(LEA3) Artist Attribution Practice

Artist Attribution Practice

Attribution of unknown pieces of artwork is a key art-historical term with which students should be familiar. The identification of unknown works of art has already been appearing in the short essays in this course and will likely appear on the College Board exam. Attribution is a fundamental component of art history more generally because it establishes the artist's individual knowledge.

"In introductory college-level courses students are often given unknown works of art in order to evaluate their skills at attribution. This type of question assesses students' ability to closely observe and analyze a work of art, to recognize the stylistic characteristics specific to a particular artist, and to make an independent judgment based on art-historical knowledge. Through a process of deductive reasoning and analogy, students arrive at an attribution by comparing the unknown work to other artworks with which they are familiar. The best answers to this question do not simply identify the artist but present a full and persuasive case for the attribution based on specific stylistic characteristics and artistic content (College Board)."

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