AP ART HISTORY RESOURCES
Helping teachers and students prepare for the AP Art History exam
10 Units
250 objects from around the world (really, more like 400)
We recognize the need for more resources, especially for areas outside of Europe and Anglo-U.S. art and history. We’d like to help!
*Please note: we are not affiliated with the College Board in any way. These are resources created by educators for other educators!
UNIT 1: Global Prehistory
30,000–500 BCE
The world’s earliest art, from cave paintings to jade objects, to see how humans first expressed identity and beliefs.
7. Jade cong, Liangzhu, China, c.3300–2200 BCE
10. Tlatilco figurines, Central Mexico
COMING SOON: Introduction to the Paleolithic
Key Terms and Ideas
Learn about anthropomorphism in art
Learn how to mark time
Materials to develop formal analysis (visual analysis) skills
Learn about the idea of horror vacui in art
Learn about low relief, high relief, and sunken relief
UNIT 2: Ancient Mediterranean
3500 BCE–300 CE
Discover how the Egyptians, Greeks, Romans, and others shaped art, politics, and religion across the ancient Mediterranean world.
Key Terms and Ideas
Learn what an oculus in architecture is
Understand what contrapposto in sculpture is
Learn what votives are, such as in Ancient Sumer
Learn what encaustic painting is, such as in the ancient Mediterranean
UNIT 3: Early Europe and Colonial Americas
200–1750 CE
From medieval spirituality to Renaissance humanism, see how art developed and moved with global expansion in the colonial Americas.
Medieval fibulae, including two Visigothic eagles
71. Madonna and Child with Two Angels, Fra Filippo Lippi, c. 1465
81. Frontispiece of the Codex Mendoza, Viceroyalty of New Spain, c. 1541–42 CE
Key Terms and Ideas
Palazzo Rucellai and grand palaces in Florence
Artemisia Gentileschi and Tenebrism in Judith and Holofernes
Haloes and Andrea Mantegna’s Saint George
Fra Angelico and the San Marco Altarpiece
The Pyxis of al-Mughira and understanding pyxides
What is enconchado (shell-inlaid) painting?
Enconchado (shell-inlaid painting in New Spain (Colonial Mexico) and the Virgin of Guadalupe
Linear perspective and the Ideal Renaissance City
Leonardo da Vinci’s Annunciation—Angel Gabriel announces Christ’s birth
Rogier van der Weyden’s Portrait of a Lady and portraiture
Rachel Ruysch’s Still Life of Flowers and Insects
Sainte-Chapelle and fleur-de-lis
A Colonial Mexican Biombo or folding screen with a scene in a garden
Chartres Cathedral and rose windows in Gothic architecture
Angels and Simone Martini: Messenger figures in art and belief
Judith Leyster and Self-portraiture
Andrea Mantegna’s Camera Picta frescoes and renaissance courts
The Palazzo Vecchio and Rustication: Rough stonework on building exteriors
Caravaggio’s Fortune Teller and Genre Scenes: Everyday life captured in art
Jan van Eyck’s Annunciation offers an entry point to discussing the qualities of oil paint
Learn about the artistic developments and history of Raphael
UNIT 4: Later Europe and Americas
1750–1980 CE
Learn about Rococo frivolities, Enlightenment ideals, and revolutionary change in the art of Europe and the Americas.
Specific Content
99. Miguel Cabrera, Portrait of Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz, c. 1750
COMING SOON: Diego Rivera, Dream of a Sunday Afternoon in the Alameda Park
José María Velasco's Valley of Mexico
What is abstraction?
Piet Mondrian, Composition with Red, Blue, and Yellow, and other artists
Key Terms and Ideas
What is en plein air painting?
Claude Monet’s Impression, Sunrise
Vincent van Gogh’s Roses
UNIT 5: Indigenous Americas
1000 BCE–1980 CE
Focus on the diverse artistic traditions of Indigenous peoples across North, Central, and South America.
157. Aztec Sun Stone (“Calendar Stone”), c. 1500
158. Aztec feathered headdress
COMING SOON: Lady K'abal Xook and the Yaxchilán Lintels
COMING SOON: Structure 40 at Yaxchilán
COMING SOON: Structure 33 at Yaxchilán
Key Terms and Ideas
The roof comb of Structure 33 at Yaxchilán
A Mexica (Aztec) symbol of war.
The Mexica (Aztec) deity of rain and agricultural fertility.
The cliff dwellings of Cliff Palace atMesa Verde.
Aztec featherworkers
Lintel 24 from Yaxchilán
Lintel 25 from Yaxchilán of Lady Xook
A golden plaque from Chavín
Serpent Mound
UNIT 6: Africa
1100–1980 CE
See how African artists across centuries used materials, performance, and design to convey power, spirituality, and identity.
UNIT 7: West and Central Asia
500 BCE–1980 CE
Explore Buddhist, Islamic, and Persian Asian art as crossroads of religion, empire, and trade.
UNIT 8: South, East, and Southeast Asia
1300 BCE–1980 CE
From Buddhist stupas to Chinese landscapes, discover Asia’s diverse artistic legacies and their global influence.
193. Terracotta warriors from mausoleum of the first Qin emperor of China. Qin Dynasty, c. 221–209 BCE. Painted terra cotta.
211. Under the Wave off Kanagawa (Kanagawa oki nami ura), also known as the Great Wave, from the series Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji KatsushikaHokusai.1830–1833 CE. Polychrome woodblock print; ink and color on paper.
194. Funeral banner of Lady Dai (Xin Zhui). Han Dynasty, China. c. 180 BCE. Painted silk.
201. Travelers among Mountains and Streams, FanKuan. c. 1000CE. Ink and colors on silk.
UNIT 9: The Pacific
700–1980 CE
UNIT 10: Global Contemporary
1980 CE to Present
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