4.9: The Body in Art
1. The Woman from Willendorf is made from which medium?
a. woven reeds d. marble
b. limestone e. oil on canvas
c. fired ceramic
2. What is believed to be the purpose of the Woman from Willendorf?
a. it is a portable doorstop d. it is the first garden gnome
b. it is a deadly weapon e. none of the other answers
c. it is an ancient piggy bank
3. The date of Willem de Kooning’s painting Woman I is:
a. 24,000–22,000 BCE d. 1950–1952 CE
b. 545–500 BCE e. the date is not known
c. 1100–1200 CE
4. Willem de Kooning intended his painting Woman I to ________.
a. emphasize elements of female anatomy
b. convey the inherent abilities of women to give and protect life
c. reflect universal ideas of powerful women
d. refer to images of women made throughout the history of art
e. all of the other answers
5. Menkaure and His Wife, Queen Khamerernebty was made by sculptors from which culture?
a. Egyptian d. Roman
b. Sumerian e. Dutch
c. Greek
6. Which of the following was used to make the sculpture Menkaure and His Wife, Queen
Khamerernebty?
a. realistic rendering d. death masks
b. children’s drawings e. abstract artistic interpretation
c. a canon of proportions
7. Ancient Greek notions of beauty were based upon the combination of an underlying canon of
mathematical proportions with the finely honed physiques possessed by male athletes.
8. What is the subject matter of Myron’s Discus Thrower?
a. a prehistoric stonemason d. a Roman circus performer
b. an Egyptian pharaoh e. a contemporary DJ
c. a Greek athlete
9. Who is the artist of The Birth of Venus?
a. Leonardo da Vinci
b. Sandro Botticelli
c. Titian
d. Édouard Manet
e. no one knows for sure who the artist was
10. The form of the goddess’s figure in The Birth of Venus was based on ________.
a. Classical Greek sculptures
b. prehistoric goddess figurines
c. Romanesque tapestries
d. photographs made during Venus’s lifetime
e. all of the other answers
11. The sculpture of a head, which probably represents a king of Ife (4.9.6), was made using which
medium?
a. bronze d. terra-cotta
b. ivory e. none of the other answers
c. limestone
12. What concepts of beauty are conveyed in the sculpture of a head, believed to represent a king of
Ife (4.9.6)?
a. the community’s core values of composure, wisdom, and power
b. both internal attributes as well as external appearance
c. elegant lines, delicate features, and a composed demeanor
d. graceful and refined facial features
e. all of the other answers
13. Kaigetsudô Dohan was an artist from which culture?
a. African d. Mexican
b. Japanese e. Indian
c. Italian
14. Which type of beauty does Kaigetsudo Dohan’s painting Beautiful Woman represent?
a. the physical beauty of a young geisha’s apprenticeship
b. the inner beauty and studied grace of a mature geisha
c. the kind of beauty that will win the woman the beauty pageant in which she is participating
d. supernatural beauty bestowed by the gods
e. the beauty inherent in the woman’s musical abilities, represented by the instrument she holds
15. Titian’s Venus of Urbino shows ________.
a. a full-bodied figure, understood to be a sign of fertility
b. a Classical goddess, represented as both modest and inviting
c. a French model in the guise of a prostitute with an assertive gaze
d. a Japanese man pretending to be a female icon of Western culture
e. none of the other answers
16. When and where was the artist of Olympia working?
a. prehistoric Europe d. twentieth-century Japan
b. sixteenth-century Italy e. twenty-first-century America
c. nineteenth-century France
17. What was the artist of Olympia trying to do?
a. persuade the gods to bestow good fortune on the community
b. convince viewers that a fictional figure actually existed
c. pretend that his walls were actually windows onto a beautiful garden
d. update a Classical subject for his own time
e. all of the other answers
18. What is the medium of Yasumasa Morimura’s Portrait (Futago)?
a. painted limestone d. color photograph
b. oil on canvas e. multimedia installation
c. fresco
19. Which of the following issues are raised by Yasumasa Morimura’s Portrait (Futago)?
a. the meaning of an artwork gains depth when one knows about the context
b. race and gender can be seen as artificial constructions
c. we should not make assumptions about identity based on appearances
d. our understanding of who we are can be directly influenced by the past
e. all of the other answers
20. Which of the following nudes was made first and served as an influence on the others?
a. Titian, Venus of Urbino
b. Édouard Manet, Olympia
c. Yasumasa Morimura, Portrait (Futago)
d. they were all made at the same time
e. no one knows the date of at least one of these artworks
21. What is the medium of Yves Klein’s Anthropométries de l’époque bleue?
a. metal sculpture d. pastels on paper
b. performance e. sticks and bones
c. sculptural clothing
22. Anthropométries de l’époque bleue introduced which of the following for the very first time?
a. living brushes
b. International Klein Blue
c. monochromatic paintings
d. a musical accompaniment to the presentation of art
e. a nude audience and clothed performers
23. Who is the artist of Loving Care?
a. Yasumasa Morimura d. Vanessa Beecroft
b. Yves Klein e. Spencer Tunick
c. Janine Antoni
24. What did the artist of Loving Care do to create the work?
a. she took pictures of thousands of nude people
b. she impersonated a famous work of art
c. she instructed a room full of models to stand still and not speak
d. she dipped her head in a bucket of dye and mopped the floor with her hair
e. she directed other people to paint with their bodies
25. Compare Yves Klein’s Anthropométries de l’époque bleue (4.9.11a) with Loving Care by Janine
Antoni (4.9.12). Briefly describe what each one looks like, in terms of materials used, shape, size,
and so on, concentrating on the most noticeable similarities and differences. What are the artist’s
intentions for each artwork? What does comparing the artworks in this way reveal that you had not
thought of before making the comparison?
26. The key component of Spencer Tunick’s installation at Zócalo, Mexico City, is ________.
a. a group of police officers
b. thousands of nude bodies
c. replicas of famous sculptures
d. a replica of Mount Vesuvius erupting
e. none of the other answers
27. Spencer Tunick considers his artworks to be ________.
a. performances d. drawings
b. photographs e. priceless
c. installations
28. Auguste Rodin made which of the following artworks?
a. Man Pointing d. Walking Man
b. Recumbent Figure e. Discus Thrower
c. Blue Nude II
29. What is so revolutionary about Walking Man?
a. the artist presented a rough representation of a figure as a finished sculpture
b. the artist exactly followed the accepted conventions used since Classical antiquity
c. this sculpture was made of precious gems and metals from every continent
d. this sculpture was the first artwork the artist made after he finished art school
e. all of the other answers
30. Which of the following artistic tendencies and formal concerns did the artist of Recumbent Figure
incorporate into his sculpture?
a. both European and non-Western artistic traditions
b. natural forms, such as mountains and valleys
c. the integration of solid forms and voids
d. the organic contours of the materials used
e. all of the other answers
31. What is the medium of Henry Moore’s Recumbent Figure?
a. bronze d. wax
b. clay e. paper
c. green Horton stone
32. What is the date of Alberto Giacometti’s Man Pointing?
a. 1890–95 d. 1952
b. 1938 e. 1963
c. 1947
33. What does the body of the figure represented in Alberto Giacometti’s Man Pointing look like?
a. exactly like the person being represented
b. an abstraction based on the artist’s creative choices
c. a non-objective representation that does not look anything like a body
d. a fictional projection of what an alien might look like
e. none of the other answers
34. How were Icarus and Blue Nude II made?
a. using cast bronze d. using dried fruit
b. using stained glass e. using crumpled bed sheets
c. using painted paper cutouts
35. Consider the following statement by Matisse:
character of drawing, a character that does not depend on forms being copied exactly as they are in
nature, or on the patient assembling of exact details, but on the profound feeling of the artist before
the objects that he has chosen, on which his attention is focused, and whose spirit he has
penetrated . . . Exactitude is not truth.” (Gateways to Art, p. 671)
What is your response to this statement? Do you agree or disagree with Matisse? Give an example
of an artwork that supports your opinion and discuss it in relation to Matisse’s statement.
36. Who is the artist of Branded?
a. Willem Dekooning d. Jenny Saville
b. Yves Klein e. ORLAN
c. Janine Antoni
37. Why does the figure in Branded look like it does?
a. because it is idealized and perfect, like a Greek goddess
b. because it confronts, even exaggerates, the imperfections of reality
c. because the woman in the picture ate nothing but jelly donuts for a year
d. because the artist was a medical student
e. because the artist’s favorite color is blue
38. The artist ORLAN is known for her ________.
a. large oil paintings d. awkward interviews
b. abstract public sculptures e. none of the other answers
c. unconventional performances
39. The artist ORLAN was the first person ever to undergo plastic surgery.
40. Compare the self-portraits depicted in Jenny Saville’s Branded (4.9.19) and ORLAN’s
Omnipresence (4.9.20). How does each artist craft the view of herself that we see? Briefly describe
what each artwork looks like, in terms of medium, shape, size, and so on, concentrating on the
most noticeable similarities and differences. What were the artist’s intentions for each artwork?
What does comparing these artworks in this way reveal that you had not thought of before making
the comparison?
ANS:
41. Compare Myron’s Discus Thrower (4.9.4) with Alberto Giacometti’s Man Pointing (4.9.16).
Which of the artworks is more realistic? Which one is more abstract? What does each of the
artworks reveal to you about the human body? Does the medium used affect the way you view
each artwork? Give your reasons why, or why not.
42. Consider the following concepts as they relate to artworks in this chapter:
male and female
active and passive
representation and performance
realistic and abstract
After making a list of artworks that relate to each pairing, write a short paragraph about the
artworks related to the pairing you find the most intriguing.