Paige Bartosik

3.25.12

Social Studies

Portrait Analysis: Levi Mentzer Born May 3, 1811

Observe:

Describe what you see.

·  A compass in the middle

·  Some designs on the art piece

·  Words that I can’t really make out, but the title of this art piece says ‘Levi Mentzer Born May 3th, 1811’ and I can tell those are the words on the poster

Notice First:

·  The big star shaped object

·  Also noticed it’s a compass

People and/or objects?

·  Big star compass object

·  On the sides are designs

·  Money sign

·  Writing (name and date)

·  Fancy writing

How are they arranged?

·  The words are towards the bottom on the page

What is the physical setting?

·  There are none

What, if any, words do you see?

·  It says ‘Levi Mentzer’ then on the bottom of that it says ‘Born May 3rd , 1811’

What other details can you see?

·  The artist really seemed like he/she wanted to emphasize the star in the middle cause it takes up most of the space, so maybe that’s one of the major details

·  The star has West and East markings on it, but North and South seem to just be symbols

Reflect:

Why do you think this image was made?

·  The piece of art seems like it was made to give to people

·  To maybe just look at

·  Maybe that was a very important day (May 3rd)

·  Information

What’s happening in the image?

·  Nothing is happening

·  There are words and designs, that’s it

When do you think it was made?

·  They say it was made around 1811

Who do you think was the audience for this image?

·  The audience would probably be people who thought this girl/guy was amazing

·  The town or small village

·  Whoever saw this

What tools were used to create this?

·  Pen and ink

·  It was created on paper and mounted on paperboard

What can you learn from examining this image?

·  Maybe this artist or who ever made this was trying to tell us something, or tell his audience something

What’s missing from this image?

·  Photos

·  Color

If someone made this today, what would be different?

·  It would be a lot more colorful

·  They would probably explain more of what that name and date mean

What would be the same?

·  The name and date

·  The details maybe

·  The star/compass

Question:

What do you wonder about... who? · what? · when? · where? · why? · how?

·  Who is this ‘Levi Mentzer’?

·  Why was this even made into an art piece?

·  Why was this made?

·  Why isn’t there ‘north’ or ‘south’ on the compass?

·  Is that star supposed to be a compass?