+1 862 207 3288 Visual Analysis
Part 1: Visual Analysis of a work in the Bowers Museum [to be selected from the list
below]. (250 words min.)
For directions on how to write a visual analysis: see Sylvan Barnet, A Short Guide
to Writing about Art (on reserve at the library, and an excerpt is on BB) and ‘Tips
and Advice on Visual Analysis’ also on BB. This must be your own, original work.
The visual analysis must culminate in a thesis.
You may use wall texts from the museum or blog posts on the Bower’s website
(www.bowers.org) as spurs for your further research in Part 2, but be sure to cite them in a footnote.
Writing a Visual Analysis Comparison
Integrate your discussions of the two (or more) works.
Do not discuss first one work, and then the other. Alternate, integrate, synthesize.
Be systematic.
Work through: artist, subject, medium, style, composition, context, meaning.
Be sure you understand all the terms. Eg. ?�composition’ does not simply refer to
who is placed where. Discussing composition means discussing how all of the
elements of the picture (figures, landscape, architecture) are arranged to create a
whole. Look for geometries: circles, pyramids, squares – look for the organizing
principle.
Support your arguments. Something looks flat/dynamic/emotional/realistic? Tell me how.
Moratorium on the word detailed. The word is too vague, it could describe
anything and nothing. Tell me how a work is detailed: what does it show you,
specifically?
Ask yourself: is this description, or analysis? Move from the former to the latter:
description with a purpose. Analysis will be description with the goal of explaining an
aspect of the work or making an argument about the work.
If you observe or note something, tell me why it is significant.
Avoid wild speculation. If you aren’t sure what a subject is, but have an idea, suggest it
and support your suggestion. If you really don’t know, let it be and move on to something
you can talk about.
For an exam: ask yourself ?�why would these two works be shown together? What aspect
of what we’ve learned in this course does this comparison allow me to explore?’
images:
1. Guy Rose, Marguerite, 1909
2. François Boucher, Madame de Pompadour,
3. Portrait of Mary Anthony.
Kent, J. H. (Rochester, N.Y.)
1897
is it possible to make the essay around 350 words?
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