AHIS 120 - Formal Analysis Paper
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AHIS 120
Formal Analysis Paper
DUE SEPT. 26
Your TA will give you instructions for submitting your paper in section and electronically, via Turnitin.
4-6 Pages, double spaced, 12 point font. Select an object from from the Getty Villa website or for the NY Met Museum website and do a formal analysis of the work. The object should be Produced sometime between 3000 BCE and 200 CE, and it should fall into the stylistic categories and cultures we are studying before the midterm: Mesopotamian; Egyptian; Greek; Roman art.
https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection
https://www.getty.edu/art/collection/
You will write a formal aspects of a single work of art. The point of this exercise is to describe the formal properties of the work in detail. You will not be researching the works you have chosen. Try to minimize discussions of narrative or historical circumstances of production. Indeed, try to stay away from these issues altogether. Instead, you will demonstrate a sustained visual engagement with two objects.
Your main task is to describe the salient formal features of the work of art. You will describe things such as: colors; materials; size; arrangement of figures (if there are figures represented); spatial organization. (You might consult the introduction of your textbook, which discusses formal analysis.) Make sure to describe how the most important formal aspects of the work relate to the organizing visual logic of the entire work. Try to stay away from interpretation and focus instead on concrete description. Three questions to ask yourself are: what are the most striking visual qualities of the work?; by what means are these effects achieved? How does this artwork “work”? What are its operations?
Structure
Here is a good structure for your paper. You do NOT need to follow this outline, but it will give you a sense of how an analysis might be structured.
1. Intro paragraph: Brief description of each work and STRONG THESIS.
2. At least three paragraphs analyzing and describing the work of art.
a. Make sure that the topic sentence of each paragraph relates to the thesis.
b. The topic sentence should introduce a SPECIFIC formal aspect.
c. The topic sentence must be supported with description. Description is your “evidence” to support what you said in your topic sentence, which is a single and specific aspect ofyour broader thesis statement. Your “evidence” is essentially, “look here,” because description is a deictic (pointing) act: it says, look here.
5. Conclusion- A summary of the analysis you did.
What we are looking for:
In addition to good writing (clear organization, lack of typos, etc.), here is what we are looking for in your paper.
1. A clearly defined thesis.
2. Thoughtful organization that is related to the thesis. (Topic sentences for each paragraph
that relate to the thesis and description of both works to support the topic sentences.)
3. That you do not rely too heavily on the wall label. You may bring in some information from
the wall label in your introduction (for example, This is a statue of Hercules, which we know because of these attributes), but please cite your information. And focus more on looking at the works of art than on telling us background information.
4. That you don’t overlook important formal aspects of either work.
5. That the analysis does not rely on narrative or iconography too much, that you stick to formal description.
6. Explanation of the parts of the work to the overall composition.
7. Evidence of a sustained visual engagement with the work.
2025-09-26