Art History from a Christian Perspective {A Review}
When I first heard of The Master and His Apprentices: Art History from a Christian Perspective I was intrigued. After all, is not God the Master Artist, Creator of all things? I was definitely interested in seeing the approach The Master and His Apprentices took in incorporating this perspective into Art History.
We received a digital copy of both the student book and teachers manual to review, as well as printing rights for our family. I did find it interesting that even though it is a digital copy, they ask that you only print one copy of the book and that for the worksheets in the teachers manual you purchase rights for $2/student in addition to the book. We chose not to print the student book, because the benefit of being able to see the pictures would be lost with a black and white printer and it was too expensive to have it printed elsewhere. My daughter was able to access the book on her tablet and I on my computer, but we both found the digital copy to be cumbersome. I did learn later that the chapter titles were in fact links even though they did not look like it. I still could not find an easy way to navigate back and forth between different chapters or to go back to the Table of Contents, but it’s possible that is my ignorance of the PDF software. Still, I would prefer, and recommend, that for at least the student book, it be hard copy, unless you have a good color printer and can print a copy. Since the teachers manual is mostly worksheets and tests, a digital copy is fine and probably preferable.
The curriculum is designed to be a 36-week high school course that is worth one credit upon completion. I really liked that the teachers manual came with a sample syllabus, along with essay topics. I would say, that unless you have a student passionate about art history or history in general, this is best suited for 11th and 12th grade.
In terms of art history, this book is very well done. The author is well informed and passionate about her subject. There is quite a bit more history than one might expect in an art history book, so you could easily tweek it to be an ancient or world history credit. There is also no nudity among the art found in this text. For famous works such as The Creation of Adam by Michelangelo, only a cropped image is shown.
I did appreciate this because sometimes nudity can be uncomfortable, even in art form, for teenagers to look at and discuss.
The author does write with a very strong bias, which was the biggest downside to me. She very much believes in a young Earth philosophy and in original sin and these permeate every inch of this text. We do not believe that the earth was created in a literal seven days, but that time was created for man and God measures time differently. Moses, however, in teaching about the creation used increments that the Israelite’s were familiar with. We also believe that prior to the Fall, Adam and Eve were immortal. Nowhere in the scriptures does it say how long they lived in the Garden of Eden before the Fall. It is quite possible that they were there for millenia. We only know that man began measuring time from the beginning of the Fall, when they became mortal, so we do not discount that the earth could be millions of years old. We also believe that man will be punished for their own sin and not for Adam’s transgression.
As homeschoolers, we frequently use both secular and Christian curriculum. We are used to discussing differing points of doctrine or philosophy with our children when they arise, but I do prefer to keeps those differences within the texts to a minimum. There were times, however, when reading this text that I felt I was reading a religious manifesto with sprinklings of art history, as opposed to an art history book that contained some religious beliefs. Obviously, with the title The Master and His Apprentices, I expected there to contain a religious element. However, the text was saturated with the author’s very specific personal beliefs that it didn’t leave much by way of inclusion for other Christian beliefs. At the end of the book, she includes a few articles about what she believes and why. I felt with the inclusion of these, she could have made the actual text more inclusive, instead of trying to continually convert her reader.
She does include a timeline that has both the art pieces and major events in the Bible listed. Due to her belief in a young Earth, her dates differ from what you may find in other art history books. For example, she believes that any art prior to the Flood would have been destroyed. This means she does not believe that the dating for the prehistoric era is correct as those pieces could not have existed until after the Flood. She touches on art from this era very briefly towards the end of the book. Regardless, I found her timeline interesting and useful in placing what came when in correlation to events in the Bible. I did appreciate her disclosure that she believes in a young Earth and that was why she dated pieces as she did. I didn’t even mind so much that her dates were different, because most dating is inaccurate anyway. What I did not appreciate were the moments when it felt she was trying to convert the reader to believe accordingly.
My daughter did not care much for this curriculum, in part because she was just not interested in the subject matter. We originally planned to have her start at the beginning and work through chronologically, but she kept looking up the scriptures the author referenced (she uses ESV, we use KJV) and felt she was using some of them out of context and so her already limited interest waned. I ended up just having her pick an area she was interested in and reading that. She did really like the chapter on Leonardo Di Vinci and she learned new things that she was excited to discuss.
For the worksheets, in addition to references to art history there were questions that related to the authors specific religious or scientific beliefs. For example, the author has a theory for how Noah was able to fill the ark with animals. It is not proven; it is simply a personal belief the author has that she has developed through her personal study, yet on the worksheet she asks the student to describe how Noah got all the animals on the ark, assuming therefore, that her theory is correct. She also assumes that the student believes in a young Earth and shares her religious beliefs based on some of the questions presented. I simply had my daughter skip all of these questions. These types of questions did become less frequent as you work through the text and seemed to be more concentrated in the chapters related to the Creation and Ancient Cultures.
The actual parts of this text that discusses art history is really well done. The subject matter is well relayed and interesting. Although, for students who do not already have an interest in art or history, it may be a more challenging read. It would be a good reference book for a parent to use to teach younger children, especially since the pictures are all clean.
If you believe in a young Earth and in original sin and are looking for an art history book, I think you will love this one. If you do not share these beliefs, it is still a good art history book, you may just want to preview chapters before unleashing your child with it. The author’s desire to relate and direct artists back to the Master Artist definitely shows her passion for finding God in all things. And while I may not share her views entirely, I do share her passion for recognizing the hand of God in our everyday lives.
