University of New Haven Writing Paint Artworks Essay

First find an Italian Renaissance figurative artwork. It could be a piece of sculpture or a painting. Start by looking at this Italian Renaissance artists checklist:

https://www.wga.hu/tours/italpain/index09.html

Then, either on your own or with a team, recreate it!. Have someone take several photographs of you doing this from several different angles. Then write a 1000-word essay explaining what you learned about the artist’s handling of anatomy by attempting to recreate this work. You must organize your essay into the following sections:

Section 1 Title of artwork, artist, date, original intended location, brief explanation of subject matter and/or protagonists.

Section 2 Body Pose

Section 3 Hand gestures

Section 4 Eyes

Section 5 Physical and spatial relationship between figures. Note that sometimes the negative space between figures is more revealing than anything else. Get that right and the rest comes easier.

Section 6 Given what Alberti stated about gesture and body language, why did the artist choose this pose? Make specific reference to Alberti’s recommendations in your comments.

Section 7 Is the pose ‘realistic” or possible? Did you manage to imitate it? If not, why not? Remember, pure description or shallow statements are not sufficient.

Ultimately, your essay must not only present a detailed analysis of the features of your chosen pose, but also demonstrate what you have learned about the pose through your exploration of it. Learning that the artist was ‘a genius’, or ‘really brilliant’, is superficial and insufficient.