how to analyze artwork

How to Write a Painting Analysis

Your analysis of the chosen painting will require that you spend some time studying and doing outside research so please choose a painting that you really like because you will spend more than a few hours analyzing it in the following ways:

1. Basic Facts – artist’s name, the medium, the title, the date of the work.

2. Subject Matter – Discuss the artwork’s subject matter. An artwork’s subject matter is what the image or object literally represents. Some paintings do not tell stories at all because they are abstract or non-­representational, but remember that subject matter can be anything from a place to an emotion.

a. What is depicted in the painting, is it a narrative? b. How has the artist interpreted or “staged” the story? c. What does the artist include or leave out? (Scrutinize the characters in your painting and describe their actions and attitudes.)

3. Content – The content is what the artwork means.

4. Iconography is the use or study of images or symbols in visual arts. Often the exact subject of a work will be obscure, or the text it is based on cannot be identified. These kinds