In our day-to-day lives we see various images that we glance at and rarely think about ever again. However, these images and other pieces of art that we come across usually have something specific that they are trying to convey. To maintain a better understanding of an art-piece, people often use a technique referred to as formal analysis. This method is used to analyze only what the artist provides the audience with visually in their piece rather than also referring to outside information or historical context. Instead of simply describing what can be seen, formal analysis requires interpreting an artist’s choice of colors, lines, space, scale, modeling, etc. These things and the various ways they can be used let the audience know what the artist wants to get across. These things can help us see what the artist is emphasizing, what the mood of the piece is, and what kind of emotions they wanted to evoke. In a way, using formal analysis can help a person to really think about and appreciate something they normally may not.

What is formal analysis? In your own words explain what we mean when we say formal analysis and what its components are.

Formal Analysis is an approach to interpret any work of art. Through Formal analysis the audience becomes aware of both visual and physical conditions of the piece. The use of this method helps enhances the audiences understanding of the piece through color, line, space and mass, and scale. When looking at color one must look at the different hues being used and the value (lightness) of the color. One must also interpret lines by noticing how continuos or broken they are, soft or hard, and where they may be directing towards. Analyzing the space created within a painting and the illusion of any weight inside the painting or the actual weight of a sculpture gives a sense of space and mass. It is also essential to analyze the artist use of scale as they may use the element in different ways by using a larger canvas or make a larger sculpture to emphasize the importance of the subject more specifically in cases where the subject may be political figures, gods, portraits of important individuals, or mythical figures. when an artist incorporates all the elements into a piece it creates a composition and well rounded painting/ sculpture. Adding on to the elements of formal analysis, contextual analysis also plays an important role because it may give a historical background to the piece.

Formal Analysis is a form of understanding and deciphering an artistic piece by looking at certain artistic properties. This form of interpretation only relies on what is available in the artistic piece. This includes but not limited to, the formation of the figures, lighting of object, positioning of objects, as well as shading. By looking for specific details in paintings or sculptures it gives a general idea of the techniques and processes the artists of the time created such pieces.  The main components of Formal Analysis is the lines that composes the piece, the space which it takes up, as well as texture. The line part of the piece is that the objects in the piece move your eyes to see specific part of objects. Although it is invisible the artist leaves a invisible bread crumbs trail that is somehow picked up by the viewer. Space can be split into either positive or negative space. The third dimensional spacing gives objects depth which can be used to to depict a certain message of vastness or compactness in a painting. Texture is how rough or soft an object appears when looking at it in a painting. For example a marble table with a smooth surface would be hard and smooth to touch as if we were touching it in reality. Understanding what they did to create their works, is the exact same thing we do to understand other works such as philosophical works and literary pieces.