1)
For your written response, let’s return to the basic four-part art historical analysis: looking, formal analysis, iconography, and iconology. Please choose ONE work of art from EITHER of the Metropolitan’s Renaissance timelines below (scroll through the banner at the top).
https://www.metmuseum.org/toah/ht/08/eusts.html (Links to an external site.)
(Links to an external site.)https://www.metmuseum.org/toah/ht/08/eustn.html (Links to an external site.) (Links to an external site.)
NOTE: Please pick an artwork MADE BETWEEN 1500 and 1580 CE.
Using the information you find on the Metropolitan website as well as outside information (should you choose), please create a response that consists of:
1) A brief description of the work (LOOKING)
2) A brief formal analysis (highlight those aspects of the work you find most significant)
3) A brief iconographical analysis
4) A brief iconological section (OUTSIDE INFORMATION ON THE CULTURE WHICH GAVE RISE TO THE WORK)
Remember that iconology should be relevant to your analysis. What about Renaissance culture aids us in a deeper understanding of the work?
Your response should be at least two pages double-spaced throughout (NO EXTRA SPACING BETWEEN PARAGRAPHS)
2)
For your independent research project at the end of this course, you will need to create a thesis statement about your chosen work or works of art. This week’s written response will be a “warm-up” for that exercise.
Please rewatch our weekly video Three, Tales of Snow and Ice. Note how that documentary connects one painting – Bruegel’s Hunters in the Snow – to many things outside of the painting – history, sociology, climate science, etc. These outside things deepen our appreciation for and understanding of the painting.
A good art historical thesis will rely heavily upon ICONOLOGY – the outside forces that influence a work of art. These “outside forces” can include the life and personality of the artist, the economy, culture, religion, political climate in which an art was produced, and so on. No work of art was produced in a vacuum, and it is therefore the task of the Art Historian to “fill in the blanks” around the work of art.
For your response, please select one work of art from any material in our module. Then, think about what kinds of OUTSIDE things might have affected this work of art. I would like you to then create a list of these factors.
A complete thesis statement requires preliminary research, so this assignment will be speculative only.
Here’s an example:
The Ambassadors by Hans Holbein:
1. Diplomatic relations in Western Europe in the 16th century
2. The role of the Catholic church in this time period
3. Gender expectations for men
4. What about those objects on the furniture? Why are they there?
5. What’s the deal with the elongated stretchy thing in the foreground?
Any and all of these questions can be addressed and reframed in a successful thesis statement after research of primary and secondary sources. For now, I want us to begin thinking about creating a successful thesis that constitutes A CLAIM ABOUT THE ARTWORK.
To sum up: please select any work of art from the module and create a list of at least FIVE outside factors that you believe inform our understanding of the work.
