How to look at and understand great art Episode 5, Space, shape, shade, and shadow Episode 5, Space, shape, shade, and shadow

Streaming video - 2011

Examine geometric and "organic" shapes in painting and sculpture and the crucial relationship of figure to ground and mass to space. Then, explore the illusionistic use of shading, shadows, and overlapping shapes in Caravaggio's and Friedrich's works, and the compositional power of shapes in paintings such as Matisse's "Dance" and Michelangelo's "Creation of Adam".