4.4: Art and Science
1. Artists have often been influenced by scientific discoveries.
2. Which Renaissance artist drew the Vitruvian Man (4.4.1)?
a. Michelangelo d. Donatello
b. Raphael e. Bernini
c. Leonardo
3. Vitrivius was:
a. a Roman architect d. a Roman poet
b. a Greek sculptor e. none of the other answers
c. a Renaissance painter
4. Joseph Wright of Derby’s An Experiment on a Bird in the Air Pump features this technique, which
means a dramatic use of light and dark:
a. tenebrism d. shadow puppetry
b. tracery e. none of the other answers
c. repoussé
5. Study Joseph Wright of Derby’s An Experiment on a Bird in the Air Pump. How did the artist
create drama in the scene? How do the reactions of the figures to the experiment add meaning to
the artwork? What aspects of this painting can be seen as representative of the ideals of the
Enlightenment?
6. Surgical dissections and artists studying anatomy have nothing in common.
7. Thomas Eakins painted a surgery he witnessed in person. Who is shown in the painting, but was
unlikely to be at the actual surgery?
a. an anesthetist
b. the patient’s mother
c. the famous surgeon Dr. Samuel Gross
d. medical students
e. all of these people were at the actual surgery
8. What is significant about August 13, 3114 BCE?
a. In Maya belief, it was the day of the creation of man
b. In Aztec belief, it was when the earth was destroyed by floods
c. It was the day the Aztec conquered the Maya
d. all of the previous answers
e. none of the previous answers
9. The Maya flint depicting a crocodile canoe with passengers (4.4.4):
a. is a representation of the Maya story of creation
b. shows five figures riding a crocodile
c. refers to the arrangement of the stars in the Milky Way
d. all of the previous answers
e. none of the previous answers
10. What is true about the Aztec Sun Stone (4.4.5)?
a. it was originally painted in bright colors
b. it is carved with symbols representing the ways Earth was previously destroyed
c. it functioned like a calendar
d. all of the previous answers
e. none of the previous answers
11. Astronomy was very important to the Aztecs and the Maya. Find an example of a more recent
artwork that references the extraterrestrial, such as Kathy Strauss’s monoprint of the Milky Way
(2.3.19). Why have artists over thousands of years been fascinated by the universe? Has modern
science altered the ways that space is depicted by artists?
12. Astrolabes were used by Muslims to determine the direction of Mecca.
13. Astrolabes were treated as purely scientific instruments that did not need decoration or
inscriptions.
14. Which of these artworks reveals a culture’s understanding of astronomy?
a. The Maya flint depicting a crocodile canoe with passengers
b. The Aztec Sun Stone
c. Muhammad Mahdi al-Yazdi’s astrolabe
d. all of the previous answers
e. none of the previous answers
15. Willard Wigan carves grains of rice and sand and paints them with an eyelash.
16. Willard Wigan created a lifesize replica of the Statue of Liberty for the people of France.
17. Body Worlds is controversial because the figures in the exhibition never gave permission for their
bodies to be used.
18. Research the Body Worlds exhibition. Select three figures that were in the exhibition, and discuss
whether or not you consider these figures to be art. What has the “artist” done to the bodies to
change them from their natural state? Do you think there are ethical issues with using a deceased
human body as an artistic medium?
19. Compare the Center for Interactive Research on Sustainability (4.4.9) with another work of
architecture that is “green” or environmentally friendly. Consider not only how they both were
built, but also how the structure represents the company or organization housed within.
20. Because restorers accidentally removed the original varnish, the Sistine Chapel ceiling looks
brighter than it was in Michelangelo’s time.
21. When the restoration of the Sistine Chapel ceiling was completed in 1989, artists, scholars, and
scientists throughout the world universally applauded the restorers’ efforts.
22. Do you think that artworks should undergo restoration? If during the restoration the artwork
changes, what does this mean for the original artist’s vision? Discuss the advantages and
disadvantages of restoring artworks.
23. “Pentimenti” is the term used by Picasso for his young students.
24. An x-ray of Picasso’s Girl before a Mirror showed that the artist altered the body of
Marie-Thérèse while working on the painting.
25. Which of these terms applies to Georges Seurat’s Sunday on La Grande Jatte?
a. pointillism d. all of the previous answers
b. optical mixture e. none of the previous answers
c. afterimage effect
26. Georges Seurat feverishly painted Sunday on La Grande Jatte in one weekend.
27. Why did Jasper Johns paint his Flag (4.4.15) in green, orange, and black?
a. because they are the complements of the US flag’s actual colors
b. he felt these colors were more patriotic than red, white, and blue
c. they coordinated with the client’s home
d. it was part of a series in which different colors were tested on the flag for their ability to trigger
an emotional response
e. none of the other answers
28. Why is the flag in the bottom half of the canvas of Jasper Johns’s Flag (4.4.15) a solid rectangle
with a black dot in the middle?
a. the artist was symbolizing the disappearance of American values
b. the painting is unfinished
c. the artist wanted the viewer to rest their eyes on this rectangle after looking at the one in the
painting’s top half
d. this painting is a part of series, and the red and white portions of the flag are on other paintings
e. none of the other answers
29. Synesthesia is when stimulation of one sense triggers an experience in another, for example
visualizing color when one hears music.
30. Marcia Smilack’s synesthetic photograph of ripples on water made her think of the sound of
________.
a. an electric guitar d. The Beatles
b. a cello e. a dog’s bark
c. a double bass
31. Salvador Dalí was a member of the Surrealists, whose artworks were inspired by dreams or
subconscious thoughts.
32. Salvador Dalí’s painting Persistence of Memory shows warped clocks, ants, and a distorted face,
all of which are symbols of his mother, who died the month before this was painted.
33. Which of the following words can not be linked to the work of Yayoi Kusama?
a. mirrors
b. infinity
c. dots
d. cosmos
e. all of these words relate to her work
Match the quotation with the artist and artwork it describes:
a. Willard Wigan, Statue of Liberty
b. Marcia Smilack, Cello Music
c. Salvador Dalí, Persistence of Memory
d. Thomas Eakins, Portrait of Dr. Samuel D. Gross
e. Yayoi Kusama, Dots Obsession
34. “It is a picture that even strong men find it difficult to look at long . . .”
35. “. . . people had made me feel small so I wanted to show them how significant small could be.”
36. “I hear with my eyes and see with my ears.”
37. “. . . nothing more than the soft, extravagant, solitary, paranoiac-critical Camembert cheese of
space and time.”
38. “When I was a child I experienced this state of self-obliteration, so I painted the same motif
endlessly.”