Term
| Biographical & Autobiographical (methodology) |
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Definition
| Based largely on the artist’s life using original materials such as autobiographical papers, letters and accounts by the artist’s contemporaries. This approach places the meaning of the artwork as an expression of the artists life. |
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| Psychoanalytical (methodology) |
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| Related to the Biographical and Autobiographical, but seeks to derive meaning from a psychological interpretation of the artist’s life. Inspired by the work of Sigmund Freud, this approach puts emphasis on the unconscious factors in a work. |
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| Iconographical (methodology) |
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Definition
| Seeks to identify and emphasize the symbolic meanings of specific images and details by tracing them back to mythological, religious and social texts as well as conventions of representation |
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Definition
| This approach assumes that the meaning and significance of an artwork resides not in the cultural context of the work, or the psycho-biographical details of the artists life but rather in the ‘intrinsic’ features of the form itself. Art history is seen as the evolution of formal and stylistic elements. |
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| An analysis on how an artwork or an artist supports or challenges the prevailing economic and political ideology. Such an approach lays bare the prevailing power structures of wealth and class as they relate to the cultural production of art. This includes a broader social perspective that embraces, patronage, and the intended audience of a work. |
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| Often related to gender studies and gay & lesbian studies. This approach maintains that representations of men and women, as well as notions of “masculinity” and “femininity”, are not reflections of a “natural” order but are socially constructed in different societies and eras. This approach examines images from the perspective of representation of women ( and men ) and the intended viewer ( or voyeur ). For further reading see my Contextual Studies: Feminism |
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| Postcolonial Theory (methodology) |
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Definition
| The analysis of works in terms of colonial issues of identity, representation and “otherness”. This approach examines the way in which colonizing cultures distort the experience and expressions of a colonized people, and also the ways in which colonized cultures articulate their own sense of identity and history in a modern or post-colonial context. |
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Term
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| Meaning and interpretation are based on an image’s ability to signify various meanings either through embedded cultural and social patterns (Structuralism) or through the questioning of various implicit assumptions (Post-Structuralism or Deconstruction). In any case, both challenge the idea of a “true” or “real” meaning in a work of art, and promote the notion that meaning is always conditional and changing. For further reading see my Semiotics |
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Term
| Stone Age periods and dates |
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Definition
Paleolithic Period- 40,000 B.C- 10,000 B.C
Mesolithic Period- 10,000 B.C- 8,000 B.C
Neolithic Period- 8,000 B.C- 2,000 B.C |
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Wounded Bison cave painting, in Altamira Spain
15,000- 10,000 B.C
found by a 12 year old |
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Chauvet Cave, France
30,000-28,000 B.C |
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Chinese Horse, Lascaux Cave
15,000-13,000 B.C |
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Ivory figure, found in Germany
40,000 BC.- 28,000 B.C |
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Stone Henge, England
2100 B.C |
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Plastered skull- Jericho, Jordan
7000 B.C |
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| individual rock, part of a group of similar stones |
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| henge, burial, tomb ( usually rock on top of others) |
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Woman of Willendorft (limestone)
28,000-25,000 B.C |
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Dame a la Caphuche (woman from brassempouy) Brassempouy, France
22,000 B.C |
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Female and male ceramic figure, Romania
3,500 B.C |
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Spotted Horses and Human Hands. Pech-Merle Cave in. France
16,000 B.C |
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horse vogelherd cave, Germany
28,000 B.C
mammath ivory |
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