Renaissance to Contemporary Sculpture
Help Questions
AP Art History › Renaissance to Contemporary Sculpture
Who is the subject of this sculpture, a popular figure in Renaissance art?
David
Samson
John the Baptist
Hercules
Moses
Explanation
This is David, also sculpted by artists like Donatello and Michelangelo. The head of Goliath sits at David's feet. John the Baptist was also beheaded, but by Salome, a woman. Hercules and Samson tend to be represented with more muscularity, and Moses is usually an older figure.
Work is in the public domain, accessed through WikiArt: http://www.wikiart.org/en/andrea-del-verrocchio/david-1475
Michelangelo's David displays this compositional technique, wherein the figure's posture is tense on one side and relaxed on the other because its weight is shifted disproportionately to one foot.
Contrappusto
Figura serpentinata
Formal balance
Interaxial balance
Explanation
"Contrappusto" (meaning counterpose in Italian) is the term used to describe a posture in which the figure's weight is shifted to one foot, causing the shoulders and hips to twist off the body's central axis so they are no longer parallel, as seen in David. It was introduced in Classical Greek art and rediscovered in the Renaissance.
The exhibition which first featured this sculpture was considered scandalous because .
the subjects were depicted in quotidian poses, and some of the sculptures used non-traditional mediums
nudes were presented in erotic poses
more famous sculptors were excluded from the exhibition
the inclusion of African masks
Explanation
In 1881 the use of quotidian poses was regarded as appropriate for an artist to do as a study in his studio, but not to present to the public. The use of mixed media in his sculpture The Little Fourteen Year Old dance was also a novelty.
Work is in the public domain, accessed through Wikipedia Media Commons: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Sculptures\_by\_Edgar\_Degas#/media/File:Dega\_Bronze\_Sculptures\_01102010\_NatArtGallery\_Sofia\_09.jpg
Who is the subject of this sculpture, a popular figure in Renaissance art?
David
Samson
John the Baptist
Hercules
Moses
Explanation
This is David, also sculpted by artists like Donatello and Michelangelo. The head of Goliath sits at David's feet. John the Baptist was also beheaded, but by Salome, a woman. Hercules and Samson tend to be represented with more muscularity, and Moses is usually an older figure.
Work is in the public domain, accessed through WikiArt: http://www.wikiart.org/en/andrea-del-verrocchio/david-1475
The exhibition which first featured this sculpture was considered scandalous because .
the subjects were depicted in quotidian poses, and some of the sculptures used non-traditional mediums
nudes were presented in erotic poses
more famous sculptors were excluded from the exhibition
the inclusion of African masks
Explanation
In 1881 the use of quotidian poses was regarded as appropriate for an artist to do as a study in his studio, but not to present to the public. The use of mixed media in his sculpture The Little Fourteen Year Old dance was also a novelty.
Work is in the public domain, accessed through Wikipedia Media Commons: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Sculptures\_by\_Edgar\_Degas#/media/File:Dega\_Bronze\_Sculptures\_01102010\_NatArtGallery\_Sofia\_09.jpg
This sculpture is an example of what artistic movement?
Futurism
Fauvism
Cubism
Abstract Expressionism
Surrealism
Explanation
While it may bear some similar principles to movements like Surrealism and Cubism, the sculpture's emphasis on the energy of a body in motion is a prime example of Futurism, of which Boccioni was a leading artist. Fauvism is not applicable to sculpture, dealing instead with the color palette of paintings, and Abstract Expressionism largely did away with representational figures, even somewhat abstracted ones like the sculpture in question.
Image is in the public domain: http://www.wikiart.org/en/umberto-boccioni/unique-forms-of-continuity-in-space-1913
Michelangelo's David displays this compositional technique, wherein the figure's posture is tense on one side and relaxed on the other because its weight is shifted disproportionately to one foot.
Contrappusto
Figura serpentinata
Formal balance
Interaxial balance
Explanation
"Contrappusto" (meaning counterpose in Italian) is the term used to describe a posture in which the figure's weight is shifted to one foot, causing the shoulders and hips to twist off the body's central axis so they are no longer parallel, as seen in David. It was introduced in Classical Greek art and rediscovered in the Renaissance.
This sculpture is an example of what artistic movement?
Futurism
Fauvism
Cubism
Abstract Expressionism
Surrealism
Explanation
While it may bear some similar principles to movements like Surrealism and Cubism, the sculpture's emphasis on the energy of a body in motion is a prime example of Futurism, of which Boccioni was a leading artist. Fauvism is not applicable to sculpture, dealing instead with the color palette of paintings, and Abstract Expressionism largely did away with representational figures, even somewhat abstracted ones like the sculpture in question.
Image is in the public domain: http://www.wikiart.org/en/umberto-boccioni/unique-forms-of-continuity-in-space-1913
Michelangelo's David displays this compositional technique, wherein the figure's posture is tense on one side and relaxed on the other because its weight is shifted disproportionately to one foot.
Contrappusto
Figura serpentinata
Formal balance
Interaxial balance
Explanation
"Contrappusto" (meaning counterpose in Italian) is the term used to describe a posture in which the figure's weight is shifted to one foot, causing the shoulders and hips to twist off the body's central axis so they are no longer parallel, as seen in David. It was introduced in Classical Greek art and rediscovered in the Renaissance.
The exhibition which first featured this sculpture was considered scandalous because .
the subjects were depicted in quotidian poses, and some of the sculptures used non-traditional mediums
nudes were presented in erotic poses
more famous sculptors were excluded from the exhibition
the inclusion of African masks
Explanation
In 1881 the use of quotidian poses was regarded as appropriate for an artist to do as a study in his studio, but not to present to the public. The use of mixed media in his sculpture The Little Fourteen Year Old dance was also a novelty.
Work is in the public domain, accessed through Wikipedia Media Commons: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Sculptures\_by\_Edgar\_Degas#/media/File:Dega\_Bronze\_Sculptures\_01102010\_NatArtGallery\_Sofia\_09.jpg