Foreshortening Artists also represent single figures in space in varying ways. When the Flemish artist Peter PaulrubenS (1577–1640) painted Lion Hunt (fig. 1), he used foreshortening for all the hunters and animals—that is, he represented their bodies at angles to the picture plane. When in life one views a figure at an angle, the body appears […]
Read More »Color Light reveals all colors. Light in the world of the painter and other artists differs from natural light. Natural light, or sunlight, is whole or additive light. As the sum of all the wavelengths composing the visible spectrum, it may be disassembled or fragmented into the individual colors of the spectral band. The painter’s […]
Read More »As in all fields of study, art history has its own specialized vocabulary consisting of hundreds of words, but certain basic terms are indispensable for describing artworks and buildings of any time and place. They make up the essential vocabulary of formal analysis, the visual analysis of artistic form. definitions and discussions of the most […]
Read More »Who Made It? If Ben Shahn had not signed his painting of Sacco and Vanzetti, an art historian could still assign, or attribute, the work to him based on knowledge of the artist’s personal style. Although signing (and dating) works is quite common (but by no means universal) today, in the history of art countless […]
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