The Master and His Apprentices: Art History from a Christian Perspective Review

My kids have fond memories of an art history class they took when they were younger. We learned so much from the class and found it extremely interesting. Now that my daughter is in highschool I was intrigued at the ideal of being able to teach my daughter more with The Master and His Apprentices: Art History from a Christian Perspective from The Master and His Apprentices.

I received a Digital Edition of the Textbook and Teacher Guide, and the print rights for additional students. There is a physical hardcover book of the Textbook and a soft cover Teacher Guide available also.

The author is a former homeschooler, Gina Ferguson. She earned her degree in art and English. She ended up being approached about teaching the homeschool community art history class. They wanted to class approached with no nudity in the art, which proved to require a lot of creativity on her end. There wasn’t any resources from a Christian perspective available, and this ultimately led her to writing this Christian art history textbook. That is me paraphrasing a lot. You can read her story here.

The Master and His Apprentices: Art History from a Christian Perspective is intended for highschool and can be used as a full credit for high school.  There is enough information for over 120 hours with 3-4 hours a week to meet the requirements for a full Elective credit.

Over the 36 weeks (instructions for a shorter course of 17 weeks provided also) for The Master and His Apprentices study you will write up 4 papers on different artist and time periods and each paper they will focus on a different piece and art style. To make it easier for you as a parent there is an “Art History Paper Instructions” that explains each of the 4 papers and what the requirements are. I love it you have it all neatly printed out and don’t need to figure out what your student should write.  

There are 4 exams throughout the course as well as questions after each chapter.

It is recommended that you have a Bible to pursue some of the questions asked and have the “Terms to Describe Art” handout from the Teachers Guide to refer to often.

The Teachers Guide

This has 116 pages and has everything you need to teach this course. 

There is an attendance and grade sheet, syllabus (it’s also available as a downloadable editable worksheet on the website), handouts needed for the student, all of your weekly discussion questions and exams. The answer key to all the discussions and exams. Along with several helpful tips in teaching the course. There is also a week by week reminder for the teacher.

Printing Rights

The printing rights if for one student. For additional students in your home is $2.00 per student. Copying the student worksheets and exams is not permitted without purchasing the reproducible rights.

The Master and His Apprentices: Art History from a Christian Perspective Textbook

The course has 19 Chapters with 380 pages. If you’re wanting to look at the art pieces by location in the book there are several of the pieces listed in the “Pieces by Location.” an 8 page timeline is also included in the Appendix as well as a downloadable one on the website.

There are over 600 full colored art from sculptures, architecture, pottery, jewelry, mosaics, paintings, and so much more within the pages of this Christian art history textbook. Every page has some kind of stunning photo related to the history era you are learning about. I love that art history is taught from a Biblical Worldview!

The text starts out with Creation and goes into the following studies:

 Ancient Cultures from Near East, Egyptians, and Aegean

Classical Antiquity, Early Greek, Etruscan, and Roman

Middle Ages, Early Christian and Byzantine, Medieval and Islamic, Romanesque, and Gothic

Renaissance, Early Italian Renaissance, High Italian Renaissance, and the Northern Renaissance

Baroque Era and Beyond, Baroque, Rococo to Today, Global Highlights

The lessons are taught in a chronological order of history. Throughout the chapter there are timelines of the section you’re learning about and a full time line in the appendix. The timelines are broken up showing Major Biblical Events, Famous Art from the era you are reading about. The last part shows Important World Events of during the era.

The majority of the text does spend more time on Ancient Cultures and the Renaissance art history. The section on the Baroque and Global Highlights which is Non-Western Art only has a few pages dedicated to them. I would love to see more in this era and even more modern art history personally. Maybe a future textbook-hint hint! I found the Baroque era fascinating when I was looking over that chapter.

How did I use The Master and His Apprentices: Art History from a Christian Perspective?

I have to admit that I’m not much of a digit download person and prefer a physical book in my hands. I just love being able to flip back and forth in a book. I decided to print several chapters of the textbook and Teacher Guide and bound them in a comb binder.

 I have been using this with my 10 grade daughter over the last several weeks. I have been reading the majority of the lessons to her but, she likes to read a paragraph or two to me (which is huge as reading is difficult for her). I have a unique situation with my daughter with her special needs and her abilities in several areas. She loves art and history and can comprehend the topic at her level. Writing and being able to put her thoughts on paper is difficult. The physical aspect is that she has severe Rheumatoid Arthritis and writing has to be modified. We do a lot of oral work or I write down her words for her if it requires a lot of writing. We discussed the questions orally. As far as the exams and her writing 4 papers it’s not going to happen. That doesn’t mean I’ll let it slide by! We haven’t reached the first exam yet. My plan is dictate her exam. I don’t think I’ll get several pages out of her. It will give me a chance to evaluate her comprehension of what she is learning. The most important thing is that Bug enjoys it. She likes the curriculum. She really likes all the amazing photos. Bug informed me, “that everything is so interesting!”

I plan on using this as a full credit for high school. We have been going at a faster pace during this review period so we could finish several chapters. However starting next fall I’m going to slow down the pace and break it up for 2 years for her.

I’m really impressed with The Master and His Apprentices. I have put it on my wish list to purchase a physical copy by next fall. I’m really excited to use this with her and with my son in the future.

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Other members of the Homeschool Review Crew have been using The Master and His Apprentices: Art History from a Christian Perspective also. Stop by their blogs and see what they have to say.