Methodology: Formal Analysis, Iconography and Context
Methodology covers formal analysis, iconography and contextual interpretation: the three operations the commentary question rewards. Precision of vocabulary and evidence separates a high mark from a description.
Formal analysis
- Elements: line, shape, form, colour (hue, value, saturation), texture, scale, proportion, light, space, composition, brushwork, material, technique.
- Devices: axis, symmetry and asymmetry, diagonal, horizon, framing, viewpoint, focal point, contrast, rhythm.
- Say what the device does, not merely that it exists: the low viewpoint enlarges the figure and forces the viewer to look up beats low viewpoint.
Iconography and iconology
- Panofsky's three levels: pre-iconographic (what is depicted), iconographic (what it means by convention through attributes and types), iconological (what it reveals about its culture).
- Attributes are evidence: keys for Peter, a wheel for Catherine, a lily for purity.
- Iconology requires an argument built on evidence, not intuition.
Context
Patron, commission, cost, original location and function, audience, display, politics, religion, later interventions and restorations. A work moved, reframed or repainted is a different object for interpretation.
A workable commentary structure
- Identify: type, subject, author if known, date, place. 2. Describe formally, from overall composition to detail. 3. Read the iconography. 4. Contextualise: who paid, who looked, what it did. 5. Conclude on significance.
Worked example
Goya's Dos de Mayo. Formally: a compressed frieze of bodies, lantern light, a foreshortened horse, no deep space, and the light picking out victims rather than heroes. Iconographically: no saint's attribute and no allegory; ordinary dress and a Mameluke uniform identify the episode historically. Iconologically: painted in 1814 for a patriot government, it argues that Spanish resistance was popular and that war is butchery. Three levels, each adding what the previous did not.
Traps
- Description without analysis: a list of objects is not a commentary.
- Iconology guessed without evidence.
- Anachronism: judging by later taste or later politics.
- Using it is famous or it is beautiful as an argument.