Art History I

Survey the history of art, from antiquity to the present, on a global scale. This nine-part series reveals the role art and creative imagination have played in forging humanity, and introduces viewers to works of beauty, ingenuity, and illumination across cultures. Principal contributors Simon Schama, Mary Beard, and David Olusoga travel across the globe, visiting such cultural landmarks as the great mosques of Istanbul, the ancient cities of Mesoamerica, the Buddhist caves of Ajanta in India, the Aztecs' Templo Mayor in modern Mexico City, the funeral site of China's first emperor and many more. Narrated by Liev Schreiber.

From Credo Reference Online.

Streaming video from Films On Demand: Pleasing the eye is important, but a skilled designer also pays attention to the consumer’s mind, emotions, and needs. This program explores the basic elements of design and how they can be manipulated to create powerful visual and interactive experiences. Detailing the properties of line, shape, tone, point, texture, color, and letterform—and how designers organize these elements through contrast, patterning, figure-ground tension, and other methods—the video uses examples in architecture, landscaping, graphics, and other fields to reinforce essential concepts. Students will find the program’s lively animation sequences helpful as they absorb each design lesson. Viewable/printable educational resources are available online. (31 minutes)

This video helps viewers recognize artworks by media and techniques, and identify characteristics of work within key cultural and historical periods as well as styles, movements, and periods within the art world. The program also reveals how artists and art historians use floor plans, elevation drawings, and other visual tools.

This video defines the elements of art and principles of design and shows how they are used when describing and analyzing works of art. Learn the distinction between different media, techniques, materials, and processes used in art making and their practical and symbolic implications of each. Finally, experts discuss the components of a formal analysis of a single work as well as a comparative formal analysis of two or more artworks.

In this video, learn key terms and language associated with viewing, discussing, and analyzing art. The program introduces the goals of historical analysis and investigation while examining the themes and influence of culture on art including the Western Canon.

When assessing art, compare and contrast artworks according to subject matter, style, iconography, and composition. This video explains how to identify and apply different methods art historians developed to think about artworks and analyze their meaning, quality, and structures. These include: formal analysis, style, social history, status, reception, patronage, iconography, semiotics, and imagery. Experts highlight current debates in the art field and consider the impact of digital technologies.

This video illustrates the steps and procedures necessary to research a work of art. Learn how to construct a well-supported argument using visual, historical, and textual evidence.

This film defines context and its relationship to subject matter, patronage, audience, function, setting, iconography and symbolism in art. Examine the physical, economic, and social contexts which shaped the major categories of art. Learn what questions to ask to better investigate context and meaning and to develop a contextual analysis of a single work or a comparative contextual analysis of two or more works.