AP® Art History Crash Course, 2nd Ed., Book + Online: Get a Higher Score in Less Time

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PART I

INTRODUCTION

Chapter 1

KEYS FOR SUCCESS ON THE AP ART HISTORY EXAM

Taking any Advanced Placement exam can be a daunting experience. The AP Art History exam is no exception. After all, the exam is based on a two-semester college-level introductory Art History course, and you’re still in high school! Don’t panic…relax. This Crash Course is going to guide you to success on the exam.

The AP Art History course and exam require you to develop your critical-thinking skills while helping you develop an in-depth understanding of the historical and cultural concepts of architecture, sculpture, painting, and other media.

Our Crash Course was designed to help you be more pragmatic in your approach to studying for the AP Art History exam by using a straightforward outline format.

1.Understand the Structure of the Exam

The AP Art History exam consists of both multiple-choice questions as well as free-response questions. The sections of the exam are as follows:

A.Section I consists of 80 multiple-choice questions.

B.Section II consists of 6 free-response questions (essays).

2.Understand the AP Art History Topical Outline

Many students believe that members of the AP Art History exam development committee have the freedom to write any question they wish. This widespread belief is not true. AP Art History test writers use a detailed topical outline that tells them what they can and cannot ask.

Every question on the AP Art History exam can be linked to a specific point in the topical outline. Familiarize yourself with this outline before studying for the exam. The content areas found on the exam are as follows:

3.Understand How the Exam Is Scored

The College Board reports your combined multiple-choice score and your total free-response score on a five-point scale:

Many colleges give course credit for a score of 3 or better; other colleges take nothing below a 4, while still others give college credit only for the top score, a 5. Find out the AP policies of the colleges where you are seeking admission. Also, be aware that colleges and universities can change their AP acceptance policies whenever they want.

Be aware that in many instances, colleges that focus on art, such as the Rhode Island School of Design, Pratt Institute, School of Visual Arts, or School of the Art Institute of Chicago, may not award you any credit for your AP Art History Exam, regardless of your score. Nonetheless, many other colleges and universities will award extra credit or placement, so be sure to ask.

4.Understand the Overlap Between the Multiple-Choice Questions and the Free-Response Questions

Both the multiple-choice questions and the free-response question are taken from the topical outline in the AP Art History Course Description Booklet. As a result, studying for the multiple-choice questions is tantamount to studying for the free-response questions. Many students fail to grasp the significance of this point. Since the multiple-choice questions are highly predictable, so are the free-response questions. The two types of questions are, in fact, highly related, since they both come from the same topical outline.

5.Know Some Basic Test-Taking Strategies

Keep in mind that one of the best ways to prepare for this exam is to take the AP Art History Practice Exam available online with the purchase of this book. This practice exam will help you become familiar with the format of the test and the types of questions you will be asked. Our answer section, complete with detailed explanations, will provide feedback that will help you to pinpoint which questions give you the most difficulty. Then you can go back to the text of this book, reread the appropriate sections of your textbook, or ask your teacher for help.

When it comes time to take the actual test, remember to read all the questions carefully, and be alert for words like always, never, not, and except. On the multiple-choice section, review all the answer choices before selecting your answer.

On the free-response section, make sure you write legibly. This sounds like a very simple thing, but if those who are scoring your exam cannot read your answer, you will not get credit. We suggest that you cross out errors—using a single line through any mistakes—rather than erase them.

At this stage of your school career, it is probably too obvious to remind you of some basic preparations right before test day, but we will anyway: get a good night’s sleep the night before the exam, eat a good breakfast, and don’t forget a bunch of those famous No. 2 pencils and several blue or black ink pens.

6.Use Supplementary Materials

This Crash Course focuses on what you need to know to score well on the AP Art History exam. You should, however, supplement it with materials provided by the College Board, especially the AP Art History Course and Exam Description. Also be sure to review your class notes and textbook as well.

7.Using the AP Art History Image Set and This Book

The AP Art History required course content is represented within a specific image set of 250 works of art categorized by geographic and chronological designations, beginning with works from global prehistory and ending with global contemporary works.

The images referred to in this Crash Course can be viewed in the AP Art History Course and Exam Description PDF located at www.collegeboard.org/ap. See page vi of this book for downloading instructions.

Every image in the AP Art History image set is referred to in this book. Although the information may not be in the same order as found in the College Board image set, the reference number used in this book and in the AP Art History image set are the same. For example, Peplos Kore from the Acropolis is cited as Image 28 in this book as well as in the AP Art History image set.

Chapter 2

KEY TERMS

Art historians use a large number of terms to describe works of art. The glossaries of most art history texts contain between 700 and 800 terms. Fortunately, your AP Art History exam will not cover all of these terms. This chapter provides you with a list of the most important terms that you must know. You do not have to memorize the definitions. Instead, read over the list and familiarize yourself with each term. Remember: familiarize, don’t memorize.

1.AMBULATORY

The passageway around the apse and choir of a church. The ambulatory was originally a feature of Romanesque churches that developed in connection with their use as pilgrimage centers.

2.ANTHROPOMORPHIC

Ascribing human characteristics or forms to nonhuman things.

3.APSE

In a church, a semicircular termination or recess that is usually vaulted.

4.ARCHITRAVE

The lintel or beam that rests on top of the capitals of columns.

5.ASSEMBLAGE

An artwork constructed from already existing objects.

6.AVANT-GARDE

Late 19th- and 20th-century artists whose work emphasized innovation and challenged established conventions.

7.BARREL VAULT

A vault is a roof or ceiling. A barrel vault is, in effect, a deep arch or an uninterrupted series of arches. Roman architects developed barrel vaults, and they are one of the characteristic features of Romanesque churches.

8.BIOMORPHIC

An adjective used to describe forms that resemble or suggest shapes found in nature. Biomorphs are therefore not abstract shapes.

9.BUTTRESS

Large stone pier that holds the roof vaults in place. A buttress may be visible or it may be hidden among other architectural elements.

10.CANTILEVER

A beam or structure that is anchored at one end and projects horizontally beyond its vertical support into space.

11.CARYATID

A column carved to represent a woman.

12.CHIAROSCURO

In drawing or painting, the treatment and use of light and dark, especially by gradations of light that produce the effect of modeling.

13.CHOIR

The part of a church beyond the transept. It may be a step or two above the level of the nave.

14.CLERESTORY

A row of windows in the uppermost part of a wall.

15.CONTRAPPOSTO

The relaxed natural pose or weight-shift first introduced in the Classical Greek sculpture Kritios Boy, created in 480

BCE

. Contrapposto separates Classical Greek statuary from the preceding Archaic movement.

16.CORBELED VAULT

A vault formed by the piling of stone blocks in horizontal courses, cantilevered inward until the two walls meet in an arch.

17.CORNICE

A horizontal decorative molding that is located in the upper portion of an architectural structure. A cornice can be located at the top of a building below the roof, over a door, above a window, along the top of an interior wall, etc.

18.CRYPT

A vaulted space in a church usually located under the apse. Since a crypt is wholly or partly underground, it is not found in the nave elevation of a church.

19.DIPTYCH

A two-paneled painting or altarpiece.

20.ENCAUSTIC

A painting technique in which pigment is mixed with wax and applied to the surface while the mixture is hot.

21.ENTABLATURE

In Classical architecture, the part of a building above the columns and below the roof. The entablature of a Classical temple includes the architrave, frieze, and cornice.

22.FLYING BUTTRESS

A support built against an exterior wall to reinforce it and to allow for higher roofs and larger interior spaces.

23.FRESCO

A painting done on a wall using a mixture of plaster and paint.

24.FRIEZE

In Classical architecture, a frieze is a continuous horizontal band of sculptural decoration.

25.GROIN VAULT

A groin vault is formed at the point at which two barrel vaults intersect at right angles. Groin vaults are one of the characteristic features of Gothic cathedrals.

26.HIERARCHICAL SCALE

The representation of more important figures as larger than less important figures.

27.HYPOSTYLE

A hall with a roof supported by rows of columns.

28.ICONOCLASM

The practice of banning and destroying images. The destroyers of images were known as iconoclasts.

29.IMPASTO

The application of thick layers of oil paint.

30.INTAGLIO

A graphic technique in which the design is incised, or scratched, onto a metal plate, either manually (ENGRAVING) or chemically (ETCHING). The incised lines of the design take the ink, making this the reverse of the woodcut technique.

31.JAPONISME

The French fascination with all things Japanese. Japonisme emerged in the second half of the 19th century. The Impressionists and Post-Impressionists were particularly enthralled with the use of bold contour lines, flat areas of color and cropped edges in Japanese woodblock prints.

32.KORE

An Archaic Greek statue of a standing draped female.

33.KOUROS

An Archaic Greek statue of a standing nude male.

34.MIHRAB

A semicircular niche set into the qibla wall of a mosque.

35.MUDRA

In Buddhist and Hindu iconography, a stylized and symbolic hand gesture.

36.MOSAIC

Image composed of small pieces of colored glass or stone.

37.NARTHEX

An entrance hall located at the opposite end (usually the western side) of the main altar of a church. Located outside of the main doorway to the church, it is not considered to be part of the church proper. It is usually used as a gathering place before and after services take place.

38.PAGODA

A multistoried Chinese structure, usually associated with a Buddhist temple, having a multiplicity of projecting eaves.

39.PEDIMENT

In Classical architecture, the triangular section above a temple’s entablature often decorated with sculpture.

40.PENDENTIVE

The concave triangular section of a vault that forms the transition between a square or polygonal space and the circular base of a dome.

41.PHOTOMONTAGE

A composition made by pasting together pictures or parts of pictures, especially photographs. Also called a PHOTOCOLLAGE.

42.PREDELLA

The painted or sculpted lower portion of an altarpiece that relates to the subjects of the upper portion.

43.PYLON

A pair of truncated, pyramidal towers flanking the entrance to an Egyptian temple.

44.QIBLA WALL

The wall of a mosque that the congregation faces during prayer. The wall is the one most closely aligned with the direction of the Kaaba in Mecca.

45.READYMADE

An ordinary object that, when an artist gives it a new context and title, is transformed into an art object. Readymades were important features of the Dada and Surrealist movements of the early 20th century.

46.REGISTER

One of a series of rows in a pictorial narrative.

47.REPOUSSÉ

A technique in which a relief is formed on the front by hammering a metal plate from the back.

48.STELE

An upright stone slab or pillar.

49.STUPA

A large, mound-shaped Buddhist shrine.

50.TRIPTYCH

A three-paneled painting or altarpiece.

51.TYMPANUM

The lunette-shaped space above the portals of Romanesque and Gothic churches.

52.UKIYO-E

Japanese pictures of the floating world. A style of Japanese art that influenced 19th-century Western art.

53.VELLUM

Calfskin prepared as a surface for writing or painting.

54.VERISTIC

Artwork that is very realistic.

55.ZOOMORPHIC

Anything that is perceived or created to have animal forms or characteristics.

Chapter 3

WHAT YOU NEED TO UNDERSTAND ABOUT THE ARTWORKS

A work of art can be understood in terms of how the artist used the elements and principles of art (form), why the work was created (function), the subject matter of the work (content), and the relationship of the work to the originating time period and culture (context). Each of these is a distinct component of a work of art, yet these components are also interrelated.

The materials and techniques used to make the artwork should be understood in terms of how the chosen material and/or technique affected the form, function and/or content of the work. The original context of the artwork must be understood in order to appreciate the artist’s intent. Contextual information may include time period, culture, intended audience, and/or the desires of the patron/sponsor of the work.

Artworks either employ tradition or embody a departure. How and why an artwork, or group of artworks, employs an established tradition or a significant departure from tradition is essential to understanding the work of art. Contextual information such as function, materials and techniques, artistic movements and organizations, intended audience, patrons/sponsors, culture, cultural diffusion, religious ideas, politics, and economics is an essential component of this understanding.

Artworks that adopt or reject an established tradition have influence on other works of art and/or methods of artistic production. It is important to understand why and how artworks influence each other.

Proper identification of a work of art must include: the name of the artist(s) and/or culture of origin, the title or designation, the date of creation, and the medium with which the work was created.

Artists use the elements and principles of art in order to elicit a response from the viewer. The intended response may be interpreted in terms of perception, intellectual concept, tactile qualities, and/or emotional content. The interpretation of a work of art is related to the context in which it is viewed. Variables may include time, place, culture, method of display and/or audience.

Stylistic tendencies are components of identification. Images beyond the image set may be included on the exam. Students should be able to attribute these to a particular artist, culture, time period, and/or art movement based on the observation of stylistic tendencies. In addition, students may be asked to compare two works of art from similar or different time periods and/or cultures. Discussion of similarities and differences may include how the elements and principles of art are used as well as the function, subject matter and/or context of the works of art.

PART II

CONTENT REVIEW

Chapter 4

GLOBAL PREHISTORY 30,000–500 BCE

Note: The image set for this chapter can be found on pages 30–33 of the College Board’s AP Art History Course and Exam Description.

A.The Paleolithic Age

B. The Mesolithic Age

C.The Neolithic Age