The Annotated Mona Lisa: Pages 12 - 13

Question 1

Golden Age (also called Age of Pericles)

Answer 1

• 480-430 B.C.
• explosion of creativty resulted in an unparalleled level of excellence in art, architecture, poetry drama, philosophy, government, law, logic, history, and mathematics

Question 2

Painting

Answer 2

• Greek artists achieved a breakthrough in realistic trompe l’oeil effects

Question 3

Vase Painting

Answer 3

• told stories about gods and heroes of Greek myths

- earliest vase design was called Geometric style

Question 4

Sclupture

Answer 4

• Greeks invented nude in art
• statues represented the perfection of both body and mind
• they discovered weight shift, or contrapposto
• contrapposto: the weight of the body rested on one leg with the body realigned accordingly, giving the illusion of a figure in arrested motion