Part 2: How to Write a Research Paper When There is No Info on the Artwork.

To write a well-rounded art history paper, you should start off with some general knowledge on the artist, the cultural climate, the art movement, the process of creating the artwork, and the symbols/meaning in the artwork. So what do you do when you know none of these things? Well, take a moment and look and the catalogue entry for your artwork. It is very unlikely that you have literally nothing to go on. You probably have a date and geographic location at the very least, which really is enough to get you started.

The Doctor's Visit

1. Writing about an Artwork with an “Unknown” Artist

Unless you go to school in a city with a large, popular art museum, your local museum will probably have dozens of “no-name” artists with the occasional headliner in each gallery.  Such was true for my paper on Hendrick Heerschop’s The Doctor’s Visit. While Heerschop is a known Dutch Golden Age painter, there are not many biographical analyses on him – at least not any that I could find. I also couldn’t find any information on the painting beyond the gallery label. However, doctor’s visits are a popular theme in Dutch genre paintings. And do you know who painted doctor’s visit scenes? Jan Steen, Samuel van Hoogstraten, and Gerard Dou – all well-known Dutch painters with detailed essays on their paintings. So for my essay, I looked at the paintings of these well-known artists and compared their more detailed symbolism to the fairly simple composition of Heerschop. By finding differences and similarities between Heerschop and the other painters, I was able to talk about Dutch doctor paintings as a whole rather than focusing on this one painting. As a bonus, Dutch Baroque art is so easy to write about because scholars already know a lot about the culture and how it was a catalyst for the changing art world at the time.

Your Take-Away:

•  Find well-known artists with a similar subject or style to your artist and use them to compare/contrast to your artwork. 
• Are you writing about a nativity scene? Find nativity scenes from the same area/time or from different areas/times to show the changes in depictions.
• Is your artist obviously a Caravaggisti? Talk about all the elements borrowed from Caravaggio. 
• Pick an artwork from a time of change in society – political, economic, and cultural turmoil or prosperity will always find a reflection in artwork.
• Some examples include the Counter Reformation, Rococo, and German Expressionism
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  Separation of Sheep and Goats

2. Writing about a Mystery Artwork

In last week’s post I mentioned my research paper on the Byzantine mosaic Separation of Sheep and Goats. I chose this artwork even though I only knew it’s era, location, and the subject. I chose it because I had questions that I wanted to answer. Originally, I was concerned with the identity of the two angels and the obvious color choice made in the selection of their tiles. Then I decided I needed to find the original purpose of the moasic. Eventually, I expanded my research to include the symbolism of sheep and goats as inherently good and evil. So how did I begin?

I started by scouring the library for books on medieval angels – theology, iconography, you name it. I tried to identify the mosaic angels as archangels, but there was no symbolism to support that claim. But guess what? That search for information can still be used in your paper! Remember science class? I suggested my hypothesis, summarized my evidence, and stated my conclusion. In this case, I was wrong, and they were probably general angels to represent all angels. I did find that red and blue are attributed to certain orders of angels, and matched those attributes to the positions of the angels.

To find the original purpose of the mosaic I searched for similar mosaics in books of Byzantine art and read about the divisions of artwork in a Byzantine church. I learned that only certain themes were allowed at certain heights on church walls, and that there is only one recorded sheep and goats scene at the apse of a church. The size and proportions of the mosaic also helped me guess at its placement because the elongated figures lend themselves to a high wall or ceiling, which would correct the proportions when viewed from below.

To research the symbolism of the sheep and goats, I started by reading several analyses on the Biblical reading from Matthew. I was surprised to find an article examining the societal opinion towards sheep and goats during the time Matthew would have wrote this passage. This insight into his intended audience added something special to my paper. The paper would have been fine without it, but this was one of those “extra step” moments.  

        Your Take-Away:

• Pick an artwork with questions that you can answer.
• Start with what you know.
• Jesus' purple robes and halo are a common representation that you should know from lecture classes.
• Talk about the development of familiar symbols/iconography.
• Don't be afraid to prove yourself wrong - state an idea, look for evidence, and conclude whether your statement was valid or invalid. If invalid, keep writing about more theories until you can support a valid hypothesis. 
• Try to identify the original purpose/placement of your artwork. Look at the subject as well as the physical characteristics of the artwork to help you.
• Research outside of the art-world. History, theology, culture, and more can open your eyes to relevant information.

The most important tip with any research paper is to have lots and lots of sources from diverse scholarly opinions. Your professor might require three non-internet sources,but can you guess my average number of sources on a research paper? Eleven sources. All of which were books or articles that I had to manually search through for information - no ctrl+f in a hardcover. And that’s just my credited sources! I probably read twenty or more books and articles with some being completely useless and others only reiterating what I already read. It is a lot of work, but it is so worth it when you find that single sentence nugget of information that drives your whole thesis home. Of course, it helps to be interested in your research, and I’m a pro at turning a seemingly dull assignment into an interesting project. Join me next week as I share my secrets in Part 3: How to Write About Whatever You Want.