Artemisia Gentileschi and Élisabeth-Louise Vigée Lebrun's Self-Portrait
Building off of the visual analysis skills you practiced in your museum paper, you will write a Comparison Paper. Select a pair of artworks from the list below and write a 2-page (typed, double spaced, 12pt font) comparison. This paper is worth 10% of your final grade. Your paper is due by 11:59 pm, Sunday, April 25.
The only outside sources you should use are your textbook and class notes. This is not a research paper, so do not consult other sources. You are expected to construct your own analysis, derived from what you see and what you have learned in this course. Your paper should be well organized, proofread, and should include proper citations referencing the textbook and video lectures (just like your weekly response essays).
Your paper should begin with an introduction that includes a clear and easily identifiable thesis. The body of your paper should include a well-organized and thoughtful visual description of your two objects that compares the works in thoughtful ways. It is highly recommended that you review the guidelines provided for the museum paper, as well as the sample comparison that we will circulate shortly. Your paper should end with a conclusion that ties back to your thesis in a thoughtful way.
Always keep in mind that this is an exercise in formal analysis. We do not ask you to engage at any depth with the biography of the artists, the social and historical background in which the work were produced or the meaning of symbols that may appear in the works. That said, take a look at the sample comparison, which does arrive at larger socio-historical conclusions, which it, however, derives strictly from a visual analysis of the two works it compares.
Artemisia Gentileschi, Self Portrait as Allegory of Painting (24-20), 1638-1639 and Élisabeth-Louise Vigée Lebrun, Self-Portrait (26-16), 1790
Juan Sánchez Cotán, Still Life with Game Fowl (24-25), 1600-1603 and Pablo Picasso Still Life with Chair-Caning (29-14), 1912
Jacques-Louis David, Napoleon Crossing Saint-Bernard (27-2A), 1800-01 and Kehinde Wiley, Napoleon Leading the Army Over the Alps (32-4), 2005
Èdouard Manet, A Bar at the Folies-Bergère (28-8), 1882 and Cindy Sherman, Untitled Film Still #35 (31-38), 1979
Comparison Paper
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In Artemisia Gentileschi, Self Portrait as Allegory of Painting (24-20), 1638-1639 and Élisabeth-Louise Vigée Lebrun, Self-Portrait (26-16), 1790, the female artists paint their self-portraits. In both self-portraits, the female painters use a brush in their right hands, and palette and brushes are visible on the left hands. Gentileschi gazes at the paintings and is intense concentration while painting, while Lebrun looks directly into the viewers or audience. Painting was a profession dominated by men, but Gentileschi and Lebrun convey the idea that female painters were skilled, and the self-portraits reflect their abilities.
Gentileschi's self-portrait is an allegory that represented the painter represented translucent wearing a dress in various colors with her black hair tied back. Naturally, the woman carries a brush in one hand and a palette in the other. The background of the self-portrait is said to be the prepared canvas, in other color, and it is the artist who paints. The artist's position reflects her looking at the painting. The sleeve on Gentileschi's right arm is rolled up and robust, and her hand holds her tools of trade, showing that painting required physical and mental effort, and she was able and willing to try her best.
The painting shows Gentileschi seated but leans forward towards the canvas, where she is intensely concentrated as she starts her painting, with her right hand already on the canvas. However, this is not just a self-portrait as it also represents the art of painting, something that many painters had already done to enhance the work of ...