1.10: Content and Analysis
1. Formal analysis can be done on paintings, but not on sculptures.
2. The atmosphere of Edward Hopper’s Nighthawks, created by the lack of people on the street, the
absence of street lights, and the somber mood of the customers in the diner, is one of ________.
a. pleasure d. loneliness
b. excitement e. romance
c. anger
3. Do a detailed formal analysis of an artwork in person. You might go to a local museum or your
school’s art gallery, find a sculpture in a nearby park, or study a building. Spend a significant
amount of time in front of the artwork and be sure to consider how the artist used all of the
elements and principles. Conclude with what you think the artist’s focal point or emphasis is and
hypothesize what the artist may be saying.
4. Hieronymous Bosch worked closely with and was deeply influenced by the Surrealist artists of the
twentieth century.
5. Holbein’s The Ambassadors has several references to religious content.
6. Memento mori refers to:
a. a locket or other symbol of love
b. a symbol of mortality
c. a letter written a long time ago
d. musical instruments
e. none of the other answers
7. Which of these terms relates to Hans Holbein the Younger’s painting The Ambassadors?
a. memento mori
b. iconography
c. anamorphosis
d. memento mori and anamorphosis
e. all of the other answers
8. Sumerian votive figures were used as:
a. prayer figures d. puppets
b. fertility figures e. all of the other answers
c. dolls
9. Palmer Hayden’s Midsummer Night in Harlem is about:
a. A play by Shakespeare
b. Summer in the Netherlands
c. A community in Harlem, New York
d. A community on the Upper East Side, New York
e. None of the other answers
10. The neighborhood shown in Palmer Hayden’s Midsummer Night in Harlem could represent any
neighborhood in America in the 1930s.
11. 80 Backs by Magdalena Abakanowicz was deeply influenced by the artist’s personal experiences
during World War II.
12. Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres’s portrayal of the woman in Grande Odalisque ________ her
body.
a. depicts accurately d. represents a feminist analysis of
b. distorts e. none of the other answers
c. depicts the flaws of
13. Feminist analysis of Grande Odalisque by Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres considers the role of
women in nineteenth-century France, but not viewers’ perspectives on gender.
14. Robert Mapplethorpe created traditional gendered roles for men and women to connect modern
photography with painters from the past.
15. Edvard Munch’s The Scream depicts a suicide witnessed by the artist.
16. Which of the following are acceptable resources for studying art?
a. A museum website
b. An essay found on the internet from a person who saw the artwork
c. A bestselling fictional book based on the artwork
d. None of the other answers
17. Which of the following is not a primary source for studying a work of art?
a. a blog about a painting
b. a letter written by the artist of an artwork
c. the artwork itself
d. the title of an artwork
e. an interview with the artist
18. What does the cross on Velázquez’s tunic in Las Meninas signify?
a. that he was a painter of the court
b. that he was a Catholic
c. that he was a member of the Order of Santiago
d. that he painted this on a Sunday
e. none of the other answers
19. The presence of Velázquez’s self-portrait in Las Meninas indicates that the painter ________.
a. was vain
b. was handsome
c. wanted artists to be of high status
d. really painted the work
e. disliked the King
20. Both biographical and historical analysis are important for understanding the meaning of
Velázquez’s Las Meninas.
21. Picasso was an inventive artist who never used artworks from the past for inspiration.
22. Thomas Struth photographs ________.
a. famous artworks d. paintings in the Prado museum
b. people looking at art e. all of the other answers
c. the inside of museums
23. Do research on an artwork, perhaps one that you have seen in person. Conduct three different
methodological analyses. Write one or two paragraphs exploring each method, and then write a
paragraph in which you combine these methods to present a single interpretation of the artwork.
Match the methodological approach with its definition:
a. analyses the use of formal elements in a work.
b. considers the role of women in an artwork
c. interprets objects and figures in the artwork as symbols
d. considers the artist’s personal experiences
e. considers the religious, political, and social environment in which the artwork was made and
viewed
24. biographical analysis
25. feminist analysis
26. formal analysis
27. contextual analysis
28. iconographical analysis