First Art History Paper: Formal Analysis Project Overview: For this paper, you are providing a thor ...
First Art History Paper: Formal Analysis Project Overview: For this paper, you are providing a thorough formal analysis of two works. In the field of art history, a formal analysis is a tool used to further understand a work of art. There are many parts to a formal analysis, but for this paper, you will only focus on the visual description. By visually describing a work as specifically as possible you will find out decisions that were made regarding the work of art, such as why the artist decided to make something a certain color or a certain size or a certain shape. Often these distinctions can help us understand the culture and the characteristics of an artistic style these works represent and came out of. You are going to go beyond saying there are colors and state what they are and where they are. If you describe forms you are going to explain what their shapes are and if they are made-up of lines and if the lines are thick or thin, for example. You really want to think about it like this: your visual description is so almost photographically detailed and specific that whoever reads it knows what the work looks like and doesn't even need to see the work or an image of it. In order to do this, you will use specific art historical terms. First, go through the following list to get a sense of what the terms are. Second, visit each one of the websites listed after this list for further explanations of the terms (THIS IS IMPORTANT). For the description of your two works, I want you to use as many terms here as you can to help you be specific, detailed, and vivid. Terminology: -Composition (how are the parts of the work related to each other to create a whole) -Shape/Form (what shapes are created, what do they look like, where are like located within the work) -Material and Technique (what was used to make a work of art) -Line (vertical, horizontal. diagonal, curved, zigzag; (straight, curved, angular, flowing, horizontal, vertical, diagonal, contour, thick, thin, implied etc.) -Color (primary, secondary, mixed, complimentary, warm, cool, decorative, and its value and hue, saturation) -Texture (actual or implied) -Space (positive and negative; literal vs. illusionistic; depth, overlapping, kinds of perspective) -Mass (area that occupies space and has volume) -Volume (the dimensionality of the shape) -Perspective (is there any and what kind : linear or atmospheric) -Scale (size) -Background/Foreground/Midground (are they present and/or discernable) -Balance (symmetry) or Asymmetry -Dynamic Equilibrium (where the balance and placement of forms within the composition, and the relationship of the colors, all come together to create visual energy) -Rhythm (is there visual movement) -Light/Dark (level of highlight, contrast, shadow, brightness) -High/Low Relief (how deep a cut is made into a flat surface, the deeper the cut the higher the relief) Visual Description Websites: 1.https://human.libretexts.org/Bookshelves/Art/A_Wor...tlin_and_Gustlin)/01%3A_A_World_Perspective_of_Art_Appreciation/1.06%3A_What_Are_the_ Elements_of_Art_and_the_Principles_of_Art#:~:text=The%20principles%20of%20art%20are,% 2C%20lightening%2C%20as%20some%20examplesLinks to an external site.. https://mlpp.pressbooks.pub/encounterswiththeartsa... to an external site. https://www.getty.edu/education/teachers/building_... to an external site. and https://www.getty.edu/education/teachers/building_... to an external site. Picking the works: The two works MUST be either a painting and/or a sculpture and NEITHER work can go past the year 1300. They have to be from the two different categories listed below (one from Category I and one from Category II). Using the museum links you must remember that the two works MUST be from these different categories (one each): Category I: – Arts of Africa – BE SURE to scroll down to where it says FULL COLLECTION, and then to click on “Show More” at the bottom of the page - https://www.brooklynmuseum.org/opencollection/coll... to an external site.Links to an external site. -Egyptian Art - BE SURE to scroll down to where it says FULL COLLECTION, and then to click on “Show More” at the bottom of the page - https://www.brooklynmuseum.org/opencollection/coll... to an external site.Links to an external site.Links to an external site. . Please do this for every page. Again, NO coins, jewelry, metal, clothing or weapons. -Asian Art – Please scroll down and click on every page; if you click on 100 results per page, at the bottom of the screen, there are only TWO pages. Please NO coins, jewelry, urns, stupas, caskets, linga, or wheels. - https://www.metmuseum.org/exhibitions/objects?exhi... dfcf6bd&pkgids=241#!?offset=100&perPage=100Links to an external site.Links to an external site. -Islamic Art – Keep scrolling down - https://collections.dma.org/search/islamicLinks to an external site.Links to an external site.Links to an external site.Links to an external site. Category II: -Greek and Roman Art – Be sure to click on the images to see the collections, and then click on “VIEW ALL WORKS”.- https://www.mfa.org/collection/ancient-greece-and-... to an external site.Links to an external site.Links to an external site.Links to an external site. -Ancient Near Eastern Art - PLEASE look at ALL of the pages, which are listed by number at the bottom of the page. No ceremonial objects, cult objects, disks, tubs, filials, weapons or jewelry. https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search#!?... age=20&offset=0&pageSize=0&sortBy=relevance&sortOrder=asc&searchField=AllLinks to an external site.Links to an external site.Links to an external site. -Medieval Art – Be sure to keep scrolling down - https://www.clevelandart.org/art/collection/search... to an external site.Links to an external site.Links to an external site.Links to an external site. -Art of the Americas - You cannot pick a work past the year 1700 - Please click on each geographical location and see what the works in each section look like. They are all very different, so this is important to do. The “Contemporary Art” tab cannot be used - https://americanindian.si.edu/static/exhibitions/i... to an external site. Links to an external site. Links to an external site. Paper Format: Here is a very clear outline telling you what to do. Although I am writing it in outline form, remember that you are writing an essay so you should not have sections separated and numbered. You need a cover page with your name, the date, the name of the class, and the name of your paper. You should pick an interesting and fun title for your paper. It's something that goes beyond calling it “First museum paper” and instead should show the creativity you have. Every work of art has museum information whether it's from the museum label on the wall if you physically go, or from the website page if you use those links and do not physically go to the museum. All you need to do is copy and paste all the museum information and include it after the cover page. It doesn't matter how long it is because it is not included in your essay and is not a part of it. After this, you start your essay. You should have an introduction paragraph explaining what you were about to do but also briefly stating what the works are. You must remember this is not a research paper about a culture or a subject or anything online involving background information. This first paper is almost solely about you creating a visual description of the work. After the first couple paragraphs where you create an introduction paragraph to the whole essay and then follow that with a very brief paragraph simply stating what the first work is and why it was made, then you start your formal analysis on the first work. I recommend separating your ideas into paragraphs, meaning you'll have one paragraph talking about color and one paragraph talking about line and one paragraph talking about forms. Remember, the absolute goal is to logically lay out what something looks like (which, in your case, will be either a sculpture or a painting), and to be as specific as possible so your reader has a very clear idea of what it looks like. Following this you will do the same for the second work, with a paragraph explaining what it is and why it was made and then providing the visual description. The last part is a conclusion. You will find that in analyzing your works of art you will learn something new about them. In your conclusion you can share that...something you were surprised by or enjoyed, or you can explain why you decided to choose these two works to describe. That's all! *** To clarify, you do not need any Internet research or library research for this paper. Your paper will be fully scanned to see if you wrote it yourself or used AI or chatbot or any other tool like that, as well as being scanned to see if another student has written a paper about these works. Just do your own work and do your best. The ultimate goal is to find out what you think and to pull out of your head the wonderful ability you have to describe and discuss works of art. Submission Logistics: The paper must be: - Typed, - Double-spaced - 1-inch margins - 12-point font - Minimum of 4 FULL pages - It must be a doc or PDF (nothing else). Most importantly, HAVE FUN!!! Remember, this paper has an overarching component that involves imagination, so feel free to be inventive excited, and lively in your descriptions; after all, one key point of any Humanities essay is to get your reader interested and engaged
