Formal Analysis Art History

Among other pairs I chose to analyze Mother and Child and Virgin and Child in Majesty. They caught my eye right away. They are very different, but at the same time have a lot in common, and I find it fascinating. Thus, I would like to discuss how different and at the same time strikingly similar these sculptures are. I will pay attention to different details of visual evidence, like form, lines, material, style and others to show it.

First of all they are both three-dimensional vertical figures, made of wood. But Virgin and a Child is painted comparing to Mother and Child. Both of them depict a mother holding a child in her hands. They both are sitting on the chair and convey calmness and piece. Eyes of a woman and her child of Mother and Child (Sculpture 1) are closed. Opposite, both a woman and her child in Virgin and Child in Majesty (Sculpture 2) keep their eyes open, this way they are more related to an observer. Sculpture 1 is made considering laws of geometry. It has precise lines and that’s why human body looks unnatural, has a prolonged neck and waist. The woman and her child are nude. At the same time in sculpture 2 the woman with her child are wearing clothes, they are depicted more naturally and that’s why look like real people. The longer I looked at sculpture 1, the less unnatural it seemed to me though. Its strict geometric proportions and lines create a perfection in understanding the motherhood. The geometry and simplicity of this sculpture is what makes it so different and unique; it is its characteristic feature.

Absence of color in Sculpture 1 adds even more to its simple character. Actually, I don’t exclude the possibility, that it used to be painted, but the color didn’t last till our days.

One more difference between these two pieces of art is the age of babies. The baby in Sculpture 1 is much younger than a kid in Sculpture 2. He is at that stage of life when his mother is the whole world for him. That is why he sticks to her so tight and doesn’t look around. Sculpture 2 shows us a boy who is a grown up kid, interested already in a surrounding environment. His mother proudly presents her baby to the outer world, while the other woman looks like she wants to hide her baby from all the danger that is out there.

Sculpture 2 looks completely different from Sculpture 1, especially from the point of view of geometry and level of simplicity. It looks very sophisticated because of the clothes the woman and her child are wearing. Our attention is drawn to numerous folds on their clothes, which the artist made very realistic. This fact makes the whole sculpture look complicated and festive. These folds definitely create an underlying rhythm in it. They are catching an eye of a viewer, by being the center detail of the sculpture. It unites it with the other one, since an underlying pattern of it is geometrical order and the strictness of lines. Although these styles are very different, they both getting our attention.

Comparing to Sculpture 1, Sculpture 2 is painted. The paint is almost gone and it’s not really possible to talk about all the range of colors here, but we still can see how much

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