Assignment Discussion 1a:

Choose one of the following thematic options, and find one piece of art for one of the following trends:

  • Artistic borrowing from the ancient Greco-Roman world. A work by Brunelleschi, Donatello, or Michelangelo might make a good choice.
  • The artistic skills used to convincingly recreate optical perception. A painting would be a good choice to illustrate this trend. Masaccio, Sandro Botticelli, Filippo Lippi, Domenico Ghirlandaio, Andrea Mantegna, Titian, Michelangelo, and Raphael all had the various skills to create believable depth and convincing illusion.
  • Contemporary portraiture as it celebrates individual achievement or personal wealth. A portrait often reflects an agreement between artist and sitter on how the sitter wants to be perceived. Great Renaissance portraits were produced by Sandro Botticelli, Domenico Ghirlandaio, Raphael, Leonardo, and Giovani Battista Moroni along with many others.

The pop-ups in the pictures will help you develop the power of looking, and train your eye to see art through the lens of a critic just like our curator

  • Filippo Brunelleschi, Church of San Lorenzo interior, completed 1470, Florence
  • Sandro Botticelli, Annunciation, 1490, tempera on panel, Kelvingrove Art Museum and Gallery, Glasgow, Scotland
  • Titian, Eleanora Gonzaga, Duchess of Urbino, 1538, oil on canvas, Uffizi Gallery, Florence

You will need to do some research to understand on the artwork that you chose, and the best place to start is with the museum website.

  1. Introduce the artwork by providing artist, title, date, medium (materials it is made from, such as oil paint on panel), museum that owns it, and the trend is represents. Following are two helpful sites to search for art samples: Metropolitan Museum in New York City;Uffizi Gallery in Florence.
  2. Explain the subject of the artwork, providing specifics.
  3. Describe the style attributes. Guide your reader’s eye around the work by describing specifics.  Are there style borrowings from the ancient world? How has the artist created an illusion of deep space and a tangible world?
  4. Supply some historic context for your artwork.
  5. Include an illustration or link to the artwork.
  6. Cite your source(s) within the text and provide a reference(s).