WRITING ABOUT ART
	Visual Analysis Formal Elements and Pinciples of Design (Composition) Content  Contextual Analysis Compare-Contrast Analysis Style of Writing and Paper Organization: Organization Style: 1.Titles, 2.Numerals, 3.Capitalization, 4.Spelling and hyphenation, 5.Abbreviations, 6.Italics, 7.Quotations, 8.Footnotes (Endnotes), 9.Bibliography Reviewing  Revising

• In academic writing, the style of either the essay or the paper (distinguished mainly by their length) depends on the very purpose of the writing itself. Therefore, you need to pay very careful attention to the details of the specific assignment.
• Within any Art History class, we can broadly divide your assignments in two general categories: essays that do and essays that do not require research. The two categories are inevitably related to one another.   Regardless, one ought to start with the essential assumption that your writings about art indeed will be about art. That is, art history is different from other social disciplines (anthropology, psychology, sociology) and humanities (history, literature, etc.) precisely in that it is (or ought to be) object oriented, i.e., related to an object of art, a work of art. This presupposition defines all further points.
• To explore explore a work of art in its entire complexity, we need to single out its various aspects:
• The most obvious is "look of it", the STYLE, which analyzes the formal (visible) aspects of the work through the  so-called Visual analysis.

An object of art is a visual document/a record  of its time, we also need to examine formative influences beyond what is apparent and can be seen that influence the content or the MEANING of a work of art. The several inter-related formative influences are: Historical position/circumstances, purpose/function, subject (iconography, i.e., what is being depicted, and iconology, i.e., what the depicted images mean within a specific cultural context).  Examination of these issues is central to the so-called Contextual Analysis, and/or Compare-Contrast Analysis.
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STYLE: total aesthetic character ( the "look of it") distinguished from the meaning (content). The most obvious and the most "visible" issue determining our discussion of any particular work of art is revolving about its style. Alas, this will be where we shall start, with the so-called Visual Analysis.

• A visual analysis is--on the most basic level--an interpretation of a work of art based completely on its formal properties. It is a "formal analysis" of perception and representation made by different artists of different times and places describing the world around them or their experiences.
• By definition, a visual analysis relies only on what is visually evident, with little or no consideration of what is external to the work (when it was created, by whom, where, for what purpose, etc., i.e., social/political context).
• A visual analysis may be written without any research (on the other hand, any good research paper should include--if not start with--visual analysis).
Most importantly, visual analysis is NOT a mere description!
A description is an impersonal "inventory" cataloguing the visual elements in the work of art:
e.g., "The pupils of the eyes [of a figure] are turned upward."
Visual analysis implies a judgement forming the relationship between the cause and effect:
e.g., "The pupils of the eyes [of a figure] are turned upward which points viewers attention heavenward, shifting the focus from the figure to the implied point beyond the picture space."

• Line: Edges of shapes (contour lines) or
• Strokes which indicate surface texture or
• Compositional lines--the actual or implied lines that the viewer's eyes follow or that are indicated by the action
• It is helpful to describe the line characteristics in a piece: vertical, horizontal, diagonal (parallel to the picture plane or not); long or short; smooth or jerky; thick or thin, and so on.
• Lines serve to define shapes and surfaces, to move our eyes, to join and to separate, and to create mood.
• Shape: Shape refers to a flat area (which may or may not have a defined contour fine).
• A positive shape is a shape formed by one object or a group of objects.
• A negative shape is the shape of the void between objects.
• An organic (biomorphic) shape is one that resembles the flowing contours of an organism.
• A geometric shape is regular (circles, triangles, squares etc.).
• Shapes create mood, suggest space if overlapped, and create pattern when repeated.
• Form: shape of an object (2-D and 3-D)
• Light/Dark: their relationship suggests form; indicated by value, shading, quality of ligh, also to direct viewers attention, to create an emotional response.
• may refer to Value (also called Key): lightness or darkness. For example: A work might be described as having high value--painted in light colors; another work might have a strong contrast of value (for instance, pinks and dark reds, or black and white).
• Volume: indicates three-dimensionality (without connotation of shape), i.e., an object has volume when it is perceived as taking up space.
• Mass: indicates spatial content; i.e., an object has mass when it is perceived as having weight.
• Color: In the late nineteenth century, artists and scientists developed a standard color theory which is still used to describe an artist's use of color.
• Definitions:
• Hue--a word used in the art field to describe a particular color. What, in common language, we might label as different colors    (for example, pink and red) are, in fact, the same hue.
• Value--the lightness or darkness of a color. One hue has numerous values, ranging from high (light) through medium to low (dark).
• Intensity (also called Saturation and Purity)--the brightness or dullness of a color. A bright color is high intensity; a dull color is low.
• Basic relationships of different hues are:
• Primaries,
• Secondaries,
• Intermediates,
• Monochromatic,
• Analogous
• Warm Colors--colors we associate with fire and sunshine: reds, yellows, oranges
• Cool Colors--colors we associate with water and sky: blues, greens, violets
• Colors are used:
• 1. to create space (usually warm colors advance and cool colors recede)
• 2. to create mood
• 3. to convey ideas through symbolism
• 4. to draw the viewer's attention
• Space: flat/deep, perspective, etc. Do the shapes recede into the space? where is the focus of attention in relation to the space?
• Spatial depth can be suggested in a two-dimensional work (one done on a flat surface) in a variety of ways:
• overlapping
• changes in value
• placement in the picture plane (lower = closer; higher = farther)
• size (larger = closer; smaller = farther)
• color (warm colors usually advance; cool colors recede)
• atmospheric perspective (or aerial perspective): objects in the distance appear less detailed and the colors are greyed
• intuitive (empirical) perspective: lines in the work seem to recede into a focal area
• linear (or geometric) perspective: a mathematical system based on the fact that lines receding away from the viewer appear to converge at one or more vanishing points

• - repoussoir (an object/shape/form establishing/defining the picture plane)
• - foreground, middle ground, background
• - coulisse (a backdrop establishing the limit of the pictorial space)
• Treatment of space contributes to the tone and the mood of the subject.
• Texture:Texture can refer to the physical surface of the work (that is, of the medium--the paint, stone, and so on) or to textures created or suggested by the artist which are labeled as:
• simulated: meant to imitate something real
• abstracted: derived from real textures
• invented: made up by the artist

• Focus (pl. foci), focal point, also focus of attention - usually the part of the composition that draws the viewer's attention, i.e., a center of attention (not necessarily same as the center of the work). Direction toward the focus provides movement, i.e., it leads the eye. Focus suggests issues of balance.
• Balance: if the visual "weights" are distributed properly within the pictorial space (or on the picture plane); equilibrium is created. Balance is created when each side of a work seems to "weigh" the same.
• WEIGH is a quality not only of the size describing the shapes and the volume, but also of color, intensity, and the importance.
• If the composition is balanced around the focus it is called "closed."
• Imbalanced or dynamic composition is called "open."
• symmetrical balance: the weights on the left and nght are the same and the focal point is in the center
• approximately symmetrical balance: the weights on the left and right are essentially the same, and the focal point is in the center
• asymmetrical balance: the focal point is on one side or the other, and the equilibrium is achieved by dissimilar mean
• Scale/Proportions (vertical/horizontal; modular/hierarchical, etc.) Detail- how sharply is it defined.
• dominance an element (or elements) has more importance in the work
• economy simplification; reduction to the essentials
• proportion relative size relationship between the parts
• Pattern most of the elements mentioned above (line, color, light and shade) can be combined into patterns of recurring motifs of a certain regularity of recognizable variations.
• Rhythm a flow throughout the work, created by repetition
• Motion/Movement suggested by repetition of elements, implied lines leading to the focal point, sequence of scenes (in continuous narrative); motion often suggests the flow of time
• Unity/Variety (emphasis/subordination; high/low contrast; monochromatic/ polychromatic; etc.)unity is achieved when everything is properly related
• Execution
• "painterly", i.e., with visible loose brush strokes, (this can be also sculpture with visible "hand" of the artist)
• "linear" with tight, not immediately obvious brush strokes.

    Historically, art was about something.   In the Visual Analysis, one can immediately recognize certain elements of the composition (figures, etc.). Naturaly one asks "What is being depicted?"(iconography) and  "What it all means?"(iconology). The subject (the MEANING/CONTENT of the work) is  based on the social/historical circumstances external to the work (a man with widely spread arms may allude to Crucifixion only in the western and, furthermore, Christian tradition).  Examination of these issues is central to the so-called Contextual Analysis.

• Historical circumstance
• Most of the art throughout history had not only intrinsic meaning but also a meaning within the larger social context. No art is created in a vacuum because no artist can escape being a part of his/her culture. Therefore a complete examination of the content of a work of art has to take this into account. It focuses on what is external to the work of art.
• Iconology
• Iconology is an analysis of what the visual "pictogram" means. For example, a woman holding a baby in Egyptian art represents the goddess Isis with her son Osirus, while the same image in Medieval Art depicts the Madonna (The Virgin with the Christ child). Hence, this is where a study of textual, historical, and other than visual evidence becomes important for Art History. It is by examining the stories, the systems of beliefs, and the circumstances of the creation of the work within different cultures that allows us to discriminate between the meaning of the work of art.
• Purpose (use, function)
• For example, the same object used in private domain or, on the other hand, in the religious setting, would be viewed differently. A mortuary temple is quite different from a temple for everyday worship, even if the images and symbols used for their decoration are not that dissimilar.

It is NOT simply a sequential yet separate discussion of two works of art. Rather, specific points relating to the subject, the style, the historical circumstances, the purpose, etc. are interwoven as the works of art are considered back and forth. ALL of the chosen points/issues need to be discussed in both/all works!  Essentially you are considering how are the works different and how are they similar.

You need to ask questions related to both form and content. Are they the same? Are there subtle differences which are not obvious at first glance? Are the works constructed in the same manner in matters such as space, pattern, composition, technique, light/dark, etc. Are these differences related to any particular movement (external force) or goals of the artist?

NB.: When comparing and contrasting two works of art, you need to pay particular attention not only to the individual styles but also the goals of the two styles. The differences and similarities should always be tied to these goals.

Art History Paper/Essay Organization and Style Sheet

    All essays must be typed, double spaced, 1" margins on all sides

Proper organization of your essay is as follows

• Title page (containing title, your name, instructors name, and class title and number) has NO page number
• All the following pages (Text, Illustrations and Bibliography) are to be numbered consecutively.
• Illustrations (one illustration per page) should have captions on the bottom (figure numbers, e.g., "Fig.1" followed by all relevant information available: name of the artist, title, date, location etc.)
• Bibliography must be in proper form (see below).

• Style: based on the style quide used by the Art Bulletin (publication of CAA -College Art Association)
• For general questions of style, consult MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers,latest ed. (Modern Language Association, New York).
• For citation style see below or the Chicago Style Manual
• For spelling, refer to Webster's New Collegiate Dictionary.

• 1. Titles
• Titles of works of art, like those of books, periodicals, exhibitions, etc., should be underlined or in italic type (never both).
• Titles of articles, dissertations, poems, etc., should be given in quotation marks. You may use a short form after the first reference.
• 2. Numerals
• Spell out numbers beginning sentences, including dates: e.g., "Seventeen seventy-six lives in American history."
• Spell out centuries in articles ("seventeenth century"), but use Arabic numerals ("17th century") in notes, book reviews, and captions.
• 3. Capitalization
• Capitalize names of works of art, including buildings
• In titles of publications in English, cap. first word, last word, all nouns, pronouns, adjectives, verbs, adverbs, and subordinate conjunctions. Lowercase articles, coordinate conjunctions, prepositions, and the to in infinitives. Follow these rules regardless of the capitalization used on the book's title page.
• In general, sharply delimited period titles are capitalized, whereas large periods and terms applicable to several periods are not:
• e.g., Archaic, Baroque, Early and High Renaissance, EarlyChristian, Gothic, Greek Classicism of the fifth century (otherwise, classicism), Imperial, Impressionism, Islamic, Mannerist, Middle Ages, Neoclassicism for the late eighteenth-century movement (otherwise, neoclassicism), Post-Impressionism, Pre-Columbian, Rococo, Roman, Romanesque, Romantic period, Xth Dynasty.
• antique, antiquity, classicism (see above), medieval, modern, neoclassicism (see above), postmodern, prehistoric, quattrocento.
• Capitalize theological terms: Apostles, Archangel Gabriel, Baptism, Benedictional, Child, Christ Child, Church Fathers, Crucifixion, Eucharist/Eucharistic, Evangelists, God the Father, Gospel Book, Heaven, Holy Communion, Immaculate Conception, Incarnation, Infant, Judgment Day, Judgment of Solomon, Man of Sorrows, Mass, Massacre of the Innocents, Mother, Nativity, Original Sin, Passion Play, Pontifical, Prophets and Sibyls, Scripture, Three Marys, Virtues and Vices (cap. each of them, e.g., Envy/Invidia).
• In general, capitalize formally named theological terms and lowercase those generically referred to: archangels, birth and death of Christ, breviary, canon tables, communion, disciples, his birth (no capitalized pronominal adjectives), prayer book, sacrament.
• 4. Spelling and hyphenation:
• For spelling and hyphenation, use the first choice in Webster's Collegiate and follow the examples below:
• a historical fact, not an historical fact
• aesthetic, archaeology
• appendixes, indexes, but codices
• Asian, not Oriental
• avant-garde (noun and adj.)
• bas-relief
• black-figure (only as adj.)
• catalogue, catalogue raisonné
• draftsman
• focusing, modeling, labeling, traveling
• freestanding
• frescoes, but halos, manifestos, torsos
• ground plan
• inquiry, but ensure
• medium, media
• mid-fourteenth century
• millennia
• molding
• practice
• preeminent, reevaluation, but re-creation
• self-portrait
• sketchbook
• still-life (adj.), still life (noun)
• terra-cotta (adj.), terra cotta (noun)
• wall painting
• watercolor
• well-known (before noun); well known
• Whenever in doubt, use dictionary!
• - Use traditional English form for foreign place names.
• - For possessives, add an apostrophe and an s for all names, including those ending in s or a sibilant,  Keats's, Degas's, Eakins's, Marx's), except for Jesus,' Moses,' and Greek names (Xerxes').
• 5. Abbreviations
• In general, use standard abbreviations in footnotes, but abbreviate sparingly in main text.
• Saint: Use Saint and the standard form of the name in English in referring to saints. For places, churches, etc., use the local form, abbreviating where possible ( St. Louis, Mo.; St- Denis; Ste-Chapelle; S. Apollinare, S. Lucia, SS. Annunziata).
• 6. Italics (you can use underline instead of italics, especially if you are using typewriter)
• Italicize words and phrases in a foreign language that are likely to be unfamiliar to readers: for example, cire perdue; modello (pl. modelli); ricordo. A full sentence in a foreign language should be set in roman type.
• Familiar words and phrases should be in roman type: for example, a priori; élan; facade; in situ; oeuvre; papier-mâché; pentimento (pl. pentimenti); plein air; repertoire; trompe l'oeil. Please try to limit the use of foreign-language words in text; where it is essential, include the English translation in parentheses.
• 7. Quotations
• Quotations must be absolutely accurate and carefully transcribed. An ellipsis (three spaced dots) indicates words dropped within a sentence. A period and three spaced dots indicates a deletion between sentences.
• Extracts of more than 50 words should be typed without opening and closing quotation marks, single-spaced in block form, i.e., indented one inch from left margin. Shorter quotations should be run into the text.
• 8. Footnotes (or Endnotes)
• NO references should appear in text! This is different from the MLA style!  In the text the place of the note is indicated by a arabic numeral in superscript.⁽¹⁾
• All of the notes must be numbered consecutively throughout the essay (NOT page by page).
• All references to publications and the like should appear in full form only once, and otherwise in a short form (Author's last name, page number). The full form is essentially same as a bibliographical entry EXCEPT that the first name appears first.
• Give names in full (John Rupert Martin rather than J. R. Martin, unless the author is given with initials only on the title page).

2. Annibale Caro, Lettere familiari, II, ed. A. Greco (Milan: Publisher, 1957), 401-5.

3. William M. Smith, Medieval Painting, 2nd ed., (Paris: Publisher, 1925), 195-96.

4. Henry-Russell Hitchcock, Architecture: Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries (1957), Pelican History of Art, rev. ed. (Baltimore: Publisher, 1966), 21-42.

5. Annual of the American Academy in Rome, III (Rome: Publisher, 1922), passim. ("Passim" should be used sparingly; better to give inclusive page numbers.)

6. Catalogue of the Library, sale cat., Christie's, New York, July 29, 1925.

    Article in periodical
1. Wilibald SauerlÓnder, "Die kunstgeschichtliche Stellung Westportale von Notre-Dame in Paris," Marburger Jahrbuch für Kunstwissenschaft 17 (1959): 1-55.

2. Jan Jennings, "Leila Ross Wilburn, Plan-Book Architect," Woman's Art Journal, Spring-Summer 1989, 15.

3. Antonio Natali, "Altro da Pontormo e Bronzino?" Antichità Viva, nos. 2-3, (1989): 136-37.

Distinguish between vol. and no.: Art Bulletin, 52, no. 3 [note: no The in titles of journals]. Please note that if issue no. is given, it is unnecessary to give the month of publication.

• 9. Bibliography
• Entries are essentially same as the first citation )above) except that authors last name appears first.
• All entries should be organized in alphabetical order by authors last name.
• The form is essentially same as in the notes, except, when there are many contributions by the same author, they should be organized by date, placed after the author's name, with earliest date cited first:

REVIEWING AND REVISING

PEER REVIEW (Grading)
    You are required to discuss your work with another student (or with a small group of students). That is, you may be asked to get a review from your peers. Such a procedure is helpful in several ways.
    First, it gives the writer a real audience, readers who can point to what pleases or puzzles them, who make suggestions, who may often disagree (With the writer or With each other), and who frequently, though not intentionally, misread.
    Second, though writers don't necessarily like everything they hear (they seldom hear "This is perfect. Don't change a word!"), reading and discussing their work with others almost always gives them a fresh perspective on their work, and a fresh perspective may stimulate thoughtful revision. Having your intentions misread, because your writing isn't clear enough, can be particularly stimulating. It points out passages that need clarification. It is one thing to "know" what he/she is saying and another to actually communicate it to a reader.
    Finally, students regularly reading for each other become better readers of their own work and consequently better revisers. And, as you probably know, learning to write is in large measure learning to read.

• Checklist for Peer Review
• Read the paper once, quickly. Then read it again in such a way that you should be able to jot down brief responses to the following questions. If you feel that you CANNOT answer these questions, point that out to the writer for his/her correction.
• What is the essay's topic? Does it fulfill the assignment? (or Does the draft show promise of fulfilling the assignment? Is the title appropriate? --More important in the independent research projects)
• Looking at the essay as a whole, what thesis (main idea) is stated (preferable) or implied? If implied, try to state it in your own words.
• Is the thesis plausible? How might it be strengthened?
• Looking at each paragraph separately:
• What is the basic point?
• How does each paragraph relate to the essay's main idea or to the previous paragraph? .
• Should some paragraphs be deleted be divided into two or more paragraphs? be combined? be put elsewhere? (if you outline the essay by jotting down the gist of each paragraph, you will get help in answering these questions.)
• Is each sentence clearly related to the sentence that precedes and to the sentence that follows?
• Is each paragraph adequately developed? Are there sufficient details to support the generalizations?
• Are the introductory and concluding paragraphs effective?
• Are the necessary illustrations included, and are they adequately identified?
• What are the paper's chief strengths?
• Ultimately, does the essay prove the thesis, is it convincing? (Did the writer convinced you as a reader and provided enough information to convince you?)

REVISING YOUR DRAFT (applicable to the Contextual and Compare/Contrast essays)

• As writers ask yourselves such questions as:
• Do I mean what I say?
• Do I say what I mean? (Answering this question will cause you to ask yourself such questions as, Do I need to define my terms? add examples to clarify? reorganize the material so that a reader can grasp it?)
• During this part of the process of writing, you want to read the draft in a skeptical frame of mind. In taking account of your doubts, you will probably unify, organize, clarify, and polish the draft.

Organization is largely a matter of arranging material into a sequence that will assist the reader to grasp the point. If you reread your draft and jot down a paragraph outline--a series of sentences, one under the other, each sentence summarizing one paragraph--you can then see if the draft has a reasonable organization, a structure that will let the reader move easily from the beginning to the end. (Basically the reader needs to be able to follow your train of thought)

Clarity is achieved largely by providing concrete details, examples, and quotations to support generalizations, and by providing helpful transitions ("for instance," "furthermore," "on the other hand," "however").

Polish is small-scale revision. One deletes unnecessary repetitions, combines choppy sentences into longer sentences, and breaks overly long sentences into shorter sentences.

        If you have written your draft on a word processor, do not try to revise it on the monitor. Print the entire draft, and then read it--as your reader will be reading it--page by page, not screen by screen. Almost surely you will detect errors in a hard copy that you miss on the screen. Only by reading the printed copy will you be able to see if, for instance, paragraphs are too long.
 

        After producing a draft that seems good enough to show to someone, writers engage in yet another activity. They edit. Editing includes such work as checking the accuracy of quotations by comparing them with the original, checking a dictionary for the spelling of doubtful words, and checking a handbook for doubtful punctuation-for instance, whether a comma or a semicolon is needed in a particular sentence.