unit 10: Painting

Question 1

Read the following article from National Geographic News and answer the questions:
a) Why were the findings of Creswell Crags so relevant?

Answer 1

-Because they were the first cave art depictions found in Britain from the Stone Age
-the most elaborate Ice-Age cave art

Question 2

ow do they know that the paintings date from the Ice Age?

Answer 2

-In the paintings there were some animals depicted that already died out after Ice-Age (ibex, bison, wild horses)

Question 3

c) What might be the meaning of dancing women?

Answer 3

-Religious meaning
-a spiritual dance at a very important religious event

Question 4

Watch the following BBC video on the Bayeux Tapestry and answer the following questions:
a) What does the Bayeux tapestry represent?

Answer 4

-Williams conquest of England

Question 5

b) Why was the Bayeux Tapestry commissioned? Would you say its purpose is keeping historical record or making a political statement?

Answer 5

-It depicts the death of an old king and the succession of a new king Harold
-it is from the pov of the norman conquesters, so more political statement

Question 6

c) When does William the Conqueror decide to invade England?

Answer 6

1088

Question 7

d) What does William do when the rumour goes that the has been killed in the battle?

Answer 7

-He turns around in his saddle, lifts his helmet so that his soldiers can identify him

Question 8

e) How was Harold killed?

Answer 8

-An arrow in his eye

Question 9

f) Why are the images in the Bayeux Tapestry so powerful?

Answer 9

-Because the people who made it only lived a few years after the Invasion

Question 10

Read John m. Mackenzies text “Art and Empire. The Beauty in Exploration” and answer the questions:
a) What was the function of painters in exploration voyages?

Answer 10

Record botany, zoology, ethnography, navigation, planetary and weather patterns

Question 11

b) Which century was most relevant for British expeditionary paintng?

Answer 11

18th century with Cook

Question 12

c) Which was according to Mackenzies, Hodges most relevant achievement?

Answer 12

Draw profiles of coasts, he painted from direct observation and not from pictures

Question 13

d) In which sense was art complicit with British imperialism?

Answer 13

Cartography made it easier to return for colonisers. They didn’t show the dark side of imperialism