Compendium of documents for supporting a research project on the pictorial art Fidel Micó Artist Address: Villoldo, entre Kessell y María Auxiliadora, edificio 10, apartamento 5, Vibora Park, Municipio Arroyo Naranjo, Havana, Cuba. Phone: 53-7-647-7429 and 53-7-05284-5675. Abstract Research projects on Art History use to be highly expensive, exhaustive, slow, and sometimes disappointing. As a consequence, careers of most relevant artists start and finish without being noticed, in absence of critical assessments that contribute to improve it. This compendium of documents is primarily intended to help serious researchers and writers find an appropriate standard to ask for regular updates to artists during their careers. The document is structured as a traditional publication, but as a sample of resources that could be useful in research projects. A comprehensive check list for painting evaluation, a sample of spontaneous assessments, and a set of plates are offered in this compendium as the raw material for future development of investigation on the pictorial art. My aim in this document is to open discussions to explore reasonable communication channels between painters and researchers without excluding non-academic opinions that could enrich debates on the contextualization of every artwork, and prevent awful and disappointing silence regions of the art world. Comprehensive check list for critical assessment of paintings Visual impact 1. What is your perception during the first 5 seconds? 2. Does this artwork deserve a deeper study? 3. What is the influence of the following factors?  Arrangement of light and shadow.  Subject.  Lines.  Forms.  Color. Visual pathway 4. Is the focus placed according to a relationship with lines and forms? 5. Is the sight guided to the focus? 6. Is there an interesting visual pathway? 7. Are there lines and forms guiding the sight to the frame or outside of the painting? Subject 8. Is it interesting? 9. What is the dominant feeling? 10. Does the tonal scheme express the dominant feeling? 11. Are there exaggerations, repetitions, and imitations? 12. What correction would perform to obtain more advantageous conditions of light and environment? 13. Is there a suitable colour scheme? 14. Is the frame orientation pertinent for emphasizing the subject? Structure 15. Is there an interesting arrangement of lines? 16. Are elements placed on the focus? 17. Are there well-defined lines trending to generate a disturbing effect? 18. Is there enough separation between masses and forms to prevent confusion of identity? 19. Are there interesting contours of forms within groups? 20. Are necessary more defined forms for emphasizing volume representation? 21. Has unity been highlighted? Diversity 22. Is there diversity of lines, spacing, tone, and colour? 23. Are space compartments placed according to satisfactory relationships? Balance 24. Are there balances of lines, spacing, masses, tones, and colours? Tone 25. What is the dominant key? 26. Is the key pertinent? 27. Are there interesting relationships of light, half-tonne, shadow, and colour? Unity 28. Is there unity of subject? 29. Are tones wide and unified? 30. Are details simplified? 31. Has been harmony obtained by continuity or by repetition of lines, rhythms, and cohesion of forms, tones, and colours? Emotion 32. Is there an emotive reaction created by linear, tonal, and chromatic schemes? 33. Is there a relationship between the subject, and the emotive reaction? Virtuosity 34. Is there vitality? 35. Is there repose? 36. Is there infinity? Chiaroscuro From left to right and from right to left: 37. Are there warm or cold tones? 38. What colour combinations were used? 39. Do forms start from bright or form dark points? 40. Do forms reach maximum intensity? 41. Did the artist use colour variations during intensity's advance of every form? 42. Is there a logic development of light? 43. How much extensive are light runs? 44. Where are brightest and darkest elements? 45. Have brightest and darkest elements similar significance in every compartment? 46. What elements of each bright and dark part of the painting function by modulating light intensity? 47. What elements suggest development in-depth? 48. How was the third dimension introduced? 49. How much extensive are chiaroscuro runs? 50. Where chiaroscuro stelas vanish? Colour 51. What colours can be differentiated? 52. Are there chromatic contrasts? 53. Is there any glass prim? 54. Which are the extreme regions of colour? 55. What is the function of these extreme regions of colour?  Reference point.  Architectonic support.  Critical issue.  Scale.  Virtual existence. 56. What colours were used?  Violet.  Blue.  Yellow.  Orange.  Red. 57. Are there chromatic vibrations: sparkles from pure colours? 58. Are there detonating colours contributing to vitality by contrast? 59. What colours were used for animation of those that were softened? 60. What colours were used for highlighting forms instead of thickness imitations? 61. Is object's thickness represented by coloured plans? 62. Is there multiplicity of brush strokes by using the same colour? Purpose 63. Is there sincerity or changes such as transitions from chiaroscuro to colour from a compartment to the next one? 64. Are there perceptible changes of pictorial resources? Compartments 65. Is there continuity between compartments? 66. Are there projections of elements between compartments? 67. Is there continuity of tonality, shadow, light, decoration, and rhythm? Screens 68. Are there dark bodies over clear fields or the contrary? 69. Are these bodies pushed toward the foreground in search for the third dimension? 70. How were built screens alternating clear and dark regions from the background? 71. Is there monotony in the juxtaposition of screens? 72. Does the sight find the background immediately or it finds resistance in search for the third dimension? 73. Is the third dimension suggested or imitated? 74. How volume balance was made? 75. Which volumes are projected over plans containing other elements? Transitions 76. Is there atmospheric fluidity? 77. Do colours vanish? 78. Are there tones extended form objects? 79. Are lines subordinated to transitions? Light 80. Have clear and dark plans been brained? 81. Did the painter find vanishing of objects? 82. Is there false delineation? 83. Are there link points between foreground and background? 84. Where objects actually drawn or only those known details of objects? 85. Spherical and cylindrical contours are respected? Light-Colour 86. Is light represented by warm or by cold colours? 87. Is there chromatic discipline? 88. Where are transitions? 89. Are there Rubens' proportions (2/3 half-tonne and 1/3 light and shadow)? 90. Is present the Cézanne's postulate? "Interpret nature in terms of the cylinder, the sphere, the cone; put everything in perspective, so that each side of an object, of a plane, recedes toward a central point." 91. What colours are hierarchical (maximum, middle, and suggested)? 92. How does grey participate?  As a support.  In chromatic harmony.  As part of the colour composition.  As isolated pure tonnes.  As opposition to interference. Drawing 93. Are contours completely delineated? 94. Are forms subordinated to light and shadow? 95. What elements are dominant?  Chiaroscuro.  Colour.  Decoration. 96. Is there geometric definition of objects (sharp, spherical, cylindrical, etc.)? 97. Are objects convincing to the viewer? 98. Are there enough specific elements in the definition of every object? 99. Is there enough differentiation between objects? 100. Are similar objects systematically highlighted? Plates La roca del diablo. 95 x 130 cm, oil on canvas, 2000. "FMicó2000" lower left, unknown location. Festín de gaviotas. 95 x 130 cm, oil on canvas, 2000. "FMicó2000" lower right, unknown location. Otra oportunidad. 100 x 120 cm, oil on canvas. "FMicó 2003" lower right. Collection of the artist. El poder de la naturaleza. 100 x 150 cm, oil on canvas. "FMicó 2005" lower right. Private collection (USA). La cañada. 100 x 150 cm, oil on canvas. "FMicó" lower right. Signature was not included in the image, but the painter referred that was painted in 2005. Jorge M Sori Fine Art Gallery, Miami, USA. Higuereta en el bosque. 160 x 116 cm, oil on canvas. "FMicó 2006" lower right. Jorge M Sori Fine Art Gallery, Miami, USA. Cayendo la tarde. 100 x 130 cm, oil on canvas. "FMicó 2007" lower right. Jorge M Sori Fine Art Gallery, Miami, USA. Donde crecen los crujeyes. 85 x 116 cm, oil on canvas. "FMicó 2007" lower left. Jorge M Sori Fine Art Gallery, Miami, USA. Los senderos del bosque de la Habana No 1. 110 x 160 cm, oil on canvas, "FMico 2008" lower left. Jorge M Sori Fine Art Gallery, Miami, USA. La despedida en La Moca. 116 x 160 cm, oil on canvas. "FMicó 2008" lower right. Private collection (Russia). Sample of critical assessments "His work is like a window that opens to a fantastic world where the colours and shapes of the landscapes, created by him, show us unknown regions. He is an artist of soft colour, who avoids sharp contrast. His preference is to go into the universe itself, where each of his paintings transcends complete serenity. In this way, he achieves a magical nature, capable of transporting us to landscape latitudes never before ravelled by other artists. One of the main themes of his artwork is landscapes in which he combines a wide array of colours which gives his paintings movement in each stroke. A good example of this is Paisaje VII. The beauty of this work frames itself in a realism which delights and involves the viewer with each step of his strokes. This creates an impressive colourfulness that transports the mind to unknown latitudes inside this tropical landscape." Jorge M. Sorí. Jorge M Sori Fine Art Gallery, Miami, USA. "I cannot put into words how incredible they are." The Art Room, Telford, UK. "A river flowing on a highly fractured land, falling through an irregular wall of sharp rocks seemed to be the subject of the painting "El salto de la yagruma" when Micó finished it in 2010. Coherence between the attention center, shapes, and lines guided the viewer to the background through a parabolic contour formed by the waterfall's edge and the river's margin, but the motif seemed to be frozen in a closed space restricted by the dense green wall of the forest. The artist intended an innovative pictorial solution in 2013, as a tribute to Bonnard's heritage, by building an in-depth three dimensional arrangement of elements that released the background pressure toward the viewer, which added gravity, levitation, and movement to the painting. Bonnard each time resolved space problems of landscape paintings in a different way. Dark green stones on the left foreground are checked patterns used as decorative elements that interrupt the space while bound it together. Reflection of compact vegetation on the river's surface suggests the interest of the artist at conveying the relationship between real and illusory space. Decoding the color language that is almost ubiquitous in every small detail of his painting is a challenging task. Life rising between intricate spaces that are just well taken up by multiform living organisms in the painting "Sunset at the streamlet", reveals a conviction on the existence of opportunities, hopes, and enough light for every being (see the web site The Art Room). Plenty of colored details, this painting is a provocative invitation to look for mistakes, and drawing errors, but the results will always be an image floating on the visual brain cortex of the viewer for weeks. "Transpiration" and "La despedida en la Moca" are some of many paintings that have put in test his resources, persistence, sensibility, technique, and expression capacity of universal concepts. His tropical landscapes are access pathways to the ideal of human perfection, and encourage people who are indifferent to the arts into becoming art lovers. There is more than one movement in his paintings. In the first pathway, the viewer eye is directed to move through his compositions pointing to the area of emphasis, and after finding a visual rest, a second landscape is found in other area of the painting. This cycle may repeat several times, depending on the observer experience and quickness of perception." José A. Buxadó, MSc., Havana, Cuba. "Detailed vegetation, sunsets and rivers are shaped with impeccable technique. Fidel is indeed, a master of landscapes." Marjorie Pravden Cuba Gallery of Fine Cuban Art, Melbourne, USA. References 1. Cennino Cennini. Il libro dell'arte. 1437, Firenze, Felice Le Monnier Editore, 1859. 2. Leonardo Da Vinci. Trattato della pittura. 1494. Imprenta Real de Madrid, 1784. 3. Giorgio Vasari. Le vite de' più eccellenti architetti, pittori, et scultori italiani. Firenze, Lorenzo Torrentino Edizione, 1550. 4. Juan de Arfe. De varia commensuración para la esculptura y architectura. Sevilla, 1586. 5. Francisco Pacheco del Río. Arte de la pintura, su antigüedad y grandeza. Sevilla. 1599, 1649. 6. Gaspar Gutiérrez de los Ríos. Noticia general para la estimación de las Artes. Madrid, 1600. 7. Erle Lora. Cézanne's composition: analysis of his form with diagrams and photographs of his motifs. University of California Press, 2006.