So...

What advice can I give to the students who are taking AP art history next year??

1. READ THE BOOK: now I am not suggesting that you read the entire book, because let's be honest, it's HUGE, but do read most of it because it will help you out SO much.

2. Make your notecards prior to class: It's easiest if you just make them all while you are watching a movie or something

3. Along the same lines...don't lose your notecards: I did and it was a pain.

4. On the notecards, write: the name of the artist (if there is one), and then write the name of the art, the dimensions, etc. Do this prior to class. I don't think it necessary to write where the art is now. "Louvre Museum, Paris." It's simply a waste of time, and if later in life you really want to know where it is, look it up in google. Here's the link : ) Google. Or I suppose you could look in your books, but good luck finding that one image in there.

5. Study the notecards. You may be wondering why I put this here at all. It must be obvious, right? wrong. Study them.

6. And finally, enjoy the class. You are going to be going through hundreds and hundreds of images of beautiful (some not, but mostly beautiful) artwork. Enjoy it. If you think of it less like a class (but still do all your work), and more like something fun, it will be enjoyable.

So, for anyone who decided to take this... GOOD LUCK!

Life After Death

What happens after you die? Many people can hypothesize what will happen to your souls—is there heaven, hell, an after-life, reincarnation. No one really knows the answer to that. What we do know is what happens to you physically. Different cultures have different practices and traditions after a person’s death. Another burial place in India, is the Taj Mahal.

It was built by Mughal emperor Shah Jahan in memory ofhis third wife, Mumtaz Mahal. The Taj Mahal is an icon in the modern world for love and sometimes even considered one of the wonders of the world today.

The Etruscans would place the corpses in sarcophagi. They were mostly meant to stay above ground, hence the elaborate construction of the reclining man and woman. Some, like the Etruscan one pictured (the Sarcophagus of the Spouses) were built freestanding, and placed in a tomb or crypt.

The two reclining are dining on a couch, which represents marital bliss. “Etruscans believed that death was the journey to the afterlife and had a fear that neglected dead may become malevolent; therefore, tombs were constructed with particular care, solidity, and lavishness” (Kozlowski). They would be elaborately constructed, so the dead would not haunt the living.