41
Chapter 8 – The Principles of Design
Multiple Choice Questions
1. Hokusai’s The Great Wave makes a statement about scale, in part because:
a) the print is 86 inches in height.
b) any black-and-white art causes scale to feel reduced.
c) everyone in Japan knows the scale of Mount Fuji.
d) All of the above.
2. Chartres Cathedral’s rose window best illustrates:
a) asymmetrical balance.
b) asymmetry.
c) radial balance.
d) the canonical façade.
3. In Enguerrand Quarton’s Coronation of the Virgin, the artist has organized the design
of the composition to emphasize the most important part of the composition, which is the:
a) crucifix.
b) virgin.
c) crown.
d) landscape.
4. The Taj Mahal is a perfect example of ____________in art/architecture.
a) actual texture
b) assymetrical balance
c) symmetry
d) radial balance
5. Where is the focal point in the Baroque painting, Joseph the Carpenter by Georges de
La Tour?
a) In the child’s (Jesus) face
b) Joseph’s left foot
c) Joseph’s right hand
d) the upper-left part of the composition
6. Which of these pieces best illustrates the use of “variety” over “unity”?
a) Laylah Ali’s Untitled
b) Louise Lawler’s Pollock and Tureen
c) James Lavadour’s The Seven Valleys and the Five Valleys
d) August Rodin’s The Three Shades
42
7. Sayre stats that the focal point in Larry Poons’ Orange Crush is:
a) in the exact center.
b) on the extreme left edge, top to bottom.
c) in the upper right hand corner.
d) there is no focal point.
8. The Rose window from the Chartres Cathedral is an example of:
a) assymetrical balance.
b) bilateral symmetry.
c) radial balance.
d) absolute symmetry.
9. The Taj Mahal was built by Shah Jahan beginning in 1632___________.
a) for use as a mosque
b) as a museum to house cultural objects of great value
c) as a mausoleum for his favorite wife, who died giving birth to their 14th child
d) as a pilgrimage site
10. Jan Vermeer’s Woman Holding a Balance is a perfect example of ____________.
a) a symmetrical composition
b) variety over unity
c) rhythm and repetition
d) an asymmetrically-balanced composition
11. Leonardo DaVinci’s Vitruvian Man and Frank Gehry’s residence illustrate the
differences between______.
a) painting and architecture
b) visual and actual texture
c) unity and variety
d) mass and scale
12. When an artist deliberately avoids emphasis (p. 152), we say that the work is:
a) radially balanced.
b) afocal.
c) postmodern.
d) multi-lateral.
13. Leonardo da Vinci’s, Study of Human Proportion: The Vitruvian Man (p. 141),
embodies both:
43
a) the earthly and heavenly worlds.
b) mind and matter.
c) the material and the transcendental.
d) All of the above.
14. In her painting, Still Life with Lobster, (p. 150), Anna Vallayer-Coster establishes
emphasis through:
a) the manipulation of light and color.
b) the use of scale.
c) the reliance on asymmetrical balance.
d) the strong subject matter.
15. The _______ was made famous by the ancient Greeks (p. 159) as a model of
architectural proportion.
a) canon
b) Doryphorus
c) mathematical harmony
d) golden section
16. When dealing with balance in a composition, an artist or designer is actually dealing
with:
a) actual weight.
b) visual weight.
c) proportion.
d) the balance between form and content.
17. _______ is a term that describes an artist’s attempt to draw our eyes to one area of a
composition (150).
a) Absolute symmetry
b) Bilateral symmetry
c) Emphasis
d) Proportion
18. Repetition often implies monotony (162-164), yet it also creates a sense of:
a) rhythm.
b) scale.
c) imbalance.
d) boring disruption.
19. When each side of a composition is exactly the same (p. 143), it shows:
44
a) asymmetrical balance.
b) absolute symmetry.
c) perfect proportion.
d) visual weight.
20. The dimensions of an object, in relation to some constant (p. 156) such as the human
figure, are known as its _______.
a) balance
b) scale
c) proportions
d) key
21. Scale is defined as:
a) any solid that occupies a three-dimensional volume.
b) the dimensions of an art object in relation to the original object that it depicts or in
relation to the objects around it.
c) the relationship between the parts to each other and to the whole in a composition.
d) a flat two-dimensional area.
22. Proportion is defined as:
a) any solid that occupies a three-dimensional volume.
b) the comparative size of a thing in relation to another like thing.
c) the relationship between the parts to each other and the whole in a composition.
d) a flat two-dimensional area.
23. Frank Gehry has been called a postmodern architect, primarily because
____________.
a) he uses architectural elements from different time periods
b) his buildings were created “after modernism”
c) he purposely creates a sense of discontinuity by employing variety over unity
d) he prioritizes unity over variety
Short Answer Questions
24. What did Frank Gehry redesign in 1976 so that it deliberately lacked unity?
25. What are the three different types of balance in artistic compositions?
26. According to your text, what is one of the most dominant images of symmetry in
Western art?
27. _______ refers to the relationship between the parts of an object and the whole, or the
28. Define the term design.
Essay Questions
29. Discuss how Felix Gonzalez-Torres used scale in his work and explain what his
30. Use examples from the chapter to define the term Postmodernism. Include a
31. Choose one artwork from this chapter and describe how that artist has used the
32. In the painting Las Meninas, explain how Diego Velázquez establishes more than one
focal point.