Late Medieval Italian Art through Baroque Art. Rococo Art through Post-Impressionism. Cézanne/Cubism through Contemporary Art.

The goal for this assignment is to demonstrate in two thematic essay questions what you’ve learned over the course of the semester, how different themes connect across time, and how art/architecture/culture has evolved between ~1400 and the present day.

Of the three questions listed below, you must choose TWO.

In answering those questions, here are some guidelines:

1. Each question will be worth 30 points.

2. You must have a THESIS STATEMENT that indicates your answer to the question and what your examples will suggest.

3. For each question, you must use three examples, and you will receive the most points by choosing and connecting examples that span the course of the whole semester. A good guideline might be to choose one from each of the following groups:

Late Medieval Italian Art through Baroque Art
Rococo Art through Post-Impressionism
Cézanne/Cubism through Contemporary Art.

4. Each answer MUST be at least 250 words long. That means that this assignment, with two answered questions, should be at least 500 words.

Here are the questions – remember, you must choose TWO from the three below.

1. How did representations of the human body and mind evolve from Renaissance through Contemporary Art? (A key to answering this question well may be to consider the role of naturalism vs. abstraction.)

2. How have artists used their work to respond to the social, political, and cultural developments of their worlds? (Consider whether their ability or willingness to respond depends on the world in which they lived.)

3. Color, light, symbolism – these are all tactics that artists have used to create meaning in their art. How have the uses of color, light, and symbolism changed during the period discussed in this class?