A deeper understanding of artworks and their meaning – regardless of period or style – requires a careful identification & analysis of its formal and stylistic components, as well as of the materials and techniques of which it is made. Shape, colour, technicality and materiality determine meanings and messages of any given artwork, constituting "the visual language" which should be learned, just as one is taught to read and decipher written texts. Hence, the assignment shall introduce students to the distinctive "language of art" developing their professional skills of methodical observation & analysis of artworks in their basic components – line, pattern, colour, space, composition, perspective, symbols and gestures. We shall also become acquainted with major techniques & media, whether of European and non-European arts – Islamic, Persian, Far-Asian – and with artworks of Israeli creators.