Becky Kelly

Timeline Analysis

Zuelt 11:00

Description

The History of Art Timeline from Historia Timelines is jam-packed with images that
depict important movements in the history of Western art and some highlights in each of
those movements spanning many thousands of years. Using influential artists and key
examples of the many different styles, this timeline presents full-color photos of works of
art through the course of human history, beginning with prehistoric cave paintings and
continuing all the way up to the mid-2000's AD.
The timeline presents a left-to-right sequence of time along the top with a sequence of
color-coded artistic movements along the bottom to help break up and categorize the
sub-movements and pieces of art contained within. The background color of the timeline
corresponds to the color of the movement each part is contained within along the
bottom.

Analysis

Closure
Though there are no bordered panels to separate the images, there is enough space
between the images to prompt the viewer to fill in what may have been happening in the

Becky Kelly

Timeline Analysis

Zuelt 11:00

art world between different pieces and how movements blend and grow from one
another. These small-scale shifts set the pace for how quickly the timeline passes from
one artistic movement to another. One could view these small shifts between each
image as subject-to-subject transitions and the the larger shifts between each
movement or sub-movement as scene-to-scene transitions. Scott McCloud states that
the former take us1subject-to-subject while staying within a scene or idea, while the
latter scene-to-scene transport us across significant distances of time and
space.2 Keeping McCloud's terms and definitions in mind, one could interpret each
image as a different subject in the scene or idea of its movements, while the
movements each represent different ideas or scenes that were often separated by time
and space in the real world even though they are represented side-by-side in this
timeline.
However, because there are no bordered panels, the flow of information is somewhat
difficult to ascertain. There is no set left-to-right or up-and-down flow to the images and
their corresponding dates in the timeline other than approximate placement by the time
period of their movements. The images are placed in the timeline based on a general
time period3. Within each time period, the images are placed wherever they fit. Because
of this lack of organization, it is possible to move in any direction to another image
without guidance unless one scours the time period to move chronologically, which
often ends up going in many different directions throughout the entirety of the timeline.

1The readers, viewers, or audience; read as such hereafter when McCloud is

being quoted
2McCloud, 71

Becky Kelly

Timeline Analysis

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3The time each movement existed in original practice

This confusion in direction is frustrating because, as McCloud states, We assume as
readers that we will know what order to read panels in, but arranging those panels is
so complex, in fact, that even seasoned pros will sometimes blow it. 4 McCloud is
saying that layout of information is difficult, and anyone can mess it up. There comes a
point, however, where most everyone can recognized that chronological information
could and should be laid out in a pattern that shows the order in which events 5 happen.

Word/Picture Relationship
The images in this timeline take up far more space than the words, however, both offer
very important information for understanding the flow of art throughout history. To this
end, neither images nor words are more important than the other as both assist the
viewer in understanding the topic. There are a couple different types of relationships the
words and images have with each other in this timeline. McCloud explains many
different possible relationships between words and pictures in his book. The two that
seem to apply to this timeline are additive and interdependent combinations.
McCloud defines the additive combination of words and pictures as those where
words amplify or elaborate on an image or vice versa. 6This describes the relationship
between the images of the artwork and their captions. The captions add information
about the origins of each piece of artwork such as the artist and year. In no way do the
captions change the imagery, but they do give a better understanding of how the artists

4McCloud, 86
5Such as the creation of a piece of art

Becky Kelly

Timeline Analysis

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6McCloud, 154
fit into different movements, and where in the lifespan of each movement the pieces
were created.
The short descriptions of the movements qualify more so as having an interdependent
relationship with the images. An interdependent combination, as McCloud defines it, is
where words and pictures go hand in hand to convey an idea that neither could
convey alone.7 In this way, the descriptions of the movements and the images work
together to
show and tell the viewer what exemplifies each movement.

Big Triangle
McCloud, in his book, states that all images fall somewhere inside a triangle, which has
its vertices labeled as realistic, iconic, and picture plane. Images of real things, such as
photographs are nearest to the realistic vertex, simplified images that represent real
things are nearest to the iconic vertex, and images that are more distorted are nearest
the picture plane vertex. This
timeline depicts multiple works of
art throughout history. While the
works of art themselves fall all over
in the big triangle, the actual
images chosen for the timeline all
fall at the realistic vertex as they
are photographs of the art. Other

Becky Kelly

Timeline Analysis

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7McCloud, 155
than the photographs of the art, there are no other images presented in the timeline.

Evaluation
Closure
While Historia Timelines did well in separating their information out into different
movements, or scenes, the overall confusion of direction between the images, or
subjects, made the timeline difficult to decipher. Even though I agree with making
people think a bit when viewing information, the level of thinking that is going into how to
read this fairly straight-forward information is off-putting. I would prefer that most
thought go into the movement and relationship between movements and the styles
therein. The information itself is what I feel one should ponder, not how to gather the
information.

Word/Picture Relationship
The word and images used for this timeline work well together to provide context and
examples of principles and ideas present in the many movements in the history of art. I
do feel that the images overpower the words a bit as they take up far more space on the
timeline. The size constraints on the timeline would very much so make it difficult for
Historia Timelines' designers to keep all of the example images and provide more
written information, so, all things considered, they did a fairly good job of including as
much information as possible in the space available.

Big Triangle

Becky Kelly

Timeline Analysis

Zuelt 11:00

Since the only images used in the tiemline were photographs, there is very little use of
the Big Triangle.8 An infographic of this topic might prove more conducive to variation in
location on the Big Triangle as one could include a simple drawing done in the styles of
the different movements.
8That is, unless one takes the art itself into consideration, as it represents
many subjects, ideas, styles, and concepts.