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Unit 3
- What are some of the artistic conventions of the Northern Renaissance present in Rogier Van der Weyden's Deposition?
- Rogier Van der Weyden gives his figures great emotional intensity combined with great attention to detail – what was this supposed to make the viewer feel?
- What are some of the choices Rogier Van der Weyden made about how to construct the composition of his Deposition?
- What are some of the theories about the meaning of Hieronymus Bosch’s The Garden of Earthly Delights?
- Why was Albrecht Dürer interested in melencolia?
- How does Jan van Eyck’s Ghent Altarpiece attitude towards God differ from Medieval representations of God the Father?
- What details show Giovanni Arnolfini's wealth in Jan van Eyck’s Portrait of Arnolfini and his Wife?
- What details in Hans Holbein the Younger’s The Ambassadors refer to discord in Europe at the time?
- What details in Hans Holbein the Younger’s The Ambassadors refer to the wealth and luxury of the ambassadors?
- What are some of the winter activities shown in Pieter Bruegel the Elder’s Hunters in the Snow?
- Why might the wealthy patron who paid for Pieter Bruegel the Elder’s Peasant Wedding have been interested in a scene of peasant life?
- Bernini’s Ecstasy of Saint Teresa tries to engage the viewer – why?
- Why does Bernini’s Ecstasy of Saint Teresa emphasize the saint’s physical body and use sexual symbolism?
- Why did Caravaggio choose the setting he did for The Calling of St. Matthew?
- How does Caravaggio indicate the presence of the divine in The Calling of St. Matthew?
- What are some of the ways in which How does Caravaggio's The Calling of St. Matthew differs from art of the High Renaissance?
- How does Las Meninas show Velázquez’s importance in the Spanish court?
- Why did Louis XIV decide to build Versailles?
- What features of David's Oath of the Horatii set the standard for the Neoclassical style?
- How does David show the heroism of the Horatii?
- What attitude does David have towards women, as shown in his Oath of the Horatii?
- How do the gestures of Plato and Aristotle in Raphael’s School of Athens symbolize their philosophies?
- Prior to this painting, most representations of the Last Supper look very similar. What key feature did Leonardo change in his version?
- What are the ways that Nicolas Poussin emphasizes the passage of time in Et in Arcadia Ego, and why does he do so?
- What are some of the indications that The Art of Painting was especially important to Johannes Vermeer? Why do you think this painting meant to him?
- What are some of the similarities and differences between Johannes Vermeer’s Girl with a Pearl Earring and Leonardo da Vinci’s Mona Lisa?
- How does Rembrandt’s Christ Crucified between the Two Thieves: The Three Crosses sum up so much about humanity?
- What are some of the ways in which Rembrandt’s The Night Watch is a painting specific to the Dutch Republic in the 17th century?
- What are some of the ways in which Bernini’s David is different than Michelangelo’s David?
- How does Rembrandt’s The Anatomy Lesson of Dr. Tulp meet the needs of new middle-class art patrons?
- How does Frans Hals show the character of the women in The Women Regents?
- What is the message of Peter Paul Rubens’ The Consequences of War, and how does Rubens communicate this message?
- What are some of the ways that Peter Paul Rubens shows motion and energy in The Arrival of Marie de Medici at Marseilles?
- How did Peter Paul Rubens’ Elevation of the Cross support Catholic ideology during the Protestant Reformation?
- What are some of the features of Artemisia Gentileschi’s Judith Slaying Holofernes that are characteristic of Baroque art?
- How do you think Caravaggio’s personality and life influenced how he painted his Deposition?
- What are some of the details Bernini uses in Apollo and Daphne to show a moment of transformation?
- What personality characteristics does Vigée Le Brun express about herself in her self-portraits?
- What characteristics of Fragonard’s The Swing would be criticized by Enlightenment and French Revolution thinkers?
- What gives Boucher’s Madame de Pompadour a sense of mystery?
- How is Watteau’s Pilgrimage to Cythera a painting about ambiguity?
- How is Kauffmann’s Cornelia Pointing to her Children as Her Treasures a painting that improved the viewer and taught a moral lesson?
- What does David’s Napoleon Crossing the Alps argue is true about Napoleon’s personality and qualifications as a leader?
- Why did David paint The Death of Marat?
- What role does its location play in the meaning of Cellini’s Perseus with the Head of Medusa?
- What are some of the things about Bronzino’s An Allegory with Venus and Cupid that art historians don’t yet understand?
- Why did Parmigianino paint Self-Portrait in a Convex Mirror?
- Why is the Christ child shown sleeping in Parmigianino’s Madonna of the Long Neck?
- How does Raphael show Pope Julius II as a human rather than as an all-powerful pope?
- What are some theories scholars have for why Michelangelo emphasized the musculature of the figures in the Last Judgment, Sistine Chapel?
- Why do you think Michelangelo left some uncarved stone visible in his sculptures of slaves?
- What moment does Michelangelo show in his sculpture of David? What details indicate this?
- What details does Michelangelo use to show the suffering of Christ in the Pietà?
- If you hadn’t always been told that Leonardo da Vinci’s Mona Lisa was one of the most famous paintings in the world, would you think it’s a masterpiece? Why or why not?
- What is the philosophical significance of Leonardo da Vinci’s Vitruvian Man?
