AP ART HISTORY SYLLABUS – North Shore High School
Instructor: Michael M. Kerschner
This AP Art History course is a rigorous college level course focused on the dynamics of unpacking and
analyzing a series of essential questions from each cultural period. The course will answer these questions
through group Socratic discussion, debate, and written response.
The course will be taught in basic chronological order, often overlapping eras, including non- western
cultures, to create a more coherent and complete discussion about the artistic and cultural influences of
each historical period. The Fall Semester will cover material from the Paleolithic era up through the early
Renaissance. The Spring Semester will cover material from the Renaissance to the early 21st century. This
course will study the formal and historical significance of works of art as well as viewing art as artifact and
through the lens of its social context, where it will be placed among the larger debates of world history.
Students will develop an appreciation and profound knowledge of art history, its wider influence and
context while simultaneously improving specific written analytic skills to prepare them for the AP Art
History exam in May. Students will also be able to use these skills and knowledge for future analyses of
various forms of visual culture, whether ancient, non-western or contemporary.
PRIMARY COURSE GOALS:
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Identify and classify works of art of western
civilization from prehistoric to modern times
Challenge clichés and assumptions about art,
art-making, and art history
Develop visual literacy skills that may be
applied to the student’s visual world
Identify and classify works of art from nonwestern cultural areas of Africa, the
Americas, Asia, and Islam
Understand that art history can bring all
disciplines and subjects into a wider context
for discussion
Learn that art can mediate all types of human
experience
PRIMARY THEMES AND IDEAS:
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The ever presence of art
The relationship between artist and society
Establishing contexts for a work of art, artist, or
style
Analyzing works of art for their formal qualities
and the meanings that they convey to others
The changing notions of “beauty” and appeal of
art
Making connections by relating works of art from
one period to another, and one culture to another
Viewing and understanding the work of art by
placing it in within the philosophical, cultural,
literary, religious, political and historical contexts
Defining the question “What is Art?”
MAJOR CROSS-CULTURAL AND GLOBAL THEMES OR CONCEPTS:
-Representations of nature, -Representation of seasons
-Vertical Elements (e.g. Columns), -Circle Concepts in Art
-Significance of light and dark
-Representations of everyday life (genre)
-Representations of Animals (e.g. beasts and birds)
-Site art/environmental art
-Images of pregnancy, childbirth and progeny
-Art that ‘documents’ a historical event
-Objects used in rituals, -Funerary practices
-Dreams and fantasy images
-Patronage and Art/Artist
-Images of mother and child, -Family portraits
-Sacred Spaces
-Power and Authority, -War, -Art as propaganda
-Human Body in Art
PRIMARY TEXT
Kleiner, Fred. S and Christin J. Mamiya, Gardner’s Art Through the Ages, 13th Ed.
SUPPLEMENTAL TEXTS / RESOURCES
• Art History Survey Website: http://witcombe.sbc.edu/ARTHLinks.html
• Barnet, Sylvan, A Short Guide to Writing about Art. Harper Collins
• Clark, Kenneth. Civilisation. New York: Harper Perennial.
• Carey, John. The Farber Book of Utopias. London: Farber and Farber
• Hall, James. Illustrated Dictionary of Symbols in Eastern and Western Art. New York:
Harper Collins
• Hartt, Frederick K. History of Italian Renaissance Art. New York: Harry N. Abrams, Inc.
• Hughes, Robert. American Visions: The Epic History of Art in America. New York: Alfred
A. Knopf
• Kampen-O’Rielley, Michael. Art Beyond the West. London: Kindle Press
• Pierce, James. From Abacus to Zeus: A Handbook of Art History
THE ART OF THE NON-EUROPEAN BASED WORLD
Primary focus on the following cultures:
Art of India
• Interest in meditative imagery inspired by Buddhist thought
• Rich, intricate designs and overtly sensual figures suggesting abundance, fertility, and fecundity (like an
overgrown garden) Concept of gods as having different temperaments, numerous attributes, and
multifaceted aspects
• Development of cosmic imagery (such as the mandala or axis mundi)
• Duality of male and female aspects in religious worship
Art of China
• Establishment of a strict hierarchy due to the beliefs of Confucianism, often mirrored in nature (seen in
Chinese landscape painting)
• Interest in meditative imagery inspired by Buddhist thought and Daoism
• Strong emphasis on tradition and skill (particularly in regard to the art of calligraphy); originality is less
favored, reflecting a strong attachment to tradition
Art of Japan
• Strong interest in expressing the spirit of nature (use of natural materials, asymmetrical compositions,
reference to transience in nature such as the changing of the seasons)
• Political isolation during the Edo period allows for the development of an idiosyncratic, graphic style
(such as seen in ukiyo-e woodblock prints) depicting a wide range of subjects derived mostly from urban
culture
• Continued interest in meditative imagery due to the emergence of Zen Buddhism (similar to Chan
Buddhism in China)
Pre-Columbian Art
• Rapid development of large, complex cities with pyramidal temples, the site of ceremonial brutality of
ritual human sacrifice in response to combative struggles formed by religious beliefs and understood to be
present in nature
• Desire (similar to other ancient sacred sites) to orientate structures to celestial bodies, expressing the
rhythms of religious life of a calendar year and forming a communication network within a complex
• Development of cosmic imagery similar to that of other cultures
African Art
• Use of materials to express power, ancestor worship, rank, and status
• Expression of the unseen through the use of stylization
• Lack of interest in permanence in artwork to suggest the transient nature of life
• Art used as part of ritual
• Importance of fertility, duality in nature, and renewal
AP ART HISTORY SCHEDULE
September 7-8
Introduction: The bases of Art History, the work of art, and the problem of
representation
Introduction to art history: what is art? Why study it? How can one place a work of art in
its intended context? The vocabulary and language of art: form, iconography, style,
technique, context, purpose and function; learning to look and looking to write; the
concept of style; identifying work through descriptive and analytical writing.
A. Essential Questions:
What are the questions art historians ask? What are the words that art historians use? How do we look at
something through ancient eyes? What are aesthetics and how is it used in discussing art? What is the
importance and value of material in art? How has the artist’s role changed throughout history? What are the
skills and roles of the art historian and conservator?
B. Assignments:
1. Reading: Kleiner, pp. 1-13
2. Students develop techniques for successful study habits including note taking and study-card
production.
3. Students will learn the Feldman Method of Art Criticism.
4. Students will assume the role of historian and discuss the nature of history and how it is constructed.
September 13 - 24
Unit 1: Prehistoric / The Ancient Near East: Sumer, Akkad, Babylonia, neoBabylonia, Persia (3500 B.C.E. -621 C.E.)
The birth of art and the relationship of imagery: who created it, its context, magic and
ritual. The transformations into identifiable cultures with the specialization of art and the
artist: Sumerian, Akkadian, Babylonian, Hittite, Assyrian, Neo-Babylonian, and Persian
cultures. Understand influences of geography, economic and political structures, and
agriculture on the nature and development of art.
• Division of labor, invention of writing, and creation of a hierarchical society, giving rise to what
we call “civilization”
• Creation of monumental structures (such as ziggurats) to bridge heaven and earth
• Use of male attributes (strength, bravery, courage) to establish power and authority
• Use of female attributes (fecundity, nurturing) to highlight the importance of fertility and
renewal
• Art used as part of ritual
A. Essential Questions:
What is prehistory? What are the challenges of understanding prehistoric art? What ideas and language are
used to discuss the art of prehistory? What are the significant art works of this period and how did they
represent the period? What significant events separate each period of the Stone Age? How did those events
affect cultural and artistic production? What are the significant differences between prehistoric art and
ancient Near Eastern art? What developments occur as civilization develops? How does the notion of
civilization change the way people see themselves, each other, and their history? What are the important art
works of this period and how did they personify the era?
B. Assignments:
1. Reading: Kleiner, et al, pp. 15-51
2. Discussion Groups – Students together will answer the essential questions through discussion and short
essay responses and give presentations to their group and class.
3. Study Card Production: Students will create study cards for this unit. Each card will include the image,
its credit line, subject, style, significance, and essential vocabulary associated with it.
C. Vocabulary: paleo- meso-, neo-, lithic, history, prehistory, palette, mural, hunting-magic theory, motif,
ground line, twisted perspective, optical view, narrative, composite view, monumental sculpture, megalith,
henge, monolith, post-lintel construction, Mesopotamia, Tigris r., Euphrates r., cuneiform, Sumer, citystate, Gilgamesh, ziggurat, Anu, cella, Inanna (Ishtar), register, frieze, votive, "priest-king," lapis lazuli,
"hierarchy of scale," Akkkad, Babylon, naturalism, stele, Hammurabi's Code, Shamash, foreshortening,
guardian statue, lamassu, three-quarter view, Assyria, glazed brick, enamel, column anthropomorphizing
D. Quiz: Ancient Art: multiple choice questions, 1 short essay question; September 24
September 27-October 1
Unit 2: The Art of Egypt (3000-30 B.C.E.)
Old Kingdom 2575-2134 B.C.E.
Middle Kingdom 2040 – 1640 B.C.E.
New Kingdom 1550-1070 B.C.E.
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Comparison between Egypt and the ancient Near East (geography, materials, civilization, nature of
royal figures and divinities, funerary and temple structures, etc.)
Time is spent identifying Old, Middle, and New Kingdom architecture; painting; and sculpture. The
Armana Period of Akhenaton is given weight because of its “stylistic revolution.”
Discussion of naturalism and idealism compared with the stylization of imagery from the ancient Near
East.
Portraiture is discussed in relationship to the figures rank. Creation and development of a monumental
stone architecture in the form of the pyramid.
Comparisons with the ancient Near Eastern Ziggurat
Art in service of a culture that focuses upon the afterlife
Mastaba and Temple decoration.
Art with a sense of permanence created for eternity (the afterlife)
Strict, consistent adherence to rules of representation to emphasize a need for stability and tradition
Strong distinctions made between the powerful, deified pharaoh and the lower classes (i.e., hierarchical
proportion, idealization versus naturalism)
Obsession with preparation for death (hence the numerous artifacts created for tombs) and rebirth (the
annual flooding of the Nile serves as a loaded metaphor for this cycle of death and rebirth)
A. Essential Questions:
What is the essential focus of most Egyptian art? What characteristics of Egyptian art reinforce the major
ideas of this culture? How do the Egyptians conceive of an ordered society? What is the influence and
legacy of Egyptian art on Greek and Roman societies? How is the Egyptian canon of proportions a
reflection of their society and history? What are the important art works of this period and how did they
personify the era?
B. Assignments:
1. Reading: Kleiner, et al, pp. 53-79
2. Discussion Groups – Students together will answer the essential questions through discussion and short
essay responses and give presentations to their group and class.
3. Study Card Production: Students will create study cards for this unit. Each card will include the image,
its credit line, subject, style, significance, and essential vocabulary associated with it.
C. Vocabulary: Nile River, pharaohs, papyrus, lotus, Upper Egypt, Lower
Egypt, Menes, Hathor, Horus, Old Kingdon, mastaba, ka, serdab, Imhotep, Djoser, Re, Khufu, Khafre,
Menkaure, ben-ben, mortuary temple, causeway, valley temple, sphinx, diorite, nemes, uraeus, canon of
proportions, bilateral symmetry, double portrait, Middle Kingdom, Thebes, Hatshepsut, Deir el-Bahri,
colonnades, Ramses II, Abu Simbel, pillars, pylon, pylon temple, axial plan, hypostyle hall, capitals,
clerestory, basilica, Akhenaton, Nefertiti, Thutmose, Tutankhamen, Howard Carter
D. Quiz: Egyptian Art: multiple choice questions, 2 short essay questions on
October 1
October 4- 15
Unit 3: Aegean and Greek Art
Cycladic 3000-1600 B.C.E.
Minoan 1900-1375 B.C.E.
Mycenaean 1400-1100 B.C.
Geometric Art 900-700 B.C.E.
Orientalizing Art 700-600 B.C.E.
Archaic Art 600-480 B.C.E.
Classical Art 480-400 B.C.E.
Late Classical Art 400-320 B.C.E.
Hellenistic Art 320-30 B.C.E.
The Art of the Aegean
Focus on Cycladic, Minoan, and Mycenaean Cultures. Compare and contrast with
Egypt and Ancient Near East. (Approach to nature and the landscape, with architectural
forms: palaces, tombs, and temples.) The relationship between culture and
art/architecture is particularly strong when comparing Minoan and Mycenaean works
(fresco stucco and fresco secco).
• Impact of geography, warfare, and social relations on art and architecture in ancient Minoan and
Mycenaean cultures
Reading: Kleiner, et al, pp. 81-97
The Art of Greece
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Archaic, early classical/transitional, classical, late classical/early Hellenistic, Hellenistic. (Tie each
period to a specific date: why did these styles change?)
Proto-geometric, geometric and archaic Greek cultures: Compare and contrast with Egypt and
ancient Near East. (Approach to nature and the landscape, with architectural forms: palaces,
tombs, and temples.)
Vocabulary terms include learning the Greek vase shapes, temple types, and architectural
components of the Greek orders.
Begin to define and identify the concepts of Greek idealism, beauty, individuality.
Look at the emerging shape of the human figure from the Sumerian Votive figures to the Greek
kore and kouros figures.
Describe and be able to identify and describe the stylistic transformations that appear in Greek
sculpture and architecture (proportion, scale, and type) canon of sculptural proportions. Define the
changing role of architectural sculpture (compare with role of Egyptian architectural sculpture)
Discuss the relationship between the Greek building and its site. Discuss the origins of the Greek
city and city plan. (Agora, Stoa, Acropolis).
Emphasis on self-knowledge and moderation (sophrosyne) as opposed to arrogant pride and
excess (hubris)
Concept of aesthetics (appreciation of beauty) based on mathematical proportions Concept of
“man” as the “measure of all things”
Emphasis of balance between intellect and feeling (worship of both Apollo and Dionysos is
applicable here)
A. Essential Questions:
What is the role of war and how does it influence art in Mycenaean culture? How do the Aegean figure
sculptures affect later Greek art? What are the important art works of this period and how did they
personify the era? How did Greek art develop over its history? What makes Greek art the basis for much of
western European art? What role did women play in Greek art and society? What advances did the Greeks
make in sculpture and architecture? What brings about the end of Greek culture and how did the art reflect
the end? What is the relationship between Greek architecture and its location?
B. Assignments:
1. Reading: Kleiner, et al, pp. 99-155
2. Discussion Groups – Students together will answer the essential questions through discussion and short
essay responses and give presentations to their group and class.
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Study Card Production: Students will create study cards for this unit. Each card will include the image,
its credit line, subject, style, significance, and essential vocabulary associated with it.
C. Vocabulary
All major Greek gods, Geometric period, krater, amphora, meander or key pattern, kore, Daedalic, kouros,
Archaic smile, encaustic, peplos (and other garments: himation, chiton), cult statue, Doric and Ionic orders,
caryatids, peripteral, ridgepole, entasis, gorgon, gigantomachy, black-figure painting, incise, red-figure
painting, Salamis, Thermopylae, Marathon, contrapposto, bronze hollow-casting, Polykleitos, canon of
proportions, acropolis, Delian League, symmetria, chryselephantine, Athena Parthenos
D. Quiz: Aegean and Greek Art: 20 multiple choice questions, 2 short essay
questions on October 14
October 18-29
Unit 4: Etruscan and Roman Art (10th Century B.C.E-fifth century C.E.
Founding of Rome (Romulus and Remus) 753 B.C.E.
Roman Republic 509 B.C.E.-27 B.C.E.
Early Roman Empire 27- B.C.E. – 192 C.E.
Late Roman Empire 192 C.E. – 410 C.E.
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Compare and contrast with Greek Art and the debt each society owed to the
Greek culture. Point out specific contributions that distinguish each culture. Be able to distinguish
between the two. Focus on Etruscan ideas of death and burial (tumulus/necropolis). Elaborate on the
Etruscan temple, origins of the true arch, and elements of portraiture in canopic urns.
Introduce Roman art through its verism (portrait sculpture, compare with individualized images from
Egypt and Greece) and architecture (the difference between a trabeated and arcuated system of
building).
Relationship between building and its site
Roman city planning and orientation compared to Greek.
Incorporate the Roman atrium house and insulae. Discuss the four Roman fresco styles, (comparing
with Minoan and Egyptian)
Art in service to the state
Discussion of Roman building types and techniques, and Roman temple types.
Incorporate architectural building techniques as well as new materials.
Unlike the Greek styles, introduce the notion of Roman figure styles ranging from verism to idealism,
depending on the emperor. Portraiture and commemorative sculpture.
Compare the pan-Athenic frieze from the Parthenon with the Procession from the Ara Pacis. Contrast
historical backgrounds. Discuss the loss of the narrative and the “archaicizing” of Roman art seen in
the Column of Trajan throughout the end of the empire.
Etruscan Art
• Lack of political cohesion creates strong sense of individualism (resulting in a unique blend of
naturalism and stylization) and independence as well as a lifestyle that is adventurous, animated, and
passionate (qualities seen frequently in Etruscan art)
Roman Art
• Art used in the service of propaganda for the rich and the powerful
• Expressions of virtue and honor, often combined with candid realism
• Overpowering grandeur demonstrated in monuments and architecture, often resulting in innovative
constructions of architectural structures and often their interior space
• Large-scale public works suggesting an efficient bureaucracy with widespread control
• Desire to connect themselves to the ancient Greeks (and Trojans through the lineage of Aeneas)
culturally.
A. Essential Questions:
What are the major contributions of the Etruscans to Roman art? Why were the Romans so interested in
Greek art? How were the Romans more than just copyists of Greek art? What were contributions by the
Romans to western art and architecture? What historical events and figures influenced Roman art and
architecture? How did political power affect the style and subject of Roman art? What are the important art
works of this period and how did they personify the era? How does Roman art phase itself out at the end of
the Constantine’s reign and evolve into what became Christian art?
B. Assignments:
1. Reading: Kleiner, et al, pp. 223-287
2. Discussion Groups – Students together will answer the essential questions through discussion and short
essay responses and give presentations to their group and class.
3. Study Card Production: Students will create study cards for this unit. Each card will include the image,
its credit line, subject, style, significance, and essential vocabulary associated with it.
C. Vocabulary
Aqueduct, Atrium, Basilica, Bust, Coffer, Contrapposto, Cubiculum, Cubiculum, Cupola, Encaustic,
Foreshortening, Forum, Fresco, Impluvium, Keystone, Oculus, Peristyle, Perspective, Per, Spandrel, Vault,
Veristic
D. Quiz: Etruscan and Roman Art: 20 multiple choice questions, 2 short essays on
October 29
Field Trip to the Metropolitan Museum of Art
• At the Met, students will take observational notes on works from Greek, Roman and
Etruscan art.
• Describe a day in the life of a Pompeian citizen and how it is conveys status in that culture.
November 1-5
Unit 5: Islamic Art (650 C.E. to the Present)
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Submission of the faithful to the will of Allah
Five Pillars of Islamic faith
Influence of Islamic faith in the manifestation of art and architecture
Mosque as center of collective prayer and a place of ritual cleansing, directing the worshipper
toward mecca
• Repeated geometric motives, arabesque patterns, and calligraphic line resulting from the aversion to
the use of human and animal imagery
A. Essential Questions:
What are the important elements of Islamic art and architecture? How are the ideas and culture of Islam
reflected in its art? What are the similarities between Islam and Christianity? What are the some of the
religious differences between Islam and Christianity? How are those differences shown in their respective
religious art? How is the art of early Islam different from western art of this period? What are the important
art works of this period, how did they personify the era?
B. Assignments:
1. Reading: Kleiner, et al, pp. 341-363
2. Discussion Groups – Students together will answer the essential questions through discussion and short
essay responses and give presentations to their group and class.
3. Study Card Production: Students will create study cards for this unit. Each card will include the image,
its credit line, subject, style, significance, and essential vocabulary associated with it.
C. Vocabulary
Arabesque, Calligraphy, Jali, Koran, Mecca, Medina, Mihrab, Minaret, Minbar, Mosque, Muhammad,
Muqarnas, Qiblah, Tessellation
D. Quiz: Islamic Art - multiple choice questions, 1 short essay question on November 5
November 8-24
Unit 6: Late Antiquity (200-550), Byzantine and Early Medieval Art (500-1050)
Early Byzantine 500-726
Iconoclastic Controversy 726-843
Middle or High Byzantine 843-1204
Late Byzantine 1204-1453
Early Christian, Byzantine, Islamic Art
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Begin by concentrating on early Christian art as late Roman art.
Nature of the artwork from the early period of persecution to the age of recognition after the Edict
of Milan by Constantine
Influence of Augustine (City of God)
Specific identification of the nature of Jesus (Good Shepherd to Judge) and the context associated
with these images.
Context belongs with the formation of the Gospels and growth of the early church.
Institutionalization of the early church (heresy/orthodoxy, monasticism, ecumenical councils.
Arian, Gnostic, Epicurean, Manichean controversies, Septuagint, destruction of the Temple in
Jerusalem)
Definition and description of the early Christian basilica, from Roman imperial, Roman secular,
and catacomb sites
Compare with other temple forms.
Begin identifying iconography of figures. Become familiar with the stories.
Emergence of manuscript and mosaic forms
Breakup of Christendom into Eastern and Western churches
Compare and contrast identifying stylistic differences in iconography and manner of
representation
What distinguishes the Early Christian and Byzantine styles?
Discuss the origins and development of the icon and icon representation
Architectural innovations of the Hagia Sophia
Ravenna mosaics of San Vitale in the Age of Justinian
The Iconoclastic controversy and subsequent flowering of Byzantine art
Early Christian Art
• Art incorporating emphatic gestures, straightforward formats, and Classical imagery used to teach and
convert neophytes
• Movement toward the fusion Greco-Roman motifs and modes of representation and early Christian
symbols to solidify the imperial power
Byzantine Art
• Rigid, highly complex formal arrangement of figures belonging to a celestial ruling body used to
mirror an ordained, earthly court
• Suggestion of a hieratic mood (i.e. reflection of light created by the mosaics, gold backgrounds, etc,) to
emphasize a miraculous, supernatural force at work within a sacred space that is wholly removed from
the outside, natural world
• Emphasis of certainty in church doctrine (often expressed through frontality of the figures; enlarged,
hypnotic eyes; symmetrical balance, etc….) in the face of numerous heresies (e.g., Monophysitism,
Arianism, etc….)
• Architecture expressing the ideal Christian (humbly austere on the outside; lavish and glittering with
light on the inside)
Islamic Art
• Expression of aniconic (lacking in figurative) imagery to suggest a spiritual paradise and to avoid the
collection of idolatrous objects tainted by worldly materialism and sin
• Use of the mosque as a center of collective prayer and a place of ritual cleansing, directing the
worshipper towards Mecca (the desired destination of Islamic pilgrims)
A. Essential Questions:
How does Christian art look at its beginning, and how does it develop from there? What are the significant
art works of this period and how did they represent the era? What are the effects of Roman art on Christian
art? How does Byzantine art overtake the dominant Roman style? What are the primary features of
Byzantine art? What are the important art works of each of these periods and how did they personify their
era? How do artists portray spiritual elements and a lack of spiritual presence? What are the characteristics
of art during the middle ages? Why contributions did Charlemagne make to the future of Christian imagery,
art and architecture? What were the different periods of medieval art and what significant ideas represented
each period? How does the Roman style continue to appear in medieval art? What are the important art
works of this period and how did they personify the era? In what ways can one see the relationship between
Christian values and its manifestation in art?
B. Assignments:
1. Reading: Kleiner, et al, pp. 289-339
2. Discussion Groups – Students together will answer the essential questions through discussion and short
essay responses and give presentations to their group and class.
3. Study Card Production: Students will create study cards for this unit. Each card will include the image,
its credit line, subject, style, significance, and essential vocabulary associated with it.
C. Vocabulary
polytheism, monotheism, catacombs, cubicula, lunettes, prefigurations, orant, Good Shepherd, Original Sin,
Peter & Paul, Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, liturgy, syncretic, mausoleums, nave, apse, atrium, narthex,
vestibule, transept, relics, pilgrim, baldacchino, clerestory, central-plan, baptistery, ambulatory
D. EXAM: Units 1-6: 30 multiple choice questions, 2 short essay questions, 1 long
essay question on November 24
November 30 - December 10
Unit 7 Romanesque
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The Year 1000 (Europe breathes a sigh of relief) Rethink as the Romanesque Renaissance?
Medieval society and structure: the position of the Medieval church and royalty; emergence of the
Cluniac and Cistercian reforms. (St. Bernard and Hugh of Cluny)
Regional stylistic differences in structure and design of Romanesque cathedrals
(Cluniac/Burgundian, Norman, German/Lombardian, Tuscan)
Discussion of vaulting systems
The concept of the pilgrimage and its impact
Reference is made to redefining of the human figure as monumental architectural figures
Architectural sculpture and iconography is emphasized and compared with Greece and Rome.
Reference is made back to the images of power and authority in comparison with the Maestas
Domini figure along with images of the Last Judgment and its iconography
Manuscript illumination and its relationship with sculpture
Continuation of early Medieval desire (i.e., during the time of Charlemagne and the three Ottos) to
establish a new Christian empire modeled after the ancient Roman one (portals modeled after
triumphal arches). Art reflecting an anxious sense of movement and restlessness, expressing a
desire of large numbers of people to go on pilgrimages or to fight in the Crusades
Numerous expressions of conflict and harsh judgment often articulated by agitated, restless figures
in compressed space (“active life” versus “contemplative life”; life of a knight versus life of a
monk; pilgrimages versus Crusades; secular rule versus religious powers; Cluniac order versus
Cistercian order; feudal society versus rising city populations)
Desire for stability and strength in the western Christian world articulated by architectural clarity
and massive form; larger churches are built to accommodate large numbers of pilgrims, thereby
investing in the town’s economy
A. Essential Questions:
What are the causes of the renewed interest in Christianity? How is the architecture often different in each
region? In what ways did religious pilgrimages affect Romanesque art? What was the affect of the crusades
on European art? What are the differences between the Cluniac and Cistercian view regarding Christianity
and art? Why was the interest in apocalyptic imagery so common in Romanesque art? What are the parts
of a typical Romanesque church and how is it different from previous churches? In what way do relics
influence Romanesque culture and the future of religious art? What are the important art works of this
period and how did they personify the era?
B. Assignments:
1. Reading: Kleiner, et al, pp. 431-459
2. Discussion Groups – Students together will answer the essential questions through discussion and short
essay responses and give presentations to their group and class.
Study Card Production: Students will create study cards for this unit. Each card will include the image,
its credit line, subject, style, significance, and essential vocabulary associated with it.
C. Vocabulary:
fibula, zoomorphic, cloisonné, interlacing, illuminated manuscript, Pentateuch, Book of Hours, carpet
pages, animal-interlace, colophon, high cross, Carolingian, psalter, opus reticulatum, stringcourse, cloister,
westwork, Ottonian, alternate-support system, reliquary, vellum, ambulatory, apse, arcade, archivolt, axial
plan (basilican plan), baptistery, bay, campanile, cathedral, pilgrimage, clerestory, embroidery, jamb,
historiated, narthex, nave, portal, reliquary, rib vault, tapestry, transept, triforium, tympanum, voussoir
D. Quiz: Romanesque Art - multiple choice questions, 1 short essay question on
December 10
3.
December 13-23
Unit 8: Gothic Art
Early Gothic 1140-1194 (France)
High Gothic, Rayonnant Gothic 1194-1300 (France)
Late Gothic, Flamboyant Gothic After 1300 (France)
Perpendicular Gothic After 1350 (England)
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The development of the French style
Abbot Suger, the rise of the university, and St. Thomas Aquinas and Scholasticism
Comparison with the Romanesque Period as well as defining the way in which the Gothic style
evolved (early, high, and late French Gothic styles)
Cult of the Virgin and the emergence of chivalry
Impact of the crusades and the travels of Marco Polo
Emphasis upon teachings of Aristotle
Appearance of the Franciscan (influence of St. Francis) and Dominican orders
Pope Innocent III and the battle of power between the church and state
Rise of the role of women in society.
Focus on Gothic building styles, vocabulary, and techniques.
Focus on Gothic sculptural styles and related iconography
Relationship between architecture and sculpture
Spread of the Gothic beyond France into England, Germany, and Italy
Regional styles are emphasized
With light and harmony as two of the guiding principles of the Gothic, how does the Gothic ideal
compare with the Greek ideal?
Development of the secular gothic style in Italy
Cult of the Virgin and the medieval troubadours singing of courtly, romantic love sets a mood of
feeling, comfort, beauty, and desire; hence Gothic art expresses a transition from a “male”
aesthetic (aggressive, active, robust) to a “feminine” one (decorative, graceful, elegant)
Church beset with internal conflict (Albigensian Crusade of 1208; Babylonian Captivity 1305–78;
Great Schism 1378–1417) endeavors to demonstrate the power and favor of God through
architectural splendor (sweeping vertical heights, light transmitted through walls of colored glass)
Evolution of distinct regional styles reflecting a sense of pride within a community or city-state as
well as a sense of a national, secular identity
Emergence of a court style (especially during the time of Louis IX 1226–1234) defined by
elegance, aristocratic taste, excessive (even superfluous) detail (especially in the marginalia of
illuminated manuscripts), and playfulness
Movement of Scholasticism attempts to reconcile faith and reason and is expressed architecturally
by the cathedral’s uniformity of divergent features
Naturalism in late Gothic art reflects the interests of secular patrons (such as the banker Enrico
Scrovegni) and townspeople (such as those who commissioned the Good Government frescoes in
Siena) of expanding urban populations (feudalism rapidly breaks down in the fourteenth century,
especially after the Black Death in 1348)
Development of Art in Avignon, Assisi (Basillica of San Francesca), Florence
(Cimabue and Giotto) and Sienna (Duccio, Martini, Lorenzetti Brothers)
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Relationship of this new art and the Greca Mannera
Giotto and the new naturalism (the Arena Chapel)
New subject matter in the work of Ambrogio Lorenzetti
Effect of the Black Death and devastating decade of the 13 40s
Conservative reaction to new naturalism
International style as seen in the work of Martini from the Avignon Court
Argue the questions of the origins of this new style: to what extent is it Gothic and to what extent
is it Renaissance (new)?
A. Essential Questions:
Why is this period called "Gothic" art? How does the idea of “Gothic” reveal itself in the art forms of
architecture, painting, and sculpture? What are the significant differences between the major cathedrals?
How do German, French and Italian Gothic differ? What is the effect of the Black Death on art? What are
the major social shifts that occur during the Gothic period?
What are the important art works of this period and how did they personify the era?
B. Assignments:
1. Reading: Kleiner, et al, pp. 461-495
2. Discussion Groups – Students together will answer the essential questions through discussion and short
essay responses and give presentations to their group and class.
3. Study Card Production: Students will create study cards for this unit. Each card will include the image,
its credit line, subject, style, significance, and essential vocabulary associated with it.
C. Vocabulary:
Black Death, Great Schism, Abbot Suger, pointed arch, rose window, flying buttress, trefoil, quatrefoil,
chevet, choir, compound piers, rayonnant, flamboyant, Thomas Aquinas, Renaissance, constitutional
oligarchy, guilds, vernacular literature, rayonnant, The Divine Comedy, humanism, Mendicant Order,
patron, naturalism, altarpiece, ogee arch, grisaille, Pieta, chiaroscuro, triptych, diptych, Fan Vault,
Moralized Bible, Pieta, Pinnacle, Portal, Rose Window
D. Quiz: Gothic Art – multiple choice questions, 2 short essay questions on
December 22
January 3-12
Unit 9: 15th-century Italian Renaissance Art (1400-1500)
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What is the Renaissance? Did it emerge all at once or was it the accumulated series of events that
led up to it?
Role of patronage (Medici); compare the role of the church in previous centuries
New classicism, naturalism, perspective, light and chiaroscuro
Major fresco cycles of artists from Masaccio to Della Francesca, Donatello (first of many
Davids), and Brunelleschi
Define the Renaissance painting composition and compare with proto- Renaissance
Central plans for churches culminating in the Pazzi Chapel
Description of the in town Italian villa by Michelozzo
Historical circumstances that separate the first half of the century from the second, fall of
Constantinople, advent of the printing press, discoveries and exploration)
Spread of the Renaissance ideal throughout Italy
Rise of classical subject matter
Alberti and his theories in comparison with Brunelleschi
Verrochio (teacher of Leonardo) in comparison with Donatello
Many painters: Ghirlandaio (teacherof Michelangelo), and Botticelli in Florence (Neoplatonic
circle surrounding Lorenzo de Medici), Pollaiuolo (intaglio printmaking and dissection of human
body), Perugino (chosen by Pope Sixtus IV to paint walls of Sistine Chapel and teacher of
Raphael), and Mantegna (manipulated perspective)
Discussion of the tension between the individual style of the artist and an overall definition of a
Renaissance style
Lead up to the High Renaissance but stop shy of it
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Renewed interest in classical subjects and humanist preoccupations (such as Neo-Platonism), no
doubt the result of merchant patrons (such as the Medici) who provided artists the freedom to
create without having to answer to the dictates of the church
Expression of human reason and intellect, most notably in the geometric organization of space
(e.g., the “Albertian” window)
Competition in the “marketplace of ideas” encourages artists to outdo their fellow artists
Expression of civic pride to differentiate the “enlightened” city-state from a totalitarian-run state
or a monarchy
Rising status of the artist (e.g., depiction of the artist’s self-portrait in a number of Renaissance
works appears)
Celebration of the abilities and achievements of the individual, hence the rise of portraiture and the
appearance of varying human types and physiognomies
A. Essential Questions:
Why is the Renaissance considered a “rebirth”? How did Italian city-states function? What affect did
politics and patronage have on the arts? Why is Giotto considered the first modern painter? How is the
16th century Renaissance a continuation or difference from the previous century? How did the Catholic
Church use art to its advantage? How did exploration and trade influential to cultural production during the
Renaissance? What are the important art works of this period and how did they personify the era?
B. Assignments:
1. Reading: Kleiner, et al, pp. 497-517
2. Discussion Groups – Students together will answer the essential questions through discussion and short
essay responses and give presentations to their group and class.
3. Study Card Production: Students will create study cards for this unit. Each card will include the image,
its credit line, subject, style, significance, and essential vocabulary associated with it.
C. Vocabulary: Bottega, Humanism, Lantern, Orthogonal, Pilaster, Quattrocento, Rusticate, Stringcourse,
Trompe L’oeil
D. Quiz : Italian Renaissance Art - multiple choice questions, 2 short essay questions,
1 long essay on January 12
January 13-21
Unit 10: 15th Century Northern Renaissance Art (1400-1500)
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The Burgundian style and the international style (the Limbourg brothers): what distinguishes this
painting style from Gothic painting? Is this a Renaissance, and if so, what is being reborn? How
does this period compare with works produced in Italy?
Flemish style of Campin and the Merode Altarpiece;Van Eyck with the Ghent altarpiece
(Compare with Masaccio Brancacci Chapel); Compare the representations of Adam and Eve
Rogier Van Der Weyden, Escorial Deposition
Influences from South begin appearing in mid-century
Hugo Van Der Goes and the Portinari Altarpiece painted in the North but installed in Florence.
The bizarre and pessimistic images of Bosch
The spread of this new style throughout Northern Europe, preparing the way for the Northern
High Renaissance
Is there such a thing as a Renaissance in the North? How does it differ from a Gothic context?
Use of oil paint to render fidelity to surfaces and appearances
Use of space to emphasize what is being seen rather than how one sees
A. Essential Questions:
How were public altarpieces used and how were they effective? How were private devotional images
used? How is the notion of the infinite important to art of this period? Why is the invention of portraiture
important? How would you describe 15th century northern humanism? Why was oil painting important to
Northern Renaissance artists? What are the important art works of this period and how did they personify
the era?
B. Assignments:
1. Reading: Kleiner, et al, pp. 519-539
2. Discussion Groups – Students together will answer the essential questions through discussion and short
essay responses and give presentations to their group and class.
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Study Card Production: Students will create study cards for this unit. Each card will include the image,
its credit line, subject, style, significance, and essential vocabulary associated with it.
C. Vocabulary:
Alterpiece, Book of Hours, Donor, Engraving, Etching, Grisaille, Polyptych, Triptych, Woodcut
D. Quiz : Northern Renaissance Art - multiple choice questions, 2 short essay questions on January 21
Field Trip to the Cloisters
• At the Cloisters, students will take observational notes so they can write an analysis of artwork from the
Romanesque, Gothic or Renaissance periods.
• Students will analyze artwork removed from its context. They will write a short essay that discusses how
the meaning of a work may change when removed from its original location.
January 24-28
Unit 13: 16th-century Italian High Renaissance and Mannerism
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Discussion of the works of Leonardo, Michelangelo, and Raphael. What makes these artists so
different that one would form a whole period on their work?
• Time is spent comparing them with the artists of the second half of the 1400s as well comparing
their individual views and approaches on art with one another.
• One of the threads linking the quattrocento with the cinquecento is the rebuilding of St. Peter’s like the image of the three Davids by Donatello, Verrochio, and Michelangelo, the rebuilding of
St. Peter’s is a common thread linking the High Renaissance with the Baroque
• Set the context of this period in the reformation and in the writings of Luther, Calvin, and Zwingli
• How do the artists of Italy react and respond to the work of Leonardo, Michelangelo, and
Raphael?
• Increased competition among the artists combined with an even more intense competition with art
of the classical past
• Desire for monumentality and grandeur (sometimes to the point where classical forms begin to
lose their sense of calm and reason)
• Renewed interest in using art and architecture to empower the papacy in Rome (especially in
regard to Julius II, the “Warrior Pope”)
Mannerism
• Desire to appeal to the trivial tastes (works riddled with ambiguity of meaning, form, and space)
of aristocratic patrons wishing to escape the harsh realities of the sixteenth century (Protestant
Reformation, the Inquisition, the sack of Rome in 1527, St. Bartholomew’s Massacre in 1572);
works often express a profound sense of detachment
• Dissonant color and elongated figures demonstrate a dissatisfaction with the classical style of the
Renaissance and its optimistic, humanistic values
A. Essential Questions:
Questions are raised about notions of genius, masterpiece, and lasting influence. In what ways did these
artists continue what went before them and in what ways did they seek to diverge from that definition?
What is the role of the artist in society? What is the relationship that develops between the artist and the
patron?
B. Assignments:
1. Reading: Kleiner, et al, pp. 579-623
2. Discussion Groups – Students together will answer the essential questions through discussion and short
essay responses and give presentations to their group and class.
3. Study Card Production: Students will create study cards for this unit. Each card will include the image,
its credit line, subject, style, significance, and essential vocabulary associated with it.
C. Vocabulary:
Canvas, Chiaroscuro, Cinqueccento, Glazes, Igudi, Martyrium, Quoins, Sacra conversazione, sfumato
January 31- February 4
Late 16th century Art in Northern Europe and Spain: The Age of Reformation
• Desire to appeal to the trivial tastes of aristocratic patrons wishing to escape the harsh realities of the
16th century.
• Continued realism found in northern Renaissance art combined with the desire to confront the
political, social, and theological issues of the day.
• A new type of humanism concerned with the human condition, especially under duress.
• Art of France represents glorification of royalty
• Art of Spain represents glorification of the state and the tastes of the king.
• Replace church practices with personal faith
• Purpose and function of Protestant art
• Classicism moves northward
A. Essential Questions:
What is the effect of Protestant (“protested” practices and beliefs of the catholic church) Reformation on art
in Northern Europe? What is the impact of printmaking on artistic imagery and the spreading of ideas?
B. Assignments:
1. Reading: Kleiner pp 624-647
2. Discussion Groups – Students together will answer the essential questions through discussion and
short essay responses and give presentations to their group and class.
3. Study Card Production: Students will create study cards for this unit. Each card will include the image,
its credit line, subject, style, significance, and essential vocabulary associated with it.
C. Vocabulary:
Genre Painting, Still Life, Vila or Chateau, Anamorphic image, Engraving, Woodcut
February 7-11
Unit 15: Baroque Art (1600-1700)
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These countries (Italy, Spain, Flanders) are grouped together in the strength of their ties with the
Counter-Reformation movement and Catholic backgrounds.
The Baroque period in many ways begins in St. Peter’s square and ends in the court at Versailles.
The movement from the sacred to the secular is important from a symbolic sense
One begins with Maderno, Bernini, Caravaggio (tenebrism), and Borromini in Rome
Comparisons are made with Renaissance and High Renaissance works
Gardner cites concepts in space, time, light, and motion as important to this age and discuss
Baroque composition
While these artists dominate, we point to the Carracci and the origins of the school of art in
Bolognaas the beginnings of the institutionalization of the artistic process.
Since there are a number of good books containing writings of artists from here on out, I strive to
present as much of that material as supporting evidence for their work.
Moving from Italy, we look at Velasquez in Spain and Rubens in Flanders.
Although they are not the only artists working at the time, certainly most of the attention is
focused on their work and their contributions to the art in their countries
Italian and Spanish Baroque
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Also given attention to the works of Rivera and Zubaran in Spain and Van Dyck in Flanders and
England.
Fascination with space, time, and motion in a world that is ever-expanding into a “New World” of
the Americas
By placing the viewer “in media res,” or in the middle of the most dramatic moment imaginable,
Baroque artists emphasize the urgency of the present struggle engendered by the Counter
Reformation
Rise of the “Academic” artist and the concept that “art” can be taught by following a set of
carefully prescribed rules
Importance of light to suggest the presence of truth emerging from a world of darkness
Emphasis of passionate emotions over calculated reason as an attempt to restore the faith of those
tempted to stray from the Catholic church (the Spanish are particularly fond of scenes of torture)
Renewed emphasis of the Virgin Mary to counteract the destruction of countless statues of the
Virgin in the Protestant North
Flemish Baroque
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Attempt to activate and/or invade the space of the viewer so that the viewer then becomes a
“participant” in the action (e.g., Bernini’s David, Supper at Emmaus by Caravaggio, Las Meninas
by Velazquez)
Fascination with flesh and texture reflect the luxuriant world that artists such as Rubens and van
Dyck inhabited
Like the Italian and the Spanish, the Catholic Flemish desired to be dazzled by dramatic
movement, passionate emotions, and strong light emerging from darkness
Dutch Baroque
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Emergence of secular themes or “genres” in painting (landscape, still life, seascapes, etc….)
created for a rising Protestant middle class that was suspicious of owning idolatrous religious
works
Establishment of a small, independent Protestant nation surrounded by Catholic countries made
the Old Testament stories of the tiny, beleaguered nation of Israel just as popular, if not more so,
than those recorded in the New Testament
Use of genre scenes (scenes from everyday life) to comment on moral behavior (a major concern
of the strict Calvinists), the transience of life, and the need for order (the Dutch prided themselves
on their cleanliness)
Interest in informality and intimacy as opposed to the official Baroque style (associated with the
popish grandeur of the corrupt Catholic monarchies)
Desire to please the public was crucial due to the rising capitalistic nature of the Dutch art market
(many artists such as Rembrandt and Hals suffered financial ruin in this competitive environment)
French and English Baroque
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Desire for the imposition of order on nature (expressed by Descartes) in an age known for the
concept of absolutism (during the reign of Louis XIV)
Expression of artistic modes (Dorian, Lydian, Phrygian, Ionian, etc….) analogous to the Greek
modes (from which the modern “keys” of music are derived) in the depiction of the grand themes
(such as those from the Bible or classical mythology) of academic “history painting” (best
expressed in the paintings of Poussin)
A. Essential Questions:
How did the Reformation transform art? How does Baroque art differ from the styles of the Renaissance
and Mannerism? What religious events prompted the Baroque? How did texture manifest itself in Flemish
Baroque art? What are the important art works of this period and how did they personify the era?
B. Assignments:
1. Reading: Kleiner, et al, pp. 649-703
2. Discussion Groups – Students together will answer the essential questions through discussion and short
essay responses and give presentations to their group and class.
3. Study Card Production: Students will create study cards for this unit. Each card will include the image,
its credit line, subject, style, significance, and essential vocabulary associated with it.
C. Vocabulary: Baldacchino, Genre Painting, Impasto, Poussinistes ans Ruebenistes, Quandro riportato,
Di sotto in su, Tanebroso/Tenebrism, Vanitas
D. Semester Final: Units 8-13 – 30 multiple choice questions, 3 short essays, 1 long essay on February
11
February 14 – March 4
Unit 16: The 18th Century: Rococo (1700-1750) / Neoclassicism (1750-1815), and the
rise of Romanticism (1789-1848)
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The focus of this section is upon countries whose art reflects concerns other than those of the
Catholic Church. The majority of French art is connected with Louis XIV and the rebuilding of
Versailles, which supplanted the Vatican as the center of the European Art world as well as the
envy of every court in Europe. Poussin and the French Academy are highlighted.
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Establishment of the grand manner
This period begins with Watteau’s Gersaint’s Signboard and leads up to the French Revolution
and the art of David. The art of David is compared with that of Goya. (Both were influential
painters for the state, whose influence far outstrips their own time period.
The 18th century is approached as a collage of differing trends and ideas as the definition of the
“old world” collides with an emerging definition of the “new,” or “modern” world; from the
rococo, chinoiserie, the English garden, Academic art, the Enlightenment, the Industrial
Revolution, and the emergence of an architecture whose vocabulary is iron.
Establishment of the French Salon
Definitions of beauty as well as the picturesque and the sublime are brought into focus. I deemphasize the definition of Romanticism as it is approached in the text.
The art of the Revolution in France and of Goya’s Spain
By comparing and contrasting of the work of David and Goya, a picture is drawn of Academic art
in France after David, involving mostly pupils of David, culminating in Ingres
Dominance of the Salon
Use Baudelaire’s definition of Romanticism to introduce Gericault and Delacroix. The artists’ own
writings and those of critics are used.
Since the landscape has been a theme throughout this course, Turner,
Constable, Frederick, Cole, and Church are discussed, and the international presence of
Romanticism.
That leads to a discussion of the Barbizon school, featuring Corot and Millet.
Late Baroque and Rococo
• Avid pursuit of happiness and intensity of feeling associated with the ancien regime (old order) results
in the jubilant dissolution of form in architecture and sensuous frivolity and playfulness in painting
• Obsession with the idea that one’s “taste” defined one’s place in eighteenth-century society
• Interest in the depiction of children and placing sitters in nature (albeit a rather artificial type of nature)
to emphasize a desirable sentiment free from the corruption of “unnatural” society (ideas related to the
those of the philosophers Jean-Jacques Rousseau and David Hume)
• Exchange of ideas during the Enlightenment (or Age of Reason) examines the complex relationship
between human intellect and morality (as in the Experiment of the Air Pump by Joseph Wright of
Derby)
Neoclassicism
• Themes of sacrifice, honor, and duty (ideals celebrated during the French Revolution and afterwards)
are addressed with “gravitas” as a defiant response to the frivolity of Rococo art (hence, we see again a
“masculine” aesthetic as opposed to a rather delicate, pastel-colored “feminine” one)
• Emphasis of line over color, authenticity over artificiality, and austerity over opulence to create a style
that reflects the discipline and virtue associated with the ancient Roman republic (this short-lived
movement dissipated with the defeat of Napoleon at Waterloo)
Romanticism
• Exploration of irrational thought (as a deliberate reaction against the Age of Reason and the Industrial
Revolution), insisting on the value of feeling, the subconscious, and the imagination (these being tools
offering access to the higher realm of the human spirit, whereas reason can only provide information
about the lower world of matter)
• Desire to have a strong emotional impact on the viewer, usually by the depiction of death, eroticism,
violence, or injustice (these subjects often remind the viewer of the helplessness they often share in life
with the protagonist, a kind of “antihero,” often seen in Romantic paintings)
• Interest in the concept of the “sublime” (as articulated by the philosopher Edmund Burke), which
involves a type of awe blended with terror (which humans have an “irrational” attraction to), often
expressed by the vision of a vast landscape
• Fascination with exotic locations and the “picturesque” in both painting and architecture (due to the
growing colonialism that brought unprecedented wealth to western Europe)
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Development of a “social conscience” derived from the depiction of current events (Goya’s Third of
May, Delacroix’s Liberty Leading the People, Gericault’s Raft of the Medusa, J.M.W. Turner’s Slave
Ship, etc….) instead of historical or biblical narratives
Early American Art
• Straightforward approach in portraiture emphasizing individual character and achievement (as opposed
to Baroque pomp and ceremony)
• Pragmatic belief that art was seen more as “functional” (so that it serves as a document) rather than
having an “expressive” purpose
• Heroic depiction of nature to evoke the concept of “manifest destiny” (the American landscape thus
becomes a type of Promised Land or Garden of Eden)
A. Essential Questions:
How did the aristocracy influence the style of 18th Century art? What are the defining concepts of the
Enlightenment? How did the Enlightenment reveal itself in art and culture? What were the two "opposing"
ideas of the 18th century and why did these ideas dominate the Enlightenment? How is neo-classicism
different from romanticism? What are the important art works of this period and how did they personify the
era?
B. Assignments:
1. Reading: Kleiner, et al, pp. 751- 819
2. Discussion Groups – Students together will answer the essential questions through discussion and short
essay responses and give presentations to their group and class.
3. Study Card Production: Students will create study cards for this unit. Each card will include the image,
its credit line, subject, style, significance, and essential vocabulary associated with it.
C. Vocabulary: Academy, Apotheosis, Fete galante, Pastel, Exemplum virtutis, Calotype, Camera obscura,
Daguerreotype, photogram, school, The sublime
D. Quiz: Art of the Enlightenment - multiple choice questions, 1 short essay question on March 4
March 7-11
Unit 18: The Rise of Modernism – 19th Century
Realism (1848-1860s)
Impressionism (1872-1880s)
Post-Impressionism (1880s-1890s)
Symbolism (1890s)
Art Nouveau (1890s-1914)
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Realism (pastoral and urban) is discussed with Courbet and Daumier.
Throughout this century, one of the major features to the work has been the evolving definition of
the artist and his/her role in society.
Significance of the Pavillion of Realism by Courbet
The main focus of this portion of the course is to develop a definition of “modernism” that arises
out of France.
Manet is introduced through the writings of Emile Zola and the Café Guerbois.
The Salon des Refusés
Photography is introduced at this time, and along with it, the questions it raises for artists working
at that time
Nadar and subsequent photographers redefine how we look at the world and ourselves.
American art is introduced with an attempt to establish a national identity in painting and in
architecture.
The question arises to the radical nature of the work of Manet and his desire to break from the
past. Definition of the “avant garde.” How does one go about trying to define the style of Manet’s
work? (He was not an impressionist.) This same dilemma can be seen in the work of Rodin.
Monet and Impressionism are treated in a context that excludes 20th-century coffee tables and tshirts. As a style that dealt with, among other things, landscape themes, how is it so radical? What
is it about the style that gives artists a new view of the world after experiencing it?
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1870s Postimpressionism is approached in terms of artists emphasizing structure (Cezanne and
Seurat) and those more interested in emotion (Van Gogh and Gauguin).
Where do we come to that definition of artist as rebel against society?
What is the function of art in this era? What does that say about the patron or the consumer of art?
What do we mean when we speak of the rise of the modern?
Compare ideas of beauty and truth with those of reality and the individual.
The plurality of styles is seen in the decade of the 18 90s.
Freud and his work are important
Defne symbolism. Is it a movement? To what extent is it related to Romanticism of the early part
of the century? Munch and Rousseau are favorites, but what do they have in common?
Maurice Denis’s quote of the formal definition of painting
Japanese prints
Iron architecture from the international expositions experiments of the Crystal Palace to the Eiffel
tower to the defining of an American businessman’s architecture in Chicago with Burnham and
Sullivan.
Pre-Raphaelites
• Intense desire to remain faithful to every detail observed in nature, disdaining the formulaic classical
rules set forth by artists such as Raphael (hence, the term “Pre-Raphaelites” to indicate a desire to
emulate the artists who lived before Raphael)
• Romantic, nostalgic view of the Middle Ages as a time of purity and beauty (as opposed to the
industrial environment of the nineteenth century)
Realism
• Romantic development of a “social conscience” combined with a dignified depiction of the working
poor (coinciding with the rise of Socialism as defined by Proudhon, Marx, and Engels)
• Praise for rural life and disdain for urban society (in response to the Industrial Revolution, which is
now in full swing)
• Refusal to idealize subjects declares the intention of the artist to be one of uncompromising objectivity
rather than one of subjectivity (no doubt related to the fascination artists had with the new invention of
photography)
• Emergence of the concept of modernity due to the exploration of subjects taken from “modern life” (in
response to Baudelaire’s desire to emulate “the heroism of modern life”)
• Artists begin to use their “bohemian” environment and personal experience as their subject matter, thus
blurring the boundaries between art and life
Impressionism
• Continued emergence of the concept of modernity due to the exploration of subjects taken from
“modern life” (in response to Baudelaire’s desire to emulate “the heroism of modern life”) in a rapidly
changing industrial society
• Artists continue to use their “bohemian” environment and personal experience as their subject matter,
thus blurring the boundaries between art and life
• Strong repudiation of bourgeois society and its taste for banal tradition found in academic painting of
the Salon (hence, an alternative salon called the Salon des Refusés was established)
• Fascination with all things Japanese leads to innovative approaches of representation (asymmetrical
balance, flattening of forms, suggestion of fleeting time, etc….) to suggest a new awareness of the flat
two-dimensional picture plane
• Desire to paint from life, often outdoors (“plein-air”), in order to capture a sense of immediacy and
spontaneity through the use of loose, gestural brushwork; commitment to depicting a series of
paintings with the same subject so that the real subject becomes one of light and fleeting atmospheric
effects; therefore, the process of seeing (as well as recording that experience) is emphasized
Post-Impressionism
• Artists become identified with individual styles reflecting their own environment and experience
• Increased emphasis on the process of painting (as well as the process of seeing), but in a more intuitive
way
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Desire for a more holistic approach by unifying color and technique (either to evoke an underlying
geometry or a spiritual vision)
Further rejection of Renaissance perspective and organization to draw attention to the flatness of the
picture plane and the formal properties of a painted image
Symbolism
• Obsession with internal, psychological phenomena as expressed through symbols derived from myth,
folklore, allegory, dreams, and other unconscious manifestations (movement began as a literary
movement and is often associated with the psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud)
• Strong fascination with the art of the untrained, children, and the insane
A. Essential Questions:
What does "modern" mean? Why was realism considered the first modern art movement? What made
Impressionism so offensive in its own time and makes it so appealing in ours? How is 20th century art
connected to Post-Impressionism? What are the important art works of this period and how did they
personify the era?
B. Assignments:
1. Reading: Kleiner, et al, pp. 789-851
2. Discussion Groups – Students together will answer the essential questions through discussion and short
essay responses and give presentations to their group and class.
3. Study Card Production: Students will create study cards for this unit. Each card will include the image,
its credit line, subject, style, significance, and essential vocabulary associated with it.
C. Vocabulary: Avant-garde, Japonisme, Lithography, Plein-air, Pointillism, Positivism, Primitivism,
naïve artist, skeleton, zoopraxiscope
D. Quiz: 19th Century Art - multiple choice questions, 1 short essay question on
March 11
March 14-18
Unit 19: Early 20th- century Art, The International Avant-Garde
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Expressionism: Fauve (including Maillol and Lembruck): Color for color’s sake; composition as
expression.
Die Brücke (Ernst and Nolde): Continuing the long tradition of northern expressionism.
Blue Rider and its “spiritual dimension” with Kandinsky (Concerning theSpiritual in Art).
Movement towards total abstraction: Suprematism: White onWhite by Malevich in 1917.
What does one do with Brancusi?
Concern with form: cubism (Picsasso, Braque, Lipschitz)—Break-up of the Renaissance
tradition and window, futurism (1909 Manifesto, Boccioni)—adaptation of a machine aesthetic.
African masks—continuing to look for inspiration beyond the European tradition.
Armory show1913 and the importation of modernism to this country
Frank Lloyd Wright and the development of the Prairie style.
Influence upon Werkbunt, De Stijl and neoplasticism: Redefining the terminology with which we
speak about art, the Bauhaus and European architects. Rise of Walter Gropius, Ludwig Mies van
der Rohe and Le Corbusier.
Art in response to war
Dada: antiart and chance.
The influence of Duchamp in the art of the last half of the century
Constructivism (Realist Manifesto of 1920); connection with the Russian Revolution
Surrealism: Restoring the figure, figuratively. Biomorphic surrealism and veristic surrealism
Fauvism
• Short-lived movement (named after a derisive comment referring to artists as “wild beasts” or
“fauves”) that utilized the arbitrary color schemes of the Symbolists in a way that the color served as
an expressive end in itself
Expressionism
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Rejection of academic naturalism in favor of a highly stylized art that expresses angst, neurotic fears,
and sexual tension (characteristics which ensured that these alienated artists would continue to live on
the fringes of society)
Formation of artistic communities (Vienna Secession, Die Brücke, Der Blaue Reiter) that shunned a
materialistic society bent on war and destruction and advocated a “primitive” life that provided
spiritual liberation
Admiration of what was called “primitive” or “precivilized” art (medieval, African, Oceanic) since it
was thought to have been produced by societies that were free of inhibitions and restraints
Cubism
• Analytical fragmentation of form and space that addressed the paradoxical nature of reality and the
formal qualities of a flat, two-dimensional picture plane
• Expression of the new twentieth-century urban experience (bars, music, electric lights, posters,
movement, etc….), evoking a sense of flux (or change) and the rapid passing of time
Futurism
• Nihilistic desire to eradicate the past through war and destruction and establish a new type of vision
based on a concept known as dynamism (related to the rapid speed of progress and technology)
Constructivism
• Belief that art should be created for a classless society; therefore, it should be utilitarian and
economically produced in factories
• Belief in the “culture of” or “truth to” materials, the idea that each substance, through its structural
laws, dictates specific form
De Stijl
• Desire for purity and universal appeal; hence, figurative or literal representation is completely
eliminated; the work is solely self-referential
Dada
• Nihilistic disregard for art traditions and craft, suggesting that art lacks value and influence
• Concept of art as a failed idea, perhaps presenting it as a humorous joke or as a puzzle that can never
be solved
• Questioning of the nature of art and the importance of originality, presenting “found objects” as having
aesthetic values (Duchamp’s “readymades”)
Surrealism
• Desire to liberate the unconscious through various methods: dream analysis, free association,
automatic writing, word games, and hypnotic trances
• Fascination with the dislocation of image and meaning, breaking down rational notions of what is real
• Evocation of what Andre Breton called “the marvelous,” claiming that the perception of beauty
belonged to the same order of experience as fear or sexual desire
Early Modern Architecture
• Adoption of new materials (such as cast iron) and new techniques (such as prefabrication) to build
larger structures that are more stabile and economical
• Idea that “form follows function” (as articulated by Louis Sullivan)
• Development of the “skyscraper” (symbolizing optimistic progress) due to the invention of the elevator
• Increased experimentation by breaking away from traditional building plans and materials, culminating
in the idea of creating a “machine for living” as articulated by Le Corbusier
• Belief that a new modern age can produce better low-income housing (Wright’s Usonian houses,
Corbusier’s Unite d’Habitation), hence the birth of social planning
A. Essential Questions:
What is definition of modernist art? How is the 20th century art movements connected to the movements
of the19th century? How did progress in the sciences influence 20th century art? How did the Russian
revolution and WWI influence artists between the world wars? What art movements directly connected to
utopian ideals? Why did formal artistic discovery replace the content driven ideas of previous
times as the essential building blocks of art making? What are the important art works of this period and
how did they personify the era?
B. Assignments:
1. Reading: Kleiner, et al, pp. 909-967
2. Discussion Groups – Students together will answer the essential questions through discussion and short
essay responses and give presentations to their group and class.
3. Study Card Production: Students will create study cards for this unit. Each card will include the image,
its credit line, subject, style, significance, and essential vocabulary associated with it.
C. Vocabulary: Abstract, Biomorphism, Cantilever, Collage, Documentary photography, Ferroconcrete,
Frottage, Harlem Renaissance, Mobile, Ready-Made, Regionalism
D. Quiz : 20th Century Art - multiple choice questions, 1 short essay question on March 18
March 21-25
Unit 20: From Modern to Postmodern Art and Beyond (1945-today)
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Ascendancy of the New York School
The nexus of the art world shifts to the shores of this country after the war.
Abstract Expressionism. The development of a truly American style, independent of European art
The banishment of the figure
Bohemian lifestyle and rise of the “beat generation.” Abstract formalism (post-painterly
abstraction)
Color field painters and the end of the ’50s
What does this work say about us? Where do we go from here? The relationship between the artist
and the critic becomes more important than before?
Existential philosophy and the theories of Carl Jung
The transitional work of Rauschenburg and Johns
Beginnings of a postmodern style and context; how do we define it?
Pop Art: Commercialism at its best and the influence of Warhol
Photorealism or Superrealism; Earthworks and Land Art; Happenings; Conceptual and
Performance Art.
Defining Contemporary Art
Postmodern architecture
Defining International Style and how the architects of the 1970s address its ideas and appearance
Second and third generation architects Phillip Johnson, I. M. Pei, Michael Graves. Frank Gehry
Twentieth-Century Realism
• Reaction against avant-garde movements, especially abstraction, of the twentieth century (although the
influence of abstraction can still be seen in their work)
• Recognition of how the perception of reality that the twentieth-century viewer possesses has been
impacted mostly by the development of film and photography
Abstract Expressionism
• Large-scale works that confront the viewer not only with their overwhelming size but also their broad,
gestural strokes (in an effort to reveal what Carl Jung called the “collective unconsciousness” through
an intuitive process similar to that of the Surrealist practice of automatism)
• Modernist notion that abstraction is the culmination of progress in the history of art, producing a type
of transcendent stage of self-purification (based on the theories of the philosopher Hegel and the art
critic Clement Greenberg), hence an emphasis on formalist qualities (such as the two-dimensionality of
the picture plane)
Pop Art
• Reaction against the “purification” of abstraction, embracing subject matter that is decidedly low brow
and that embraces the culture of consumerism and banality (connecting itself to the earlier Dada
movement)
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Sense of detachment and redundancy and a lack of interest in originality defines the role of the artist as
insignificant within a society dominated by the mass media
Tension created between the idea of a work of art as an object versus the work of art as an image
Early to Mid-Twentieth-Century Photography
• Expresses a wide range of influences, from formalist abstraction to social realism
Minimalism
• Reaction against “expressive gestures” of Abstract Expressionism to create a work of complete purity
and objectivity (free from the falsehood of representation); hence, the hand of the artist is rarely
detected
• Intention of presenting the work of art to the viewer as an object rather than an image (idea related to
the work of Jasper Johns); hence, the context (surroundings) of the Minimalist object is of crucial
interest
• Non-hierarchic use of industrial materials, modular units, regular or symmetrical or gridarrangements, suggesting an endless number of variations through a process based on placement and
organization rather than technique or craft
Nontraditional Media: Conceptual, Installation, Performance, Video, and Earth Art
• Dematerialization of the art object, counteracting a consumer culture and engaging the mind of the
viewer rather than his or her eye or emotions
• Creation of site-specific works, increasing awareness of the viewer’s presence through the use of new
modes of expression (i.e. installation, performance, video, etc….)
• Addressing the culture of the art world by creating works that are ephemeral in nature or that challenge
notions of artistic production
American/European Painting, Sculpture, Photography, and Architecture Since 1980
• Reintroduction of representational imagery impacted by advertising (Barbara Kruger), graffiti (Jean
Michel Basquiat), kitsch (Jeff Koons), B movies (Cindy Sherman), and comics (Philip Guston),
suggesting the merging aesthetic of so-called “high brow” and “low brow” art forms in a complex,
dynamic media-driven culture
• Adoption of a postmodern strategy of appropriation, based in part on an influential essay of 1967 by
Roland Barthes entitled “The Death of the Author” and linguistic theories of structuralism and poststructuralism (examining the arbitrary nature of language, the relationship between a signifier—the
sound or script that makes up a word, and a signified—the meaning of that word)
• Exploration of the human body and its fragility in the age of AIDS, genetic engineering, and cloning
• Pluralistic styles reflecting ethnic diversity and stronger links of communication and trade in a world
characterized by “globalism”
• Analytic strategy called deconstruction (developed by philosophers such as Michel Foucault and
Jacques Derrida) creates a destabilized aesthetic reflective of the precariousness of structures and
systems
A. Essential questions:
How does the idea of "conflict" continually affect society and cultural work? What are the traits of
postmodernism? How is postmodernism an extension or continuation of modernism? How does
technology continue to influence art? How is concentrating on the artist's point-of-view different than
earlier artistic considerations? How do the ideas and issues around psychology, gender, consumerism and
feminism continue to affect art? What are the important art works of this period and how did they personify
the era?
B. Assignments:
1. Reading: Kleiner, et al, pp. 989-1025
2. Discussion Groups – Students together will answer the essential questions through discussion and short
essay responses and give presentations to their group and class.
3. Study Card Production: Students will create study cards for this unit. Each card will include the image,
its credit line, subject, style, significance, and essential vocabulary associated with it.
C. Vocabulary: Action Painting, Assemblage, Benday Dots, Color Field, Installation,
D. Midterm Test: Units 13-17 - multiple choice questions, 2 short essay questions, 1 long essay question
on March 25
March 28- April 1
Unit 21: African Art (prehistoric to present)
A. Essential Questions:
What are some of the significant characteristics of art from Africa? What is the connection between
abstract forms and symbolic representation? How is African art different from western art of this period?
Why is portraiture important to many African societies? How is art used to perpetuate the memory of
African ancestors? How is art used to communicate with the spirit world? How did Islam influence the art
of many sub-Saharan regions? What are the important art works of this period and how did they personify
the era?
B. Assignments:
1. Reading: Kleiner, et al, pp. 349-405 pp. 889-907
2. Discussion Groups – Students together will answer the essential questions through discussion and short
essay responses and give presentations to their group and class.
3. Study Card Production: Students will create study cards for this unit. Each card will include the image,
its credit line, subject, style, significance, and essential vocabulary associated with it.
C. Vocabulary: Cire perdue, Fetish, Scarifications
D. Quiz : African Art - multiple choice questions, 1 short essay question on April 20;
Makeup on April 20 at 3:40pm
April 4-8
Unit 22: The Art of India, China and Japan (ancient to present)
A. Essential Questions:
What are the significant attributes of Hindu art? What are the similarities and differences of Buddhist art to
Hindu art? What is the influence of Hellenism on Indian art and culture? How does Islam influence and
blend with Indian culture and art? How did India become an amalgamation of different artistic traditions
and styles? Why is the brush stroke important to Chinese painting? Why are studying certain dynasties
considered essential to the understanding Chinese art? What the differences between official court art and
the personal art created for Chinese intellectuals? What are societal and contextual influences on art after
the late 13th century? How did philosophy influence the subject and style of art and Chinese cultural life?
What are the similarities and differences between Chinese art and western art during similar periods? What
is the relationship between art and the religions that influenced Chinese society? What is the connection
between Japanese art and nature? What is the connection between the isolation of the Edo period and the
art forms that came from it? What are the elements of the Shinto and Buddhist religion that influenced the
subject and style of Japanese art? What ideas are dominant in Japanese society and how do they affect art
and culture?
B. Assignments:
1. Reading: Kleiner, et al, pp. 157-221 pp 719-749
2. Discussion Groups – Students together will answer the essential questions through discussion and short
essay responses and give presentations to their group and class.
3. Study Card Production: Students will create study cards for this unit. Each card will include the image,
its credit line, subject, style, significance, and essential vocabulary associated with it.
C. Vocabulary:
Genre Painting, Haniwa, Kondo, Ukiyo-e, Zen, Bi, Colophon, confucianism, Daoism, Literati, Pagoda,
Pocelain, Yin and yang, Bodhisattva, Budda, Chaitya, Mudra, Nirvana, Shiva, Stupa, Torana, Urna,
Ushnisha, Wat, Yakshi
D. Quiz : Asian Art - multiple choice questions, 1 short essay question on April 27;
Makeup on May 3 at 3:40pm
April 11-14
Unit 23: Art of the Ancient Americas (3500 B.C.E. -1492 C.E. and beyond)
A. Essential Questions:
How are the art forms different in the five geographic areas of the Americas? What influences did the
Mesoamerican period carry into later eras? What are differences between the art of the Aztecs and the
Incas? What significant events happened during this ancient period that influenced art
and society? What are the cultural and artistic differences between each of the geographic
areas? What is the relationship between each culture’s social order and the art produced?
What are the important art works of this period and how did they personify the era?
B. Assignments:
1. Reading: Kleiner, et al, pp. 365-391 pp. 853-869
2. Discussion Groups – Students together will answer the essential questions through discussion and short
essay responses and give presentations to their group and class.
3. Study Card Production: Students will create study cards for this unit. Each card will include the image,
its credit line, subject, style, significance, and essential vocabulary associated with it.
C. Vocabulary: Chacmool, Kiva, Longhouse, Pueblo, Totem Pole
D. Quiz : Ancient Americas Art - multiple choice questions, 1 short essay question
on May 3; Makeup on May 5 at 3:40pm
April 15-May 10
Unit 24: REVIEW
• OFFICIAL AP EXAM: May 11
Final weeks:
Unit 25: MOMA Field Trip and Final Project
Field Trip to Museum of Modern Art (MOMA)
• At MOMA, students will take observational notes so they can analyze works from the Modern and
Postmodern period.
• Students will write a postmodern essay (hypertext) that examines how the figure and art has changed from
the early 19th century through the modern era of the 20th century.
]
ASSESSMENT METHODS and/or TOOLS
APPROACHES TO LOOKING AT WORKS OF ART
(Excerpted from: Thinking and Writing About Art History by Donna Reid
CRITERIA FOR ASSESSMENT OF STUDENTS: Students will be able to articulate both in verbal and
written form HOW and WHY works of art are produced – and their cultural significance/relevance – using
the following guides:
Historians use the term purpose to refer to the function of a work – what it was made for,
its use. It is important to be aware of the original purpose of a work, especially since the
works we encounter in museums or reproduced in books are far removed from their
original settings of tombs, palaces, temples, churches, or homes.
Many purposes have existed for art and the purposes differ from one culture or time to
another. The following is a partial list of examples of how Art has functioned:
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To give the maker or owner power over that which is represented.
For magic/transmutation
To be used in religious rituals, to be worshiped, or to inspire devotion.
o To teach doctrine/myth or parable.
o To inspire the worshiper.
o As imagery for direct worship.
To provide for the afterlife.
To commemorate an event or life passages, memorialize, document.
To assert power.
To confer status or authority.
To glorify or honor an individual.
To decorate, to beautify everyday objects.
As a social/political statement, to protest.
To edify/teach/enlighten.
To tell a moral story/depict myth/folklore.
To demonstrate an artist’s skill.
To practice or demonstrate mastery of technique or design.
To challenge or shock the viewer.
To express the artist’s self.
As an expression of personal feelings or concerns.
To communicate.
To give the viewer an aesthetic experience.
To depict the beauty/grandeur of the natural world.
To create/depict idealized beauty.
Humor/satire.
As genre; to portray idealized family life/everyday life.
As propaganda, to indoctrinate.
To advertise or sell something.
As a statement of sexuality, for sexual stimulation.
As narrative.
Style
Style is defined as the characteristic manner employed in works of art. Style is
determined by the choices artists make about purpose, medium, technique, use of formal
elements, and subject matter. Art historians speak of the style of a period (for example,
Gothic), a movement (such as Impressionism or Cubism), or and artist.
Artist’s Intention/s
Many art historians feel that their role is to understand the intention/s of an artist based on
whatever historical evidence is available to them.
It is easy to confuse the terms purpose and intention, but the difference can be useful.
Purpose refers to the function of the work. The term intention is used in discussing the
artist’s goals in the piece: what has the artist sought to do, what challenges has he set for
him/herself, what is he/she seeking to work out?
For example, artists might explore the possibilities of a new medium, seek to incorporate
“real materials” into a painting (as in collage), emphasize the surface of the canvas while
at the same time creating deep space through color, or create drama through lighting.
Artist’s Approaches
A number of terms are used to characterize and artist’s approach to his/her work, terms
which are helpful in understanding changes in styles in the history of art.
Terms used in describing an artist’s approach to depicting reality:
The artist depicts subjects in the real world as he/she thinks of them
Conceptual: not as they are optically seen.
Representational:
Any of a number of approaches, which have to do with the way
something, is seen.
Illusionistic: A convincing imitation of the appearance of objects in the world.
Naturalistic:
An approach, which suggests fidelity, not so much to appearance, but
to the being of something.
Realistic: Usually carries the connotations of a frank look at everyday reality.
Idealistic: The world is represented as better than it actually is.
Stylized:
Representation according to conventions rather than in a fashion
based on seeing.
Terms used in describing an artist’s approach if there is little or no resemblance to the
perceived world:
Abstract or Abstracted:
The artist begins with the real world but does not seek to
imitate its appearance.
Non-Representational The artist does not relate his/her work to the appearance of
(non-objective): objects in the world.
Other terms used to describe style:
Classical and
Romantic:
Baroque:
Impressionistic:
Expressionistic:
Cultural historians describe an artist as having a “habit of mind”
which either prefers a composition which is orderly, closed and
static, and symmetrical (the classical) or prefers a composition
which is less orderly, is open and dynamic, and is asymmetrical
(the romantic). Within one stylistic period, artists with both
approaches may be working: Michelangelo and Raphael in the
Renaissance, Van Gogh and Seurat in the Post-Impressionist
period, Matisse and Picasso in early Modern, for example.
The name of a historical period that has been generalized for
use as an adjective meaning dramatic, exuberant, active,
emotional.
The name of a historical period that has been generalized for
use as an adjective to describe a technique, which is brushy and
spontaneous.
Used to describe a style in which the artist’s strong emotions
distort line, color, and forms.
APPROACHES TO LOOKING AT WORKS OF ART
(Excerpted from: Art History Teacher’s Guide by The College Board)
What to Analyze in Each Art Form
(HOW)
Art Form
Function/Purpose/Context (WHY)
Sculpture
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Icon/image (worship or veneration)
Monument (inspire/revered)(propaganda)
Historical record of an event (narrative)
Architectural decoration (embellishment)
Investigation of an aesthetic ideal (canon)
Exploration into use/possibilities of material
A measure or a record of time/space/nature
Placement (intended original setting)
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Stance/presentation
Proportion (figure)
Size/scale
Anatomical detail/correctness
Movement/gesture
Facial expression
Material/technique
Surface texture
Negative/positive space
Open/closed form
Organic/geometric/amorphous form
Architecture
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Give shelter (pragmatic)
Enclose space (engineering)
Site of ritual or ceremony (religious)
Commemorate (historical)
Assert power/authority (political)
Cultural icon or symbol (cultural)
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Function
Architectural style
Location/site/orientation
Sculptural decoration
Axis/interior organization
Building techniques used
Material
Scale/proportion
Space/light
Ritual/symbolic significance
INSTRUCTIONAL METHODS and STRATEGIES
Although lecture, reading, and discussion (both large and small groups) are imperative to
communicate the richness of Art History, direct student involvement in the form of:
-Daily homework questions based on their nightly reading assignments,
-Focus sheets where students:
• Evaluate the value and influence of art upon culture and history; synthesize
different movements and cultural interactions to understand their effects on
artists’ creativity
• Analysis of artistic styles and media and how those styles and media limit and
express the artist within his our her cultural context
• Comprehend the role of artists within history and their effect minds and emotions
of their audiences
• Compare and contrast different artists and artistic movements and their influence
on the artists that study them
SAMPLE NOTE-TAKING TEMPLATE
IDENTIFY COMPLETELY: (e.g. title, date, medium, size, etc.)
STYLISTIC PERIOD or CULTURE: (When/Where – This is different from merely
knowing the date.)
SUBJECT/ICONOGRAPHY: (Who is it? What is the idea/concept? Where is this taking
place?)
STYLE/TECHNIQUE: (Describe the ways in which the artists handles form, color, shape
texture, lines, and light. What kinds of material does the artist use? How does the artist
apply technique and sense of composition? In what ways do size and point of view come
into play? Describe the artist’s use of design principles.)
SIGNIFICANCE/FUNCTION/PURPOSE: (How does the work convey social, political,
popular or religious values of that culture? What is the unique vision of the artist or
patron? Why is this work considered an important piece in the art history continuum?)
Student Evaluation
Students are evaluated through quizzes and unit exams and on their notes, sketchbooks,
projects, and activities. The approximate breakdown for each form of assessment is as
follows:
Quizes 5-10%
Unit Exams 45-55%
Notes and Sketchbook 25%
Projects and Activities 15%
Students who do not take the AP Exam must take a comprehensive final exam for the
course. Those who take the AP exam do not have to take the final.
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Contract
I, ____________________, have read this syllabus and understand what is expected of
me as a participant in this course. My parents and I are aware that some artworks depict
the naked human form, and that several religions and their art will be discussed at length.
Signature of student __________________________Date_____________
Signature of parent ___________________________Date_____________