Weeks 1-3

Question 1

What is the definition of form?

Answer 1

Form is the way a work of art looks

Question 2

What is the definition of Content?

Answer 2

Content is what a work of art says (but not necessarily subject matter)

Question 3

What is the definition of context?

Answer 3

Context is all of the issues that surround a work of art in a given place or time.

Question 4

What is the definition of style?

Answer 4

Style is a product of form, content, and context. It is a particular manner, form, or character of representation, construction or expression typical of an individual artist or of a certain school, culture, region, or period.

Question 5

What is Naturalism?

Answer 5

Naturalism is a style of depiction in which the physical appearance of the rendered image in nature is the primary inspiration.

Question 6

What is Idealization?

Answer 6

Idealization is a process in art through which artists strive to make their forms and figures attain perfection based on pervading cultural values or of their own mental image of what the ideal is.

Question 7

What is Realism?

Answer 7

Realism is the attempt to depict objects as they are in actual, visible reality.

Question 8

What is Abstract?

Answer 8

Abstract is any art that does not represent observable aspects of nature os transforms visible forms into patterns resembling the original model “shorthand” image.

Question 9

What is the definition of Stylization?

Answer 9

Stylization is a particular manner of representation that conforms to an intelectual or artistic idea rather than natural appearances.

Question 10

What is a relief and what are the two different kinds?

Answer 10

A relief is a sculptural method in which the sculpted pieces remain attached to background. The two kinds are raised and sunk.

Question 11

What is a pigment?

Answer 11

A pigment is a substance that gives paint its color.

Question 12

What is a henge?

Answer 12

A henge is a circle of stones or posts (some were wooden) surrounded by a ditch with built up embankments.

Question 13

What is a lintel and where can we find them?

Answer 13

A lintel is a flat horizontal beam which spans the space between two supports. They can be found on top of Stonehenge.

Question 14

What is Cuneiform and what does it mean?

Answer 14

Cuneiform is one of the oldest forms of known writing and means “wedge-shaped” because people wrote it by cutting wedge shaped marks on a clay tablet using a stylus.

Question 15

What is Hierarchical Scale?

Answer 15

Hierarchical scale is when people are portrayed bigger in art pieces because they hold more power (kings/leaders).

Question 16

What is a ziggurat?

Answer 16

A ziggurat is an ancient Mesopotamian temple consisting of a lofty pyramidal structure built in successive stages with outside staircases and a shrine at the top.

Question 17

What is a register?

Answer 17

A register is when art is broken up into different scenes. They are organized in parallel lines, show order, and status.

Question 18

What is a stele?

Answer 18

A stele is a stone or wooden slab, generally taller than nit is wide, erected in the ancient world as a monument. May be inscribed, carved in relief, or painted. Often had text, ornamentation, and/or imagery.

Question 19

What is the lost-wax casting technique?

Answer 19

The lost-wax casting technique is a way to make hollow metal sculptures with a mold. They often used Bronze or copper. This technique was used for bigger/life size sculptures.

Question 20

What is a lamassu and what are they associated with?

Answer 20

A lamassu is a mythological figure in the religion of a creature made up of the body of a bull and the head of a human. It also had the wings of an eagle. Lamassu guardians are mostly associated with the power and influence of royalty of ancient Mesopotamia. Their main role was that of guardian spirits for humans.

Question 21

What is representational art?

Answer 21

Representational art is anything that depicts/represents something in the real world.

Question 22

What is non-objective art?

Answer 22

Non-objective art is a type of abstract art, whereby artists aren’t concerned with portraying recognizable objects from visible reality.

Question 23

What does parietal mean?

Answer 23

Parietal means any prehistoric art found on cave walls.

Question 24

What is an engraving?

Answer 24

An engraving is the process of art by cutting or carving a design on a hard surface.

Question 25

What is a carving?

Answer 25

A carving is the act of using tools to shape something from a material by scraping away portions of that material.

Question 26

Wat is the meaning of sculpture-in-the-round?

Answer 26

Sculpture-in-the-round means a sculpture that is meant to be seen from all sides.

Question 27

What is a cong?

Answer 27

A cong is a tube with circular opening and rectilinear edges.

Question 28

What does bi mean?

Answer 28

Bi means round disc.

Question 29

What is a corbel?

Answer 29

A corbel is a structural piece of stone, wood or metal jutting from a wall to carry a superincumbent weight, a type of bracket.

Question 30

What is a vault?

Answer 30

A vault is an arched structure, usually built of stone masonry, brick or concrete, serving to cover a space.

Question 31

What is a megalith and where can we find them used?

Answer 31

A megalith is a large stone used to construct a structure or monument, such as a tomb or a stone circle. We can find them used in Stonehenge.

Question 32

What does post-and lintel mean?

Answer 32

Post-and-lintel is the use of horizontal stone beams or lintels which are borne by columns or posts.

Question 33

What is a stylus?

Answer 33

A stylus is an instrument for writing, marking, or incising.

Question 34

What is mud brick and where can we find them?

Answer 34

Mud brick is an air-dried brick that is made of mud and a binding material like straw. We can find them in the ziggurat at Ur.

Question 35

What is groundline?

Answer 35

Groundline is a line representing the ground level on which figures appear to stand.

Question 36

What is an inlay?

Answer 36

An inlay is an object embedded in a different material but flush with it’s surface.

Question 37

What is a votive figure and what is an example of one?

Answer 37

A votive figure is an object offered to a god or goddess at a sacred place. An example of this is the Votive Statues from the Abu or Square Temple.

Question 38

What is overlapping?

Answer 38

Overlapping is when shaped are in front of other shapes.

Question 39

What is modeling?

Answer 39

Modeling is an important way in which painters create the illusion that objects depicted are three-dimensional, by portraying the variations of light and shade which naturally occur in solid objects.

Question 40

What is significant about the Bird-Headed Man with Bison (Lascaux caves, 15,000 B.C.E. Paleolithic)?

Answer 40

Bird-Headed Man with Bison is interpreted as an interaction between wildlife and humans. The person in this painting may be a priest or healer.

Question 41

What is the significance of wall painting with horse, rhinoceroses, and aurochs (Chauvet cave, France, 32,000 B.C.E. Paleolithic)?

Answer 41

The significance is that it is seen as an encyclopedia of the areas largest prehistoric animals. They are painted in twisted perspective with blended colors and carved lines.

Question 42

What is the significance of Women (“Venus”) from Willendorf (Austria, 24,000 B.C.E. , Paleolithic)?

Answer 42

The significance is that it was small and made of limestone so it could be carried around. It depicts the reproductive parts of women as bigger and therefore more important.

Question 43

What is the significance of Human skull from Jericho (Jordan river valley, 7000-6000 B.C.E. Neolithic)?

Answer 43

The significance is that it was a way to preserve and remember male relatives. They removed the skull, covered in in plaster, gave shells for eyes and painted it. This showed a belief in the afterlife.

Question 44

What is importante about Jericho?

Answer 44

Jericho is the oldest continuously lived in city in the world. It is an oasis on a plateau in the Jordan River Valley (fresh water source). Shows early evidence of archaeological site of religious practice and the beginnings of a long history of connections between art and religion.

Question 45

What is significant about the Reconstruction of Chatal Huyuk (Anatolia, Turkey, 6500-5500 B.C.E. Neolithic)?

Answer 45

The significance with this location is that it was a protective design (invaders and natural disaster), it housed a lot of pottery and clay females, it showed that hunting was still important with hunting shrines and detailed hunting paintings, it had the first paintings on man made walls, and had a map painted of city and local volcano.

Question 46

What is the significance of the Running Horned Women (Tassili n’Ajjer, Algeria, 6000 B.C.E., Neolithic)?

Answer 46

The significance is that it depicts an animal/human that could be a deity. She is painted in a hard to reach area with pigments on stone, she is larger than the other figures depicted.

Question 47

What is the significance of Liangzhu Culture (China, Jade Cong, 2500 B.C.E. Neolithic)?

Answer 47

The significance is that Liangzhu was the last Neolithic culture in the Yangtze River delta of china. It was a highly stratified society that had elaborate burials for the elite with a wealth of objects found in graves. The Jade Cong was a green tube with a circular opening and rectilinear edges.

Question 48

What is the significance of Stonehenge (England, 2900-1500 B.C.E. Neolithic)?

Answer 48

The significance of Stonehenge is that it shows the cultural advances of honoring the ancestors and events like the summer solstice. It is distinct because of its lentils and made of megalith stones.

Question 49

What is the significance of the White Temple and ziggurat (Uruk, 3500-3350 B.C.E. Sumerian)?

Answer 49

The significance is that this architecture dominated the city, was dedicated to the sky god Anu, and was a representation of power.

Question 50

What is the significance of the Votive Statues from the Abu/Square temple (Sumerian)? What style are they?

Answer 50

The significance is that they honor the gods and are an offering to them. They are naturalist, ideal, and abstract.

Question 51

What is the significance of the Standard of Ur from the Royal Tombs (Sumerian)?

Answer 51

The significance is in the stories that the reliefs show. It is a military or ceremonial flag that was carried on a pole. The reliefs show power, wealth, and the strength if the leader and his men.

Question 52

What is the significance of the Victory Stele of Naram-Sin (Akkadian)?

Answer 52

The significance is that it commemorates a victory over the Lullubi people. It depicts hierarchical scale because Naram-Sin is portrayed bigger than the rest and everyone is facing him. This is an image of strength and power.

Question 53

What is the significance of Assurnasirpal II Killing Lions (Assyrians)?

Answer 53

The significance if this piece is the militaristic, cruel, hunting/battle scene. Very appropriate for time period. Decorated the walls of the palace complex. Musculature and movement are shown. It is a relief that shows the killing of a lion which represents power.

Question 54

What is the significance of the Lammassu from the palace of Assurnasirpal II (Assyrians)?

Answer 54

The significance is that they are giant, powerful, guardian figures. They show perspective in the detail of the five legs. Shows power, strength and wealth.

Question 55

What is the significance of the Ishtar Gate and Processional Way (Neo-Babylonian)?

Answer 55

The significance is that they marked the entrance of the city and showed order. Gate was very detailed to show, pride, power and the strength of the city.