Aim for FiveArt History

Short essay: attribution

Attribution: a myth in marble

  • Unit 3
  • 5 points
  • About 15 minutes

You attribute a work you haven’t studied (image provided) to an artist, culture, style or object type from the required works, and justify it with specific visual evidence, often adding contextual evidence about the culture that made it. On the exam: Section II, question 5 of 6: a short essay on a work beyond the image set (image provided), with a suggested 15 minutes.

The question and its sources

Short essay: attribution. Suggested time: 15 minutes. On the exam you would see a color image of the work; here it is described in words. Answer each part in complete sentences. The work described is a marble sculpture made in Rome in the 1620s. It is not part of the required image set. Its subject comes from an ancient Greek myth told by the Roman poet Ovid: the god Apollo chases the nymph Daphne, and just as he catches her, she is turned into a laurel tree.

The work, described in words

Life-size white marble group, about 2.4 meters (about 8 feet) tall including its base.

Apollo, nude except for a cloak that billows out behind him, runs forward in full stride. His back leg lifts off the ground, and one arm stretches out behind him. His other hand reaches around Daphne and touches her side, just where bark is beginning to cover her body.

Daphne twists away from him, her body rising upward on a diagonal. Her arms are thrown up over her head. Her fingers and the ends of her hair are turning into leafy laurel branches, her toes are turning into roots that reach down into the ground, and a thin layer of bark is wrapping around her legs and hips.

Her mouth is open as if she is crying out, and her eyes are wide.

The leaves, twigs and roots are carved so thin and so deeply cut away from the block that light passes between them. Smooth, polished skin contrasts with rough bark, crisp leaves and flowing hair.

The whole group forms a strong diagonal that rises from Apollo's back foot up through Daphne's raised hands. Both figures are caught at a single split second, in the middle of motion.

A carved panel on the base holds a two-line Latin inscription.

Source: Description written for this practice question. On the exam you would see a color image of the work instead.

Suggested time: 15 minutes

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Part (a)

1 point

Attribute the work described to the artist who made it.

0 / 2,500 characters

Part (b)

1 point

Using specific visual evidence, justify your attribution by describing ONE relevant similarity between the work described and another work by the same artist.

0 / 2,500 characters

Part (c)

1 point

Using specific visual evidence, justify your attribution by describing ANOTHER relevant similarity between the work described and another work by the same artist.

0 / 2,500 characters

Part (d)

1 point

Using specific contextual evidence, explain how the work reflects the interests of its patron or the setting for which it was made.

0 / 2,500 characters

Part (e)

1 point

Using specific visual or contextual evidence, explain how the work demonstrates characteristics of Baroque art.

0 / 2,500 characters

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