Visiting the Museum
First, just enjoy the museum. View the art, and perhaps some special exhibitions. While going through, either physically or virtually, notice which specific art works that you like.
Second, pick one work of art from any time period, although preferably a time covered by the textbook. Third, answer the questions from the worksheet on that specific work of art: a painting, a sculpture, a watercolor, a sculptural relief, a tapestry, or even furniture! Most importantly
Descriiptive Terminology To Use in Your Analysis
Subject: religious, portrait, landscape, pastoral, mythological, genre, still life, abstract, non-objective.
Medium: techniques for sculpture: wood, marble / stone, terra cotta, bronze, cast, carved, and fabricated.
Medium & support for painting: tempera on panel, oil on panel, oil on canvas, water color on paper, drawing (graphite, ink), etching, engraving, lithography.
Approximate size: also surface finish: smooth, rough.
Proportions: naturalistic, exaggerated.
Color elements: hues (names of colors), values (lightness & darkness), intensity (bright / vivid, dull / neutral).
Composition: crowded, chaotic, simple, spacious, dominantly triangular, horizontal, and vertical.
MUSEUM REPORT WORKSHEET QUESTIONS:
(Please answer each question. After the first five questions, your responses should each be at least 70 words in length.)
TITLE OF THE WORK:
ARTIST:
DATE OF CREATION:
NATIONALITY OF THE ARTIST:
MEDIUM: Tempera/panel, fresco, oil on panel/ canvas, print: woodcut, etching, engraving, aquatint, lithography, photography, etc.; water color; sculpture: additive/subtractive/cast; material: wood, marble/stone, clay/wax/bronze; mixed media.
COMPOSITIONAL ELEMENTS: Are the dominant lines/shapes in this painting either horizontal/vertical/diagonal; straight/curvilinear; geometric/organic (freeform)? This does not refer to the orientation of the canvas/picture itself.
TYPE & PURPOSE: Religious, portrait (paintings of religious personages are not portraits), landscape, genre, still-life, pastoral or mythological, non-objective (means having NO subject – design only). What was the purpose of this artwork? Why did the artist create it?
MOOD: Does the work of art convey a particular mood or atmosphere? What was your initial reaction to it? Did that change as you began to study it in greater depth?
NARRATIVE: Can you identify a narrative quality in the work? Is the image telling a story of narrating a sequence of events? What do you imagine happening in the scene?
TIME PERIOD: How does the artwork demonstrate the characteristics of the culture in which it was created? How does it relate to other paintings created around the same time?
INFLUENCES: Which other artists may have influenced the artist of your chosen artwork? Look at the style and method. Whose artwork is similar to that of this artist?
