posted
I knew(know?) pretty much nothing about art before this semester. I have a friend who's passion is art. I also had plenty of space in my schedule for electives this semester and decided to take a few art history survey classes to find out what it was my friend loved about art.
One is Introduction to American Art and I'm doing very well in that class so far. The other, the cause of my headache, is Surveying Western Art:Renaissance-Contemporary. I have a midterm in this class tomorrow and I still have no clue whatsoever how to study for it even though I started gathering the images, my notes from class, my book and as much information about them as soon as I got the study guide last Wednesday; there's just too much information for me to possibly know.
All of the -ini's, -meer's, -o's, and -i's that are the artists' names are confusing. The paragraph long titles are impossible to remember. The characteristics of the periods? I couldn't even begin to describe the differences between Hi Renaissance, 15th Century Renaissance, or Mannerism. The characteristics of the country/area? Northern vs Southern, Venice, Florence, Rome....eh?
It's making my head hurt and it's making me despise art.
posted
I wouldn't be able to tell you the differences between all of those, and I'm an art major.
I got through all my art history classes by studying flashcards that I made for each painting. I drew the paintings on one side (complete with stick figures) and had all the information on the other side. Then I memorized like mad.
I wish I could be more help, but all I can do is send good vibes your way. And good luck on the midterm!
Posts: 486 | Registered: Feb 2005
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posted
Trevor: If I had thought of that sooner, that might have worked.
Rivka: I looked at a few and some of them were helpful; thank you. I never thought of looking for anything like that for some reason.
Hester: That's pretty much what I'm doing, trying to memorize. I made a Powerpoint slideshow of all the images and their information (artist, scale, period, original location, medium, patron, category, format) and have been using that to go through the set of 30 I have to know. The hard part for me isn't going to be the slide identification, it'll be the two essay portions of the test. In one, I have to know all of the information I just listed plus the answers to a few questions for 6 other images, the teacher will pick one. For the second essay, I'll have to compare two pieces and I have 4 sets of paintings/sculptures to remember information about. It's information overload, even though I've been to every single class and seen them all before. But thank you so much for the good vibes and luck.
posted
As a former test-grader for the art history survey classes, I must tell you: the students who said anything (anything) about the cultural and historical context of a piece got automatically better grades on their essays.
Are you using Gardner's Art Through the Ages? If not, I'm assuming it's a similar fat book with every piece of art ever made. What I would do before every exam was go through the text and highlight every time one of the pieces on the slide list was mentioned. Then, make a point of re-reading the paragraphs that contain references to those pieces. It will help cement in your mind what happened when and why. That's really the most important part. Anyone can memorize names and dates - it's putting it in a historical context that shows you have a real understanding of the art.
If you need any help or have questions, feel free to shoot me an email (addy in the profile). I graded the very kinds of exams you're taking for two years. Posts: 8504 | Registered: Aug 1999
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They are invaluable. I've never taken an art history course, but the friend I have that does makes up flash cards of each of the things, and by the time she's finished studying, I almost know the answers.
Posts: 4816 | Registered: Apr 2003
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