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Lesson Plans
Art History ©1999
by Marilyn Stokstad
Focus Lesson 13
Chapter 19: "Baroque, Rococo, and Early American Art"
AP* Course Description
- Renaissance to Present
- Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries
Key Components
- Instructor's Resource Manual with Tests, Vol. II: pp. 17–21, 71–72, 104–110, 181–185
- Study Guide, Vol. II: pp. 37–54
Key Web Sites
Given the changing nature of the Internet, you may wish to preview these sites. Check the Online Companion Web site for updated information and links to other sites.
Key Words and Terms
- genre
- naturalistic
- glazes
- impasto
- central-plan church
- Churrigueresque
- baldachin
- ignudi
- oil
- fresco
- allegory
- academic
- tenebrism
- parterres
- Caravaggism
- glazed
- breakfast pieces
- etching
- drypoint
- burin
- school
- vanitas
- camera obscura
- architectural interior
- flower pieces
- proscenium arch
- westwork
- arabesques
- cabinet piece
- memento mori
- pastel
- porcelain
- chinoiseries
- half-timber construction
- wattle and daub
- clapboard
- adobe
- limners
Suggested Pacing
Like the previous chapter, this one can be taught in two and a half to four weeks, depending on how much non-European art you plan on covering during the year. The text divides this material along the traditional regional lines, although you might prefer to cover American art in a separate unit combined with American art of the nineteenth century, or to deal with the Rococo after completing the Baroque. Painting, sculpture, and architecture are rarely so balanced in their importance as they are in these periods, and all are equally likely to appear on the AP* exam.
Test Strategy
When giving tests, be sure to include questions that use the qualifiers not, least, and except. Students need to become familiar with this reverse question type that asks them to find the answer that is not true or the least likely to be true about the question content. In attacking this type of question, students should read the question and the answer stem and determine if the answer is correct or true for the question. If it isn't, students should cross off the answer and go on to the next on.
Key Concepts
- Patrons and their influence on art
How did royal patrons of the arts choose to have themselves portrayed in the art of the seventeenth century? Comparing the art of painters such as Riguad, Van Dyck, Rubens, and Velazquez will help students to visualize the changes that had occurred since the Renaissance. Regional differences should also be noted. - Naturalism/verisimilitude
The desire of seventeenth-century painters to achieve naturalism in their works marks a shift away from Classical ideals. The willingness of patrons to be portrayed, "warts and all" (p. 752), is a startling shift from the trends first seen in the art of the ancient Near East. Caravaggio takes this notion to an extreme, and was famously persecuted because of it. - New patrons
The emergence of a middle-class art-buying public in Holland during this period is an extraordinary development. The Calvinistic mores of that culture need to be closely scrutinized to understand the laces in their portraits and the oysters in the still lifes of the period (p. 799). - Shifting styles
This chapter includes the Baroque and the Rococo art styles. The reasons, not fully understood, for this shift in taste and what it means visually, are of major importance. Unlike Mannerism, the Rococo style is mostly uniform, and quickly identified. Nonetheless, the chapter provides opportunities for students to practice connoisseurship—for example, in a comparison of Watteau and Boucher.
Summing Up Student Understanding
In this activity, students will examine the "Quarrel of the Ancients and the Moderns" (p. 769). Roger de Piles's ranking of the old masters by a numeric system may seem a strange notion now, but it is useful in enabling students to review the works of these great artists. You may wish to strike some artists off the list if, for example, you have spent little time discussing Carracci or Primaticcio.
Ask students to rank these artists, using the categories and range (1 to 20) that Piles used. Before beginning, the class may want to agree upon the definitions of the four categories: Composition, Drawing, Color, and Expression. Have students work alone, so as not to be swayed by peer pressure. When everyone has completed the rankings, have the class find the class averages and then discuss the findings.
Some questions to guide the discussion could be:
- How did the class differ from Piles in its rankings?
- What changes in taste could account for these differences?
- Which artists received the highest scores? Why?
- Which artists received the lowest scores? Why?
Students who disagreed most strongly with their classmates should be asked to produce images that support their point of view. Can they sway the opinion of their classmates with their examples?
Perhaps within a given artist's oeuvre there exists unevenness within or among the four categories. For example, from one painting to the next Titian may have shown excellent use of color, only to be followed by a blandly colored work. Students may perceive a shift in a given artist's work over the course of his career, especially among the more long-lived artists.
Although the final rankings are unimportant, the review of the major works of these very important artists and the resulting debate may help fix these images and concepts in students' minds.