1.8: Emphasis and Focal Point
1. Any of the ________ of art can help focus our interest on specific areas of a work of art.
a. elements d. themes
b. tones e. periods
c. styles
2. The opposite of emphasis is ________.
a. color d. subordination
b. tone e. proportion
c. focal point
3. When an artist wants to highlight the entire surface of his or her work, without regard for any
particular area, this is called ________.
a. focal point d. focal element
b. subordination e. broad emphasis
c. linear emphasis
4. Agnes Martin created Starlight so that there was no dominant area in the composition. This
decision was partly influenced by her interest in Eastern philosophy, especially ________.
a. Logic d. Existentialism
b. Stoicism e. Christianity
c. Taoism
5. Agnes Martin’s interest in Eastern philosophy influenced her work. Discuss how the work
Starlight communicates ideas about the “importance of harmony in the Universe.”
6. The African-American sculptor Martin Puryear was influenced by the time he spent in Africa as a
member of the ________.
a. Marines d. Peace Corps
b. Foreign Service e. Merchant Navy
c. Hudson River School
7. Martin Puryear’s sculpture C.F.A.O. places emphasis on a large white area of the work that mimics
a mask design of the ________ tribe in Gabon, West Africa.
a. Berber d. Fang
b. Choctaw e. Yoruba
c. Watusi
8. In The Legend of John Brown #9 by Jacob Lawrence, broad emphasis occurs because the twelve
figures ________.
a. are evenly balanced
b. have one dominant leader
c. wear completely different clothes in wacky colors
d. stand in height order, tallest to shortest
e. crowd around the figure on the left
9. The African-American painter Jacob Lawrence was inspired by John Brown, a Civil War-era
abolitionist who believed that slavery could be eradicated through armed insurrection. With this in
mind, what does Lawrence’s composition The Legend of John Brown #9 communicate to viewers?
10. This is the specific part in an area of emphasis to which the viewer’s eye is drawn.
a. subordination d. top
b. focal point e. composition
c. middle
11. In Dieric Bouts’s work The Coronation of the Virgin, the artist focuses the viewer’s attention on
the Virgin Mary—even though the Holy Trinity is present—by ________.
a. placing the Virgin in the center
b. directing all other figures’ eyes toward the Virgin
c. placing a dove above the Virgin’s head
d.dressing the Virgin in a different color to all the other figures
e. all of the other answers
12. The Russian artist Marc Chagall depicted the mythical character Icarus with bright colors on a
white background in order to ________.
a. subordinate Icarus
b. draw attention to Icarus’s fall
c. distract the viewer from Icarus’s fall
d. emphasize the smaller figures in the composition
e. None of the other answers
13. In the painting Landscape with the Fall of Icarus, by Pieter Bruegel, the artist intended to divert
our attention so that we barely notice Icarus plunging to his doom; a fine example of ________.
a. subordination d. tone
b. emphasis e. composition
c. focal point
14. Identify three things that the artist Pieter Bruegel the Elder could have done differently in his
painting Landscape with the Fall of Icarus if he had wanted to make the figure of Icarus the focal
point of the work.
15. Artists can use ________ to organize the elements in a work and draw our attention to areas of
emphasis and focal points.
a. direction d. line
b. dramatic contrasts e. all of the other answers
c. placement
16. In The Funeral of St. Bonaventure, the artist used the principle of ________ to create emphasis and
focal point.
a. contrast d. placement
b. scale e. variety
c. balance
17. The Funeral of St. Bonaventure is a painting by the Spanish artist ________.
a. Pieter Bruegel the Elder d. Francisco de Zurbarán
b. Jules Olitski e. Mark Tobey
c. Artemisia Gentileschi
18. If the clothing of the saint was the only light area in The Funeral of St. Bonaventure, the viewer’s
eye would not be easily drawn to any other areas of the composition.
19. If an artist painted a garden with one red flower in a field of yellow flowers, this would be an
example of using color to create contrast. For the viewer, the single red flower would be
________.
a. a focal point in the artwork
b. easily ignored
c. the least important part of the artwork
d. completely unrealistic
e. none of the other answers
20. In the Indian painting featuring the Mughal Emperor Babur in his garden (1.8.8), the garden is
punctuated by a specific feature that points to the four cardinal directions. What is this feature?
a. sand d. rocks
b. fire e. an olive tree
c. water
21. Artemisia Gentileschi used directional line brilliantly in her painting Judith Decapitating
Holofernes to draw our attention to this point
a. Judith’s face
b. blood spurting from Holofernes’s neck
c. the bed
d. the maidservant
e. a hand
22. Artemisia Gentileschi worked during this stylistic and historical period.
a. Impressionism d. Surrealism
b. Renaissance e. Baroque
c. Pop art
23. An artwork can have only one focal point.
24. This artist created the print “Riverside Bamboo Market, Kyobashi,” which uses placement for
emphasis and to create focal points.
a. Francisco de Zurbarán d. Jules Olitski
b. Mark Tobey e. Artemisia Gentileschi
c. Ando Hiroshige
25. In his print “Riverside Bamboo Market, Kyobashi,” the artist oriented three ________ in order to
emphasize specific points in the work and to enliven the composition.
a. shapes d. lines
b. figures e. boats
c. bridges