Advanced Placement (AP) Art History (also known as AP Art, or APAH) is an Advanced Placement

art history Art history is the study of aesthetic objects and visual expression in historical and stylistic context. Traditionally, the discipline of art history emphasized painting, drawing, sculpture, architecture, ceramics and decorative arts; yet today, ...

course and exam offered by the College Board. AP Art History is designed to allow students to examine major forms of artistic expression relevant to a variety of cultures evident in a wide variety of periods from present times into the past. Students acquire an ability to examine works of art critically, with intelligence and sensitivity, and to articulate their thoughts and experiences. The course content covers

prehistoric Prehistory, also known as pre-literary history, is the period of human history between the use of the first stone tools by hominins 3.3 million years ago and the beginning of recorded history with the invention of writing systems. The use o ...

, Mediterranean, European, American, Native American, African, Asian, Pacific, and Contemporary art and architecture.

Course

The course is designed to teach the following art historical skills: *Visual Analysis *Contextual Analysis *Comparisons of Works of Art *Artistic Traditions *Visual Analysis of Unknown Works *Attribution of Unknown Works *Art Historical Interpretations *Argumentation The course is also built on five core "Big Ideas": *Culture *Interactions with Other Cultures *Theories and Interpretations *Materials, Processes, and Techniques *Purpose and Audience Starting in the 2015–2016 school year, College Board has introduced a new curriculum and exam for students to apply art historical skills to questions.

Exam

Score distribution

The multiple choice section of the exam is worth 50% of a student's score and the free-response is worth 50%. Each correctly answered multiple choice question is worth one point. Wrong and omitted questions do not affect the raw score. For the free-response section, the four short essays are each graded on a scale of 0 to 5 and the two long essays are each graded on a scale of 0 to 7.

Works studied

The current curriculum, which began in 2015, focuses on 250 works of art and architecture across 10 units, beginning with

prehistoric art In the history of art, prehistoric art is all art produced in preliterate, prehistorical cultures beginning somewhere in very late geological history, and generally continuing until that culture either develops writing or other methods of rec ...

and ending with

contemporary art Contemporary art is the art of today, produced in the second half of the 20th century or in the 21st century. Contemporary artists work in a globally influenced, culturally diverse, and technologically advancing world. Their art is a dynamic co ...

.https://secure-media.collegeboard.org/digitalServices/pdf/ap/ap-art-history-course-and-exam-description.pdf Global Prehistory (30,000 - 500 BCE) * Apollo 11 stone * Great Hall of the Bulls * Camelid sacrum in the shape of a canine * Running horned woman * Beaker with ibex motifs * Anthropomorphic stele * Jade cong *

Stonehenge Stonehenge is a prehistoric monument on Salisbury Plain in Wiltshire, England, west of Amesbury. It consists of an outer ring of vertical sarsen standing stones, each around high, wide, and weighing around 25 tons, topped by connecting ...

* The Ambum stone * Tlatilco female figurine * Terra cotta fragment Ancient Mediterranean (3500 BCE - 300 CE) * White Temple and its ziggurat * Palette of King Narmer * Statues of votive figures, from the Square Temple at Eshunna (modern Tell Asmar, Iraq) * Seated scribe * Standard of Ur from the Royal Tombs at Ur (modern Tell el-Muqayyar, Iraq) * Great Pyramids (Menkaura, Khafre, Khufu) and Great Sphinx * King Menkaura and queen * The Code of Hammurabi * Temple of Amun-Re and Hypostyle Hall * Mortuary temple of Hatshepsut * Akhenaten, Nefertiti, and three daughters * Tutankhamun's tomb, innermost coffin * Last judgement of Hunefer, from his tomb (page from the

Book of the Dead The ''Book of the Dead'' ( egy, 𓂋𓏤𓈒𓈒𓈒𓏌𓏤𓉐𓂋𓏏𓂻𓅓𓉔𓂋𓅱𓇳𓏤, ''rw n(y)w prt m hrw(w)'') is an ancient Egyptian funerary text generally written on papyrus and used from the beginning of the New Kingdom ...

) *

Lamassu ''Lama'', ''Lamma'', or ''Lamassu'' (Cuneiform: , ; Sumerian: lammař; later in Akkadian: ''lamassu''; sometimes called a ''lamassus'') is an Assyrian protective deity. Initially depicted as a goddess in Sumerian times, when it was called ''La ...

from the citadel of Sargon II, Dur Sharrukin (modern Khorsabad, Iraq) *

Athenian agora The ancient Agora of Athens (also called the Classical Agora) is the best-known example of an ancient Greek agora, located to the northwest of the Acropolis and bounded on the south by the hill of the Areopagus and on the west by the hill k ...

* Anavysos Kouros * Peplos Kore from the Acropolis * Sarcophagus of the Spouses * Audience Hall (apadana) of Darius and Xerxes * Temple of Minerva (Veii, near Rome, Italy) and sculpture of Apollo * Tomb of the Triclinium * Niobides Krater * Doryphoros (Spear Bearer) *

Acropolis An acropolis was the settlement of an upper part of an ancient Greek city, especially a citadel, and frequently a hill with precipitous sides, mainly chosen for purposes of defense. The term is typically used to refer to the Acropolis of Athens, ...

* Grave stele of Hegeso *

Winged Victory of Samothrace The ''Winged Victory of Samothrace'', or the ''Nike of Samothrace'', is a votive monument originally found on the island of Samothrace, north of the Aegean Sea. It is a masterpiece of Greek sculpture from the Hellenistic era, dating from the ...

* Great Altar of Zeus and Athena at Pergamon * House of the Vettii * Alexander Mosaic from the House of Faun, Pompeii * Seated boxer * Head of a Roman patrician * Augustus of Prima Porta * Colosseum (Flavian Amphitheater) * Forum of Trajan * Pantheon * Ludovisi Battle Sarcophagus Early Europe and Colonial Americas (200 - 1750 CE) *

Catacomb of Priscilla The Catacomb of Priscilla is an archaeological site on the Via Salaria in Rome, Italy, situated in what was a quarry in Roman times. This quarry was used for Christian burials from the late 2nd century through the 4th century. This catacomb, acco ...

* Santa Sabina * Rebecca and Eliezer at the Well and Jacob Wrestling the Angel, from the Vienna Genesis * San Vitale *

Hagia Sophia Hagia Sophia ( 'Holy Wisdom'; ; ; ), officially the Hagia Sophia Grand Mosque ( tr, Ayasofya-i Kebir Cami-i Şerifi), is a mosque and major cultural and historical site in Istanbul, Turkey. The cathedral was originally built as a Greek Ortho ...

* Merovingian looped fibulae * Virgin (Theotokos) and Child between Saints Theodore and George *

Lindisfarne Gospels The Lindisfarne Gospels (London, British Library Cotton MS Nero D.IV) is an illuminated manuscript gospel book probably produced around the years 715–720 in the monastery at Lindisfarne, off the coast of Northumberland, which is now in the ...

: St. Matthew, cross-carpet page; St. Luke portrait page; St. Luke incipit page *

Great Mosque A congregational mosque or Friday mosque (, ''masjid jāmi‘'', or simply: , ''jāmi‘''; ), or sometimes great mosque or grand mosque (, ''jāmi‘ kabir''; ), is a mosque for hosting the Friday noon prayers known as ''jumu'ah''.* * * * * * * ...

* Pyxis of al-Mughira * Church of Sainte-Foy * Bayeux Tapestry *

Chartres Cathedral Chartres Cathedral, also known as the Cathedral of Our Lady of Chartres (french: Cathédrale Notre-Dame de Chartres), is a Roman Catholic church in Chartres, France, about southwest of Paris, and is the seat of the Bishop of Chartres. Mostly ...

* Dedication Page with Blanche of Castile and King Louis IX of France, Scenes from the Apocalypse * Röttgen Pietà * Arena (Scrovegni) Chapel, including Lamentation * Golden Haggadah (The Plagues of Egypt, Scenes of Liberation, and Preparation for Passover) * Alhambra * Annunciation Triptych (Merode Altarpiece) * Pazzi Chapel * The Arnolfini Portrait *

David David (; , "beloved one") (traditional spelling), , ''Dāwūd''; grc-koi, Δαυΐδ, Dauíd; la, Davidus, David; gez , ዳዊት, ''Dawit''; xcl, Դաւիթ, ''Dawitʿ''; cu, Давíдъ, ''Davidŭ''; possibly meaning "beloved one". w ...

* Palazzo Rucellai * Madonna and Child with Two Angels * Birth of Venus *

Last Supper Image:The Last Supper - Leonardo Da Vinci - High Resolution 32x16.jpg, 400px, alt=''The Last Supper'' by Leonardo da Vinci - Clickable Image, Depictions of the Last Supper in Christian art have been undertaken by artistic masters for centuries, ...

Adam and Eve Adam and Eve, according to the creation myth of the Abrahamic religions, were the first man and woman. They are central to the belief that humanity is in essence a single family, with everyone descended from a single pair of original ancestors ...

* Sistine Chapel ceiling and altar wall frescoes * School of Athens * Isenheim altarpiece * Entombment of Christ * Allegory of Law and Grace * Venus of Urbino * Frontispiece of the Codex Mendoza * Il Gesù, including Triumph of the Name of Jesus ceiling fresco *

Hunters in the Snow ''The Hunters in the Snow'' ( nl, Jagers in de Sneeuw), also known as ''The Return of the Hunters'', is a 1565 oil-on-wood painting by Pieter Bruegel the Elder. The Northern Renaissance work is one of a series of works, five of which still surv ...

* Mosque of Selim II * Calling of Saint Matthew * Henri IV Receives the Portrait of Marie de' Medici, from the Marie de' Medici Cycle * Self-Portrait with Saskia * San Carlo alle Quattro Fontane * Ecstasy of Saint Teresa * Angel with Arquebus, Asiel Timor Dei * Las Meninas *

Woman Holding a Balance ''Woman Holding a Balance'' (Dutch: ''Vrouw met weegschaal''), also called ''Woman Testing a Balance'', is an oil painting by Dutch Golden Age painter Johannes Vermeer, now in the National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC. At one time the pai ...

* The Palace at Versailles * Screen with the Siege of Belgrade and hunting scene * The Virgin of Guadalupe (Virgen de Guadalupe) * Fruit and Insects * Spaniard and Indian Produce a Mestizo * The Tête à Tête, from Marriage à la Mode Later Europe and Americas (1750 - 1980 CE) * Portrait of Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz * A Philosopher Giving a Lecture on the Orrery * The Swing * Monticello * The Oath of the Horatii * George Washington * Self-Portrait * Y no hai remedio (And There’s Nothing to Be Done), from Los Desastres de la Guerra (The Disasters of War), plate 15 *

La Grande Odalisque ''Grande Odalisque'', also known as ''Une Odalisque'' or ''La Grande Odalisque'', is an oil painting Oil painting is the process of painting with pigments with a medium of drying oil as the binder. It has been the most common technique f ...

* Liberty Leading the People * The Oxbow (View from Mount Holyoke, Northampton, Massachusetts, after a Thunderstorm) * Still Life in Studio * Slave Ship (Slavers Throwing Overboard the Dead and Dying, Typhoon Coming On) * Palace of Westminster (Houses of Parliament) * The Stone Breakers * Nadar Raising Photography to the Height of Art * Olympia * The Saint-Lazare Station *

The Horse in Motion ''The Horse in Motion'' is a series of cabinet cards by Eadweard Muybridge, including six cards that each show a sequential series of six to twelve "automatic electro-photographs" depicting the movement of a horse. Muybridge shot the photogr ...

* The Valley of Mexico from the Hillside of Santa Isabel (El Valle de México desde el Cerro de Santa Isabel) * The Burghers of Calais * The Starry Night * The Coiffure * The Scream *

Where Do We Come From? What Are We? Where Are We Going? ''Where Do We Come From? What Are We? Where Are We Going?'' (french: D'où venons-nous ? Que sommes-nous ? Où allons-nous ?) is a painting by French artist Paul Gauguin. The painting was created in Tahiti, and is in the Museum of Fine Arts in B ...

Carson, Pirie, Scott and Company Building The Sullivan Center, formerly known as the Carson, Pirie, Scott and Company Building or Carson, Pirie, Scott and Company Store, is a commercial building at 1 South State Street at the corner of East Madison Street in Chicago, Illinois. Louis Su ...

* Mont Sainte-Victoire *

Les Demoiselles d'Avignon ''Les Demoiselles d'Avignon'' (''The Young Ladies of Avignon'', originally titled ''The Brothel of Avignon'') is a large oil painting created in 1907 by the Spanish artist Pablo Picasso. The work, part of the permanent collection of the Museum o ...

* The Steerage * The Kiss * The Kiss * The Portuguese * ''Goldfish'' * Improvisation 28 (second version) *

Self-Portrait as a Soldier ''Self-Portrait as a Soldier'', or ''Selbstbildnis als Soldat'', is an Expressionist oil-on-canvas painting by the German artist Ernst Ludwig Kirchner. Kirchner created this self-depiction in 1915, following his medical discharge from military ...

* Memorial Sheet for Karl Liebknecht * Villa Savoye * Composition with Red, Blue, and Yellow * Illustration from The Results of the First Five-Year Plan * Object (Le Déjeuner en fourrure) * Fallingwater * The Two Fridas * The Migration of the Negro, Panel no. 49 * The Jungle * Dream of a Sunday Afternoon in the Alameda Park *

Fountain A fountain, from the Latin "fons" (genitive "fontis"), meaning source or spring, is a decorative reservoir used for discharging water. It is also a structure that jets water into the air for a decorative or dramatic effect. Fountains were or ...

(second version) * Woman, I *

Seagram Building The Seagram Building is a skyscraper at 375 Park Avenue, between 52nd and 53rd Streets, in the Midtown Manhattan neighborhood of New York City. Designed by Ludwig Mies van der Rohe with minor assistance from Philip Johnson, Ely Jacques Ka ...

* Marilyn Diptych * Narcissus Garden * The Bay *

Lipstick (Ascending) on Caterpillar Tracks ''Lipstick (Ascending) on Caterpillar Tracks'' is a weathering steel sculpture by Claes Oldenburg. It is located at Morse College Courtyard, at Yale University, in New Haven, Connecticut. History Stuart Wrede and a group of fellow Yale archi ...

* Spiral Jetty * House in New Castle County Indigenous Americas (1000 BCE - 1980 CE) *

Chavín de Huántar Chavín de Huántar is an archaeological site in Peru, containing ruins and artifacts constructed as early as 1200 BC, and occupied until around 400–500 BC by the Chavín, a major pre-Inca culture. The site is located in the Ancash Region, n ...

* Mesa Verde cliff dwellings * Yaxchilán * Great Serpent Mound * Templo Mayor (Main Temple) * Ruler’s feather headdress (probably of Motecuhzoma II) * City of Cusco, including Qorikancha (Inka main temple), Santo Domingo (Spanish colonial convent), and Walls at Saqsa Waman (Sacsayhuaman) * Maize cobs * City of Machu Picchu * All-T’oqapu tunic * Bandolier bag * Transformation mask * Painted elk hide * Black-on-black ceramic vessel Africa (1100 - 1980 CE) * Conical tower and circular wall of Great Zimbabwe *

Great Mosque of Djenné The Great Mosque of Djenné ( ar, الجامع الكبير في جينيه) is a large brick or adobe building in the Sudano-Sahelian architecture, Sudano-Sahelian architectural style. The mosque is located in the city of Djenné, Mali, on the ...

* Wall plaque, from Oba's palace * Sika dwa kofi (Golden Stool) * Ndop (portrait figure) of * Power figure (Nkisi n'kondi) * Female (Pwo) mask * Portrait mask (Mblo) * Bundu mask * Ikenga (shrine figure) * Lukasa (memory board) * Aka elephant mask * Reliquary figure (byeri) * Veranda post of enthroned king and senior wife (Opo Ogoga) West and Central Asia (500 BCE - 1980 CE) * Petra, Jordan:

Treasury A treasury is either *A government department related to finance and taxation, a finance ministry. *A place or location where treasure, such as currency or precious items are kept. These can be state or royal property, church treasure or ...

and Great Temple *

Buddha Siddhartha Gautama, most commonly referred to as the Buddha, was a wandering ascetic and religious teacher who lived in South Asia during the 6th or 5th century BCE and founded Buddhism. According to Buddhist tradition, he was born in ...

* The Kaaba * Jowo Rinpoche, enshrined in the Jokhang Temple *

Dome of the Rock The Dome of the Rock ( ar, قبة الصخرة, Qubbat aṣ-Ṣakhra) is an Islamic shrine located on the Temple Mount in the Old City of Jerusalem, a site also known to Muslims as the ''al-Haram al-Sharif'' or the Al-Aqsa Compound. Its initia ...

* Great Mosque (Masjid-e Jameh) * Folio from a

Qur'an The Quran (, ; Standard Arabic: , Quranic Arabic: , , 'the recitation'), also romanized Qur'an or Koran, is the central religious text of Islam, believed by Muslims to be a revelation from God. It is organized in 114 chapters (pl.: , si ...

* Basin (Baptistère de St. Louis) * Bahram Gur Fights the Karg, folio from the Great Il-Khanid Shahnama * The Court of Gayumars, folio from Shah Tahmasp's Shahnama * The Ardabil Carpet South, East, and Southeast Asia (300 BCE - 1980 CE) * Great Stupa at Sanchi * Terra cotta warriors from mausoleum of the first Qin emperor of China * Funeral banner of Lady Dai (Xin Zhui) * Longmen caves * Gold and jade crown * Todai-ji * Borobudur Temple *

Angkor Angkor ( km, អង្គរ , 'Capital city'), also known as Yasodharapura ( km, យសោធរបុរៈ; sa, यशोधरपुर),Headly, Robert K.; Chhor, Kylin; Lim, Lam Kheng; Kheang, Lim Hak; Chun, Chen. 1977. ''Cambodian-Engl ...

, the temple of Angkor Wat, and the city of Angkor Thom, Cambodia * Lakshmana Temple * Travelers among Mountains and Streams * Shiva as Lord of Dance (Nataraja) * Night Attack on the Sanjô Palace * The

David Vases The David Vases are a pair of blue-and-white temple vases from the Yuan dynasty. The vases have been described as the "best-known porcelain vases in the world" and among the most important blue-and-white Chinese porcelains. Though they are fi ...

* Portrait of Sin Sukju (1417-1475) *

Forbidden City The Forbidden City () is a palace complex in Dongcheng District, Beijing, China, at the center of the Imperial City of Beijing. It is surrounded by numerous opulent imperial gardens and temples including the Zhongshan Park, the sacrific ...

* Ryoan-ji * Jahangir Preferring a Sufi Shaikh to Kings * Taj Mahal * White and Red Plum Blossoms * Under the Wave off Kanagawa (Kanagawa oki nami ura), also known as the Great Wave, from the series Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji *

Chairman Mao en Route to Anyuan ''Chairman Mao en Route to Anyuan'' is a 1967 oil painting by Liu Chunhua. It pictures a young Mao Zedong as one of the common people, ready to take on any obstacle that comes forth. This artwork is a strong example of Chinese communist propaga ...

The Pacific (700 - 1980 CE) * Nan Madol * Moai on platform (ahu) * 'Ahu 'ula (feather cape) * Staff god *

Female deity A goddess is a female deity. In many known cultures, goddesses are often linked with literal or metaphorical pregnancy or imagined feminine roles associated with how women and girls are perceived or expected to behave. This includes themes of ...

* Buk (mask) * Hiapo ( tapa) * Tamati Waka Nene * Navigation chart *

Malagan Malagan (also spelled malangan or malanggan) ceremonies are large, intricate traditional cultural events that take place in parts of New Ireland province in Papua New Guinea. The word malagan refers to wooden carvings prepared for ceremonies an ...

display and mask * Presentation of Fijian mats and tapa cloths to Queen Elizabeth II Global Contemporary (1980 CE - Present) * The Gates * Vietnam Veterans Memorial * Horn Players * Summer Trees * Androgyne III * A Book from the Sky * Pink Panther * Untitled #228, from the History Portraits series * '' The French Collection Part I, #1: Dancing at the Louvre * Trade (Gifts for Trading Land with White People) * Earth's Creation * Rebellious Silence, from the Women of Allah series * En la Barberia no se Llora (No Crying Allowed in the Barbershop) * Pisupo Lua Afe (Corned Beef 2000) * Electronic Superhighway * The Crossing * Guggenheim Museum Bilbao * Pure Land * Lying with the Wolf * Darkytown Rebellion * The Swing (after Fragonard) * Old Man's Cloth * Stadia II * Preying Mantra *

Shibboleth A shibboleth (; hbo, , šībbōleṯ) is any custom or tradition, usually a choice of phrasing or even a single word, that distinguishes one group of people from another. Shibboleths have been used throughout history in many societies as passw ...

* MAXXI National Museum of XXI Century Arts * Kui Hua Zi (Sunflower Seeds) Notes

References

External links

{{Spoken Wikipedia, AP Art History.ogg, date=2020-04-04 Art history Advanced Placement Visual arts education