AP © History of Art Syllabus 

Course Description

AP© History of Art is a course designed to introduce the students in a survey format to the sweep of the global history of art from prehistoric times to the present day.  As its name implies, it will emphasize understanding the work of art in its historical context.  Contextual issues such as politics, religion, patronage, gender, function, and ethnicity, as well as formal stylistic observations, all contribute to understanding the meaning of a work of art/architecture for any given historical period. The course will cover both Western art and art beyond the European tradition.

 

Course Objectives

●Critical Thinking Skills:  The students will learn to observe, analyze, compare, contrast, make informed judgments, and support those judgments with concrete evidence and argument. 

●Cultural Literacy:  Students will gain an understanding of the values and concerns of the people who created the works from a specific time and place.  Students will learn about other cultures, acquire the skills required to appreciate the differences between them, and begin to see the connection that exist among all peoples. 

 ●Visual Literacy:  Students must learn the formal language of the visual arts to be able to discuss art and architecture.  Students will acquire the vocabulary and the precision of language that will be important to the art history discipline.

 ●Understanding Media and Method:  Students, by examining works of art and learning about the materials from which they were made and the methods employed by the artists, will have a greater ability to appreciate the intellectual and manual effort that contributed to what they will be analyzing. 

●Understanding Works Within Their Historical Context:  Where a work of art was located, the way it was made, the reasons it looks the way it does, and the way it functioned within any given culture are all issues to be included in any discussion of art history.  This kind of examination allows students to begin to think about art as it functions within social, political, or religious contexts.

 

   By the end of the year, it is hoped that each student will:

      •be conversant with the terms and techniques of artists in all major media;

•understand the historical context in which works of art are created and how and why the historical context both influences the art and is influenced by the art;

•know the differences and similarities between and among various cultures, eras, and styles of art and be able to distinguish them and explain the reasons for the differences/similarities and their evolution across time and geography;

      •understand the nature and importance of patronage in artistic creation;

•be able to identify major works by title, artist, date (within a quarter century), style/era/culture;

•be able to identify “unknowns” by use of knowledge of style/era/culture and historical context;

•be able to analyze a work of art, commenting critically and knowledgeably about both its artistic elements and its historical context;

•be able to construct intelligent and insightful comparisons between works of art of differing artists/styles/eras/cultures;

      •write coherently, cogently, and intelligently about art.

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