The following recommendations have been prepared for students in the regular course, ArH 300: Critical Approaches to the Study of Art History. There are four paper types discussed here: the formal analysis, the analysis of the way in which a work of art indicates meaning, the analysis of cultural context and historical perspectives, and the final paper in which all previous work is summed up.

All students taking ArH 382 as a variant for ArH 300 should purchase copies of two small books, both of which may be available on the shelves for ArH 382 or ArH 407: Seminar on Indian Architecture. Alternatively you may find copies at the Smith Family Bookstore. These books include:

Sylvan Barnet, A Short Guide to Writing About Art (4^th or 5^th edition)

Kate L. Turabian, A Manual for Writers of Term Papers, Theses, and Dissertations (a recent edition).

You should read along in these books and consult the appropriate sections for each of the assigned papers.

ArH 300-varient students will be expected to do all the work assigned for the ArH 382 class, but with three small variations:

1. For the Journal assignment indicated under January 19, ArH 300 students should add to the general discussion of Gandharan style a formal analysis of one specific sculpture derived from either Ingholt or Hallade; or, even better, would be to do a formal analysis of the Buddha head from Gandhara, in the UO Museum of Art. This should be handed in on Tuesday, January 26.
2. For the Journal assignment indicated under January 21, you will be asked to hand in a finished iconographic analysis on Tuesday, Feb. 2.
3. For the Journal assignment for February 4, involving a comparative analysis, you will be asked to hand in the paper on Thursday, February 11.

While all students in ArH 382 will be held to a high standard of writing (mechanics, style, and content), students in the ArH 300 variant will be expected to pay particular attention to the excellence of the writing. In addition, these students will be asked to rewrite papers when it is deemed necessary.

[Return to Top]

I. Formal Analysis (see Journal assignment for Tuesday, January 19):

Paper length: 3—4 pages, double-spaced and typed.

Include a good xerox copy of your sculpture and a clear identification of the source of that reproduction.

Preparation: Re-read Barnet, introductory chapters on Writing About Art and Analysis. Pay particular attention to the manner in which the formal aspects of objects are introduced in his sample essays.

Body of the paper:

1) Begin by indicating the basic facts by which we identify the sculpture: the title if there is one or the apparent subject if there isn’t a title; the artist (if known), date, medium, size, and present location. You may also wish to comment, here, regarding the physical condition of the work of art.

The challenge here is to indicate the formal aspects of the sculpture in graceful, lucid prose.

2) Describe the basic and most general organization of elements within the sculptured form. In the case of a hypothetical painting, such a general introductory description might look like this:

Within a forested setting and along a road which crosses the front of the painting, a man drives his herd of cattle. Behind the road, on the left, are visible the roofs, fences, and scattered objects of a farm.

Or:

Within a sun-filled, snow-covered farm -yard, a black magpie sits on the upper rail of a wooden fence.

In this section, go from general to specific; identify the larger object (or scene, in the case of a painting) and then its parts. Again, you will want to construct this section so that the reader is carried as if naturally into the scene or around the sculpture.

3) The largest section of your analysis will be concerned with the manner in which specific formal elements occur and interrelate so that the viewer becomes increasingly aware of the complexity of the work of art. Here you will consider such elements as lines (what kind? how rendered?), colors, textures, proportion or scale, volumes, mass, the treatment of spatial intervals, and so forth.

In the case of a painting, that section might look like this:

In the foreground, the artist has used a relatively smooth brush and flat colors to convey the level of the road; in the area of the trees, however, his rough and varied textures and the extreme variation in tones of greens, grays, and browns, creates the sense of the depth and mystery of the foliage.

Within the darkened room, the walls are treated in terms of broad, flat planes of browns and grays. Similarly, the figures are described with strong, relatively smooth color areas, against which their textured furs, velvets, the coins at their fingers, and wood of the table take on a particular materiality.

Do not try to cover all details; select those formal elements which seem to play the most significant role in shaping the expressive aspects of the painting or sculpture. Organize your comments by reference to logical groups of formal elements–e.g., colors, textures, scale–so that you develop the sculpture or painting before the mind of the reader.

4) Conclude your analysis by ‘stepping back’ to indicate how all the individual formal elements and objects come together to create a particular effect. Here is your opportunity to introduce what may be the particular expressive power of the work of art. Be careful, however, to avoid value-laden terms at this point...your judgment about the object being, for example, ‘ugly,’ ‘lurid,’ ‘exciting,’ ‘gruesome,’ may change as you develop your study! Try to offer, here, your tentative impressions of the expressive power of the painting, but leave ‘open’ your increasing understanding.

In general, it is best to avoid speaking in the first person but this is the point at which you may carefully introduce an exception: e.g., "As I consider the complexity of formal elements in this painting/sculpture, my tentative impression is of a deeply disturbing, unsettling, vision." (But you may ultimately change your mind!) Never, however, speak of "the author," and don’t overuse the passive voice. Before writing this paper, be sure to read Barnet’s sections on Style in Writing.

N.B.

a) A formal analysis does not concern itself with such issues as the historical context, iconographic meaning, the artist’s biography, or even the artist’s other works. Here, in the formal analysis, you are concerned only with the painting as expressive form.

b) The challenge here is to analyze rather than describe. That is, you are trying to help the reader understand how the painting or sculpture creates its effect. That is always a question of the interconnection and interaction of elements rather than of the elements individually.

c) Simple, clear, straightforward language and phrasing are always preferable to long, awkward, or bulky sentences. Err on the side of clarity and simplicity.

d) Good, persuasive writing depends upon careful grammatical structure and correct spelling. Do not ever hand in the first draft of anything you write: everything should have been read, proof-read, and proofed again. Spelling should be verified. I have a simple rule:

[Return to Top]

II. Consideration of the way in which a work of art indicates meaning (refer to Journal assignment for Thursday, January 21):

Length: approximately 3-4 pages, double-spaced and typed.

This kind of discussion is usually a particular pleasure for the art historian, because it allows us to indulge our interest in the way in which visual documents carry symbolic meaning. Here you will be trying to clarify significant aspects of relief sculpture by reference to relevant texts (e.g., original sutras and/or iconographic analyses) and by reference to appropriate comparative paintings or sculptures. For example, if you were working on the iconography of a figure of the Bodhisattva Avalokiteshvara, your discussion would turn to Buddhist descriptions of the Boddhisattva and to comparative examples of the image type.

Remember: for every work of art you mention for the first time, you must indicate the object, the title or subject, the date, and the original and present locations of the piece.

[Return to Top]

III. Contextual and Historical Perspectives (for Journal assignment under Thursday, February 4):

Suggested length: approximately 4-5 pages, double-spaced, typed.

This paper is intended to explore the larger cultural and historical context in which your painting or sculpture should be located, or the thematic context in which it is appropriately considered. Here you will seek to understand the cultural circumstances within which the work of art was produced and the historical conditions which shaped that cultural context. In other words, you are seeking to understand significant expressive differences in the treatment of similar subjects matter in two different locations.

Because this paper is based on research, you will be considering two different kinds of research materials, both to be sought within library resources:

1) art historical studies which have established relevant issues or areas for consideration;

2) sources other than those of art history, and which may be historical, literary, or religious in nature.

In researching these materials, you will be drawing on, but making a distinction between primary materials and secondary materials. Primary materials include original sources which date from the period contemporary with your painting or sculpture, e.g., diaries, edicts, and so forth. Secondary materials include all those materials which purport to study or reflect on the primary materials; they include what we would call scholarly writing, such as history, literary history, religious studies, archaeology, and so forth.

As you develop your comparative study, you should be framing your own point of view, or perspective: how would you explain the significant differences in style or materials found in your comparative pieces? Are these differences related to immediate issues of patronage? To the constraints of available materials? To the influx of new foreign elements?

Before writing this paper, read and note carefully Barnet’s discussion of Manuscript Form, paying special attention to his discussion of the appropriate use of other sources, the construction of footnotes/endnotes, and the development and presentation of a Bibliography.

In the development of footnotes/endnotes and bibliography, note that the information in Turabian is much more complete and much more helpful!!!

Remember: information that is commonly available and without controversy (e.g., an artist’s biographical data, the dates of historical events) does not need to be footnoted, even though you may have encountered the material for the first time in one particular document. If, however, you note a controversial date or event, you will want to indicate the source which has addressed or raised the problem.

[Return to Top]

IV. Final Paper for Course (see Journal assignment for Tuesday, March 2):

Suggested length: approximately 10 pages, including Bibliography, double-spaced and typed.

This final paper should demonstrate the development of your writing and research in one coherent discussion. It allows you to refine the analytical techniques your have addressed in the earlier papers, to thread them together into a coherent and persuasive continuum, and to develop further your final thoughts and ideas. This final paper is more, therefore, than a patching-together of what you have done: I expect that it will demonstrate a careful honing of the skills you have been developing all term.

In preparing this final paper, you will want to give particular attention to your introductory paragraph(s), since here you will indicate to the reader the issues you intend to address and the problems which are of particular interest. Similarly, your conclusion will represent a ‘pulling together’ of all the threads you have raised in the earlier pages.

Your final paper will include:

• Title page

• Body of paper

• Footnotes or endnotes

• Bibliography

• Reproductions with proper captions indicating title, date, and location of the object reproduced and the source of reproduction. these captions must also be typed.

Pages should be consecutively numbered. All typing should have been carefully proofed and corrected. The whole paper should be clean and orderly and bound in a sturdy manner. (Small staples and paper clips are usually inadequate.)