Delbarton School - AR606: AP Art History (T) Overview

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Fr. Edward Seton Fittin, O.S.B.

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AR606: AP Art History (T)

Instructor: Fr. Edward Seton Fittin, O.S.B.

This course is a historical survey of visual art, from the beginning of time to the present. With slide lectures and discussion, students will be expected to understand works of art within their historical context by examining issues such as politics, religion, patronage, gender, function, and ethnicity.

For example, how the socio-political and religious position of pharaoh in Ancient Egypt shaped and determined much of art; the growth of medieval societies gave to major cultural and commercial centers and a monumental cathedral as the heart of the Gothic city; the role of the papacy in the early 16th century as a major patron of Italian art, or the absolutism of the French monarchy in the 18th century; the rise of socialism in the 19th century is evident in the art of the Realists and Impressionists.

In addition to European-based art, we will cover non-European-based art: The Art of Islam, S.E. Asia, China, Japan, Africa and the native north and south Americans. Students will be required to make Power Point presentation in class, in order to prepare them for the AP exam. But more importantly students are expected to learn more about the cultural diversity of art in our ethnically diverse society.

The course will also teach students visual analysis of works of art, and. understanding them through both contextual and visual analysis. Museum visits may supplement lectures. Note: This is essentially a college-level course. Students are expected to demonstrate interest and maturity. All others need not apply!

Class Announcements

Turnitin.com

All students are required to submit papers to Turnitin.com, to facilitate proper citation of sources used in papers. Therefore, please log onto www.turnitin.com and register for this class: ID #2936260 (G); 2001972 (T). The course title is AR606 and the password is michelangelo. Any questions? Email me: edward@delbarton.org.

The Bayeux Tapestry Animated

Enjoy this video from You Tube and watch your volume!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bDaB-NNyM8o

Reading Light for class...so you can see your notes!

http://www.llbean.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/CategoryDisplay?storeId=1&catalog_id=KK&categoryId=51643&catalogId=1&langId=-1&ddkey=LLBSearchDispatch

The text book's companion site:

http://www.wadsworth.com/cgi-wadsworth/course_products_wp.pl?fid=M20b&flag=student&product_isbn_issn=9780495503460&discipline_number=37

A Message from Dr. Fred Kleiner, author of your text and friend of mine!

"[You] are about to embark, vicariously, on the greatest voyage of [your] lives to every corner of the earth and that along the way [you] will not only learn about art, but history, religion(s), mythology, geography, etc., etc. Art History is the ultimate introduction to all the humanities."

My Favorite Super Bowl Ad!

http://www.youtube.com/user/CocaColaSuperbowl

#1 Ad!!!!!

The Masterpiece Cards

http://www.themasterpiececards.com/about.html

Check this out...$75 for a set of Art History flash cards!

Michelangelo's Last Sketch Found!

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/22134283

Writing Tips from an AP Consultant

Practice: Pre-writing the Essay

Throughout the year and in preparation for the exam, practice with your students the timed essay questions. To help facilitate this practice, The College Board AP Central Art History link offers free access to on-line electronic files containing abundant samples of past AP exam free response questions complete with corresponding actual student essays, scoring guides (rubrics), and commentaries. These sample sets go back eight years and can be easily printed for classroom use. I suggest, for each unit test given in class, include at least one matching essay question to the chapter from past AP exams posted on AP Central. Then, follow these simple steps to facilitate the writing process on the timed essays:

Teach students to decode each essay question by identifying specific set of tasks. For example, does the question ask the student to: a). Name the artist and date the work? b). Discuss subject matter and iconography? c). Discuss the work’s function and purpose? d). Explain artist’s style and technique?
Train students to use graphic organizers to take notes on each identifiable task. This step helps students to articulate key concepts by diagramming and presenting ideas for performing each task, while forcing them to pause and look at the work shown on the screen. In a 10-minute question, each student should spend about three-to-four minutes completing this important step before writing the actual essay. (Tip: There are all types of graphic organizers available to teachers on-line, free of charge, accessible by performing a simple search). I like using a variation on the Venn diagram, for example, when the essay question asks to compare and contrast works of art.
Have the students attach the completed graphic organizers to the written essays. This serves as a valuable misconception check for the teacher coaching the students to write the good essay by focusing and staying on task. (Tip: does the student make the connection between "why" the work was made in the first place and "how" meaning is conveyed by the artist -- and the viewer?)
The graded essays should be returned to the student with rubrics and scoring guides. The sample rubrics from the past AP exams available on AP Central clearly show that scores earned on each essay question are largely determined by demonstrated analysis and how the student addresses each required task with specificity and no significant errors.

Yu Bong Ko

Tappan Zee High School, Orahngeburg, NY

http://www.wqxr.com/cgi-bin/iowa/index.html

AP Credit Info

http://apps.collegeboard.com/apcreditpolicy/index.jsp

Tips on the AP Exam

1.Since students do not see any slides in the long essays the appropriate choice of these works in relation to the question is critical to a successful argument. I would advise students to clearly decipher the multiple tasks being addressed in the stem of the question and select two appropriate works to include in the discussion. One needs to get a lot of "mileage" out of the two examples, so students need to think hard and devise a plan quickly to form an argument -- keeping in mind not to force a square peg into a round hole.

2.Moreover, advise students to follow the specific written directions. In one of the long essays students must choose at least one work outside of the European tradition -- you would not believe how many students decide to ignore this direction. In the other long essay, a specific direction might include selecting a pair of works of art, before and after a certain date. An incorrect or inappropriate choice will serious hinder the argument and thus the score on the essay. (Incidentally, good students naturally compare and contrast the two works seamlessly in their essays. But, students do not have to compare and contrast the two works if it is not part of the specific written directive).

3. Fully Identify -- Not all works of art can be fully identified according to: name of artist, date, title, medium, size, location, etc. As a result, advise students to identified the examples as specific as possible to let the readers know clearly which works of art are being addressed in the essay. For example, identifying an example as "a Buddha figure" is simply inappropriate, while identifying the same example as "14th century Central Tibetan Seated Buddha" is getting much closer to the expectations of "fully-identify."

4. Dates -- I personally shy away from telling my students to know exact dates. Instead, we work with larger chunks of 50 to 100 years and practice matching them to stylistic periods and epoch. Frankly, some students need help just knowing that year 1430 is 15th century.

5. Guessing on the MC -- To answer your question: No penalty for leaving a response BLANK -- no response. But, one-third of the number of questions answered incorrectly will be subtracted from the number of questions answered correctly. It is IMPROVABLE that mere and random guessing will improve the score significantly. On the other hand, since there are only four possible choices ..."if you have some knowledge of the question and are able to eliminate one or more of the answer choices as wrong, your chances of selecting the correct answer is improved, and it may be to your advantage to answer such a question." (2004 Released exam, page 19).

Grove Art Online

Here's a link to Grove art online:

http://www.groveart.com/index.html?authstatuscode=202.

It has all kinds of useful resources for Art History. Check it out!

News

Extra! Extra! Read all about it! Here's an offer you can't refuse: You can earn 2 pts. on any quiz of your choice (1 quiz/term) if you bring in an article from a current newspaper or magazine relative to Art History, and make a 1-2 min. report to the class. This is subject to the final approval of the teacher. Newspapers and magazines must be dated from the posting of this announcement and forward. Get reading!