Chapter 3 – Ancient Art
Multiple Choice Questions
1. The Panathenaic Amphora with Runners reveals an interest in beauty because of the:
a. patterned decoration.
b. integration of the handles into the overall shape.
c. manner in which it rises from its base.
d. all of these.
e. none of these.
2. In most ancient civilizations, artists were counted among the ranks of:
a. priests.
b. scholars.
c. laborers.
d. all of these.
e. none of these.
3. The Sumerian Storm God and two Stags lintel represents Imdugud as:
a. a mud-covered human.
b. a lioness-headed eagle.
c. a gigantic fist.
d. all of these.
e. none of these.
4. The Sumerian ziggurat functioned as:
a. a human-made sacred mountain.
b. an impenetrable fortress for laborers.
c. a treasury for the priestly class.
d. all of these.
e. none of these.
5. The Great Pyramids at Giza functioned as:
a. royal tombs.
b. navigational signposts for desert travelers.
c. battlements for defense.
d. all of these.
e. none of these.
6. Imhotep’s design for the architectural climax at Saqqara was a solid structure, large
step pyramid that suggests:
a. a celestial marker.
b. the superimposition of shrinking mastabas.
c. a royal fortress.
d. all of these.
e. none of these.
7. Egyptian temple architecture stresses:
a. monumentality.
b. durability.
c. stability.
d. weight.
e. all of these.
8. Egyptian tomb wall paintings tell us a great deal about ancient Egyptian life and
customs because the tomb decorations:
a. had to preserve pleasant everyday life for the ka.
b. were forbidden to involve abstraction.
c. were produced by unskilled laborers.
d. all of these.
e. none of these.
9. The interior decorations of the palace at Knossos exhibit characteristics common to
Minoan art, including:
a. brightly colored paintings.
b. lively rhythms.
c. fresco scenes of ceremony or ritual.
d. all of these.
e. none of these.
10. The patterns and fine detail of the beard and wings of the Assyrian Lamassu stress
the:
a. rhythmic eloquence.
b. encrusted surface.
c. massive scale and powerful forms.
d. all of these.
e. none of these.
11. The Olmec were accomplished carvers, as attested by their:
a. stone stelae.
b. jade celts.
c. figurines.
d. colossal basalt heads.
e. all of these.
12. The Etruscan style of tomb painting involved:
a. simple bright colors.
b. a prohibition on abstract pattern.
c. murkily painted figures.
d. all of these.
e. none of these.
13. The calm, axial, idealized form of Apollo in Apollo and the Battle of the Lapiths and the
Centaurs represents:
a. the punishment of Prometheus.
b. the mastery of reasoned order over brute force.
c. defeat of the Etruscan city-states.
d. all of these.
e. none of these.
14. In the amphora Achilles and Ajax Playing Draughts by Exekias, the composition
reveals the Greek search for:
a. a spiritual medium.
b. emotionally dramatic representations.
c. balance and harmony.
d. all of these.
e. none of these.
15. The Doryphoros (Spear Carrier) by Polykleitos is best understood as a visual exemplar
of:
a. the Canon.
b. Egyptian proportions.
c. rigid symmetry and geometry.
d. all of these.
e. none of these.
Fill–in–the-Blank Questions
16. As seen on the Fang ding, the most famous pattern used on early Chinese bronzes
was the taotie, or ____________.
17. The Votive Palette of King Narmer was apparently created to mark the
____________ of Egypt.
18. The shallow renderings on the Votive Palette of King Narmer are suppressed into
what is essentially a two-dimensional medium called ____________.
19. In Egyptian architecture, lintels had to be short and the posts heavy and close
together because the stone was ____________ and ____________.
20. Mycenaean kings were buried with their personal treasures and weapons in large
round structures called ____________.
21. The differences in expressions and decorative symbols on the Olmec colossal heads
found at San Lorenzo in La Venta suggest that they may be portraits of ____________.
22. The stylistic evolution of Greek figurative sculpture is from rigidly posed to
____________.
23. The earliest large-scale Greek sculptures are indebted to ____________ prototypes.
24. In the Canon of Polykleitos, as promoted by Vitruvius, the width of the shoulders
was ____________ of the total height.
25. In Greek Doric architecture, the walled inner sanctuary, or ____________, contained
the cult statue.
True-False Questions
26. The animal forms that create a fang ding vessel’s patterns are believed to represent
the enormous wealth of the patron.
27. An underground burial chamber marked by a mud-brick structure above is called a
mastaba.
28. Artistic invention was prized in ancient Egyptian tomb decoration.
29. The plan of the palace at Knossos is rambling and labyrinthine.
30. Contrapposto originated as the result of the Greeks’ interest in the ideal nude
human body and in athletic achievement.
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Short Answer Questions
31. What ensured a continuity of artistic and iconographic formulas in most ancient art?
32. What about the stele relief of Akhenaten with Nefertiti and Their Children leads one
to conclude an equality that seems to have characterized the Amarna period of
Egyptian history?
33. Why did each object in an Egyptian tomb painting have to be shown in its most
34. What parts of the gold funeral mask found at Mycenae display a more abstract
approach?
35. What about the Archaic-style kouros is derived from Egyptian sculpture?
Essay Questions
36. Discuss how Praxiteles’s Aphrodite of Knidos is unlike earlier Greek sculptures.
37. Discuss the iconographic themes of the Parthenon sculptures and to what they are
related.