Art History Research Report

General Specifications of the Artwork

Part 1 & Part 2: Individual Research Report

Imagine you are an art historian researching your chosen artwork. You will need to find detailed information about the artwork and write up your findings in a research report (1,000 words). The research report should be organized into 4 sections (using the headings listed below) and consist of paragraphs written in complete sentences.

Your research report should be organized into the following 4 sections.

1. General Specifications of the Artwork (suggested length: 3-4 sentences)

This short section should clearly state the artist, title, date, medium, size, original and current location of your chosen artwork. This section is where you briefly introduce your artwork.

2. Artist, Patron, Original Intended Viewers and Original Location (suggested length: 2 paragraphs)

This section should provide basic and relevant information about the artist and the patron(s) of the artwork. You should briefly introduce the artist (i.e. state where the artist lived and worked). You should then introduce the patron, and explain how and why the artwork was commissioned.

This section should also explain where the artwork was originally displayed, and who would have been the original intended viewers of the artwork.

3. Description of the Artwork (suggested length: 3 paragraphs)

This section should explain what the artwork is about and explain what the artwork looks like. Therefore, the section should explain the artwork’s content and use proper art history vocabulary to carefully describe the artwork’s visual characteristics. If the artwork contains a narrative, or is tied to a specific theme, explain how this is communicated in the artwork. Focus here on describing!

*Hint: How you organize your description of the artwork is important. Someone reading your description should be able to visualize the artwork without having ever seen it. Therefore, begin with a description of the artwork’s overall composition, and then discuss the smaller details. Remember to carefully DESCRIBE the visual characteristics--do not list them! Avoid all value judgments that judge the artwork (beautiful, best, etc.) This section should also answer the question—why does your artwork look the way it looks? To answer this question, discuss 1-2 significant artistic sources for your artwork and explain the relationship between the artistic sources and your artwork (think, for example, of the influence of the Greek Spear Bearer on the Roman Augustus of Primaporta). This section might also discuss the artist’s education or background (Who was the artist’s teacher? Was another artist an influence?), if it helps to explain why the artwork has certain visual characteristics.

4. Cultural Context and Function of the Artwork (suggested length: 3 paragraphs)

This section requires careful research of the culture in which the artwork was made. It should adequately explain what the function (purpose) of the artwork was in its cultural context. It should explain how the artwork’s visual characteristics and content relate to that function. For example, to understand the function of the ancient Egyptian sculpture Khafre, we need to understand how the sculpture relates to Egyptian death rituals. We also need to understand why death rituals were so important in ancient Egypt. This section should also discuss the overall message of the artwork, and why such a message was being made in that specific cultural context. Be sure to consider and discuss the political, social, religious and intellectual culture in which and for which the artwork was created.