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ii AP European History: 2006–2007 Workshop Materials Table of Contents Special Focus: Using Works of Art in the AP Classroom Introduction Patricia Pierson Peterson. 3 Art for History’s Sake George Fain. 5 Jacques-Louis David and the French Revolution Jack Stovel. 11 Madonnas Through the Centuries Jack Stovel.
24 Strike a Pose: Using Portraits to Analyze Political and Social Status in European Society Susan Bittmann. 32 Of Palaces and Princes: Understanding Politics, Society and Architecture Gordon R. 60 Important Note: The following set of materials is organized around a particular theme, or “special focus,” that reflects important topics in the AP European History course. The materials are intended to provide teachers with resources and classroom ideas relating to these topics.
The special focus, as well as the specific content of the materials, cannot and should not be taken as an indication that a particular topic will appear on the AP Exam. AP European History: 2006–2007 Workshop Materials Special Focus: Using Works of Art in the AP Classroom Introduction Patricia Pierson Peterson Evanston, Illinois The venerable art historian E. Baldwin Smith wrote in Egyptian Architecture as Cultural Expression (1938) that ancient buildings, when viewed in terms of “social needs, conventions, and aspirations,” are “a tangible record of human endeavor” and therefore a “form of history.” Yet high school teachers are reluctant to use portraits, landscapes, buildings, or monuments as teaching devices to demonstrate “social needs, conventions, and aspirations.” The purpose of the five articles that follow is to show how art may be used in the classroom. History is rich in examples of changing cultural standards and interests; for instance, the very existence of portraiture exemplifies the growing interest in the individual during the late medieval and early modern periods.
Philip II’s palace, the Escorial, serves as a perfect image of the king’s personality, especially his intense religiosity and his need for order and detail. Another equally revealing example of cultural patterns reflecting broader trends may be found in war monuments. In the nineteenth century, military conflicts were glorified and their monuments were Roman triumphal arches and representations of the gods of war, with no mention of the thousands who died in battle. After World Wars I and II, war monuments went out of style, and those that were built showed a dramatic change in form.
In the United States, for example, the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D., features only a sad list of those who died. The Korean War Veterans Memorial portrays the fatigue, grime, and suffering of war. The use of art in history has its limitations, of course. It rarely shows much about the artists and architecture and little about “the common man.” In contrast to the Escorial, Sanssouci—Frederick the Great’s pleasure pavilion—shows nothing about the man himself, except his desire to copy French culture.
The goal of the following essays is thus to explore both the uses and the limitations of using artwork in an AP European History classroom. The five articles that follow show something about how art may be used to enrich and enliven the AP European History curriculum. Jack Stovel’s article “Madonnas Through the Centuries” deals with changing images of the Madonna and child in artistic style and their reflection of attitudes toward religion, gender, and society. “Of Palaces and Princes: Understanding Politics, Society, and Architecture,” by Gordon Mork, gives a AP European History: 2006–2007 Workshop Materials Special Focus: Using Works of Art in the AP Classroom comparative look at architecture and monarchy, referring to three absolute monarchs.
Susan Bittmann’s “Strike a Pose: Using Portraits to Analyze Political Power and Social Status in European Society” illustrates the value of using portraiture in teaching history. “Art for History’s Sake,” by George Fain, shows how teachers may use art to reflect the social, economic, and political trends of an era. “Jacques-Louis David and the French Revolution,” by Jack Stovel, uses the paintings of David to trace the volatile political currents in France during the Revolutionary and Napoleonic eras. AP European History: 2006–2007 Workshop Materials Special Focus: Using Works of Art in the AP Classroom Art for History’s Sake George Fain University of South Carolina Upstate Spartanburg, South Carolina Like many teachers who were trained and educated primarily in political and diplomatic ® history, when I first began teaching AP European History I saw the teaching of art as a daunting task.
Yet, the standards for a well-developed AP European History class are clear: cultural and social history are integral dimensions of that class. The AP European History Course Description states in the Intellectual and Cultural Themes section that the following ideas are to be covered: • Major trends in literature and art • Intellectual and cultural developments and their relationship to social values and political events As a frustrated AP European History teacher I had to develop some process for integrating this art into the course curriculum. Comprehending the purpose and methodology of using art in an AP European History class is the first step to creating that integration. The AP European History teacher must understand that he or she is not, in fact, teaching art history in the sense of discussing artistic style, technique, or method.
Leave those lessons to your peer, the AP Art History teacher. Rather, art in the history class should be used as a mirror that helps reflect the broader aspects of political, economic, and social developments of specific eras. Without convenient contemporary film clips or other broad media formats from an historical era, the only visual reflections of an epoch’s mood, philosophy, or social viewpoints are to be found in the tangible paintings, sculpture, and architecture of that time. Clearly, artists would not have created great works reflecting ideas that were unimportant to the minds of the day.
Perhaps great art can be seen as the pop culture of an earlier era, reflecting the morals, mores, and philosophies of an epoch. Therefore, it becomes the teacher’s job to help students use art to identify or clarify an era’s significant introspection, thus helping the student better understand the historical period. Since, in many cases, this cross-cultural approach to art may be a student’s first introduction to the concept, it is necessary to have the proper materials that enable AP European History: 2006–2007 Workshop Materials Special Focus: Using Works of Art in the AP Classroom the instructor to utilize art in the proper format. A teacher will probably find it nearly impossible to teach art without some sort of visuals to supplement the discussions.
Fortunately, most good college textbooks have excellent inserts and explanations that usually reflect the best examples of various schools of art for various periods of time. In addition, there are commercially available books, filmstrips, videos, and DVDs that take the study of art to greater depth. Some of these are: • Civilisation (video: BBC/Time-Life) • Landmarks of Western Art (video: Kultur) • Sister Wendy’s Story of Painting (video: BBC/CBS-Fox) All of the above are excellent video formats of great art movements, but all tend to approach the subject from the aspect of the art major, not the history student. • History Through Art (video: Clearvue) • The Annotated Mona Lisa (book: by Carol Strickland, Andrews McMeel Publishing) The above works, on the other hand, attempt to approach art from political, social, and economic vantage points, perhaps benefiting the AP European History teacher even more.
Nonetheless, the history teacher will almost always have to adapt the media’s presentation to his or her needs in the classroom. Perhaps one of the most beneficial methods for the teacher is to study the various ways in which art has been used in former AP European History Exam essays. From this vantage point, the instructor can create the proper type of lesson plan for these and other units. One example of the use of art in the AP European History Exam has been for the student to use specific artworks (of their own choosing) to support and clarify philosophies or attitudes of a specific era.
A good example of this approach would be a question from the 2004 Exam: Analyze the influence of humanism on the visual arts in the Italian Renaissance. Use at least three specific works to support your analysis. Clearly, the question is testing the students’ knowledge of Italian Renaissance humanism, but is requiring the student to prove their understanding by applying the philosophy to specific artworks. AP European History: 2006–2007 Workshop Materials Special Focus: Using Works of Art in the AP Classroom The task of the teacher would be to create a lesson plan that covers a topic as basic as Italian Renaissance humanism and then to help the student make the connection to the art of the era.
Logically, such a process in creating this connection can work with any other historical era and its representative artworks. While teaching AP European History for over 25 years in a public high school, I have used lesson plans like the following to help integrate the art into the political, economic, or even philosophical discussions. Lesson Plan One Step One Clarify the meaning of the concept of humanism (or romanticism, or enlightenment, etc. This task in itself is a necessary component regardless of its application to the art.