12.7 Comparison and Contrast Essay worksheet

COMPARISON AND CONTRAST ESSAY WORKSHEET

This worksheet is designed to help you approach a work of art critically, to figure out what are the right questions to ask about an image, and how to find the answers to those questions. Using a marker or pen, draw the dominant lines and shapes on a photocopy of the work. Doing so will help you to observe these elements of art more easily. Ask these key questions about each work.

1. Title (Italicize titles of works of art)

 
2. Who was the artist?

 
3. Where and when was this work made?

 
4. What is the SUBJECT MATTER?

 
When and for what purpose was the work of art created?

 
Who “paid” for it (the issue of patronage)?

 

Explain who or what is depicted as fully as possible. You should do some information-gathering or research in order to answer this question since knowing who or what is depicted will help you connect the basic elements and cultural values to the work’s expressive purpose.

What was the source of the artist’s inspiration? It might have been the natural world, literature, mythology, Biblical, etc.)

Why was this work created?

 

Did it belong to a larger set or series?

 

If so, how does this knowledge advance

our understanding of this particular work?

Is there a historical precedent to the work?

How was the work possibly influenced by, or inspired by, an earlier work?

If there are figures, what is the relation of the viewer’s and artist’s gaze to the gaze of the figures?

If the work is a PORTRAIT, does the work present a strong sense of an individual or does it represent a generic type of person?

Do you see the figure from the front, or from a three-quarter view, or in profile?

Is the viewer meant to see it from a fixed

point of view?

Do you look up, down, or across at the figure?

What do the clothing, furnishings, accessories and background contribute?

What does the facial expression say?

Are certain bodily features distorted?

If a self-portrait, what image does the artist project?

If the work represents a DEITY, what ideas or attitudes of divinity are expressed?

If the work is a LANDSCAPE, the artist is not making an objective presentation of earth, rocks, green, water and sky.

Study the horizon, the season, the time of day, the weather. Do you look up, down, or across at the landscape?

Is the artist close or far away?

Is the painting sharp and clear, or is only one part in focus?

Did the artist paint every leaf on the tree?

What is the relation between human beings and nature?

Do natural objects reflect the emotions of the figures?

What does this say about the society?

If the work is a STILL LIFE, the artist is showing inanimate objects in a restricted setting.

What is the chief interest (perhaps a symbolic or moralistic intent, or humble domesticity, or a study of relationships between shapes and textures)?

Do you look up, down, or across at the objects?

How is the HISTORICAL CONTEXT, geographical, economic, social, political, religious, intellectual or scientific reflected in this specific example?

5. The ELEMENTS OF ART are the visual indicators of the values associated with this culture. Be attentive to the elements, as discussed on D2L Using the Paradigm and the Basic Elements of Art as you consider how this work demonstrates “what it is to be human.”

Describe the obvious and implied LINES in the work.

  • Are the lines vertical, horizontal or diagonal?
  • Are they curved or straight?
  • Is contrapposto evident?
  • What does the pose imply?
  • Explain how the lines reinforce the subject matter or ideas communicated by the work.

human (organic) SHAPES that form the work, and explain where you see them.

  • Is the overall effect geometric or naturalistic?

What MEDIUM is used?

  • Why was this particular medium chosen?
  • Would the work have the same effect if it had been made in a different medium?

All painting and sculpture has a physical TEXTURE and COLOR. Describe the textures and colors of the work.

Describe the SPACE.

Is it open or closed? Defend three reasons as to why this is open or closed.

What is the SIZE of the original? How does the size reinforce the subject matter or ideas communicated?

  • Are certain bodily features or forms distorted? Why?

6. What have you DISCOVERED? Art is intended to lead you to contemplate life by looking through the eyes of another. It is supposed to wake you up, taking you where you have never been before.

How would viewers of that era have understood this work? What did it communicate to them?

How does the artist’s philosophy or background affect this work?

What distinguishes this from another culture, making this uniquely of the Renaissance (rather than, say, Byzantine or Baroque)?

What is your personal reaction?

 

What effect does this work have on you as a viewer from another age?

Now you may write your essay! You will not want to discuss each and every point on this worksheet, but you will discuss the key distinguishing features. Your essay should include:

• An introduction which culminates in your thesis.

• Informative body paragraphs that demonstrate the validity of your thesis statement.

• A conclusion that sums up how these works use the pictorial conventions to illustrate what it is to be human.

I’m looking forward to reading about these amazing works!

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PPSC HUM 1021: Early Civilizations by Kate Pagel and Kristine Betts is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License, except where otherwise noted.

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