guidelines for oral exams
You will make an appointment to meet me for 20 minutes
to discuss
the VISUAL MATERIAL of the course.
the exam:I will ask 2-4 questions based on slides, usually from the review carousel. You must be able to identify anything from the carousel.
identifications?artist (if known) title / iconography patron (if it was made for a known person) location (city, country -- not necessarily museum) medium
discussion?
Our discussion is NOT centered on the identification but on concepts. WHY is more important than what, when, or where. On the other hand, if you don't know what, when, or where an object is how much do you really know about it? I will put up images, either alone or in comparison, and ask you questions like:
- how do we know what culture or civilization made this?
- why would someone have made this or paid for this work of art?
- how are these two statues different? what do their differences tell us about women's lives?
- why do so many images of religion survive (hint, not just 'because it was important to them').