Allison Stewart
Hoover High School
The AP® Art History course prepares students for the AP Art History Exam. The course covers art from the
Paleolithic period through postmodernism and is designed to provide students with the same material covered in an introductory college course in art history. Students gain knowledge of architecture, sculpture, painting, and other art forms within diverse historical and cultural contexts. Students examine and critically analyze major forms of artistic expression from the past and present and from a variety of European and non-European cultures.
In this course students engage in both visual and historical study about art and its contexts. Students develop an understanding of artworks in their context, considering issues of patronage, gender, politics, religion, and ethnicity. Attention is given to the interpretation of a work of art based upon its intended use, audience, and the role of both the artist and work of art in a particular society. Throughout the study of AP Art History, students examine how and why the work looks the way it does, what it
means within its particular context, and how and why it has this meaning.
AP Art History fulfills the F requirement (Fine Arts) requirement or the G requirement (Elective)
Grades will be based on exams (50%) and homework and quizzes over assigned readings (50%).
Makeup exams It is your responsibility to arrange with me to retake any missed exam, and the makeup exam must be completed within two weeks.
Henri Matisse, Interior in
Blue and Yellow, 1946
If you are having difficulties in the class please come and talk to me during lunch or email me at
AStewart@gusd.net. Visit the Art History page on the Hoover website for links to Shmoop, your online textbook companion, and other helpful websites. Extra credit essays and essay re-writes will be offered throughout the year. Also, visiting a museum or gallery and writing a 1-2 page analysis of the show or a compare/contrast of two artworks will earn you two 100% quiz grades.
Required Text:
Kleiner, Fred and Christin J. Mamiya. Gardner’s Art Through the Ages. 12th ed.
New York: Wadsworth/Thomson Learning, 2005.
Additional sources for readings:
Adams, Laurie Schneider, A History of Western Art, 1997.
Art of Our Century. The Chronicle of Western Art 1900 to the Present, 1989. (AC)
Honour, Hugh and John Fleming. The Visual Arts: A History, 4th ed., 1995. (H&F)
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Allison Stewart
Hoover High School
Janson, H.W. History of Art , 5th ed., 1995. (J)
Krull, Kathleen. Lives of the Artists , 1995.
Rosenblum, Robert, and H.W. Janson, 19th Century Art, 1984. (19C)
Stokstad, Marilyn. Art History . 1995.
Strickland, Carol. The Annotated Mona Lisa , 1992.
Tansey, Richard G. and Fred S. Kleiner. Gardner's Art Through the Ages , 12th ed., 2004. (G)
Wilkins, David G., Bernard Schultz, and Katheryn M. Linduff, Art Past, Art Present , 1997. (APAP)
+ others as noted on syllabus
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Issues to explore in class discussions and written assignments for Unit 1:
 Who are the patrons of religious art and architecture, and what impact do they have on its content and form?
How do artists communicate religious beliefs and concepts? How do they differentiate between the
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 natural and the supernatural?
How do artists differentiate between extraordinary people from ordinary people?
Is there universality in the ways human beings have expressed their spiritual beliefs through art?
Are there any features that all religious art shares? Are there universal images permeating human religions like archetypes in mythology?
 How can we recognize the art and architecture of a particular religion?
 Why are art and religion intimately connected throughout human history? How does art serve the needs of religion?
 What does the comparison of non-Western and Western art reveal about artistic patronage, practice, purpose, meaning, and style?
 What sorts of things emerge as universals and which are more culturally specific?
 Do artistic styles seem to follow the same kind of development in Asia as in Europe?
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Allison Stewart
Hoover High School
 Are the historical forces that shape Asian artistic evolution markedly different from those affecting
European art?
 Which artistic innovations do the Western and non-Western worlds seem to have both discovered independently and which did each have to learn from the other?
Week One: August 10 - August 14: Introduction to course, Pre-historyMeso American and
African art
Week Two: August 17- 21 Hindu and Buddhist Art
EXAM: NON WESTERN ART
Week Three: August 24- 28: Ancient Egypt, Mesopotamia, and Armenia
Week Four: August 31 - September 3: Ancient Egypt, Mesopotamia, Armenia, The Greeks
Week Five: September 8 - September 11: The Greeks; Rome
PROGRESS REPORTS
Week Six: September 14 - September 18: Rome; Early Christian, Islamic, Medieval Art
Week Seven: September 21 - September 25: Art from the Fall of Rome to the Gothic Period,
EXAM: ANCIENT THROUGH MEDIEVAL ART
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Allison Stewart
Hoover High School
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Issues to explore in class discussion and written assignments in Unit 2:
 What impact did major historical events such as the Crusades, the Black Death, the spread of Islam, and the expansion of navigation have on the European mindset and resulting art?
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Why did the Renaissance happen? Why did it begin in Italy? Why was the epicenter in Florence?
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Why do we hear so much about the Medicis?
What is HUMANISM and what caused its emergence? How can we see evidence of humanism in
European art and architecture produced during the 14 th
and 15 th
centuries? What impact does it have on formal elements? How is it reflected in subject matter?
What effect does the emergence of art academies have on the history of art?
Why do we see so few female artists in this period?
What impact does the emergence of strong, centralized monarchies have on art and architectural
 production?
How do artists depict secular power and authority? How do these images differ from those portraying religious power?

What impact did Popes Innocent VIII, Alexander VI, Julius II, and Leo X have on contemporary art


 and architecture?
Why did Rome emerge as the center of European art in the 16 th
century?
In what ways is it accurate to call Michelangelo the first of the Mannerists?
What impact did the beginning of the Protestant Reformation and the sack of Rome in 1527 have on the development of Mannerism?
 Why did distinctly disproportionate body parts appeal to the Mannerists?

In what ways were the Mannerists attempting to distinguish themselves from the artists active from
1500 to 1520?
 Why are the artists of Florence and Rome so much better known by the general public than those of
Venice? Is the work of Leonardo, Michelangelo, and Raphael inherently superior to that of
Giorgione and Titian?
 What exactly distinguishes the Venetian style from Florentine and Roman art of the same period?

Allison Stewart
Hoover High School
Week Eight: September 28 - October 2: Early Renaissance
Week Nine: October 5 - 9: Continue Early Renaissance;
EXAM: EARLY RENAISSANCE
Week Ten: October 12- October 16: Early Renaissance Architecture
Week Eleven: October 19 - 23: Northern Renaissance
Week Twelve: October 26 - 29: Continue Northern Renaissance,
EXAM: NORTHERN RENAISSANCE
Week Thirteen: November 2 - 6: Begin 16 th Century
Week Fourteen: November 9 -13: Continue 16 th Century
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Allison Stewart
Hoover High School
Issues to explore in class discussion and written assignments during Unit 3:
 What is the impact of the Protestant Reformation and the Catholic Counter Reformation on
European art and architecture? How do they influence artistic patronage? How do they shape attitudes of the general public toward art? What impact do they have on both the content and form of the works artists produce?
 What impact does the Scientific Revolution have on the art of Europe in the seventeenth and early
 eighteenth centuries?
Gardner's discusses 17 th
century art in the context of fascination with "matter in motion through time, space, and light." How do we see evidence of that fascination in the art and architecture of the
Baroque period?
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How is art affected by the growing popularity of theater and opera? How do artists incorporate theatricality into painting and sculpture?
How can we account for the artistic explosion in the Dutch Netherlands during the 17 th century?
Why does the center of artistic influence begin to shift from Rome toward Western Europe and eventually Paris?
 What is the effect on artistic production of the rise of absolute monarchs, such as Louis XIV?
 How do the works of Baroque artists reflect influences from the Italian Renaissance or the Northern
Renaissance?
 Who are the rebels, the artistic groundbreakers, and what was their motivation?
Week Fifteen: November 16 - 20: Complete 16 th Century;
EXAM: 16 TH CENTURY
November 23 – 27: Thanksgiving Break
Homework: Over Thanksgiving Holiday Create a Tableau Vivant with your family and/or friends recreating one of the artworks from the video. Take a photograph and email it to me by noon on
Saturday. Be prepared to discuss.
Week Sixteen: November 30 - December 4: The Baroque
Week Seventeen: December 7 - 11: Continue Baroque
Week Eighteen: December 14 - 18: FINAL EXAMS
Holiday EXTRA CREDIT: TBA
Week Nineteen: January 7 – 8: Begin 16 th - 17 th C. architecture
Week Twenty: January 11 – 15: 16 th - 17 th C. architecture
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Allison Stewart
Hoover High School
EXAM: 16 th - 17th CENTURY ARCHITECTURE
Issues to explore in class discussion and written assignments during Unit 4:
 How does Rococo art reflect the lives of the aristocratic class?
 What is the impact of Rococo images on the rising bourgeoisie?
 What impact does Enlightenment thought have on artistic content and form?
 What is the impact of the French Academy and the Salon Exhibitions?
 To what extent do works by 18 th
century artists reflect the decline of the ruling aristocracies and the rise of the middle class?
 How does the purpose of art change as the eighteenth century progresses?
 Just what does Romanticism mean?
 In what ways are Romantic artists reacting against the Enlightenment's intellectual climate?
 How does Romantic art reflect a break from deep-seated artistic rules inherited from the
Renaissance? Why does this occur?
 To what extent do Romantic visual artists reflect developments in contemporary literature and music?
 Stylistically and thematically, how do artists express the same kinds of notions found in Romantic music and literature?

What is the impact of the Industrial Revolution on artistic production?
 By what process does photography come to be considered art ? Do early photographers seem to define their work in that way? What functions does photography serve from the beginning that both link it with and distinguish it from the other visual arts?
 What impact does photography have on painting and vice versa? How do painters emulate photographers and how do photographers emulate painters?
 Technically speaking, what is the range of artistic expression inherent to photography? How do photographers manipulate their medium for their desired effects?
 What exactly is Realism ? Does it mean the same things for writers and for visual artists? What subjects do artists choose to depict realistically? Why?
 Is optical realism what is most real? If not, what techniques can artists use to portray their understanding of what is real?
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Allison Stewart
Hoover High School
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 In what ways do the socioeconomic changes accompanying the Industrial Revolution affect the birth of Realism? To what extent was Realist art used as propaganda for social change?
 To what extent is Realism a reaction against Romanticism?
 How do the Pre-Raphaelites represent a reaction against Realism and/or Impressionism?
 How do the Impressionists represent perhaps the most dramatic break from the Renaissance tradition up to their time?
 How does their work reflect radical change stylistically, in their concepts of art's purpose, and in their ideas of themselves as artists?
 Who were their greatest influences and why?
 What impact does the opening of European-Japanese trade relations have on the art world? Why are
European artists so taken with Japanese woodblock prints? How do they emulate those prints in
 their own paintings and prints?
Why have the Impressionists enjoyed such popularity among the general population in the past several decades, and why have the Pre-Raphaelites experienced a notable rise in popularity?
 Why were Post-Impressionist artists initially attracted to Impressionism, and why did each become dissatisfied with it?
 What was each trying to accomplish artistically and what in their work made them influential for other artists?
 How do the Post-Impressionists reflect the changing role of the artist in Western society?
Week Twenty-One: January 19 - January 22: 18 th Century art
EXAM: 18th CENTURY
Week Twenty-Two: January 25 - 29: Begin 19 th Century Art
Week Twenty-Three: February 1 - 5: 19 th Century art
Week Twenty-Three: February 9 - 12 Finish 19th Century
EXAM: 19th CENTURY
Issues to explore in class discussion and written assignments in Unit 5:

Allison Stewart
Hoover High School
 How do new scientific discoveries such as x-ray technology influence the work of 20 th
century
 artists?
Why does African sculpture have a radicalizing effect on many early 20 th century European artists?
How do European artists incorporate formal elements of African art?
 How do we account for the proliferation of styles in the 20 th
century?
 To what extent do these artists reflect society? To what extent do they reflect a growing gulf between society and its artists?
 How important is it, if at all, that the work of these artists is more inaccessible to today's general viewing public than work done in earlier times?
 What is the significance of the emergence of non-figurative art?

Does the definition of art change during the 20 th century?
 In what ways do these artists explore issues raised by contemporary events and by thinkers such as
Nietzsche, Bergson, Freud, and Jung?
 What formal devices do 20 th century artists develop in order to achieve their goals?
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How are major world events, particularly the World Wars, reflected in the art of the century?
How can we learn to appreciate works of art that don't appeal to us aesthetically?
When artists intend to shock and anger us, what techniques do they use?
What is the best way to TEACH non-objective art to people who know nothing about it?
What impact have the Civil Rights and feminist movements had on art? How effective have artistic images done by members of these movements, as well as members of other marginalized groups, been in bringing about social change?
 What exactly is Post Modernism? What has been the impact of Post Modern theory on artistic
 patronage and production?
Where do we go from here? What artistic frontiers remain?
Week Twenty-Four: February 16 – 19: Begin 20 th Century: Expressionism, Abstraction, Fantasy, and Realism before World War I
Week Twenty-Five: February 22 - 26: 20 th Century: Expressionism, Abstraction, Fantasy, and
Realism before World War I; Expressionism, Abstraction, and Fantasy between the wars
Week Twenty-Six: February 29 - March 4: Continue 20 th Century: Fantasy and Realism between the wars; Expressionism after WWII in Europe, Abstract Expressionism Complete 20 th Century:
Realism after WWII (Pop Art), Photorealism, Earth & Site Art, Installations ,
EXAM: 20 TH CENTURY
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Allison Stewart
Hoover High School
Week Twenty-Seven: March 7 – 11: 20th Century Architecture
Week Twenty-Eight: March 14 – March 17: Complete 20 th Century Architecture
EXAM: 20 TH CENTURY ARCHITECTURE
END OF 3RD QUARTER
Week Twenty-Nine: March 29 - April 1: 20 th Century Global art
Week Thirty: April 4 - 8: 20 th Century Global art
Week Thirty-One: April 11 - 15: 20 th Century Global Art
Week Thirty-Two: April 18 - 22:Global Contemporary
Week Thirty-Three: April 25 - 29: Global Contemporary
Week Thirty-Four: May 2 - 6: Global Contemporary
AP ART HISTORY EXAM IS MAY 6 TH AT NOON
Week Thirty-Five: May 9 - 13: Making Connections
Week Thirty-Six: May 16 - 20: Contemporary Art in Los Angeles
Students will look at artists and artwork currently being shown in galleries and museums in Los
Angeles. Students will begin their final project of writing an essay on the work of an emerging Los
Angeles artist (through visiting an exhibition or interviewing the artist in their studio) and placing their work in historical context.
Week Thirty-Seven: May 23 - 27: Presentations of Final Projects FINAL EXAMS
Students will present their final projects to the class
Week Thirty-Eight: May 31 - June 2: Presentations of Final Projects FINAL EXAMS
Students will present their final projects to the class
HAVE A WONDERFUL SUMMER!!!
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