Visual Analysis Essay

ARTH 1380 WRITING ASSIGNMENT 1

VISUAL ANALYSIS

This assignment is a visual analysis exercise, based on your own direct observations of a work of art in the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston (MFAH) OR The De Menil Collection that comes from one of the periods and cultures we study in the course.[SEE LIST OF OPTIONS BELOW] You MUST GO AND SEE THE WORK FIRST-HAND; you cannot describe it from a photograph or online image! TO PROVE YOU HAVE ACTUALLY GONE TO ONE OF THE MUSEUMS, GET AN ADMISSION RECEIPT AND SCAN IT TO INCLUDE IN A SINGLE DOCUMENT ALONG WITH YOUR PAPER - THIS IS A REQUIREMENT!! The assignment asks you to apply the visual analysis skills we are developing in class to record what you see and to think about the impact of those visual forms were intended to have on the viewer. Look carefully and use precise language to describe the “formal” or visual properties of a work of art (ie., its form); and to analyze how those visual elements convey ideas and/or emotions. [The second writing assignment is different – it will ask you to use this visual analysis and relate it to the cultural context of the work of art you have chosen. DO NOT INCLUDE CONTEXTUAL INFORMATION in Assignment 1. You will lose points if you do.] Take this assignment sheet to the museum for free admission and to guide you so you are well-prepared to write an outstanding paper. This is NOT a research assignment, nor is it a personal response paper. You may use brief personal reflections as jumping off points for objective explanations of what you see, but be sure you BACK UP your feelings with specific, detailed observations. DO NOT use the 1st person (eg "I saw this" or "I felt that...") v PREPARATION FOR WRITING

Ø Go to the Audrey Jones Beck Building of the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston: 1001 Bissonnet Street Houston, Texas 77005

o https://www.mfah.org/ Open Tues. - Wed. 10 - 5, Thurs. 10 - 9pm, Fri. - Sat. 10 - 7 pm, Sun. 12:15 - 7pm; FREE to all Thurs p.m. and at all times to students in this course with UH ID and this assignment sheet.

Ø OR go to the De Menil Collection: 1533 Sul Ross St, Houston, TX 77006; https://www.menil.org/ OPEN: Wed–Sun 11am–7pm: Free Admission

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Ø OPTIONS

Select ONE of the following works of art to write about. MFAH (Museum of Fine Arts, Houston): § Egyptian

o Figure of Ptah-Sokar-Osiris o Monumental Statue of the Pharaoh Ramesses II Enthroned o Mummy Mask o Pair of Reliefs depicting Ankh-neb-ef o Shabti

§ Ancient Greek (through Hellenistic) o Funeral Amphora o Black-figure Neck Amphora with Two Horsemen o White-Ground Lekythos with Young Soldier and Woman o Statuette of a Draped Female Figure o Hydria (Water Jar) with Domestic Scene

§ Roman (if a work is a copy of a Greek one (in bold below), you may want to treat it as a Greek work for the purposes of formal/visual analysis) o Dionysus with Pan o Portrait Figure of a Ruler (bronze body; head now missing) o Sarcophagus Depicting a Battle between Soldiers and Amazons

(Warrior Women) o Torso of Aphrodite o Sarcophagus Panel with the Indian Triumph of Dionysus

§ Islamic (in permanent collection) o Capital, from Spanish Umayyad palace, Inv. No. LNS 2 S o Qu’ran manuscript. Egypt or Syria, 1346 CE, Inv. No. LNS 47 MS o Basin, Egypt or Syria, 1st half 14th century CE Inv. No. LNS 109M

DE MENIL COLLECTION: § Egyptian

o Sunken Relief Depicting Horus, 1295-1186 BCE o Statue of an Official or Priest, 2345-2055 BCE

§ Greek o Torso of Apollo or Dionysos (Imperial Roman copy after Greek original) o Torso of Venus or Aphrodite (Imperial Roman copy after a Greek original

by Praxiteles) o Red-Figure Drinking Vessel (Kylix) Depicting a Young Athlete, 5th

century BCE § Roman

o Head from a Statue, 1st-2nd century

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Ø IDENTIFY the work from the museum label or wall text.

Ø Include o Title and subject o Medium (materials and technique) o Size (approximate dimensions) o Name of the culture, place, and approximate date of origin

Ø DESCRIBE: Take detailed notes on the visual characteristics of the

work you chose. Spend time looking closely at the work, choose your words carefully, and be as precise as possible in the way you describe it. Ask yourself: “WHAT CHARCTERISTICS HELP ME RECOGNIZE THAT THIS WORK IS FROM THE ____________CULTURE?”

Ø “FORMAL” or VISUAL elements: describe the work in detail but discuss the following elements ONLY if relevant to the piece you have chosen o Composition or organization of forms. Is the composition balanced,

symmetrical, asymmetrical? What elements make it that way? o Color: is color used? – if so, what kinds of colors (eg., rich, saturated

colors or pastels; earth tones?) and HOW is color used, for what purposes? If no color, are there different tonalities due to light and shadow and what effects do they produce?

o Dimensionality: Is the work 3-D or does it only appear to be 3-D even if it is actually flat/planar? If it appears 3-D, how is that achieved? Or is it linear/2-dimensional, lacking in either real or the illusion of 3-D space?

o Lines: What kinds of lines did the artist use (e., curving/organic, straight, rigid, fluid) and for what purposes (eg., to define the forms, define movement, convey emotion?)

o Movement: does there appear to be movement? If so, what kind of movement and how is it conveyed? (eg. rapid, slow, fluid, stiff? How do you know there is movement – what did the artist do to create that impression? (eg., through the poses of the figures? use of diagonal or directional lines, the way clothing is draped on bodies, the composition?). OR are the figures frozen, still, stiff; is the composition static?

§ REMEMBER: Movement can be created in many ways: it is NOT JUST a feature of the figures’ action

o Shape: are the individual forms geometric or organic? Simplified? Complex? What about it leads you to characterize them that way?

o Space: What kind of space is involved: 2-D or flat? 3-D (deep or shallow) How is it created? Deep undercutting (in a sculpture), receding diagonals (on a flat, painted surface or a shallow relief carving)? Overlapping of forms?

o Texture: Note textures and the quality of the surface of the work. Are the surfaces in the work smooth? rough? Do they vary to differentiate different materials or are they the same all over? What adjectives

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could you use throughout your analysis? Eg. shiny, dull, had, soft, rough, smooth.

o Individual forms: Consider the individual representational elements (eg. humans, animals, elements of nature, etc) and how they are rendered.

§ OTHER THINGS TO CONSIDER • Subject matter: what kind of subject does this appear to be? Is it

narrative, iconic, or decorative? Does the work tell a story (ie is it narrative)? If so, how do you read that story from the purely visual elements and the affects they produce? (ie. based on your visual observations, not on research!) If it is not narrative, it is either decorative (purely patterns without reference to recognizable content) or iconic (depicting a single or several forms that convey a single idea rather than a story).

• Emotional content: Are emotions conveyed? If so, which ones and how are they depicted? Is the piece deliberately neutral in expression or highly expressive? How did the artist create that effect?

• Size and scale relationships: How big is the work? How does size affect your reaction to the work? How does size affect the depiction of the subject?

§ what are the sizes of the various components? Are the sizes of figures, animals, plants naturalistic in relation to the others in the work? Or is size used symbolically and what does it symbolize?

• Materials and techniques: how might the physical materials and/or techniques used have contributed to the qualities of the formal/visual characteristics of the work? (eg., hard stone or a hard tool may limit fluidity of line and/or movement)

• Viewpoint: from what angle or physical vantage point are you viewing this work? Do the visual characteristics suggest this is the same viewpoint that the original viewer was meant to stand in relation to the work? Is there only one intended viewpoint or might there have been multiple viewing points?

Ø ANALYZE: Think about and write down your thoughts about the effects

these formal and physical qualities produce/were intended to produce on the viewer to the extent they are relevant to the work you have chosen. Ø Be as SPECIFIC as you can

(The THESIS of your paper will be the statement of the most important visual elements and the work they do – you will need to CONVINCE the reader that what you see is an intended part of the work of art)

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v WRITING YOUR PAPER:

Be sure to use the FORMAT & WRITING GUIDELINES (on Blackboard) for papers in this course. Include appropriate terminology learned in class and readings (eg. contrapposto, wet-drapery, modeling, high relief, low relief, etc.) Your use of words, along with grammar, spelling, and organization of the paper are all part of your writing skills. These will count as 50% of your grade for this assignment. Ø INTRODUCTION:

Ø IDENTIFY the work you chose as above (based on museum wall label: be sure to CITE the Museum wall label (see “Choosing, Using, and Citing Sources” (on Blackboard) for the correct format for citing Museum labels)

Ø STATE YOUR THESIS: brief statement of the most important visual elements and the impact or effects they produce

Ø BODY OF TEXT: DESCRIBE & ANALYZE

§ Describe the work in terms of the formal or visual elements listed above (according to their relevance to your object) and explain how they work to create the effects they have on the viewer. What feelings or ideas do the subject matter, visual, and physical characteristics of the work convey and how do they achieve that?

§ Include the materials and techniques used: these should be noted on the Museum wall label; however, you may have to rely on what you have learned in class regarding the techniques employed o Don’t just name the technique, also explain it and the results it allows

the artist to achieve (eg. high relief, sunken relief, red-figure, bronze casting, etc.)

Ø CONCLUSION

§ Briefly review your principal points about what you described and concluded from your analysis. Also relate the points you make in the conclusion to what you stated as your thesis. FLUFFY OR VAGUE CONCLUSIONS WILL LOSE POINTS!!

Submitting Your Writing Assignments

We are using TURNITIN assignment tool in Blackboard as a means of preventing and detecting plagiarism. TURNITIN has a large collection of possible sources you might have used as well as millions of other student papers. It will check your writing to see whether you are using your sources correctly (putting ideas and information in your own words AND citing the source) or PLAGIARIZING

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(copying and pasting someone else’s words and passing them off as your own). Turnitin also records the time and date that you turn in your paper.

You WILL NOT turn in a hard copy of your paper but ONLY upload it to

TURNITIN.COM.

To post your papers on Blackboard you do NOT need a code! -Go to the course homepage on Blackboard

-Click on the link for the Assignment you want to upload -This should bring up a screen with an option to upload your paper. -Click Upload to submit your paper. Be sure all your pages are in one

document!

BE SURE TO PRINT OUT A RECEIPT TO SHOW THAT YOUR PAPER HAS UPLOADED CORRECTLY!

IF YOU DO NOT GET A RECEIPT YOUR PAPER MAY NOT BE UPLOADED AND YOU MAY FAIL THE COURSE FOR NOT HAVING DONE IT!!

IF YOU HAVE TROUBLE UPLOADING YOUR PAPER

-Immediately contact the help line at the bottom of the course Blackboard homepage. Also send me a message through Blackboard.