Early Renaissance in Northern Europe, ARTStor & Ekphrasis (Descriptive Writing)

Art History II
Fall 2020

Assignment 4: Early Renaissance in Northern Europe, ARTStor& Ekphrasis (Descriptive Writing)
Point Value: 250 pts.
Due Date: Friday, September 18th by 11:59 pm

Please save your finished work as a Word document & submit to BB by the due date.

Later on in the semester, you will each be writing a Formal Analysis Paper. For that assignment you will be selecting a work of art from any time after 1300 CE to look at in close detail and to describe in writing. The observations that you make about the piece during that process will help you too formulate a hypothesis about what you believe the artist was trying to communicate to his audience in his or her piece.
We will discuss formulating and supporting your thesis at a later date,while right now, you will practice the descriptive writing portion.
In art history, we use the term, ekphrasis, to signify very detailed descriptive writing of an object. Ekphrasis is an ancient Greek word literally meaning “out-speak.”
I.
1. Please go to the following Wikipedia page for a more elaborated explanation of ekphrasis (focus particularly on the Introduction and “Definition” section & feel free to read the other sections if you would like:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ekphrasis
2. Read the assigned text about Ekphrasis and interpretation which discusses examples of both.
II.
1. Next, you will be writing your own ekphrasis on a work from the lecture 4.1 Northern Renaissance: Artists and Courtiers.

2. The work which you will be viewing and describing is Jan van Eyck’s Man in a Red Turban (1433), which we discussed in class.

3. Please begin by retrieving the image on ARTStor and zooming in as much as possible in fullscreen mode.

Instructions for Accessing ARTStor:

1. While these images can also be found in the lecture slides 4.1, you will be using ARTStor for these comparisons so that you can really zoom in to see detail.

2. To begin, please login to MyCommnet with your NetID & password.

3. After you log into MyCommnet, please hover over “My Library Info,” select MCC, and then click on the link for “Articles & Research Databases” on the left hand menu bar (sometimes all the way down on the bottom of the page).

4. Next, scroll down to the ARTStor link.
5. Next, click on the “Advanced Search” link under the main Search box. Next type in the name of the artist (designate that as “Creator” in the drop down menu next to the text field) in the top text field and then the name of the work (“Title”) in the second text field. Hit the Search button.

6. A screen should appear with image thumbnails. Select the appropriate image by clicking on it to expand that image.

7. Now, get familiar with the Zoom features of ARTstor. If you click ONCE on the image, it will zoom in. You can keep making single clicks to increase the zoom. To zoom out or return to the neutral image, locate the – key under the image to zoom out or click the image with the square next to it to return to neutral.

8. Once the image has resolved into focus, you can use the hand tool to move across & around the image by clicking and holding on the image and dragging.

4. Take plenty of time to examine and explore every inch of the panel AND the FRAME. Please feel free to take notes as you go.

5. Next, working in a methodical manner, use your words to describe what you see in the work. Be sure to use accurate adjectives to add to your descriptions.
6. Don’t neglect that background & the frame! Those are elements of the painting as well!

Aim for a 1-2 page description of this work.
Once completed, please submit as a Word doc by the due date.

Ekphrasis: Jan van Eyck’s Man in a Red Turban, 1433. (Write your paper below)