In unit one, we dived deep into the concept of formal analysis of pieces of work and critical pedagogies. This was a great way to start an art history course because formal analysis provides the necessary tools to correctly examine a piece of artwork. The most important concepts I have learned during this unit is the practicality of formal analysis and how helpful it us to distinguish minute details in any piece of work, regardless of the genre. This taught me that there is a unifying theme behind formal analysis and it has a wide scope of practical uses when describing historical events, color, quality, social status, politics, etc. It’s an amazing tool to debunk all types of works into their minute details.

Another important theme we discussed in unit 1 was Paulo Freire’s, “Pedagogy of the Oppressed.” In this work, Freire discusses the banking model and how it is a common theme throughout education. Also, he discusses the relationship between student and teacher and student and society. Through his “Banking Model Proposal,” he criticizes the education system by stating that students are essentially sponges who soak in information into their minds through rote memorization and through other impractical ways. Freire discusses how knowledge is a gift that is granted upon students and that students should be taught efficient ways on how to analyze and digest information rather than memorizing random facts. Also, Freire explains how bad it is for students to depend on their teachers to spoon-feed them valuable information. This will end up hindering their adult-skills in the future. In overall, I enjoyed reading his paper because it relates to a lot of students throughout the world. Paulo Freire is an advocate for critical thinking and the art of analysis. This best relates to the concept of formal analysis that we also discussed in unit 1. Formal analysis is used to analyze and comprehend small and big details that are found in pieces of work. There is correlation between Freire’s banking model and formal analysis in that he supports critical thinking and comprehension through analysis which is what formal analysis is meant to do.

Now that I mentioned formal analysis, I will talk about its practicality/versatility. Formal analysis is a step-by-step assessment/procedure that art historians (or almost anyone, this can be translated into the scientific method for scientists actually) use to understand the significance behind a piece of work. It is essentially putting yourself in the shoes/mind of the artist to have a better understanding of why certain things were used and not used. These can be the physical dimensions of the artwork, the type of canvas used, the quality of the paint, the colors used, the historical significance/context, the social political scheme, the types of lines, etc. There’s a plethora of analyses one can make when analyzing a piece of work. For example, when we were analyzing the formal properties of, Venus of Urbino, we discussed the overall theme of the painting, such as infidelity. We also discussed the motive of the painting. I believe we said it was a gift for a newly-wed couple. Then we discussed the basic formal properties such as colors used, size of the canvas, type of brush used, etc. In overall, I learned to efficiently analyze a piece of work. If I was not introduced to formal analysis, I would have had just said random strings of information without understanding the overall theme of the work, just like Freire was discussing.