Iconographical Analysis

Order Instructions:
The goal of this paper is to interpret the painting you have chosen using iconographical analysis by examining its relationship to the textual source upon which it is based, as outlined in the van Straten reading.

Step I: Read the text
Locate and read the text upon which your painting is based:
The Crucifixion, ca. 1340
Pietro Lorenzetti

Text: New Testament, Matthew, Chapter 27: Verse 35-56
Mark 15: 24-41; Luke 23: 33-49; John 19: 18-36
Use the Douay-Rheims version of the Bible: www.drbo.org
Step II: Writing the Essay
When the artist painted the scene before you, he made choices about how to interpret the text upon which the painting is based. It is your job as a writer to uncover these decisions made by the artist and to explain how the painter understood his text. As analytic writers, we are not interested if the artist’s interpretation is good; rather we’re interested in how the painter translated his text into a visual representation.

Method
In order to do this, it is imperative that you describe with loving detail how form and composition relate to, and deviate from, the narrative of the original text. Now that you have noticed patterns and anomalies separately in both the painting and the text using Rosenwasser and Stephen’s Method, you are to now look for patterns and anomalies shared between the painting and the text. Write out your observations which you will submit:

1) List shared repetitions and strands that repeat between the painting and text
2) List shared contrasts that repeat between the painting and the text
3) List shared anomalies
4) List differences between the details of the painting and the details of the text.
5) List the two most significant repetitions, the two most significant strands, and the two most significant contrasts, the two most significant anomalies, and the two most significant differences.
6) Write a paragraph about which shared element and which difference is the most significant any state why

TIP: In order to determine the identity of the figures in the painting, based on the text, it is important that you describe them in detail to discern their distinguishing characteristics before you compare them to the text. After careful examination, you may realize the figure may not be who you originally thought he or she was.

Organization:
Your paper should be organized by focusing on a series of select parts of the composition that you think are particularly important and have larger significance. Part by part, you should discuss how each relates to the original textual source. [See Rosenwasser & Stephen’s 10 on 1 Method]. You should also consider if the painting represents a particular moment in the narrative of the text, and if so, which one.

Discussion of similarities and difference should be rooted in an analytical discussion of your painting’s form and composition. Discussion of the textual source should take second place to discussion of the painting’s form and composition.

TIP: Organize your paper as suggested. Do not organize your paper by talking first about similarities, then about differences.