Writing in Art History
“So You’re Taking an Art History Course”: A Description of Writing Characteristics Valued in Art History
Art history is rooted in the study of visual, performed, and material expression. Goals for our work include interpretation, producing frameworks, narratives, and histories to understand the human experience and condition, and the expansion of what is considered “art”. We want you to know that there are some key things that we value in our field. We value the complexity of seeing and the diversity of different ways of seeing. We tend not to value or prioritize subjective opinion and unsubstantiated claims.
What is considered effective or good writing in our field varies by genre and purpose, but overall we expect to see:
- a direct address of the subject or work of art.
- an interpretive analysis of a work of art backed by research from credible sources.
- engagement with significant interpretive and theoretical frameworks.
Writers in our field must provide evidence for their claims. We understand evidence to include:
- Formal analysis. Formal analysis is the description of the visual and material features of an object to support an argument. It can include a consideration of color, line, size, weight, form, shape, depth. Formal analysis is often a place to generate questions for research.
- Biographical records or artists’ statements
- Archival records
- Ethnographic data
- Historical events
- Significant secondary literature
- Adjacent artistic and cultural production (music, literature, theatre, etc.)
Writers in our field seem credible when they:
- Address current and historical debates about the interpretation of a topic
- Demonstrate an awareness of the historical and cultural context of a topic
- Cite credible sources accurately. Credible sources include peer-reviewed journals, books, or websites from reputable institutions and organizations.
- For more information on citing sources accurately, see the “Quick Guide to Citations for Art Historical Writing”
This is How We Write and Do Research in Art History
Art historical writing is about analyzing works of art to make a point or argument. Not every student in our classes needs to be able to write in the professional way of the field. However, depending on the reasons for taking our courses, we want students to become proficient and comfortable with analyzing art and the important place writing occupies in that process. Students taking an art history course should expect to write in the following genres:
- research papers
- exhibition reviews/evaluations
- book reviews
- visual analyses
- reading reflection/canvas posts
- museum labels
- essay exams
Writing goals and outcomes are different depending on the level of the course. For example:
- Undergraduates taking Miami Plan (100-level) or elective courses should recognize the relationship between how to develop a thesis and employ visual evidence in support of that thesis. Such a skill is undoubtedly useful for all students since looking closely coupled with the ability to make sense of what one sees are crucial for many other kinds of writing and ways of thinking. We argue the complexity and diversity of “looking deeply” is too often taken for granted in the visual world in which we live. In 100-level classes, students start to become familiar with how to write and think about art.
- Undergraduates majoring in our field should recognize that art historical writing is approached as a conversation or dialogue. As students progress through the major, being able to place a topic and research paper within previous published and ongoing debates is crucial. In other words, students should start to understand that writing in Art History is about creating a dialog between one’s ideas and the sources the student engages. We also want our students to understand the value of inserting their own voice when writing. Over time, majors will need to become skilled at synthesizing their ideas and arguments with original research. This very process is how objects tell us something distinctive about their historical context and their value within human history.
Annotated Sample of Writing from Art History (ART 188)
The following is a student paper from the course ART 188: History of Western Art (Renaissance to Modern). Miami faculty from Art History have inserted comments to indicate and explain disciplinary writing conventions in Art History.
This sample contains 8 comments. These comments appear within the text of the article and are noted with bold text, brackets [ ], and the word "comment" before the text they refer to. You can also view these annotations and the original paper in a Google Doc format.
Sample Annotated Student Essay for ART 188
Compare Hyacinthe Rigaud’s painting Louis XIV (1701) (on the left) to Jacques-Louis David’s Death of Marat (1793) (on the right). Both of these artworks were made for explicitly political purposes, though they clearly depict very different types of figures and employ very different styles. Compare these two artworks in terms of how they convey their particular political message to the viewer. What strategies does each artist employ and why? What are they trying to communicate to the viewer about the state?
A Martyr of Royal Proportions
[Comment 1: Introduction sets the context without making claims that are too broad or general. Also sets the tone for a focus on class conflict.] For the majority of the eighteenth-century, French farmers stayed starving and cold while an elite class of nobility consumed them. For years, the upper echelon of French society relied on the blood and sweat of the layman to provide them with ample nourishment. But after the spring of 1791, the fields would be nourished by the blood of laymen and aristocrat alike, and the old ways would be no more. A revolution had begun, and revolutionary figures like Jean Paul Marat would be painted in stark contrast to the grandiose portraiture of King Louis the Fourteenth nearly a century prior. [Comment 2: Clear thesis signals what the argument will be and why comparing these two paintings is worthwhile.] Indeed, the transition in composition from the early eighteenth century spoke to more than simple brushstrokes. It represented the political enlightenment of the French people attempting to secure for themselves unalienable liberties they had been denied so long. Marat, therefore, was not simply a brutalized revolutionary lying lifeless in his bathtub; The Death of Marat depicts the efforts of the enlightenment revolution ferociously contesting with the old paradigm of French government.
The differences in context, content, and form of The Death of Marat and Louis XIV vary widely. These aspects are essential to the message and reception of the works. Their comparison brings out everything that is right, or wrong, with the messages they impart. In the case of David’s painting, it simply elicits the exact emotions people needed to feel; the emotions they needed reassurance of if they were to carry out their cause. The power of The Death of Marat inspired people to carry on fighting for the French Revolution. The influence of art certainly stretches beyond the construct of the mind, art is part and parcel of society, and should be regarded so dearly.
Annotated Sample of Read, Look, Reflect Essay
The following is a student paper from the course ART 188: History of Western Art (Renaissance to Modern). Miami faculty from Art History have inserted comments to indicate and explain disciplinary writing conventions in Art History.
This sample contains 10 comments. These comments appear within the text of the article and are noted with bold text, brackets [ ], and the word "comment" before the text they refer to. You can also view these annotations and the original paper in a Google Doc format.
Assignment Context
As a student in ART 188, you might be asked to write a series of Read, Look, Reflect papers. The following paper is an example of exemplary student work. For this assignment, students are asked to read two sonnets by Michelangelo and look closely at Michelangelo’s sculpture Awakening Slave. Then they are asked to reflect on the questions below. This is a paper in which all students referenced the same assigned texts. No outside research was necessary, so footnotes were not required. Only clear references to the specific sonnet being discussed were necessary.
How does the allusion to the creative process in Michelangelo’s poems help us understand his philosophy of carving sculpture? How is that process visually apparent in the sculpture, Awakening Slave?
Read, Look, Reflect: Michelangelo’s Awakening Slave
[Comment 1: This introductory paragraph is effective because it begins providing an answer to the essay prompt. The author begins to explain a connection between hand and mind, which suggests a particular approach to the creative process.] [Comment 2: The author also gets straight to the point without making any sweeping historical claims or claims about beauty or greatness of a work of art.] Michelangelo’s sonnets give insight into his beliefs about the mind’s vision and the hand’s product. Using sonnets to discuss the creative process and its resulting translation to Michelangelo’s sculptures is a testament to Michelangelo’s own mental capabilities, for both forms of art are quite difficult to produce well. Poetry and art require excessive refinement and revision on the part of the creator to convey what he or she wants to with a finished product. In the sonnet numbered 151, Michelangelo describes the “hand that obeys the intellect”, [Comment 3: Here’s one place where the author provides an interpretation of a specific quote.] an indication that he believes that the mind is central to sculpting a vision from inspiration before the hand sculpts the stone itself. Further, Michelangelo’s choice of words here shows his reverence for the mind in its central creative role. In this paper, demonstrate how Michelangelo’s sonnets and the sculpture, Awakening Slave, express a tension between idea and execution.
With this in mind, Michelangelo’s second sonnet, numbered 152, delves further into the carving process. [Comment 4: The author focuses on a specific part of the poem here.] Michelangelo speaks of a living figure “that grows larger wherever the stone decreases” in this poem, a more direct allusion to what stone is literally subtracted as artistic additions are made to the stone. From there, the sonnet further describes the process of addition, discussing how one cannot see his or her own good in the same way that others can. [Comment 5: The author comes to a thoughtful interpretation of the quote here.] Rather, according to Michelangelo, other people seem to see the good in an individual and can bring it out to the surface in a way that the individual is unable to introspectively. [Comment 6: The author continues to reflect on the significance of that interpretation to the creative process.] This is a powerful observation both psychologically and artistically, and though Michelangelo is commenting on both, the latter alludes more to the creative process. Artistically, it seems like Michelangelo is alluding to his personal definition of inspiration. When artists like himself create, they seek to bring out qualities worth displaying, whether they be qualities like grace and beauty, or in the case of his sculpture, Awakening Slave, a quality like the beauty of struggle.
Because Michelangelo’s sculpture, Awakening Slave, is still very much confined to the stone, viewers can see his poetic description of replacing raw stone with a mental vision in artistic practice. It could be argued that the sculpture is either intentionally or accidentally unfinished, but with the information from the sonnets, the former seems to be a more accurate reflection of Michelangelo’s beliefs in this art. For Michelangelo, crafting a seemingly unfinished sculpture can successfully show the struggles of the creative process, especially conflicts with inspiration itself. Conflicts could entail a situation such as if inspiration were to run dry, or a time when the pressure on the creator to produce a fully developed vision becomes too much.
The man who is supposed to be awakening in the sculpture is facing a personal struggle that he cannot escape from. [Comment 7: The author makes a clear and specific observation about the sculpture.] It is worth noting that a body is more clearly defined in the sculpture than a head. [Comment 8: The author suggests a possible interpretation of the observation above.] This structural observation could mean that the head, and therefore the mind, is the source of the struggle for the man depicted in the stone. [Comment 9: The author again makes a specific observation in the next sentence and then moves into interpretation for the rest of the paragraph.] The central parts of the body are more prominent in the stone than the upper and lower regions of the body, giving the sculpture a warped look on the top, but also a little bit on the bottom as well. This further enhances the theme of struggle and the overtaking of the mind by said struggle. The all- consuming nature of struggle is made more powerful and central to the sculpture by that design choice, especially since viewers know that Michelangelo’s anatomical accuracy was part of what has made many of his other works so respected.
The ability that viewers have to pair Michelangelo’s Awakening Slave with written explanations from the artist centuries later undoubtedly adds to one’s interpretation of the art. Michelangelo’s decision to reflect on his own creative process shows that while he was a renowned artist, the talent was accompanied by other highly developed talents, too. In more than one respect, Michelangelo continues to succeed in making critics and common viewers alike understand the complexity of the artistic profession.
Howe Writing Center
