Andalusia PAU History of Art study plan

Build a one-page timeline of Ancient and Classical art (Mesopotamian, Egyptian, Greek, Roman) with dates, periods and three signature works per culture.

Practise formal analysis by writing, for each of the four cultures, a 150-word description using only visual evidence (form, material, composition, scale).

Memorise and correctly use 20 core terms (e.g. ziggurat, register, contrapposto, kore, cella, opus caementicium, basilica plan) in written sentences.

Identify the standard comparative pairs used in the exam (e.g. Egyptian vs. Greek figure, Kouros vs. Roman portrait) and list the contrast criteria for each.

Distinguish Early Christian, Byzantine, Romanesque and Gothic by structural system, wall treatment, light and vaulting, producing a comparison table with at least eight criteria.

Trace the evolution of the vault and the arch from Early Christian basilica to Gothic rib vault and flying buttress, annotating simple hand-drawn diagrams.

Explain iconographic programmes (Pantocrator, tympanum Last Judgement, Marian cycles) and match each to a building type.

Practise reading a plan and section: label nave, aisles, transept, apse, ambulatory, tribune on three unlabelled drawings you make yourself.

Map the Andalusian and Spanish medieval heritage: list at least six works or monuments from Al-Andalus and six from Christian Spain with dates and locations.

Analyse the Great Mosque of Córdoba phase by phase (prayer hall, arcades, mihrab, later Christian insertion) and explain each structural decision.

Compare Mudéjar and Islamic architectural vocabulary (horseshoe arch, alfiz, sebka, muqarnas, ribbed dome) and illustrate each term.

Write a full exam-style commentary on one Andalusian medieval work, following a fixed structure: identification, formal analysis, technique, function and context.

Sequence Renaissance and Mannerist artists by generation and city (Florence, Rome, Venice, and the Spanish court), with at least two works each.

Explain linear perspective, proportion and central-plan theory, and demonstrate them by drawing a one-point perspective grid and a centrally planned church outline.

Contrast High Renaissance balance with Mannerist distortion using three explicit criteria applied to two named works.

Connect Italian and Spanish Renaissance production, including the Escorial as a case of imported classicism.

Characterise Baroque naturalism, tenebrism, dynamism and theatricality, and identify each trait in at least three works.

Analyse the Spanish Golden Age: distinguish the main painters and genres (religious narrative, still life, portraiture) and explain the role of patronage and the Counter-Reformation.

Compare Italian, Flemish and Spanish Baroque approaches to light and composition using a fixed checklist.

Write a commentary on one Andalusian or Spanish Baroque work that integrates iconography, technique and social context.

Order Neoclassicism, Romanticism, Realism, Impressionism and Post-Impressionism chronologically and state the political or intellectual shift behind each.

Explain technique changes (brushwork, colour theory, plein air, photography's impact) and link each to a named work.

Practise stylistic attribution: describe ten unattributed works in your own words and justify a movement and approximate date for each.

Trace the Spanish trajectory from Goya to the late nineteenth century, including Goya's role as a hinge between periods.

List the early twentieth-century avant-gardes (Fauvism, Cubism, Expressionism, Futurism, Dada, Surrealism, abstraction) with dates, key figures and one defining work each.

Explain Cubism's break with perspective and analyse one analytical and one synthetic Cubist work in detail.

Map Spanish avant-garde production and its dialogue with European movements, including Picasso, Gris, Miró and Dalí.

Draft a manifesto-style text for one movement to prove you understand its declared aims rather than only its style.

Consolidate the method domain: rehearse a fixed commentary template (identification, description, formal analysis, technique, function, context, significance) on unseen works.

Run three timed mock exams under real conditions and mark them against the template and your glossaries.

Review only your error log, converting each recurring mistake into a corrective rule you can state in one sentence.

Rehearse comparative questions across periods, since these reward the connections built in earlier weeks.