Assignment:
1) Explain why Botticelli's painting, "The Birth of Venus", was a landmark product of the early Renaissance and how it related to Classical Greek ideals. What elements link the two?
2) How was the Northern Renaissance different from the Italian Southern Renaissance; and what influence did the Protestant Reformation have?
3) What major event prompted European naval outreach and what other factors contributed to the Age of Exploration? What were the global consequences of cross-cultural encounter?
4) What does the bronze portrait of the oba of Benin have in common with the sculpture of the head of Akkadian ruler Sargon I in Chapter. What might it tell us about the Benin tribe's rituals?
5) What purpose is served by the elaborate adornment of King Louis XIV in Rigaud's portrait Fig. 10.19, p.281? Why are references to divinity common in depictions of absolute monarchs?
6) Is Bacon's plea for the separation of science and religion still relevant? If so, how?
7) Compare Neoclassicism and Romanticism as styles and sensibilities. What do their differences reflect about patronage, popular taste and historical change?
8) How would you evaluate the impact of photography on Degas and his contemporaries?
9) Which landmarks of the era prior to 1950 illustrate most dramatically the idea of Modernism as an assault on tradition? How so?
10) What are the major differences between the arts of the first half of the twentieth century and those of the last sixty years? Mention at least two art movement "isms" from each time period as examples of these differences.
How has information technology and globalism affected these changes?