Analysis of The Birth of Venus

  Order Description   Choose any work of art that we have covered in class and write 400-500 about it. Using the questions given in the first PowerPoint presentation as a guide, give an analysis of the aesthetic and political significance of the work.     The questions are given in the first presentation powerpoint: What did the artist mean for us to feel? What aesthetic conventions did the artist employ, and why? (Classical? Realist? Abstract?) Is ‘beauty’ relevant to the image? Does it represent an ‘ideal’? Why was the image produced? Did it have a patron, or was it produced to be sold on the open market? Does this make a difference? How does the image compare and contrast with previous images from the history of art? Did the image influence future styles? What is the social, political, or religious role of the image? (How is social hierarchy portrayed? What are the gender or racial relations of the scene? What religious message is conveyed? How is power expressed?) How has the meaning of the image changed for audiences across the centuries? Can we see the image in the same way as people from the artist’s own time? How does the environment (gallery space, church, temple, etc) affect the significance of the image? What is / was the purpose of the image?