Looking at pictures

Book

Looking at pictures / Susan Woodford.

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 book is intended both to increase pleasure and stimulate thought, and tackles many aspects of looking at paintings. 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 and how the illusion of depth can contribute to an emotional effect; how ordinary objects can conceal hidden meanings; and how knowledge of tradition improves our understanding of revolutionary works.--From publisher description.

Record details

ISBN: 0521243718
ISBN: 9780521243711
ISBN: 0521286476
ISBN: 9780521286473
Physical Description: 112 pages : illustrations (some color) ; 25 cm.
Publisher: Cambridge [Cambridgeshire] ; Cambridge University Press, 1983.

Content descriptions

General Note:: Includes index.
Formatted Contents Note:: Ways of looking at pictures -- Landscape and seascape -- Portraits -- Everyday life and everyday things : genre and still life -- History and mythology -- Religious images -- Pictures as decorations on flat surfaces -- Tradition -- Considerations of design and organisation -- Problems in the depiction of space -- An approach to stylistic analysis : Renaissance and Baroque contrasted -- Hidden meanings -- Quality.