Unit 2: Narrative, Myth and Allegory
Art Appreciation · Semester 1 Plan · Unit 2 of 5 · ← Unit 1 | Unit 3 →
What this unit does
This unit is about how images carry a story without words. The first half builds your vocabulary — narrative (where a still image places time), myth (shared shorthand that needs an audience who already knows the story), allegory (the image that means something elsewhere), and cycle — and turns it into a made thing: a ten-frame storyboard that has to work on framing alone.
The second half centres on a pair of paintings: Titian’s Venus of Urbino (what it asks you to accept as natural) against Manet’s Olympia (where its refusals are located), with Gentileschi’s Judith Slaying Holofernes as a close-looking study of the problem of the witness. The critique flow (describe, account, judge) is taught from scratch at the top of Lesson 04. The storyboard is direct rehearsal for the A2 comparison — both are about reading what a picture decided.
Dates and span
- Weeks 4–7: Sun 2026-09-20 to Fri 2026-10-16. 16 sessions (8 + 8) across a broken calendar.
- Opens on the Sunday make-up day, 2026-09-20.
- Mid-Autumn Festival: Fri 2026-09-25 / Sun 2026-09-27. National Day holiday: 2026-10-01 to 10-07.
- Saturday make-up day 2026-10-10, with Sports Day in the afternoon (short session).
- A2 sits Tue 2026-10-13.
- Foreign Culture Day: Fri 2026-10-16.
These dates may shift when the school publishes the calendar for this period.
Lessons
- Lesson 04: Telling It Without Words — 8 days, the longest lesson in the semester: critique flow, narrative/myth/allegory/cycle, storyboard begun on day 8, then homework over the break; CS2, LB2.
- Lesson 05: Titian to Manet — 8 days: storyboard debrief, Gentileschi (twice), Titian, Manet, comparison workshop, A2 on day 7; CS3.
Assessment
| Item | Date | What |
|---|---|---|
| LB2 | Wed 2026-09-23 | Posting from the cycle-reading session |
| CS2 | Tue 2026-09-29 | Ten-frame storyboard, collected in class |
| CS3 | Fri 2026-10-09 | Storyboard debrief — find the frame where the sequence stopped being legible |
| A2 sits | Tue 2026-10-13 | In-class comparative essay, Titian vs Manet, closed |
A2 carries the mid-term grades (due Thu 2026-10-29), so it is marked within a week rather than the usual five days. Full detail is in the full register.