Comprehensive Art History and Visual Fundamentals Study Guide

Fundamentals of Art Elements and Principles of Design

  • Definition of Line: A visual element defined specifically as "the path of a moving point".

  • Classification of Shapes: Shapes in visual art are classified into two fundamental categories: Geometric and Organic (shapes that suggest forms found in nature).

  • Chiaroscuro: An Italian term describing the smooth modeling of values from light to shadow on a figure to achieve a three-dimensional appearance, exemplified in Leonardo da Vinci's drawing Madonna and Child with St Anne and John the Baptist.

  • Modeling: The technique of using light and shadow to create a three-dimensional representation of shapes on a two-dimensional surface.

  • Hatching and Crosshatching:

    • Hatching: A value-building technique using closely spaced parallel lines, as demonstrated in Elizabeth Catlett's Sharecropper.

    • Crosshatching: A drawing technique that layers groups of parallel pen strokes in differing directions to build values, shadow, and light.

  • Perspective Systems:

    • Atmospheric Perspective: A system used to create the illusion of depth by depicting distant objects with less clarity and shifted color, as utilized by John Frederick Kensett in Lake George to make mountains appear off in the distance.

    • Isometric Perspective: A perspective system that employs parallel diagonal lines that do not converge at a vanishing point.

    • Linear Perspective Vanishing Point: In Leonardo da Vinci's The Last Supper, the central vanishing point is located just behind the head of the figure of Jesus.

  • Color Theory and Harmonies:

    • The Spectrum: Bands of colored wavelengths created when white light passes through a prism.

    • Primary Colors: Red, yellow, and blue; fundamental hues that cannot be created by mixing any other colors.

    • Tint: A color value that is lighter than a hue's normal or pure value.

    • Monochromatic Scheme: A color scheme dominated by variations of a single hue (such as reds, pinks, and maroons), as seen in Emmi Whitehorse's painting Chanter.

    • Analogous Color Scheme: Colors positioned directly adjacent to each other on the color wheel that yield visual harmony, as demonstrated in Louis Comfort Tiffany's stained-glass artwork Magnolias and Irises.

  • Principles of Art: General rules governing the structural organization and arrangement of elemental visual components.

  • Principles of Visual Balance: The three foundational forms of balance in visual art are symmetrical, asymmetrical, and radial.

    • Asymmetrical Balance: Equilibrium created when two completely different shapes, details, or quantities of equal visual weight are arranged on opposite sides of a central axis. Barbara Hepworth's Oval Sculpture (No. 2) utilizes open space to establish asymmetrical balance.

    • Mosaic Balance: A style of balance founded on repetition without hierarchical structure.

  • Unity:

    • Conceptual Unity: A design cohesion created by organizing similar ideas rather than purely visual properties, as seen in Annette Messager's work Mes Voeux.

  • Emphasis and Focal Point:

    • Emphasis in Composition: A design principle used to direct viewer attention. In Francisco Goya's The Executions on the Third of May, light is directed specifically to emphasize the victim about to be shot.

    • Focal Point Example: Erik Nitsche's 1956 poster designed for General Dynamics establishes emphasis using a glowing atom as its focal point.

  • Proportion, Scale, and Order:

    • The Golden Ratio: A classical Greek mathematical system of proportion observed in natural forms such as spiral seashells, pinecones, and flowers.

    • Canon: A mathematical system defining ideal proportional relationships for representing the human figure.

    • Hierarchical Scale: A stylistic convention depicting figures of greater social or spiritual importance as physically larger than secondary figures, such as Pharaoh Ramses II depicted vastly larger than his family at the Great Temple of Ramses II.

    • Scale and Proportion: Robert Jacob Gordon utilizes the principle of scale to convey the physical magnitude of a typical giraffe to viewers.

  • Rhythm and Movement:

    • Principle of Rhythm: Visual rhythm is generated through the combination of movement and pattern.

    • Kinetic Art: Sculptures containing moving components that move through space and time via diverse mechanisms.

    • Ansel Adams's Photography: Ansel Adams's photograph The Tetons—Snake River, Grand Teton National Park, Wyoming employs rhythm, though it does NOT depict the river as having a rough, tumultuous movement.

Art History, Cultural Context, and Aesthetic Theory

  • Functions and Places of Art: Art encompasses physical environments built for distinct human purposes, such as the Roman Colosseum.

  • Transformation of Ordinary Objects: An example of an artist elevating a mundane everyday object into an extraordinary artwork is the Balinese Necklace.

  • Public Art and Urban Renewal: Wynwood Walls transformed Florida warehouses into large-scale public art canvases.

  • Vandalism and Cultural Heritage: At the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument near the Escalante River in Utah, illegal sawing damaged historical and spiritual Native American Petroglyphs.

  • Ancient Greek Ceramics: The Attic black-figure neck amphora, a painted storage jar or vase from ancient Greece, commemorates an event from The Iliad.

  • Historical Cartography Distortions: The Mercator map served as a tool for European colonialism and imperialism; however, modern scrutiny shows it distorted global geography by shrinking regions around South America, Africa, and the equator while enlarging polar regions including North America and Europe.

  • Sacred Symbols and Devices:

    • Amida Buddha Hand Gestures: The mudras (hand positions) depicted on the Amida Buddha represent teaching.

    • Mandala: In Tibetan Buddhism, a radial geometric diagram symbolizing cosmic order, utilized as a meditative tool to reach elevated spiritual consciousness.

  • Aesthetic Theory and Philosophy:

    • 18th-Century Aesthetics: During the 18th century, beauty and art were studied together because both were understood as sources of pleasure.

    • Disinterested Contemplation: Philosophers identified that the pleasure derived from art is intellectual, experienced through the practice of disinterested contemplation.

  • Legal Rights in Art: Copyright establishes legal ownership over original intellectual property, granting rights to reproduce, publish, or perform creative works.

  • Artist Studies and Masterworks:

    • Diego Rivera: Famed for his large-scale public murals. Rivera did NOT avoid studio work or rely exclusively on outdoor composition as an established artist.

    • Rachel Ruysch: Her painting Still-Life with Flowers offers rich naturalistic detail; however, goblets and decorative shells sitting near poppies are NOT present in the work.

    • Hieronymus Bosch: Created the fantastical triptych The Garden of Earthly Delights. The outer panels depict Eden and Hell, while the center depicts a false paradise of love. Bosch did NOT assemble his vision from travel magazines or zoo visits.

    • Judith Baca: Her mural Great Wall of Los Angeles: Frontier California 1880 and Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo 1848 spans over half a mile to present a historic narrative of the region.

  • Themes and Genres in Art:

    • Themes: Broad thematic areas of content reflected across diverse global cultures (e.g., The Natural World).

    • Genre Scenes: Works of art capturing daily life, such as domestic quietude or hunting activities.

  • Commemorative Public Works: The Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C., was unveiled in the year 1982.

Fine Art Drawing and Painting Media

  • Drawing Media and Techniques:

    • Sketches: Rapidly executed preliminary drawings used to record ideas for later development.

    • Metalpoint: A precise drawing medium utilized by Filippino Lippi in Figure Studies: Standing Nude and Seated Man Reading.

    • Chalk: Soft, finely textured stone media used directly for drawing.

    • Conté Crayon: Medium used by Georges Seurat in his pointillist study Woman Walking with a Parasol (study for La Grande Jatte).

    • Pointillism: A technique developed in the 1880s by French painter Georges Seurat involving the application of small, distinct dots of color to canvas.

    • Pen, Ink, and Watercolor: Mediums used in Howling Wolf's ledger drawing Ute Indian.

    • Pen, Brush, and Ink: Mediums combined by Rembrandt to execute Cottage among Trees.

    • Charcoal: Medium utilized in Rosa Bonheur's drawing Charcoal burners.

  • Painting Media and Components:

    • Pigment: Powdered color agents used in paints.

    • Binder: An ingredient holding pigment particles together; linseed oil serves as the binder in oil paint.

    • Nonaqueous Media: Paints that do not mix with water, such as oil paint.

    • Primer: A preliminary coating applied to canvases or wooden panels to facilitate paint adhesion.

    • Ancient Media: Encaustic and fresco are two ancient painting media that remain active traditions today.

    • Fresco Terminology:

    • Cartoon: A full-scale preparatory drawing transferred onto the prepared wall surface before applying fresco paint.

    • Buon Fresco (True Fresco): A technique where pigments mixed with plain water are applied directly onto wet plaster.

Printmaking Processes and Techniques

  • Matrix: The primary surface (such as a woodblock, metal plate, or stone) on which a design is created before transferring it to paper under pressure.

  • Relief Printmaking: A print process where raised areas retain ink; a basic rubber stamp is an example of a relief print.

  • Woodcut Printing: Traditional relief technique on wood blocks. Historical woodcuts were produced for book illustrations shortly after paper was introduced to Europe. Käthe Kollwitz utilized traditional woodcuts to address modern political and social subject matter.

  • Intaglio vs. Relief: In intaglio printmaking, ink resides below the surface plate within etched or engraved grooves, unlike relief printing where ink sits on the raised surface.

  • Registration: The precise alignment of multiple color blocks or printing plates on a single sheet of paper.

  • Monotypes: A unique printmaking process that produces only a single unique impression rather than multiple identical print editions.

Photography, Video, and Time-Based Media

  • Camera Obscura: Early optical projection device; experiments began during the Italian Renaissance. In the 16th century, lenses were incorporated to sharpen and focus the projected image.

  • Daguerreotype: An early photographic process using a light-sensitive copper plate coated with silver iodine.

  • Motion Experiments: Eadweard Muybridge conducted landmark photographic experiments analyzing animal and human motion.

  • Landscape Photography: Ansel Adams approached landscape photography with an aesthetic emphasis on drama and grandeur.

  • Photojournalism: The practice of creating a unified photographic body of work documenting an event, place, or cultural phenomenon.

  • Video Art: Highly appealing to visual artists due to the ability to display recorded footage instantaneously on a monitor.

  • Censorship: The active suppression, prohibition, or removal of words or visual images deemed offensive, indecent, or politically dangerous.

Graphic Design, Typography, and Visual Communication

  • Origins of Graphic Design: Formed as a distinct field due to two major historical developments: The Printing Press and The Industrial Revolution.

  • Posters and Commercial Art: 19th-century artist Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec designed famous artistic posters for Parisian cabarets and dance halls.

  • Information Visualization: Charles-Joseph Minard's Figurative map of the successive losses of men of the French army in the Russian Campaign 1812-13 organizes data by mapping movement, quantity, and temperature.

  • Symbolism: Graphic marks, such as directional arrows, that communicate information and encapsulate complex concepts. For example, the rainbow on the LGBTQ+ flag symbolizes inclusion and acceptance.

  • Typography - Serifs: The short cross-strokes ending the main vertical and horizontal strokes of individual letterforms.

  • Layout: The spatial arrangement and positioning of textual elements and visual imagery on a printed or digital page.

Essay Examination Prompts

  • Essay Prompt 1: Compare and contrast form and content in two works, one of which has visual unity and the other conceptual unity.

  • Essay Prompt 2: Compare and contrast the ways in which still photography, film, television, video, and computer technologies have transformed mass communications. Make specific reference to several recent examples of mass communication in which these technologies were used to convey messages through various types of images.