Starting from the wave normal tracing treatment in the Savart polariscope that relates the Jones matrix to its transmission performance,this paper establishes a simple and effective model for the Jones matrix at an arbitrary inci-dence in the spatial domain.Analytical expressions of all the matrix components are determined with the consideration of all the main impact factors.This model needs only a few parameters hence it is convenient to be employed to evaluate the propagation performance of any birefringent optical system.The simulated results obtained with it demonstrate that this model gives a precise representation of the characteristic of light propagation in the Savart polariscope.This would provide useful suggestions for the design,calibration,and performance improvement of any other birefringent polarisation element and optical system.