Choose two of those art works to compare- https://www.dropbox.com/sh/fmasqv9bs3212ob/AAC2jd3xCXThu-8LeNuho_m4a?dl=0
Purpose
This assignment is designed to build upon the skills that you employed in the first paper, where you learned to look carefully at a work of art and to translate your visual responses into descriptive and analytical language. There are two major differences in this second assignment: (1) you will now apply those skills to the task of comparing and contrasting two different works, stating a clear thesis about the nature of this relationship, and (2) we now ask you to locate your observations about the two works concretely in history. This means that you will have to consult secondary sources to identify how the subject matter and form of the works are related to particular developments in the world in which the maker was working. How can you attribute the differences or similarities between the works to the broader patterns of history and biography?
Advice on Compare/Contrast Papers-
In many beginning Art History courses, and in more advanced ones as well, you will be asked towrite a paper in which you make a comparison and contrast between two works. This type of essay usually requires a substantial comparative judgment of the two works, which will function as your thesis.
One option for a thesis statement for this kind of comparative essay could be based on how you see the two works in relation to each other and to some aspect of the human condition, or culture, or history. It could be, for example, that both artists painted peasants working in a field, but one painting suggests the oneness of humans and nature, perhaps because the figures appear to be an integral part of the field in which they are working, while the other painting emphasizes the separation between humans and nature. The evidence you provide for your thesis will include your interpretation, analysis, and description of the characteristics of both works, and must at all times relate to your thesis. For example, if you are discussing horizontality or verticality, you need to first accurately and
clearly describe these elements in both works and then evaluate how these visual orientations demonstrate the validity of your thesis concerning humans as a part of nature or separate from it.
Do not divide the paper into two discrete sections: avoid a discussion of one work of art followed by a discussion of the other. Instead, each paragraph can include discussion of both works in relation to a particular element or a well thought-out combination of elements, such as color and texture. The point of comparison or contrast that each paragraph makes must support the point of your paper, your thesis.