Level 1 & 2 Course Outline/Syllabus

Honors Course Outline/Syllabus

Painting Through the Ages
Renaissance
Baroque
Neoclassicism
Romanticism
Realism & Impressionism
Post-Impressionism
Abstraction
 
 

"Freedom is not worth having if it does not connote freedom to err." Mohandas Gandhi (1869-1948)

"The propensity to truck, barter and exchange on thing for another...is common to all men, and to be found in no other race of animals." Adam Smith, Scottish economist (1723-1790)

"The history of all hitherto existing society is the history of class struggles." Karl Marx (1818-1883)  & Freidrich Engels (1820-1895)

World History II:
Modern World History

British troops in World War I

World History II: Modern World History is a survey course that focuses on major developments and trends in the western and non-western world from the 18th century to the present.  As with all of Northampton High School core history courses, World History II offers students of all academic abilities a chance to appropriately challenge themselves.   From the Honors course, in which students are expected to work at a fast pace and have strong reading and writing skills, to the Level 2 course where assignments are tailored to match and develop students' skills, NHS offers a curriculum to suit the learning style and interest of all students.

Mao Zedong

Major units of study will include: 1. The Age of Revolutionary Change, covering the time period from c. 1700 - 1900 and focusing on the American and French Revolutions,  Industrialization and Urbanization, and the growth of Nationalism, Militarism & Imperialism; 2. The World in the Era of the Great Wars (c. 1900-1945), examining World War I , the Russian Revolution and the rise of the Soviet Union, Depression, Totalitarianism, and World War II; and 3. The World since 1945, delving into the Cold War and the end of Colonialism.

1. The Scientific Revolution (Ch. 22) & the Enlightenment (Ch. 26, sect. 1 & 2)

2. The American (Ch. 26, sect. 3) and French Revolutions (Ch. 27)

3. The Industrial Revolution and Urbanization (Ch. 28)

4. Democratic & Social Reforms (Ch. 29, sect. 1,3,4,5)

5. Imperialism, Colonialism, Nationalism, & Militarism

        · German and Italian Unification (Ch. 29, sect.2)

        · Colonialism in Africa, Asia, and Latin America (Ch. 30, sect. 1,3,4,5)

        · The Chinese & Japanese Response to Western Imperialism (Ch. 24; Ch. 30, sect. 2)
 

The World in the Era of the Great Wars (c. 1900-1945)

1.  World War I

        · Causes, course, and consequences of  “the Great War” (Ch. 31, sect. 1-4)

        · Versailles & International after-effects (Ch. 31, sect. 5)

2. The Russian Revolution & the Rise of the Soviet Union (Ch. 32)

3.   Revolutions, World Depression and the Rise of Dictatorships

        · Chinese Nationalism (Ch. 33, sect. 1)

        · India (Ch. 33, sect. 2)

        · The Middle East (Ch. 33, sect. 3)

        · The “Great Depression” causes and consequences (Ch. 34, sect. 1)

        · Fascism & Dictatorship (Ch. 33, sect. 4)

3.  World War II (Ch. 34, sect. 2-4)

        · Causes

        · The European and Asian Theaters

        · Consequences & Costs
 

The World from 1945 to the present

1.  The Cold War

        · Origins & the Cold War in Europe (Ch. 35)

        · The Cold War in Asia: China, Korea, Vietnam (Ch. 36)

        · The Soviet Empire Collapses

2.  The End of Colonialism

        · New Nations in Africa (Ch. 37), the Middle East (Ch. 38), and Latin America (Ch. 39)

        · Conflicts of Race, Religion, and Ethnicity
 

RETURN TO INDEX Return to Home Page

1.  World War I
· Causes, course, and consequences of  “the Great War” (Ch.24 sect. 1& 2, pp. 638-651)
· Versailles & International after-effects (Ch. 24, sect. 4 & 5, pp. 654-661)

2. The Russian Revolution (Ch. 24 sect. 3, pp. 651-654)

3.  World Depression and the Rise of Dictatorships (Ch. 35)
· The “Great Depression” causes and consequences
 · Leninist/Stalinist Totalitarianism in the Soviet Union
· International Fascism: Mussolini, Hitler, and Franco

4.  New Political Forces in Africa, Asia, and Latin America (Ch. 26)

5. World War II (Ch. 27)
· Causes
· The European and Asian Theaters
· Consequences & Costs
 

The World from 1945 to the present

1.  The Cold War 

· Origins & the Cold War in Europe (Ch. 28)
· The Cold War in Asia: China, Korea, Vietnam (Ch. 29)
· The Soviet Empire Collapses (Ch. 32)

2.  The End of Colonialism

· New Nations in Africa , Asia, and the Middle East (Ch. 29 sect. 3, pp. 789-794 & Ch. 30)
· Conflicts of Race, Religion, and Ethnicity

“Art imitates life” goes the old adage, and when looking at some of the painting from the 16th - 20th centuries it is easy to see that the subject and style of art underwent an evolution as dramatic as the social, economic, and political changes that gripped the world in the “modern era.”  Of course, the phrase modern era in itself is a bit of a conundrum, because is it wise to label something that happened 400 years ago as modern?  Probably not, but for now it's the best that historians have come up with to describe this time of dramatic change and distinguish it from the much earlier Medieval and Classical periods.
 

The Renaissance. Mid-15th & 16th Centuries.  The Renaissance (literally, “rebirth”) could be thought of as a transitional period bridging the gap from Medieval Europe to the Age of Revolution, which is generally considered to be the start of the modern historical era. During the Renaissance, which began in the prosperous city-states of medieval Italy, Arts in general, but particularly the visual arts of painting and sculpture underwent a period of creative explosion not seen in the world since the time of Classical Greece in the 5th century BC.  Stylistically, the Renaissance artists created realistic scenes full of color and movement, and mastered the use of “perspective drawing” which brought a sense of dimensional scale to painting that was previously missing.  In terms of subject matter much of the Renaissance art still had religious themes, which isn't surprising since the Catholic Church and/or wealthy Catholic merchants were patrons who sponsored much of the work.

Mona Lisa, c. 1505,  Leonardo DaVinci (1452-1519), Italian “DaVinci came closer to being an all-around genius  than any other man in history.” H.W. Janson, Art Historian H.W. Janson makes a very bold statement, but he is not far from the truth.  Along with Michelangelo, DaVinci is probably the most famous Renaissance artist (the most famous of all time?), and while he thought of himself first as an artist, he was also an innovative scientist and inventor.  The Mona Lisa is arguably DaVinci’s most famous work, a painting of the wife of a Florentine merchant, Giocondo.  While viewers typically focus on Mona Lisa’s mysterious smile, the overall composition of the painting is incredibly detailed and DaVinci worked for four years to achieve a perfect harmony between the figure and the background landscape.

Knight, Death, and Devil, 1513,  an engraving by Albrecht Durer (1471-1528), German Italy's artistic rebirth spread north throughout all of Europe, and Durer’s work exemplified the imaginative look of the Northern Renaissance.  Durer was an artistic prodigy, as were many of the great masters, who traveled to Italy to learn firsthand of Renaissance art.  Durer was primarily a print-maker, creating engravings and woodcuts, which made his art  more accessible through his ability to reproduce it.  In this engraving, the Devil pursues  the "good Knight” on his earthly journey.  A “heavenly” city sits high in the background.

The Baroque. 17th to mid 18th Century (c.1600-1750) Baroque art often combined realism with religious feeling and was stylistically influenced by the Renaissance masters.  In fact, art historians debate whether the Baroque is the final phase of the Renaissance or is a distinct era.  What is fairly clear is that there is some interconnectedness between art and the religious, political, and scientific changes that were occurring during the 17th and 18th centuries. The Baroque religious themes often reflected the stalemate between the Reformation and the Counter Reformation, and the Catholic Church often sponsored artists to promote its themes.  The Baroque art (Rococo) that appealed to, and was patronized by the 17th century aristocratic classes of Europe is often criticized as being to “flowery” and out of touch with the working class.  However, as the Age of Revolution approached, the themes of Baroque art began to change.

The Calling of St. Matthew, c. 1598,  Caravaggio (1573-1610), Italian. Caravaggio had a very naturalistic/realistic outlook and studied the Renaissance masters.  He is a true INNOVATOR because of his dramatic use of LIGHT & DARK  and his TIMING – his ability to create suspense in his pictures.  Caravaggio influenced  Rembrandt later in the century. In The Calling…, Christ “calls” Matthew, a wealthy tax collector, to join him; it is an otherwise ordinary, realistic everyday scene of men sitting around a table in a tavern, yet Caravaggio uses light to create a religious feeling.

The Swing, 1766 Jean-Honore Fragonard (1732-1806), French

The work of Fragonard and his contemporaries typified the Rococo-Baroque style.  This painting is a testament to the frivolous, aristocratic, courtly lifestyle that would abruptly end with the onset of the French Revolution.

Back to the Market, 1739,  Jean Simeon Chardin (1699-1779), French In the 18th century with the advent of the Enlightenment and Age of Revolution, Baroque art underwent a gradual change.  As the “enlightened” philosophies emphasizing that society should be ruled by reason and the common good took hold in Europe and the Americas, the common man and citizen became a dominant artistic theme. Chardin’s Back to the Market exemplified the new emphasis on everyday life with his dignified scene of a middle class Parisian household, which at the time was a stark contrast to much of the works featuring aristocratic themes and subjects.

Neoclassicism. 18th Century (c.1700-1800) Modern artistic eras, as well as historical eras, can often be examined in terms of ACTION vs. REACTION.  As attitudes, styles, subject  matter, and tastes evolve over time, there is an inevitable response to those changes.  Framed in this manner, the Neoclassical period is a reaction to sometimes gaudy, “artificiality” of the Baroque, especially the more ornate court paintings created for Europe’s aristocracy.  Neo (new) classical works often were based on themes and events from Classical Greek and Roman history.  The paintings were emotionally reserved and austere, and the form and composition were typically linear, precise, and carefully painted. The Declaration of Independence, 1786-94, John Trumbull, American   As the American and French Revolutions caught the world's attention as the 18th century drew to a close, the revolutionary spirit began to be reflected in art. While conveying a revolutionary theme, arguably one of the most politically defiant acts in modern times, Trumbull created an accurate, but emotionless work that conformed to the Neo-classical academic style to which many painters subscribed in the 18th century.  This painting was commissioned by the United States government to adorn the rotunda of the new U.S. capital building.

Death of Marat, 1793,  Jacques-Louis David, French David’s work shows a more emotionally charged face of revolution.  This scene depicts the assassination of Jean-Paul Marat, a radical Jacobin leader in the French Revolution. Charlotte Corday, a member of the rival conservative Girondist party, stabbed Marat to death in his bathtub. David himself was a leading Jacobin, a friend of Robespierre, and member of the National Convention who voted for the death of Louis XVI.  With Robespierre’s downfall and execution, David was imprisoned and narrowly escaped the guillotine, only later to become Napoleon’s favorite court painter.

Romanticism. Mid 18th to mid 19th Centuries (c. 1750-1860’s). Continuing the theme of episodic action and reaction, the Romantic period evolves in response to the austerity and emotional restraint of the Neoclassical period.  Romantic artists, musicians, and writers viewed life through an idealized lens; these artists represented life and events as they thought they should be.  Romantics often turned away from the ugly and materialistic side of political and industrial revolutions that were changing the western world.  The visual arts of the Romantic period contained great Emotion, Movement and Energy. Romanticism was more a state of mind and way of looking at things than a particular technical style.  French Romantic painters, and later the Realists, revolted against the rigid, classical discipline of the conventional painters of the day and faced much criticism in academic circles.

The Executions of the Third of May, 1808,  Francisco Goya (1746-1848), Spanish

The Executions… depicts French reprisals for the uprising by the people of Madrid against Napoleon's invasion of Spain.  Hundreds of civilians were indiscriminately executed, regardless if they had participated in the revolt. Goya was a true stylistic innovator who defied traditional convention (and rigid categorization) by using broad brushstrokes and bold colors to convey the emotion of the scene.  Many art historians consider Goya to be the first “modern” painter in terms of both content and style.

The Fighting Temeraire Towed to Her Last Berth, 1838,  William Turner (1775-1851), English. In The Fighting Temeraire, as with all of his work, Turner infuses tremendous light and color into his landscape, creating a sense of action.

Rain, Steam, and Speed The Great Western Railway, 1844 William Turner (1775-1851), English

Liberty Leading the People, 1830,  Eugene Delacroix, (1798-1863), French In this scene, Delacroix paints an idealized “lady liberty” leading the French Revolution of 1830.  In contrast to Goya's more realistic revolution scene, this work embodies the Romantic era's idealism.

Realism and Impressionism.  Mid 19th Century – 1910’s. In keeping with the ACTION vs. REACTION theme, it is easy to see how the idealized visions of Romanticism gave way to representations of everyday life that marked Realism.  At the same time that the Romantics were presenting their idealized world views, the world itself was fundamentally changing as the Industrial Revolution and political revolutions swept across the western world. Steamboats, railroads, and factories completely changed every aspect of daily life.  The rhythm of the day was no longer dictated by rural farming needs but by the bell or whistle of industrialization calling people to their daily tasks.  While most people had newfound access to the inexpensive and plentiful goods industrialization brought, it also brought misery to countless masses.  The realities of the newly urbanized and industrialized world, coupled with the realization that with political revolution also came the inevitable death and destruction, led many artists to take a new approach to their work. Realistic art is most easily understood in terms of subject:  it lacks noble ideals, symbols, and hidden meaning, it simply represents everyday life. Impressionism is a stylistic, technical revolution in painting.  Not only did Impressionists paint realistic subjects, but they also introduced sweeping technical changes in the way that they painted.  Forms and shapes were denoted by large patches COLOR rather than simply by shading areas of light and dark. The French painter Edouard Manet is generally credited with starting the Impressionistic revolution. Interestingly, Impressionism gets its name from critics who said that the pictures were just ‘quick impressions’ of a scene, barely more than unfinished sketches.

Regatta at Argenteuil, 1874,  by Claude Monet (1840-1926), French  Monet is generally considered to be the greatest of the Impressionists, and throughout his career he dogmatically held onto the impressionist ideals of color and light and composition.  This scene is typical of one of Manet's many landscapes.

Rehearsal of the Ballet on Stage, c.1876,  by Edgar Degas (1834-1917), French Unlike many of the impressionists, Degas preferred to draw and paint indoor scenes, particularly those of the theater and show business.  While his technique is decidedly impressionistic, Degas pays close attention to composition and lighting, in some ways reflecting the compositional style of the ‘old masters.’

Post-Impressionism. c. 1880's + The best way to think about the Post-Impressionists is that they are not Anti-Impressionists, just artists who felt that some elements of impressionism were somewhat limiting, particularly in terms of shape and form.  Post-Impressionists did not want to undo the effects of Impressionism, just carry them further.

Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte, 1884-86,  by Georges Seurat (1859-1891), French Seurat is a pioneer of the pointillist technique, a rather extreme take on the use of color to denote shape, form, texture, and dimensionality. While 21st century computer artists are familiar with manipulating pixels to create art, Seurat painted individual pixels of color on his giant canvases to create his scenes.  Viewed up close, Seurat's works appear to be thousands of tiny "points" of color, but taken as a whole, the colors come together to create an impressive scene.

Fruit Bowl, Glass, and Apples, 1879-82,  by Paul Cézanne (1839-1906), French. At first glance, Cézanne's Fruit... appears to be a typical Impressionistic still life, but a closer examination shows some dramatic differences.  Cézanne outlines the shapes in the scene and his forms are more simplistic than one would find in real life. Impressionists played with color, but their forms were accurate and realistic; with Cézanne comes the beginning of abstraction.

Abstract Art.  Late 19th century, early 20th century. “To abstract” literally means “to draw away from, to separate.”  In this sense, all art is abstraction because artists examine their subjects, break them down into component parts, and then “reassemble” them into painted scenes or sculpture.  However, using the momentum of change brought on by the artistic revolution of the Impressionists, artists of the late 19th and early 20th century began to exponentially push the conventional boundaries of style, technique, and subject. While there are many styles and subsets of abstract art, it all shares a common thread of challenging existing artistic norms. As these new artists explored the limits of what could be “abstracted” with paint on canvas, they often caused public outrage.  Led by Frenchman Henri Matisse, these innovative and controversial painters were dubbed the the FAUVES, or “wild beasts,” by the incredulous art community.  Collectively, the style of their work became known as Fauvism.

Still Life: Goldfish and Sculpture, 1911,  by Henri Matisse (1869-1954), French Matisse abandoned much convention in this picture: there is no shading, unrealistic foreshortening and no depth to the picture – the room is essentially flat.

Improvisation No. 30, 1913,  by Wassily Kandinsky (1866-1944), Russian Kandinsky went beyond Fauvism and abandoned representation entirely.  Kandinsky’s forms are abstract and do not intentionally represent anything in the physical world.  His work was meant to convey a purely spiritual meaning.

"[Abstraction was] what had to be done to nature so as to make it fit the picture.”  Pablo Picasso

Pablo Picasso, already a classically trained prodigy by age 13, and his friend Georges Braque began an innovative movement by breaking scenes down into their component shapes, or building blocks (cubes); they would then reassemble the shapes to form the artists’ own unique images.  This style became known as CUBISM. When Picasso and Braque first started making cubist pictures they literally cut and pasted shapes into complex, multi-media collages, but this was incredibly time-consuming so they eventually turned to paint and canvas.  As Picasso’s career progressed throughout the 20th century he moved away from Cubism, but not abstraction.

Three Musicians, 1921,  by Pablo Picasso (1881-1973), Spanish In his modern cubist masterpiece, Three Musicians, Picasso takes three traditional stage performers and breaks down their forms into a painted collage of shapes and solid colors.

The City,1919,  by Fernand Leger (1881-1955), French By the 1920’s, for the first time in human existence, more people lived in cities than in rural farming communities and Leger paints an optimistic scene of mechanization and urbanization with his colorful, geometric Cubist masterpiece.

"Seeing with the inner eye" described the goal of a group of abstract painters whose work often dealt with fantasy and images of the subconscious.  While Fantasy painters abstracted images to varying degrees with no uniform style, as a group they were linked by their pictorial representations of dream images.

I and the Village, 1911,  by Marc Chagall (1887-1985), Russian Noted art historian H.W. Janson describes this picture as a “cubist fairy tale,” and it has a rather light and pleasant feel, unlike many of the fantasy paintings that explore the dark side of the subconscious.

Surrealists often explored this dark side of the subconscious and borrowed from the revolutionary ideas of psychoanalysis that were taking hold at the time.  Surrealists' goals were to take unconscious thoughts and dreams and directly transpose them on canvas.

The Persistence of Memory, 1931,  by Salvadore Dali (1904-1988), Spanish Dali was the most renowned of the surrealists, and this picture combines realistically painted elements into a composition of true fantasy.

Liberation of a Peon, 1931,  a fresco by Diego Rivera (1886-1957), Mexican Abstract Art was slow to catch on in the United States, but not in Mexico, where the Mexican Revolution of 1911 and its spirit of change helped to inspire a new breed of artists. According to art critic John Canaday, Rivera’s Liberation… symbolically represents the “social rescue of the Mexican peasant by the agrarian revolution” and signals the beginning of an era of political, economic, and social rights for the Mexican working class.

The Passion of Sacco and Vanzetti, 1931-32 by Ben Shahn (1898-  ), American Shahn uses an abstract style to satirize and criticize the controversial executions of two Italian immigrants, Nicola Sacco, a fish peddler and professed anarchist, and Bartolomeo Vanzetti, a factory worker and radical agitator, for the alleged murder-robbery in Braintree, Massachusetts.  The event drew worldwide attention and epitomized the Red Scare, which was a period of American fear of radicalism and Communism following World War I.  In The Passion…Sacco and Vanzetti are shown dead in their coffins while the commissioners who reviewed their appeals and sustained their guilty verdict look on solemnly.  The lilies satirically symbolize the commissioners’ virtue and truthfulness.

 Canaday, John, The Artist as Social Critic, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 1959.

Colombo, Alfredo and Gaston Diehl, Treasury of World Painting, Tudor Publishing Co.

Janson, H.W., History of Art, Harry N. Abrams, Inc., New York, 1984.

Janson, H.W., and Dora Jane Janson, The Picture History of Painting, Harry N. Abrams, Inc., New York, 1957.