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This test consists of 5 short answer questions, 10 short essay questions, and 1 (of 3) essay topics.

Short Answer Questions

1. What could be said about the contents of Chapter 4?

2. What do paintings of children demonstrate about the patron who commissioned the work?

3. What is genre as a subject?

4. What is the metaphor that Berger et al. use to describe the European oil painting tradition?

5. From what ages does Rembrandt paint two self-portraits?

Short Essay Questions

1. How is Ford Madox Brown's nineteenth century painting titled "The Pretty Baa Lambs" slightly humorous against the other images on pages 66 and 67?

2. How are pages 72 and 73, which contain images of mythological characters and fanciful human figures, different than the previous images that are displayed in Chapter 4?

3. Describe the difference in the artist portrayal of a portrait versus a self-portrait.

4. According to Berger et al., how do traditional oil paintings perpetuate the wealth and power of the ruling class?

5. Describe the painting "Europe supported by Africa and America" by William Blake, and propose the message the artist is sending through the work.

6. What is in the Knoll Ball Room? Describe what it looks like.

7. Describe how Holbein's work "The Ambassadors" is typical of traditional oil paintings and the manner of presenting the subjects, as explained by the authors.

8. Describe Couture's eighteenth century painting "A Roman Feast", and explain how it plays into the other images on the facing page.

9. In Chapter 4, explain what interconnections can be made between the images of death on pages 68 and 69, and the images of food, wine, and the hunt on pages 70 and 71.

10. Describe the images of death in Chapter 4 on pages 68 and 69, and name some of the specific paintings.

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Write an essay to describe how works of art from the past mystify viewers in the present. Answer the following questions in your writing. Where do the viewers see themselves when they observe a work of art from the past? What depictions are easily misinterpreted from historical art works? Do you think that viewers in the present see the same sight as viewers from the past when they look at a work of art from the past? Support your reasoning.

Essay Topic 2

Woman nudes are a common subject in traditional European oil paintings. Write the following three-part essay to describe the portrayal of women in these paintings.

Part 1 - Describe how female nudes are positioned and situated in paintings that are tailored to the male viewer.

Part 2 - Explain some of the various ways that artists manipulate the depiction of female nudes to shape the viewer's way of seeing.

Part 3 - Contrast the assumed humanism in European oil paintings with the portrayal of women nudes in traditional European oil paintings.

Essay Topic 3

Explain the psychology of publicity images and modern consumerism according to Berger et al. and compare that to the authors' explanation of the spectator-owner versus the spectator-buyer psychology associated with European oil paintings.

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