Suggestions for Oral Presentations

1. Choose a museum object and contextualize it from all you have learned about the Medieval world. Attempt to answer such questions as:
   
   • Does the object reference/reflect any of the political, literary, cultural happenings of the day?
   • What does the object tell you about both its maker and patron?
   • Do some stylistic analysis to place the work with other related art objects.
   
   
2. Present a patron and his/her collection. Think about the following:
   
   • With what architecture was this patron involved?
   • What motivated he/she to collect/commission these works of art?
   • What was this person's status/role in society and how does their art reflect that position?
   
   
3. Discuss a work of architecture. Discuss the following:
   
   • Give its patronage and usage.
   • Focus on the methods used in building and the guilds connected to that.
   • Is the building religious, civic, domestic, public and/or private?
   • Does the building reference its patron and in what way?
   
   
4. Discuss another cultural, political or religious aspect of Dantes world and how it was affected by art. For example:
   
   • How did works of art affect literature?
   • How did art affect Dante's writing?
   
   
5. Discuss how art, or a specific work of art, was influenced by a religious, cultural, or political element of the day. For example:
   
   • How is Giotto's Arena chapel reflective of the skirmishing between the Blacks and the Whites?
   • How might the decorative program of a church be reflective of Medieval religious society.