The visual guide to
AP® Art History
10 units, 119 topics. Each topic is explained in writing, drawn as a lesson you can watch, and checked with practice questions.
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Each unit is as wide as its share of the exam's multiple-choice section.Filled: topics you've opened.
Unit 2Ancient Mediterranean, 3500 BCE-300 CE
- The Ziggurat: A Mountain of Mud Brick
- Registers and Hierarchy of Scale
- The Egyptian Canon and the Grid
- Building the Pyramids at Giza
- Karnak's Hypostyle Hall
- Hatshepsut's Terraces and Axial Planning
- The Egyptian Tomb and the Weighing of the Heart
- The Kouros Relaxes into Contrapposto
- The Greek Temple: Orders, Plan, Refinement
- Athenian Vase Painting and the Three Firings
- Lost-Wax Casting and the Hellenistic Bronze
- Persepolis: The Apadana and the Tribute Procession
- Etruscan Tombs and Terra Cotta
- The Roman Arch, Vault, and Concrete
- The Pantheon's Dome
- The Forum of Trajan and Propaganda in Space
- Roman Illusionism: Wall Painting and Mosaic
Unit 3Early Europe and Colonial Americas, 200-1750 CE
- From Roman Basilica to Christian Church
- Byzantine Mosaic and the Gold Ground
- Hagia Sophia: The Dome on a Square
- The Great Mosque of Cordoba
- The Illuminated Manuscript, Layer by Layer
- Romanesque: Mass, Barrel Vault, Pilgrimage Plan
- Gothic: Rib Vault, Pointed Arch, Flying Buttress
- Stained Glass: Building a Window Out of Light
- Linear Perspective Invented
- Brunelleschi: Proportion and the Florence Dome
- Fresco: Painting Into Wet Plaster
- Oil Paint and the Northern Renaissance Surface
- Printmaking: Woodcut, Engraving, Etching
- The High Renaissance Pyramid
- Mannerism: Breaking the Rules on Purpose
- Baroque Drama: Diagonal, Spotlight, Broken Frame
- Las Meninas: Sightlines, Mirror, and the Viewer
- Dutch Painting: The Light Box and the Everyday Room
- The Colonial Americas: Codex, Casta, and Hybrid Image
Unit 4Later Europe and Americas, 1750-1980 CE
- Neoclassicism: Roman Geometry for a Revolution
- Rococo: The Swinging Diagonal
- Romanticism: The Sublime and the Pyramid of Bodies
- Photography Arrives: Fixing an Image With Light
- Realism: Ordinary Labour at Heroic Scale
- Impressionism: Broken Color and the Optical Mix
- Post-Impressionism: Structure, Rhythm, Flat Color
- Japonisme: Flat Pattern Reaches Europe
- Iron, Steel, and the Tall Building
- Cubism: Fracturing the Single Viewpoint
- From Fracture to Full Abstraction
- Expressionism: Distorting the Body to Show Feeling
- Modern Architecture: Five Points and the Free Plan
- Dada, Surrealism, and the Object Made Strange
- Murals, Migration, and Art as Public Argument
- Pop, Process, and Art That Leaves the Gallery
Unit 5Indigenous Americas, 1000 BCE-1980 CE
- Chavin de Huantar: A Temple Built Around Sound
- Andean Stonework: Fitting Blocks Without Mortar
- Machu Picchu: Reading a City Off a Ridge
- The Maya City: Corbel Vault and Roof Comb
- Templo Mayor: The Mountain Rebuilt Seven Times
- The Calendar Stone and the Structure of Time
- Mesa Verde: Building Into a Cliff
- Earthworks of the Eastern Woodlands
- Weaving, Featherwork, and Metal
- Transformation, Beadwork, and Blackware
Unit 6Africa, 1100-1980 CE
- Great Zimbabwe: Dry Stone at City Scale
- The Great Mosque of Djenne: Mud, Rebuilt Yearly
- Benin: Casting Brass for the Oba's Palace
- Masks in Motion: What a Mask Does When Worn
- Portraiture Without Likeness
- Power Figures: An Object That Is Activated
- The Lukasa: A Memory Board as a Data Structure
- Regalia and the Golden Stool
- Olowe of Ise and the Carved Column
- Reliquary Guardians and the Ancestor in the House
Unit 7West and Central Asia, 500 BCE-1980 CE
- Petra: Architecture Subtracted From a Cliff
- The Colossal Buddha at Bamiyan
- The Mosque Plan: Qibla, Mihrab, Minbar, Minaret
- The Dome of the Rock: An Octagon Around a Stone
- Geometric Pattern: Infinity Built From a Grid
- Calligraphy: The Page as Proportion
- The Persian Miniature: Space Without a Vanishing Point
- The Carpet: A Design Tied Knot by Knot
- Metalwork, Inlay, and the Portable Object
Unit 8South, East, and Southeast Asia, 300 BCE-1980 CE
- The Stupa: Walking a Diagram of the Cosmos
- Borobudur: A Mountain You Climb as a Text
- The Hindu Temple: Sanctum, Tower, and Axis
- Angkor: Water, Temple Mountain, and City
- The Bronze Nataraja: A Figure Built on a Circle
- The Handscroll and the Moving Viewpoint
- Ink Painting: Brush, Absorbency, One Stroke
- Porcelain, Cobalt, and the Glaze
- The Colossal Buddha: Longmen's Cliff and Nara's Bronze
- The Rock Garden at Ryoan-ji
- The Forbidden City and the Taj Mahal
- The Mughal Album Page
- Ukiyo-e: Carving and Printing the Great Wave
- The Chinese Tomb: An Army and a Banner
- Korea: The Gold Crown and the Scholar's Portrait
Unit 9The Pacific, 700-1980 CE
- Wayfinding: Swells, Stars, and a Stick Chart
- Nan Madol: A City on Artificial Islands
- Moai: Carving, Moving, and Raising a Stone Ancestor
- Tapa: Beating Bark Into Cloth
- Feathers, Rank, and the Hawaiian Cape
- Gods in Wrapped and Assembled Form
- Masks and Malagan: Made to Be Destroyed
- Contact, Portraits, and Performed Encounter
Unit 10Global Contemporary, 1980 CE to Present
- The Memorial That Cuts Into the Ground
- Installation and Scale: Filling a Space
- New Media: Video, Signal, and Time as Material
- Appropriation: Quoting an Old Picture to Argue With It
- Silhouette, Shadow, and the Viewer Pulled In
- Materials With a History
- Line, Layer, and the Mapped Abstraction
- Identity, the Body, and the Composed Photograph
- Contemporary Architecture: Curves, Software, Titanium