Describe the historical events or innovations that characterize the period in which the work was created

Write an analysis of one work (suggested length of 3–6 paragraphs total). Choose one work from one time period in the list of accepted works below:

Note: the one work you choose MUST be selected from only one of the periods in the list below.

Classical Period:

Sappho [Like the very gods] ca. 7th century B.C.E. (poetry)
Plato, Apology, ca. 399 B.C.E. (philosophy)
Hadrian, Pantheon, ca. 118-125 C.E. (architecture)
Phidias, Athena Parthenos, ca. 438 B.C.E. (model of the lost original sculpture)

Renaissance:

William Shakespeare, Sonnet 116, “Let me not to the marriage of true minds admit impediments,” 1609 (poetry)
Christopher Marlowe, “The Passionate Shepherd to His Love,” ca. 1599 (poetry)
Sandro Botticelli, Primavera, ca.1470, (tempera on panel)
Michelangelo, Pietà, 1498-1499 (sculpture)
Josquin des Prez, Mille Regretz (French Chanson), c. 1521
Thomas Weelkes, Sing We at Pleasure (English madrigal), c. 1598

Enlightenment:

Jonathan Swift, “A Modest Proposal” 1729 (satirical essay)
Mary Wollstonecraft, Excerpt from Chapter 9 from A Vindication of the Rights of Woman 1792 (essay)

NeoClassical:

Angelica Kauffmann, Cornelia Pointing to her Children as Her Treasures, 1785, oil on canvas
Jacques-Louis David, Oath of the Horatii, 1784, oil on canvas

Classical Music:

W. A. Mozart, Piano Concerto No. 20 in D Minor, K. 466 – “Romanze” (second movement), 1785
Joseph Haydn, Symphony No. 94 “Surprise Symphony” (second movement), 1792

Romanticism:

John Keats, “When I Have Fears That I May Cease to Be,” 1818 (poem)
Harriet Jacobs, Chapter 1 from “Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl,” 1861 (autobiography)
Théodore Géricault, The Raft of the Medusa, c. 1819, oil on canvas
Francisco de Goya, Saturn Devouring His Son, 1820-1823 (mural transferred to canvas)
Franz Liszt, Hungarian Rhapsody No. 2, 1847
Beethoven, Piano Concerto no. 5 in E flat major, Op. 73 (Emperor Concerto), 1809-1811

Realism:

Guy de Maupassant, “The Necklace,” 1884 (short story).
Kate Chopin, “Désirée’s Baby” 1893 (short story)
Rosa Bonheur, The Horse Fair, 1852-1855, oil on canvas
Henry Ossawa Tanner, The Banjo Lesson, 1893, oil on canvas
Scott Joplin, Maple Leaf Rag, 1899 (piano musical composition)
Claude Debussy, Clair de lune (from the Suite Bergamasque), 1905, orchestral (originally a piano suite)

Use the link near the bottom of this page to access direct links to the acceptable works listed above. Once you have selected one of the accepted works from the list above, you will research the work, the life of the author/artist, and the period. You will then be ready to create your analysis. This process of analysis will require you to discuss the events or innovations that define the historical period when the work was created, analyze a theme or stylistic characteristic of the period that is reflected in the work, and finally analyze the work’s or author’s/artist’s/composer’s contribution to the humanities.
Requirements

Your submission must be your original work. No more than a combined total of 30% of a submission and no more than a 10% match to any one individual source can be directly quoted or closely paraphrased from sources, even if cited correctly. An originality report is provided when you submit your task that can be used as a guide.

You must use the rubric to direct the creation of your submission because it provides detailed criteria that will be used to evaluate your work. Each requirement below may be evaluated by more than one rubric aspect. The rubric aspect titles may contain hyperlinks to relevant portions of the course.

A. Analyze the acceptedwork by doing the following:

1. Describe the historical events or innovations that characterize the period in which the work was created (suggested length of 1–2 paragraphs).

2. Analyze how this work reflects a theme or stylistic characteristic from its period (suggested length of 1–2 paragraphs).

3. Analyze the work’s or author’s/artist’s/composer’s contributions to the humanities (suggested length of 1–2 paragraphs).

B. When you use sources to support ideas and elements in a paper or project, provide acknowledgement of source information for any content that is quoted, paraphrased or summarized. Acknowledgement of source information includes in-text citation noting specifically where in the submission the source is used and a corresponding reference, which includes the following points:

• author

• date

• title

• location of information (e.g., publisher, journal, website URL)

C. Demonstrate professional communication in the content and presentation of your submission.