AP Art History
2016-2017
Edited October 16, 2016
Course Description
AP Art History is a comprehensive study of art and the creative process
throughout history and from around the world. Because the class is taught
through a discussion and writing based approach students acquire the
vocabulary, analytical methods, writing techniques and self confidence
needed to effectively communicate the meaning of art. Students learn how
works of art from all traditions and cultures, both Western and non-Western,
are intertwined with their historical, social, and creative contexts.
Attendance and the completion of all assigned work are required in this
course and are prerequisites for taking the Advanced Placement Art History
exam. Grades are based on (1) in-class categories worth 85%: major tests
(40%), matrix notes (30%) sketchbook assignments (20%), and effort/class
participation (10%); and (2) a midterm and final exam worth15%. It is the
student’s responsibility to arrange with me to retake any missed major test
within two school days of the test’s original date. The assumption will be
that every student is planning on taking the AP examination, however this is
not a requirement for the course.
Required Textbook (Curriculum Requirement 1a CR 1a):
Stokstad, Maryilyn, Art History, 2nd ed., 2005
Additional Textbook Resources:
Kleiner, Fred S. and Christian J. Mamiya Gardner's Art Through the Ages,
12th ed., 2005.
Strickland, Carol. The Annotated Mona Lisa, 1992.
The following list provides Primary (CR 1b) and Secondary
(CR 1c) web accessible resources for use throughout year. Supplemental
reference and resource sites are included too.
All curricular requirements (CR) are found color-coded throughout
syllabus
*=sites particularly good for weekly matrix research (see Matrix
assignment below)
* https://secure-media.collegeboard.org/digitalServices/pdf/ap/ap-arthistory-course-and-exam-description.pdf
VERY IMPORTANT This is the AP Art History course description - all you need
to know about AP exam content, procedures, and expectations
*
www.learner.org/courses/globalart/
Fabulous website! Videos of major themes in global art (CR 1c)
http://arthistoryresources.net/ARTHLinks.html
A thorough survey of art history and related resources (CR 1c)
http://www.artcrimes.net/
An index of art crimes and modern iconoclasm
http://www.hyperhistory.com/online_n2/History_n2/a.html
Hyper-History Online: Over 2000 files covering 3000 years of history (CR
1c)
http://www.ciolek.com/GLOBAL/milestones.html
Global Networking: A Timeline (CR 1c)
* http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/essays/
Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History. Articles surveying topics in art by theme,
geographic region and time period (CR 1c)
http://iris.nyit.edu/arthistory/pptshows.html
Art History Powerpoint Shows –NYIT-Ganis (CR 1c)
* http://smarthistory.org/
Smart History Kahn academy (CR 1c)
http://www.sacred-destinations.com/
Discover religious and cultural destinations around the world (CR 1c)
http://www.bluffton.edu/~sullivanm/
Digital Imaging Project – Sculpture and Architecture – Sullivan (CR 1c)
http://www.bbc.co.uk/ahistoryoftheworld/
BBC History of the World (CR 1c)
* http://www.pbs.org/art21/artists/
Interviews and profiles of global contemporary (living) artists working in
their environment (CR 1b)
*
Fine arts and Music Collection found at OPRFHS Library website
comprehensive art history resource
Academic site, great for research (CR 1c)
www.artres.com - image resource
http://www.pitt.edu/~medart/menuglossary/Index.htm
Art and Architecture site; contains definitions as well as illustrations for
key terms
The following Big Ideas and Learning Objectives are used as a conceptual
foundation for the course and are addressed throughout the curriculum - in
the matrix assignments and sketchbook projects, daily during class time via
questions and then weekly or bi-weekly on unit tests.
Big Ideas & Learning Objectives
1. Artists manipulate materials and ideas to create an aesthetic *
object, act, or event
•
thinking or principles that contemplate the nature of and appreciation of
beauty
Essential question: What is art and how is it made?
Learning Objectives
1. Students differentiate the components of form, function, content,
and/or context of a work of art
2. Students explain how artistic decisions about art making shape a work
of art
3. Students describe how context influences artistic decisions about
creating a work of art
4. Students analyze form, function, content, and/or context to infer or
explain the possible intentions for creating a specific work of art
2. Art making is shaped by tradition and change
Essential question: Why and how does art change?
Learning Objectives
1. Students describe features of tradition and/or change in a single work
of art or in a group of related works
2. Students explain how and why specific traditions and/or changes are
demonstrated in a single work or group of related works
3. Students analyze the influence of a single work of art or group of
related works on other artistic production
3. Interpretations of art are variable
Essential question: How do we describe out thinking about art?
Learning Objectives
1. Students identify a work of art
2. Student analyze how formal qualities and/or content of a work of art
elicit(s) a response
3. Students analyze how contextual variables lead to different
interpretations of a work of art
4. Students justify attributions of an unknown work of art
5. Students analyze relationships between works of art based on their
similarities and differences
First Semester
Fall Course Syllabus
First Nine Weeks
Week One: (August 23 - 26): First Days: Introduction to AP Art History
• Day One: Introduction-preparing for class
• Day Two: Introduction-elements of art with slide examples
• Day Three: Introduction-principles of design with slide examples
• Day Four: Introduction-effective note taking (i.e. Cornell notes)
Week Two: (August 29 – September 2) First Days: Introduction to AP
Art History; Global pre history
• Day One: Introduction-content & research sources
• Day Two: Introduction-writing a matrix
• Day Three: Introduction-concluding course preparation-drawing in pairs
(practicing speaking about art and drawing an image)
Global prehistory
Enduring Understanding
o 1-1. Various expression prior to written record
o 1-2. Worldwide (different continents) presence with shared features
o 1-2. Africa and Asia as earliest
o 1-3. Art understanding linked with social, physical
scientists
Essential Knowledge
o Time periods defined by geological, climate, environmental events
o Earliest tools (art) linked to small groups and their survival
o Humanity “began” in Africa and expanded outwards
o Earliest art from 77, 000 years ago – natural materials, patterning,
human and animal forms
• Day Four: Global prehistory, Thinking in symbols video, cave painting
video (CR1c)
cave painting detail video (CR1c)
• Day Five: Global prehistory
Stonehenge video (CR1c)
Week Three: (September 6-8): Global pre history; TEST; African art;
• Day One: Global prehistory
• Day Two: TEST Global prehistory
Africa
Enduring understanding:
o 6-2. Human beliefs and interactions in Africa are instigated by the
arts. African arts are active; they motivate behavior, containing and
express belief, and validate social organizations and human relations
o 6-3. Use and efficacy are central to the art of Africa- African arts…are
by nature meant to be performed rather than simply viewed
o 6-4. African life and arts have been deeply affected by ongoing,
cosmopolitan patters of interactions with populations around the
world and through time - AP Art History Curriculum Framework-2015-2016
•
Day Three: African art Great Zimbabwe video, Jenne Mosque video,
Golden Stool video (CR1c)
Week Four: (September 12 - 16): African art
• Day One: African art
• Day Two: African Art Dogan mask video 1 and Dogan mask video 2
Veranda Post image (CR1c)
• Day Three: African Art
• Day Four: African Art
• Day Five: African Art video of Veranda Post artist Olowe
Week Five: (September 19 - 23): African art; TEST; Indigenous
Americas
• Day One: TEST African Art
Indigenous Americas
Chapter 14 Google Earth
Enduring understanding:
o 5-1.Art of indigenous Americas* is among the world’s oldest artistic
traditions…developing independently between 10,000 BCE and 1492
CE.
*Includes Ancient Mesoamerica (with similar calendars, pyramidal
stepped structures, sites and buildings oriented in relation to sacred
mountains, and highly valued green materials, such as jadeite and
quetzal feathers) ancient Central Andes, Ancient America and Native
North America - AP Art History Curriculum Framework-2015-2016
• Day Two: Indigenous Americas,
• Day Three: Indigenous Americas; Teotihuacan video and Chichen Itza
video (CR1c)
• Day Four: Indigenous Americas, Tenochtitlan video (CR1c)
• Day Five: Indigenous Americas
Week Six: (September 26 - 30): Indigenous Americas; TEST; Ancient
Mediterranean
• Day One: Indigenous Americas
• Day Two: Indigenous Americas, City of Cuzco (CR1c) video, Machu
Picchu video (CR1c)
• Day Three: TEST Indigenous Americas
Ancient Mediterranean
Chapter 2 and 3 Google Earth
Enduring understanding:
o 2-1. Artistic traditions of the ancient Near East and dynastic Egypt
focused on representing royal figures and divinities and on the
functions of funerary and palatial complexes within their cultural
contexts. Works of art illustrate the active exchange of ideas and
reception of artistic styles among the Mediterranean cultures and
the subsequent influences on the classical world.
o 2-2. Religion plays a significant role in the art and architecture of
the ancient Near East with cosmology guiding representation of
deities and kings who themselves assume divine attributes
o 2-3. The art of dynastic Egypt embodies a sense of permanence. It
was created for eternity in the service of a culture that focused on
preserving a cycle of rebirth. - AP Art History Curriculum Framework-2015-2016
• Day Four: Ancient Mediterranean; Sumerian, Akkadian, Neo-Sumerian,
and Babylonian art, Mesopotamian overview video
• Day Five: Sketchbook #1 due
Week Seven: (October 3 - 7): Ancient Mediterranean
• Day One: Ancient Mediterranean: Assyrian, Neo-Babylonian, Persian
Persepolis video, Persepolis video 2 (CR1c) and Sasanian art
• Day Two: Ancient Mediterranean: pre-dynastic and Old Kingdom
Egyptian art, Great Pyramid video (CR1c)
• Day Three: Ancient Mediterranean: Old Kingdom Egyptian art, AmunRe video
• Day Four: Ancient Mediterranean: New Kingdom Egyptian art; Thebes
video, (CR1c) book of the dead article (CR1c)
Greece and Rome
Chapter 5 and 10 Google Earth
Enduring understanding:
o 2-4. The art of Ancient Greece and Rome is grounded in civic ideals
and polytheism. Etruscan and Roman artists and architects
accumulated and creatively adapted Greek objects and forms to create
buildings and artworks that appealed to their tastes for eclecticism and
historicism.
o 2-5. Contextual information for ancient Greek and Roman art can be
derived from contemporary literary, political, legal, and economic
records as well as from archaeological excavations conducted from
the mid-18th century onward
o 2-5b. The Greek, Etruscan, and Roman cultures shared a rich tradition
of epic storytelling (first orally transmitted, later written) that glorified
the exploits of gods, goddesses, and heroes - AP Art History Curriculum
Framework-2015-2016
• Day Five: Ancient Mediterranean: Ancient Greece- Humanism; Archaic
Period Statuary; Doric, Ionic and Corinthian orders; Early Classical
Statuary
Week Eight: (October 11 - 14): Ancient Mediterranean
• Day One: Ancient Mediterranean: High Classical Statuary, Statuary
video (CR1c); Vase painting
• Day Two: Activity Day!
• Day Three: Ancient Mediterranean: Late Classical Sculpture, The
Acropolis, and Acropolis video , acropolis video 2 (CR1c)
• Day Four: Ancient Mediterranean: Hellenistic sculpture, Samothrace
sanctuary video Nike of Samothrace video 1(CR1c)
Week Nine : (October 17 - 21): Ancient Mediterranean
• Day One: Ancient Mediterranean: Etruscan art, Etruscan burial mound
video (CR1c)
• Day Two: Ancient Mediterranean: Roman art-Republic & Early Empire;
Pont-du-Gard video (CR1c)
• Day Three: Ancient Mediterranean: Roman Painting, Flavians; Roman
Colosseum video (CR1c)- High Empire, Roman Art and Pantheon video
(CR1c)
• Day Four: Ancient Mediterranean: Roman Architecture-Late Empire,
Trajan’s Column video (CR1c)
• Day Five: Ancient Mediterranean: Roman Architecture
Week Ten: (October 24 - 28): TEST: Ancient Mediterranean; Early
Europe and Colonial America
• Day One: Ancient Mediterranean: Roman art
• Day Two: Ancient Mediterranean: Roman art
• Day Three: TEST: Ancient Mediterranean
Early Europe and Colonial America
Early Christian, Byzantine, Renaissance, Baroque, Americas
Enduring understanding:
o 3-1. There is significant overlap in time, geography, practice, and
heritage of art created within this timeframe and region
o 3-1a. Medieval artistic traditions include late antiquity, early
Christian, Byzantine, Islamic, migratory, Carolingian, Romanesque
and Gothic. Contextual information comes primarily from literary,
theological, and governmental (both secular and religious) records…
o 3-1c. Medieval artists and architects were heavily influenced by
earlier and contemporary cultures, including coexisting European
cultures.
o 3-2. Medieval art (European, c. 300-1400 C.E.; Islamic, c. 300-1600
C.E.) derived from the requirements of worship (Jewish, Christian or
Islamic), elite or court culture, and learning.
o 3-3. The early modern Atlantic World encompasses what is known
today as Western Europe and territories in the Americas that were part
of the Spanish empire (, from approximately 1400-1850 C.E.) –
Caribbean, Western & Southwestern regions of the US, Mexico,
Central and South America
o 3-3. Late 15 century was age of exploration (via transoceanic trade
and colonization); emergence of global commerce, cultural networks
o 3-3c. The advent of the Age of Exploration in the late 15th century
resulted in the emergence of global commercial and cultural networks
via transoceanic trade and colonization. European ideas, forms, and
practices began to be disseminated worldwide as a result of
exploration, trade, conquest, and colonization.
o 3-4. The arts of 15th century Europe reflected an interest in classical
models, enhanced naturalism, Christianity, pageantry, and
increasingly formalized artistic training
o 3-5. The 16th century Protestant Reformation and subsequent Catholic
Counter-Reformation compelled a divergence between northern and
southern western art with respect to form, function, and content
o 3-5a Northern Europe: production of religious imagery declined;
increase in nonreligious genres: still life, landscape, history,
mythology, portraiture. Southern Europe: political propaganda,
religious imagery, pageantry and elaboration of naturalism, dynamic
composition, bold color schemes, the affective power of images and
constructed spaces - AP Art History Curriculum Framework-2015-2016
• Day Four: Early Europe and Colonial Americas-Early Chrisitan
• Day Five: Early Europe and Colonial Americas-Early Chrisitan
Week Eleven: (October 31 – November 4): Early Europe and Colonial
America
• Day One: Early Europe and Colonial Americas-Early Christian, Hagia
Sophia video (CR1c)
• Day Two: Early Europe and Colonial Americas-Early Christian,
Byzantine drawings (CR1c)
• Day Three: Early Europe and Colonial Americas-Romanesque,
Pilgrimage video, Speyer Cathedral video (CR1c)
• Day Four: Early Europe and Colonial Americas-Gothic, Bayeux
Tapestry video; and Chartres Video, Chartres Video II, Chartres Video
III, (CR1c)
• Day Five: Sketchbook #2 due
Week Twelve: (November 7 - 9): Early Europe and Colonial America
• Day One: Early Europe and Colonial Americas-Gothic
• Day Two: Early Europe and Colonial Americas-Early Renaissance
• Day Three: Early Europe and Colonial Americas-Early Renaissance
Week Thirteen: (November 14 - 18): TEST: Early Europe and Colonial
America
• Day One: Early Europe and Colonial Americas-Early Christian-Early
Renaissance
• Day Two: Early Europe and Colonial Americas-15th Century Europe,
• Day Three: Early Europe and Colonial Americas-15th Century Europe
• Day Four: Early Europe and Colonial Americas-15th Century Europe,
Italy Massacio, and Holy Trinity video (CR1c)
• Day Five: Early Europe and Colonial Americas-15th Century Europe
Week Fourteen: (November 21 - 22): Early Europe and Colonial
America
• Day One: Early Europe and Colonial Americas-16th Century Europe,
Burial of Christ image (CR1c)
• Day Two: Early Europe and Colonial Americas-16th Century Europe
Week Fifteen: (November 28 – December 2): Early Europe and Colonial
America
• Day One: Early Europe and Colonial Americas-16th Century Europe,
Sistine Chapel tour (CR1c)
• Day Two: Early Europe and Colonial Americas-16th Century Europe,
Vasari survey of Michelangelo in Lives of the Artists read from start
through section on the David (CR1b)
• Day Three: Early Europe and Colonial Americas-16th Century Europe
• Day Four: Field Trip
• Day Five: Early Europe and Colonial Americas-Baroque
Week Sixteen: (December 5 - 9): Early Europe and Colonial America:
Test;
• Day One: Early Europe and Colonial Americas-Baroque St. Peter’s,
Rome video (CR1c)
• Day Two: Early Europe and Colonial Americas-Baroque carving marble
video (CR1c)
• Day Three: Early Europe and Colonial Americas-Baroque Versailles
Video; and Versailles Video 2 (CR1c)
• Day Four: TEST Early Europe and Colonial America
West and Central Asia
Enduring understanding:
o 7-1. Cultures of West and Central Asia include Arabian Peninsula and
the Levan, Anatolia Greater Iran, Central Asia, Inner Asia, and
Himalayan Asia
o 7-1c and 7-2..Dominant culture is Islamic though religious arts are
united by Islam and Buddhism. Art may be religious or secular in
nature and may or may not have been made for Muslims.
o 7-4. Important art forms include ceramics, metalwork, textiles,
painting and calligraphy. Art styles favor 2-Dimensional design. - AP
Art History Curriculum Framework-2015-2016
• Day Five: West and Central Asia
Week Seventeen: (December 12 - 16): West and Central Asia
• Day One: West and Central Asia
• Day Two: Sketchbook #3 due
• Day Three: West and Central Asia
• Day Four: Activity Day!
• Day Five: West and Central Asia
Week Eighteen: (December 19 - 20): West and Central Asia; TEST;
Mid Term Exam Review
•
•
•
•
•
Day One: TEST: West and Central Asia
Day Two: Mid Term Exam Review
Day Three: Mid term exams
Day Four: Mid term exams
Day Five: Mid term exams
_______________________________________________
Course requirements in addition to daily/weekly
curriculum
The following are projects and activities that students complete throughout
the course. All AP Curriculum Requirements are addressed in some form
across all of these curricular components.
- explanation and copies of all activities are available on my website
(1) Matrix- This is the core research, analysis and
survey document for the course content. A matrix is a chart that asks
students to analyze each of the 250 pieces of required art in the AP
curriculum (CR5). These are assigned in groups per each content area and are
due in two submissions: (part a) half way through a unit and (part b) on the
day of a unit test. An image of each art piece is in the center of the document
and a set of eight topics is in the surrounding space. Students are to fill in a
response to each topic according the following sequence:
1. Identification: (artist, title, date, size, country of origin; period/style):
Materials and Technique: (how is the art made):
2. Form: Explain what elements of art & principles of design are present in the artwork:
color, shape, form, texture, line, space and balance, emphasis, rhythm
3. Function: What was the artist’s intended use for the artwork? What was its actual
use?
4. Content: What is the subject of the artwork; what is the
“story” being told in/by the
artwork? What are its various components?
5. Context: Historical & cultural influences on the work.
6. Themes and art piece comparisons: Enduring
Understanding/Big Ideas evident in artwork (and how?)
7. Personal Opinion of the artwork
8. Sources for matrix-must include at least two sources; primary and/or
secondary sources (CR 1b & CR)
• AP Curricular Requirements - Learning Objectives (LO) - are
addressed in Matrix (CR4):
o LO 1.1, LO 1.2, LO 1.3, LO 1.4
o LO 2.1, LO 2.2, LO 2.3
o LO 3.1, LO 3.2, LO 3.3, LO 3.4, LO 3.5
as well as research source requirements: ( include both CR 1b & CR 1c)
Matrix sample format is on next page