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Lesson
Lesson 1. A checklist: “how to look at any painting”
Bring the whole course together into a simple sequence of steps for any painting, and reinforce the key terms.
Seven questions to ask a painting
Your museum checklist
Now you have the tools. In front of any unfamiliar painting, ask yourself seven questions — and it will “speak.”
1. WHERE DO I LOOK FIRST? Find the focal point. What makes it the main thing — light, size, the gazes of other figures?
2. HOW AM I BEING LED? Find the leading lines: hands, roads, rays, gazes. Horizontals (calm) or diagonals (movement)?
3. WHERE IS THE LIGHT COMING FROM? Soft and diffused, or harsh out of the darkness? What does it emphasize, and what does it hide?
4. WARM OR COOL? What is the color temperature, and what mood does it set? Is there a contrasting patch?
5. ARE THERE SYMBOLS? A skull, a mirror, a dog, a candle, a wilted flower, an hourglass — what are they saying?
6. WHAT GENRE IS IT? Portrait, still life, landscape, genre scene, or history painting — by what rules should you read it?
7. WHAT DO I FEEL, AND WHY? Connect the feeling to the specific techniques that created it.
This sequence works for the Old Masters, for the Impressionists, and even for abstraction (where questions 1, 3, 4, and 7 matter most). Most important: you no longer walk past in five seconds.
Lesson notes
Your museum checklist
Now you have the tools. In front of any unfamiliar painting, ask yourself seven questions — and it will “speak.”
1. WHERE DO I LOOK FIRST? Find the focal point. What makes it the main thing — light, size, the gazes of other figures?
2. HOW AM I BEING LED? Find the leading lines: hands, roads, rays, gazes. Horizontals (calm) or diagonals (movement)?
3. WHERE IS THE LIGHT COMING FROM? Soft and diffused, or harsh out of the darkness? What does it emphasize, and what does it hide?
4. WARM OR COOL? What is the color temperature, and what mood does it set? Is there a contrasting patch?
5. ARE THERE SYMBOLS? A skull, a mirror, a dog, a candle, a wilted flower, an hourglass — what are they saying?
6. WHAT GENRE IS IT? Portrait, still life, landscape, genre scene, or history painting — by what rules should you read it?
7. WHAT DO I FEEL, AND WHY? Connect the feeling to the specific techniques that created it.
This sequence works for the Old Masters, for the Impressionists, and even for abstraction (where questions 1, 3, 4, and 7 matter most). Most important: you no longer walk past in five seconds.