NCEA Level 2 Art History case studies
NCEA Level 2 Art History · Put your knowledge to work in context.
NCEA Level 2 Art History is a subject within New Zealand's National Certificate of Educational Achievement, the national senior secondary qualification administered by the New Zealand Qualifications Authority (NZQA). It is designed for secondary students in Aotearoa New Zealand who want to study art through analysis, interpretation and context rather than studio production, though it can also be taken by adult learners and international students enrolled with a New Zealand provider. The NCEA Level 2 Art History case studies are 5 cases and about 2,316 words.
1The Signed Panel and the Second Hand
A regional museum owns a gold-ground panel, 68 × 45 cm, showing the Virgin and Child with two saints. An inscription along the bottom reads 'Lippo me fecit' and a date that is abraded but ends in '...89'.
491 words, about 2 min2Vanity or Moderation: Revising a Still-Life Label
A small university gallery displays a 17th-century Dutch still life, 54 × 72 cm, signed with a monogram 'AVH' and dated 1648. It shows a half-peeled lemon, a silver dish, a fallen glass, a watch, and a sheet of music.
486 words, about 2 min3The Eosin Watercolour Loan
A small historical society owns an 1880s watercolour, 32 × 48 cm, by a colonial New Zealand artist, showing a timber town beside a river. The red roofs are painted with a bright dye identified as eosin.
451 words, about 2 min4Occupying the Portrait Frame
A public gallery plans a solo exhibition by a fictional Māori artist, Rangi Te Whata, whose series 'Ancestor Portraits' uses 19th-century European portrait formats-oval frames, dark backgrounds, gold lettering-but inserts woven harakeke patterns and paints over reproductions of colonial survey maps. One work, 'Tupuna I', uses red ochre pigment and a title in te reo Māori.
451 words, about 2 min5Dating the Portrait with the 1603 Inscription
A museum portrait of a woman, 76 × 64 cm, oil on canvas, bears an inscription on the reverse: 'Aetatis suae 23, 1603'. The online catalogue dates it 1603.
437 words, about 2 min