Creating a Public History of the Renaissance in Florence
First of all, read the blog by Dr. Lauren Ewbank-Kilroy, who teaches at Pepperdine University in the USA. She raises some really interesting questions about the field of art history. How many times have you picked up a beautifully illustrated art history book, opened its pages, and wondered why the writing is so hard to comprehend? It doesn’t matter which field you tackle, academics do their best research but then write for other academics. In my view, that can make some of the really exciting ideas and art a bit hard to penetrate. If we want art history to touch the lives of everyone we know, in ways that speak to them, how can we make great art and great scholarship accessible to more people? You can tell from this that I love great art and scholarship because both exhibit tremendous human talent and creativity – but I also want to help students connect in ways that are meaningful to your experience. This fits with the way that my research is turning increasingly towards how we experience art in terms of mind, brain, heart, body, soul.
Your task in the Final Project is to pick an object from Florentine Renaissance art and architecture, or select a theme, or engage in a cross-cultural comparison of an idea using a limited number of images, and explain to a public audience why your choice matters.
You could select something from the Florentine Renaissance from these websites:
The Uffizi:
https://www.uffizi.it/en/the-uffizi
The Bargello:
http://www.museumsinflorence.com/musei/museum_of_bargello.html
The Accademia:
The National Gallery in London:
https://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/paintings/tour-renaissance-masterpieces
The National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C.:
https://www.nga.gov/
The National Gallery of Art, Canada:
https://www.gallery.ca/
As soon as possible this term, select your object/ theme/ cross-cultural comparison, and begin to consider what your research questions and main argument will be. I will be creating a rubric to guide you in the grading of the Draft part of this project, as well as the Final Project. I will be looking for how you integrate all of the concepts that are covered in this course within a specific focus. For instance, I would expect that you would write your project up with the key concept that ideas about art were very different during the Renaissance, and the experience of seeing an object in a museum can be rewarding but also distorting, since it is now re-framed in a different context. Example: many works of art played important devotional reasons, but that context is now missing. What do you want the general public to learn from your scholarship?
The Draft process is going to help. You will get early feedback on whether or not your Final Project is going to display your knowledge of the course concepts.
I am happy to help you work out a great topic that will showcase your view on Renaissance art and architecture in Florence and why it matters in today’s world.
Formal Guidelines for Final Project:
What are the basic mechanics of this essay?
- Essay length: 1500-1800 words including bibliography.
- Writing is engaging, conversational, and accessible
- Essay starts with a “hook” to draw the learner in and make them want to continue reading
- Makes the case for why the reader should care about this topic
- Content is object-based. Biography, historical context, and other information flows from the discussion of the object or monument/theme/cross-cultural comparison
- Time is spent on formal analysis that invites the reader to carefully examine the work of art by making reference to details that can be illustrated
- Short engaging subheadings (1-5 words) are included that organize the content into easy-to-read sections and invites the reader to explore further (this is essential for web-based text)
- Only essential dates are included in the text
- Footnotes are included for direct quotes and for some other circumstances, but are kept to a minimum
- A succinct but compelling conclusion is included
How many resources?
A list of additional resources (both online and print) is included below the essay (the first link should be to the institution, or site where the object/ buildings/ images are located). A short bibliography can offer direction for further study, but need not be exhaustive.
How do I cite my sources?
Smarthistory uses a modified version of the Chicago Manual of Style note format. Below are examples of formatting for common types of references. Note that we use “p.” or “pp.” before page numbers. We can help with any questions about exceptions or non-standard sources.
Book:
Mary Hollingsworth, Patronage in Renaissance Italy: From 1400 to the Early Sixteenth Century (London: Thistle, 2014)
Journal Article:
Sheryl Reiss, “A Taxonomy of Art Patronage in Renaissance Italy,” in A Companion to Renaissance and Baroque Art, ed. Babette Bohn and James M. Saslow (Chichester, West Sussex UK: John Wiley & Sons, 2013), pp. 23–43
This web page models for students how to conduct Research Anywhere, under “Writing and Citing”:
Citation Guides are here:
https://www.uvic.ca/library/research/citation/guides/index.php
Select the Quick Guide for Chicago Manual of Style.
Based on Dr. Beth Harris, Dr. Steven Zucker and Dr. Naraelle Hohensee, “Smarthistory essay style checklist,” in Smarthistory, July 21, 2017, accessed September 4, 2020, https://smarthistory.org/essay-checklist/