Below you will find 4 essays/tasks to complete. Each essay will require about 300-400 words. Each essay will have multiple parts, and the answers to these multiple parts should add up to the 300-400 words. You will need to do research online to answer the essays and to do the responses to the prompts. All sources must be cited in-text. Each essay must be followed by a Works Cited or Bibliography. You may need to visit more than one museum to complete this assignment. Part of the project requires you to figure out how to do this, and to find the appropriate links that you need to complete the work. All links to museums and any sources you used must be cited in the bibliography at the end of each essay.
Essay # 1
Go to the website of the Egyptian Museum in Cairo, Egypt. Look up the statues of Prince Rahotep and his Wife Nofret (they are a pair). Do some research online about who they were and look at the statues closely. Go on to the website for the Louvre Museum, Paris, and look up the statue of The Seated Scribe (this is the one we looked at in class). Do some research about this statue and look at him closely. Respond to the following prompts:
What things are similar about the statues?
What things are different?
What does the coloration (painting) mean?
Discuss the idealization (or lack of idealization) in each statue and what it means.
How did the ancient artists make those glittery eyes?
What do we know about who the Seated Scribe really was?
What did the ancient Egyptians write with?
Include Bibliography at end.
Essay #2
Go to the website of the Metropolitan Museum in NYC and find the statue of the girl carrying a basket from ancient Egypt (this is labeled Estate Figure ca. 1981-1975 BC) from the Middle Kingdom. She is a tall slim female figure with a stripy dress, carrying a duck or chicken. Do some research on this statue, and on the other statues that were found in the same place (the tomb of Royal Chief Steward Meketre). Then go online to the Acropolis Museum in Athens, Greece, and look up the Peplos Kore (we saw her in class.) Do some research about her and other kores and what they were used for. Respond to the following prompts:
What are the visual similarities that the two statues have in common?
What are the visual differences that the two statues have?
What were the two statues used for?
What forms of idealization did the two statues follow? How did these forms of idealization differ (or what did they have in common)?
Bibliography.
Essay #3
Go to the website for the Metropolitan Museum in NYC and find the Morgan Madonna. Research the statue and look at it closely. Go back to the image/information you have about the statue of Nofret from Essay #1. Look at it closely again. Respond to the following prompts.
What similarities are there between the two statues?
What differences are there between the two statues?
What were the purposes of the two statues?
What does it mean when a statue is called The Throne of Wisdom?
How is each statue idealized?
What does this idealization mean?
Is there any realism in either of the statues?
What does either of the statues say about motherhood or potential motherhood?
Bibliography
Essay #4
Donatello created two statues of the Biblical character David. One is in marble (dated around 1408-9) and the other is in bronze (the date is debated, anywhere from 1425-1450). Both statues are in the Bargello Museum in Florence, Italy. Go on the website for the Bargello Museum and look closely at the two statues. Do some research on both statues. Then do some research on the story of David from the Bible. Respond to the following prompts:
What are the similarities between the two statues?
What are the differences between the two statues?
What style does each statue belong to?
How did Donatellos style change between the two statues?
How does each statue illustrate different aspects of the story of David?
The character David was considered to be a representation of the City of Florence. How does each of these statues represent the City of Florence in its own way?
