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BREATHITT HIGH SCHOOL

Arts and Humanities: Discovering Art History Units:

I. Part One: The World and Work of the Artist

Lesson 1: Learning About Art

Learning Targets for Students:

I can explain how there is no single definitive definition of art

I can understand that art uses visual images to communicate

I can appreciate how learning about art is an enriching experience

Lesson 2: The Visual Communication Process

Learning Targets for Students:

I can understand how subject matter, media, design and

craftsmanship interrelate

I can understand that art communicates ideas visually

I can discuss how each era and culture uses the components of art

and design in individual ways

I can discern certain evolutionary developments that have

occurred over time

II. Part Two: Trends and Influences in the World of Art

Lesson 3: Looking for a Common Denominator

Learning Targets for Students:

I can understand that art from various cultures throughout

history share certain characteristics and interests

I can explain how art demonstrates people’s relationships with one

another and society at large

Lesson 4: Non-Western Art and Cultural Influences

Learning Targets for Students:

I can appreciate the diversity of artistic expressions from

cultures around the globe

I can identify similarities and differences in terms of function,

materials and design of the artworks from various non-Western

societies

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III. Part Three: Art in the Western World

Lesson 5: Beginnings of Western Art

Learning Targets for Students:

I can describe the style, techniques and skills of prehistoric

artists

I can explain how the art and culture of ancient Middle Eastern

and Egyptian communities reflect their advanced societies

Lesson 6: Greek and Roman Art

Learning Targets for Students:

I can understand that civilizations along the Aegean existed

simultaneously with Mesopotamian and Egyptian cultures

I can understand that Aegean cultures were the forebears of

Greek society

I can identify how the Greeks used harmony and unity to portray

the human form in an idealized manner

I can explain how Roman art and architecture adopted aspects of

the cultures the empire conquered, particularly the Greeks

Lesson 7: Religious Conviction

Learning Targets for Students:

I can explain why during the Christian era, art shifts from earlier

Greek and Roman traditions of realism toward a strong use of

symbols.

I can understand that under Justinian, the Byzantine Empire

moved to the East in 527 A.D. and that the emperor was

extremely influential in fostering the art of his reign.

I can understand that during the seventh century, the rival faith

of Islam, which began in Arabia, spread rapidly to the Near East

and the southern Mediterranean.

I can describe Islamic art and explain why it relied heavily on

geometric and abstract forms.

I can understand that early medieval art was made largely by

nomadic tribes until Charlemagne fostered a revival of Classical

culture in the late eighth and early ninth centuries.

Lesson 8: Romanesque and Gothic Art

Learning Targets for Students:

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I can understand that the Church gained tremendous power in

medieval Europe and initiated artistic endeavors to demonstrate

its powerful role as political, religious and cultural leader of the

West.

I can understand how Romanesque art was designed to evoke

powerful responses through its spirited and emotional style

I can explain how Gothic art, particularly sacred architecture,

communicated the united between exterior and inner spaces and

the connection between God and humankind.

Lesson 9: The Italian Renaissance

Learning Targets for Students:

I can identify Florence as the birthplace of the Italian

Renaissance

I can understand that powerful merchant families now

commissioned art along with aristocratic, royal and church patrons

I can articulate the significant visual developments of Italian

Renaissance painting and their long-range impact on Western art.

I can comprehend that the Renaissance gave rise to the idea of

artists as divinely inspired geniuses.

I can explain that Mannerist artists shared an interest in

expressive, highly personal compositions rather than in a unified

style

Lesson 10: Renaissance in the North

Learning Targets for Students:

I can discern the difference between the convincing realism of

Northern Renaissance painting and the Classical allusions

permeating Italian Renaissance art.

I can understand that Northern Renaissance artists used ordinary

objects as symbols to communicate religious meaning

I can explain how the artistic medium of oil paint assisted

Northern Renaissance artists in describing scenes in great detail

I can comprehend that Renaissance architecture flourished in

France while painting remained tied to the earlier International

style

I can articulate how Phillip II used the wealth of the Hapsburg

Empire to build impressive monuments illustrating Spain’s growth

as a significant world power.

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Lesson 11: Baroque and Rococo

Learning Targets for Students:

I can understand how Rome briefly reemerged as the center of

the Western art world during the Baroque period

I can identify the church as the major art patron in Italy

I can recognize the exuberant and emotional characteristics of

the Baroque style

I can comprehend the differences and similarities of Baroque art

in Italy, Austria, Germany, France, Spain, Flanders and Holland

I can articulate the contrast between the charming and ethereal

Rococo art of the 18th century and its Baroque antecedents

Lesson 12: Three Opposing Views

Learning Targets for Students:

I can define the 18th and early 19th centuries as a time of rapid

change in Western Society

I can understand that Neo-classicism, Romanticism and Realism

rejected the frivolity of the Baroque and Rococo eras

I can locate the birth of the severe Neo-classicism style in France

I can describe how the emotionally charged Romantic style was a

reaction against the cool Neo-classical manner

I can comprehend how Realist artists strove to paint exactly what

they perceived in the world around them

I can articulate that the development of photography as an art

form began in the 19th century

Lesson 13: Impressionism and Post-Impressionism

Learning Targets for Students:

I can locate the heart of the avant-garde art world in France

during the last quarter of the 19th century to the early 20th

century

I can understand how the Impressionists used light and color to

describe pleasant, transitory scenes of middle-class life

I can explain how the Impressionists introduced composition and

design to Impressionist color and light

I can comprehend how artists used personal styles to convey often

desolate emotions and content, laying the foundation for the

Expressionist movement

Lesson 14: A Half-Century of “Isms”

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Learning Targets for Students:

I can understand how many unique and exciting art styles existed

simultaneously in the first of half of the 20th century

I can comprehend that the proliferation of Western avant-garde

art movements reflects the mobility and self-searching attitude

of its artists

I can explore the evidence of abstraction and Expressionism in

the multiple styles that flourished after 1900

Lesson 15: American Art 1900-1950

Learning Targets for Students:

I can describe how art from the first part of the 20th century

embodied the enormous energy and life that permeated America

I can articulate the divergent but simultaneous explorations of

Abstraction and Realism in the United States, despite the lack of

strong public support.

Lesson 16: Twentieth-Century Architecture

Learning Targets for Students:

I can explain how Modernist architects abandoned brick and wood,

preferring to use steel, reinforced concrete and huge expanses of

glass in their towering, boxlike edifices.

I can understand that Post-Modern buildings merged multiple

styles at once to produce fascinating and often amusing visual

experiences.

Lesson 17: Art from the Fifties to the Present

Learning Targets for Students:

I can identify new york City as the center of Western art after

World War II

I can comprehend the individual styles of the various abstract and

representational movements that span the second half of the 20th

century

National Standards for the Arts:

Understanding visual arts in relation to history and cultures

Reflecting upon and assessing the characteristics and merits of their work and

the work others

Reflecting upon and assessing the characteristics and merits of their work and

the work of others

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Understanding and applying media, techniques and processes

Using knowledge of structures and functions

Choosing and evaluating a range of subject matter, symbols and ideas

Making connections between visual arts and other disciplines

Essential Questions:

Why do people create art?

What is the difference between functional and aesthetic art?

How do we define art?

Lesson Activities:

Packet for each lesson is worth two points per completed worksheet. These will

be given out at the beginning of each lesson and will be completed by students

as we go through the chapter. Upon completion of each worksheet, we will go

over it in class together. Students may use them on the lesson exam.

After the packets have been thoroughly examined and discussed, students will

outline the lesson. This outline may be used on the lesson exam.

Lesson exam for each lesson (aka “chapter”)

The packet, outline, and exam will be turned in together on the day of the

exam

At the end of chapter 3, students will look at the sculpture on page 66

“Despair”. They will write a poem from the point of view of the person depicted

in this sculpture. They cannot write Haiku or a couplet.

At the end of chapter 4, students will work in pairs to create a timeline of the

non-Western World’s development of art and culture.

Course Activities:

We will view additional materials on the Promethean board, videos

Field trip? To a museum, play?

Within financial means, create some artworks – skits, dances, musical lyrics,

visual art

A&H students will have the opportunity to attend the Lexington Children’s

Theatre’s play presentation of Edgar Allan Poe on October 28, 2011.

There will be a comprehensive unit exam. Students may use their notes and the

book on this unit exam.

Re-teaching activity: if students did not complete the entire packet for any chapter,

those will be given back and students are to finish them.