Ancient Art
This type of prehistorical art includes animal figures painted on cave walls, often using natural pigments like ochre and charcoal.
Cave paintings (or rock art); natural pigments like ochre and charcoal.
A medieval art form often produced by monks, decorated with gold leaf and intricate designs, used in religious manuscripts.
Illuminated manuscripts.
The Renaissance innovation that creates the illusion of depth on a flat surface using a vanishing point.
Linear perspective.
The late 19th-century movement that captured light, color, and momentary impressions with loose brushwork (name one key artist).
Impressionism — Claude Monet (example).
Natural pigments like ochre and charcoal were commonly used in prehistoric art. What is a pigment?
Pigment: a substance that gives color when mixed with a binder.
The civilization credited with inventing the earliest writing system and producing relief sculptures and cylinder seals in Mesopotamia.
Sumerians (or Babylonians/Assyrians; accept Mesopotamian civilizations).
This style of medieval architecture (1150–1400 CE) is recognized by pointed arches, ribbed vaults, and flying buttresses.
Gothic architecture.
Name one artist from the High Renaissance and one famous work by them.
Leonardo da Vinci — "Mona Lisa" (accept Michelangelo — Sistine Chapel; Raphael — "School of Athens").
Cubism, pioneered by Picasso, breaks objects into geometric shapes. Give one reason artists experimented with form in the early 20th century.
Reasons: desire to break from academic tradition, reflect multiple viewpoints, analyze form and time, influence of photography.
This fresco technique paints onto wet plaster so the pigment bonds with the wall surface (name the technique).
Buon fresco (true fresco).
Egyptian artworks often used a convention for showing the human body: head and legs in profile but the torso and eye shown frontally. What is one practical reason for this convention?
Practical reason: to communicate recognizable, clear information about the body and status; panels/grids used for proportion; or to conform to artistic conventions that emphasize clarity and meaning.
Byzantine mosaics are famous for using small pieces of glass or stone to create images. Name one common subject and one visual quality of Byzantine mosaics.
Subjects: Christ, Virgin Mary, saints, emperors; qualities: gold backgrounds, frontal figures, shimmering light from tesserae.
How did humanism influence subject matter in Renaissance paintings?
Humanism shifted focus to humans, classical subjects, portraits, secular themes alongside religious ones.
Name one major difference between Abstract Expressionism and Pop Art in goals or subject matter.
Abstract Expressionism: nonrepresentational, emphasis on gesture and emotion; Pop Art: everyday imagery, mass culture, ironic tone.
Explain the difference between relief sculpture and a freestanding (in-the-round) sculpture.
Relief: carved surface where forms project from a background; freestanding: viewable from all sides and fully in the round.
Name two major Greek sculptural developments between the Archaic and Classical periods.
Developments: more naturalistic poses, contrapposto, idealized proportions, greater realism and movement.
Explain why medieval art often emphasized religious themes and hierarchical scale (figures sized by importance).
Emphasis due to the church’s central role, art used for teaching scripture; hierarchical scale made spiritual importance clear.
Explain two technical or scientific studies artists used to achieve anatomical accuracy.
Studies: dissection of cadavers, anatomical drawings; use of geometric perspective and mathematical proportion (e.g., Vitruvian studies).
Describe two ways 21st-century digital art differs from traditional painting in creation or distribution.
Digital art can be created with software, interactive, easily shared online and reproduced; distribution via social media and global platforms.
What is "plein air" painting and which movement is it most associated with?
Plein air: painting outdoors to capture natural light and atmosphere; associated with Impressionism.
The Roman use of concrete and the arch allowed them to build large public structures. Give one architectural example and one way it influenced later Western architecture.
Example: Colosseum or Pantheon; influence: use of arches, domes, and engineering for public buildings in later Western architecture.
Compare Romanesque and Gothic church interiors in terms of light and spatial experience.
Romanesque: heavier, darker, small windows; Gothic: taller, lighter, large stained-glass windows that filled interiors with colored light.
Describe how oil paint changed artists’ approach to color and detail compared with tempera.
Oil allowed richer colors, glazing for depth, slower drying for blending and fine detail versus fast-drying tempera.
Choose one contemporary art form listed (installation, performance, or new media) and explain how it challenges traditional ideas about what "art" can be.
Installation: transforms space and viewer experience; Performance: uses living body/time as medium; New media: uses technology, interactivity — all question object-based art.
Describe the process and purpose of creating a mosaic, and give one historical culture known for them.
Mosaic: assembling small tesserae of glass/stone into images for durable decorative surfaces; cultures: Byzantine, Roman (accept others like Islamic, Greek).