Prompt :
Discuss the three required sculptures in their broader socio-cultural and visual context. For example, what information can you mention about the Greek and Roman world to provide a relevant framework for the analysis of your visual material? How and where were these statues displayed and how did their display impact their message? Include at least three other examples of visual material in your essay to provide more context and make important observations (for example, a Roman painting of Venus and Mars, a dressed female Greek statue, sculptures of a boy and girl, or other material relevant to your exploration of gender politics in the Greco-Roman world). You have to relate your additional three visual examples to your three main sculptures.
Instructions :
Argue your statements with as much concrete evidence and accurate information as possible: substantiate your claims through the thoughtful analysis of specific course material and avoid unfounded statements and generalizations. Visual analysis should be an important part of your exposition. (Need 6 images)
Essay title: After you finish writing your paper, consider investing a little bit of your time to come up with a thoughtful title. Successful titles are hooks that excite, invite, and orient readers, making them eager to read your text
If you draw material from sources beyond our class lectures (for example, class readings or online resources), you must acknowledge them properly. Use either endnotes or parenthetical notations to credit your sources. Include a bibliography at the end of your paper in which you list your sources in full. Endnotes and bibliography do not count towards the page limit.
Do not copy-paste text from PowerPoint notes or other class sources. Present the material in your own words.
The only time it is appropriate to copy-paste text is if you are quoting it. You must use quotation marks (“…”) at the end of which you have to acknowledge your source. In addition, you have to integrate the quote properly into your text, with appropriate analysis as needed
Follow the instructions below about how to use your images (which do not count towards the page requirement).
Select and copy-paste the 6 or more images you will use at the end of your text, preferably in the order you will mention them.
Whenever appropriate, pair the images to facilitate comparative analysis (e.g. Doryphoros and Knidia, Venus and Mars sculpture and painting, statues of a boy and girl, etc.) to highlight meaningful contrasts or similarities).
Number the images in consecutive order.
Write a brief caption under each image, identifying who or what is shown, in what medium (e.g. bronze or marble sculpture or wall-painting), and approximate date. If the statue is a copy of the Roman period of an earlier Greek original, or a modern reconstruction of how an ancient statue looked like, say so.
If you took an image from another source (not this document or class PowerPoints), you should also specify what that source was.
If the PowerPoint or class videos do not provide all the information you need for a complete caption, I don’t expect you to do research to find out—but you must make sure you include all the relevant information if it is provided in the above class material. As you discuss the visual material you selected in your main text, mention the relevant images by the numbers you assigned to them: (fig. 1) or (figs 1-2) etc. In this way, you don’t have to repeat in your essay text the full identification that you provide in your image captions.
PLEASE NOTE: all of the at least six images you have to integrate in your essay must be from the Greco-Roman world (modern reconstructions of ancient material are allowed in this category). If you want to include works produced in later times because they are in conversation with the ancient material and can illuminate interesting aspects of it (for example, 19th-c. Venus and Mars groups), such examples must be in addition to your first six images rather than one among those images.
ALSO NOTE: all of the images you select must be integrated into your analysis, with more emphasis on the three required sculptures and at least one important observations per image for the other three or more examples you choose. Do not use images simply as illustration at the end of your paper but engage with them in a critical way in the main text of your essay.
Integrate visual material in your analysis
Rich visual analysis will make your text more informative and your observations clearer. Below I provide a selection of relevant visual material: the required Doryphoros and Aphrodite of Knidos, a number of Venus and Mars groups from which you have to select at least one, and examples of other images that are relevant to this essay topic, from which you have to select at least three and use them to better contextualize your three main sculptures. All images should be at the end of the text (not in-between text) and be properly captioned.
