The Latest Art Quiz
Our Art Quiz today is easy and hard and fun and silly. The easy questions were written by me. The hard questions come from actual AP Art History tests. (It sure seems that the kids who came before my time, and the kids who came after my time, were a lot smarter than the kids who came during my time. Is that true for you?) Answer key below.
So, pencils up!
ANSWER KEY
1. This is a painting that came during the Futurism Movement in Art and Literature. The Futurists believed that everything was in motion (pre-String Theory), and that belief was called Dynamism. My favorite painting by a Futurist is this one by Natalia Goncharova called The Cyclist painted in 1913.
You can see the forward movement of the body and the bicycle, as the artist has included indications of where the body and the bicycle were split-seconds ago. This motion is caused by the representation of many feet that are blurred in action. It was a movie on a canvas.
2. The stunning portrait on the right was created by Italian Mannerist painter Bronzino in 1551. It depicts Lodovico Capponi, and it must have pleased his parents immensely. You can see this masterpiece at the Frick in New York. It is oil on wood and quite large, nearly four feet tall.
Agnolo Bronzino painted mostly portraits, although he did some religious scenes and at least one or two inspired by Greek and Roman mythology. His credentials in Mannerism are well established. “Where High Renaissance art emphasizes proportion, balance, and ideal beauty, Mannerism exaggerates such qualities, often resulting in compositions that are asymmetrical or unnaturally elegant.” In many of the Mannerist paintings, the necks are longer than normal, the heads are painted smaller, and the hands longer and thinner, the latter especially seems to be the case here in The Portrait of Lodovico Capponi.
You can see other Bronzino pieces at the National Gallery of Art, and he goes hog wild with the long necks and hands in those.
So, the timeline goes as follows: Renaissance, High Renaissance (if you want to add that little subdivision), Mannerism, Baroque.
3. Well, of course I was going to include a Caravaggio painting in the Art Quiz! You knew that. The masterpiece is entitled, The Sacrifice of Isaac, and it was thought to be painted in 1598. The Master was known for his dark lighting (Chiaroscuro) and dramatic poses.
The drama in this painting is almost entirely in the eyes of the angel sent to interdict before Abraham sacrifices his son, Isaac. (See detail below). Do the angel’s eyes align? Does he have astigmatism?
Although somebody killing their child on authority of god would find themselves in a legal bind today, this was a very powerful symbol at the time Caravaggio painted it.
4 & 5. Michelangelo’s Pietà is a stunning marble statue located at St. Peter's Basilica, Vatican City. The story goes that he was standing by the masterwork one day and overheard a passersby attribute the sculpture to another artist. Because of that, Michelangelo came back late at night and chiseled his name across the sash that Mary wears.
Your questions were (a) what was the ratio of the height between Jesus and Mary, and (b) Why? Well, according to people who know these things, if concrete Mary was stood up next to concrete Jesus, she would be more than 2x taller. The ratio of Jesus:Mary is 1:2+ or so.
As to why Michelangelo did it, I think the answer can be seen in other, earlier Pietàs that appear ungainly, with the large body of Christ draped over and almost completely covering Mary. Additionally, Michelangelo’s taller Mary gives us a powerful triangular or pyramid shape.
6, 7 & 8. I was completely unfamiliar with this Art. The Court of Gayumars reminds me of Medieval European illumination art. Needless to say, I wouldn’t be able to answer any of those AP test questions with anything other than bluster and bullshit. I do think it is cool that the folks heading the Advanced Placement testing have decided to diversify the artwork.
It is beautiful.
“When created, the manuscript contained 759 pages, 258 of which were miniatures.” That is a lot of handcrafted art. “Upon its completion, the Shahnameh was gifted to Ottoman Sultan Selim II in 1568.”
As an ungifted fellow in high school, I was not made aware of Advance Placement tests. Apparently, you take a year-long course of study, and the examination is based off those course materials. The AP Art History exam obviously places a premium on critical thinking skills.
9. The question was: What kind of earring is she wearing? That should be a dead-giveaway because this Vermeer painting is entitled, Girl with a Pearl Earring. So, if you said Pearl, you get full marks. The other acceptable answer could be metal.
I believe it is a metal earring.
After researching this possibility and gathering evidence for quite some time, I found in a Dutch-language forum some further support for the proposition. A Dutch Astrophysicist reached the same conclusion, and he went into additional metallurgical detail.
This treasure of a painting might be named incorrectly, but it will always be a favorite! What do you think? Pearl or metal or something else?
10. That was not a panel in Superman #17, “Clark Leaves Lois Behind.” In fact, this art would be valued at 10x the amount an Action Comics #1 would sell for. This is Roy Lichtenstein’s The Kiss. He was a massive figure in the Pop Art movement, and one of his creations sold for over $95 million.
A later effort of a similar nature, KIss III, sold for over $31 million.
In my mind at least, the very first super hero artist was Michelangelo. Look at the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel. Muscles! Sinew! Grace! Balance! Even his depiction of the holy family in The Doni Tondo shows strong muscles on Mary, a much older Joseph, who looks like he could still wrestle in the WWE, and muscular figures in the background.
11. I’ve taken the liberty of making up a question for our quiz out of whole cloth. This is what I call a “fantasy detail” of a painting that doesn’t exist. You have the little girl from Seurat’s A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte walking next to Raphael’s Plato and Aristotle from School of Athens, with a background from Dali’s The Persistence of Memory.
You see an out-of-place little girl dressed in Sunday fashion for a Summer’s day out standing next to two ancient Greek philosophers who seem to be in a rhetorical struggle about heaven and earth. (The Plato figure is supposedly modeled after Leonardo da Vinci).
What you don't see off to the left (stage right) are Dali’s melting clocks and sleeping/melting horse. Or, is that part of a melted face with giant eyelashes?
12. The questions for this masterpiece are (a) Who painted it, and (b) Why? As you know, this is one of the most important works by German-American painter Albert Bierstadt entitled, Among the Sierra Nevada, California. The setting is almost surreal it is so beautiful, almost like a movie set for Hobbits.
In case you want to enjoy this painting at a much grander scale, here’s a link to the wikimedia page. You can enlarge it to even greater dimensions from there.
As for why Bierstadt painted it, well, that was a bit rhetorical. Obviously the gentleman loved beauty.
13. This is a detail of a painting by Claude Monet. I’m not even sure which painting. My guess is that it came from Water Lilies and the Japanese Bridge (1897-1899). Like Degas and Michelangelo, and in their own way, Bierstadt and Canaletto, Monet was smart enough to paint beautiful things.
Here is a link from wikimedia at which you can enlarge the painting. I don’t think you want it too big. Just an impression is nice.
You pay nothing to see The Japanese Footbridge at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. Moreover, it is one of those large paintings that stuns you as you turn the corner and enter the room. I think that’s where the detail comes from! It was surely on my mind.
14, 15 & 16. This is another AP Art History question from the 2018 exam. The students are graded on a sliding scale, with a certain percentage getting high marks, another percentage slightly lower, and so on. I also think the AP folks have a cool way to discover and support budding artists: “AP Studio Art requires students to submit a portfolio for review.”
The actual art or artifact is as mysterious and interesting as any Western art. Apparently, they have named and mapped each slab (or lintel) of art on these Mayan buildings, and that allows folks across the globe to know they are talking about the same piece.
This is Lintel 25 from Structure 23. The British Museum, where it is kept, writes this about the piece: “Lintel 25: Carved limestone lintel, showing Lady K'ab'al Xook on the bottom right of the panel. Lady Xook is in the hallucinatory stage of the bloodletting ritual. She conjures before her a vision of a Teotihuacan serpent.” That might’ve been a proper answer to the AP test!
17. The bold fellow who liked to paint drama and blood was Caravaggio. He painted at least two works entitled, David with the Head of Goliath. In both, you can see the blood dripping out. Scholars believe that Caravaggio used his own head as a model for the head of Goliath in the detail on the right.
This was a time in the artist’s life when he was at more than the usual amount of turmoil. He was on the lam for killing a man after an argument on the tennis courts of Rome. Tennis was played with rackets as early as the 16th century. Caravaggio also played that particular game with a sword.
So, that painting of Caravaggio’s head was meant as a peace offering to the Pope, as the Master wanted a Papal pardon.
The New/Old Art Mystery
The first Art Mystery I wrote at daily kos has always been my favorite. It involves my favorite painting and my favorite question: Did Caravaggio attempt to paint actual motion? I believe that he did. And yet, he’s not received the credit deserved for this remarkable achievement. Even Caravaggio.org claims that this master stroke was a mistake!
Caravaggio’s masterpiece, The Supper at Emmaus, is a completed study of motion. You see motion caught in pause, impending motion, potential motion, and, I believe, the Holy Grail of actual motion.
What is new with this old Art Mystery is that I’ve put it on video.
Additionally, in the interim, I discovered that Johannes Kepler was born within three months of Caravaggio in 1571. I’ve added him to the narrative because, while Caravaggio studied the motion of human beings, Kepler was busy observing and recording the motion of the planets. Cheers!
KOS Art Expo 2021!
Pissed off at 2020? Hangover? Sick of Republicans? Stop by Kos Art Expo tomorrow to see what your talented friends at daily kos have created. This is a great way to start the New Year! There will be “Museums of the Beautiful and the Curious” published by Angmar at 2:00 pm (Eastern) and then by Gwennedd at 6:00 pm (Eastern). I have been privileged to own a backstage pass and have seen the exhibits, and holy wow! On the right is one by our friend Ralphdog.