Concepts of understanding paintings through Formal Elements

Heinrich Wölfflin identified five pairs of concepts, each of which refers to a formal element of painting and in terms of which these styles and the development between them may be understood.

1. Linear and Painterly

The paintings that are Linear have distinguished boundaries which they acquire using lines. They have defined and distinct forms and shapes. The paintings that are Painterly does not have distinct boundaries, the shapes and forms melt with each other. They use colours and textures to blur the boundaries.

Bronzino Portrait (left) is a linear painting as compared to a Velazquez Portrait (right), which is painterly painting.

2. Plane and Recession

This pair is explained as the difference between Classical Renaissance paintings and Baroque paintings. Renaissance painting is characterised by planar composition in series of planes parallel to the picture surface, whereas in Baroque painting, the depth of the painting is emphasised.

Palma Vecchio’s Adam and Eve (left) is a planar painting as compared to Tintoretto’s Adam and Eve (right) which is a recessional painting.

3. Closed and Open

He says that all the paintings should give an impression that they are ‘self contained’. The Classic paintings contain closed form as the construction of the work using horizontal and vertical directions is clear and defined. They look fixed in its frame. Whereas the Baroque paintings exhibit open form as there construction using horizontal and vertical direction is less clear.

Van Orley’s portrait of Carondelet (left) appears closed with visible horizontal and vertical construction lines, when compared to Ruben’s portrait of Dr. Thulden (right), which appears more open because of the diagonal construction lines.

4. Multiplicity and Unity

The Classical paintings provides an ‘articulated system’, they focus on the details due to which the single part maintains its independence and stands out in picture. The Baroque paintings provides an ‘endless flow’. they consider the picture as a whole; they appear united.

Titian’s Bella (left) is a Classical painting that showcases multiplicity. Velazquez’s Venus (right) is a Baroque painting that showcases unity and wholeness.

5. Absolute and Relative

In the painting with absolute clarity, objects tend to be placed in strong, clear light so their edges are crisp and gives an immediate understanding of the form of the object. Relative clarity, on the other hand, objects are suggested in paint. They generally tend to be darker and more loosely focused; the objects are not easily visually separable from the general painted field.

Da Vinci’s Last Supper’s (left) absolute clarity when compared to Tiepolo’s Last Supper’s (right) relative clarity.