Top
Free Shipping On Orders Over $35!
Get Rewarded for Ordering Your Textbooks! Enroll Now
Customer Reviews Read Reviews
Write a Review
Anne D'Alleva is Associate Professor of Art History and Women's Studies at the University of Connecticut. Her publications include Look! The Fundamentals of Art History (Prentice Hall) and Art of the Pacific Islands (Harry N. Abrams, Perspectives series), as well as Look Again! Art History and Critical Theory (Prentice Hall) and Sacred Maidens and Masculine Women: Art, Gender, and Power in Post-Contact Tahiti (University of Hawai'i Press). She has held grants from the Getty Foundation, the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Woodrow Wilson Foundation, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Professor D'Alleva received her A.M. and Ph.D. in Art History from Columbia University, where she also completed a Graduate Certificate in Feminist Theory from the Center for Research on Women and Gender, and her A.B. in Fine Arts (art history) from Harvard University.
Acknowledgments 7
Introduction How to use this book 8
Chapter 1 Introducing art history
What do art historians do? The object of art history 11
What is “art”? / A working definition of art / What is “history”?
Why is art history important? 16
Art history and related disciplines 19
Art criticism / Sociology / Anthropology / Aesthetics / Cultural studies / Visual culture studies / Connoisseurship
Art history’s toolbox: formal and contextual analysis 22
Museum accession numbers
Reading captions for information 23
Conclusion 26
Chapter 2 Formal analysis
Formal analysis 27
Formal elements 28
Color / Line / Space and mass / Scale / Composition
Two-dimensional art: painting, graphic arts, photography 31
Sculpture 35
Wölfflin and formal analysis 36
Architecture 40
Installation art 42
Performance and video art 43
Digital art 46
Textile and decorative arts 48
Patrick Heron analyzes a painting by Matisse 51
Conclusion 51
Chapter 3 Contextual analysis
Art and context 52
Contextual questions 53
Art out of context? Museums and art history 56
A brief history of museums / Museums and the experience of art
Sarah Symmons analyzes a print by Goya 57
The process of interpretation: confronting your assumptions 61
The challenges of cross-cultural interpretation / The challenges of historical interpretation / Historical interpretation in practice
Is African art anonymous? 65
Art and its controversies 69
Style and meaning 71
Conclusion 73
Chapter 4 Writing art-history papers
Art-historical arguments: opinion vs. interpretation 74
Formal-analysis papers 76
Taking notes / Structuring your paper / The comparison paper
Research papers 83
Developing a topic and starting your research / Keeping notes
Resources for research 91
Books / Periodicals / Websites / Reference works
How many sources should I use? 91
Critical moments in art-history writing 97
Developing a thesis / Writing an introductory paragraph / Sustaining the argument / Dealing with intentions / The conclusion / Editing
If you experience writer’s block 107
Citations and bibliographies 108
MLA citations / Chicago citations / Bibliography or Works Cited / Plagiarism’s gray zone
Writing style 113
Common stylistic pitfalls of art-history writing / Finding a voice
Putting together those illustrations 116
Conclusion 117
Chapter 5 Navigating art-history examinations
Slide identifications and short-answer questions 118 identifications
Why are slide identifications important? / How to succeed at slide identifications / Three-step slide memorization / Memory aids / Unknowns
Test-taking strategies for art-history exams 126
Art-history essays 128
Studying for essay tests / Types of essay question
Effective note-taking 140
Taking good notes in class / Developing a consistent shorthand / Taking notes on readings
Class participation–why bother? 142
Conclusion 143
Chapter 6 Art history’s own history
Ancient world 144
Excerpt from Pliny’s Natural History 145
Middle Ages 146
Renaissance 147
Excerpt from Vasari’s Lives of the Artists 148
Seventeenth-century writers on art 150
Félibien in conversation with Poussin 151
Winckelmann on the Laocoön 153
Age of Enlightenment 154
The nineteenth century: foundations of modern art history 155
Twentieth-century formalists, iconographers and social historians 158
After 1970: the “new” art history 160
The feminist art-history revolution 163
Do other cultures practice art history? 165
China / West Africa
Early art history in China 166
Conclusion 169
Glossary 170
Bibliography 172
Table of parallel illustrations in art-history surveys 178
Index 180
Picture credits 184
The New copy of this book will include any supplemental materials advertised. Please check the title of the book to determine if it should include any access cards, study guides, lab manuals, CDs, etc.
The Used, Rental and eBook copies of this book are not guaranteed to include any supplemental materials. Typically, only the book itself is included. This is true even if the title states it includes any access cards, study guides, lab manuals, CDs, etc.
Need Help? Copyright © 1999-2024