Art History

Chapter 6

Art Criticism Practice

DIRECTIONS:

Compare and contrast using art criticism methods the following two pieces of art depicting bulls – one from the Lascaux Cave dating 17,000 years ago and an Ancient Mesopotamian (Sumerian) piece from 3300-2900 BC.

Sumerian Bull

Lascaux Bull

Criticism Requirements:

For each work of art, the following is the minimum required:

Description (5 statements), Analysis (3 statements + Design Chart markings [one chart, two colors keyed to the two pieces of art]), Interpretation (2 statements), Judgment (3 – one for each theory: formalism, emotionalism, and imitationalism).

The judgment statements should follow this format:

“This work (is/is not) a successful piece of art according to (formalism/emotionalism/imitationalism) because [insert at least one solid reason here].”

Final Synthesis Statements:

DIRECTIONS: Fill in the blanks in the statements with appropriate words or phrases to help you create a final synthesis compare/contrast expression.

General Description Differences

The Sumerian bull has ___________________________________________, but the cave art bull has ________________________________________________.

The Sumerian bull uses ___________________________________________, but the cave art bull uses _______________________________________________.

General Description Similarities

The Sumerian bull has similar __________________________ to the cave art bull.

The Sumerian bull has similar __________________________ to the cave art bull.

General Analysis Differences (use only if there are two different ones)

The Sumerian bull uses the design chart pair ______________/______________ while the cave art bull uses ______________/______________.

General Analysis Similarities (use only if they do share a pair)

The Sumerian bull and the cave art bull share the use of the design chart pair ______________/______________.

Interpretation Differences

The Sumerian bull may communicate _____________________________, but the cave bull communicates _________________________________ instead.

Interpretation Similarities

The Sumerian bull and the cave art bull both communicate ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________.

Judgment Differences (use only the statements that apply)*

The Sumerian bull is a successful piece of art according to _____________________ theory of art, while the cave art bull is less successful in this area.

Judgment Similarities (use only the statements that apply)*

The Sumarian bull and the cave art bull are both successful pieces of art according to the ____________________ theory of art.

DIRECTIONS: Put what you just organized into compare/contrast statements in to paragraph form. The topic sentence is already provided for you.

If we compare the Sumerian bull with the cave art bull, we find many differences as well as similarities using the description, analysis, interpretation, and judgment methods of art criticism. ______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

*I assume that the piece of art is a success in at least one theory of art.