7KH-RXUQDORI(GXFDWLRQ&XOWXUHDQG6RFLHW\ʋB 489

The Analysis
of the Visual Image:
Historical Approach
from the Teaching
of the Plastic Arts
Leandro Ernesto Prado Soriano
Department of Theoretical Studies of the Visual Arts, Faculty of Visual Arts
University of the Arts of Cuba
Calle 120 # 904 entre 9na y 23. Cubanacán. Playa, La Habana, Cuba
E-mail address: lprado@isa.cult.cu
ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5424-1016

Joachim Nowak
Theological Institute in Spišska Kapitula
Catholic University in 5uåomberok
Spišská Kapitula 12, 053 04 Spišské Podhradie, Slovakia
E-mail address: dr.joachimnowak@gmail.com
ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7892-1016

Andrea Konova
Department of Romance and German Studies, Faculty of Arts
Constantine the Philosopher University in Nitra
Štefánikova 67, 949 74 Nitra, Slovakia
E-mail address: andrea.konova@ukf.sk
ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0003-1501-2418

Svetlana Hubková
Theological Institute in Spišska Kapitula, Catholic University in Ruåomberok
Spišská Kapitula 12, 053 04 Spišské Podhradie, Slovakia
E-mail address: hubkova.svetlana82@gmail.com
ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8751-2011
490 Expression

ABSTRACT

Aim. In the article, a historical approach to the analysis of the visual image is made
in the way in which the didactic studies applied to the plastic arts in Latin America
have treated it, with emphasis on Cuba, Spain, Brazil and Argentina.
Methods. The methods used are historical-logical and document analysis.
Results. As a result, a historical-trend study of the analysis of the visual image is
offered during the last three centuries, a period in which it is possible to speak of a
thought and didactic related to the plastic arts in the region.
Conclusion. The trend historical study and the criticism carried out demonstrate
the need to base a method of analysis of the visual image that really responds to the pur-
pose and objectives of Primary Education.
Cognitive value. The analysis of the visual image is an essential component
of the didactics of plastic education that requires a renewal based on the knowledge
of its historical evolution and the contributions of science on art.
Keywords: analysis of the visual image, didactics, plastic arts, ¿ne arts, primary education

Introduction

In the article, a historical study is carried out on the analysis of the visual image
in the teaching-learning process of plastic arts in primary education. The journey
through the tradition of private didactics in Ibero-America took into account the fol-
lowing aspects: methods of analysis of the visual image used in the teaching-learning
process of plastic arts in primary education, pedagogical practices of teachers and
arts instructors in the teaching-learning process of the plastic arts, and the learning
of the analysis of the visual image in schoolchildren of primary education.
The processing of the historical bibliography, as well as the analysis of didactic
documents and the interviews with teachers and former school graduates of primary
education at different times, allowed identi¿cation of three stages in the evolution and
development of the didactics of plastic arts, with emphasis in visual image analysis.
The identi¿ed stages are:
í First stage: from the 1th century to 1960. 2riented towards practical, academic, repro-
ductive and geometrising purposes;
í Second stage: from 1961 to 1975. Focused on drawing, oriented towards sensory educa-
tion, free creation and methodological eclecticism;
í Third stage: from 1976 to 2022. 2f standardised appreciation, diversi¿cation of trends
and ¿rst signs of analysis of the visual image.

2nce the stages have been identi¿ed, we proceed to the characterisation of the anal-
ysis of the visual image in each of them, the identi¿cation of its regularities, and
The -ournal of Education Culture and Society ʋ1B2024 491

the determination of its historical trends in the teaching-learning of plastic arts

in primary education.

First Stage: From the 18th Century to 1960.

Oriented Towards Practical, Academic,
Reproductive and Geometrising Purposes
The teaching of plastic arts in primary education (elementary school), is developed
in this ¿rst stage ³under the common name of drawing. By drawing, historically speaking
(…) we have to understand both the technical-utilitarian aspect — incarnated in line-
ar drawing — as well as the artistic one. (…)” (Cabrera, 2017, p. 103) The teaching
of drawing during the 1th and 19th centuries was characterised by being: pragmatic,
that is, oriented towards practical purposes, academic, constrained to copy, imitation and
reproduction, alien to the world of children (Cabrera, 2017) and with a “geometrising
tendency” (Cabrera, 2017, p. 126, footnote).
In the historical approaches to the didactics of the plastic arts during this ¿rst stage, no
evidence of any analytical exercise is left. Although the copies, imitations and reproduc-
tions demanded the systematic application of observation, and supposed the comparison
between the original and the copy, both were methods that were legitimised in humanistic
research, but that were applied intuitively, imitatively, and empirically by teachers, who
basically followed the guidelines of art teachers in academies and schools of arts and crafts,
since they were not contextualised and systematised the methods referred to in a particular
pedagogical-didactic body.
In relation to the pedagogical practices of drawing teachers during the teaching-learning
process of plastic arts in primary education, -osé de la Luz y Caballero abounds:
In the ¿rst semester they dedicate themselves to the relief and shading of works of art, such
as houses, churches, vessels, etc. In the second they copy good drawings of landscapes,
Àowers, with the idea of familiarising themselves with the style of the best masters. (Luz,
1952, as cited in Cabrera, 2017, p. 109)

Regarding the learning of the analysis of the visual image in students of primary education
during the ¿rst stage, it can be inferred that it was intuitive, elementary, reproductive and
limited to the veri¿cation of the quality of the copy and imitation, as it results from the ob-
servation and comparison, the methods used empirically in elementary schools of the time.
As a summary, it can be considered that during the ¿rst stage:
í A theoretical-methodological body of the didactics of plastic arts had not yet been formed,
which had an impact on the teaching-learning process of this artistic manifestation in pri-
mary education, by determining the inclusion of linear and natural drawing as content
of the geometry, fundamentally, given by the practical purpose of its teaching, academi-
492 Expression

cism, the limitation to copying, imitation and reproduction, its distancing from the world
of children and the geometric tendency;
í Among the methods of analysis of the visual image used in the teaching-learning process
of plastic arts in primary education during the ¿rst stage, observation and comparison
were identi¿ed;
í The pedagogical practices of teachers during the teaching-learning process of plastic arts
in primary education can be considered intuitive, imitative and empirical;
í The learning of the analysis of the visual image in schoolchildren of primary education,
it can be inferred that it was elementary, reproductive and limited to the veri¿cation
of the quality of the copy and imitation.

2nce the insuf¿ciencies and potentialities of private didactics have been identi¿ed and
explained during its ¿rst stage, the second stage of this historical-trend study begins.

Second Stage: From 1960 to 1975.

Focused on Drawing, and Oriented Towards
Sensory Education, Free Creation
and Methodological Eclecticism
The teaching of plastic arts in elementary school during the 20th century was
characterised by being centred on drawing, oriented towards sensory education and
pragmatism —generally practical purposes—, due to its mimetic spirit, and meth-
odological eclecticism (Cabrera, 2017), while maintaining during the ¿rst decades
“the old geometrising tendency” (Cabrera, 2017, p. 126, footnote), “as if the nine-
teenth-century tradition were maintained” (Cabrera, 2017, p. 111).
Regarding the methods of analysis of the visual image used in the teaching and
learning of plastic arts in primary education, the plastic arts plan speci¿ed that work
would be done to develop the observation of formal characteristics in the surround-
ing world, for which the system of constant questions would be used, with a view
to stimulating the capacity for observation (CNC-MINED, 1970).
Another transcendental solution to confront the shortcomings of the teaching staff
responsible for the teaching-learning of the plastic arts, was the edition of the book
Ver, hacer y apreciar las Artes Plásticas [See, do and appreciate the plastic arts],
composed by Marta Elena -ubrtas and 2scar Morrixa (1976). The exercises in this
book “meet the condition of not requiring a direct judgment from the teacher regard-
ing its aesthetic quality, because the most important thing is not the immediate result
of the realisation itself, but rather the development of his creative ability as a means
“expression.” (CNC-MINED, 1970, para. 25)
In relation to appreciation, the book by -ubrtas and Morrixa states that it is
made up of “a series of questions aimed at motivating observation with a direct
The -ournal of Education Culture and Society ʋ1B2024 493

use of the plastic aspect” (CNC-MINED, 1970, para. 26). This shows that, from
the methodological point of view, even when steps were taken towards the organisa-
tion of the appreciative activity, the old method of observation was not transcended,
now with a characteristic that would mark entry into the third stage: standardised
appreciation of the visual image. For this, the guide for the teacher was prepared,
which indicated “which exercises, which assessment questionnaire and which sheets
should be used in each thematic unit of the programmes” (CNC-MINED, 1970,
para. 27).
The pedagogical practices of the teachers during this second stage continued
to be tied to the often insuf¿ciently understood criteria of the specialists, to their
appreciation guides that were applied uncritically, and to the spontaneous activities
of free creation with the available materials, which evidenced the lack of commitment
of many teachers in relation to the Plastic Arts, resulting from their limited assessment
of the formative scope of this subject, as well as from the consideration of its hygienic
function within the teaching process.”. The lack of experience of our teachers in this
matter and the scarcity of materials imposed a basic limitation on us that conditioned
some of the characteristics of the plan” (CNC-MINED, 1970, para. 36).
As a consequence of the pedagogical practices, the learning of the analysis
of the visual image in students of primary education during the second stage was
basically limited to the free and spontaneous creation, which emphasised the ex-
pression of the affective states of the student, and whose appropriation transcended
more for the ludic component of the activity, than for its formative incidence, which
corresponds to the aforementioned vision of the plastic arts as a basically hygienic
matter within the pedagogical process.
As a summary, it can be considered that during the second stage:
í A methodological body of the didactics of plastic arts is built, still focused on drawing,
oriented towards free creation, sensory education and pragmatism, and characterised
by its mimetic spirit and methodological eclecticism;
í Among the methods of analysis of the visual image used in the teaching-learning
process of Plastic Arts in Primary Education during the stage, observation based
on creation predominated.

The pedagogical practices of the teachers during the teaching-learning process

of the Plastic Arts in Primary Education, were conditioned by the documents.
Methodological side panels, but they still showed insuf¿cient cultural, techni-
cal-artistic and didactic preparation.
The learning of visual image analysis in Primary School students was intuitive,
elemental, spontaneous and reduced to free creation and playful activity.
Identi¿ed and explained the insuf¿ciencies and potentialities of the particular
didactics during its second stage, we enter the third stage of the historical-trend study.
494 Expression

Third Stage: From 1976 to 2022.

Of Standardised Appreciation,
Diversification of Trends and First Signs
of Analysis of The Visual Image
Although the de¿nition of plastic education is a contribution from the end of the pre-
vious stage, the third stage has begun with reference to it, as it determines many
of the dominant didactic ideas since then. In 1974, the Argentine pedagogue Dora M.
Acerete wrote her book titled Objetivos y didáctica de la educación plástica [Objective
and didactics of plastic education]. guide for the undergraduate teacher, where she
argued that she would use the name plastic education for the subject called drawing
until then, because that name did not cover all the activities that the children carried
out, which included modeling, building, gluing, cutting, and draw (Cabrera, 199).
In Cuba the denomination is adopted, and from this moment on, a theoretical and
methodological didactic body is generated, directed to plastic education teachers, fun-
damentally, but also to Plastic Arts Instructors. In this sense, it is opportune to mention
that the didactic body of Cuban production was consolidated from the work developed
by specialists such as Rafaela Chacón Nardi, Ramón Cabrera and Ligia Ruiz Espín,
among others. Subsequently, towards the second decade of the 21st century, there
was a split between the followers of the national didactic tradition, generally belong-
ing to the Ministry of Education and the System of Houses of Culture, and those
who, headed by Ramón Cabrera from the Faculty of Arts Visuals from the University
of the Arts, have brought national thought into dialogue with numerous universal
tendencies, including the triangular proposal, systematised by the Brazilian Ana Mae
Barbosa, in the teaching-learning of the Plastic Arts.
Since 2004, plastic arts instructors have been incorporated into Cuban schools, who
have the basic technical-artistic preparation, essential for the development of creative
and appreciative processes in school. However, their actions in relation to appreciation
and analysis generally remain tied to the observation guides or systems of questions,
orientations and activities included in the basic texts, such as Ver, hacer y apreciar las
Artes Plásticas by -ubrías and Morrixa (1976), Apreciación de las artes visuales [Ap-
preciation of the visual arts] by Cabrera (197), Fundamentos de la forma [Fundamen-
tals of form], by Morrixa (192), Metodología de la enseñanza de las Artes Plásticas
[Methodology of the teaching of plastic arts] by Cabrera (199), Metodología de la
Educación Plástica en la edad infantil [Methodology of plastic education in childhood]
by Ruiz Espín, et al. (1991), Indagaciones sobre arte y educación [Inquiries on art
and education] by Cabrera (2010), Por los Caminos del Arte: un acercamiento a sus
manifestaciones en Cuba [Along the paths of art: An approach to its manifestations
in Cuba], by Paula M. Sánchez et al. (2013), among others, generally distant from
current didactic thinking.
The -ournal of Education Culture and Society ʋ1B2024 495

Among the methods of analysis of the visual image that are applied during this third
stage are the appreciation guide by Ligia Ruiz Espín (197), the appreciation activities
proposed by Ramón Cabrera (197), visual perception and the analysis of relationships
in the system-form, by Morrixa (192), the steps and questionnaires for observation,
and the guide for the evaluation of the results of creation by the teacher, postulated
by Ruiz Espín et al. (1991), the visual analysis of a plastic work with a more integral
sense, proposed by María del Carmen Rumbaut -oaquín <ánes (2004), the expressive
means to determine, indicated by Sánchez et al. (2013), the background and founda-
tions of the appreciation, and the formal analysis according to Edilia Perdomo, et al.
(2013), the reading of the image proposed by Barbosa (2012) and Cabrera (2017), and
the comparison, also based on Cabrera (2017).
The appreciation guide, by Ligia Ruiz Espín (197), includes the approaches
to the author and the addressee, the formal aspects and the content of the work,
and the information that it provides about the time and the author. Some intentions
of dialogue with culture can be appreciated in this primitive form of analysis, which
are reÀected in the study offered as a sample by the author, about the work Interior
with columns, by Amelia Peláez del Casal, when referring, in a very elementary way:
“What does it say? (…) the capital (typical architectural element of the time) (…)
a wicker chair, a piece of furniture that was widely used at the time (…)” (Ruíz Espín,
197, p. 39). In a general sense, this guide reveals the limitations of the didactic
thought of the time, which in turn reÀects, to some extent, the state of theoretical
studies of plastic arts.
The appreciation activities of Ramón Cabrera (197) fundamentally ponder the com-
parative and observation methods, bases of the author’s didactic thought. Questions that
aim to identify the radical differences that are observed between two axes (Cabrera,
197), to compare the image of the work La carreta [The road], by Federico Amérigo,
with the reality that the peasant lived, and the causes of the treatment given to that
reality in the work (Cabrera, 197), or the similarities and differences that can be
established between architecture and painting (Cabrera, 197), between many others
reveal an advanced ideology for its time, but limited in the present if it is intended
to legitimise only the comparison as a didactic principle, essentially related to visual-
isation and creative practice (Cabrera, 2017).
Also found in the book Apreciación de las artes visuales by Cabrera (197), are
questions that point to other methods of analysis of the visual image, such as socio-
logical, historical, and structural-functional, without arguing them didactically. Among
these issues, there are those that are oriented towards the identi¿cation and assessment
of the transformations that the Cuban Revolution has carried out in the urban elements
of cities (Cabrera, 197), the function that the design has ful¿lled graphics in revo-
lutionary processes (Cabrera, 197), or the treatment of the plastic elements that are
observed in the painting of artists such as Carlos Enríquez, Eduardo Abela or Arístides
Fernández (Cabrera, 197).
496 Expression

The method of analysis of system-form relationships, proposed by Morrixa (192),

conceives the work of art as a system (=avatsky as cited in Morrixa, 192), and is
based, at least in its intention, on the dialectical relations of content and form, im-
manent to the plastic work. Morrixa’s method, which “does not intend more than
to suggest a certain ordering in the search” (192, p. 71), includes three stages that are
barely interrelated: location of the work, formal analysis, and conclusion-assessment.
Morrixa brieÀy mentions the function-meaning-assessment unit. It is prudent to point
out that the method of system-form relationships is not didactically based, but it is
included in this study due to its wide use in the training of Art Instructors, and in the
teaching-learning of Plastic Arts in Primary Education.
Morrixa socio-historically and biographically contextualises the work of art in its
creation contexts, but does not take into account the role of the recipient, nor the in-
cidence of decoding contexts in updating meanings and senses. In the stage of formal
analysis, he does not take into account the intratextual functionality of the structures,
and does not establish a pragmatic dialogue with the cultures and contexts of creation,
in such a way that the approaches of the ¿rst stage of analysis are justi¿ed. The for-
mal study is based, fundamentally, on the identi¿cation of the structural and thematic
features, separately, and the method concludes with the assessment of the work, based
on its degree of contemporaneity, social value of the content, and aesthetic quality,
without explaining the relationships of the conclusion-assessment stage with those
of location and analysis of the work, nor the appreciation and analysis with the creative
processes of the artists or schoolchildren.
Ruiz Espín et al. (1991) address the interrelation and interaction between the arts,
their incidence in the development and enrichment of the different manifestations,
and the relationship between materials, which refers to the current conceptions about
intertextuality and the semiotic transposition of languages, without suf¿ciently arguing
the ways of educating schoolchildren for the determination (identi¿cation) and aware-
ness of these relationships and incidences.
On the other hand, they expose valuable didactic ideas about observation as an in-
tellectual ability “rector of all appreciation” (Ruiz Espín et al., 1991, p. 11), offer
methodological recommendations, propose six “levels of development that the ob-
servation activity can reach” (p. 122), as well as a series of “general steps that
the student must follow to carry out the observation” (p. 123), and detail the different
aspects to be taken into account for an adequate observation: place where it is found,
period and style, author, classi¿cation, elements of the plastic arts (shape, area or
size, colour, texture and lines), principles of design (proportion, balance, rhythm
or emphasis, perspective), material from which it is made (technique), and general
assessment of the work (Ruiz Espín et al., 1991).
This proposal, indebted to the previous one elaborated by Ruiz Espín (197), and
superior to that one and others for transcending the age limits of early childhood,
shares the limitations of the theoretical-methodological thought of didactics at the time,
The -ournal of Education Culture and Society ʋ1B2024 497

by limiting itself to the identi¿cation and uncritical enumeration of formal features or

characteristics, without establishing relationships between the structure of the work
and the content, nor establishing a systematic dialogue with the culture (time, style,
author), or the contexts of appreciation. These authors do not suf¿ciently explain
the relationship between observation and creative artistic processes.
Ruiz Espín et al. (1991) also propose to teachers the development of “well-struc-
tured” (p. 161) assessment questionnaires, and offer a simple example. In addition
to observation, in their Metodología de la Educación Plástica en la edad infantil,
the authors operate with the ability of comparison, “whether between objects,
phenomena, etc., to establish similarities and differences.” (Ruiz Espín et al.,
1991, p. 171)
In relation to the assessment of the works created by schoolchildren, Ruiz Espín
et al. (1991) offer a series of ¿ve indices addressed to the teacher, which include
compliance with the class objective, completion, knowledge and use of materials and
utensils, and cleaning, for the evaluation, by the teacher, of the formal and semantic
values present in the work of schoolchildren. Likewise, they offer guidelines such as:
the organisation of the works within the visual plane, the sense of unity, the rhyth-
mic and balanced use of plastic elements, the function of colour, line and texture,
the form-content relationship, expression of feelings, etc. (Ruiz Espín et al., 1991).
These guidelines are not based on the development of the appreciative and creative
processes of the schoolchildren, but rather as criteria for hetero-evaluation, since their
appropriation is not contemplated in a way that contributes to plastic education and
the integral development of the personality, to At the same time, it stimulates develop-
ing forms of learning evaluation, such as self-evaluation and co-evaluation of Primary
School students.
At the Regional Conference on Art Education and Creativity in Latin America and
the Caribbean (Uberaba, Brazil, October 16-19, 2001), Barbosa, from the University
of Sao Paulo, presented her experience entitled Arte/educación en Brasil: hagamos
educadores del arte [Art/education in brazil: let’s become art educators]. In this doc-
ument, Ella Barbosa makes references to the relationship of “artistic production with
analysis, historical information and contextualisation” (Barbosa in UNESCO, 2003,
p. 21). According to the Brazilian author:
The reading of visual discourse, which is not only summarised in the analysis of shape,
colour, line, volume, balance, movement, rhythm, but is mainly focused on the signi¿cance
that these attributes in different contexts give to the image is an imperative of contemporary
times. (p. 23)

She also mentions the relationship between the modes and contexts of reception,
and their incidence on the meaning of the plastic work and the visual image, the active
role of the receiver, among other aspects (p. 23). However, she, Barbosa does not offer
or suggest any speci¿c method for the analysis of the visual image.
498 Expression

The visual analysis of a plastic work with a more comprehensive sense, pro-
posed by Rumbaut <ánes (2004), includes, in accordance with the generalities
for Primary Education, the “identi¿cation of the work, author and title” (p. 5),
as well as:
(…) the comparison (similarities and differences) of two or three works on the same theme,
(…) by different authors, reÀecting different eras and forms of expression, represented
with different techniques and materials make them reÀect on these aspects, arguing their
assessments. (p. 5)

In the general objectives of the ¿fth grade, is included: “Sharpen the development
of observation as a necessity to achieve a greater understanding, appreciation and
enjoyment that leads to the appreciation of the world of visual images that surrounds
it.” (Rumbaut <ánes, 2004, p. 36) In the general methodological guidelines of this
programme, emphasis is placed on what refers to observation. References are also
made to the textual and extratextual functionality of the line as a “fundamental ele-
ment of the drawings” (p. 40), the analysis of “chromatic spaces” (p. 41), the search
for similar colours in the environment and its conscious application in creation,
the observation of sizes and proportions, and indicators of depth (contrasts of size,
warm and cold colours).
For the sixth grade it is suggested in the general methodological guidelines:
“the visual analysis of a plastic work with a more comprehensive sense” (Rum-
baut <ánes, 2004, p. 51), with emphasis on the analysis of the chromatic circle,
of the content, of certain intertextual relationships (psychological and sociological),
structural descriptive of “different visual components present in the work” (p. 56),
comparative-evaluative and, of course, observation.
This programme emphasises the use of observation guides, the creation of con-
ditions and the importance of analysis. In a general sense, the look at the visual
analysis offered by Rumbaut and <ánes (2004), does not establish enough links
between the plastic work and the collective culture and of each school, it does
not include the referent in the signi¿cant visual units, and it reduces the structural
functionality to the relations between the content and the form of the work. In this
sense, the programmes refer to the classic document Ver, hacer y apreciar las Artes
Plásticas, by -ubrías and Morrixa (1976), which shows their dependence on these
theoretical and methodological ideas already enriched by the theoretical studies
of the plastic arts.
Lucía GouvČa Pimentel (2009), from the Federal University of Minas Gerais, Bra-
zil, noted in her “Metodología de la ensexanza de arte: algunos puntos para debatir”
[Art teaching methodology: Some points to debate], that: “Artistic production, its
analysis and enjoyment require constant speculation” (p. 33), which evidences a nec-
essary and essentially phenomenological af¿liation of the didactics of plastic arts,
as far as analysis, value appreciation and visual creation are concerned. The author
The -ournal of Education Culture and Society ʋ1B2024 499

does not offer any method of analysis that can help teachers or instructors of plastic
arts in the teaching-learning of this artistic manifestation.
At the same time, Aroa Mediero (2012), at the University of Valladolid, Spain,
wrote the thesis entitled New methodologies and innovative practices in the Plastics
classroom of the sixth year of Primary Education. In the document, Mediero cites
Objective 4 of Decree 40/2007, which establishes the primary education curriculum
in the autonomous community of Castilla and León, which requires: “Apply artistic
knowledge in the observation and analysis of situations and objects of everyday
reality and different manifestations of the world of art and culture to better understand
them and form one’s own taste.” (Autonomous Community of Castilla y León, 2007,
as cited in Mediero, 2012, p. 23)
Also related to this aspect is the analogy revealed by Mediero between Royal
Decree 1513/2006, which institutes the minimum teaching of Primary Education
in the Kingdom of Spain, and Decree 40/2007, which contextualises it. According
to Mediero, both documents guide the analysis and assessment of the communicative
intention of images in the media and information and communication technologies,
the analysis of the representative shapes of volumes on the plane, depending on the
point of view or the situation. in space, as well as the comparison between the forms
and the representation of space adopted in different areas or ¿elds (p. 25). It is
signi¿cant that, even with the aforementioned issues, Mediero does not offer or base
any method of analysis on her thesis, so that she contributes to complying with legal
regulations as far as plastic education is concerned.
On the other hand, although contextualised in Secondary Education, in Cuban
primary schools there is a document entitled Along the paths of art: An approach
to its manifestations in Cuba, by Sánchez et al. (2013), which distinguishes and
delimits the plastic and visual arts, offers the general classi¿cation into planimetric,
volumetric, spatial and kinetic, characterises “the most representative: painting,
graphics, sculpture and architecture” (p. 43), and identi¿es the expressive means
of visual language: “lines, colors, textures, values, areas and volume, as well as be-
tween principles or laws balance, rhythm and proportion” (p. 0), all these resources
necessary for “a formal analysis taking into account the elements and principles
studied” (p. 6). This formal analysis, like the observation and comparison referred
to by other authors, represents one of the most elementary and merely reproductive
stages of text analysis, enriched and surpassed decades ago by theoretical studies
about culture and plastic arts in particular.
The International University of La Rioja published a collection of articles written
by María Andueza Olmedo et al. (2016), which includes some notions of visual
rhetoric (pp. 190-191).
This collection also includes a chapter dedicated to the analysis of children’s
drawings (Andueza et al., 2016, pp. 265-20), where methodological tools are offered
for the “analysis of children’s drawings” (p. 264), and the “analysis of their plastic
500 Expression

codes” (p. 264), based on the uses of color, line, format and stroke, depending on the
age and level of development of the child. These tools, more formal than functional,
are mostly based on the assumptions of Rhoda Kellogg (1969) in her Analysing
Children’s Art.
Another methodological reference is that of the University of Extremadura (2016),
which in its Plan docente de la asignatura: Expresión Plástica y su Didáctica en
Infantil [Teaching plan for the subject plastic expression and its didactics in prima-
ry], Brief description of the content, emphasises: “The practical activities that will
train students for the analysis and synthesis of plastic and visual languages” (p. 3),
although It does not offer a method of analysis on which Plastic Arts teachers and
Instructors can develop their work.
In 2017, Cabrera published Educación Plástica y su enseñanza [Plastic education
and its teaching], “result of a critical review and an update of the note made up
of the text Methodology of plastic arts” (Cabrera, 2017, p. 7). In this document,
Cabrera states that: “The act of appreciating, always present in classes, increases
its complexity in the last two grades of primary education” (Cabrera, 2017, p. 34),
which corresponds to the intention of the present investigation, directed to the second
cycle of this education. The most immediate antecedent of the teaching-learning
of text analysis in plastic arts classes and workshops appears to be based as a didactic
principle in the aforementioned study by Cabrera (2017).
According to Cabrera, the unity between appreciation, comparison and visual
artistic creation in plastic education is a principle of particular didactics that must
be duly attended to by teachers and art instructors. This didactic principle refers
to the fact that appreciation, comparison and creation are manifested in the plastic
education of the school in close unity. Every act of appreciation is based on a com-
parison, more or less complex, of artistic or natural visual reality, and leads to visual
artistic creation. Likewise, any comparison leads to an appreciation, which is reversed
in visual creation. For its part, visual artistic creation results from an investigative
process based on comparison and appreciation of reality creatively internalised
by the subject. From this point of view, it is inappropriate to develop classes or
workshops that aim to achieve a visual creation, for example, without the analysis
and corresponding appreciation or reading of what is intended to represent precede it.
The unity between appreciation, comparison and visual artistic creation in plastic
education is based on the approach/proposal or triangular approach, systematised
by Barbosa (2012) and Ramón Cabrera (2017). The didactic relationships between
artistic making, reading works of art and contextualisation are explained in the
so-called triangular proposal, a pedagogical practice that results from the attention
provided by the Fine Arts teacher or instructor at the beginning of the unit between
appreciation, comparison and visual artistic creation.
Barbosa and Cabrera refer that artistic work or creation is based on the reading
of works of art for their technical, aesthetic and ideological appreciation, as well
The -ournal of Education Culture and Society ʋ1B2024 501

as their contextualisation, understood as the dialogue that must be fostered between

individual experiences or the experience of the subject, the artwork being read, and
the creative visual outcome of the process. According to these ideas, by establishing
contextual links with individual experience, with what is known or experienced,
with needs and interests, a functional and developing learning for the school child
is favoured.
In the texts by Barbosa (2012) and Cabrera (2017), in addition to reducing creation
by making visual art, and almost obviating the appreciative-evaluative production
of the schoolchild, a basic contradiction can be seen: while the Brazilian pedagogue
advocates a reading of the work of art, “as an act of giving meaning to what we see”
(Cabrera, 2017, p. 45), as the term reading is used in the semiotic, sociological or
pedagogical texts of authors such as Pierre Bourdieu (2002), Paulo Freire (199),
Lorenzo Vilches (1995), Umberto Eco (2007), Luis Camnitzer (19), <uri M.
Lotman (2004, 2014), and Taniuz Karam (2014), mostly systematised by Cabrera,
the Cuban author emphasises the old method of comparison, which together with
the visualisation “are at the very centre of any of the basic actions with images (in
doing, in reading and in contextualising as an indissoluble triad)” (Cabrera, 2017,
p. 45). According to Cabrera, “making see” and “see doing” were not possible “with-
out the existence of comparison (…) Comparisons based on similarities, differences,
and oppositions are enriching the visual/cultural knowledge of schoolchildren and
from them both the expressive action and the reader action with the images” (Cabrera,
2017, pp. 42-43).
As it has been possible to appreciate, although in the third stage some of the meth-
ods of analysis of the visual image have been didactically based, systematised
by the theories of art and theoretical studies about the Plastic Arts, there is still
much to be incorporated into the pedagogical practices of teachers and Instructors
of Plastic Arts, so that the formalist and behavioural positions are transcended in the
teaching-learning of this artistic manifestation.
Methods of artistic analysis such as sociological, psychological, biographical,
archaeological, functional stylistic, semiotic, among many others, are not yet sys-
tematised in the didactics of plastic arts, and even less have the relationships between
the methods of analysis been argued, analysis that can be incorporated into the con-
tent of workshops and classes, the remaining categories of Didactics, and the subjects
involved in the process.
In relation to the learning of the analysis of the visual image in students of primary
education, it can be af¿rmed that there has been an appropriation of the artistic and
aesthetic values of the plastic arts, although this appropriation is fundamentally repro-
ductive, mechanistic and formal, while the scholar does not fully perceive the scope
and importance of this learning for life. in the best of cases, still limited appreciations
and evaluations of works of art are achieved, and knowledge about the elements and
principles of design is reversed in the creative activity of schoolchildren.
502 Expression

As a summary, it can be considered that during the third stage:

í A theoretical-methodological body of the didactics of plastic arts is consolidated,
which responds to various pedagogical tendencies, focused on the creative activity
of the schoolchild — intentionally directed by the plastic arts instructor—, and oriented
towards increasing the activities of appreciation-assessment during the terminal grades
of primary education;
í Among the methods of analysis of the visual image used in the teaching-learning
process of plastic arts in primary education during the third stage, observation, com-
parison and formal (structural) analysis predominate, depending on the creation and
critical-evaluative appreciation;
í The pedagogical practices of teachers and arts instructors during the teaching-learning
process of plastic arts in primary education, in the third stage, are conditioned in Cuba
by the methodological incidence of the system of Houses of Culture, the develop-
ment of the particular didactics, and the methodological documents prepared jointly
by the Ministries of Education and Culture, but there is still insuf¿cient cultural, tech-
nical-artistic and didactic preparation;
í The learning of analysis — in primary school students, is more systematic, less sponta-
neous and oriented towards creation and critical-evaluative activity, although it is still
reproductive, formal, descriptive and not very functional for the school’s life.

The historical and critical study of the didactic treatment of the analysis
of the visual image in the didactics of plastic arts, reveals as essential regularities:
the emphasis on the creative activity of schoolchildren, the scarcity of didactically
argued analysis methods, the insuf¿cient theoretical preparation and methodology
of the teachers and instructors of plastic arts, the ludic character of the subject, and
its little functional learning for the life of the schoolchildren.
As a synthesis of the study carried out on the didactic treatment of the analysis
of the visual image in the didactics of plastic arts, the following historical trends
can be identi¿ed:
Of a meagre theoretical-methodological body of the didactics of plastic arts,
distanced from the world of children, which determined the inclusion of linear and
natural drawing, and conditioned the practical purpose of teaching, academicism,
the limitation to copying, imitation, reproduction and the geometrising tendency, it
passed to the conformation of a methodological body of the didactics of the plastic
arts, still focused on drawing, oriented towards free creation, sensory education and
pragmatism, and characterised by its mimetic spirit. and methodological eclecticism,
and from there it evolves towards a theoretical-methodological body that responds
to various pedagogical tendencies, more focused on the creative activity of the schol-
ar, and oriented towards increasing appreciation-assessment activities during the ¿nal
grades of primary education.
The -ournal of Education Culture and Society ʋ1B2024 503

Among the methods of analysis of the visual image used in the teaching-learning
process of the plastic arts, it is based on observation and comparison, with a regression
towards the predominance of observation based on creation, and from this progress
is made. Towards a relative methodological diversi¿cation, in which observation,
comparison and formal (structural) analysis predominate, based on creation and
critical-evaluative appreciation.
The pedagogical practices of the teachers and Instructors of plastic arts, start from
intuitive, imitative and empirical positions, advance to the subjection to the methodo-
logical documents, limited by the insuf¿cient cultural, technical-artistic and didactic
preparation, to advance towards a relative improvement, given by the incorporation
of the instructors of plastic arts to the primary schools, the methodological incidence
of the system of Houses of Culture, the development of the particular didactics, and
the methodological documents elaborated jointly by the Ministries of Education and
Culture, but it is still evident insuf¿cient cultural, technical-artistic and didactic
preparation of teachers and art instructors.
Learning to analyse the visual image in primary school students, which in the
beginning was elementary, reproductive and limited to verifying the quality of cop-
ying and imitation, maintains this elementary character, together with the spontane-
ity of free creation and playful activity, to evolve towards a more systematic, less
spontaneous learning, and oriented towards creation and critical-evaluative activity,
although still reproductive, formal, descriptive and not very functional.

Conclusions

By way of conclusion, it can be stated that the trending historical study and the crit-
icism carried out demonstrate the need to base a method of analysis of the visual image
that really responds to the purpose and objectives of primary education.
The critical systematisation of the historical antecedents of the analysis of the visual
image showed a theoretical de¿ciency in the didactics of plastic education, which
has only included observation, comparison and formal analysis among the methods
of analysis, sometimes based on creation and critical-evaluative appreciation, with-
out offering didactic foundations and methodological procedures for its application
in primary education.
The study carried out revealed the fundamental historical regularities and trends
in the teaching-learning of visual image analysis, appreciable in several pedagogical
systems and scienti¿c bodies developed in Latin America during the last three cen-
turies, with very slow evolution of didactic methods, always far behind the advances
of the theory of plastic arts and other sciences on art.
It is appropriate then to base this aspect of the content of the plastic arts from
the sciences that contribute to the particular didactics.
504 Expression

Acknowledgement

The paper was supported by the Cultural and Educational Grant Agency
(KEGA) of the Ministry of Education, Science, Research and Sports of the
Slovak Republic based on the project Electronic University Textbook of Spanish
Grammar n. 042UKF-4/2022.

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