Art History Test #1 Quiz Questions

Feminist approaches to art history typically aim to create a separate category of "women's art" distinct from mainstream art.

False

What issue do feminist art historians raise about the term "woman artist"?

It creates an unstable category defined in relation to masculinist paradigms

Why were art historians of the past often unable to recognize the work of women artists on its own merits?

Preconceptions about gender influenced how they "saw" the artwork

When women's artwork was reattributed from male artists, critics often described it as showing signs of ______.

Feminine weakness

The contemporary distinction between "fine arts" and "crafts" originated during the early Byzantine era.

False; it originated during the Renaissance.

What does the scarcity of women in medieval art historical records primarily reflect?

How art history has privileged individual "genius" over collaborative production

What characterized the cultural production in the double monasteries of the early medieval period?

Collaboration where both genders likely worked on manuscripts

The medieval distinction between masculine and feminine spheres was primarily based on __________ rather than biological determinism.

Christian doctrine

Renaissance embroidery that employed the "or nué" technique achieved the same perspectival effects as painting but was considered a lesser art form.

True

Renaissance painting changed from a craft to a liberal art, which affected women by:

Excluding them as art became associated with male public spaces

What was the key difference between the Bolognese women artists like Fontana and Sirani and Artemisia Gentileschi?

Bolognese artists succeeded by integrating within existing systems, while Artemisia challenged and upended dominant cultural ideologies

The advent of linear perspective in Renaissance painting encoded _________ into the very structure of representation.

Male viewpoint and proportions

How did the Protestant Reformation affect Dutch art?

It shifted attention from church to home and domestic subjects

Michelangelo greatly admired Northern European painting for its mathematical precision.

False; he criticized it as lacking harmony and proper proportion

What were "Tulip Books," to which Judith Leyster contributed?

Sales catalogs commissioned by bulb dealers to display wares when flowers weren't in season

While Italian painting emphasized ____________ and idealized forms, Dutch painting focused on ____________ and detailed surface textures.

Mathematical proportion / observation

How did the anti-vivisection movement relate to women's issues in Victorian England?

It provided a metaphor for women's powerlessness against institutional male authority

Jean-Jacques Rousseau advocated for expanding women's intellectual and public roles in society.

False

In eighteenth-century France, the hierarchy of genres placed __________ at the top, making it particularly difficult for women to achieve the highest professional status.

Istoria

What was the significance of travel writings and paintings by Victorian women like Anne-Margaretta Burr?

They provided glimpses into spaces inaccessible to male travelers while still participating in European imperialism