Elements of Art
Theories of Representation
The Role of Art and Artists
Land, Landscape, Space
Art and Religion
Art as Ritual, Ritual as Art
Art and Memory: Memorials and Monuments
Art and Narrative
100

The lightness or darkness of a color is called?

What is value?

100

According to Aristotle, what term describes art as an imitation of nature?

What is Mimesis? 

100

What term did Carolyn Dean critique for its Western bias and cultural limitations?

What is Art?

100

Hokusai’s famous woodblock print of a dramatic wave is part of this genre, which captures the fleeting beauty of nature and everyday life in Edo-period Japan.

What is Ukioy-e aka Pictures of the Floating World?

100

This Latin term, often depicted through symbols like skulls or hourglasses, reminds viewers of the inevitability of death and the fleeting nature of life.

What is memento mori?

100

This type of ritual figure from the Congo Basin is 'activated' by driving nails or blades into it to call upon the spirit within for protection, healing, or resolving disputes.

What is Nkisi Nkondi?

100

Which artist designed the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C.?

Who is Maya Lin?

100

What is the first level of Panofsky’s three levels of interpretation?

What is the pre-iconographic level?

200

This term describes the arrangement of elements in a work of art.

What is composition?

200

Which theorist categorized signs as index, icon, and symbol?

Who is Charles Pierce?

200

Which period in Europe is associated with the rise of the artist as 'genius,' according to Vasari?

What is the Italian Renaissance?

200

Which ancient earthwork in Ohio is thought to align with celestial events?

What is the Great Serpent Mound?

200

These small ancient Mesopotamian figures, often depicting worshippers with hands clasped in prayer, were created to serve as stand-ins for devotion to the gods, demonstrating the use of the human form as a spiritual offering.

What are Votive Figures?

200

This key concept refers to the process by which objects are 'brought to life' or given power through ritual practices.

What is ritual activation?

200

Where is the National Memorial for Peace and Justice, commemorating the victims of lynching, located?

Where is Montgomery, Alabama?

200

What is the primary difference between iconography and iconology?

What is: iconography identifies symbols and their meanings, while iconology interprets the deeper cultural significance?

300

The naturalistic stance of the human figure where weight is shifted, creating a sense of dynamic movement.

What is contrapposto?

300

In Barthes' Rhetoric of the Image, what term refers to the direct, literal meaning of an image?

What is denotation?

300

In Song Dynasty China, which type of artist was valued for their scholarly and spontaneous expression?

What is the scholar-artist (literati)?

300

What is the distinction between Land and Landscape?

What is physical, natural, unconstructed vs. socially, culturally, and historically constructed?

300

Which sacred architectural structure in India is designed for circumambulation?

What is The Great Stupa?

300

When ritual objects like Nkisi Nkondi, tapa cloths, and Kachina dolls are placed in museums, they lose their ritual function and become historic, aesthetic objects.

What is the term that is missing from their understanding?

What is cultural relativity?

300

This term refers to the intentional use of a specific location for a work of art.

What is Site Specificity?

300

Which artwork features two ambassadors surrounded by symbols of knowledge and an anamorphic skull?"

What is The Ambassadors?

400

This term describes the relative importance of figures in a composition in relation to their size.

What is Hieratic Scale?

400

Derrida's concept suggesting that meaning is always deferred and unstable is called what?

What is différance?

400

In the Mughal Empire, what was the primary purpose of art within the Imperial Court Workshops?

What is to serve political and dynastic representation?

400

Describe how linear perspective during the Italian Renaissance changed the representation of space in art.

It introduced a mathematical system for depicting three-dimensional space on a two-dimensional plane, emphasizing realism and human-centered perspective.

400

What is the term for the destruction of religious images, often associated with conflicts over idolatry?

What is iconoclasm?

400

Why do the Hopi people not perform Kachina dances in public, and why is it important to respect this tradition when studying their cultural practices?

This is because Kachina dances are considered sacred rituals meant for the Hopi community, and respecting this privacy preserves the spiritual integrity, preservation, and cultural significance of these practices?

400

What are three characteristics of memorials and monuments that help shape public narratives about historical events or figures?

What are site specificity, visual metaphors, and narrative reliefs?

400

Which level does Panofsky state involve identifying the symbolic meaning of motifs within the cultural context?

What is the iconological level?

500

Polykleitos’s Doryphoros is an example of this concept, which represents ideal mathematical proportions and the perfect balance of the human body in ancient Greek sculpture.

What is Canon?

500

The title of the artwork by René Magritte challenges the representation of objects and their meaning.

What is The Treachery of Images?

500

Compare the workshop system in Renaissance Italy to the Imperial Court system in the Mughal Empire. What are the major differences in the role of the artist?

What are the hierarchical structures of production and varying degrees of creative freedom?

500

What do the differences in mapping approaches between European maps from the 16th and Hybrid, Indigenous maps from New Spain reveal about each culture's relationship to land and their view of the world?


What is European maps reflect a desire to impose order and assert dominance over land. In contrast, Indigenous maps represent a deep, interconnected relationship with the land, highlighting its spiritual and lived significance?



500

Name the feature of the Kandariya Mahadeva Temple that reflects the idea of the axis mundi. What does it symbolize in Hindu cosmology?

What is Shikara; a symbol of the mountain axis that connects the earthly realm to the divine?

500

How do the concepts of "ritual activation" and "art as agency" challenge the Western view of art as passive objects, and what does this reveal about the dynamic roles of Indigenous art in their original cultural contexts?

What is they emphasize that these objects are not merely decorative or static but are believed to hold power and actively participate in social, spiritual, and communal life, reflecting a worldview where art is intertwined with daily practices and beliefs?

500

How does the Littlefield Fountain at UT Austin reflect conflicting history and memory narratives?

What is it that commemorates Confederate values under the guise of World War I remembrance, sparking debates about its place and narrative in public memory?

500

How does Hour of the Cowdust reflect allegorical and symbolic themes unique to its cultural and religious context?

What is: it represents Krishna’s divine presence in daily life, symbolizing spiritual harmony through the pastoral landscape and the interplay of natural and divine elements.