1. Two Dimensional Media: having the dimensions of height and
width only. Seen only from the front including painting, drawing, and prints.
Fresco: wall painting Painting on wood panel Painting on silk
Smenkhkare & Meritaten(?),
Tel el-Amarna, Dynasty 18, ca.
1335 BCE
Virgin of Vladimir, ca. 1100
Zhou Jichhang, Arhats
Giving Alms to Beggars,
1178

2. Drawing on vellum Drawing on paper
Koran page, beginning of Surah, 9th century
Bernardino Poccetti, Drawing of
Design for façade of Florence
Cathedral, 13th century

3. Three Dimensional: having height, width, and depth
Three Dimensional: having height, width, and depth. Can be seen in the round including sculpture, craft, and architecture
Carved Modeled Cast
Shaman with drum and
Snake, ca. 1000
Sarcophagus with reclining
couple, ca. 520 BCE
Lion Human, Germany,
Ca. 30,000-26,000 BCE

4. Sculpture: assembled Relief
Victory stele of Naram Sin,
ca BCE
Bull headed lyre from Ur,
ca BCE,

5. Architecture Religious Homes Tombs Great pyramids of Giza, 2500 BCE
Chartres Cathedral,
Begun 1134, rebuilt 1194
Model of house & garden, Thebes,
Dynasty 11, Ca BCE

6. Composition: structure and organization of a work of art
Landscape setting
Dressed in the Roman manner
Foreground, middleground, and
background
Crowded and busy
Byzantine border
David Composing Psalms, Paris
Psalter, ca. 900, 14-1/8 X 10-1/8”,
Biblioteque Nationale, Paris

7. Proportion and scale: size of parts to the whole or relationship of
the work to its surrounding
Colossal head, La Venta,
Mexico, BCE, basalt,
96” high
Pepy II & his mother, Queen
Meyre, Dynasty 6, ca BCE,
calcite, 15-1/4”, Brooklyn Museum
Hierarchic proportion Mounumental scale

8. Symmetry Balance Purse cover, Sutton Hoo ship burial, 625-33,
gold with garnets and enamels, 8” long, British
Museum, London
S. Appolinaire in Classe, interior,
Ravenna, CE

9. Color: makes an impression, can be symbolic (Mary in blue)
Stavelot triptych, Mosan, ca , gold, cloisonne enamel, 19 X 26” (open), Pierpont Morgan Library, New York
Virgin and Child with Saints and
Angels, icon, Monastery of St. Catherine,
Mt. Sinai, Egypt, second half 6th century,
encaustic on wood, 27 X 18-7/8”

10. Lines: most basic element. Can be real or “implied” (imagined).
Actual lines Implied lines (connect his hand to audience)
Chi Ro Iota, Book of Kells,
ca. 8th century, tempera on vellum,
13 X 9-1/2”, Trinity College, Dublin
Aulus Metellus, late 2nd
Century BCE, bronze, 5’11”,
Museo Archelogico Nazionale,
Florence

11. Content: meaning, symbolism, decoration, religious or narrative, representational, non-representational, expressionism
Rebecca & Eliezer at the Well, Folio 7, Vienna Genesis, tempera, gold, silver on purple vellum
Shiva, as Nataraja, bronze, Punjab, ca. 1000
Symbolic Narrative

12. Crucifixion, Church of Hosios Loukas, Greece, ca. 1020, mosaic
Religious Content and Expressionism Decorative and Non Represenational Representational
Crucifixion, Church of Hosios Loukas, Greece, ca. 1020, mosaic
Banner from So. Spain,
13th century, silk tapestry,
Burgos, Spain