Teaching History of Art in German and SpanishAuthor(s): Marilyn StokstadSource: Art Journal, Vol. 23, No. 2 (Winter, 1963-1964), p. 142Published by: College Art AssociationStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/774514 .

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Marilyn Stokstad

TEACHING HISTORY OF ART

IN GERMAN AND SPANISH

After three years of experimentation it seems appropriate to report to the readers of the ART

JOURNAL on the progress made at the Univer- sity of Kansas in teaching an elementary course in the History of Art in foreign languages. The program began quite accidentally when, after a few meetings with her class in Latin American Art and her seminar in Latin Amer- ican Colonial Architecture, Dr. Martha De Castro, formerly of the University of Havana, Cuba, discovered that all her students had some preparation in Spanish. She began giving part of the work in Spanish, and, in spite of her own mastery of English, by popular request at the end of the semester she was teaching entirely in Spanish. The students were so enthusiastic that we decided to offer one section of our multiple-sectioned general sur- vey course in Spanish the next fall and en- listed the help of the Romance Language Department and the Latin American Area Studies Committee of the University to recruit students.

The students were naturally a bit hesitant at first, and Dr. De Castro found that she had twice as many auditors as students enrolled; however, these auditors proved to be unusually faithful in their attendance. In reviewing the course at the end of the semester, we con- cluded that it had been a success. Since we also had on our staff a native of Germany, Dr. Klaus Berger, we suggested the same kind of course to the Germanic Language and Litera- ture Department. They were eager to cooperate since they already had an "unwritten require- ment" of a course in History of Art for German majors. Perhaps partly because of the precedent of the Spanish group, we had better enrollment and extraordinarily good results.

Students in the Spanish and German sec- tions were equally distributed among the four undergraduate classes, while auditors included graduate students, assistant instructors and fac- ulty wives. Variation in language proficiency proved to be less a handicap than we had supposed, although, on the advice of the Language Departments, during enrollment we recommended that the students have at least two years of language preparation. At the end of the spring semester the German group was sent a questionnaire so that we might learn a little more about the students. (Had this been planned as a research project from the beginning, we might have been more efficient about collecting data; however, we are an enthusiastic group of art historians, not social scientists, and it did not occur to anyone to

make up a questionnaire or to take a survey until the courses were over.) From our ques- tionnaire we learned that six students had at- tended the University of Kansas summer Language Institute near Munich, two had spent even more time in Germany, one was German, and the others had never traveled outside the U.S.A. One freshman had had only high school preparation and one semester of college work, but she reported that she had no difficulty fol- lowing the lectures. Eight students were in their fourth semester of German, while the maximum college preparation in German was 38 semester hours. The classroom situation was admirably summed up by one student who wrote, "The course is moderately easy, as long as I pay strict attention." Very few of the students had any previous background or inter- est in art, but many now plan to take more ad- vanced art history courses.

The Department of History of Art conceived of the courses as essentially general introduc- tions to the History of Art comparable to the sections given in English; therefore, the courses carried credit only in the Department of History of Art, not in either of the Language Departments. The first Spanish section was not even given an individual course number; stu- dents were simply advised that a specific sec- tion would be taught in Spanish. To avoid confusion at registration the next year the German section was given its own course num- ber. The courses consisted of three lectures a week as well as required outside reading. For the required outside reading in the Spanish section, a variety of books were provided in the liberary, including Ars Hispaniae and Pi- joan's Summa Artis. In the German section assignments were made in Gombrich's Die Geschichte der Kunst but students were in- formed of the existence of the English edition in the library and book store.

While lectures were given exclusively in Spanish or German, Dr. De Castro allowed the students to interrupt with questions in English or Spanish if they wished. Dr. Berger gave technical words in both German and English but established the rule that any question asked in class must be in German. In his report at the end of the semester he said, "Questions in English were possible, but only after class in my office." But then he added, "The latter case never happened." Examinations were written in either language, and both professors reported that the students usually resorted to a hasty mixture. Of course, the grades were based on an understanding of art history, not on language proficiency.

Part of the advantage of the course to the student naturally lay in hearing Spanish or German at a normal rate as used by native speakers. For many students, this was their first experience in using a language as a prac- tical tool for acquiring other information rather than simply studying it as an end in itself. A student wrote, "I think that a course taught in a foreign language is a marvelous opportunity to learn two things at once, and it is also fun to take such a course." Needless to say, we have had requests for history of are in French, and we hope to be able to offer such a course next year.

It should be emphasized that surveys of his- tory of art were given, not specialized courses in the art of Spain or Germany designed just for language students. The monuments ana- lyzed, but not the actual course content, were varied to fit the language interest. Whenever feasible, works by artists of the country or paintings and sculpture in museums in the country were used to make the same point being made in the English language survey. For example, Dr. De Castro in the Spanish section began with the caves of Altamira in- stead of Lascaux and made such substitutions as the aqueduct of Segovia for the Pont du Gard, the Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela for St. Sernin in Toulouse, and the Cathedrals of Burgos and Leon for those of Chartres and Amiens. The principles of Baroque painting were illustrated by the art of Velazquez as well as Rubens (whose paintings in the Prado were emphasized), and naturally the nineteenth and twentieth centuries were seen in works by Goya, Picasso, and Miro.

History of Art proved to be an excellent course for experiments in teaching American students in another language, because the con- stant use of visual material made the lectures relatively easy to follow. Moreover, the classes were very receptive. Language students are usu- ally interested in all aspects of the culture of the people whose languages they are learning but often study only the literature and history; "Area Studies" courses are heavily weighted toward the Social Sciences. The students were unanimous in their enthusiasm for the art his- tory courses. Wrote one, "A student majoring in the language of any country should become familiar with the culture of that country, and one of the best methods is to study the art produced there. The language becomes alive when the student receives instruction in it; the student forgets that he is listening to a for- eign tongue. I am enthusiastic about this course."

The students were not the only ones to feel they had profited from our experiment". Dr. De Castro and Dr. Berger were both pleased with the results. At the end of the semester Dr. Berger said "In all my years of teaching I have never had such a rewarding experience, more interested and dedicated students, and now such high quality examination essays."

Perhaps most significant was the student response to our request for suggestions for the future development of the program. Not only were there no serious criticisms of the courses, but the majority of the students expressed a desire for other departments to start foreign language sections. A sophomore wrote, "It is the most efficient way to really learn a lan- guage, and the only way to retain a language once it is learned. The course material is en- hanced by adding the further challenge of the language. I think courses of this nature are best adapted to visual aid lectures, thereby somewhat simplifying the vocabulary problems. I hope that classes can be begun in all areas . . ." And a senior said, ". . . it gives an opportunity to put one's knowledge of a language to practical use. Whenever feasible, these efforts should be extended, especially for students who plan to study abroad."

ART JOURNAL XXIII 2 142

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