Art History II Research Paper

American University in the Emirates | College of Design
Art History II | Research Paper| Summer 2021-22

Dr. Arafat Al-Naim
Art History II Research Paper

For the research paper assignment, select a work of art / artist / art movement of your
choosing and write a short research paper (3-5 pages) analyzing it both visually and
historically. You should start on this project as soon as possible.
Your paper should be equal parts visual analysis of the work/ artist/ art movement and
exploration of its historical context.
Spend time looking carefully at your art work-- at least 15 minutes. Take notes on its
appearance and its various compositional elements (e.g. use of color, line, light and
shade, scale, size) and obtain an illustration of the work for later reference. You will
need to illustrate the work in your paper. Think about how the formal characteristics of
the work combine to present the subject matter. What can be deduced about the artist's
intentions in its presentation of form?
If you have questions related to research, please contact me.
Guidelines for Writing Art History Research Papers
Writing a paper for an art history course is similar to the analytical, research-based
papers that you may have written in English literature courses or history courses.
Although art historical research and writing does include the analysis of written
documents, there are distinctive differences between art history writing and other
disciplines because the primary documents are works of art. A key reference guide for
researching and analyzing works of art and for writing art history papers is the 10th
edition (or later) of Sylvan Barnet’s work, A Short Guide to Writing about Art. Barnet
directs students through the steps of thinking about a research topic, collecting
information, and then writing and documenting a paper.
A website with helpful tips for writing art history papers is posted by the University of
North Carolina, http://writingcenter.unc.edu/handouts/art-history/
Wesleyan University Writing Center has a useful guide for finding online writing
resources, http://www.wesleyan.edu/writing/workshop/resourcesforstudents.html
Paper Format
Research papers should be in a 12-point font, double-spaced. Ample margins should be

left for the instructor’s comments. All margins should be one inch to allow for comments.
Number all pages. The cover sheet for the paper should include the following
information: title of paper, your name, course title and number, course instructor, and
date paper is submitted.
Documentation of Resources
The Chicago Manual of Style (CMS), as described in the most recent edition of Sylvan
Barnet’s A Short Guide to Writing about Art is the department standard. Although you
may have used MLA style for English papers or other disciplines, the Chicago Style is
required for all students taking art history courses at UALR. There are significant
differences between MLA style and Chicago Style. A “Quick Guide” for the Chicago
Manual of Style footnote and bibliography format is found
http://www.chicagomanualofstyle.org/tools_citationguide.html. The footnote examples
are numbered and the bibliography example is last. Please note that the place of
publication and the publisher are enclosed in parentheses in the footnote, but they are
not in parentheses in the bibliography. Examples of CMS for some types of note and
bibliography references are given below in this Guideline. Arabic numbers are used for
footnotes. Some word processing programs may have Roman numerals as a choice,
but the standard is Arabic numbers. The use of super script numbers, as given in
examples below, is the standard in UALR art history papers.
A. Print
The chapter “Manuscript Form” in the Barnet book (10th edition or later) provides
models for the correct forms for footnotes/endnotes and the bibliography. For example,
the note form for the FIRST REFERENCE to a book with a single author is:
1Bruce Cole, Italian Art 1250-1550 (New York: New York University Press, 1971), 134.
But the BIBLIOGRAPHIC FORM for that same book is:
Cole, Bruce. Italian Art 1250-1550. New York: New York University Press. 1971.
The FIRST REFERENCE to a journal article (in a periodical that is paginated by

volume) with a single author in a footnote is:
2 Anne H. Van Buren, “Madame Cézanne’s Fashions and the Dates of Her Portraits,”
Art Quarterly 29 (1966): 199.
The FIRST REFERENCE to a journal article (in a periodical that is paginated by

volume) with a single author in the BIBLIOGRAPHY is:
Van Buren, Anne H. “Madame Cézanne’s Fashions and the Dates of Her Portraits.” Art
Quarterly 29 (1966): 185-204.
If you reference an article that you found through an electronic database such as
JSTOR, you do not include the url for JSTOR or the date accessed in either the footnote
or the bibliography. This is because the article is one that was originally printed in a
hard-copy journal; what you located through JSTOR is simply a copy of printed pages.
Your citation follows the same format for an article in a bound volume that you may
have pulled from the library shelves. If, however, you use an article that originally was in
an electronic format and is available only on-line, then follow the “non-print” forms listed
below.
B. Non-Print
Citations for Internet sources such as online journals or scholarly web sites should
follow the form described in Barnet’s chapter, “Writing a Research Paper.” For example,
the footnote or endnote reference given by Barnet for a web site is:
3 Nigel Strudwick, Egyptology Resources, with the assistance of The Isaac Newton
Institute for Mathematical Sciences, Cambridge University, 1994, revised 16 June 2008,
http://www.newton.ac.uk/egypt/, 24 July 2008.
If you use microform or microfilm resources, consult the most recent edition of Kate
Turabian, A Manual of Term Paper, Theses and Dissertations. A copy of Turabian is
available at the reference desk in the main library.
C. Visual Documentation (Illustrations)
Art history papers require visual documentation such as photographs, photocopies, or

scanned images of the art works you discuss. In the chapter “Manuscript Form” in A
Short Guide to Writing about Art, Barnet explains how to identify illustrations or “figures”
in the text of your paper and how to caption the visual material. Each photograph,
photocopy, or scanned image should appear on a single sheet of paper unless two
images and their captions will fit on a single sheet of paper with one inch margins on all
sides. Note also that the title of a work of art is always italicized. Within the text, the
reference to the illustration is enclosed in parentheses and placed at the end of the
sentence. A period for the sentence comes after the parenthetical reference to the
illustration. For UALR art history papers, illustrations are placed at the end of the paper,
not within the text. Illustration are not supplied as a Powerpoint presentation or as
separate .jpgs submitted in an electronic format.
Edvard Munch’s painting The Scream, dated 1893, represents a highly personal,
expressive response to an experience the artist had while walking one evening (Figure
1).
The caption that accompanies the illustration at the end of the paper would read:
Figure 1. Edvard Munch, The Scream, 1893. Tempera and casein on cardboard, 36 x
29″ (91.3 x 73.7 cm). Nasjonalgalleriet, Oslo, Norway.
Plagiarism
Plagiarism is a serious offense, and students should understand that checking papers
for plagiarized content is easy to do with Internet resources.

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American University in the Emirates | College of Design

Art History II | Research Paper| Summer 2021-22

Art History II Research Paper

If you have questions related to research, please contact me.

Guidelines for Writing Art History Research Papers

Research papers should be in a 12-point font, double-spaced. Ample margins should be

But the BIBLIOGRAPHIC FORM for that same book is:

The FIRST REFERENCE to a journal article (in a periodical that is paginated by

The FIRST REFERENCE to a journal article (in a periodical that is paginated by

C. Visual Documentation (Illustrations)

Art history papers require visual documentation such as photographs, photocopies, or

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