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Chapter 20 – The Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries
Multiple Choice Questions
1. A leading painter in the Realist movement, the artist of Burial at Ornans declared that
“painting is an essentially concrete art and can only consist of the presentation of real and
existing things.” The artist is:
a) Rosa Bonheur.
b) Théodore Géricault.
c) Angelica Kauffmann.
d) Gustave Courbet.
2. In works such as Olympia, realist painter Edouard Manet was denying traditional
painting style and drawing attention to:
a) formal concerns within the composition.
b) his modernity and break with the past.
c) history painting.
d) color.
3. Which artist rejected modern society and painted images of “primitive” island culture
such as in The Day of the Gods?
a) Vincent van Gogh.
b) Jacob van Ruisdael.
c) Paul Gauguin.
d) Paul Cézanne.
4. This artist of The Large Bathers pushed toward an idea of painting that established for
the work an independent existence:
a) Vincent van Gogh.
b) Paul Gauguin.
c) Pablo Picasso.
d) Paul Cézanne.
5. Which of these paintings is considered a Rococo painting?
a) Church’s The Heart of the Andes
b) Fragonard’s Bathers
c) Ruben’s The Disembarkation…
d) David’s The Death of Marat
6. Rococo painting can best be characterized as:
a) highly didactic Christian art.
b) developing in the 15th century and promoting the ideas and aesthetics of classical
antiquity.
c) the Baroque, eroticized, and depictions of the wealthy aristocracy at play.
d) 17th century theatrical compositions rendered in very high contrast.
7. Which of these paintings is an example of Romanticism?
a) Church’s The Heart of the Andes
b) Fragonard’s Bathers
c) David’s The Death of Marat
d) Delacroix’s Odalisque
8. Romanticism can best be described as:
a) the first Modernist movement in painting because artists identified with the
working class, sought to make work “of their time,” and prioritized stylistic
innovation.
b) developing in the 15th century and promoting the ideas and aesthetics of classical
antiquity.
c) developing in 18th century France and promoting civic responsibility and sacrifice.
d) 17th century theatrical compositions rendered in very high contrast.
9. Which of these paintings is an example of Neo-classical art?
a) Church’s The Heart of the Andes
b) Fragonard’s Bathers
c) Ruben’s The Disembarkation of Marie de’ Medici at the Port of Marseilles on
November 3
d) David’s The Death of Marat
10. Realism as an artistic movement in the mid-19th century refers to what?
a) the naturalism of the painting style
b) a philosophical movement
c) the use of everyday people and activities in the paintings
d) the illustration of the lives of the upper-classes
11. Images such as View of Suzhou reveal the 18th century Chinese interest
in__________.
a) portraiture
b) landscape
c) aerial views of cities
d) architecture
12. Native American kachinas, like Buffalo Kachina (p. 494), are :
a) ceremonial dresses worn during ritual dances.
b) like Haitian voodoo dolls.
c) likenesses of supernatural characters endowed with powers that can be evoked
when the figure is danced.
d) Peruvian figures that are imbued with supernatural power.
13. The Arapaho Ghost Dance dress would have been worn _____________.
a) during a Plains Indian ritual meant to help transform the West back to what it had
been before the settlement of Euro-Americans
b) in a wedding ceremony
c) during a ceremony celebrating a successful hunt
d) during a ceremony trying to ensure a successful hunt
14. Marie-Louise-Elizabeth Vigée-LeBrun’s The Duchess of Polignac (p. 480) combines
all the compositional tools of the ______ sensibility.
a) Neoclassic
b) Baroque
c) Romantic
d) Realist
15. Angelica Kauffmann painted in the _______ style (p. 481), which was based on
Greek and Roman models.
a) Romantic
b) Neoclassical
c) Realist
d) Rococo
16. Théodore Géricault’s The Raft of the Medusa (p. 485) helped to fuel which style?
a) Romanticism
b) Realism
c) Impressionism
d) Neoclassicism
17. The Rococo style (pp. 479-480) has been characterized as:
a) the Baroque eroticized.
b) a return to classical values.
c) lacking in emotion.
d) lacking in skill.
18. One of the primary subjects of Neoclassical art (p. 481) is:
a) sensual or indecent themes.
b) romantic interpretations of events.
c) virtue.
d) still life.
19. What individual chose the Neoclassical architectural style (p. 482) for his home in the
United States?
a) Nicolas Poussin
b) John Ruskin
c) Jacques Louis David
d) Thomas Jefferson
20. In Romanticism (p. 484), regardless of the subject matter, paintings revealed the
artist’s:
a) political opinion.
b) religious orientation.
c) individuality.
d) heritage.
21. The Post-Impressionists (p. 496) were united by their interest in:
a) a Realist painting style.
b) extending Impressionism’s formal innovations.
c) Impressionism’s subject matter.
d) a nihilistic viewpoint.
23. The Realist movement (p. 488) was influenced by many ideas and worldviews
including:
a) Karl Marx’s Communist Manifesto.
b) the new post-industrial leisure class.
c) Vincent van Gogh’s letters.
d) Sigmund Freud’s Interpretation of Dreams.
23. In the early nineteenth century, a recurrent and significant theme (p. 485) began to
appear in Romantic painting. What was it?
a) the lives of peasants
b) the notion of the sublime
c) the vanitas still life
d) virtuous love
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24. What is the story behind Gericault’s Taft of the Medusa?
a) The Medusa sunk off the coast of Africa due to the captain’s incompetence and its
poor survivors were adrift for days (most of them dying) while the captain and crew
saved themselves.
b) The captain of the ship threw slaves overboard to collect insurance on them.
c) It is a metaphor for the growing French Revolution.
d) It depicts a group of explorers finally sighting land.
25. What is the subject matter of most Impressionist painting?
a) Portraits of wealthy patrons
b) Rural landscapes
c) Light itself, the way it plays across forms like architecture and landscape
d) Depictions of the working class in everyday situations
26. Romanticist artists, like Frederic Edwin Church, viewed nature as:
a) wild and forbidding.
b) a literal “sign” for the divine spirit.
c) a place for human industry.
d) a sign for the savagery and wildness of the native people who lived there.
27. The mid-to-late 19th century saw dramatic changes in non-Western cultures. Which
of these best describes these changes?
a) Western culture helped other cultures realize the uniqueness and value of their own
traditions.
b) Western culture allowed for other cultures to comfortably evolve according to their
own ideas and values.
c) Western culture increasingly imposed itself upon other cultures whose values were
often diametrically opposed to the sense of centeredness of these indigenous cultures.
d) all of the above
Short Answer Questions
28. Although the Rococo style dominated the beginning of the eighteenth century, a new
29. The poet Charles Baudelaire stated, “It is necessary to be of one’s own time.”
30. At the expense of subject matter, what did Paul Cézanne emphasize in his paintings?
31. An artist who painted the decadence of the Parisian nightlife as a means of social
commentary was ________.
Essay Questions
32. Discuss the influence of the political climate of the times on Jacques-Louis David.
What is the significance of his painting The Death of Marat?
33. Elaborate on the contributions of American Neoclassical architecture made by
Thomas Jefferson. What else was he involved in besides architecture?
34. It is thought that Théodore Géricault’s The Raft of the Medusa fueled the Romantic
movement and contributed to a re-evaluation of the validity of the restored French
monarchy. If a similar event occurred today, would it hold as much fascination? Why or
why not?
35. Discuss in what ways the art of the twentieth century “dawns” in the works of Paul
36. What were the major innovations of the Impressionists in painting style and subject
matter? Choose three works from the chapter to support your discussion.