Art 125, In-Class Quizzes, Fall 2000

We introduced these short quizzes because they could be graded communally in class and were therefore more fluid than the computer graded quizzes, which the professor detests as much as her students! Remember a notional guide to the answer is given in brackets after each question.

Quiz #1

(Back to basics: compositions, truth-types, Idealization)

  1. What does Idealization tell you about a figure (perfect, favoured/grace, divine)?
  2. Give any THREE signals of Idealization (nude/near nude, fbar, contrapposto, geom quals, smooth finish/lack of detail/"generalised")
  3. What issue is raised when a figure is NOT QUITE Idealized (tragedy)?
  4. Give any THREE associations of STATIC truth type (strength, stability, permanence, unchangeability, protection, exclusion, power, formality, forbidding, rest, peace, death, absoluteness; mountains, locks, architecture, horizon line, ground line - others negotiable)
  5. Change is associated with which composition or compositions (dynamic, lyrical)?
  6. Which is more aggressive or purposeful, dynamic or lyrical composition (dynamic)?
  7. David, Marie-Antoinette on her way to the Guillotine - what kind of truth-type predominates here (evocative, with some visual)?
  8. Zurbaran, Still Life - does this image employ evocative allusion (yes: smell of coffee, smell of jasmine/roses, taste of lemon, and more)
  9. Give THREE signals of intellectual truth (hierarchical scale, multiple/impossibly combined viewpoints, uniformity of similar parts, uniform line, static signals, lack of visual signals acceptable)
  10. Laocoön - is the central figure idealized (no, nearly, not quite: contorted face, bulging muscles and veins)?

Quiz #2

(More Basics: Classical Beauty, Classical beliefs about truth, visual truth in detail)

  1. How did Classical thinkers recognize truth (age, prestige)?
  2. How do truths interact according to the Classical paradigm (harmonise, not conflict)
  3. How do Classical thinkers recognize Classical Beauty (light/colour, geometry, good condition)?
  4. What 2 things could Classical Beauty apparently achieve (ennoble the soul, manifest God)?
  5. Define Visual Truth (depicting the way things appear, illusionism)
  6. What is linear perspective (system of recession in space, objects diminish in distance, parallel lines meet at vanishing point)?
  7. What is foreshortening (system to make objects project, objects are compacted towards viewer)?
  8. What is aerial/atmospheric perspective (effect of moisture in atmosphere on visibility - objects become paler, greyer/bluer and blurrier in the distance)?
  9. What is the false picture plane (optical illusion: complete foreshortened objects shown in front of vertical surface that seems to represent the actual surface of the pic)?
  10. What is chiaroscuro (modelling in light and shade)?

Quiz #3

(More basics: Symbolic Truth;
Problems of reconciling Classical and Christian Truth: Early Christian Art, Icons and Iconoclasm)

  1. What is symbolic truth (viewer completes MEANING thru connecting ideas att to images)?
  2. Give ONE signal of symbolic truth (juxtaposition, geometric shapes, non-realism)
  3. What is the Chi-Rho (monogram of JC)?
  4. Spell Chi-Rho
  5. Why were the Christians so determined to have figurative art, when it was forbidden to them (Class & Chris have to be reconciled)?
  6. What did the original word for "graven" mean (carved, or engraved, or drawn, or painted)?
  7. Why does early Christian art look like writing (unsculptural, not forbidden)?
  8. Which truth-type replaced visual truth in Christian art (symbolic)?
  9. Which other religions share the same ten commandments (Judaism, Islam)?
  10. What does the vine leaf symbolize (Christ as True Vine, blood of Eucharist)?

Quiz #4

(Problems of the 2nd Commandment, Icons, Iconoclasm)

  1. What is the Host (consecrated bread)?
  2. Spell Eucharist
  3. Is Transubstantiation the belief that the bread and wine (a) SYMBOLISE the body and blood of Christ, or (b) ACTUALLY BECOME the body and blood (answer = B)?
  4. What is a monstrance (displays Host)?
  5. Diagram of Old St Peter's church: what is part A (apse)
  6. Same Diagram: What is part B (transept)
  7. How should you use an ICON (worship THROUGH it)
  8. What was Iconoclasm (images banned/destroyed in Eastern Empire)
  9. Mount Sinai Virgin and Child with Sts George and Theodore Is this image a THEOTOKOS or a HODEGETRIA (Theotokos - recognize by hand on Child's shoulder, often also a knapkin in other hand)?
  10. What does hodegetria mean (showing the way - recognize by free hand gesturing towards Child)?