Analyzing Artworks

Within the duration of my art history class, I have learned a variety of different types of tools that I can use when looking at an artwork that help me better determine its contents. For one, we can completely remove the emotion from the piece and strip it down to its bare contents, this way, we can first look at the actual craftsman ship of the overall work before even mentioning how it makes one feel. This was a shocking concept to me at first as I am so used to only ever focusing on emotion when it comes to art, I even use it as a release of my own emotions most times. When I began interpreting art in this way, it completely changed my mindset when it came to approaching how I view anything, not simply paintings or artworks. This has been especially useful to me in the writing world and viewing works not by their content and ideas, but how words are used to tie ideas together.