Junior Docent School Program - Milwaukee Art Museum

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- as a remembrance of the deceased
- to depict the subject‟s inner self.
PRIMARY POINT: While studying a portrait, a student should understand not only what
the work looks like, but also why it was created and decode important visual clues. A
portrait can closely resemble the subject‟s appearance; however, portraits are not
limited to simple recreating external appearances and situations of an individual or
group. Artists utilize parts of their portraits – backgrounds, props, or settings for the
sitter – to provide information about the subject‟s character or place in society.
With this information in mind, please choose your portraits for this tour for discussion
and comparison of what clues we see and what elements of art were used. Remember
that the elements of art (line, shape, space, color, and texture) aid in our discovery.
Here is a key to some traditional Western culture‟s (European and American) symbols
and colors used in portraits and the common meaning or representation:
Symbol:
Symbol Meaning or Representation:
long coats
men
dresses
women
birds
children, omens, embodiment of human and cosmic spirit;
caged bird – human mind
clothing with many buttons, wealth
necklaces, long wigs, furs,
velvet or silk or highly
patterned fabric
one glove off
friendly, status of superiority, no intended threat, pledge of
action
holding a flower
beauty, feminine, innocence, gentleness, youth, spring,
nature‟s life cycles
subject shown with a book smart, intelligent and literate, wisdom, scholarship
quill pen
intelligent and able to write
wigs
fashionable, wealth, power
rose
love, heart, rebirth, sacred
sword
military, power, authority, justice, protection
subject on horseback
power, authority, military, nobility
dog
faithful, protective, vigilance
cat
cleverness, stealth, agility, female malice, sensual beauty
subject not wearing shoes standing on holy ground
candle
spiritual illumination, vital life and breath
unicorn
maidens, purity, virtue, power
skull
mortality, intelligence, energy
red color
anger, love, life, fire, war, energy, aggression, festivity,
impulse, health, strength, youth, vitality, political revolution
yellow color
happiness, warmth, coward, death, humility
orange color
energy, fertility, splendor, luxury, purity, fire, love
blue color
sadness, calmness, infinity, truth, devotion, faith, peace,
intellectual life
green color
renewal, growth, youth
purple color
royalty, nobility, dignity
white color
purity, light, truth, innocence, sacred or divine, cowardice,
surrender, pallor of death
black color
sadness, death, evil, sorrow, despair
© 2011 Milwaukee Art Museum 700 N. Art Museum Dr. Milwaukee, WI 53202
JDSP – Docent Packet