Hello AHST 1112 students. You can 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 contact us via instant message, 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:

1. 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

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

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

Question Examples:

• What is the subject (or subjects) of this work of art?   
• What function did this object have?
• Why was it made? (function)
• Where? What era & place must I research? (historical context)
• What medium did the artist use? (materials and form)
• What distinguishes this artist’s style from others?​

2. Look at your questions and think about what keywords you could use to search for information. Those keywords can be terms that you can look up in sources on the Background Research tab or Selected books section of this guide. 

Floor mosaic fragment depicting Silenus

Link to RISD object record