Art Appreciation Unit 1 Quiz
What is the best definition of a masterpiece of art?
A skillfully executed work of art with powerful content that communicates meaningfully with viewers, even over the passage of time
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How is the term aesthetics defined?
A branch of philosophy dealing with the nature and principles of beauty and artistic taste
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What is a good overall definition of art? What does art have the power to do across time and differing cultures?
Art is a visual language created with the intention of causing the viewer to think, feel, and form their own response. Because it is a product of the human spirit, it has the ability to connect people across different times and cultures
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Creating art is a two-step process that involves what?
Both imagination and the use of creativity
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How is the word imagination defined in the art world?
The ability we have as human beings to envision things within our mind
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What are universal themes in works of art?
Images and themes that are common to all human beings
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What does the artistic technique of division involve? What do artists use it for in works of art?
An artist uses line or color to divide the same artwork into more than one part. It allows the artist to show you more than one image or idea within a single work of art.
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Can the prehistoric cave painting The Scene of the Pits still able to communicate with viewers today? If so, how?
Yes, the image can still communicate with viewers today because the viewers can figure out that the image depicts a man hunting a bison by noticing the spears and that the man is falling backwards away from the bison with its horns pointed forward.
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Renoir's Lady with Cat and Jacob Lawrence's Largest Race Riot, St. Louis are both examples of artworks that possess what?
They both possess universal themes, but one produces a sentimental feeling while the other is emotionally disturbing.
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What might the artist Rene Magritte have been showing viewers by painting the woman in Black Magic blue on top and realistically colored on the bottom? What artistic technique did he utilize to do this?
The artist used division to express his vision. The realistic bottom half of the woman is what men focus on more, while the top half, which houses her soul, heart, and mind, fades into the background because it is not valued by men.
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What is fresco? How are frescoes created?
A mural painting technique (often used during the Renaissance) to paint the murals in the technique in which paint is worked directly into wet plaster so that when the plaster dries, the finished painting becomes part of the actual surface of the wall or ceiling
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What does Michelangelo's painting The Last Judgment depict?
It depicts God judging the saints and the sinners
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Which Italian Renaissance artist was so talented that he was given the nickname "Il Divino" (the divine one) by his contemporaries in the art world? Did he consider himself to be a sculptor or a painter?
Michelangelo and he considered himself a sculptor
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Who designed the Dome of St. Peter’s Basilica in the Vatican City in Rome?
Michelangelo
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How old was Michelangelo when he carved The Pieta? What does this sculpture depict?
He was 23 when he carved Mary holding Jesus’ body after crucifixion.
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Prehistoric human beings used reeds and hollow bones to blow paint made of ground mineral pigments over their hands onto cave walls to leave a silhouette behind. Which cave in Argentina contains hundreds of these individual handprints made over a period of time?
Cave of the Hands
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What does The Creation of Adam depict? Who painted it? Where is it located?
Michelangelo painted The Creation of Adam on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel. It depicts God reaching down from Heaven to touch Adam’s fingertip and give him life.
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Who painted The Starry Night? What does it depict?
Vincent van Gogh’s The Starry Night depicts his view from the mental hospital
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What is the definition of a mural?
A painting or other work of art executed directly on a wall or ceiling
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Who was Johanna Gezina Bonger? Which important artist's legacy did she preserve? How did she do this?
Johanna was Theo van Gogh’s wife and she preserved Vincent van Gogh’s legacy by publishing the letters he sent to Theo.
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Van Gogh's painting The Potato Eaters was done in the light, airy style of Impressionism that was popular at the time. Tragically, it is now believed that Vincent died from a gunshot wound inflicted during a quarrel with his friend Paul Gauguin over money. (True or False?)
False
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Before becoming a painter, Van Gogh worked briefly as an art dealer and trained to become a preacher. He was unsuccessful in his theological pursuits, but spent some time as a missionary in a poor area of Belgium. (True or False?)
True
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Vincent van Gogh was unsuccessful in selling his art works and was supported financially and emotionally by his younger brother Robert, who sent him money for painting supplies, food, and lodging. (True or False?)
False
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Inside each of us are judgments that we (and other people) have made about ourselves and our creative abilities. If the judgments are negative, they can prevent us from fully using our creative powers or even cause us to stop creating altogether. (True or False?)
True
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If we don't have a lot of natural talent, we shouldn't bother trying to use our creative abilities. (True or False?)
False
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If we stop creating in childhood, it is impossible to recover our creative abilities in adulthood. (True or False?)
False
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Who said “Imagination is more important than knowledge”?
Albert Einstein
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Who said “Real painters do not paint things as they are…they paint them as they themselves feel them to be”?
Vincent van Gogh
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Who said “Every child is born an artist. The problem is how to remain an artist when he or she grows up”?
Pablo Picasso
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In the video The Top Ten Painters of All Time, the artist chosen by the narrator as being the greatest artist of all time was the High Renaissance artist Michelangelo Buonarroti. (True or False?)
False
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In the video Better Know: The Starry Night, we learned that cypress trees such as the one depicted in Vincent van Gogh’s painting The Starry Night (1889) are often associated with the afterlife, symbolizing a bridge between the earth and heaven. Vincent wouldn’t live much more than a year after he created this painting. (True or False?)
True
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In the video I Could Do That, we learned that in Untitled (Perfect Lovers), the artist Felix Gonzales-Torres used two commercial clocks placed side by side on a painted wall that were synchronized as a metaphor for lovers in perfect sync who fall out of sync. (True or False?)
True
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