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The Pocket Universal Principles of Art
book

The Pocket Universal Principles of Art

by John A Parks
December 2017
Intermediate to advanced content levelIntermediate to advanced
208 pages
3h 39m
English
Rockport Publishers
Content preview from The Pocket Universal Principles of Art

002 Allegory

Allegory is a device whereby abstract ideas can be communicated using images of the concrete world.

• In an allegorical work, elements, whether figures or objects, are endowed with symbolic meaning. Their relationships and interactions combine to create more complex meanings.

• The success of an allegorical work depends on the audience’s ability to recognize the identities and corresponding symbolic meanings of each of the elements within the work.

• Part of the pleasure of contemplating such a work involves reflecting on the possible multiplicity of meanings.

Allegory rarely appears in contemporary Western art, no doubt because the moderns, with their interest in abstraction and visual purity, found allegory to be too literary. ...

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Publisher Resources

ISBN: 9781631595431