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The following is your essay prompt:

How do art historians categorize the different subjects explored by artists? And why do artists work within specific subject categories? The subject categories we have been studying in class include: landscape, history, portraiture, genre, and still life.

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Carefully consider these guidelines:

1.Do NOT do outside online or library research to answer the questions in your essay prompt. Instead, use the materials provided in class during the first five weeks: the chapters, documents, spotlight on technique videos, and readings.

2.Think for yourself. Use independent thinking to interpret the works of art we have explored together in class, along with the voices of writers of our documents, the authors of our readings, and the people who have demonstrated different techniques in the videos. As you rely on these writers and artists, quote directly from the documents, videos, and readings, and if you rely on what I have written in the chapters, place quotes around that material, too, if you use it. You do not need to include footnotes when you quote our class materialjust make it clear within your essay who you are quoting.

3.Question: How long should your essay be? Answer: As long as you need it to be. There is no specific page length required, but this is your opportunity to demonstrate what you have learned in the full first half of our class. As such, answer the questions in the prompt thoroughly. Discuss works of art in detail. Aim to explore at least ten works of art discussed in classpossibly morein your response. Aim to explore at least four documents, in detail, possibly more. Aim to explore at least four of the spotlight on technique videos (possibly more), and at least four of the readings (possibly more).

4.Type and double-space your essay, using a 12-pt font, and save it as a single pdf or Word doc. Upload your finished document to Canvas in the Week 6 module. Make sure you place your own name in the file name. If we had a student in our class named Jesse Chavez, he would name his document as follows:
JesseChavez Midterm 1A.pdf. He would also place his full name on the essay itself.

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Grading Rubric

    Analysis of works of art discussed in class, in detail     Use of weekly Documents
    Use of weekly Spotlight on Technique Videos    Use of weekly Reading Exercises
    Clarity (Communicate your ideas clearly.)
    Thoroughness (Fully answer both questions included in the prompt.)