Assignment+1

Art Humanities: Masterpieces of Wester Art (Spring 2013) First Writing Assignment: Sculpture and the Classical Tradition

 **Due Monday, February 25, in hard copy format, at the beginning of class.** You MUST staple your receipt for admission (even if it's free using your CU ID) to your paper to receive full credit.

10% of final grade.

Choose two sculptures from the Metropolitan Museum that belong to collections of Western (i.e. Euro-American) art. One of your selections must come from the Greek and Roman collections and embody the “Classical” style of the Parthenon (i.e., from the mid-5th century B.C.E. and onward). The other sculpture must be drawn from any period after that of classical antiquity (whether Medieval, Renaissance, or even Modern), but MUST be western. You should include at least two photographs (from different angles) of each work at the end of your paper (i.e., after the four pages). Do not include images pulled from  the Web (whether from Google, Flickr, or even the Met website).

The goal of the assignment is <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #222222; font-family: arial,sans-serif; line-height: 1.5;"> to indicate how your second work either <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #222222; font-family: arial,sans-serif; line-height: 1.5;">corresponds to, or diverges from, the “classical” model of your first piece. <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #222222; font-family: arial,sans-serif; line-height: 1.5;">What is the effect of corresponding to/diverging from that classical model? <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #222222; font-family: arial,sans-serif; line-height: 1.5;">What messages might the artist be trying to convey? Try to come up <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #222222; font-family: arial,sans-serif;">with an overall argument that is grounded in your observations and <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #222222; font-family: arial,sans-serif;">descriptions, rather than research. You should start the paper straightaway <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #222222; font-family: arial,sans-serif;">with a THESIS statement that the body of the paper will clarify through <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #222222; font-family: arial,sans-serif;">a formal analysis of the works you've chosen. Basically, your thesis <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #222222; font-family: arial,sans-serif; line-height: 1.5;">will <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #222222; font-family: arial,sans-serif; line-height: 1.5;">offer an interpretation of the work that is supported by visual evidence. <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #222222; font-family: arial,sans-serif; line-height: 1.5;">This interpretation is not expected to be revolutionary in any sense. <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #222222; font-family: arial,sans-serif; line-height: 1.5;">Indeed, it might even seem rather banal or self-evident. The point is <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #222222; font-family: arial,sans-serif; line-height: 1.5;">rather to practice the difficult task of translating what you see into what <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #222222; font-family: arial,sans-serif; line-height: 1.5;">you say.

<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #222222; font-family: arial,sans-serif;">Compare and contrast your two sculptures in FOUR typed pages <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #222222; font-family: arial,sans-serif;">(double-spaced, 12 pt font, numbered, and stapled). Be sure to provide <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #222222; font-family: arial,sans-serif;">specific <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #222222; font-family: arial,sans-serif; line-height: 1.5;">visual evidence for your statements and assertions. For example, <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #222222; font-family: arial,sans-serif; line-height: 1.5;"> rather than simply saying “the man's anatomy doesn't look realistic," or "the <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #222222; font-family: arial,sans-serif; line-height: 1.5;">woman looks relaxed," you should describe how the sculpture ITSELF <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #222222; font-family: arial,sans-serif; line-height: 1.5;">elicits those judgments. Which parts of the anatomy seem strange, and <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #222222; font-family: arial,sans-serif; line-height: 1.5;">why? How do they deviate from the standards of naturalism we discussed <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #222222; font-family: arial,sans-serif; line-height: 1.5;">in class? Why does the woman look relaxed? Is it because of her posture? <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #222222; font-family: arial,sans-serif; line-height: 1.5;">Her expression? What about them? It is important to be specific in the <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #222222; font-family: arial,sans-serif; line-height: 1.5;">description of your observations. However, be careful not to let the description become an end unto itself. It should have a point, which is to say that it should help to clarify your thesis at every stage of the argument.

<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #222222; font-family: arial,sans-serif;">Again, this is NOT a research paper. You simply need to carefully <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #222222; font-family: arial,sans-serif;">examine the <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #222222; font-family: arial,sans-serif; line-height: 1.5;">works you have chosen and relate them to one another in <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #222222; font-family: arial,sans-serif; line-height: 1.5;">a meaningful way. There is no need to talk about the history of the works <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #222222; font-family: arial,sans-serif;">themselves or give me biographies of the artists, etc. The paper <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #222222; font-family: arial,sans-serif;">should not simply be an elaboration of the didactic plaques in the <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #222222; font-family: arial,sans-serif;">museum. Just LOOK at the works as we have been doing in class.

<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #222222; font-family: arial,sans-serif;">Good luck, and have fun!

<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #222222; font-family: arial,sans-serif;">For your reference, follow the link to the Getty's nice introduction to <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #222222; font-family: arial,sans-serif;">some of the terms of formal analysis. Some of them will be more <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #222222; font-family: arial,sans-serif;">applicable than others for the sculpture assignment. Use this as a <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #222222; font-family: arial,sans-serif;">set of flexible guidelines, rather than a checklist.

http://www.getty.edu/education/teachers/building_lessons/formal_analysis.html