Post #3 Formal Analysis

The piece I have chosen for my formal analysis is titled The Delivery of Keys to St. Peter by Pietro Perugino. The overall feeling I get from this piece is a sense of space and depth and there are a number of formal elements that contribute to this illusion. The largest being the way that the piece is composed. There are really two different parts to this piece of art, the front scene with the key exchange and then the courtyard and buildings created by linear perspective in the background. It is strange but when I look at this group gathered up front they look oddly two dimensional and flat, but only in connection with the receding courtyard. If I were to guess, I would think that this is a result of this form of calculated perspective being relatively new, and not that the artist did not know how to use this perspective (because the piece is incredibly successful), but more that it did not entirely blend with the current style. It looks like the front gathering was done first and comfortably within the artist's style and then the perspective and space was filled in to finish the piece. Perhaps it is the way that they are shown so tightly rowed across the whole front, when there is a vast space all around that makes me see this too. I am interested to know if anyone else feels this too.

 But as I said the overall feeling I get is depth, and that the figures only seem flat in connection with the courtyard because they are wonderfully rendered with a realism that was popular at the time. Each person has individual features and expressions, as well as different clothing. The use of line and highlight to show the drape and hang of cloth is very natural and as a viewer you can tell which parts are coming out toward you and which are receding, a real sense of space. The colors chosen for the clothing help in a couple of ways, first by having the figures stand out amongst each other but also to have them stand out in the piece against the white floor of the courtyard and the cooler colors of the background. The stark uses of red, yellow and even black draws the eye of the viewer. The figure that stands out to me is the man on his knee offering the key. The way that his body is positioned, his head is tilted and his hand touches his chest is all very natural and helps to show further depth. As the eye moves past this group the illusion only becomes stronger as the scale of the figures move gradually smaller and smaller as the move toward the buildings and beyond. Not only do they change in size but the intensity of their color is dulled and the details of their bodies blurred as it does in real life. This same effect is used on the landscape in the background, where the hill on the right closest to the viewer is lush and green, while the ones further and further back start blue and gradually move toward gray.  

There is a very central and symmetrical composition to this piece. Everything seems to expand outward from the doorway (vanishing point) of the central building. There is a noticeable "V" shape created by the sky from this point, as well as a reverse created by the lines of the courtyard. A number of lines lead the eye to this doorway, yet there is not much depicted at this area in the scene, instead it seems more of the artists intentions with this piece lie in the very foreground. The buildings and their placement is very vertically symmetrical, with each side getting an arch off the domed structure, as well as the free standing decorative arches. This gives a nice balance to the piece and a sense of harmony to it that was of important to artists of the time. The vertical symmetry carries rigidly from top to bottom of this piece as it splits the front most group into two, and may even run through the key that is being offered, bringing emphasis to where the two sides of everything in this piece meet.