| Aspects of A Work of Art | Things to Look For |
| Genre | Portraits Landscapes Still Life Nudes Examples: Portraits and Self Portraits: David Hockney's Mr. and Mrs. Clark Percy; Frida Kahlo's Self-Portraits; Massys' Portrait of a Notary; Holbein's The Ambassadors; Portraits by Tamara de Lempika; Pat Lin's Portrait of Toni and Portrait of Melissa Landscapes:Landscapes by Sisley; J.M.W.Turner; Hiroshige; Chinese Landscape Painting; Pat Lin's Digital Landscapes Still Life:Flowers in Terracotta Vase; Flower Paintings of Van Huysum; Cezanne's Apples and Oranges;Pat Lin's Quince and Lace; Audrey Flack's Marilyn Vanitas Clara Peeter's Vanitas; Bettye Saar's Africa and Liberation of Aunt Jemima Nudes:Ingres'La Grande Odalisque; Duchamp's Nude Descending Staircase; Benoist;Other Nudes |
| Composition | symmetrical or asymmetrical placement of elements; strategies used to "lead the eye" or focus attention Examples: Piero Della Francesca'sMadonna and Child With Saints; Tintoretto's St. George and the Dragon; Velazquez's Las Meninas; David's Death of Marat |
| Use of Color | use of color to replicate the real; use of color to create a mood use of color to make a statement use of color for symbolic purposes use of color to create harmony or to strike a deliberately discordant note; Examples: Jawlensky's Schokko; Alma Lopez's Digital Virgin of Guadalupe; Rossetti's The Day-Dream; Kroyer's Summer Evening |
| Geometric Configurations | use of geometric configurations as the "ground" for a painting in order to distribute color, light and shade, or subjects Examples: Gentileschi's Judith Beheading Holofernes; O'Keefe's Radiator Building; Poussin's Adoration of the Golden Calf; Feininger's Arch Tower |
| Use of Space, Light and Shade | use of light,shade and space to create three dimensional use of light as the subject itself of a painting use of light to focus the main subject of a painting Examples: Correggio's Nativity;Monet's Water Lily Pond;de Hoogh's Boy Bringing Pomegranates |
| Illusion and trompe l'oeil | creating disjunctures between reality, dream and fantasy
subverting viewer expectations representing a subject from several perspectives Examples: Arcimbodo's Summer;Patssi Valdez's Dream |
| Narrative and Themes | Biblical Stories Didactic Narratives Narratives from Literary Works Allegories Examples: the Last Supper as painted by da Vinci, Catena, Champaigne and others; The Last Barbecueby Margo Humphrey; Gentileschi's Susannah and the Elders; Hogarth's Marriage a la Mode;Bronzino's Venus and Cupid; Paintings Based on the Works of William Shakespeare |
| Art Movements and Periods | To what movement does a work of art belong? Does it belong to the Baroque Period? Is the work representative of, say, the "Blue Rider Movement" of art? What are the distinctive features of a particular art movement? How does each movement proclaim its philosophy in its art works? |
