Quiz 1

What role does formal analysis play in art historical methodology?

Art historians seek to analyze an artist's choices in using and emphasizing elements of visual expression to understand what message or cultural values he or she was seeking to communicate through the artwork

True or false: Once an art historian has analyzed an artwork or building, we have a definitive interpretation of that artwork or building and the job is done.

False. Art historical analysis of any work or building is an on-going enterprise in which interpretations are continuously added to or revised.

According to art historian Penny Howell Jolly, what accounts for the close formal similarities between the Netherlandish painter Rogier Van der Weyden and the Florentine painter Fra Angelico?

a mutual connection to the Carthusian monastic order

An architectural "section" is:

a plan that presents a view of the interior of a building as if it had been cut vertically from top to bottom

What is the "natural subject matter" of Raphael's Madonna of the Goldfinch (Intro-4)?

a woman with two little boys

Which of the following kinds of art is/are three-dimensional?

architecture and sculpture-in-the-round

What does "naturalism" refer to in stylistic analysis?

attempt to represent the observable world in a manner that appears to describe its visual appearance accurately

What term is used for the organization or arrangement of forms in a work of art?

composition

In art, what does modeling refer to?

creating the illusion of three-dimensionality through shading

What kind of axis does Renoir use in his Mme. Charpentier and her Children (Intro-5)?

diagonal

n his painting The Education of the Virgin (p. XXVI in the printed book, in the "Closer Look" video in Revel), painter Georges de la Tour sets the mood through:

dramatic contrast of light and shadow

True or false: Analysis of composition focuses on the individual expressive elements of an artwork.

false

Line, shape, color, light, texture, space, mass, volume, and composition are the principal elements of what aspect of art?

form

What kind of axis do you see in Rogier Van der Weyden's Crucifixion Triptych with Donors and Saints (Intro-7)?

horizontal and vertical

As broadly defined, what is "iconography"?

images and symbols in a work of art

What is the term for achieving a three-dimensional composition by using a mathematical formula to construct images in which all elements are shaped by, or arranged along, orthogonals that converge in one or more vanishing points on a horizon line?

linear perspective

The forms of the Lindisfarne Gospel (p. XXVII in the printed book, in the "Closer Look" video in Revel) are created primarily through:

lines

In art, what does medium refer to?

material or materials from which a work of art is made

In his Holy Family (p. XXVII in the printed book, in the "Closer Look" video in Revel) Michelangelo achieves a strong sense of three-dimensionality on a flat surface plane through what technique?

overlapping, modeling, foreshortening

Which of the following kinds of art is/are two-dimensional?

photograph and painting

Foreground, middle ground, and background are parts of what aspect of an artwork?

picture plane

Art history seeks to understand meaning from the past from the point of view of its:

producers and consumers

How would you characterize the picture plane of Rogier van der Weyden's Crucifixion with the Virgin and St John the Evangelist (Intro-6)

shallow

How would you characterize the composition of Rogier Van der Weyden's Crucifixion Triptych with Donors and Saints (Intro-7):

symmetrical

"Smooth," "polished," "rough," "prickly," "grainy," or "oily" are all examples of words that are used to describe what formal aspect of an artwork or building?

texture

What is the "iconography" of Raphael's Madonna of the Goldfinch?

the Virgin and Child with Jesus and John the Baptist

Which of the following does Stokstad NOT mention as a valid type of art historical analysis?

value judgement

Which of the following is a kind of axis we see in pictorial art and architecture?

vertical, horizontal, diagonal