Art History Survey Study Guide
A standard undergraduate survey of Western and global art history: prehistoric and ancient Near Eastern art, Egyptian art, Greek art, Roman art, Early Christian, Byzantine, and Islamic art, medieval Romanesque and Gothic art, the Italian Renaissance, Northern Renaissance, Baroque, and Rococo, Neoclassicism through Impressionism, Post-Impressionism and early modernism, twentieth-century modernist movements, and contemporary and global art.
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12 Topics Covered
Prehistoric and Ancient Near Eastern Art
Paleolithic cave paintings through Mesopotamian ziggurats and Persian Persepolis; foundations of visual culture and divine kingship.
Egyptian Art
Old Kingdom pyramids through New Kingdom temples and Amarna period; canonical proportions, afterlife beliefs, and pharaonic imagery.
Greek Art
Geometric through Hellenistic periods; vase painting, sculptural evolution from kouros to contrapposto, Classical idealism, temple orders.
Roman Art and Architecture
Etruscan precedents through late empire; veristic portraiture, imperial propaganda, concrete engineering, and narrative relief sculpture.
Early Christian, Byzantine, and Islamic Art
Catacombs through Hagia Sophia, Ravenna mosaics, iconoclasm, and Islamic aniconism, calligraphy, and geometric ornament.
Medieval Art: Romanesque and Gothic
Insular manuscripts through Gothic cathedrals; monastic art, pilgrimage sculpture, ribbed vaults, flying buttresses, and stained glass.
Italian Renaissance
Giotto through Mannerism; linear perspective, Florentine humanism, High Renaissance masters, Venetian color, and Michelangelo's achievements.
Northern Renaissance, Baroque, and Rococo
Van Eyck's oil technique through Versailles; Protestant imagery, Caravaggio's tenebrism, Dutch Golden Age, and Rococo elegance.
Neoclassicism, Romanticism, and Realism
David's moral clarity through Courbet's social critique; sublime landscape, revolutionary subjects, and challenging academic conventions.
Impressionism and Post-Impressionism
Monet's plein-air experiments through Cézanne's structural analysis; broken brushwork, color theory, Symbolism, and early modernist foundations.
Early Twentieth-Century Modernism
Fauvism through Surrealism; Cubist fragmentation, Expressionist emotion, Dada anti-art, and abstraction's emergence across Europe.
Post-1945 and Contemporary Global Art
Abstract Expressionism through digital art; Pop, Minimalism, feminist critique, identity politics, installation, and global biennials.
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