Please review these instructions carefully as well as the rubric at the bottom. They will guide you through to a successful essay! Please note that you can take advantage of NetTutor to help you with your paper. If you submit a draft to NetTutor early enough you can feedback to improve before you submit your final exam essay by the deadline.
The common theme here for this essay will be style. (review the earlier discussion posting on “Style in Art History”). For this assignment you must chose TWO (2) works of art to compare; the works must be different in subject matter and media (form or material in other words, for example: sculpture, mosaic, icon painting etc are all different kinds of media). You may also chose architecture ( instead of “subject matter” find two different functions.) They must be similar in style. Choose one common stylistic feature that is shared by the Medieval and the Byzantine artworks you chose. Make sure you have good and clear thesis statement.
The thesis statement is the sentence that states the main idea of a writing assignment and helps control the ideas within the paper. It is not merely a topic. It reflects an opinion or judgment that a writer has made after reading and research.
What are the common stylistic features of art in Medieval and Byzantine Europe ? How does they differ from one another, how are they similar and how do they differ from the classical world? Post your essay (using inline text entry or PDF) to this assignment (input text or upload file below). At minimum, your entire essay should be approximately 1000 words. Please note: these are the only acceptable file formats for uploaded written work. PDF is the simplest and I rcommend it. If you submit anything in a file that I cannot open, you will not receive a grade and there will be no makeups or re-submission after the deadline.
Your assigned readings are here: http://smarthistory.org/introduction-to-the-middle-ages/ (Links to an external site.)
Description and Analysis of Artworks different in subject matter and media but similar in style:
Choose two works of art to write a comparative essay on style in Medieval and Byzantine art. They must be from two different geographical areas. Include the following identifying information (if available): title, artist, date artwork was created, medium, and culture/period.
Describe, compare and analyze each artwork using at least 3 of the most relevant elements of art and principles of design terms. Take into consideration the artwork’s style based on the readings and utilize relevant vocabulary we have learned. Make sure to write a comparative analysis, not just a description with a short comparison at the end.
Review these handouts:
How-to-write-a-Comparative-essay.pdf
Writing a Comparative Essay in Art History.pdf
Once you briefly describe the work, Integrate your visual analysis into the larger theme of context through comparing and contrasting the two art works. You only need use the textbook and lecture reading, address how the subject and style of each artwork reflect the historical and cultural context of the period. (Please do not google the works you chose and simply copy the information you find; you will receive no points for that. You can use additional research but it must be an appropriate scholarly source, if online, it must be from a website ending in .edu or .org.) Think about the culture in which the work was created. What do the work’s appearance and its choice of art elements and design principles tell us about the cultural beliefs and meaning?
Note: Attached rubric provide an explanation for full or partial credit. If a criteria listed is not addressed, you will receive a zero for that section.
Jermaine Byrant
Nicole Johnson
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