Analyzing - Reading suggestions

[Adamastor]

Any reading suggestions about painting analyzing?

I would rather avoid heavy readings such as philosophical essays and alikes, but if that is my only choice...

I'd appreciate descriptions of how you guys analyze a picture, painting, scene; What do you feel, what might come to your might and your beliefs, thoughts about the reason behind it.

 

[Artifice Orisit]

I would rather avoid heavy readings such as philosophical essays and alikes, but if that is my only choice...

A bit dry? Try studying the painting yourself first, then read about it, the background context tends to be a lot more interesting when you're more familiar with the work in question.

Generally I try to figure out the painting's theme first, then search for it's symbology and hidden meanings, this is made much easier with the help of a deconstructing essay explaining the context (e.g. time period & political climate) in which the artist was working.

Edit: Modern art is crap that's somehow managed to crawl up it's own asshole, which impresses me immeasurably.

 

[Adamastor]

Any suggestions?
I could look for names of famous paintings, its background etc. There are so many of them, would you/someone recommend one in special or two (radically different from each other, now this is more difficult for someone in my situation to hope for), maybe if it interests you it would interests me...

 

[Ermine]

Put simply, I look for symbols and icons in the artwork and try to link the symbols to their conventional meaning, the meaning they'd have for the artist, and the meaning they have for me. Though not all art is allegorical, all art that I know of gives meaning to otherwise meaningless things and everything means something.

Here are two different paintings with a lot of symbolism/icons that might pique your interest.

Raphael's School of Athens

Seher Shah's Jihad Pop