Today we have another article in our series of A level choices newsletters. We sat down with Cora to talk about History of Art A level.
Cora is one of Clarendon’s best History of Art tutors. She is a PhD Candidate in History of Art at University College London. She was a 2023 Visiting Scholar at Yale University. Cora holds a First Class BA in History of Art from the University of Cambridge and Distinction in MA History of Art from the Courtauld. She has been tutoring History of Art A-Level with Clarendon since 2018 and successfully worked with over 20 students taking this course.
We sat down with her to ask her a few questions about the A level course.
What can students expect to learn with History of Art A level?
Students can expect to learn about a wide range of works of art and artists from periods across history. You will be encouraged to think about questions including: how an art work is made and why, what the relationship between art and society is, why art changes, what motivates artists? Almost Uniquely, studying History of Art teaches you the skill of visual analysis and the ability to look with detail at objects: this is a skill which I find enriches life well beyond an academic context. One of the reasons I think History of Art is such an exciting subject, and A-Level, is because the subject constantly requires you to move between thinking about broad ideas and very detailed looking – from the macrocosm of society, to the minutiae of brushwork within a single painting.
What type of students will thrive with this subject?
History of Art is a truly interdisciplinary subject and therefore a wide range of students will thrive with this course. It is an essay-based subject so popular with Humanities oriented students but I have also previously tutored students taking History of Art Level alongside Maths and Physics, who have done very well so the appeal is wide ranging! For anyone interested in the visual world – be that fine art, architecture, ancient history or more generally public images – it’s obviously a great course.
History of Art also involves thinking about the relationship of art to wider concerns including society, religion, history, literature, politics, classics so students who are interested in any of those subjects would also enjoy the course. History of Art also is a great compliment to Language A-Levels and there are lots of options for joint History of Art and Language Degrees.
How are students examined?
Students are examined through two exam papers – the first paper is called “Visual Analysis and Themes” and the second paper is called “Periods”. In each paper there are a range of short and long answer questions and the chance to write about wide reaching aspects of the course.
What does the Edexcel syllabus focus on?
The Edexcel syllabus is designed to be broad while also giving students the opportunity to go into more depth on key case studies. The Visual Analysis aspect of Paper 1 involves writing on one unseen sculpture, painting and work of architecture. The skill of visual analysis is fundamental to art history and often taught through museum trips, learning vocabulary and discussion of different visual properties of art works.
The Themes aspect of Paper 1 will involve studying one theme your school will select from Nature, Identities or War. Studying themes will involve thinking about how a recurrent idea manifests across a breadth of works of art and architecture.
In Paper 2 “Periods” paper schools select two art historical time periods from a long list of potential subjects spanning the Medieval to Contemporary. Generally, schools pick two periods from radically different times – such as Renaissance Italy and Early 20th Century European Avante Grades – which makes the A-Level very dynamic.
What contents of the course do you think are particularly engaging?
I find Themes a particularly engaging part of the A-Level because students are encouraged to think about surprising links and connections within the History of Art. There is also a real emphasis on studying art and architecture from a range of perspectives and cultures within the A-Level as a whole, but this is particularly strongly manifest in the Themes Paper. Students often ask me if “History of art is just old masters?” and I’m really pleased that the new Edexcel syllabus makes it clear that it is not!