How to look

A practical method.

Questions that work

What is the subject, where does your eye go first, what is emphasised by light and scale, and what has been left out. Description before judgement gets you further.

Composition, colour, line and light are the basic vocabulary.
Knowing who paid for it usually explains what it shows.

Context

A painting made for a private chapel, a public square or an art market is doing different work. Function shapes form more than personal style does.