User:JoniyourGSI/archive1

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Don't freak out about the Midterm! Here is a little example to give you an idea how to write an essay for a comparison exam in ART HISTORY !![edit]

Imagine that you are asked to compare the following two images...(This comparison would probably NEVER happen so it is just for instructional purposes):[edit]













You would first identify the images: (If you click on the above images they get bigger)[edit]

Then you would launch into your compare and contrast essay...[edit]

The two paintings that we are looking at address the themes of "duty" and "calling" in different ways. Caravaggio’s image represents the moment when St. Matthew was “called” by Jesus – meaning the moment that he became one of the Twelve Apostles of Jesus in the Bible. David’s image, on the other hand, shows the moment when the three Horatii brothers of ancient Rome pledged their allegiance to the protection of their Family and State and promised to defend these institutions against another set of bad-ass triplets, the Curiatii from a neighboring city.

While both paintings are technically “History Paintings” – meaning that they both try to tell a story (usually from history, the Bible or Mythology) – Caravaggio’s version tries to blend the high-brow genre of history painting with the lowbrow genre of genre works. Instead of showing Matthew and Jesus as people from ancient times, Caravaggio creates a scene from everyday contemporary life. In the picture, on the left, five men sit around a table at a tavern. They appear to be doing business. On the right a man who looks like Jesus points at one of the men sitting at the table. This man responds by pointing at his own chest as if to say, “Who? Me?” (He has been "called" by Jesus to follow him). Above Jesus’s head and outside the scene is an open window through which Caravaggio’s signature “raking light” streams in, grazing and illuminating the pointing hand and finger of the Christ and further traversing the image to illuminate the faces of the men and the pointing hand of St. Matthew. The thighs of the men and the sleeves of their jackets are also highly illuminated while the rest of the image is cast in darkness. This type of light and shadowing effect is known as Tenebrism or extreme Chiaroscuro.

David’s image, on the other hand sets the drama in ancient times. It is considered both a Neo-Classical and a (somewhat) Humanist painting, meaning that it looks to the ancient world for its (humanist) formal and ethical model; and its stark (Neo-Classical) simplicity counters the wild decorative exuberant painting of the late Baroque and Rococo. Still, like Caravaggio's painting, it is an image in which men are in action, engaged in the telling of a story. In this picture the three Horatii triplets stand together on the left side of the canvas, facing their father in the center who holds their swords up in one hand and lifts his other hand up in a gesture that signifies that he is swearing in his sons in the “Oath”. On the right hand side of the painting we see the sorrowful wives of the three brothers and their children. David sets up a binary construction of gender wherein men are hard, rigid and literally unbending in their sense of duty. The three brothers seem to be of one body with many limbs as their three arms are raised in the Oath, but they do not obscure each other's hands from our view because the upraised hand is the symbol of the Oath -- the symbol David wants us to see most. The women are portrayed as all emotion and sentiment in the collapsing of their bodies into curving and unrigid forms. The arm of the woman closest to us dangles limply, creating a contrast with the solid muscular arms of the brothers and suggesting that women are weak sentimental creatures incapable of acting on a real sense of duty.

Caravaggio created his painting for the Contarelli Chapel in the Church of San Luigi dei Francesi (where we also find his Martyrdom of St. Matthew ). There it would have been seen by members of the Catholic congregation. The Catholic Church was engaged in the Counter-Reformation at the time and images of the life of Jesus and of Apostles who later became Martyrs were very popular. Caravaggio set his story in a contemporary setting so that the common people who saw the image would be able to identify with, and internalize the meaning of the story – in essence that they should give themselves over to Jesus (and Jesus’s representative on Earth – the Church). David’s image is a secular image about allegiance to the State. People would have seen this image in the Salon – a large once-a-year exhibition held in Paris where all the artists showed their works. While it was painted in the years before the Revolution, during the French Revolution it became a symbol for young Republican revolutionaries in their fight against the Absolute Monarchy. Thus, there is a sense that both Caravaggio’s and David’s paintings were used as propaganda images.

Some notes on the above essay[edit]

  • You will probably not have time to write this much...and besides, you will probably be given a direct question to answer about the images...But this is an attempt to show you what an ideal form of the essay would look like (not that this is perfect, but in an exam you will not have time for perfection. Still it answers many questions about the (painting(s)) -
    • Who painted it?
    • Why did they paint it?
    • Who was the audience for the painting?
    • How did the painting address its audience?
    • What is the subject matter or story?
    • Where did people see the painting?
    • What was going on at the time it was painted that influenced the painting or was influenced by it? (Revolution, Counter-Reformation etc.)
    • What kinds of formal elements were used to help tell the story? (light and shadow, color, line quality, composition, etc.)
    • Did the artist create anything new or start a new trend? (Tenebrism, Neo-Classicism).
  • Mention the readings whenever possible (I didn't here, but I should have)
  • When we use the term "Republican" in the French Revolutionary period we don't mean people like Reagan and George W. Bush. French Rev Reps were the people who wanted to overthrow the King and get themselves some of that yummy Liberté, égalité, and fraternité!
  • I'm sorry that you didn't get to ask questions during the Midterm Review. I didn't know it was just going to be a lecture. So if you have any questions please write to me, or also use that big email list to write to each other!
  • Yes, I know that I used the passive voice alot here, but I was in a hurry! If you use the passive voice in your exam that is okay as long as you put the missing information in the sentence -- e.g. not "The Oath was painted" but "The Oath was painted BY DAVID". (N.b. If you read at the bottom of that (passive voice) page, in the "Usage and style" section, you will get to pick on me for being a hypocrite!)

Whole Midterm Study List for which I have Wikified the Links as possible[edit]

  • Caravaggio, Calling of St. Matthew and Martyrdom of St. Matthew, Contarelli Chapel, Church of San Luigi dei Francesi, Rome, 1599-1600 (see info in essay)


You Asked the Questions - I tried to Answer Them[edit]

Q. Did we decide that Vermeer's Woman in blue reading a letter, 1663-64 is pregnant?

A. Of course we can never really know because we do not even know who the image is a representation of...but based on the visual evidence it is fair to say that she looks pregnant.

Q. I'm having trouble with the "oil sketch" term. I only have one note from lecture where Professor Olson addresses this and it really isn't anything significant.

A. I too do not know what we have studied yet that counts as an “Oil Sketch” – I know that we will talk about it when we get to the “Oath of the Tennis Court” by David and the problems of representation during the French Revolution...but maybe I missed something because only one other person has asked me about this. The ébauche became important only in the 19th century...So just say “Oath of the Tennis Court” by David. An oil sketch, as far as I know, is just a quick drawing made in oil paint on Canvas or on Gessoed panel – in the times we have studied these would have been preliminary quick studies done on the canvas to map out composition before launching into the painting proper. In the late 18th century – the recording or portraying the French Revolution (where situations and allegiances changed rapidly) was impossible because of the slow-drying and technically tedious process of oil paint/ing, oil sketches are sometimes all we have from that era until David invented the Revolutionary Martyr! Then later, with the Impressionists the oil sketch or ébauche became, in a way, a work in itself.

But we aren’t there yet! So unless I missed something the day I was sick (Rubens, Velázquez, Titian) I don’t know what he was talking about. You are safe for this question if you say it is a quick sketch in oil paint used to map out the future painting and say "Oath of the Tennis Court"!

Q. Do you know when Artemisia Gentileschi's Self Portrait was painted?

A. We don’t seem to know this exactly (given the lectures, list and Garrard reading (although you can find them online) – I am looking at the Mary Garrard article and she only says that it was first recorded as belonging to the English Royal Collection in 1649. It is not on the list so you are not required to know it. (Update: although I did notice today that I had put it on the handout for the Artemisia section...so I guess technically we *do* know it for this class (I didn't think it was given to you anywhere)...but still it is not on the list of things you are to know so don't worry about it.)

Q. Would it be fine for us to use one painting to describe more than one term? (for example: I could see the use of Michelangelo's Sistine Ceiling frescoes as the best example for ignudi, history art, and frescoes).

A. Yes, that is fine.

Q. Are the definitions going to be straightforward or ambiguous?

A. They are all going to be the words on that list. I hope that they will be straight-forward! I personally am not out to trick anyone. Let’s say that the questions was:

Self-Portrait. You would write:

“A Self-portrait is type of painting or sculpture for which the artist takes himself or herself as a model. Artemisia Gentileschi’s “Self-Portrait as an Allegory of Painting is an example. (No date given)."

Q. Are we encouraged to use paintings outside of the slide list as given in the exam review sheet? Or would it be okay if we limited ourselves to the list?

A. Well, it depends on what you want to say. Of course it is great if you can bring in a work off the list provided it is appropriate and you don’t go off on a tangent about the new image and forget to address the two images on the screen! But I think it will not really be necessary to bring in other images to write a good essay. I didn’t talk about any image off the list in my fake essay on the Wikipedia.

Q. I was studying the slides and all of a sudden I got really confused on the difference between Northern and Southern Renaissance painting. I was wondering if you could tell me the main differences? I think I have them mixed up. Also, what areas are considered North/South, because I am not sure if Florence is included in the North/South and so on.

A. Yes, that is confusing isn’t it? While it is the case that there is a distinction between Northern Italian and Southern Italian painting, for our purposes on this test Northern means Flanders, the Netherlands –places like that, and Southern means Italian. As for differences just remember that the Italians were all about istoria or "history painting" - nude male bodies in action; while in the North they were much more interested in visual details, the representation of textures and decorative forms.

Q. My lecture notes for "Banquet of the Officers of the St. George Militia" is very minimal. If you have any information about this piece, please let me know.

A. I can only answer specific questions -- to tell you all the information about about a painting is a bit broad! You can of course ask other students on the email list if they have notes on the painting that they'd be willing to share, but I am not allowed to rehearse the whole lecture -- sorry! Think about what the painting is about...What is a Militia? What is group-portraiture? What are the formal elements that make the painting dynamic?

Q. I found these dates on Yahoo but I have not verified their accuracy. Artemisia Gentileschi, Self Portrait 1630s; Artemisia Gentileschi, Self Portrait as the Allegory of Painting 1638-1639 There are other paintings on the list with no dates. I thought we're supposed to look them up but your email said we do not have to. I just want to make sure this is the case.

A. Yes, you can *find* dates online, but you (and everyone) are/is only responsible for the dates information Professor Olson put on the list. Otherwise it would be unfair to demand something that you were not told to memorize.

Q. Re: use of painting outside of the slide list. I think the other student was referring to the painting we have to include as part of the requirements of terms definition, not as part of the comparative essay. The term definition section of the exam has three components - 1)the definition, 2)work of art which exemplifies the term, and 3) the name of the artist. I thought about this question as well and I'm not sure if Prof. Olson expects us to provide examples of painting which are excluded from his list. Please comment.

A. Yes, in the course of your studying you might find that in order to complete your definition you need to refer to an image that is not on the list (I don't know because I have not tried to link up each definition with an image.) Except for things like "Oil Sketch" which I really don't think we have covered enough for someone to find an example, I think you will have to find examples based on your class notes for each definition.

Q. For the term "Linear Perspective" is he looking for a definition talking about the artists use of the contours and outlines of the objects in the painting...OR is he looking for something about the use of lines in the painting to establish depth... for example a painting of train tracks that go off to the horizon.

A. Sadly, we didn’t really have a discussion of Linear perspective in the class. Linear Perspective, also known as scientific perspective and one point or two point perspective is a technology developed during the Renaissance which allows artists to create a sense of deep space and to place objects / people within that space. Your second definition is correct. it is when there is a horizon line and somewhere along the horizon line there is a point. Then all the lines (orthogonals – which are diagonal lines) lead towards that point creating an image like the train tracks – where parallel lines seem to converge in the distance. Off the top of my head the image on the list which shows this is the floor in the “Oath of the Horatii” by David. Just do your best.

Q. I was wondering about the definition he wants for Ignudi. Are we to say something more than simply "a painting of some nude guy"???

A. Remember “Ignudi” (pl) “Ignudo” (sg) aren’t just any nude men, they are specifically the nude male figures we find on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel as painted (frescoed) by Michelangelo. They are basically decorative framing devices.

Q. Are we allowed to use pencils on the exam?

A. I prefer pen because it is easier to read. Then you just scratch out your mistakes. I don't care about what you might have written so you don't even have to scratch out alot. But if you feel that you can only write in pencil I guess that is okay, but you need to use the kind that you don't have to sharpen!

Q. What pieces would best reflect the terms Humanism and Absolute Monarchy. This is somewhat difficult to rationalize given Humanism is a rather broad category of philosophy, and Absolute Monarchy is a form of government. Your thoughts?

A. Well, remember that Humanism (as we are using it in this class) is just where an artist or culture looks to the ancient Roman / Greek / Hellenic past for their models of (sculpture, philosophy, ethics (democracy) etc. So you can really use anything like Michelangelo’s David, the Ignudi, or even Oath of the Horatii. For Absolute Monarchy you could use the “Portrait of Louis XIV” (1701) by Hyacinthe Rigaud, or, if that is too hard you could say that David’s “Oath of the Horatii” was used during the French Revolution as a propaganda image for the young Revolutionary Republicans to unite around in their revolt against the Ancien Regime / Absolute Monarchy.

Q. How are we being graded? Are we on an absolute scale, i.e. 90-100 A, etc., or are we on some sort of distribution of "curve"? Also, are you grading our midterms or will it be a GSI group effort?

A. The grading is just like the paper. As and Bs and Cs with +s and –s. I don’t grade on a curve but curves just naturally happen because of the quality of the products. If by some chance everyone wrote an A+ midterm, and I could prove it by showing Professor Olson all the perfect tests, then I would have no problem giving everyone an A+. We are not required to grade on a curve, but it has always been my experience in the past that a natural distribution occurs. And yes, I am grading them, all by myself.

Q. I'm having a hard time defining Academy and Absolute Monarchy in relation to art/art history and coming up with the kind of examples that best exemplify them.

A. I answered the Absolute Monarchy one for someone else (see above). "Academy" was/(is) a school that taught painting and fine arts. The first one was founded in 1648 and became most important under Charles Le Brun during the reign of Louis the XIV (14th) in France. In the Beaux-Arts (Fine Arts) Academies artists first learned to draw from picture books, then plaster models and then nude male models. Only men could (originally) attend the Academy. David attended the Academy and painted the “Oath of the Horatii”.

Q. When asking for a location and the painting doesn't have one- would the location be the museum that houses it or where the painting was originally painted?

A. If there is not a place listed on the study list or on the original slide list then you are not required to know it. For our purposes it is probably most important to know the place it was originally intended for.

Q. When we are defining the "terms" and need to include an artist and piece, do we explain why they are related? Or just name a related artwork?

A. I admit that I am a bit puzzled by this question. You must first define the term and then give an example that illustrates the term / your definition by naming the name of the artwork and also giving the name of the artist. The artist is necessarily related to the artwork by virtue of having made it.

GOOD LUCK and SEE YOU TUESDAY!![edit]

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