Assignment: Visit any of the area’s museums (almost any of the Smithsonians, Galleries, etc.)(Any one will suffice for this, but please check in with me BEFORE choosing your museum if your thinking of some peculiar non-Western museum if you’re thinking a bit outside the box). Remember that our survey only covers part of the history of Western Civilization and some museums will be more connected to each period (and thus make the task of analysis much easier).
Details: Choose an exhibit that attempts an historical interpretation at some idea/ theme/person/event/whatever that touches on some aspect of our class. Think of the ways we’ve been talking about art and music in class as the kind of approach you should take.
Take a picture of the exhibit or piece of art you’ve chosen.
After returning from the Museum, write a well organized, well written and well reasoned essay of approximately 2 pages in which you situate your personal reaction to the ‘art’ you visited within the larger historical context of Western Civilization. That means moving beyond feelings (“I liked how this painting looked”) to demonstrating an understanding of what elements of Europe’s history were shown in the piece/exhibit (“This statue reflects the underlying ‘human-ness’ so important to the Renaissance period’s newly recaptured Hellenistic ethos”). In your paper be sure to demonstrate mastery of: 1) the contents and presentation of the art piece/exhibit; and
2) the larger historical context—not only in terms of the immediate context of the art’s time period but also the longer historical context of Western Civilization stretching back centuries that also played a role in developing this art.
DO NOT REVIEW/SUMMARIZE THE EXHIBIT. The goal here is to use the museum as a historical source: is it accurate, fair, balanced? What ‘thesis’ does the exhibit or piece present? Is the thesis valid? Art and/or museums can be good history or awful. Use you textbook or other readings as a source to ‘check’ the exhibit/collection. There is no need to do outside research. Note that as with all of your writing this semester, I will be using our Paper Rubric (on BB) to assess your work.
To sum up, use the ideas and materials we have covered in class to look at European history as presented in the art/museum. See the revers of this side for some guidance.
As noted in the syllabus, your ?nal writing of the semester involves going to a museum and viewing a piece of art and, as we do for each our lectures, analyze and synthesize the ideas and the themes of Western Civilization as they are re?ected in the piece or exhibit you chose. Don’t fell as though you need to answer each and every question listed below: use the questions to help direct and focus your essay (not to determine its content). As we have seen, art can form a very powerful kind of primary source and it reveals a lot of detail about the culture and time that produced it.
Source 1. Date of the image? (When was it made?) 2. Creator of the image? 3. What kind of image is it? 4. For what audience was the image created?
Observe 1. Summarize the image in your own words. 2. Why do you think this image was created? 3. Identify at least two things about this image you think are important.
Contextualize 1. List two things the image tells you about life in Western Civilization at the time it was created. 2. What major events were happening in the world during the time this image was created? 3. Do you know about other people, places and events from the same time as this image? If so, how does your knowledge help you better understand the signi?cance and perspectives in this image?
Corroborate 1. What questions does this image raise in your mind? 2. What sorts of other evidence or soruces might help you answer your questions?
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