For this project, you will focus primarily on one or two of the works we have already studied together in class this term. In order to write this paper, you should choose the work or works that have interested you most—a piece of visual art or text that we examined in seminar and that excited you, or a pairing that reveals new and exciting cross-currents between works. Whatever you choose, you should write about work(s) that you feel deserves more attention, or that can be explored farther and in new directions. Once you have selected your primary object(s), prepare to write by thinking about the formal properties of the work (or works) that elicit feelings of excitement in the reader or beholder. How do these properties work? Then, begin the brainstorming or pre-writing process by asking: Beyond what we discussed in class, what questions does this object raise that remain unanswered for me? These questions should open-ended—allowing you to draw meaningful connections with other topics we have covered in class—but also specific, so they remain manageable within the frame of a short paper. Then, begin to write about your work or works. – For this paper, you do not need to formulate your reflections into an argument with a thesis. – Even without a thesis, your paper will still need a cohesive structure. (It should not be free-form reactions.) – Since we have encountered these works together, there is no need to summarize them for you reader. – You will need to quote from the readings, and use appropriate citation methods. – You will also need to format your work according to the formatting guidelines in our Syllabus Policy Sheet. – For this paper, it is not necessary to incorporate outside source materials. – Your writing should work analytically, that is, by examining specific and important details in depth. – Your writing should also work synthetically, by drawing connections between unlike materials. To this end, while your paper will be predominantly about one or two objects, you should find ways to relate the questions raised by your primary material to ideas that appear in other works from our syllabus. If you are writing your paper mainly on The Masque of Queens, how do ideas raised by Wölfflin, Leibniz, or Bernini (or any of the other figures we’ve examined) help to shed light for you on this text? Or if you are comparing Bronzino and Velazquez’s portraits, how might ideas from Nietzsche, Descartes, or Donne help? How can these readings and artworks respond to, critique, supplement each other?