Reading the image

• According to this, art has two interrelated

aspects. First, art has its specificity, that the
artist can manipulate features that are
unique to a particular medium. Second,
Reading the historically situated and shaped by social,
economic, and political force. Both aspects
Image by are important to be considered to fully
Alice G. understand and appreciate art.
Guillermo • Four planes of Analysis
• Basic Semiotic plane
• Iconic Plane or the Image Itself
• Contextual Plane
• Axiological or Evaluative Plane
Basic Semiotic
Plane
Basic Semiotic Plane
• It is the study of "signs”.

• It consists of “signifier" or its material/physical aspect and its

"signified" or non-material aspect as concept and value. The
visual elements and how they are used conveys meaning
which form the text of the work.
• It also includes the choice of medium and technique that
refers to material and style that the artist exercises free
selection. Then, the format of the work which are symbolic
representation that participates in its meaning. Lastly the
physical properties and marks of the work such as notations,
traces, and marks.
• Semiotic is concerned with everything that can be taken as a
sign. The elements of the visual arts derive their meaning-
conveying potential from two large sources: human
psychophysical experiences and the socio-cultural
conventions of a particular society and period.
La Venganza de la madre by Jose
Rizal c.1894
 • The core of semiotic theory is the definition of the
factors involved in this process (making sense of signs)
of signmaking and interpreting and the development
of conceptual tools that help us to grasp that process
as it goes in various arenas of cultural activity.
• Semiotics is the study of signs.
Semiotic • Signs are the basic unit of semiotics.
• Sign is any information – carrying entity, including
Theory linguistic and animal signaling tokens, maps, road
signs, diagrams, pictures and model.
• Semiotics offers a way to break an image into its
constituent parts – its signs and trace how they
related to each other, and other systems of meaning.
• Symbol or conventional sign – is a sign, typical of
natural language form, that lacks any significant
relevant physical correspondence with or
resemblance to the entities to which the form refers,
and for which there is no correlation between the
occurrence of the sign and its referent. Or; is one
which signifies something through the free institution
of human beings. It is an arbitrary or human-made
sign.
• Country flag, traffic lights, +, -, =
• Index or natural sign – is a sign whose occurrence is
causally or statistically correlated with occurrences of
its referent, and whose production is not intentional.
Or; one that signifies something else by its very nature.
They signify things by themselves naturally.
• Yawning, loud voice for anger.
• Icon – is a sign whose form corresponds to or
resembles its referent or a characteristic of its
referent.
• Tailor’s swatch
Meaning of the image
itself
• Signified – is the concept of thing
the representation stands in for.
• Signifier is the representation.
• Photograph of a baby – baby is the
signified
• Signified could be youth, or the future
or representation of the baby.
• Signifier – Mona Lisa by Leonardo da
Vinci
• Signified – beauty? Simplicity?
Women in the times of da Vinci?
Steps in Conducting a Basic Semiotic Analysis

1 2 3 4
Decide what the Decide what they Consider how they Explore their
signs are. signify “in relate to other signs. connections to wide
themselves.” systems of meaning,
from codes to
ideologies.
La Venganza de la madre by Jose Rizal c.1894

• Sign – dog, crocodile/ alligator, puppy

• Sign – biting from the dog to the crocodile.
Biting of the crocodile to the puppy.

• Medium – clay
• Type – sculpture
• Texture – rough

• Possible meaning from above:

• Anger
• Revenge (from the title)
• Protection to her offspring
• Resiliency (because the puppy might be dead)
Iconic Plane
Iconic Plane or Image
Itself
• THE ICONIC PLANE OR THE IMAGE ITSELF- is still part of the
semiotic approach since it is still based on the signifier-
signified relationship. The only difference is that that material
elements of the work has to do with the particular features,
aspects, and qualities of the image.
• The iconic plane includes the choice of the subject which may
bear social and political implications. Also part (frontal, in
profile, three-fourths, etc.) of the iconic plane is the
positioning of the figure that implies its bearing to the
meaning of the work. This is important not only in defining
the relationship of subject and viewer but also in describing
pictorial space. also takes into account the relationship of the
figures to one another, whether massed, isolated, or
juxtaposed in terms of affinity or contrast. The style of
figuration or the proportion of the body deals with the image
itself.
• In the basic semiotic plane which deals with the material
aspect of the work and in the iconic plane which deals with
the features of the image itself, one can see that as the
signifier cannot be separated from the signified, concrete fact
or material data cannot be divorced from value.
Iconography

Iconography as a means of
expanding beyond formal analysis Iconography shares similarities to
and focusing on analyzing subject semiotics in interpreting signs (in
matter in artwork, specifically semiotics signs can be symbols) on
symbols whose meaning is both a denotive and connotative
understood by a people or culture level.
in that specific time.
Christ the savior by El Greco
• Subject – Jesus Christ
• Posture – seating, the index finger and the middle finger is
pointing upward, the left hand is placed comfortably on his
legs.
• Facial expression is neutral, no strong emotions where shown.
• Colors – use red and blue but does not have a strong value.
These two colors shows harmony despite being both
contrasting color. Value also suggest that the clothing is
smooth. The background is black but not too black, to make
the image dull. It is in harmony with the colors used.
• Position in the picture plane – center
• Other elements – Halo on the head. The body is elongated.
• Meaning - ?
Contextual Plane
 • THE CONTEXTUAL PLANE- Resituating the work in its
context will bring out the full meaning of the work
in terms of its human and social implications.
• The viewer draws out the dialogic relationship of
art and society. If one does not view the work in
relation to its context, but chooses to confine
analysis to the internal structure of the work than
Contextual reducing its meaning. the meaning of a work is a
Plane complex that involves concepts, values, emotions,
attitudes, atmospheres, sensory experiences that
arise from the three planes. The experience of a
work cannot be reduced. A broad knowledge of
history and the economic, political and cultural
conditions, past and present, of a society is called
upon in the contextual plane. It shows progress of
time.
Rice Painting by
Fernando Amorsolo

• Elements – they are farming.

Clothes are to refer it is in old
times (barong at saya), field
setting, the color is in
harmony to each other
• Possible meaning – the
painting refers to the culture
of the Filipinos (from a filipino
painter) where farming or the
life was simpler back then.
Axiological Plane
Axiological Plane

THE AXIOLOGICAL OR EVALUATIVE PLANE- it has to do with analyzing the values of a work.

The plane of analysis that examines the value of work having a dialogic relationship with public.
The evaluation of a work necessarily includes the analysis and examination of its axiological
content since values are expressed in the work which holds a dialogic relationship with reality. The
style of figuration where subject is taken from visible world; object may be stylized but still
recognizable.
Mona Lisa by Leonardo da
Vinci
• Used the body posture of Mona Lisa as the
basis for other future portraits.
• “It became the definitive example of the
Renaissance portrait and perhaps for this
reason is seen not just as the likeness of a real
person, but also as the embodiment of an
ideal."
Reading the image

Basic information about the art: Basic Semiotic Plane

• Title of the Work

• Artist’s name (biographical data) • Visual Elements (signs - signifier
• Medium and Technique used signified)
(documentation, material and • Choice of Medium and technique
technique) • Format of Work (symbolic elements,
• Dimension and measurement (format figurative representations, shape of
of work [rectangular or etc]) work)
• Date of work (date, year, period) • Physical properties and marks of the
• Provenance (present owner, collector work (importance/ relevance)
of work)
 Iconic plane or image: Contextual plan: Evaluative plane

• can put Signifier-signified • Full meaning of the work • Form and content
here (human and social (evaluation of the
• Position of figures implications – material)
(frontal, three-fourths, relationship of art and • Full meaning of the work
etc) society) (real life and the real
• Style of figuration • Personal and social world)
(proportion of the body) circumstance of its • Analysis and examination
production
Example: The Third of May 1808 by Francisco de Goya
 • What: The Third of May 1808
• When: Early hours of the morning
Basic • Description: Two masses of men. One a rigidly poised firing
description squad, and the other a disorganized group of captives held at
gun point.
• How: Executioners and victims face each other across a
narrow space.
Basic • Analysis: Contrast of the soldiers’ attitudes and the steely line
of their rifles, with the crumbling irregularity of their target.
Semiotic • Symbol: The man who is raising his hands. People who are at
the back covering their faces or showing the body language of
theory fear. Guns
• Meaning: Dramatic, oppression, death, brutality
 • Position: Center
• The man raising his hands (also wears the
lightest color palette in the painting) and the
soldiers pointing gun at them (him)
• Background: Between the hillside and the
shakos.
• More soldiers or victims.
Iconic plane • Signifier-signified relationship: Man raising
or image his hands can signify a person who is being
arrested or putting his hands up not to
invoke more aggression. Police arresting a
civilian.
• Position of the signifier: Center of canvas,
can be likened to police arresting a civilian
or a civilian fighting for his life and not to be
shot.
 Full meaning of the work (art and society): he Third of May
1808 (also known as El tres de mayo de 1808 en Madrid
or Los fusilamientos de la montaña del Príncipe Pío,or Los
fusilamientos del tres de mayo) is a painting completed in
1814 by the Spanish painter Francisco Goya, now in the
Museo del Prado, Madrid. In the work, Goya sought to
commemorate Spanish resistance to Napoleon's armies
during the occupation of 1808 in the Peninsular War.
Contextual
plane Personal and social circumstance of its
production: Quality of the pigment
foreshadows Goya’s later works: a rough
solution producing a matte, sandy finish.
(can be from research)
Evaluative plane
Form and content: It depicts an execution, an early event in the so-called Peninsular War between France and Spain.

Analysis and examination: The victim is as anonymous as his killers. Nobility is replaced by futility and irrelevance, the
victimization of mass murder, and anonymity as a hallmark of the modern condition.

Full meaning of art (art and world): The Third of May is cited as an influence on Pablo Picasso's 1937 Guernica, which
shows the aftermath of the Nazi German bombing of Guernica during the Spanish Civil War.An exhibition in 2006 at
the Prado and the Reina Sofía showed The Third of May, Guernica, and the Execution of the Emperor Maximilian in
the same room.Also in the room was Picasso's Massacre in Korea, painted in 1951 during the Korean War—an even
more direct reference to the composition of The Third of May.The perpetrators in this painting were intended to be
the United States Army or their United Nations allies.
Sources:
• Bal, Mieke & Bryson, Norman. 1991. “Semiotics and Art History.” The
Art Bulletin. Vol 23. No. 2. CAA. pp. 174 – 208.
• Guillermo, Alice. 2001. Image to Meaning Essays on Philippine Art.
Manila: Ateneo De Manila University Press.