Visual Arts - CLEP Humanities

While "mosaic" is a very broad term, it refers to any artwork made by assembling together small pieces of glass and tile. Roman artists and architects frequently used mosaics to create artwork in homes and buildings, and these were frequently realistic depictions of people or landscapes. Mosaics are still used by artists today, but can often take on abstract forms.

The Italian architect Andrea Palladio was well known for his own buildings in his native Venice, but gained greater fame for the work of architectural theory he composed in 1570, The Four Books of Architecture. Drawing on Greek and Roman influences, Palladio called for symmetry, domes, columns, and grand spaces. Each of these elements would become hallmarks of neoclassical architecture during the eighteenth century.

Mannerism was mainly in the sixteenth century, and was not as strong in movement or emotion. Impressionism was a nineteenth century movement focusing on small brush strokes and an emphasis on openness and light in the overall composition. Gothic art is a Medieval art style, which came before the Renaissance. Pre-modern is not an art style. Baroque style is typically used to describe Versailles and Caravaggio.

Rembrandt van Rijn was one of the great masters of the Dutch Golden Age of painting during the seventeenth century. His style was notable for featuring bold colors and dramatic lighting in "everyday scenes" of commonfolk, as well as portraits and scenes out of the Bible. Almost all of Rembrandt's paintings featured people, and he almost never drew landscapes.

Gilbert Stuart (1755-1828) was one of the very first well known American painters. During the Revolutionary Era, Stuart became essentially the "court painter" of the early American government because of his portraits of leading figures. Stuart's work includes the most famous portraits of George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, and many other of America's Founding Fathers.

This painting, Edgar Degas' "The Dance Lesson," was painted in 1879 and is a classic representation of impressionism. With its visible and broad brush strokes and its detached point of view, this painting features the hallmarks of impressionism, a painting style developed in France in the late nineteenth century. Degas preferred to call his artistic style "realism," because he believed his method of painting captured the realistic emotion of a scene, if not an exact representation of it.

The eclectic, improvisational nature of jazz had a wide influence in other artistic forms. In particular, visual artists sought to take some of jazz's extemporaneous elements and apply them to painting and sculpture. This idea greatly influence Jackson Pollock's "drip method" and other aspects of Abstract Expressionist art from the 1940s and 1950s.

All Mayan cities and temple structures revolved around the pyramid. Typically featuring steps to the top of the pyramid and terraces, the Mayas used the pyramid for temples, palaces, and most other important buildings. The use of the pyramid was highly influential for later Mesoamerican cultures, such as the Aztecs.

Hindu temple architecture follows guidelines which call for a circular inner sanctum with the rest of the structure emanating from the center room. As with most ancient Hindu artistic traditions, the basic structures and rules for Hindu temple architecture are found in the group of works known as the Shilpa Shastras.

While "mosaic" is a very broad term, it refers to any artwork made by assembling together small pieces of glass and tile. Roman artists and architects frequently used mosaics to create artwork in homes and buildings, and these were frequently realistic depictions of people or landscapes. Mosaics are still used by artists today, but can often take on abstract forms.

Using newly found mathematical principles in their artwork, Renaissance artists were able to create perspective in Western painting for the first time. Vanishing-point perspective, which creates lines of sight that reflect the depth seen in reality, allowed for portraiture, religious subjects, and other works to be seen in new ways. Coupled with new scientific knowledge and an increasing use of dark colors and shadows, Renaissance art created new perceptions of artwork.

Perspective, the ability to place objects and figures in a 2D image that reflects 3D realities, was one of the driving forces of the artistic era known as the Renaissance. The era included painters like Leonardo da Vinci, Botticelli, and Michelangelo, who developed modes of portraiture that revolutionized artistic depictions. With this innovation, most Western art can be divided between pre- and post-Renaissance styles.

Contrapposto has to do with the weight shift in a figure, crosshatching is used to create angles, and shading does not imply a contrast. Sfumato is about the transition from light to dark, not contrasting the two. Chiaroscuro is the only answer that works here because its definition is the treatment of light and shadow to show a contrast.

During the American Civil War, the medium of photography was still relatively new, having only been invented a few decades before the outbreak of war in 1861. The photographer Matthew Brady was the pioneering figure in developing photography throughout the war. By capturing war in the realistic medium of photography, Brady both helped people see war in a different manner and appreciate the possibilities of photography.

Paul Gauguin was an important Post-Impressionist whose early work experimented with color and symbolism, but Gauguin's work took on a new form after visiting Tahiti in the 1880s. Gauguin began capturing the culture of Polynesia and started using symbols of Polynesia and images of Polynesians themselves in his art. In the 1890s, he permanently moved to the island of Punaauia in French Polynesia, and painted more and more symbolic paintings that played with color and structure.

In the enlightenment era of the eighteenth century, many artists and architects looked to classical Greece and Rome as models, spawning the architectural style known as "Neo-Classicism." Featuring white stone, columns, and extensive use of marble, this style is most famous as being used in many of America's government buildings.

This painting, Edgar Degas' "The Dance Lesson," was painted in 1879 and is a classic representation of impressionism. With its visible and broad brush strokes and its detached point of view, this painting features the hallmarks of impressionism, a painting style developed in France in the late nineteenth century. Degas preferred to call his artistic style "realism," because he believed his method of painting captured the realistic emotion of a scene, if not an exact representation of it.

Saint Sebastian was a martyr of the early Christian church who died in the Diocletian persecutions of the third century CE. He became a popular figure in medieval art, usually shown as being tied to a tree with arrows in his sides. This image was to convey what an appropriate Christian martyr should look like.

This painting is by the Medieval artist Fra Angelico and known as the Cortona Annunciation. Painted from 1433-1434, it depicts the archangel Gabriel telling the Virgin Mary that she is pregnant with the Christ child. The Annunciation, as a key moment in the Bible, was a very popular theme in Medieval European art. This particular painting was part of an altarpiece in a church in Cortona, Italy, and painted by a priest.

As one of the most revered figures in Christianity, the Virgin Mary was a constant theme of medieval religious art. In order to function as a highly visible symbol in a mostly illiterate culture, many different symbols were used to distinguish Mary. Most important was her robe, which was typically a bright blue color, which denoted expensive silks.