Identify your portrait selection (include artist title date medium and page number) and explain why you selected it.
Directions: For this assignment you will need to first read the chapter on analysis from Rosenwasser and Stephens Writing Analytically (citation below). Then you will select a portrait from the text to describe and analyze in a 500-750 word paper.
Read the chapter on analysis to learn the various “analytical moves” one takes when analyzing a work of art. A pdf of the reading can be found under “Files” on our canvas course page.
Rosenwasser, David and Jill Stephen. “Analysis: What It Is and What It Does,” Writing Analytically, 5th edition. Boston, MA: Thompson Wadsworth, 2009, pp. 3-16.
Select a portrait from your textbook that dates to the period covered in this class (except Whistlers Mother) and address the five points below.
a. Identify your portrait selection (include artist, title, date, medium, and page number) and explain why you selected it.
b. Provide a thorough definition of portraiture.
c. Describe the portrait thoroughly. In this section, simply describe what you see in the most objective way possible. Please describe the portrait thoroughly before making interpretative leaps.
d. Make interpretive leaps. Using the analysis of Whistlers Mother as an example, make interpretive leaps from at least four points of data included in your description of the portrait. Please be sure to identify the method of analysis you are employing for each interpretive leap. (Below is a model of how to approach this section, but I would like your answer to be written in essay form. Please explain clearly which method of analysis you use to interpret a specific bit of descriptive data and then what your specific interpretive leap is.)
e. Use the interpretive leaps you have identified to consider what the portrait conveyed to contemporary viewers, and how that might have differed from your own interpretation.
NOTE: This assignment focuses on visual analysis and interpretation; therefore you do not need to provide any historical information about your portrait. There is no need for citation, and the paper should be written using your own words.
