1. Storytelling with Images:
Narrative Art
Terms/Concept: Key Monuments:
Ut Pictura Theodore Gericault, The Raft
Poesis, diachronic, synchronic, pr of the Medusa, 1819.
egnant Giotto, Scenes from the Life of
moment, monoscenic, sequential, Christ, Arena
Chapel, Padua, Italy, 1305.
continuous, synoptic, simultane Masaccio, The Tribute
ous, autonomous, Money, 1425.
Clifford Possum
Tjapaltjarri, Man’s Love
Story, 1978.
Kara Walker, “Darkytown
Rebellion” from My
Complement, My
Oppressor, My Friend, 1997.
2. “Storytelling starts with human history itself;
there is not, nor has there ever
been, anywhere, a group of people without
stories…international, transhistorical, across
cultures, storytelling is just there—a part of life.”
--Roland Barthes
3. Types of Stories Told by Images
Mythological
Religious
Literary
Historical
Personal
Allegorical
4. Ut Pictura Poesis
“as is painting, so is poetry”
Image Text
Communicates Communicates
Records Records
Expresses Expresses
Evokes a response Evokes a response
Synchronic: Diachronic:
experienced all at once. experienced over time.
5. Ut Pictura Poesis
“as is painting, so is poetry”
The grandmother lived out in the wood, half a league from the
village, and just as Little Red Riding Hood entered the wood, a wolf
met her. Red Riding Hood did not know what a wicked creature he
was, and was not at all afraid of him.
'Good day, Little Red Riding Hood,' said he.
'Thank you kindly, wolf.'
'Whither away so early, Little Red Riding Hood?'
'To my grandmother's.'
'What have you got in your apron?'
'Cake and wine; yesterday was baking-day, so poor sick
grandmother is to have something good, to make her stronger.'
'Where does your grandmother live, Little Red Riding Hood?'
'A good quarter of a league farther on in the wood; her house
stands under the three large oak-trees, the nut-trees are just
below; you surely must know it,' replied Little Red Riding Hood.
The wolf thought to himself: 'What a tender young creature!
what a nice plump mouthful - she will be better to eat than the old
woman. I must act craftily, so as to catch both.'
So he walked for a short time by the side of Little Red Riding
Hood, and then he said: 'See, Little Red Riding Hood, how pretty the
flowers are about here - why do you not look round? I
believe, too, that you do not hear how sweetly the little birds are
singing; you walk gravely along as if you were going to school, while
everything else out here in the wood is merry.'
Little Red Riding Hood raised her eyes, and when she saw the
sunbeams dancing here and there through the trees, and pretty
flowers growing everywhere, she thought: 'Suppose I take
grandmother a fresh nosegay; that would please her too. It is so
early in the day that I shall still get there in good time.'
How do artists use synchronic images to represent diachronic
narratives?
6. Narrative Methods in Art
1. Monoscenic
2. Sequential
3. Continuous
4. Synoptic
5. Simultaneous
6. Autonomous
7. Narrative Methods in Art
1. Monoscenic …present only one
scene of many to
2. Sequential represent an entire
3. Continuous narrative.
4. Synoptic
5. Simultaneous
6. Autonomous
8. Conventional Story Structure
*A pregnant moment is one part of a larger narrative that serves to
speak for the entire series of events by having structural significance, emotional
impact, or some other means of communicates a sense of the whole story.
9. *Monoscenic Narratives present only one scene of many
to represent an entire narrative.
Climax
Theodore Gericault, The Raft of the Medusa, 1819.
11. Narrative Methods in Art
1. Monoscenic …is the ordered
grouping of key
2. Sequential
monoscenic
3. Continuous episodes to convey a
4. Synoptic diachronic narrative.
5. Simultaneous
6. Autonomous
12. *Sequential Narrative is the grouping of key
monoscenic episodes to convey a diachronic narrative.
Art Spiegelman, “The War is Over!”
Maus, Volume 1, 1986.
13. Bringing of Praying
the Rods Suitors
Life of the Virgin
Wedding Raising of
at Cana Lazarus
Life of Christ
The The
Lamentation Resurrection
Death of Christ
Giotto, Scenes from the Life of Christ, Arena
Chapel, Padua, Italy, 1305.
14. Narrative Methods in Art
1. Monoscenic …uses the repetition
of figures to convey
2. Sequential
multiple scenes of a
3. Continuous story in a single
4. Synoptic composition.
5. Simultaneous
6. Autonomous
15. * Continuous Narrative uses the repetition of figures to
convey multiple scenes of a story in a single composition.
1. Christ tells St. Peter to retrieve 3. St. Peter pays the
the money from a fish. tribute collector.
2.
St. Peter retrieves
the money.
Masaccio, The Tribute Money, 1425.
16. Rebecca and Eliezer at the Well, Vienna
Genesis, early 6th century CE.
Rebecca walks
to the well.
Rebecca giving
Water personification Eliezer water.
17. Narrative Methods in Art
1. Monoscenic …like continuous
narrative, conveys
2. Sequential
multiple scenes
3. Continuous within a single
4. Synoptic composition but
without the
5. Simultaneous
repetition of figures.
6. Autonomous
18. 3. Odysseus and his
men blind the drunk
cyclops.
2. Odysseus gets
Polyphemus
drunk.
1. Polyphemus, the
cyclops, captures Odysseus
and eats some of his men.
*Synoptic Narrative, like continuous narrative, conveys
multiple scenes within a single composition but without the
repetition of figures.
Blinding of Polyphemus, Laconian Black-Figure
Kylix, 565-550 BCE.
19. Narrative Methods in Art
…uses culturally significant
1. Monoscenic symbols and patterns to
2. Sequential convey a story. These
symbols are often used as
3. Continuous memory cues for oral
storytelling.
4. Synoptic
5. Simultaneous
6. Autonomous
20. *Simultaneous Narrative uses culturally
significant symbols and patterns to convey a story.
Clifford Possum Tjapaltjarri, Man’s Love Story, 1978.
22. Another Ancestor
Mirage
women
Sugary Leaves
Hair on a Spindle
Journey Line
Ancestor 1
women
Water hole
Water hole
Honey Ants
women Digging Stick Ancestor 2
women
Ant Hole
Clifford Possum Tjapaltjarri, Man’s Love Story, 1978.
24. Narrative Methods in Art
…is a narrative free from a
1. Monoscenic text, that the artist creates
2. Sequential with his or her work. The
audience plays a large role
3. Continuous in reconstructing this
narrative.
4. Synoptic
5. Simultaneous
6. Autonomous
28. Kara Walker, Freedom, a Fable: A Curious
Interpretation of the Wit of a Negress in Troubled
Times, 1997.
29. Interrogating the Narrative
1. What is the story being told? Is it fictional?
Mythological? Religious? Historical? Autonomous?
2. Does the narrative image consist of a single events or
a single event?
3. If a single event, what part of the story is being told?
Climax? Exposition? Denouement? Aftermath?
4. From what point of view is the story being told/ Who
is telling the story? The Artist? The Viewer? An
unknown character?
5. How to you, the viewer, form the narrative by either
your physical or mental position?
