ARTH 111 Exam 1 Comparison Themes

Question 1

List the topics

Answer 1

Simple topics: Texture, color, style, perspective (angle seeing it from), materials, landscape vs. human, vanishing points, centering, layout, subject matter, age
Detailed topics: Decorative impulse, composite view (informational depiction), naturalistic vs. abstract, dimension and detail vs. flat, unified narrative, representation, contrapposto (movement) vs. stiff, pictorial overlapping, nature out of place and man moving it, earthly connection to godly realm and afterlife, sacred geometry, building towards diving realm, death-rebirth themes, entrances and thresholds, idealization, justifying rulership, animism, hierarchy of scale, canon of proportions

Question 2

Sacred geometry

Answer 2

The underlying geometry in nature

Question 3

Thresholds

Answer 3

A symbolic entryway

Question 4

Idealization

Answer 4

Different idealizations for different time periods, older/wiser lends to idealization

Question 5

Decorative impulse

Answer 5

Art in homes and other places to decorate

Question 6

Composite view and informational painting/cataloging of parts

Answer 6

Composite of profile and frontal views, distorted depiction of humans and animals - ex. heads look straight but show both horns as if the head was turned

Question 7

Pictorial overlapping

Answer 7

Pictures overlap one another, may be because of painting at different times, ex. in Chauvet caves

Question 8

Representation and the will to record nature and depict it

Answer 8

Observation of nature and the following desire to depict it, led to representational art

Question 9

Solstice light

Answer 9

Solstice light alignment, ex. Stonehenge and Newgrange Tumulus

Question 10

Caves and mountaintops related to being sacred

Answer 10

Highest and lowest land related to sacredness, in one we approach the core of the earth, in the other we approach the infinity of the sky

Question 11

Axis

Answer 11

A long straight line, usually one that leads from somewhere to somewhere else usually where one is important

Question 12

Symmetry and axiality

Answer 12

Metaphor for divine order

Question 13

Cult Statues

Answer 13

The thing that is a channel for worship

Question 14

Votive and Votive Statues

Answer 14

Any gift that you bring into the presence of the divine with hope of some kind of transactional reward
Represent the people or their gifts that are coming to worship

Question 15

Balance between natural and god like depiction

Answer 15

Balancing the natural world with a god-like depiction, often make figure look more important

Question 16

Hierarchy of scale

Answer 16

The larger the figure the more important they are

Question 17

Formal/stiff presentation of the figure

Answer 17

Used for more prestigious figures, the more important a person is the more stiff and formal they will be depicted (in earlier times)

Question 18

Art patronage

Answer 18

Commissioning art and paying for it as an expression of ones own good rulership

Question 19

The uses of art: Funerary context / the afterlife

Answer 19

Put their favorite/important things in the tombs

Question 20

The uses of art: Rulership / authority

Answer 20

Tomb as big as a pyramid for the rulers, grandiose tomb the size of a mountain that reflects ones authority

Question 21

The uses of art: Worship / highly developed polythiestic system of gods

Answer 21

Art produced in the context of worship

Question 22

What are the three important uses of art?

Answer 22

Funerary context/the afterlife, rulership/authority, and worship

Question 23

Emphasis on continuity

Answer 23

Style that often repeats itself

Question 24

Canon of Proportions

Answer 24

Canon - rule, standard, or principle that is generally accepted for judging something
Canon of proportions for the ideal human body shape and size

Question 25

ABSTRACT vs. NATURALISTIC - Spectrum of Naturalistic to Abstract

Answer 25

Marker of status
The statement that stylistic choice can make

Question 26

Burial Practices (Egypt)

Answer 26

Mastaba: Comes from the Arabic word for bench, Pyramids, Rock-cut Tomb: Cut into the hillside

Question 27

Thresholds

Answer 27

Going from the outside world into the complex through a gate is crossing a threshold

Question 28

Face degree of characterization

Answer 28

Less important figures often had more characterization in their faces (less idealization)

Question 29

Peripteral temple

Answer 29

Temple with columns all the way around the whole outside

Question 30

Animism

Answer 30

The spirit of the ancestor could inhabit the bones and this plastered head