James Houghton Assignment
Directions
• Answer each question using only works that the Snite owns.
• Give artist, title and accession number.
• Take a photo (if you have a phone). Do not use flash or a tripod.
• Due at next class.
• Accession number indicates the Snite owns the work. It is found
on the tombstone label (the label that gives artist, title, date,
medium) at the bottom. If the number is preceded or contains
an “L,” it means the work is on loan and you cannot use for this
project.
Leonardo’s Mona Lisa exemplifies the idea of sfumato or
very subtle transitions in color and values that creates
softness and a hazy effect. Find a painting in the Snite that
well exemplifies Leonardo’s ideas. Defend your choice.
Manfredi’s Cupid Chastised was used to illustrate the
concept of chiaroscuro or the use of contrasted light and
shade. Find a painting in the Snite in which you think the
artist used chiaroscuro. Defend your answer.
Picasso’s Daniel-Henry Kahnweiler well illustrates Cubism. Find an example at
Notre Dame. Define Cubism and say how the work you chose is Cubist.
Find Munter’s Red Cloud. Into what twentieth century art
movement can one understand the painting? (e.g., is it Pop
Art? And what leads you to this conclusion?)
Monet and Renoir are perhaps the best known Impressionists. Find a work at the
Snite that you thinks illustrates Impressionism. Hint one, there are no French
Impressionist works at the Snite. Hint two, Impressionism is a 19th century artistic style
created in France.
Dominchino’s Rebuke of Adam and Eve was used to illustrate the
concept of relating a narrative through body language of expression,
gesture and pose. Find Marius and the Gaul OR Hylas and the Nymph
(second floor) and relate what you think the story is ONLY from
examining the painting. That is, write about one of these paintings.
Find this landscape by Paulus Franck:
Select following descriptive terms you think describe the painting
Romantic
Gloomy
Treacherous
Pleasant
Joyful
Rural
Urban
Harsh
Arcadian
Theatrical
Bright
Calm
Realistic
Fanciful
Nightmarish
Serene
Idyllic
Maudlin
Add one of your own
For Narcisse Diaz de la Pena’s Stag Hunt, think of five good
descriptive terms.
Herri Met de Bles’s Landscape with the Sacrifice of Isaac illustrates
atmospheric perspective (rendering space or depth through
reducing the strength of local colors and sharpness of values to a
uniform blue or bluish grey in the background). Find a painting that
illustrates this concept and defend your choice.
Sculpture and Three-Dimensional Works
In class we noted that sculpture could be made from different
materials in different manners. You may use other three dimensional
art forms, such as furniture and decorative arts.
Find a sculpture in which the artist molded the material, one in which
he/she cast the material, one in which he/she carved and one that
he/she assembled.
List your four examples. Tell why each work exemplifies that idea.
Find a sculpture in the round and one in relief. State the reasons you
picked each.