Because I personally have historically appreciated more art from the 1700's and beyond, I found The Master and His Apprentices to be very informative, as the bulk of the material covers Art from the Ancients through the Baroque Era, around the 17th Century, with only one chapter addressing art from the 1600's and beyond. While I was already familiar with some artists, I really enjoyed learning more through Gina Ferguson's text. It is well written, in a conversational style that fairly easily captures the reader's interest. It is NOT dry or dull and is intended for a high school student to be able to complete in a more or less self-directed manner, although it is also appropriate for classroom instruction.
The Master and His Apprentices is definitely written from a Christian World View, and the Introduction and first chapter make that eminently obvious. After all, who is clearly the Master Artist, but God, Himself? He created the originals of all of the things that artists (His apprentices) attempt to copy in their endeavors ~ light, water, color, clouds, vapor, trees, mountains, flowers... you get the point. Gina uses observations from science, history, archaeology, Scripture, and even math to highlight the greatest works of art and draw our attention to them before she delves into the works of the "apprentices."
The main periods covered:
- Creation
- Ancient Cultures
- Ancient Near East
- Egyptian
- Aegean
- Classical Antiquity
- Early Greek
- Etruscan
- Roman
- Middle Ages
- Renaissance
- Proto-Renaissance
- Early Italian Renaissance
- High Italian Renaissance
- Northern Renaissance
- Baroque Era and Beyond
- Baroque
- Rococo to Today
- Global Highlights
- Six essays relating to Art, Christianity, and Biblical history
- A complete timeline of all the works mentioned in the book, along with major Biblical/World events
- A page of terms used to describe art
- Pieces By Location, which is a nifty little "art travel guide" for the pieces mentioned in the book~ if you are traveling and want to see a piece you read about in person, this list will help you accomplish that!
Your student will learn to recognize famous works, the style, medium, and technique used along with information about the artists (when known). With the visuals of the artwork, there is an added hook to help them remember their Biblical and World History events.
In reading through some chapters fully, and skimming through others again, I was very
pleased with the style of writing, the information imparted, and the overall layout of the book. This is a solid art history text that avoids graphics that many parents may find objectionable while still covering a majority of the major works, how they fit with history and theology. The screenshot snippet that you can see on the right is a good illustration of some of the history and theology included that takes place during the discussion of particular works of art.
I greatly appreciate also that it doesn't include any secular humanist ideologies or "subjective expository" so frequently found in secular art history resources.
If you would like to get a feel for the content and set-up of the pages in the book, Gina has provided a number of sample pages that are much better quality than anything I could provide here, so please do go check them out!
Not So Nutty Nitty Gritty
- Company: The Master and His Apprentices
- Product: The Master and His Apprentices: Art History from a Christian Perspective
- Ages: High School
- Price:
- Digital Textbook $34.99
- Digital Teacher Guide $19.99
- (Books also available in physical format)
Blessings~
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