The Master and His Apprentices {A Review}
Art is one of those subjects that sadly just continues to get pushed aside in our homeschool. I suppose it’s because it’s never been something I have been really interested in I’m not proud of it. I’m just not an artsy kind of gal, and unfortunately that carries over to any musical talents. But thankfully my husband is the opposite and has all kinds of talent in that arena. At first I wasn’t going to ask to be part of the review for The Master and His Apprentices. For this reason… but then I remembered “Hey, I have a high schooler!” and I really do want her to be more well rounded than I was growing up. The Master and His Apprentices: Art History from a Christian Perspective is the perfect place to start.
The Nitty Gritty of It:
This is a full Art History Course meant to be done in 36 weeks, once students complete the study they have a full credit in Art History.
Over the course of the study students will begin with creation and move on to these time periods:
- Ancient Cultures: Ancient Near East, Egyptian and Aegean
- Classical Antiquity: Early Greek, Etruscan and Roman
- Middle Ages: Medieval & Islamic, Early Christian & Byzantine, Romanesque and Gothic
- Renaissance: Proto-Renaissance, Early Italian Renaissance, High Italian Renaissance and Northern Renaissance
- Baroque and Beyond: Baroque, Rococo to Today (modern art) and Global Highlights (non-Western art)
The curriculum comes with a textbook and teacher’s guide along with helpful tips and definitions.
The Master and His Apprentices is a 350+ page book that contains over 600 beautiful images.
Each chapter of the book discusses the time period and the kind of art that was created during this time period. Students get information about the artist, the culture and the lifestyle of the people during that time period. Along with each chapter there are student sheets for your student to work through.
The Teacher Syllabus gives you a suggested schedule that you can follow. Quizzes, Tests, Papers and Worksheets are included throughout the course so that a full credit for an Art History Elective can be given.
What I thought about it:
I loved that this curriculum is taught from a Christian Worldview and not a worldly one. I really loved that the opening chapters are on creation. It sets the tone for the whole semester.
While hardback copies are available of this curriculum, I received a digital copy. After having done so many reviews with digital products I think I have to resign myself to the fact that I am an old school hardback kind of gal. I like to hold things in my hand, browse, set down and come back to it. I want to highlight and make notes along the way as well. Of course with the right tools this can be done with anything on a computer, but still…
For this reason, {and maybe this reason alone} I’m thankful that my children are growing up in the digital age, because so much of learning is done from a screen these days.
If you don’t mind the digital copies, you of course have the ability to print off the material. The Teacher’s guide gives you very detailed directions on how to print pages so that they print the way they are supposed to be viewed. .
There is a lot of reading in this course. There is no doubt that the author spent a tremendous amount of time studying and creating a comprehensive course. Throughout the study I truly felt that there was as much history in this course as there was art. I feel pretty confident that you could easily throw in a few history books to supplement and have a history credit as well.
I really loved the rich illustrations and although I am not necessarily an art aficionado I do love history so I really jumped all into the details. I also really loved the biblical perspective and history that was included. If you are not a bible believing Christian or you struggle with some theories like young earth, you may not appreciate the perspective given, but I love it when any author can make the bible come to life, I believe this was done masterfully throughout this text.
If you would like to see what others thought about it, Hop on over to the Crew page and check them out.
Check out the my other Reviews Here:
Angela is the Homeschool Encourager for the Overwhelmed & Under-Caffeinated and the Chaos-to-Confidence Specialist behind Schooling with Grace. With a no-fluff approach, a dash of humor, and a whole lot of heart, she helps homeschool moms cut through the chaos, ditch unrealistic expectations, and teach with confidence.