Art Appreciation Test 2

Sympathetic magic

A form of ritual or prayer that is directed to an image or an object in order to bring about a desired result, such as a successful hunt.

Witchetty Grub Dreaming (Paddy Carroll Tjungurrayi)

A kind of contour map with symbols, indicating the location of precious food and water in arid central Australia. The work is strongly patterned, with alternating lights and darks and curving and straight lines, all radiating from a circle in the center that shows the source of the ancestor grub. Symmetry suggests the balance of the cosmos and the ancestors, providing sustenance for humans.

Hydria

A Greek ceramic water jar, usually with two handles.

Pantheism

A belief that a divine spirit permeates everything in the universe.

Saltcellar

A dish or a container designed to hold salt.

Akua'ba

A female doll used as a fertility aid by young Asanti women in Ghana.

Shinto

A major Japanese religion, with emphasis on ancestor and nature worship.

Buddha

A person who has achieved a state of complete spiritual enlightenment; one who has attained Nirvana; the Buddha is Siddhartha Gautama, the spiritual leader from India who founded Buddhism.

Daguerreotype

A photographic process invented in the nineteenth century for fixing an image on a silver-coated metal plate.

Monotheism

A religion distinguished by the belief in only one god.

Retablo

A small votive painting.

Kachina

A spirit doll of the Pueblo culture in North America.

Ancestor Dreaming

A system of spiritual beliefs for the aboriginal people in Australia that accounts for creation and the cosmos.

Pregnant Woman (Alice Neel)

Alice Neel's painting shows viewers the physical effects of pregnancy on the woman's body and mind. Neel mostly painted portraits, often nude, that created a sense of drama with her unrelentingly realistic images and her ability to capture subtle expressions. The man's portrait behind the woman may suggest intimacy, distance, possession, or protection.

Venus of Willendorf

Although sometimes labeled a fertility goddess, this small sculpture was likely more a charm or fetish. The bulbous forms were carved and painted, giving repetition and pattern to the piece and emphasizing female qualities in the swelling forms. The figure does not realistically represent someone, but rather represents the physical essence of fertility. People may have held the figurine for her power during childbirth, to ward off death, or to wish for good health. Whatever her function, she was likely a talisman for good fortune.

Buddhism

An Asian religion with the belief that the rejection of personal desires will lead to complete spiritual enlightenment.

Gnaw (Janine Antoni)

As seen in previous examples, contemporary art represents a break with traditional approaches to eating, which here becomes a means of sculpting. Antoni transformed the act of eating into an artistic process. Using material and objects that are socially defined as female fetishes, Antoni recast them in an art historical frame to raise questions about the position of women in art.

Aztec Marriage Couple

Aztec Marriage Couple, from the 16th century Codex Mendoza, depicts a man and woman seated on a mat, literally tying the knot. The codex tells viewers that the man is about 20 and the woman is about 14 or 15. It also provides details about the matchmaker and soothsayer who studied the couple's birth signs in order to ensure their compatibility, and about their parents' role in making the final selection. The picture has outlined flat shapes, with color used decoratively. Clothing is depicted with simple flowing lines, which contrast with the angular pattern of the woven mat that surrounds the couple. The drawing of the hair provides more pattern in the image. The Aztec Marriage Couple is bright and economically drawn to quickly convey essential ideas.

The Isenheim Altarpiece (Matthias Grunewald)

Christ is depicted in his sacrificial crucifixion, which fulfilled the Christian prophecy of redemption (from sin) as written in its scriptures. The dark, gloomy background obliterates all landscape detail. The grisly details of Jesus' sore-ridden and scraped skin, convulsed body, and drooping head are meant to be a realistic picture a terrible death. This painting is a conceptual form of representation: Bottom panel - Jesus' body being placed in the tomb (this scene would typically sit directly above the alter where the Eucharistic is given during communion) Crucifixion Panel - the lamb in the crucifixion panel, holding a cross and bleeding into a chalice, symbolizes animal sacrifices conducted by Jews in the past and the current offering of bread and wine. Side panels - Saints on these panels were associated with cures for the sick. People who were present at the Crucifixion, such as Roman soldiers, are omitted from this painting, while St. John the Baptist is shown, although he had already died.

Bank of China

Commercial architecture provides shelter for the needs of business and trade. Generally, for mid-20th century office buildings, the rectangle dominated architectural design. The International Style featured bare building of steel and glass, self-contained and with controlled access, which c0uld be seen in the world's large cities. However, within a few decades, there arose a movement away from the rectangle and toward triangles and diagonals, as seen in the Bank of China. The Bank of China has a strong frame of diagonal braces, and a base subdivided into four equal triangular sections.

Moche Pottery Depicting Sexual Intercourse

Created around 1000-1250 in Peru, the Moche custom was to bury ceramic pots with the dead that had naturalistic imagery recording their way of life and tribal customs, including lovemaking. The depiction of lovemaking were explicit and candid, and were likely created by the women of the culture. While the figures' faces exhibit no emotion, the variety of the sexual acts and the positions in which they are sculpted display a wide range of sexual pleasure and preference. Such sculptures may have been designed as visual aids for sex education, illustrating not only human reproduction but perhaps birth control as well.

Frederick Douglass

Early examples of monochromatic photographic processes are daguerreotypes, such as Frederick Douglass. This is an early form of photography, and, thus, was precious, as indicated by the elaborate frame.

Hall of Bulls

Food, art, and ritual are likely linked in prehistoric cave paintings, like those in the Hall of Bulls. The paintings' exact purpose is unknown, but some anthropologists propose that rituals could be performed on the animals' likenesses to ensure a successful hunt. In prehistoric cultures, hunters, gatherers, and early farmers linked art and ritual to accomplish tasks like bringing rain for crops. This is "sympathetic magic," and the artist/shaman could attain great status in society - and in some cultures still does.

Zeus or Poseidon

From the Classical period, this sculpture appears monumental, muscular, and ideally proportioned. It conveys a sense of action and energy and, at the same time, poise and dignity. Note that the earliest images of the gods portrayed them as stiff and frontal, without fluid movements, similar to Egyptian sculpture. Later, Classic depictions had convincing anatomy and movement but were entirely idealized and flawless, conforming to Greek standards of beauty.

There Is No Escape (Sue Coe)

In the world today, technology and business ensure the food supply instead of religion (rituals). Sue Coe illustrates this cultural shift by portraying the harsh indictment of the contemporary meat industry. Coe emphasizes the carnage and sympathizes with the pigs' fear, while the workers seem sadistic or subhuman. The purpose of the watercolor and graphite drawing is to show viewers the darkness that surrounds the contemporary meat-heavy Western diet.

Habitat (Moshe Safdie)

Group/community living is often essential for protection or for conservation of resources. Safdie created low-cost housing that minimized land use and provided privacy and individualized living within a group setting. Made of prefabricated, rearrangeable blocks, the structure was meant to: 1. Be energy efficient, due to its compactness 2. Use available natural resources 3. Be comfortable for many people living in a small space. While the building displays traits of 20th century modernism, the design is taken from older examples of group and community living.

Toba Batak House

In Indonesia, distinctive wooden houses were designed in response to the tropical climate, with heavy rainfall, thick vegetation, heat, and insects. For example, the Toba Batak House has a very steep roof that quickly sheds rain to keep it from soaking the thatch. The parts of the Toba Batak House have symbolic meaning, with the internal spaces seen as maternal or womblike. The house echoes the human body, with stilts as legs, the roof as the head, and the trapdoor entrance as the navel. From a cosmic perspective: the three levels are like the upper, lower, and middle worlds of the Indonesian universe. From a social perspective: the three levels of the house resemble the social hierarchy separating slaves, commoners, and nobility. This house, and others by this clan, is covered with painted patterns and guardian figures for fertility and protection.

Retablo of Maria de la Luz Casillas and Children

In central Mexico, hundreds of believers leave small votive paintings called retablos at certain important religious shrines, as a form of prayer and thanks for a divine favor. Multiple scenes are common on retablos (ie: Maria as a helpless patient, and Maria with her children, praying to the virgin). Extraneous details are added to better emphasize the victim's helplessness and the Virgin's power.

Chartres Cathedral

In this cathedral, the spires symbolize the church's role in linking heaven and earth. The plan of Chartres is symmetrical, while its shape is a cross, symbolizing Jesus' crucifixion as the act of salvation that redeemed sinful humanity.

Junk (Tony Oursler)

Junk is a biomorphically shaped fiberglass sculpture with eerie images of rolling eyes and an incessantly speaking mouth projected onto it using a DVD projector. Artists have also worked in film and video, which are essentially photographs shot in sequence to give the illusion of movement.

Seated Buddha

Later in Buddhism, its founder is depicted as the Enlightened One, the Buddha. As later sects emphasized a more personal Buddha, images of him in human form were produced, along with the traditional symbols. At first, these figurative sculptures were variations of older Hindu spirits, with certain Buddha-identifying attributes. Lather, the emphasis was on the general serenity of Buddhahood. The statue pictured represents a generalized holy being, rather than a specific person. The Buddha is seated in a lotus position on a throne, under which are carved worshippers around the Wheel of the Law. Abstract foliage surrounding the figure represents the Tree of Enlightenment.

Saltcellar

Made of ivory, the saltcellar pictured was carved by African artists in the 16th century. The salt is held by the orb that is topped by an execution scene. The style reflects both African and Portuguese tastes, and both cultures valued the warmth and luster of ivory and used it for diplomatic gifts. The Portuguese likely drew the original design on paper, but African artists interpreted it, especially the figure proportions, which echo African aesthetics with the large heads, simplified bodies, and and short legs During this time period, salt was a form of wealth. The European nobility used elaborate saltcellars as a status symbol, while medieval Europeans used salt to distinguish the status of guests.

The Expulsion from Paradise (Masaccio)

Masaccio paid particular attention to modeling the figures, using soft contrasts of value and color, and only essential details are included (ie: the gate to the Garden of Paradise; the angel with the sword barring their return).

Pyramid of the Sun

Mesoamerican temples often took the form of a pyramid with a small structure on top. These temples were frequent holy sites throughout the Americas. The Pyramid of the Sun, probably dedicated to sun worship, was aligned east-west and along the rising of the star cluster Pleiades on the days of the equinox. The ledges, tiers, vertical insets, and square corners visually separate the pyramid from the rounded mountains that surround it. Ceremonies with splendid pageantry were likely held on the steps and ledges.

Pie Counter (Wayne Thiebaud)

Pie Counter deals with food as a visual display and as a popular icon rather than as nutrition for the body. It highlights the plentifulness, standardization, and bright colors in contemporary cafeteria food. Thiebaud also alludes to the fact that, for many, the abundance of fattening food has become something to resist rather than something to eat, while mass-media advertising pushes it. Note: Pie Counter and Warhol's Heinz 57 Tomato Ketchup are both from the Pop Art era.

Ziggurat at Ur

Places of worship can be natural sites: mountains, springs, and scared trees or groves. Ziggurat a Ur is a sacred artificial mountain erected by the Sumerians of the city of Ur to honor their special deity from among the Sumerian pantheon of gods. Surrounded by flat land, this terraced tower of rubble and brick seemed to reach into the heaven. It also has three staircases leading up to a temple-shrine 40 feet above the ground, that is dedicated to protective and gods and goddesses and attended to by special orders of priest and priestesses.

Judaism

Religion and way of life of the Jewish people, based on Mosaic law.

Christianity

Religions founded on the life and teachings of Jesus.

Grey Line with Lavender and Yellow

Sexual imagery in art can be abstracted - its forms may allude more or less to the human body, but humans themselves need not be represented. The structure of O'Keeffe's enlarged flower image resembles female genitalia. Though O'Keeffe denies the association, she spent most of her life painting natural abstract objects to express emotion, rather than just copying what she saw.

Power Figure (Nkisi n "kondi)

Similar to the Ahola Kachina, the African Power Figure is also an example of an art object used as a form of prayer. It was thought to be a sculpture that would be used to counter the evil influence of enemies - human, animal, or spiritual. Sculptures carve the power figure with an open mouth, indicating that sculpture will "speak out" on behalf of anyone who is beset by evil. Shamans activate them by ritually placing medicines inside of the sculpture, and then they release the figure's power by driving in one metal nail or blade for each request for help. Once granted, the nail representing the request must be removed.

Figure of a Deity: A'a Rurutu

Some sculptures were figures representing an ancestor, who eventually would become deified or elevated to the realm of the gods through generations of veneration. From the Austral Islands, this figure represented a creator in the act of creating human beings. Created in a contained and compact style, his body is covered with crawling, infant-like beings (even the facial features are made up of tiny bodies). The back of the deity is hollowed out and contains additional figures - this might refer to the mythical creation of humankind or the creation of a specific ancestral line.

Ahola Kachina (Jimmie Kewanwytewa)

The Hopi of North America believe that kachinas, or spirits of dead ancestors, dwell in their community for six months in winter and spring. Kachinas ensure the welfare of the community and sufficient moisture for crops, and male members of the tribe perform as kachinas during religious festivals. The Ahola Kachina is an example of the dolls that the performers carve to reproduce the costumes of specific spirits. The colors on the dolls, which reproduce the costumes, represent sacred directions: - North = blue or green - West = yellow - South = red - East = white - Heavens = multicolors - Nadir = black During ceremonies, children receive the dolls to educate them about the individual kahunas and the elaborate costumes and rituals. Women receive them as symbols of fertility. The dolls are hung from rafters as blessings and as prayers for rain and good crops.

Parthenon (Iktinos and Kallikrates)

The Parthenon is a good example of a standard Classical Greek temple. It is more graceful and defined than older temples, but, like them, it was covered using the post-and-intel system. It is a Doric temple. The temple is full of optical illusions, because the architects who built the Parthenon thought of it as more of a sculpture than a temple. The structure had two interior rooms that only a few priests had the authority to enter. Since most of the religious celebrations took place outside, the exterior of the building was originally richly adorned with sculpture and brightly painted. A long band of sculpture (a frieze) lined the top of the building, depicting a long procession of Greek worshippers becoming increasingly more composed the closer they got to the gods. It is a reference to the Panathenaic Festival procession, which occurred once every four years.

Main Shrine at Ise (roofline)

The Shinto religion in Japan teaches that forests and enormous stones are sacred dwelling of the gods of nature, who are called the Kami. The Main Shrine at Ise is located in a forest on a holy site. It is made of natural materials, primarily wood and thatch. It is rebuilt every twenty years to the same specifications. With each rebuilding, careful rituals are observed: - Boards are taken from the same tree and are placed together in the building of the shrine - Wood is left plain and unpainted to retain its natural character, and is carefully joined together with pegs (no nails are used)

Basket (Pomo Tribe)

The basic woven design has been covered with feathers and shells, adding layers of pattern. Mothers in California tribes made these special ceremonial girts to mark significant moments in their daughters' lives, such as birth or puberty. Women treasured the baskets and were cremated with them at death. Though extremely delicate looking, baskets such as this were used in everyday life and developed stains on the inside. The colored feathers represent the bravery and courage of the birds from which they came.

Polytheism

The belief in many gods with distinct function.

Animism

The belief that all things in nature contain a spiritual force or soul.

Last Supper (Leonardo Da Vinci)

The composition is very formal and symmetrical, with the most important figure, Jesus, at the center. His hands, arms, and head form a triangle. All are on one side of a long table like a head table; this seating arrangement implies that many unseen witnesses are also present at the meal - and we as viewers are among them.

Pueblo Bonito

The creator of Habitat, Moshe Safdie, was influenced by Pueblo Bonito. Pueblo Bonito was built by the Anasazi people around the 11th century in New Mexico. It was a ceremonial fortress that may have been reserved for the Anasazi elite. It was built all in one piece over the rubble of previous construction, with precisely aligned walls and doors. Various clans occupied certain section of the pueblo. The round underground structures are kivas, centers for ceremony and contemplation.

Three-Legged Ting with Cover

The design of this vessel, which was used in rituals to receive blessings from deceased ancestors, features circular details that complement the overall spherical form. It has a simple shape with bands of patterns, supported by the three legs, or feet. Delicately incised abstract lines complement it overall form. Circles are repeated, even on the ting's cover, decorated with a quatrefoil pattern (like a four leaf clover) and cleverly designed to be used as serving bowl.

Hinduism

The dominant religion of India whose basic beliefs encompass the cycle of reincarnation and a supreme being the many forms.

Islam

The religion of Muslims as revealed to the prophet Mohammed and recorded in the Holy Koran (Quran).

Koran (Quran)

The sacred book of the Islamic religion.

Kidder Figure

The seated female sculpture has a baby-like body, and is emphasizing her large abdomen. She has a joyous expression on her face - one of pure contentment. Mayas likely identified small sculptures such as tis with fertility cults. They linked general procreation with female maternity and fertility and related it to the earth. The figures represent the bearers of human offspring as well as the mother of nature and progenitor of plant life.

Tyi Wara Dance Headdresses

These headdresses from the late nineteenth or early twentieth century, consist of male and female antelope masks, with the female bearing a baby antelope on her back. In the rituals performed with these headdresses, plant life, animal life, and humankind are united. Pattern and rhythm are important visual elements in the headdresses, with interwoven negative and positive shapes.

Six Persimmons

This piece represents Zen Buddhism, which emphasized the importance of meditation and simplicity in life: - simple arrangement -contrast between plump fruits, their angular stems, and the spare richness of their color -orderly, yet irregular Empty space is an important visual element Many Zen masters chose to make ink painting because of the form's spontaneity and simplicity, in contrast to the lushness of oil painting.

Heinz 57 Tomato Ketchup and Del Monte Freestone Peach Halves (Andy Warhol)

This work blurs the distinction between art and commercial packaging and celebrates the simple colors, bold graphics, and clean layout of advertisements. They are silk screened wooden sculptures that look like mass-produced cardboard packing boxes for common grocery store item. Warhol's artwork celebrates commercialism and indicates that most people enjoy it and are comfortable with it. Yet there is a sense of irony in the art because whatever is merely comfortable eventually becomes hollow and meaningless. This work was created during the Pop Art movement, which was noted for glorifying popular culture items into art icons.

Sacrifice of Isaac (Lorenzo Ghiberti)

Various forms of religious sacrifice have been practiced by humankind though out the ages. In the Sacrifice of Isaac, the gilded bronze relief panel shows the emotionally intense moment when the youthful Isaac is about to be slaughtered by his father. The curves of their bodies (father and son) echo each other, with Isaac pulling away and Abraham lunging poised to lunge forward. The nude body of Isaac is idealized and perfect, increasing the merit of the sacrifice.

Fallingwater (Frank Lloyd Wright)

Wright believed that houses should be unified wholes that merge into their natural setting, using local materials. There is no decoration, except the contrasting textures of stone and concrete. The house is arranged to allow maximum sunlight inside. The house has cantilevered porches (influenced by Japanese and Chinese roof designs), few walls, and large windows; and, like most architecture in Asia, the walls in Fallingwater are not load bearing but act as privacy screens.