A-LEVEL
HISTORY OF ART
HART2 – Themes in History of Art
Mark scheme
2250
June 2014
Version/Stage: 1.0 – Final
Mark schemes are prepared by the Lead Assessment Writer and considered, together with the
relevant questions, by a panel of subject teachers. This mark scheme includes any amendments
made at the standardisation events which all associates participate in and is the scheme which was
used by them in this examination. The standardisation process ensures that the mark scheme covers
the students’ responses to questions and that every associate understands and applies it in the same
correct way. As preparation for standardisation each associate analyses a number of students’
scripts: alternative answers not already covered by the mark scheme are discussed and legislated for.
If, after the standardisation process, associates encounter unusual answers which have not been
raised they are required to refer these to the Lead Assessment Writer.
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expanded on the basis of students’ reactions to a particular paper. Assumptions about future mark
schemes on the basis of one year’s document should be avoided; whilst the guiding principles of
assessment remain constant, details will change, depending on the content of a particular
examination paper.
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MARK SCHEME – A-LEVEL HISTORY OF ART – 2250 – JUNE 2014
Unit 2 Marking Scheme
AO1 Knowledge
Source, select, recall
material to demonstrate
knowledge effectively
AO2 Understanding
Demonstrate
understanding through
analysis and make
substantiated
judgements and
sustained discussion
and/or arguments
• Excellent and
sustained analysis
and discussion
• Thoroughly relevant
and well-considered
argument and
judgement
AO3 Communication
Present a clear and
coherent response
Accurate and
appropriate sourcing,
selection and recall
Comprehensive
description
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Good analysis and
discussion
Germane argument
and judgement
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Generally relevant
sourcing, selection
and recall
Relatively
comprehensive
description
Limited sourcing,
selection and recall
Partial description
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Competent analysis
and discussion
Some meaningful
argument and
judgement
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Simplistic analysis
and discussion
Limited argument
and judgement
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Basic analysis and
discussion
Simplistic argument
and judgement
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Little or ineffective
analysis and
discussion
Little or no argument
and judgement
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Mark
range
Band 7
26 – 30
Excellent
response
to the
question
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Band 6
21 – 25
Band 5
16 – 20
Band 4
11 – 15
Band 3
6 – 10
Band 2
1–5
Band 1
0
Good
response
to the
question
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Competent
response
to the
question
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Limited
response
to the
question
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Basic
response
to the
question
Inadequate
response
to the
question
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Wholly accurate,
detailed and
appropriate sourcing,
selection and recall
Entirely inclusive
description
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Some relevant
sourcing, selection
and recall
Basic description
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Poor sourcing,
selection and recall
Weak description
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Thoroughly clear,
coherent and
accurate use of
language
Sustained and
wholly relevant
organisation of
material
Very clear, coherent
and accurate use of
language
Competent
organisation of
material
Clear, coherent and
accurate use of
language
Adequately effective
organisation of
material
Limited clarity,
coherence and
accuracy of
language
Some appropriately
organised material
Generally clear,
coherent and
accurate use of
language
Basic organisation of
material
Unclear and
inaccurate use of
language
Ineffective
organisation of
material
No attempt to address the question or meet assessment objectives
If only one example is given the maximum is 15 marks
If no examples or inappropriate examples are given the maximum is 5 marks
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MARK SCHEME – A-LEVEL HISTORY OF ART – 2250 – JUNE 2014
Five marks are available for each mark band. From lowest to highest, the mark indicates that the
candidate has
• Unevenly met the requirements described in that particular mark band
• Just met the requirements described in that particular mark band
• Adequately met the requirements described in that particular mark band
• Clearly met the requirements described in that particular mark band
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Convincingly met the requirements described in that particular mark band, but just failed to meet the
requirements set out in the next band.
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MARK SCHEME – A-LEVEL HISTORY OF ART – 2250 – JUNE 2014
Subjects and genres
01
Compare and contrast two portraits, each by a different artist. You may choose your
examples from painting and/or sculpture.
(30 marks)
If only comparison or contrast is given the maximum is Band 5.
If description only and no comparison or contrast the maximum is Band 4.
If both examples are by the same artist the maximum is Band 4.
If only one valid example, maximum is Band 3.
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The question requires the candidate to:
Select two portrait paintings or two portrait sculptures from the period 500 BC – 2000 AD.
Compare and contrast the chosen examples. This may involve formal analysis, iconographic
considerations, stylistic features and interpretation.
Definition of portraits
A likeness of a known individual or individuals created during their lifetime or within living
memory.
Examples may include works of art that do not conform to a traditional portrait genre, eg
installations but must convey some sense of a known individual’s likeness or character.
Self-portraits and funerary portrait effigies are allowed.
However, mythological, biblical and fictional characters from literature are not permissible.
Definition of painting
Examiners should accept a painting in the broadest terms: as an essentially two-dimensional
object, painted in any recognised paint medium (or media), on any support.
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Definition of sculpture
Sculpture is taken to mean any three-dimensional work, including relief.
Sculpture can include installations, performance art, etc.
Examiners should accept the widest interpretation of sculpture provided the choice is three
dimensional and candidates are able to analyse their examples in relation to portraiture.
General guidance on how the question should be answered
Candidates should identify points of similarity and difference in relation to both formal and/or
interpretational aspects of their chosen paintings or sculpture.
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Formal aspects might include
composition and format
scale
use of colour
texture
media, technique and materials
degrees of finish and detail.
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Interpretational aspects might include
character of the individual
iconography
ideology
historical/social context
aesthetic qualities.
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MARK SCHEME – A-LEVEL HISTORY OF ART – 2250 – JUNE 2014
Possible examples might include
Painting
Francisco Goya The Family of Charles IV of Spain 1800-1801 oil on canvas
280 cm x 340 cm.
Francis Bacon Study after Velázquez’s Portrait of Pope Innocent X 1953 oil on canvas
153 cm x 118 cm.
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Comparison
Both are based on works by Velázquez: Las Meninas, 1656 (Goya) and
Portrait of Pope Innocent X, 1651, (Bacon).
Both depict historical figures, both of them powerful rulers.
Both quote directly from Velázquez’s compositional and iconographical devices.
Both are oils on canvas.
Bacon and Goya both construct plausible space: Bacon, a restrained cage-like space
constructed from a series of linear devices, while Goya constructs a shallow stage-like space
using linear perspective.
The darkened backgrounds in both works focus the viewer on the primary subject matter.
The character of the sitter is portrayed in the facial features: Goya portrays Charles IV as
majestic, regal, addressing the audience: Bacon’s character is aggressive, almost in pain,
inviting the audience to experience extreme human emotions.
Contrast
Bacon’s work was not produced directly from the sitter; Goya’s work is an official portrait with
the royal subject in a traditional setting commissioned for public display.
Bacon’s painting is a three-quarter portrait; Goya’s painting is a full figure, life-size group
portrait, focusing on the king accompanied by his family.
Bacon’s work, one of a number of this subject, is half the size of Goya’s official portrait.
Bacon’s work is in a modern style, expressive, vigorous and painterly; while Goya’s work can
be described as broadly traditional but with an informality anticipating Romanticism.
Bacon’s brushwork demonstrates an expressive, broad and bold approach, where features of
the figure and portrait dissolve into each other; Goya’s brushwork is detailed, naturalistic and
lifelike, showing fidelity to the subject.
Bacon’s work bleeds the paint onto an un-primed canvas, allowing the surface of the canvas
to come through: Goya’s painting is controlled and subjected to the traditional processes of
prepared and applied grounds, built through a series of glazes.
Light in Bacon’s work is frontal, reminiscent of photographic studio lighting; Goya lights the
canvas from the right allowing subtle gradations of tone that owe much to Rembrandt.
The character of Charles IV in Goya’s painting is depicted as paternal, amidst his family yet
in the artist’s studio, while his importance is established by his authoritative look and the
trappings of wealth and his fine costume and jewellery. Bacon’s depiction of the Pope is
nightmarish, his office acknowledged by the purple cassock, but the psychology of the
character is laid bare.
Sculpture
Gianlorenzo Bernini Bust of Pope Urban VIII c.1632 marble
94.7 cm x 68.8 cm x 34.3 cm with base.
Antonio Canova Napoleon (as Mars the Peacemaker) 1802 - 1806 marble 345 cm.
Comparison
Both sitters are portrayed as powerful rulers, carved in marble and attached to a base; both
are rendered with great carving skill and have a smooth finish.
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Both refer to classical sculpture: Bernini in the deportment of the head refers to the
development of busts of Roman emperors; Canova’s Napoleon is inspired by Greek figure
carvings.
In both portraits, the figure is supported by objects that expose the character of the
individual; Bernini’s Bust of Pope Urban VIII bears the papal cap and gown of office;
Canova’s Napoleon raises his left arm and grasps a staff, giving the character authority and
power.
Pope Urban VIII looks out emotionless, his beard, mouth and eyes give him the look of a
serious character. Canova’s Napoleon is looking over his right shoulder, he is nude, his body
classicised, his face similar to that of a Roman emperor ie god-like, his nudity elevating him
to the status of the divine, directly referencing classical sculpture.
In both sculptures, the carving is smooth and finished with both works clearly designed for
public display. Bernini and Canova both refer to the finish of marble typically found in
classical sculpture.
Bernini’s portrait is carefully carved paying attention to portray a likeness of Pope Urban VIII
but at the same time rendering a powerful individual; similarly Napoleon’s features are
idealised, carefully rendered and recognisable, but also portray his power as a statesman.
Contrast
Bernini’s portrait is a head and shoulder bust; Canova’s portrait is a full figure.
Bernini’s portrait is clothed, while Canova’s depiction of Napoleon is nude, in the tradition of
the Greek and Roman classical hero.
Bernini’s Baroque portrait is a celebration of his patron, while Canova’s depiction expresses
the Romantic cult of the individual.
Bernini depicts Pope Urban VIII in a traditional, relatively passive pose; Canova’s depiction of
Napoleon is of the whole figure twisting to the right, his right arm outstretched, his body in a
slight contrapposto pose.
Napoleon’s body is clearly idealised, the musculature carved with anatomical accuracy with
an implied movement that animates the whole portrait giving a sense of ‘higher authority’;
Urban VIII has a gentle movement to the right, carved with convincing accuracy, engaging
quietly with the audience.
Other points considered to be valid to be given credit.
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MARK SCHEME – A-LEVEL HISTORY OF ART – 2250 – JUNE 2014
Materials, techniques, processes
02
Discuss how the use of materials, techniques and processes has affected the appearance of
one painting and one sculpture.
(30 marks)
Maximum Band 4 if both examples are paintings or if both are sculptures.
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The question requires the candidate to
Select one painting and one sculpture (by the same artist or by different artists) from the
period 500 BC – 2000 AD.
Discuss the ways in which the appearance of each work is affected by the use of materials,
techniques and processes.
Definitions of materials, techniques and processes
Technique is taken to mean the manipulation of materials and methods in producing the work
of art.
This includes conventional and non-conventional use of materials ie watercolour, oil, acrylic,
bronze casting, carving, assemblage, mixed media etc. More than one medium may be
employed with a mixture of three-dimensional and two-dimensional techniques; similarly
discussion of the preparation of the ground and nature of the support is valid.
Definition of appearance
Appearance is the way the painting/sculpture looks; it may not have a distinctive appearance
which can be identified as a style.
Consideration of the appearance of the work of art (ie composition, surface qualities, texture,
colour etc), is desirable.
Definition of painting and sculpture
Examiners should accept a painting in the broadest terms: as an essentially two-dimensional
object, painted in any recognised paint medium (or media), on any support.
Painting on parchment or paper.
Definition of sculpture
Sculpture is taken to mean any three-dimensional work, including relief.
Sculpture can include installations, performance art, etc.
Examiners should accept the widest interpretation of sculpture provided the choice is three
dimensional and candidates are able to analyse their examples in relation to portraiture.
General guidance on how the question should be answered
Candidates should focus on materials, techniques and processes where these elements
affect appearance, although these cannot always be separable from iconographical or
ideological elements.
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Possible examples might include
Fra Angelico Annunciation 1440-45 fresco 187 cm x 157 cm San Marco, Florence.
Fra Angelico (Guido di Pietro), a member of the Dominican order, frescoed the walls of the
cloister, chapter house and 41 cells of San Marco monastery in Florence.
The Annunciation portrays the appearance of the angel Gabriel to Mary announcing the
coming of Jesus.
The scene is set in a cloister with columns, but ornamental capitals are obscured by the
angel’s wings – the only highly coloured part of the painting.
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Fresco technique is a method of wall painting with powdered pigments mixed with water and
applied to wet plaster: fresco buono or true fresco resulting in a flat, unmodulated surface.
The artist can only paint a small section at a time, since once the plaster has dried this
process cannot take place. In works of this kind it is now possible to see where the artist has
started and ended a day’s work, often appearing as hairline cracks between distinct areas,
indicating the phases of the work.
The techniques frequently resulted in simplified shapes and forms, and a lighter colour
register, created by the translucence of the water-based pigment, all evident in the
Annunciation.
It is impossible to lay gold-leaf onto wet plaster, therefore haloes are positioned behind the
heads in a yellow pigment often as complete circles, ignoring the conventions of perspective
– this is evident behind Mary, Gabriel and the onlooker on the left of the painting – St Peter
the Martyr.
The Annunciation has a limited colour palette with only the central figure of Gabriel a distinct
red.
Donatello St George 1415-17 Orsanmichele Florence marble height 210 cm.
St George is a marble statue which is larger than life-size, designed to be viewed as a
foreshortened figure from below.
Stone carving is a reductive process and marble has a low tensile strength, which does not
easily allow for the protrusion of limbs, leading to a compact composition.
St George’s shield is part of ensuring that the statue can be freestanding and similarly both
arms do not leave the side of the body for technical reasons.
Donatello has managed to give elasticity to the body and the figure is portrayed as alert, the
weight placed on the forward leg, giving a sense of movement and battle readiness.
The carving of the cloak is also in close proximity to the body with simplified folds in the cloth.
At the foot, Donatello’s shallow relief St George and the Dragon is also carved in marble.
The surface of the marble is finely finished with few evident chisel marks and has a polished
patina to the whole statue.
Originally, the sculpture had a metal sword and helmet which connected the Armourers’
Guild, the commissioners.
Other points considered to be valid to be given credit.
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MARK SCHEME – A-LEVEL HISTORY OF ART – 2250 – JUNE 2014
Form and style
03
Analyse the form and style of two buildings that are stylistically different.
(30 marks)
If only form or only style is discussed then the maximum is Band 4
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This question requires candidates to
Select two buildings from the period 500 BC – 2000 AD that are stylistically different.
Discuss the form and style of each.
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Definition of buildings
Apart from obvious examples of built structures that enclose space, examiners should allow
a broad understanding of the term building, to include:
Both permanent and temporary structures.
Structures that enclose space.
Unbuilt projects where it is clear what was intended.
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Definition of architectural style
Style is the distinctive visual appearance of the architecture of a particular period, a set of
shared visual characteristics.
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Definition of form of a building
The three-dimensional internal and/or external composition and structure of a building.
General guidance on how the question should be answered
The candidate should seek to analyse the form and style of the chosen buildings. The
demand on the candidate is not to identify a style, but to analyse different visual
characteristics.
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Possible examples might include
The Pantheon AD117-38 Rome.
Form
The building has been attributed to the design of the emperor Hadrian and stands on the site
of a previous temple built by Marcus Agrippa some of which remains in the present building.
The main part of the building is cylindrical with a portico that forms the façade. It has three
tiers with a large hemispherical dome (the largest in the ancient world).
The internal diameter of the dome is 44 m – as a complete sphere it would occupy the space
to the floor below.
The concrete dome is coffered in five tiers, reducing the downward weight, culminating in a
circular opening.
The oculus is unglazed, 8.7 m in diameter and allows light to be projected around the
building according to the position of the sun. This still retains its original bronze cornice.
Inside there are eight recesses; one forms the door; three are semi-circular and four are
rectangular. The pedimented niches originally contained statues of the gods of the seven
planets.
The Corinthian octastyle (eight-columned) portico consists of three rows of columns 14 m
high. It is 33.52 m wide by 18.28 m deep and supports a 3.32 m high pediment facing north.
The columns are Egyptian granite with Corinthian capitals and nearly 1.52 m in diameter at
the base.
The entrance was originally elevated on a stepped pedestal, but the steps have been buried
during more recent developments, resulting in the entrance of the building being on the same
level as the outside cobbled street.
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Style
This is Roman architecture, but stylistically it incorporates Greek and Roman features.
The large scale and extravagant effect are typical of Roman civic architecture.
The building demonstrates Roman arcuated structure, developed beyond the purely
trabeated structure of the Greeks.
The shaping of interior space and the rich juxtaposition of different colours and materials (eg
concrete, bronze, polychrome marbles) are typical of the Roman style.
Greek architectural styles can be detected in the eight columned portico and the Corinthian
style capitals that adorn the columns.
Walter Gropius and Adolf Meyer The Fagus Factory 1911-1913 Alfeld on the Leine,
Germany.
Form
The main building is constructed on a non-reinforced concrete basement.
All the buildings have floor-to-ceiling glass windows suspended on steel frames that go
around the corners of the structure (without any visible physical support).
Brick is a unifying element. 40 cm of black brick at the base and continued with yellow brick,
giving a feeling of lightness. Gropius called this ‘etherialisation’.
‘Etherialisation’ is enhanced by using a series of optical refinements which include more
horizontal elements than vertical, however there are longer windows at the corner and taller
windows on the first floor.
Many of the smaller buildings on the site were simpler, in concrete and/or steel constructions.
The building had fluctuations in height, changes in horizontal and vertical structures, heavy
closed volumes – arriving at a unified harmony of opposites.
Style
The Fagus shoe-last factory is rectilinear in an early International Style. Pevsner said that:
‘Only in the building by Adolf Loos which was done one year before the Fagus Factory, have
we seen the feeling for the pure cube.’
The style was influenced by photographs that Gropius had collected of industrial buildings in
the United States.
Radical structure for a glass façade was symbolic of the company’s break with the past –
stylistically of the modern age.
Absence of applied ornament.
The building owes much to the style of the Turbine Factory designed by Peter Behrens.
The building was completed in stages but stylistically appears a unified whole.
Other points considered to be valid to be given credit.
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MARK SCHEME – A-LEVEL HISTORY OF ART – 2250 – JUNE 2014
Historical and social contexts
04
Discuss the ways in which two paintings and/or sculptures, each by a different artist,
demonstrate a response to the times in which they were produced.
(30 marks)
If the examples are by the same artist the maximum is Band 4.
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The question requires candidates to
Select two paintings and/or sculptures from the period 500 BC – 2000 AD.
Discuss the ways in which each example demonstrates a response to the times in which it
was produced.
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Definition of painting
Examiners should accept a painting in the broadest terms: as an essentially two-dimensional
object, painted in any recognised paint medium (or media), on any support.
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Definition of sculpture
Sculpture is taken to mean any three-dimensional work, including relief.
Sculpture can include installations, performance art, assemblage etc.
Examiners should accept the widest interpretation of sculpture provided the examples are
three dimensional and demonstrate a response to the times in which they were made.
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Definition of ‘the times in which they were produced’
Examiners should allow the broadest understanding of times to include changes and
developments (political, economic, social, religious, technological etc.)
General guidance on how the question should be answered
The candidate should contextualise their chosen examples and emphasise each artist’s
response to the time in which the examples were produced.
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Possible examples might include
Honoré Daumier The Third Class Carriage 1862, oil on canvas 66 cm x 90.3 cm.
Daumier was principally known as a political and social satirist – this work is in the Realist
tradition of Courbet.
His work was produced in Paris during a period of re-building and social reform called
Haussmannisation. This was a time when a Paris of narrow streets was transformed into the
wide boulevards of the modern city.
The railways were an important development of the industrial revolution and opened the city
to trade, making travel something that all social classes could enjoy.
The Third Class Carriage is a documentation of contemporary life, commenting on the class
structure of 19th-century Paris.
The painting focuses on one family group; the young mother suckles her child, the
grandmother lost in her own thoughts and the young boy dozing.
They are wearing the contemporary dress of the urban poor which contrasts with the
gentlemen’s top hats at the back of the carriage.
The headwear of the two central figures suggests an influence of 17th-century painter
Louis Le Nain who was rediscovered by French critics of the time.
The simple economy of line and the broad brushwork adds to the pathos of the work and are
a metaphor for the sparse lives of the urban poor – the family are a generic family.
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Edward Kienholz Portable War Memorial 1968, assembled materials
Kienholz was an American installation artist who used everyday materials from consumer
culture.
This work includes weapons, uniforms, helmets, a Coca-Cola machine and a grave stone,
which provoke memory – the detritus of modern existence.
This was produced at the height of the Vietnam War when nearly half a million troops were
deployed in South East Asia. By 1968 it was obvious that this was unwinnable and was the
subject of mass protest particularly by the youth of America destined for National Service.
From the inverted trash can to the right of the piece, booms the voice of America in the form
of the 1930s recording artist Kate Smith on an infinite tape loop singing ‘God Bless America’.
A recruitment poster of Uncle Sam from the First World War declares ‘I want you for U.S.
Army’.
The tableau of four GIs raising the American flag is taken from the
Marine Corps War Memorial at Arlington National Cemetery which commemorates the
occupation of Iwo Jima during the Pacific campaign of 1945 (World War II). This composition
of the figures was taken from a 1954 photograph and is a cultural icon of American heroism.
On a blackboard behind, inscribed with chalk, is the name of the countries destroyed by war,
next to the snack bar which is open for business – Coca-Cola for all. It is war propaganda on
the one hand, and the celebration of two American icons (the snack bar and Coca-Cola) on
the other, symbolising business as usual.
It is not a condemnation of America’s position, but an ironic critique of society and the
glorification of war.
Other points considered to be valid to be given credit.
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MARK SCHEME – A-LEVEL HISTORY OF ART – 2250 – JUNE 2014
Social and cultural status
05
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Discuss the social and/or cultural status of two architects. You should refer to at least one
building by each architect in your answer.
(30 marks)
The question requires candidates to
Select at least one building by each architect from the period 500 BC – 2000 AD.
Discuss the social and/or cultural status of the architects.
Definition of social and cultural status
Status is understood to mean the perceived position and value of the architect in society as
identified through one or more of a range of factors, which include his/her personal artistic
identity, his/her personal prestige, his/her financial success and his/her power and influence.
The question asks for social and/or cultural status, thus candidates may engage with one or
both of these aspects of the architect’s work.
Examiners should accept the widest interpretation of artistic status as possible, provided
candidates evaluate and contextualise their chosen examples.
General guidance on how the question should be answered
Candidates must choose examples by two different architects. The candidate should focus
on the social and/or cultural status of the architects and refer to one or more buildings by
each of them in their answer.
Possible examples might include
Frank Lloyd Wright (1867-1959)
Richard Rogers (1933-)
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Frank Lloyd Wright
Social status
A leading American architect in an early modern style, noted for his Prairie Style houses,
Wright achieved international renown by the mid-20th century.
His early training began at the University of Wisconsin, studying engineering with Allan
Conover. Moving to Chicago in 1887, he worked for Joseph Lyman Silsbee as a
draughtsman, where his first innovatory building, The Unity Chapel showed early promise.
Wright acknowledged few influences in his lifetime, but his time with Adler and Sullivan
(1888-93) in Chicago, working directly for Louis Sullivan, he saw as primary and formative.
Wright adopted Sullivan’s maxim ‘Form follows function’ revising this to ‘form and function
are one’ but adhered to the notion that this was based on Sullivan’s American function not
European traditions.
In 1893 Wright established his own practice in Chicago. His simple house designs became
an inspiration for the Prairie School of architects, a style associated with mid-west America.
Commissions from across the United States include the notable Robie House in Chicago and
the Martin House in Buffalo, New York.
Cultural status
From 1909 -1911 he spent time in Germany returning to Wisconsin and over the next 20
years Wright’s international influence began to grow and in this period he designed the
Imperial Hotel in Tokyo.
In 1932 Wright opened his home Taliesin as an architectural fellowship – it is here that
masterpieces like Fallingwater (the Kaufmann house) in Mill Run, Pennsylvania and the
S.C. Johnson and Son Wax Company Administrative Centre in Racine, Wisconsin were
designed.
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The Guggenheim Museum (1943-59), commissioned by Hilla Rebay, art adviser to
Solomon R Guggenheim in New York, was Wright’s last public commission, completed in
1959 after his death, an iconic building confirming his cultural status. It is an example of an
‘organic’ style, resembling the structure of a shell, and indicative of Wright’s attempt to
embrace the natural environment.
In his lifetime he created 1,141 designs of which 532 were completed and his influence on
international architecture and design ubiquitous. Through his lifetime he won the Royal
Institute of British Architects’ gold medal (1941), American Institute of Architects’ gold medal
(1949), the Franklin Institute Frank P Brown medal (1953) and honorary degrees from
several universities including Wisconsin.
Richard Rogers
Social status
Rogers is described as an Italian-born British architect well known for his modernist and
functionalist design.
He trained at the Architectural Association School in London and Yale University graduating
in 1962. Meeting Norman Foster and Su Brumwell he returned to London to set up Team 4,
an architectural partnership with his fellow students and Wendy Cheeseman.
Rogers and Foster quickly acquired a reputation for controversial design often called by the
media High-Tech. His most important and probably most controversial works were the
Pompidou Centre (1971) in Paris, the Lloyds Building (1978 – 86), the Millennium Dome
(1999), both in London, and the European Court of Human Rights (1997) in Strasbourg.
His collaboration with Renzo Piano on the controversial Pompidou Centre marked the
beginning of his ascendancy to an international stage.
In 1977 he established the Richard Rogers Partnership where he examined issues
surrounding urbanisation, sustainability and city design.
Cultural status
He is in demand internationally with examples of major public buildings in many European
Asian and American cities: these include Madrid-Barajas Airport terminal 4 (1997),
Kibuki-cho Tower (1987-93), Tokyo and the PA Technology Centre (1980-82), New Jersey.
His cultural status can be measured by the honours that he has received. Knighted in 1981,
he won all the major architectural awards including the RIBA Gold medal (1985) and the
Stirling Prize, awarded honorary degrees from a range of universities including an honorary
Doctor of Science from the University of Bath. He delivered the Reith Lectures for the BBC
(1995) and set up the Urban Task Force at the invitation of the British government in 1998.
He attracted both plaudits and censure in his lifetime – the Pompidou Centre and the
Millennium Dome have invited both.
His practice has influenced architecture on a global scale with his innovatory inside/outside
functionalist approach now adopted by many in architecture, town planning and urban
regeneration.
Other points considered to be valid to be given credit.
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MARK SCHEME – A-LEVEL HISTORY OF ART – 2250 – JUNE 2014
Gender, nationality and ethnicity
06
Analyse how two works of art, each by a different artist, are concerned with the artists’
nationality or nationalities.
(30 marks)
Maximum Band 4 if both examples are by the same artist.
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The question requires the candidates to
Select two works of art, each by a different artist, from the period 500 BC – 2000 AD.
Analyse how each work of art is concerned with the artist’s nationality.
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Definition of works of art
For art, examiners should allow:
Conventional forms (ie painting, sculpture)
More recent forms (ie installation, performance, etc, photographs where displayed in art
galleries and/or generally understood in a fine art context, etc).
Works of art that encapsulate two different art forms ie architecture and sculpture.
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Definition of nationality
Nationality is the sense of identity conferred by the country of one’s birth or adoption, and its
implied and acquired social, political and cultural values.
General guidance on how the question should be answered
The candidate should explore the relationship between the formal, iconographical and
ideological components that signify an artist’s relationship with his/her country of birth or
adoption.
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Possible example might include
Vladimir Tatlin Monument to the Third International (Tatlin’s tower) designed in 1920
steel and glass.
It was only ever produced in model form, projected to be higher than the Eiffel Tower and to
be constructed in modern materials of steel and glass – implying Russian competitive
supremacy over its old enemy France. New architectural materials were also symbolic of the
new Russia and of leadership in the modern world.
Tatlin was central to Russian Constructivism and often described as a ‘laboratory
constructivist’. However, he did not identify with Constructivism or with the aims of Malevich
(its self-appointed leader) and they frequently quarrelled.
Tatlin’s pre-revolutionary counter-reliefs and the post-revolutionary
Monument to the Third International are evidence of his attempt to abolish the traditional
representational function of art, particularly the traditional role of painting and decisively
influenced post-revolutionary Constructivism.
Tatlin’s tower was commissioned under Lenin’s propaganda programme in 1919 after the
Russian revolution, to celebrate a new revolutionary history. This project established Tatlin’s
reputation as an architect, artist and designer.
It is often regarded as a prime example of architectural constructivism and is symbolic of
post-revolutionary ambitions, forward thinking and modern.
The spiral form allowed the suspension of a glass cube, cylinder and pyramid inside, and
these components would rotate daily, monthly and yearly, each having a different
administrative function, a modern building which would function as an organ of state
bureaucracy.
It was conceived as a propaganda cell – Tatlin proposed that slogans were projected onto
the clouds in celebration and promotion of the post-revolutionary social order.
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MARK SCHEME – A-LEVEL HISTORY OF ART – 2250 – JUNE 2014
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The materials and technical structures were ambitious – it was also an attempt to unite
painting, sculpture and architecture in creating a new world – a post-revolutionary world.
Its radical formalism was seen as contrary to revolutionary principles (as was modernism in
general). This ultimately led to the suppression of avant-garde art in soviet society and an
emasculation of modernist principles and practices.
Anselm Kiefer, Margarethe, 1981, oil, acrylic, emulsion and straw on canvas,
280 cm x 380 cm.
Born in Germany in 1945, before the end of World War II Kiefer’s work explores and
confronts German history and culture, exploring themes like the Holocaust coupled to
national identity, occult symbolism, theology, and German mythology and literature.
Margarethe was inspired by Paul Celan’s poem Todesfuge or ‘Death Fugue’, written in the
aftermath of the Holocaust. Celan was a Romanian Jewish writer and Kiefer completed thirty
paintings, photographs and woodcuts in response to his work. Celan’s poem Todesfuge
contrasts the essential German woman Gretchen from Goethe’s Faust with Sulamith
(sometimes written Shulamite), the Jewish beauty, from the ‘Song of Solomon’, alluding to
the national shame of the Holocaust in wartime German history.
The burnt straw evokes the piles of shorn hair found at Auschwitz and the straw curling
upwards is evocative of the smoke from the death camp chimneys. This is emphasised by
the candle flame at the end of each strand.
Kiefer’s work is generally on a large scale and here combines a natural raw material - straw with painterly media. This material evokes several symbolic meanings. The use of raw
materials links with the practice of fellow German artist Joseph Beuys, with whom Kiefer
studied.
Kiefer’s Margarethe (also known as Gretchen) represents the German Aryan woman as
strands of golden straw (hair) embedded in the paint, ascending but anchored to the bottom
of the painting. The black charred straw and tangles of black paint at the bottom of the
painting represents the almost erased Jewish woman Sulamith.
The work is generally sombre, thickly worked, scrawled with the title Margarethe in paint and
charcoal and has a colour palette which refers to a specifically Germanic Expressionist
tradition.
The space is shallow, the sky a grey and blue collection of expressive brushwork which adds
to a mood of foreboding.
The title of the painting appears woven in and out of the straw referencing earlier works
concerned with the burning stubble of the northern German heathlands and the legend of
Rumpelstiltskin.
Other points considered to be valid to be given credit.
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