SOME POTENTIAL RESEARCH SUBJECTS

The list below offers some possibilities for research projects. You should feel free to revise any of these or use a subject completely of your own choosing. These are simply some possibilities to spur your thinking. Yager's Yellow Pages may also be a source for ideas, especially if you want to consider the possibility of giving a presentation at the site of a particular work.

Bear in mind that for a brief paper or report you should choose a subject sufficiently focused so that you can cover it in some depth. Subjects such as "The Renaissance" or "Impressionism" are far too broad for the project at hand. Also, remember that the focus of your research should be on the visual arts. If, for example, you chose to present some aspect of an artists work you should focus on the work and such things as its formal qualities, its impact on the history of art or society, its innovative vision, etc. Though you might include pertinent biographical information about the artist in such a project you should avoid making it primarily a biography of the artist. Remember that resources in English can be difficult to find on the trip so you might consider taking them with you or doing the bulk of your research before the trip begins. Projects should be approved by me before you get too far into them. I will be happy to help you in defining your project both before and during the trip.

1. Raphael's Vatican Frescoes (or one of them)
2. Neo-Platonic Symbolism in Michelangelo's Sistine Chapel Ceiling
3. Light, Stillness, and the Camera Obscura in the Paintings of Jan Vermeer
4. Symbolism in Vanitas Still Life Painting
5. An Analysis of Artemisia Gentileschi's Five Paintings of "Judith and Holofernes"
6. The Expression of the 17th Century View of Humans and Nature in the Gardens of Versailles
7. Caravaggio's Influence on Dutch Baroque Painting
8. The Representation of The Mother Goddess in Anatolian Prehistoric Sculpture
9. A Comparative Analysis of Michelangelo's "David" and Donatello's bronze "David"
10. The Use of Linear and Atmospheric Perspective in Masaccio's Painting
11. Hans Holbein the Younger's Portraits for the English Court of Henry VIII
12. The Role of Women in the Paintings of Berthe Morisot (or Mary Cassatt)
13. Fear and Anxiety in the Early Works of Edvard Munch
14. Antoine Watteau and the Invention of the fêtes galantes
15. Geometry and the Architecture of Filippo Brunelleschi
16. The Influence of Photography on the Art of the 19th Century
17. A Comparative Analysis of Giorgione's "Sleeping Venus", Titian's "Venus of Urbino" and Manet's "Olympia"
18. The Suleimaniye Mosque Complex and the Architecture of Sinan the Great
19. Albrecht Dürer's "The Four Apostles" and the Protestant Reformation in Nuremberg
20. Peasant Life and Morality in the Paintings of Pieter Bruegel the Elder
21. Diego Velázquez's "Las Meninas" (The Maids of Honor): A Pictorial Puzzle
22. The Landscape in 17th Century Netherlandish Painting
23. Serial Narrative Structure in William Hogarth's "Marriage à la Mode"
24. The Portraits Paintings of Élisabeth Louise Vigée-Lebrun
25. Francisco Goya's "The Third of May, 1808" and Pablo Picasso's "Guernica" and the Atrocities of War
26. Claude Monet's "Rouen Cathedral" Series
27. Auguste Rodin and the Tradition of Monumental Sculpture
28. Akhenaton and the Amarna Period in Egyptian Art
29. Kouros and Kore Figures in Greek Archaic Sculpture
30. A Comparison of the Four Roman Painting Styles from Pompeii
31. The Painting of Andrei Rublëv and the Byzantine Tradition in Russia
32. The Great Mosque at Córdoba: The Pinnacle of Islamic Culture in Spain
33. Mythology and History in the Sculpture of "The Altar of Zeus from Pergamon"
34. The Severe Style and the Dawn of the Classical Tradition in Greek Sculpture
35. The Assemblage Sculpture of Robert Rauschenberg