Noah's Ark Painting Analysis

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Noah’s Ark is an oil on masonite painting done by Aaron Douglas in 1927. The 48 by 36 inches painting is currently on display at The Carl Van Techten Gallery of Fine Arts at Fisk University in Nashville, Tennessee. The representational portrait painting shows an outdoors scene. There is a source of light coming from the top right corner. Following down the painting, there is a man at the front of a large boat, pointing to the left. Behind him, another man is holding some instruments. In the background, there are waves of blue. At the left side of the painting, there are lightening bolts. At the bottom left of the painting, there is a board connecting the ground to the boats, allowing some animals to enter. Behind that, there is a person on a ladder, carrying an item on their back. …show more content…

Finally, a man’s portraits in the bottom right of the painting. This painting is supposed to represent the bible story, Noah’s Ark.

There are four prominent art and design elements that were utilized in this painting: lines, shapes, light and value, and color. The first element is directional lines. Directional lines are used to guide the viewers eye to the main piece of the painting. In this case, the lines starting from the top right of the painting are directional. They lead your eyes to the large boat, onward to the bottom, where there are animals boarding it. The lines are also very sharp. They outline the shapes in the painting, giving the shapes a clear border. The next element is shape. The shapes are at very sharp angles. The animals tail is not curvy, but a sequence of hard lines, making the illusion of a curve. The eyes of the men are sharp lines. This painting, by definition, uses geometric shapes. Geometric shapes are lines connecting the points in a closed chain. There are no variance of shapes. All the figures can be split into differing