Classical Landscape


1 What is the meaning of the Classical landscape?
It has no meaning.
It is an exhortation to be a better person.
It is nostalgia for a lost paradise.
It is a meditation on the human condition.
It means whatever you want it to mean.
2 How do you know that the background in a Classical landscape represents the past?
The background always does represent the past.
Because the foreground represents the present.
Because the sun is going down and this suggests something is over.
Because there is a shadow in the foreground, representing danger.
Because the figures usually have their back to it.
3 What is the name of the place that is supposedly depicted in a Classical landscape?
Paradise.
Arcadia.
Eden.
Rome.
The Garden of Hespirides.
4 Who originally described Arcadia?
Sanazzaro.
Virgil and Ovid.
Homer.
Pliny the Elder.
Ovid and Solon.
5 How does a Classical landscape seek to convey the idea that people lived in harmony with nature?
By using a lyrical composition.
By making sure that nothing is very much bigger than anything else.
By making sure there is no violence anywhere.
By using a static composition.
By showing the sun shining, and everyone looking peaceful.
6 How does a Classical landscape seek to demonstrate that people suffer and die?
By depicting tragic scenes.
Allegorically, by showing long shadows or sunset to suggest the dying of the day.
By suggesting something sinister in the foreground shadow.
By showing violence, death and cemeteries.
By using dark colors.
7 How is Arcadia similar to Eden?
Both were ancient lost paradises, where people lived in harmony with nature, and were pure and innocent and good.
Both had a snake.
Both were ruled by a ravishing blonde who caused a lot of trouble.
Neither existed.
Both are lost.
8 In what important way does Arcadia differ from Eden?
God was not in Arcadia.
Arcadia is a Pagan myth, and Eden is a Christian truth.
Arcadia was governed by Pan, and Eden was governed by God.
Arcadia is lost for ever. Eden can be regained.
Arcadia sank under the sea, but Eden is still guarded by an angel.
9 Can the typical features of a Classical landscape be used for other types of picture?
No. They would make no sense out of context.
Yes. Cezanne used them in his Mont-St-Victoire series.
Yes. The Dutch used them in some of their seascapes.
Yes. Turner used them in his "Fighting Ship Temeraire towed to her last berth to be broken up".
Yes. An American artist in the 19th century painted the ruined Parthenon in this way.
10 Did the typical features of the Classical landscape affect any art forms other than painting and poetry?
No. How could they?
Yes.
Yes, they affected the landscape designs of William Kent, Capability Brown and others.
Yes. They affected the way Palladio set his villas in the countryside.
Not really. You cannot put corpses and snakes in English country estates and Venetian villas, so a crucial element must always have been missing.
11 What did the Latin phrase, "Et in Arcadia Ego" mean?
I too am in Arcadia
I too was in Arcadia
And in Arcadia, I
All of the above.
None of the above.
12 How was Arcadia supposed to affect those who visited it?
It didn't affect them because no one could visit it. It was a paradise lost for ever.
It ennobled their souls in the same way as Classical Beauty could.
It gave them a much needed break.
It trapped them inside, and they were doomed to sleep there for a thousand years.
It left them nostalgic and homesick for it for the rest of their lives.