonders of internet engineering science is our ability (which would dumbfound every generation before united states of america) to peruse at our leisure high-resolution depictions of virtually all the great artistic masterpieces, some of which no longer fifty-fifty exist. Similar the created universe, this book has the advent of historic period (my copy was published in 1957), and the 32 full-folio figures of creative works dealt with in the text are all black-and-white. But this isn't a serious trouble for anyone with wifi. 1 of the greatest wonders of internet applied science is our ability (which would dumbfound every generation before the states) to peruse at our leisure high-resolution depictions of virtually all the peachy artistic masterpieces, some of which no longer fifty-fifty be. This is a miraculous, priceless privilege, one that is largely ignored by a civilization more interested in viewing itself as oppressed and without advantage.

In the first chapter, Taylor discusses the analysis of art and the use of color and perspective. He wastes no words, driving straight into the central concern of fine art in the outset paragraph of text. An understanding of a painting'due south field of study matter, he writes,

is not sufficient in itself to characterize the particular quality of a work of fine art. If it were, a verbal description could be the exact equivalent of a painting. Conspicuously there are other forces in action, affecting our feel and contributing to the specific significant of the work. These forces are visual and belong accordingly to the visual arts. Only how can the visual aspect of a painting in itself have meaning? This is the bones question.

Taylor and so launches into a side-by-side analysis of two works with the same subject affair simply vastly different expressive content: crucifixion scenes from Perugino and Crivelli.

Perugino,

Crivelli, The Crucifixion

Taylor discusses the difference in meaning betwixt these ii pieces, meanings conveyed through color, saturation, grouping, sail shape, and line density.

The penultimate chapter, which details artistic materials and techniques, presents an overwhelming survey of practically every artistic medium, from engraving to etching to sketch to woodcut to impress, and many more than. The same affiliate ends with an accessible give-and-take of architectural fundamentals. Never before had I grasped so conspicuously the blunt practical problem that all architecture seeks to solve: how to employ compression and tension to bridge and enclose a space for applied use, and how to do so beautifully. Taylor explains post-and-lintel construction, various forms of arch, the development of the dome and ribbed vault, and the use of blueprints and floorplans.

In the final chapter, Taylor seeks to better understand the connexion between a particular creative person'southward output and the mode of his gimmicky cultural milieu. By way of case written report, Taylor focuses on the 17th-18th century French painter Jacques Louis David, charting his progression in maturity and clarity of vision as he gradually rejected the conventional aesthetic of his youth in favor of a new, bolder approach. Taylor looks first at "The Combat of Ares and Athena," representative of David'southward early output, which is organized in a flowery circular move in vogue at the fourth dimension of his training. Simply by 1784, 13 years later, David was pursuing new methods, and in "The Oath of the Horatii" he depicts valor and patriotism in a style markedly more sparse, grim, stock-still, and articulate than his earlier work. This fashion would boss the rest of his output, particularly his famous Revolutionary paintings like "The Death of Marat" and "Napoleon Crossing the Alps."

A great painter, in Taylor's words,

evolves his style, his particular artistic vision, as he evolves his ideas about art, life, and nature, over a catamenia of years, taking from his surround what is serviceable to him and rejecting what is not.

David,