The Research On Visual Metaphor Of Baroque Painting

Western paintings are not copying the nature and describing characters precisely, and we can often achieve the concepts and ideas of an era in a simple picture.With many great painters and profound paintings, Baroque Painting is significant and the common materials can be included in a certain system. This paper is trying to include these materials into the Visual Metaphor system which is defined as a way of thinking related to Conceptual Metaphor Theory. Visual subjects are capable of understanding and experiencing the invisible and elusive ontology by visual image. It is an inherent way to use visual metaphor and we can feel its importance in expression and communication from the original thinking to modern visual expression.The manifestation of Visual Metaphor in paintings is image. According to Rudolf Arnheim’s Visual Perception Theory, image is specific and abstract. Paintings are good at expressing abstract ideas by specific images,and the relationship between them is mapping which waits for our interpretation. We can start the interpretation with either perceptual stimulants such as line, space and color or the images of the painting. According to Lakoff s Conceptual Metaphor Theory, Visual Metaphor can be defined as a way of thinking which uses source domain to map target domain and we can understand that art is metaphor better by it.Secondly, it is apparent that Barque Painting has its specificity from the perspective of Visual Metaphor. Different from the past closed and separate space; the Baroque space is more open and changing because those painters chose the painterly style and Chiaroscuro. Besides,the painters tended to use their favorite colors Frequently and some even used "Four levels of brightness", which makes the color in Baroque Painting more poetic and lyric.Finally, we classify the images of Baroque Painting into visual symbols, living organisms, visual actions and painting behavior simply. In the interpretation of these types, the intention of painters, the social status and the extended connotation can be found. However, the interpretation of aperture, candlelight, gazing and smiling is always one kind of possibilities and we cannot restore each meaning of metaphors. Misunderstanding is unavoidable because of our different knowledge structure, artistic accomplishment and specific physiological mechanism. In art, This kind of misunderstanding can exist and it is wonderful.