Answering other questions about seventeenth- and eighteenth-century 2D art - AP Art History

Card 0 of 14

Question

The Florentine noble family whose members were patrons of artists like Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci, and Botticelli were the __________.

Answer

The Medicis were a banking family who gained power in Florence during the fifteenth century and held sway for over two hundred years in the Northern Italian city state. While controlling the wheels of state, the Medicis were also important patrons of important Renaissance artists, making great strides in art possible in the sixteenth century. In particular, artists like Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo, and Botticelli were only able to make the works they did because of the protections of the Medicis.

Compare your answer with the correct one above

Question

The Italian artist Caravaggio is most closely associated with __________.

Answer

Caravaggio (1571-1610) built on earlier Renaissance paintings that used naturalistic poses and deep use of contrast and color, but pushed them into almost new forms. Caravaggio focused on emotional themes through natural pose and extremely sharp contrasts between dark and light elements in his paintings. These refinements were key to the development of the Baroque style of the seventeenth century.

Compare your answer with the correct one above

Question

File:The Nightwatch by Rembrandt.jpg 523px-j.vermeer-el_astr_nomo__museo_del_louvre__1688

Figure 3 Figure 4

The artists who created each of these paintings were __________.

Answer

These paintings are two classic examples of Dutch painting from the seventeenth century: Figure 3 presents The Night Watch by Rembrandt van Rijn (1642), and Figure 4 shows The Astronomer by Johannes Vermeer (1668). Both exhibit typical features of Dutch golden age painting, including strong contrasts and vivid colors, which are used to portray important Dutchmen of the day.

Figure 3: The Night Watch by Rembrandt van Rijn (1642)

Figure 4: The Astronomer by Johannes Vermeer (1668)

Compare your answer with the correct one above

Question

File:The Nightwatch by Rembrandt.jpg 523px-j.vermeer-el_astr_nomo__museo_del_louvre__1688

Figure 3 Figure 4

The painting shown in Figure 3 portrays __________.

Answer

The men in the foreground of Rembrandt van Rijn's The Night Watch all carry muskets and wave banners, indicative of militia soldiers in the seventeenth century. The captain, Frans Banning Cocq, was an actual leader of a militia, and Rembrandt intentionally captured his company. It was also intentional on the artist's part to show their supporters behind them.

Figure 3: The Night Watch by Rembrandt van Rijn (1642)

Figure 4: The Astronomer by Johannes Vermeer (1668)

Compare your answer with the correct one above

Question

File:Las Meninas (1656), by Velazquez.jpg File:Francisco de Goya y Lucientes 054.jpg

Figure 1 Figure 2

The painting shown in Figure 2 was created around __________.

Answer

Francisco de Goya became the court painter to King Charles IV of Spain in the 1790s, and made many portraits of the royal family until Napoleon invaded Spain in 1808. This painting, Charles IV of Spain and His Family, was made in 1801, and shows a dynasty trying to keep itself together.

Figure 1: Las Meninas by Diego Velázquez (1656)

Figure 2: Charles IV of Spain and His Family Francisco de Goya (1801)

Compare your answer with the correct one above

Question

File:Fra Angelico 069.jpg File:CaravaggioEmmaus.jpg

Figure 3 Figure 4

The image shown in Figure 4 was influenced by __________.

Answer

After the German priest Martin Luther inaugurated the Protestant Reformation in 1519, the Roman Catholic Church made various attempts to reinforce itself. In the mid-sixteenth century, the Counter-Reformation came about, during which Catholicism sought to address the criticisms of the Protestant Reformation while remaining loyally Catholic. Carvaggio's painting of the disciples encountering the risen Jesus at Emmaus is emblematic of this trend, as the work shows shows a realistic, devotional, and personal religion that nonetheless has a focus on mysticism and traditional Church doctrine.

Figure 3: The Annunciation (Cortona) by Fra Angelico (1433)

Figure 4: Supper at Emmaus (Milan) by Caravaggio (1606)

Compare your answer with the correct one above

Question

Rembrandt van Rijn most frequently painted subjects from __________.

Answer

Rembrandt van Rijn, like other Dutch Masters of the seventeenth century, painted different images from other European painters, thanks to the Netherlands' unique religious and political situation. As a Protestant-majority nation that was ruled by the Spanish monarch, court paintings, images of Roman antiquity, and classical mythology were unpopular subjects among the Dutch in the seventeenth century. As such, the most popular subjects for Rembrandt were scenes from the Bible, especially the New Testament.

Compare your answer with the correct one above

Question

"Lapis lazuli" is the name for a stone that, when crushed into a powder, produces a paint with a vivid shade of __________.

Answer

The lapis lazuli stone was mined in Afghanistan and Pakistan since the seventh millennium BCE. In the early Renaissance, it was finally imported to Europe, where the paint produced from lapis lazuli from the stone became highly valued. This paint was widely used in Renaissance art for the blue robe of the Virgin Mary; it is also widely associated with the Dutch painter Johannes Vermeer.

Compare your answer with the correct one above

Question

Baroque and Impressionist artists have all of the following in common except __________.

Answer

Impressionists had less of an interest in painting works with religious themes while Baroque artists often engaged with these themes. Impressionism emerged in France while Baroque art gained popularity across Western Europe. Both Impressionists and Baroque artists had an interest in portraiture and the everyday world. Both kinds of artists showed an interest in capturing light on the canvas.

Compare your answer with the correct one above

Question

Los_horrores_de_la_guerra.jpg

Which of the following is true about Peter Paul Rubens’ Allegory of the Outbreak of War?

Answer

Rubens derived great insight into European politics from his diplomatic missions, and never ceased to promote peace. He used Allegory of the Outbreak of War to express his horror at the Thirty Years War and promote his message of peace.

Compare your answer with the correct one above

Question

Jean-Baptiste_Greuze_L'accordee_de_Village.jpg

Jean-Baptiste Greuze’s The Village Wife is demonstrative of which of the following?

Answer

Greuze's Village Wife echoes Rousseau's writings, which placed emotions above reason as the most natural of human expressions. The painting's sentimental tone is characterized by the simplicity seen in the peasant's rustic, unadorned dwelling and its depiction of this happy climax to a rural romance. It promotes a moral message that happiness is the reward of natural virtue.

Compare your answer with the correct one above

Question

Las meninas 01

The inclusion of a mirror on the back wall of the painting recalls which Early Netherlandish work of art?

Answer

One of the most curious elements of Diego Velazquez' Las Meninas is the inclusion of a small mirror in the middle of the painting, on the back wall of the room, showing the King and Queen of Spain. This directly references a similar object in the Arnolfini Wedding Portrait, painted over two hundred years before Velazquez' creation of Las Meninas.

Image is in the public domain, accessed through Wikipedia Media Commons: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Las\_Meninas,\_by\_Diego\_Velázquez,\_from\_Prado\_in\_Google\_Earth.jpg

Compare your answer with the correct one above

Question

Self portrait with saskia

The work shown here allowed the artist to ____________________.

Answer

Etching such as this one, Self-Portrait with Saskia, served two functions for an artist like Rembrandt. While some would be sold at a much lower cost than large-scale paintings, they also allowed Rembrandt to practice techniques he utilized in paintings. Rembrandt made a large number of self-portraits throughout his career, each of which had different poses, but all showed his hallmarks such as heightened contrast of light and dark elements and a revealing view of his subject, each of which are showed in this etching.

Image is in the public domain, accessed through Wikipedia Media Commons: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Self-portrait\_with\_Saskia.jpg

Compare your answer with the correct one above

Question

Jacques louis david  le serment des horaces

Jacques-Louis David's The Oath of the Horatii, shown here,depicts a scene from _____________________.

Answer

The Oath of the Horatii presents three brother from the Horatius clan making an oath to their father that they will fight three brothers from the rival city of Alba Longa. This story, in which only one brother survived, but the brothers' task of defeating their rivals was ultimately achieved, was quite popular as a Roman lesson about honor and patriotism. During the late eighteenth century, many intellectuals throughout Europe looked back to Classical sources for guidance, resulting in the philosophical movement known as the Enlightenment and the artistic style known as Neoclassicism.

Artwork from Wikimedia Commons: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Jacques-Louis\_David,\_Le\_Serment\_des\_Horaces.jpg

Compare your answer with the correct one above

Tap the card to reveal the answer