ARTH 110 Reflective Summary Essay Sp 2021
Format: 600-750 words (up to 3 pages, double-spaced).
This final assignment asks you to reflect upon the material you have encountered in this
course over the span of the semester, and to select one or two keys ideas that you have
learned. The paper is a discussion of those idea(s) in which you:
1. Give a lucid account of the idea(s) you select. This should include explaining how this
idea connects to or arises out of our discussions of particular images and/or texts. Be sure
that you fully define any key terms related to this idea.
2. Discuss what you find interesting about the idea(s) you have selected and explain why
have you seized upon each idea that you discuss. Does it connect in some way to work you
are doing in other classes, or to issues that matter to you more broadly? Does it offer new
insight, or a new way of thinking about art, about history, or about your own world and
experience?
We have touched upon many topics this semester including:
Ways that art historians analyze and interpret art from the past.
Art as a medium of worldly and political power.
Art as a medium of religious faith.
The diverse relationships of art to systems of patronage and the marketplace.
Ideas about visual arts in relations to sensory and intellectual knowledge.
The roles of institutions of art such as the academy and museum.
Historically and culturally changing notions about the artist.
Your paper should explore a specific idea, related one of these broad topics, or to other
topics you can think of. The aim is for you to offer an account of something that you have
connected with or gained from this course.
To help you determine and develop the key idea(s) you will discuss in this paper:
Look through the Schedule in the course syllabus that lists all the topics we have
addressed. (Note that it is organized into the Power of Images; Images as Knowledge;
How Artworks Produce value: this arrangement may help you organize your thoughts).
Review your written work for the course, including the Weekly Questions and two
completed papers.
Once you have decided your topic(s), review the relevant lecture and section materials.
Papers will be evaluated for cogent, well-presented ideas and clear, grammatically correct,
well-crafted prose.
FORMAT AND STYLE:
All papers must be typed in black 12-point font and doubled-spaced .
Use standard one-inch margins.
Include a title page with the papers title, your name and your TAs name, and day/time of
your section on it. This title page has no page number.
Number all the pages of your text (NOT the title page) in the upper right corner.
Titles of artworks, like titles of books, and journals, are always underlined or italicized.
Proofread and carefully edit your writing for spelling, grammar, syntax, and clarity.
