The objective of this paper is to consider different approaches to the study of art and design in the time period covered by this course. It asks you to critically analyze an object and consider it within its broader social, political and cultural context. Your paper will respond to one of the excerpts below using an object of your choice as the focus. The finished paper will provide a rich, thoughtful discussion of that object in relation to issues covered in this course.
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1. Chooseoneoftheexcerptsbelowandreaditclosely,thinkingabouttheauthor’sapproachtotheunderstanding of an object.
2. ChooseanobjectfromtheROMorAGOthatfitsthescopeofthiscourse(c.15,000BCE-1800CE).
3. Writearesearchessaythatrespondstotheexcerptthroughaninvestigationofyourchosenobject.
4. Use your research (3 scholarly sources) to provide a cultural, political, artistic and/or historical context for the object.
5. Ensurethatyoubothidentifyanddiscussthemajorarguments,issues,andquestionsbroughtupbyyour selected excerpt and apply them to the selected object.
Important:
1) Your essay should be 5-6 pages (c. 1250-1500 words). It should be typed, double-spaced, with 1” margins, using a 12-pt font (Times New Roman, Arial or similar) on 8 1⁄2 x 11” paper. It should be stapled and page- numbered. You are encouraged to double-side your printing to conserve paper.
2) Include a clear and assertive thesis statement at the beginning of your essay.
3) Include a reproduction or rendering for your object, along with complete information (artist, title, date, medium etc.).
4) Include a bibliography of works cited (3 scholarly sources) AS WELL AS citations (whether footnotes or in-text parenthetical references) using either MLA or Chicago.
5) The largest part of your mark will be calculated according to the content of your essay, but the organization of your discussion and the style of your writing will also be considered.
6) REMEMBER: this is a research essay. Your chosen excerpt will inform your approach to your object, but it does not take the place of doing research on your object’s time period, place of origin, other objects of the same type, or differing scholars’ opinions!
Good luck!

Excerpts:
1. ThestudyofmeaninginAfrican(and,moregenerally,intribal)artisatarudimentary,nottosayprimitive,stage. Collectors have generally been content at most to record the overt content (such as ‘figure of a woman with two children’), or if they do more (‘the earth goddess’) are often merely reproducing European conjectures. These are, however, still within the realm of subject matter, whereas real meaning or real subject is to be looked for within the realm of ideas, which are the province of philosophy.
– William Fagg, excerpt from “In Search of Meaning in African Art,” 1973, in Art History and its Methods: A Critical Anthology, ed. Eric Fernie (London: Phaidon, 1995), 244.
2. Letussupposethattheideaofartcanbeexpandedtoembracethewholerangeofman-madethings,including all the tools and writing in addition to the useless, beautiful, and poetic things of the world. By this view the universe of man-made things simply coincides with the history of art. It then becomes an urgent requirement to devise better ways of considering everything men have made. This we may achieve sooner by proceeding from art rather than from use, for if we depart from use alone, all useless things are overlooked, but if we take the desirableness of things as our point of departure, then useful objects are properly seen as things we value more or less dearly.
– George Kubler, excerpt from The Shape of Time: Remarks on the History of Things, 1962, in Art in Theory 1900- 1990, ed. Charles Harrison and Paul Wood (Oxford: Blackwell, 1992) 735-6.
3. Wherethesphereofpracticalobjectsends,andthatof”art”begins,depends,then,onthe”intention”ofthe creators. This “intention” cannot be absolutely determined. In the first place, “intentions” are, per se, incapable of being defined with scientific precision. In the second place, the “intentions” of those who produce objects are conditioned by the standard of their period and environment. Classical taste demanded that private letters, legal speeches and the shields of heroes should be “artistic” (with the possible result of what might be called fake beauty), while modern taste demands that architecture and ashtrays should be “functional” (with the possible result of what might be called fake efficiency). Finally our estimate of those “intentions” is inevitably influenced by our own attitude, which in turn depends on our individual experiences as well as on our historical situation. We have all seen with our own eyes the transference of spoons and fetishes of African tribes from the museums of ethnology into art exhibitions.
– Erwin Panofsky, excerpt from “The History of Art as a Humanistic Discipline”, 1940, in Art History and its Methods: A Critical Anthology, ed. Eric Fernie (London: Phaidon, 1995), 191.
4. Theworkofarthasbeencomparedtotheopeningofawindowupontheworld.Now,awindowcanclaimthe whole of our attention or none. One may, it is said, contemplate the view without concerning oneself in the very least with the quality, structure, or colour of the window-pane. By this analogy, the work of art can be describe as a mere vehicle for experiences, a transparent window-pane, or a sort of eyeglasses not noticed by the wearer and employed simply as means to an end. But just as one can concentrate one’s attention upon the window-pane and the structure of the glass without taking note of the view beyond, so, it is said, one can treat the work of art as an independent, ‘opaque’ formal structure, complete in itself and in isolation, as it were, from anything external to it. No doubt one can stare at the window-pane as long as one likes; still, a window is made to look out of.
– Arnold Hauser, excerpt from The Philosophy of Art History, 1959, in Art History and its Methods: A Critical Anthology, ed. Eric Fernie (London: Phaidon, 1995), 206.
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