Past Tests

Tests consist of ten questions only (or ten parts of questions), and concern the material before the test date only. There are no identifications. I want you to learn period and style names, terms and definitions, and various analytical processes with their interpretations. Spelling matters!

The two big concepts for this course are Classicism and Christianity. We will see Classicism start, become axiomatic, and then get used to validate Christianity. We will see Christianity cause problems in the creation of "good" or valid art, and the alternatives that were used before reason was found to ignore the problem. By the end of the course, I want you to:

• understand the impact of Classicism on western art before the Italian Renaissance
  • be able to explain how Classicism works and why it was so disastrous if anyone proved anything wrong
  • be able to define and recognise Classical Beauty, and explain its purpose and how it worked
  • be able to define and recognise a Classical Idealization, and explain its meaning in Classical and Christian contexts.

• understand the impact of the Ten Commandments on Christian art
  • be able explain the alternatives to realism that were exploited by Christian artists

• be able to recognise typical instinctive ways we recognise "good" art in the west
  (recognising these, and their limitations, will open your mind to other ways of evaluating art)

I have put these past tests here to remind you of the questions we have already had. They might be repeated - particularly if you got them wrong!

Test 1, 20th September 1999

1. Define "registers"
2. When a head is in profile but its eyes are frontal, and the rest of the body is organised in a similar impossible fashion, what term(s) do we use to describe this? (composite view, multiple viewpoints)
3. When an object such as an eye is simplified and possibly distorted, how do we describe this? (formalised, schematised)
4. How do we indicate an approximate date? (circa, c.)
5. Is there reason to believe that pre-modern artists were all trying to produce the most realistic possible art? (no)
6. Give two signals of a conceptualised approach to image making (e.g. multiple/composite views, hierarchical scale, formalisation/schematisation)
7. Give two signals of a static composition (e.g. predominantly vertical/horizontal forms/lines, completeness or clarity of outline/lack of detail, smooth finish)
8. What is a shabti figure? (an image or statue whose purpose is to substitute for the donor, and do the job the donor should be doing, such as praying or working)