Art Quiz | Japanese and Western Art: Appreciation and Techniques, Set 1
Problem 1
In Hokusai's "Under the Wave off Kanagawa", the wave in the foreground is drawn large enough to fill the picture, while Mount Fuji appears as a small triangle inside the curl of the wave. What does this difference in scale achieve?
View explanation
Enlarging the foreground and shrinking the distance heightens the contrast between a wave bearing down on the viewer and a Mount Fuji standing steady far away. The smallness of the mountain is not a printing loss but a relationship of scale Hokusai built into the composition.
Problem 2
The Tale of Genji scrolls use fukinuki yatai, showing interiors from above at an angle as though the roof and ceiling had been removed. What is the main advantage of this device in narrative painting?
View explanation
By omitting the roof so that the interior can be seen at a glance, fukinuki yatai makes it easy to show in one image the positions, distances and partitions that matter to the story. It is neither an architectural drawing nor Western one-point perspective, and it does not dispense with depicting figures.
Problem 3
Examination of Ogata Kōrin's "Red and White Plum Blossoms" screens shows tarashikomi, exploiting the bleeding of ink and color, in the trunks. Scientific analysis has also confirmed gold leaf in the gold ground, and silver and silver sulfide in the stream, which now appears black. Which is the most appropriate way to view the work in light of this?
View explanation
Understanding the work is served by both formal observation — tarashikomi, the symmetry of the composition — and material analysis: gold leaf, silver, silver sulfide. One cannot conclude that the black stream is black pigment alone, nor that what we see now is exactly what was made.
Problem 4
In an Edo-period multi-block color print, the red and blue areas are printed slightly out of register with the outlines. Given the division of labor between designer, block carver and printer, who is directly responsible for aligning the color blocks on the paper?
View explanation
Multi-block printing uses a block per color, and it is the printer who aligns the registration marks and prints them onto the paper in sequence, so the printer is directly concerned with the placement of the color areas. The designer conceives the image and the carver cuts the blocks, but the misalignment in question arises in the printing itself.
Problem 5
In Leonardo da Vinci's "The Last Supper", the architectural lines of the walls and ceiling converge near Christ's head. Which pair of effects does this arrangement produce?
View explanation
Lines of perspective converging on a single vanishing point give the architecture depth, and placing that point at Christ's head gathers the eye onto the central figure. The effect is not to flatten the picture or push the central figure to the edge.
Problem 6
A 19th-century painting uses short broken brushstrokes, bright colors laid side by side rather than fully mixed, and shadows rendered in color rather than plain black. Which aim best matches the character of Impressionism?
View explanation
Short strokes, unmixed color and colored shadows were the means many Impressionists used to hold an impression of changing light and atmosphere on the canvas. That runs the opposite way to a finish that hides outline and brushwork to present fixed form.
Problem 7
In a Cubist still life, the rim of a cup seen from the front and a handle-like shape seen from the side are combined in the same picture as divided geometric planes. What did this call into question?
View explanation
Cubism broke the subject into geometric planes and reassembled several or contrasting viewpoints in one image. That called into question the premise of reproducing nature from a single fixed viewpoint by traditional perspective; it was not a movement that restricted subject matter or support.
Problem 8
For Van Gogh's "The Starry Night", we know the dawn sky seen from his asylum window fed into its conception, that the village in the picture was not visible from that window, that the church recalls architecture from his native Netherlands, and that the forms of the heavenly bodies were altered. Which view follows most reasonably from this?
View explanation
Working from an observed sky and morning star while combining an unseen village, a church recalling home, and altered heavens, it is best seen as an integration of observation with memory, imagination and feeling. The evidence describes neither a complete record on the spot nor invention unrelated to reality.
Problem 9
A museum wants to keep a colored work on paper on permanent display all year under strong lighting. Given that paper and colorants can be damaged by light, which conservation response is most appropriate?
View explanation
Works on paper can deteriorate from environmental factors including light, so the response is to check the medium and condition, limit illuminance and display duration, and store the work properly while it rests. The requirements differ from work to work, so this calls for an individual judgment by a conservator, not blanket permanent display or washing.
Problem 10
In basic lost-wax casting, a wax model is covered in clay and heated, the wax runs out, and a cavity is left inside the mold. What comes next?
View explanation
In lost-wax casting, once the wax has been removed by heating, molten metal is poured into the cavity the wax occupied. After the metal cools and sets, the outer mold is broken away to release the figure. The wax is a model for transferring the form to metal, not something kept as the finished work.