Please use this course guide as a starting point for your research.

Research Librarians are here to help you with your assignment so please contact us should you need any assistance. You can email, text us at (203) 295-7542, or schedule an individual research appointment. Additional information about library hours, citation help, etc. is located on the library home page

Starting Your Research:

Use the steps in the boxes below to refine your research topic before beginning. It will save you time!

Before you even begin your research, find your selected work of art on the Metropolitan Museum of Art website, Yale University Art Gallery website, etc. It is important to have this in front of you so that you can use your formal analysis skills and the details provided in the museum's catalog record to formulate some research topics or questions.

The Research Assignment:

Choose one of the following aspects of the artwork's historical context to research, in addition to the subject/story:

• Research answers to questions you have about the artwork. An aspect of the artwork’s historical context (examples: religion, war, politics, family life, patronage) should be included, and/or function, and/or style.

Hint: Doing a thorough visual analysis of the art prior to this will help you generate questions. Also use details from the museum's information associated with the art to inform these questions.

Question Examples:

What interests you about the object? What do you notice?

Think: Who, What, When, Where, Medium, Subject, Composition/style

•     Who is Exekias? (artist)
•     What is a kylix? (what)
•     When did he live? (historical context)
•     Where? What era & place must I research? (historical context)
•     What medium did he use? (materials and form)
•     What is the subject? Who is Dionysus?
•     Why was it made? (function)
•     What distinguishes this artist’s style from others?

You can use this guide to locate sources that will help answer your questions. 

Look at your research questions and decide what category each one falls into.

Examples:

If I want to find out information about a Greek or Egyptian mythological figure, I would probably start with the subject matter and symbolism tab, and possibly also check the historical context tab afterwards.

If I want to learn about sculpting techniques or how a piece of jewelry was made, I would look under the style and function tab first. 

Also, use your research questions to isolate and brainstorm keywords that you can use to search online sources and look up in the index of print sources.

• I will find sources that refer directly to my work of art and / or artist. Not necessarily / probably not!
• I will know what my paper thesis is when I begin researching. It's important to ask many questions about the artwork and seek answers to those questions through your research before refining your thesis.
• I will be able to find all of my sources online. While this guide does include many valuable online sources, in the past, many students have found their best information in print books.

Title: Dionysus on ship with dolphins, interior of an Attic black-figure kylix

By: Exekias

Retrived from: ARTstor