The methodologies of art : an introduction

Works of art have been read in many ways since art history became an established academic discipline in the 19th century. The different ways of describing and interpreting art are the methodologies of artistic analysis. Since every work or art is an expression of its culture (time and place) and its maker (artist) and is dependent on its media (what it is made of) every work of art is extremely complex. The many methodologies reflect the many levels of meaning in an artistic image. This work surveys the main methodologies of artistic analysis – formal analysis, iconology and iconography, Marxism, Feminism, biography and autobiography. The final chapter considers three or four works of art from all the methodologies included.