Anastasia Ivanova
Paper #1
Art History 203
Formal Analysis
Giorgione’s Pastoral Symphony is a Venetian painting from a time when painters had
become like poets, not only in popularity but also in the poetic compositions of their paintings.
Pastoral Symphony portrays a realistic, yet dream-like landscape through the use of colors, lines,
shapes, etc.
Giorgione uses rich colors, dark and light, to create the appearance of distinct forms as
well as forms that seem to blend into the shadows that envelop the image, surrounding the edges
of the painting especially. While the light, almost glowing skin of the two females in the image
are what draw the viewer’s attention first, the bright red clothing of one of the men in the center
is also very eye-catching and this seems to mark him as the main subject of this painting. The
bright green grass and trees in the foreground and the middle ground contrast with the
yellowish/tan ground and building in the middle ground, dividing the space and giving a sense of
moving backward; the hazy white, blues and greens in the background that suggest atmospheric
perspective as the eye goes back into space. The standing woman on the left and the tree behind
her, contrasting light and dark, frame the left side of the painting and that is mirrored on the right
by the sitting woman and the thick green trees in the middle ground behind her. There are no
distinct outlines, the colors blended together skillfully to form natural and convincing shapes and
shadows throughout the entire image. This composition is made up of natural shapes of bodies,
trees, clouds, etc. While there are no distinct geometrical shapes that stand out to the viewer, the
two main male figures in the painting seem to be framed by a sideways triangle that the two
females create, giving an area to focus on.
Anastasia Ivanova
Paper #1
Art History 203
The natural shapes here are placed within a natural and convincing landscape, many
different attributes of the painting making it so. The colors and the shading give a feeling of a
natural. The light color of the females’ skin, the green of the trees, the white-blue of the sky and
the colors of every other aspect all have a realistic look to them. The haziness that forms as the
eyes approaches the background is a convincing atmospheric perspective. The lines of the
landscape converge in a way that move from left to right, items getting smaller in the movement
backwards. Rational scaling also playing a part in this, the part of the image that are in the
foreground being larger than those in the in the middle ground and the parts that are in the
background being the smallest. All the parts of the drawing are proportional to the field they are
in and the decrease of size going back is believable to the viewer. A natural, yet somehow otherworldly light fall on the landscape, and while shadows fall as they would in the real world, some
parts of the image are highlighted and seem to glow brightly. Textures are used to represent
convincingly realistic forms such as the smoothness of the females’ skin and the different fabrics
in the image, the texture of the puffy trees creating an appearance of leaves and the fluffy clouds
appearing light as they would in the real world.
While there is no dramatic action, there are subtle suggestions of movement all
throughout the painting. The woman standing on the left is moving to dip the pitcher down into
the water. The two males are leaning together in discussion, one moving his hand to strum his
instrument. The two lone trees next to the house in the middle ground are leaning sideways,
being blown by the wind. All these small actions are gentle. As the viewer contemplates this
painting, he/she can almost hear the sounds of the water, the rustle of the leaves and the music
being made by the men thanks to their muses, the two women whose skin glows like a light in
this dream-like setting.