Arts 106 Study Guides
Spring 2012
Professor Jessica Walton
Introduction
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How does your book attempt to define art? What is your definition of art?
How does your book attempt to define art history?
What is a formal analysis of a work of art? What are the visual elements?
What is the composition of a work of art?
What is the difference between subject matter and content?
What is a symbol? What is iconography? Can you think of a contemporary
iconography?
7) What is meant by historical and cultural context? How is the study of these
essential to understanding a work of art? What other considerations should
be taken into account when analyzing a work of art?
Chapter 17 – 14th Century Art in Europe
1) What is a guild? Describe the role of the guilds in 14th Century Europe. What
economic factors influenced the art of 14th Century Europe?
2) How is the Byzantine style continued in Cimabue’s Virgin and Child
Enthroned?
3) Compare and contrast Cimabue’s Virgin and Child Enthroned with Giotto di
Bondone’s Virgin and Child Enthroned.
4) How does Giotto’s painting reflect a new emphasis on direct emotional
appeal?
5) Describe the technique of buon fresco. What makes this technique so lasting?
Chapter 18 – 15th Century Art of Northern Europe
1) What is meant by the term “Renaissance”? What are some characteristics
described here of Renaissance art?
2) What geographical areas are in the Northern Renaissance?
3) Describe the influence of the rise of the middle class in 15th century art.
4) What are an altar and an altarpiece? What is a diptych? A triptych?
5) What is an Annunciation scene in Christian art depicting? How does Robert
Campin’s Triptych of the Annunciation from the Merode Altarpiece
embody characteristics of 15th Century Northern Renaissance style? Describe
some of the iconography (symbols used) in the work.
6) How is Jan Van Eyck’s Man in Red Turban a perfect reflection of Humanist
influences on 15th Century Renaissance art?
7) What are some possible interpretations of Jan Van Eyck’s Giovanni Arnolfini
and His Wife, Giovanna Cenami?
8) What is a Deposition scene in Christian art depicting? How does Rogier Van
der Weyden’s Deposition show humanistic concern for individual
expressions of emotion?
Chapter 19 – Renaissance Art in 15th Century Italy
1) Where did the most important cultural centers exist in 15th century Italy?
Explain the importance of wealthy families, such as the Medici in Florence for
the arts. What are some other sources of patronage for the arts in this
period?
2) How did the Classical past influence the art and philosophies of the
Renaissance? Who are the humanists and how did their thinking influence
the art and culture of the Renaissance?
3) Describe Donatello’s David. What biblical scene does this represent? What
other possible meanings could be associated with this work? How does this
work draw on the Classical art tradition?
4) How did Brunelleschi’s mathematical system of Linear Perspective
revolutionize Renaissance art? How is Linear Perspective used in Masaccio’s
Trinity With the Virgin, St. John the Evangelist, and Donors?
5) How does Masaccio’s The Expulsion of Adam and Eve from Paradise in the
Brancacci Chapel show an “intimate knowledge of ancient Roman sculpture”
and reflect an interest in the “psychological impact of shame on these first
humans” (pg. 611 of text)?
6) Compare and contrast Masaccio’s The Expulsion of Adam and Eve from
Paradise with Van Eyck’s Adam and Eve from the Ghent Altarpiece (pg.
577, Fig. B)
7) How do Botticelli’s Primavera and the Birth of Venus combine pagan
classical mythology with Neoplatonic and Christian themes in allegory?
Chapter 20 – 16th Century Art in Italy
1) How did the role of artists evolve in this period? How did the humanist
conception of the artist help change this role?
2) What characterizes “High Renaissance” art? Who are the three “art stars” of
this period in Italy? Compare and contrast each artist’s work.
3) Describe how The Last Supper by Leonardo, The School of Athens by
Raphael, and David by Michelangelo perfectly characterize the artwork and
ideals of the High Renaissance.
4) What is chiaroscuro? What is sfumato? Describe how chiaroscuro adds to the
realism in Leonardo’s Mona Lisa and sfumato increases the “expressive
complexity, and the sense of psychological presence” of the work.
5) Compare and contrast Donatello’s and Michelangelo’s David.
6) Describe the scenes depicted in Michelangelo’s Sistine Chapel Ceiling. Why
didn’t Michelangelo want to paint the chapel ceiling?
7) Discuss the work of Venetian artists Giorgione and Titian through the works
The Tempest, Pastoral Concert, and Venus of Urbino. How is each of these
paintings so different from anything we have seen so far?
8) How is Bronzino’s Allegory with Venus and Cupid a good example of
Mannerist art?
9) What is the Counter-Reformation? How is Michelangelo’s Sistine Chapel
fresco of the Last Judgment a product of this?
10)Compare and contrast Leonardo’s and Tintoretto’s The Last Supper. How do
they show how drastically composition and style changed during the 16th
century in Italy?
Chapter 21 – 16th Century Art in Northern Europe and the Iberian Peninsula
1) What are some artistic repercussions of the Protestant Reformation? What
new themes developed to replace Catholic religious themes in the Protestant
North?
2) Compare and contrast the work of German artists Matthias Grunewald and
Albrecht Durer? Use Grunewald’s Isenheim Altarpiece and Durer’s SelfPortrait and Adam and Eve engraving in your comparison.
3) Describe the works of El Greco. What precedents in style are there for The
Burial of Count Orgaz?
4) What are some possible explanations discussed in your book of Hieronymous
Bosch’ Garden of Earthly Delights?
5) What are some of the subjects of the work of Pieter Breugel the Elder?
Possible Discussion topics for Renaissance Art:
1) Do you feel that the Renaissance really is a rebirth? How does the Renaissance in
some ways a continuance of the “Middle Ages” and how is it a “rebirth” of the
Classical ages of the past?
2) Describe the use of the nude in Renaissance art. Discuss issues of gender and
sexuality in Renaissance works such as Titian’s Venus of Urbino or
Michelangelo’s and Donatello’s David, etc.
3) How did the Renaissance artists adapt the pagan arts and thinking of ancient Rome
and Greece into Christian and humanist themes of the Renaissance?
4) What are the Reformation and the Counter-Reformation? How did these
affect the art of the 16th century?