final exam - baroque & rococo art

*answer each of the following questions in your blue book* *answer the questions as completely as possible*

Part I. Unknowns (2 slides will be shown at a time; 10 minutes each set; 10 points each slide). Rationalize your decision on style, subject matter, country of origin, artist and approximate date as succinctly as possible

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Part II. Compare and Contrast (20 minutes each; discuss style and subject matter in a coherent essay; talk about the two together). 25 points each.

5. In many ways Vermeer's Woman weighing Pearls and Rembrandt's Lucretia (1666) seem profoundly different. What do you see as the major distinctions between these two works and their attending commissions, and how do you account for this variance? Are there aspects of style, composition, iconography, function and patronage that the two works share and which link them in exemplifying the Dutch baroque style?

6. Compare and contrast Artemisia Gentileschi's Susanna and the Elders (1610) and Caravaggio's Calling of St. Matthew (1599-1602). These two artists/works share, to a large extent, a common artistic heritage, yet they reflect numerous differences in terms of technique, style, compositional format and narrative interpretation. How do you account for these differences? (exam continued on other side.....)

Part III. Directed Questions (2 slides will be shown at a time; 5 minutes on the screen for each set; 10 points each).

7. Pertaining to Guardi's Landscape with Ruins, 1770-80 explain what is "new" about 18th-century landscape painting and compare this painting to the new aesthetic category of the picturesque in England.

8. Pertaining to Velasquez's Old Woman Cooking Eggs, 1617-22 explain the special genre of this work and its purpose in this country's version of Baroque painting.

9. Pertaining to Reynold's Mrs. Siddons as a Tragic Muse, discuss the artist's theories of "the grand manner" of portraiture.

10. Pertaining to Bernini's Ecstasy of St. Theresa, 1645-52 explain the statement "to subordinate all the arts to a single goal was in itself baroque" (H.W. Janson)

11. Pertaining to Poussin's Rape of the Sabine Women, 1636-37 define the word "classical" as it relates to Nicholas Poussin. Is it purely the themes and compositional elements which Poussin paints which are classical, or does this quality extend further, to embrace other visual and theoretical issues?

12. Pertaining to Watteau's Return from Cythera, 1717 discuss the characteristics of Rococo art and explain the new category of painting that this work represents. Part V. Essay (50 points; 45 minutes)

Part IV. Essay

13. In a detailed essay, compare and contrast the theories pertaining to art and its role as propagated by Martin Luther, the Council of Trent, Denis Diderot, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, and Johann Wincklemann. Of what did they approve and disapprove? What direct or indirect effects did these individuals or institutions have on the art of the 17th and 18th centuries? Use works of art to support your ideas