A-LEVEL CLASSICAL CIVILISATION

Transcription

1 A-LEVEL CLASSICAL CIVILISATION CIV2C Athenian Vase Painting Report on the Examination 2020 June 2017 Version: 1.0

2 Further copies of this Report are available from aqa.org.uk Copyright 2017 AQA and its licensors. All rights reserved. AQA retains the copyright on all its publications. However, registered schools/colleges for AQA are permitted to copy material from this booklet for their own internal use, with the following important exception: AQA cannot give permission to schools/colleges to photocopy any material that is acknowledged to a third party even for internal use within the school or college.

3 General Comments Although there were still relatively few students sitting the Athenian vases paper, the number of students this year was the second highest in the lifespan of the qualification. As in every year of the specification, many students revealed interest, knowledge and enjoyment of this topic, but the attention to detail, so prevalent previously, was not as evident in Very few students attempted Option B on The Berlin and Achilles Painters (usually very popular subjects). Again, for the 30 mark essay options a considerable majority answered the Option C question on early redfigure painting. These students generally performed better than the small group who looked at redfigure paintings of gods, but the performance of both were somewhat disappointing. Section 1 Option A Over the years students have proved extremely strong on the basic knowledge of dates, vase shapes etc that feature in the short answer questions. That was again true this year. For 01 almost all students dated the Amasis Painter correctly, while over three quarters identified the wine jug ( oinochoe or olpe ) with confidence for 02. The general question 03 took a number by surprise but specific points rather than the expected general responses were credited and most students achieved highly. There were some particularly pleasing responses to 04 analysing the Amasis Painter s Heracles scene with thorough detail and appreciation. Here the regularity of black-figure painting was acknowledged, while the strongest accounts showed with good examples (variety of supporting figures, blending of a human figure with one of an animal etc) how the painter rose above mundane predictability. Unfortunately for the longer essay 05 on Exekias, many students made the mistake of restricting their answer to simple description. The question asked about new ideas and skills but many ignored this, preferring to allocate one paragraph each to the description of a particular Exekias painting. The knowledge displayed was often commendable, but without focus on the question; the marks were often restricted to Level 3 or, in a few cases, lower. The majority of responses reached the Level 3 boundary, but fewer than half of these continued to Level 4, with no Level 5 answers. Option B Students found no problem with the short questions in this option, successfully identifying the stamnos for 06 and dating Photo D to the mid-5th century BC for 07. There were some reasonable points for 09 on the Berlin Painter s Europa painting, although more could have been said on the anatomical qualities of the scene. Essays on the Achilles Painter s work showed good knowledge but lacked the analytical focus to rise above Level 3. 3 of 5

4 Section 2 Again it is necessary to repeat that, for the 30 mark questions, 12 marks only are allocated to AO1 knowledge. This continues to be the main reason why many responses do not reach the Level 4 boundary. To gain the 18 marks allocated for understanding and evaluation, students must make use of their knowledge to respond directly to the question. Generally a more concise and thoughtful answer will achieve the higher levels of the mark scheme than a rushed longer essay. This year the questions asked students to assess the similarity between late black-figure and early red-figure paintings, or to estimate the degree of success red-figure painters achieved in depicting the power of gods. Essays that did not supply a focused answer did not score many understanding and evaluation marks, however much factual content they contained. Option C There were a few excellent responses to Question 11 from students who selected examples well and illustrated progression, or lack of it, in the early days of red-figure painting. Some made full use of the opportunities afforded by bilingual vases to bring out the technical differences between the two modes of illustration, the heavy use of incision for black-figure and the lighter, more flexible opportunities offered by the red-figure method. It was however quite disappointing that the majority of students restricted their answer to a simple description of each side, often concluding that there was little or no difference, because the two sides basically showed the same scene. Similarly, when moving on to discuss, for example, the Euthymides Revellers painting, little attention was paid to the revolutionary attempts to illustrate movement and anatomy, with much analysis being restricted to the number of figures being the same as in a typical black-figure example. Finally a number of students claimed that the Sosias Painter s celebrated Achilles and Patroclus cup showed no original features and so lost the opportunity, taken by the minority, to discuss in detail new ways of filling space, portraying human anatomy and creating an atmosphere that would have been difficult to produce with black-figure techniques. There were more Level 2 answers here than in the past and, while three-quarters of students reached Level 3, only a disappointing fifth or so went on to pass the Level 4 boundary. Option D The points concerning Option C above apply even more strongly to Option D. Of the six essays here, none reached Level 4 or higher. There was a greater than usual misattribution of paintings to painters which prevented some students from presenting a convincing argument. Often in these examples, detail was very general, with the power of gods barely referenced if at all. The Niobid and Meidias Painters scenes were often cited as examples, but the supporting detail rarely went beyond the most basic description. A small minority of responses reached Level 3 for providing a reasonable amount of knowledge, but overall these essays lacked the confidence in detail to allow any convincing analysis of the question to emerge. 4 of 5

5 Use of statistics Statistics used in this report may be taken from incomplete processing data. However, this data still gives a true account on how students have performed for each question. Mark Ranges and Award of Grades Grade boundaries and cumulative percentage grades are available on the Results Statistics page of the AQA Website. 5 of 5