CONTEXTUAL ANALYSIS

Contextual Analysis Assignment
Due: May 15th (uploaded to MyClasses by 1:30pm) ***LATE ASSIGNMENTS NOT ACCEPTED!***
This assignment is an exercise in looking at art, through the lens of art history. This assignment supplements our in-class experience with an online encounter with art objects. You will have visited the Metropolitan Museum of Art online and filled out the museum worksheet. Choose one work from your museum worksheet that you want to write about. That work will form the basis of your analysis and argument in the Contextual Analysis paper.
Preparation for writing the paper consists of two components:
1. A concise but close first-hand formal analysis of your work based on your visit to the museum. We practiced formal analysis in the introduction and as one of the first paper assignments in the class. The formal analysis in this paper should only take up a paragraph at most, but will serve to help illustrate your argument.
2. The reading and analysis of at least two scholarly sources that have particular relevance to your selected object. I have put several sources on reserve at the library and will provide links to catalogues that the Met has digitized as well at the end of this document. You must have any outside sources beyond the ones on reserve approved before you write your paper.
These guides about art historical writing can be helpful and both are on reserve at the library:
Look! by Anne D’Alleva and Sylvan Barnet’s A Short Guide to Writing About Art.
The paper must be typed in 12pt Times New Roman font, double-spaced, with 1-inch margins, numbered pages, and at least three full pages, if not four pages. Review the formatting and proofreading tips in the Writing Rules handout before you upload your paper.
You MUST ALWAYS cite your sources. For direct quotes (when you use the exact words of the author) insert a footnote after the quote, and provide the citation information in the footnote (using the Chicago Manual of Style (CMoS) footnote-bibliography citation format), see the link below for details on how to cite different kinds of sources: https://owl.purdue.edu/owl/research_and_citation/chicago_manual_17th_edition/cmos_formattin g_and_style_guide/chicago_manual_of_style_17th_edition.html
You must also cite a source if you are using an idea proposed by an author and paraphrase their words—you have to give credit where credit is due, so insert a footnote after the paraphrased section, and again cite the source of the idea in CMoS. In addition to your footnotes, include a bibliography of any sources you cited in your notes and that you also might have come across that influenced the ideas in your paper. Your bibliography will contain at least your textbook and your two scholarly sources, plus the Met’s website, and other sources.
Plagiarism is a VERY SERIOUS offense, and will be reported to the academic judiciary, so err on the side of caution and cite something if you aren’t sure!!!
Structure of paper:
1.) Your 3-4-page discussion should open with a description of your artwork and a thesis statement declaring your primary question and suggesting a hypothesis that can answer this question. For example: Why did Vermeer paint A Maid Asleep as a domestic interior? Proposed answer: he presented a moralizing genre scene within the home to remind viewers to avoid the
Museum Info on the image: The Metropolitan Museum of Art visit: www.metmuseum.org,
Text BOOK : Kleiner, Fred S. Gardner’s Art Through the Ages: A Concise Western History, Boston, MA: Cengage Learning, Inc.: 2016 (4th edition, ISBN-10: 1-305-58106-7).