Looking at Pictures

by Susan Woodford

• ISBN13: 9780521286473
• ISBN10: 0521286476
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 1983-02-28
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Summary

Looking at pictures can be enjoyable, exciting or moving. Some pictures are easily appreciated at first glance, but others - often the most rewarding - require some explanation before they can be fully understood. This clearly written and enjoyable book is intended to increase pleasure and stimulate thought. It tackles many aspects of looking at paintings as well. Starting with familiar ideas, Dr Susan Woodford moves on to explore subtler, less obvious concepts. For example, she shows how paintings can be appreciated as patterns on a flat surface emotional effect; how ordinary objects can conceal hidden meanings and how knowledge of tradition improves our understanding of revolutionary works.

Table of Contents

Ways of Looking at Pictures	7	(7)
Landscape and Seascape	14	(7)
Portraits	21	(9)
Everyday Life and Everyday Things: Genre and Still Life	30	(13)
History and Mythology	43	(12)
Religious Images	55	(14)
Pictures As Decorations on Flat Surfaces	69	(5)
Tradition	74	(5)
Considerations of Design and Organisation	79	(4)
Problems in the Depiction of Space	83	(7)
An Approach to Stylistic Analysis: Renaissance and Baroque Contrasted	90	(11)
Hidden Meanings	101	(3)
Quality	104	(7)
Index	111