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CST Visual Arts Exam Questions and
Answers (Expert Solutions)
Q: Prehistoric Art, 🗹🗹: -Art objects were created as an attempt to control or appease
natural forces.
-Symbols of animals and people had supernatural significance and magic powers
-Cave paintings (created animal images to guarantee a successful hunt) no background
subject seemed to float in space
-Sculptures were either engraved, carved in deep relief, or fully rounded 3D sculptures
-Architecture 3 basic forms (dolmen, menhir, cromlech)
Q: Archaic Art, 🗹🗹: -Period includes kouros stone figures and vase painting
Q: Classical Art, 🗹🗹: -Peak of Greek art and architecture
-Idealized figures
-Exemplify order and harmony
Q: Hellenistic Art, 🗹🗹: -Greek-derived style
-Found in Asia Minor, Mesopotamia, Egypt
-More melodramatic than Classical style
Q: Navaho Art, 🗹🗹: -Southwest tribe known for geometric-design rugs colored with
herbal and mineral dyes, especially carmine red.
-Shamans created sand paintings to heal disease, promote fertility, or assure a
successful hunt.
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Q: Hopi Art, 🗹🗹: -Carved and painted kachina dolls out of cottonwood roots to
represent gods and teach religion
-Also decorated ceremonial underground kivas in Arizona with elaborate mural
paintings of agriculture deities
Q: Kwakiutl Art, 🗹🗹: -Northwest coast tribe that produced totem poles, masks, and
decorated houses and canoes
-Facial features of masks exaggerated in forceful wood carvings.
Q: Eskimo Art, 🗹🗹: -Alaskan tribe that carved masks with moving parts used by
shamans
-Often combined odd materials in surprising ways
Q: Mayan Art, 🗹🗹: -In Guatemala and Mexico, Mayans created enormous temples in
stepped-pyramid form
-Huge limestone temples were richly carved with relief sculpture and hieroglyphics.
Q: Aztec Art, 🗹🗹: -Produced massive statues of gods who demanded regular human
sacrifices
-Skilled in gold work
Q: Incan Art, 🗹🗹: -Peruvian tribe known for precisely constructed masonry temples
and metallurgy
Q: Byzantine, 🗹🗹: -Refers to eastern Mediterranean art from A.D. 330 to 1453
-Combination of early Christian art with the Greek Oriental taste for rich decoration and
color
-Mosaics: intended to publicize the now official Christian creed, so their subject was
generally religion w/ Christ shown as teacher and all powerful ruler, Sumptuous
grandeur, with halos spotlighting sacred figures and shimmering gold backgrounds.
Used reflective glass cubes, left surfaces uneven so it sparkled, wide range of colors,
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found on walls and ceilings especially church domes and apses, large cubes in stylized
designs
-Human figures were tall, slim, with almond-shaped faces, big eyes, and solemn
expressions gazed straight ahead without the least hint of movement. They were flat,
stiff, and symmetrically placed, seeming to float as if hung from pegs. No perspective or
volume.
-Icons (Small wood-panel paintings believed to possess supernatural powers. The image
of saints or holy persons were typically rigid, frontal poses often with halos and staring
wide eyes)
-Architecture: Central-dome church
Example: Hagia Sophia
-Place: Constantinople, Turkey
Q: Romanesque, 🗹🗹: -Mosaics: used opaque marble cubes, pieces had smooth/flat
finish, colors were limited due to use of natural stones, typically found on floor of
private homes, subjects were secular (battles or games), used minute pieces for realistic
detail, background represented landscape
-Frescoes and stylized sculpture
-Architecture: Barrel-vaulted church
Had round arches and stylized sculpture
horizontal, modest height, multiple units, rounded arch, piers & walls for support, barrel
& groin vaults, dark & solemn ambiance, and a simple & severe exterior
Example: St. Sernin
Place: Toulouse, France
-Sculptures taught religious doctrine by telling stories in stone, realism yielded to
moralism (bodies were distorted to fit the masonry niche, they were elongated with
expressions of intense emotion)
-Manuscripts: considered sacred objects containing the word of God, decorated lavishly
(covers made of gold and studded w/ precious gems)
CST Visual Arts Exam Questions and
Answers (Expert Solutions)
Q: Prehistoric Art, 🗹🗹: -Art objects were created as an attempt to control or appease
natural forces.
-Symbols of animals and people had supernatural significance and magic powers
-Cave paintings (created animal images to guarantee a successful hunt) no background
subject seemed to float in space
-Sculptures were either engraved, carved in deep relief, or fully rounded 3D sculptures
-Architecture 3 basic forms (dolmen, menhir, cromlech)
Q: Archaic Art, 🗹🗹: -Period includes kouros stone figures and vase painting
Q: Classical Art, 🗹🗹: -Peak of Greek art and architecture
-Idealized figures
-Exemplify order and harmony
Q: Hellenistic Art, 🗹🗹: -Greek-derived style
-Found in Asia Minor, Mesopotamia, Egypt
-More melodramatic than Classical style
Q: Navaho Art, 🗹🗹: -Southwest tribe known for geometric-design rugs colored with
herbal and mineral dyes, especially carmine red.
-Shamans created sand paintings to heal disease, promote fertility, or assure a
successful hunt.
, Page | 2
Q: Hopi Art, 🗹🗹: -Carved and painted kachina dolls out of cottonwood roots to
represent gods and teach religion
-Also decorated ceremonial underground kivas in Arizona with elaborate mural
paintings of agriculture deities
Q: Kwakiutl Art, 🗹🗹: -Northwest coast tribe that produced totem poles, masks, and
decorated houses and canoes
-Facial features of masks exaggerated in forceful wood carvings.
Q: Eskimo Art, 🗹🗹: -Alaskan tribe that carved masks with moving parts used by
shamans
-Often combined odd materials in surprising ways
Q: Mayan Art, 🗹🗹: -In Guatemala and Mexico, Mayans created enormous temples in
stepped-pyramid form
-Huge limestone temples were richly carved with relief sculpture and hieroglyphics.
Q: Aztec Art, 🗹🗹: -Produced massive statues of gods who demanded regular human
sacrifices
-Skilled in gold work
Q: Incan Art, 🗹🗹: -Peruvian tribe known for precisely constructed masonry temples
and metallurgy
Q: Byzantine, 🗹🗹: -Refers to eastern Mediterranean art from A.D. 330 to 1453
-Combination of early Christian art with the Greek Oriental taste for rich decoration and
color
-Mosaics: intended to publicize the now official Christian creed, so their subject was
generally religion w/ Christ shown as teacher and all powerful ruler, Sumptuous
grandeur, with halos spotlighting sacred figures and shimmering gold backgrounds.
Used reflective glass cubes, left surfaces uneven so it sparkled, wide range of colors,
, Page | 3
found on walls and ceilings especially church domes and apses, large cubes in stylized
designs
-Human figures were tall, slim, with almond-shaped faces, big eyes, and solemn
expressions gazed straight ahead without the least hint of movement. They were flat,
stiff, and symmetrically placed, seeming to float as if hung from pegs. No perspective or
volume.
-Icons (Small wood-panel paintings believed to possess supernatural powers. The image
of saints or holy persons were typically rigid, frontal poses often with halos and staring
wide eyes)
-Architecture: Central-dome church
Example: Hagia Sophia
-Place: Constantinople, Turkey
Q: Romanesque, 🗹🗹: -Mosaics: used opaque marble cubes, pieces had smooth/flat
finish, colors were limited due to use of natural stones, typically found on floor of
private homes, subjects were secular (battles or games), used minute pieces for realistic
detail, background represented landscape
-Frescoes and stylized sculpture
-Architecture: Barrel-vaulted church
Had round arches and stylized sculpture
horizontal, modest height, multiple units, rounded arch, piers & walls for support, barrel
& groin vaults, dark & solemn ambiance, and a simple & severe exterior
Example: St. Sernin
Place: Toulouse, France
-Sculptures taught religious doctrine by telling stories in stone, realism yielded to
moralism (bodies were distorted to fit the masonry niche, they were elongated with
expressions of intense emotion)
-Manuscripts: considered sacred objects containing the word of God, decorated lavishly
(covers made of gold and studded w/ precious gems)
