Essay Instructions: Choose only ONE question.
1. In what ways was the Gothic cathedral as much a civic building as a religious one? Discuss with reference to ONE cathedral with particular attention to its planning and development, building, architecture, decoration and patronage.
2. The Renaissance was a period of technical advances in painting. Discuss some of the technical advances in painting and what role they played in the major artistic achievements of the period in EITHER Italy OR Flanders. Support your answer with discussion of works by TWO artists.
3. Concern with the analysis and vivid representation of emotion played an important part in Baroque art. Provide a critical analysis of artworks from the Baroque period from BOTH classical AND religious sources to support this statement.
4. The Neo-classicism that developed in Rome during the Enlightenment of the 18th century was characterized by a dependence on sources from ancient Greece. Discuss with reference to ONE of the following: (i) Classical subject matter OR (ii) Heroic nudity OR (iii) Classical architecture
------------------------------------------------------------
The study materials for this unit comprise :
Study Materials
Plan
Guide
Reader
Art on the WEB
There are a large number of locations where you can access art collections on the web. Many of the major galleries in the world have a web site, from which you can download the images that they hold - often not reproduced in books. Many artists around the world also have their own web page , though these are often of little real consequence.
Some WEB sites that may be of interest to you are:
Australian Broadcasting Commission
http://www.abc.net.
The ABC has a comprehensive web page which has details of all of their programs; up-to-date news and current affairs; transcripts of many of the shows broadcast on Radio National; and will also direct you to other sites.
The ABC also offers 'The Space' a gateway to Art and Culture online
http://www.abc.net./arts/
National Gallery
http://www.nla.gov.
The National Gallery of Australia's site holds a wealth of pictures of artworks and photographs with an emphasis on Australia.
http://www.nla.gov./catalogue/pictures/
Artcyclopedia
http://www.artcyclopedia.com/
Artcyclopedia's mission is to become the definitive and most effective guide to museum-quality fine art on the Internet. This site has a searchable artist and artwork function, and many links to other useful art and gallery sites.
Within the text of your units are hyperlinks that will take you to various other sites of interest.
Text
Kleiner, F.S., Mamiya, C.J., Tansey, R.G. Gardeners Art Through the Ages. Eleventh Edition, Harcourt College Publishers, Orlando, U.S.A., 2001.
Key References
Richard Tarnas (1991) The Passion of the Western Mind: Understanding the Ideas that have Shaped our World View Pimlico, London.
Additional texts
The Curtin University library holds a comprehensive range of videos on Australian art history. If your local library is connected to the internet, you should be able to locate these elsewhere as well. Also there are programs shown on the television which may be of relevance.
Journals
The following journals deal specifically with the history of Western art and are just a few of the many available from around the world. University Libraries, your State Library, many local libraries and specialist art bookshops should have access to some or all of these.
Journal
Art in America
Artscribe
Art History
Art Journal
Art Monthly, UK
Art and Text
Block, UK, British art theory journal
The Burlington Magazine
Flash Art, Italian and American editions
International
Leonardo
October
World Art
Advice on Writing Essays
Answer the questions, not what you would like the questions to be.
Support your arguments by reference to the text(s) or other relevant material. This could well include government reports, company handouts, material from the local or national press etc., depending upon the nature of the case studies that you choose for your essays.
Always cite the source(s) of your quotations, paraphrases and ideas. You are encouraged to include visual documentation of art works discussed in your essays, but remember that these should be referenced in the same way as verbatim quotes.
Provide a bibliography or list of the works that you have consulted in the preparation of your essay. The bibliography should list sources alphabetically by thor surname.
Structure your essay. Introduce the topic and the argument that you will make about it. Present the argument and the evidence to support it in the body of your essay. Summarise and conclude your argument in a concluding section. In writing essays in art history, where possible try to give specific examples from specific works when discussing style. Try to be specific about media and materials when talking about a work of art. It is important to know that Donatello's David was made in bronze while Michelangelo's was carved in stone. Materials are also extremely important when considering architecture. Classical Japanese architecture in wood is very different to Gothic architecture in timber, stone masonry and glass, partly becse of the capacity of the materials used. Size and scale are also very important when writing about art works. Try to gain a clear sense of scale even though you are studying from reproductions and photographs. Make this clear in your essays if you are comparing two works markedly different in scale. Summarize and conclude. More colloquially, tell them what you are going to tell them, tell them and then tell them what you told them.
There are a number of excellent books on essay writing; if you need more information you should consult one or more of them. Your tutors will provide recommendations if you require them.
Essay Writing
Quotation
General comments: It is essential that quotations should be judiciously selected and sparingly used. The basic selection criterion to follow is RELEVANCE.
When to Quote
1. Direct quotations should be used only when the original words of the thor are expressed so concisely and convincingly that the student cannot improve on these words. In this situation, the words in the quotation add force, even 'punch' to the paper.
2. Direct quotations may be used for documentation of a major argument where a footnote would not suffice. In this case, quotations should be limited in length and comprise only essential passages.
3. Direct quotations may be used when the student wishes to comment upon, refute or analyse ideas expressed by another writer.
What to quote
Although there is some flexibility permitted in deciding 'when' to quote, there are more stringent conventions stating 'what' should be quoted.
1. The exact words of an thor or the exact words from an official publication must be quoted. Exactness means using the same words, the same punctuation, the same spelling, the same capitalisation. Extreme care must be taken to reproduce quotations exactly. COMPLETE ACCURACY IS ESSENTIAL.
2. When a quotation is very long, or where a student wants to use a few paragraphs or sentences with a larger passage, it is permissible to imit sections of an original passage. This procedure is usually called ellipsis. It is should be used with extreme care so that the tone, meaning and intention of the original extract are not altered. To indicate ellipsis, three spaced full stops are inserted. For example: 'Degas travelled widely … returning in 1867'.
How to Quote
The conventions adopted by different teaching schools vary, but unless given specific directions to the contrary, there are a number of general procedures to follow in quoting.
Short Quote v Long Quote
The basic form of a quotation is initially determined by its length.
1. SHORT QUOTATION (up to 4 lines).
· Incorporate the quotation into a sentence or paragraph framework, without disrupting the flow of the text.
· Use single quotation marks at the beginning and the end of the quotation.
· Use the same spacing as the rest of the text (that is, double or one-and-a-half spacing).
2. LONG QUOTATION (usually five or more lines)
· Indent the quotation three spaces from the left margin.
· Use no quotation marks at the beginning and end of the quotation.
· Use single spacing.
Referencing using the Harvard System
All passages taken from a reference book, text book or journal article should be fully acknowledged in the following manner.
After the quotation, identified by quotation marks placed at the beginning and end of the passage quoted, or the end of the text in a long quotation, list in brackets the surname of the thor, the date of the publication and the page number. e.g. '…Art is to aesthetics as ornithology is to the birds
(Newman, 1953: 44)
A reference list is essential at the conclusion of your essay. It must list all the books or articles from which you have obtained your information. These should be listed ALPHABETICALLY BY SURNAME OF THE AUTHOR. See the following section on Bibliographies.
Referencing Interviews, Artworks and Films
You can list information gathered from personal interviews in the following way: Interview with the thor, venue, date. e.g. Interview with the George Seddon, Kings Park, October 1994.
If citing specific artworks you should list the artist's name, title (underlined), date, medium, size (in centimetres, height before width before depth) and collection. e.g. Halation, Howard Taylor, 1988, (22 x 34cm, oil on canvas on board, private collection).
If you are quoting a film or video list the title (underlined), the director and the date of production eg. Pulp Fiction, Quentin Tarrentino, 1993.
Footnotes
What are Footnotes?
Footnotes are conventional validatory and explanatory procedures which should be used sparingly and only when the material being presented clearly needs amplification or acknowledgement. At the name implies, footnotes are usually found at the foot of a page. Footnotes can be distracting if they are so numerous and frequent that they persistently impinge upon the reader's attention. Therefore it becomes essential before including any footnotes in a paper or essay to assess whether the material being relegated to a footnote is important enough to be incorporated into the main body of the text or whether it is essential to include it at all.
Once a decision is reached on this point there are a number of guidelines that can be followed for appropriate footnoting.
When to Use Footnotes
Footnotes can be used for literary documentation to acknowledge sources of:
1. Facts when they are not common knowledge.
2. Quotations.
3. Opinions which you may have summarised, paraphrased or merely referred to. These opinions may be drawn from published sources, or unpublished interviews.
4. Referencing related material that offers another perspective on the ideas under discussion.
Layout of Footnotes
a) For literary documentation
1. Footnotes must be placed at the foot of a page.
2. Reference to footnotes wherever they may be placed is made by the use of superscripts (that is, numerals raised one-half space) in the body of the text where the particular reference is given. There is generally less interruption to the text if the superscript is placed at the end of the sentence in which the reference has been made, e.g.. Women are artists too4
b) For visual documentation provide full details of each art work for identification purposes:
1. Works of art analysed in some depth.
2. Works of art which may be referred to briefly but upon which key points depend.
As with footnoting of factual material so also with visual documentation. It is necessary to provide in the footnotes specific information about the example you are referring to and the source from which you have taken the example.
You must include:
a) Artist's name
b) Title of work (underlined)
c) Date
d) Size (height before width before depth)
e) Medium
f) Collection (where the original is currently held)
g) Source of reproduction, thor, title of book or journal, place of publication, date, page and illustration number. NB: If you include an illustration you must provide information as per a), b), c), d), e) and f) as above.
If you include photocopies/photographs/reproductions/slides in your essay you may provide the above information under the illustration, in which case it is not necessary to provide the source of reproduction. If you provide the visual documentation under the illustration, instead of the footnote, you must refer to this in the footnote.
Example:
1. See p.3, fig.1.
Conventions in Footnoting
There are a number of conventions used when footnoting.
In the first footnote referring to each source it is usual to give the full name of the thor in its normal order (that is the first name or initial and second initial precede the surname). Example: Montserrat, N. (1953) The Story of Esther Costello, Casell, London, p.125.
In citing the reference details, bibliographical procedures are followed:
· titles of complete works are underlined
· names of articles and similar material are enclosed by single quotation marks.
After the first reference is spelled out in a footnote it is not necessary to repeat the name of the thor, publisher and so on. There are accepted abbreviations that avoid repetitious and lengthy documentation:
· ibid. If reference is made to a different page of a source supplied immediately above it is possible to use the term ibid. Example: Ibid. p. 147
· loc. cit. If reference is made to the same page as a preceding but not immediately preceding reference, the last name of the thor and the phrase loc. cit. are used. Example: 5 Hudson, loc. cit.
· op.cit. If reference is made to the same work as a preceding but not immediately preceding reference, op. cit. is used after the thor's name with the new page number following. Example: 7. Poole, op. cit., p.238.
The abbreviation p. for page and pp. for pages is the acceptable method when citing page references. Example: Goudge, E. Green, (1944) Dolphin Country, Hodder and Stoughton, London, pp 58 - 63.
All titles of artworks should also be underlined.
Newspaper titles are underlined. Example: the West Australian.
Referencing from the Internet
If there is an thor and title identified:
For text referencing follow the same format as for books or journals. e.g. (Richens, 1998). Then in the bibliography follow the usual referencing format using the Web site as a publication. Example: Richens, Jane (1998) Do wa diddy diddy, www.
If there is no apparent thor then use the web site as a reference point. For intext reference cite the Web site e.g. (www.) then in your bibliography list as you would for a person interview. Example: www.. Chatline accessed 10th March 1998.
Bibliography / Reference List
A bibliography or a reference list is required at the end of the essay. A reference list cites only those texts from which you have quoted in your essay whereas a bibliography is a list of all books you have consulted to prepare your lecture whether you have quoted from them or not. Ask your tutor which format is preferred in the unit you are undertaking.
The reference list should be listed alphabetically by AUTHOR'S NAME and must include the following: thor's name, date of publication, title of book (underlined), publisher, place of publication, edition if relevant.
If a journal article is used follow the same convention placing the title of the article in quotation marks and underline the name of the journal in which the article appears. e.g.:
Sontag, S. (1966) Against Interpretation, Deli, New York.
* (1969) Styles of Radical Will, Secker & Warburg, London.
Spearitt, P. (1977) (ed.) Australian Popular Culture, Allen & Unwin, Sydney.
Snell, T. (1988) The Artist's Rottnest, Fremantle Arts Centre Press, Fremantle.
* (1990) Darlington & The Hills, Curtin University, Perth.
* (1994) `Howard Taylor - Surface and Light', in Art & Australia, Vol. 24, No.3, 1994, pp 222-286.
The Use of Non-Sexist Language
Since the Equal Opportunities Act of 1984 it is now illegal in Australia to discriminate in regard to race, religion or gender. Thus, in essay writing it is essential to make statements that are not gender biased.
Remember women are artists too and the common usage of such lines as 'if the artist is to succeed he must …' is outmoded and illegal.
It is accepted practice to use s/he or his/her to adopt the plural them/their when discussing artists, thinkers, academics, dience members or any other occupation in general terms.
If you are quoting from a text that uses sexist language you should use the abbreviation (sic) after the offending term, e.g.. 'The potter is no longer a peasant, he is an artist-craftsman (sic)'.
Adapted from, Thesis and Assignment Writing, John Wiley and Sons, Brisbane, 1978.
General Reference for Essay Presentation
Your reference for all information on presenting essays should be the Style Manual for Authors, Editors and Printers, Fourth Edition, 1988, published by the Australian Government Printing Service.