Please look through the attachment file. Named Art History Assignment.
Overview
You will analyze an image utilizing the vocabulary of visual analysis and place it in a
historical and cultural context by applying your current visual literacy.
Instructions
After uncovering an object from an archaeological dig, an archaeologist must catalog and
interpret that object. Artifacts do not necessarily come with an instruction manual, so
archaeologists must rely on their skills of analysis and their previous knowledge to interpret
an image. For this paper, you are an archaeologist, and you need to use your developing
analytical skills and knowledge to interpret an image similar but not identical to the images
you have seen in class.
Step 1: Choose your Image
Choose one of the following images to analyze and contextualize. Note that these images
are similar but not identical to the images found in your course material.
Option #1
Option #2
Option #3
Step 2: Analyze your image
In a 400 to 500-word analysis titled “Visual Analysis,” write an analysis of your chosen
image by looking alone. At a minimum, you need to incorporate a combination of five
elements (shape, space, color, line, texture, and light) and principles
(emphasis/subordination, scale/proportion, rhythm/repetition, and balance) of art
introduced in the Learning to Look section from the Getting Started module and the
introduction of your textbook. You will be assessed on your ability to choose relevant terms
and apply them to thoroughly analyze the object. The best papers will incorporate not only
the elements and the principles but also their related vocabulary.
Step 3: Contextualize your image
In a 500 to 600-word analysis titled “Contextual Analysis,” place your chosen image into
historical and cultural context utilizing the observations you have gathered in your visual
analysis and connect them to specific examples from the course material. The best papers
will clearly propose a specific historical/cultural context with an approximate time period
and location and support that conclusion with specific examples from the art historical
record. Once you have placed your work in context, use your existing knowledge and
examples to interpret your chosen image within that context. You may consider the
prevailing archaeological theories, potential function, or cultural significance for your
chosen object based on your contextualizing examples. Note: Do not try to identify the
exact image through outside research. That is not the goal of this assignment.
Citations
While this is not a research paper per se, you must use your textbook to support your
contextual analysis. When you paraphrase or quote the text, you must cite it using
the Chicago Manual of StyleLinks to an external site.–the standard style you will be using
for all of your art history classes. This includes in-text citations in the form of footnotes or
endnotes. Your first footnote/endnote will look like this:
1Marilyn Stokstad and Michael Cothren, Art History (Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice-Hall,
2017), page or section number.
Every following footnote/endnote will look like this:
2 Stokstad and Cothren, Art History, page or section number.
You must also have a Works Cited at the end of the paper. Use this to cite the text in your
works cited:
Stokstad, Marilyn and Michael Cothren. Art History. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice-Hall,
2017.
If you wish to utilize the course modules, you should follow this format for the initial
footnote.
3Sarah Nichols, “Title of Lesson,” Art History I. 2016. Date Accessed. URL.
The shortened footnote should look like this:
4Nichols, “Title of Lesson.”
The works cited entry should follow this format:
Nichols, Sarah. “Title of Lesson.” Art History I. 2016. Date Accessed. URL.
