Description Listed below are four themes, choose one and write a 500-word essay about it. YOU MUST UPLOAD YOUR PAPER ON TURNITIN BEFORE IT WILL BE GRADED 1. The use of art in the Counter-Reformation. 2. The use of Light in Baroque painting. 3. Neoclassical ideas and their expression in art and architecture. 4. The Romantic imagination Note: Be sure to cite specific examples of artwork to illustrate your points. The amount of words assigned is a minimum. While you may use your text and any other source for information, the essay must be entirely in your own words, except for relevant quotes, for which you must cite your source. Please spend time looking at the art, comparing works, and making your own observations. Be sure to reference illustrations from the book or include images or links from other sources with your essay. You have been assigned an art history paper to write. You would like to finish your assignment on time with a minimum of stress, and your instructor fervently hopes to read an engaging, well-written paper. Here are some dos and don'ts to guide you, written by an art history professor who has graded hundreds of these papers ranging from the superlative to the good, the bad and the phenomenally ugly. Preparation: 1. Choose a one topic from the above list Pick a topic based on eye appeal and compelling personal interest. 2. Fill Your Brain with Information Remember: a car works on gas, a brain works on info. Empty brain, empty writing. Research your topic using websites, books and articles. Read the footnotes in the books and articles - they can lead to creative thinking. 3. Be an Active Reader Ask yourself questions while you read and look up what you can't find or don't understand on the page. Take notes. Search the internet with the words, names, titles you learn. Write down interesting facts and thoughts that come to mind while you read. Writing Your Essay: Introduction, Body and Conclusion 1. The Introduction Compose a thesis statement. Declare that you have noticed something about the artwork. Then, "frame" your thesis. Tell your reader about discovering information that can help us understand a work of art/building better. (For example, the French artist Paul Gauguin moved to Tahiti late in life. Your thesis analyzes his late paintings in terms of his Tahiti lifestyle. You've read his biography, Noa, Noa and other sources for ideas to support your thesis.) If you are focusing on artworks, remember to put the artist's name/artists' names, the title(s) of the work(s) and the date (s) in the first paragraph. You can refer to the title(s) alone thereafter. 2. Body: Describe and Point Out What You Want the Reader to Notice. If you are going to include the artist's/architect's biography, begin with a short summary. Unless your paper is a biography of the person, most of your paper should be about the art, not the life. Establish a sequence of information. Consider the paragraph a unit of information. Each paragraph should discuss one topic within the quantity of information you plan to cover. Ideas for units of information or topics: appearance, medium and technique, narrative, iconography, history, artist's biography, patronage, etc. - whatever will help you support your thesis. Iconography might require more than one paragraph. Write about the connections between what you described in these analyses and what you declared in the thesis statement Follow the same sequence of ideas for the second artwork, building, artist, architect, critic, patron, etc. When you have analyzed your works, synthesize: compare and contrast. Comparison: Dedicate one paragraph to discussing what is the same about the artworks, the building, the architects, the artists, the critics, the patrons, etc. Contrast: Dedicate one paragraph to discussing what is different about the artworks, the building, the architects, the artists, the critics, the patrons, etc. 3. Conclusion: What Do You Want Your Reader to Learn from Your Essay? Reiterate the thesis. Remind your reader about your findings in a summary sentence or two. Persuade the reader that you have demonstrated that your thesis is sound based on your findings. Optional: state that your analysis is important in terms of understanding a larger picture (but not too large). For examples, the artist's other work from that period, the artist's work all together, the artwork's relationship to the movement or the artwork's relationship to that moment in history. The connection should not open a new topic, but simply offer the reader food for thought and then declare this investigation is beyond the scope of your paper. (It demonstrates that you thought of it, but you're not going to go there.) Editing: Be sure to footnote/cite your sources in the body of the paper when you use information or an opinion from a book, article, website, etc. Make a list of your sources at the end of the paper. Visit a website on citation style or bibliography style or use what is familiar to you. Check for the following: Titles for works of art should be in italics: The Birth of Venus First and last names begin with a capital letter. Exceptions include place and familial indicators including "da," "del," "de," "den" and "van," among others, unless the last name begins the sentence. ("Van Gogh lived in Paris.")
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