You have been given a photocopy of a work of art dealing with one of the following persons or groups:
an Eyptian god or goddess
a Greek god or goddess
an Old Testament king, prophet or progenitor
The Evangelists
St. Peter
Go to the library and find out what you can about your subject. Are there any objects in your image that need to be explained? Is your figure interacting or compared with another figure or group? What is the relationship? Is there a specific event going on? Explain. Is there a textual source - if so cite it. Is your figure being portrayed as a particular type, for example Christ as teacher, Achilles as warrior, etc.
You might find some relevant information in the reference section of the library under the following Library of Congress specifications:
BL Dictionaries of Mythology (both Egyptian and Greek and Roman)
BS Bible Dictionaries
BX New Catholic Encyclopedia
Lives of the Saints
Dictionaries of Saints
N7560 H34 Hall, Dictionary of Subjects and Symbols in Art
N7830 Iconographic Dictionaries
see esp. Schiller, Iconography of Christian Art (2 vols)
(If you take these reference books down to the photocopy area, please return them to the reference section so other students have a chance to use them. It can take a week or longer for them to be reshelved from the photocopy area!)
Write an essay discussing what you need to know to understand your image. Focus particularly on the figure whose name is underlined. Discuss any other figures in relation to this one, but be sure you discuss all the elements of the work of art that you can. It is OK to speculate, but be sure you distinguish between what is based on the information you have found and what is your speculation. Make sure you deal with how the information you have found explains your image. Don't just write a report on the person without referring to the image. Point out features of the image which relate to what you've found.
Do not copy from the books you use. Give the information relevant to your picture in your own words. Make specific reference to your image. Footnote if you need to quote or paraphrase a passage. FOOTNOTES ARE NECESSARY, EVEN IF YOU CHANGE THE WORDS SLIGHTLY.
In order to indicate where you got your information you need to include a bibliography - a listing of the books you used. At the end of your essay give bibliography entries for each book or dictionary you use. Consult Sylvan Barnet, A Short Guide to Writing About Art, for sample bibliography entries and footnotes. (Available on reserve at the library, in my office, or at the bookstore.)
YOU MUST HAVE AT LEAST 2 BIBLIOGRAPHY ENTRIES IN THE FOLLOWING FORM (AN "A" ON THIS CRITERIA WILL REQUIRE MORE THAN 2) :
SAMPLE BIBLIOGRAPHY ENTRY: (do not use this one !!!)
Adams, Laurie Schneider. Art Across Time. Vol 1. Boston: McGraw-Hill, 1999.
[If your entry is two lines long the second line is indented.]
General Format:
Last name, first name of author.Title of Book (Underlined or
in Italics).City published: Publisher, copyright date.
Be sure to copy this information from each book you use. It is much harder to go back and try to find it.
AT LEAST ONE OF YOUR BIBLIOGRAPHY ENTRIES MUST BE A PRINTED
SOURCE, NOT A WEB SOURCE
IMPORTANT: You may not plagiarize your sources. To learn
what this means, go to THIS SITE and look particularly at the examples
and the test. When you think you understand, go to ESSAYS in Blackboard
and take the Plagiarism Test worth 10 points. You may take the
test as many times as you like up to the day the Essay is due.
PLANNING TO USE WIKIPEDIA? Please note that Wikipedia can be changed or added to by people who are NOT experts in the field. Please note this policy drafted by Professor Alan Liu at UC-Santa Barbara - A Wikipedia citation can be an appropriate convenience when the point being supported is minor, noncontroversial, or also supported by other evidence. In addition, Wikipedia is an appropriate source for some extremely recent topics (especially in popular culture or technology) for which it provides the sole or best available synthetic, analytical or historical discussion. Since articles are continually contested and changed, citing Wikipedia without noting the date accessed is meaningless.
IMAGES: Art history is about works of art, so making connections to other works of art is always important. Are there other images you have run across that have some connection to yours? For example, if you had an image of Peter from Christian religion, could you find him in another scene in which he looks in some way similar to your image? You have probably read that Peter often carries keys. If he doesn't in your image, have you seen one in which he does hold the keys. If you find some comparison images be sure to discuss the relationship to your image in your essay.
When you find related images:
1. cut them out and paste them to the same type paper you have used for your essay.
2. Label them as follows:
figure # - give each image a number based on the order in which your paper refers to them. Point your reader to the image by number in your essay text. See figure #.
identification - title or description, what kind of object, date, etc. - anything you know from the description in your book
source - the book from which you photocopied the image. Use the same type reference that you do in your bibliography in the order given
Author (first name, last name), Title, (City published: publisher, date), figure or page #. THIS IS VERY IMPORTANT AND MUST BE INCLUDED.
YOU SHOULD HAVE AT LEAST ONE COMPARISON IMAGE IDENTIFIED WITH SOURCE (as described above) AND DISCUSSED IN RELATIONSHIP TO YOUR IMAGE. (AN "A" ON THIS CRITERIA WILL REQUIRE MORE THAN ONE)
TURN IN YOUR PHOTOCOPY WITH YOUR ESSAY!
A suggestion for organization of your essay:
I. Introduction - what work of art and what person will you be dealing with?
II. Discussion of what you have found out about your person
III. Description of story connected to your image if there is one. If there is not a particular story but the figure is in some situation (such as a dead person before Osiris), how does this situation relate to the figure (i.e. why would a dead person want to consult Osiris in particular?) In other words connect what you have found in your research to what you see in the image.
IV. Any other figures, objects or symbols which appear in your image which you have not discussed - who or what are they and how do they relate to your central figure?
V. Any features you could not find out about that you would like more information about or that you might speculate about briefly.
VI. Conclusion - a brief reiteration of what your image is and how it might have been interpreted in its time.
VERY IMPORTANT: You should read about the subject matter and then write your essay in your own words. If you use the words of someone else they must be put in quotation marks and you must include a reference. Simply paraphrasing (changing the order of words, leaving a few words out, or substituting a few words while leaving most unchanged) is not acceptable. This is plagiarism. Read the story or information, put the book away, and discuss in your own words the relationship between the story and your image. Then put a reference in your essay (Author, p#) to indicate what infomation came from which source. BE SURE TO TAKE THE PLAGIARISM TEST WHICH GIVES SPECIFIC EXAMPLES.