1. This question asks you to explore the stylistic relationships between the form and content of figurative art.  How a culture is perceived is often expressed in depictions of the human figure. Choose two specific representations of the human body from different cultures. Only one of your choices may be from a European artistic tradition. Discuss significant aspects of each culture that are revealed by the way in which the human body is depicted. (30 minutes)

Warrior, from the sea off Riace, Italy, ca. 460–450 BCE. Bronze, approx. 6’ 6” high.

A masterpiece of hollow-casting, this bronze has a weight shift even more pronounced than the Kritios Boy. Archaic frontality & rigidity have given way to natural motion in space.

Yakshi, detail of eastern gateway, Great Stupa, Sanchi, India, mid first century BCE to early first century CE.

Figure 8-15 Detail of the priest Shunjobo Chogen, Todaiji, Nara, Japan, Kamakura period, early thirteenth century. Painted

cypress wood, 2’ 8 3/8” high.

• Representations of the natural world or motifs from nature are found in the art of all times and places.

• • Choose and fully identify two appropriate works

of art from two different cultures. One of your choices must be from beyond the European tradition. Explain why and how each work uses representations of the natural world or motifs from nature. (30 minutes)

• Q.#1 - 2006

Most of the design elements in the Islamic world are based on plant motifs, which are sometimes intermingled with abstract geometric shapes and, in secular settings, with animal figures. But the natural forms are so stylized that they are lost in the purely decorative tracery of the tendrils, leaves, and stalks. These arabesques, as they are often called because they are so characteristic of Islamic (“Arab”) art, form a pattern that covers an entire surface, whether that of a small utensil or the wall of a building. The patterns have no function but to decorate.

detail of an arabesque from the Alhambra Palace

Marine Style octopus jar, from Palaikastro (Crete), Greece, ca. 1500 BCE. Approx. 11” high. Archaeological Museum, Herakleion.

Score: 9The essay selects two good examples and identifies them fully. The natural elements found in eachpainting, such as the “shimmering” light in the Constable and the “exotic fruit” and “epic lightning” of theKrishna and Radha love scene are described in detail. The essay presents a sophisticated analysis of thecultural meaning of the natural elements in the paintings and places them within broader contexts:Romanticism and idealization of the countryside in Constable, and a lush setting that contributes to thespark between human and divine lovers in the painting of Radha and Krishna.

The relationship between an artist or architect and a patron very often shapes the form and content of works of art or architecture.

Identify two works, each from a different art historical period, and name the specific persons who commissioned them. Discuss how the specific interests and intentions of the particular patrons are revealed in each work. (30 minutes)Q.#9 -- 2004

Pericles.Pericles was a prominent and influential statesman, orator, and general of Athens in the city's Golden Age. After the defeat of the Persians in 478 BCE, he embarked on a great building program on the Athenian Acropolis. The Parthenon, or the Temple of Athena Parthenos, was the centerpiece of this building program. In addition, two later temples built after Pericles death, the Erectheion and the Temple of Athena Nike, and completed just after his death, were probably part of the original design.

IKTINOS and KALLIKRATES, Parthenon, the Temple of Athena Parthenos (view from the northwest), Acropolis, Athens, Greece, 447–

438 BCE.