How is Vermeer's Woman Holding a Balance both a genre painting and an allegorical vanitas painting?
What will be an ideal response?
Essay responses should include these points:
The painting shows a woman in the act of doing an everyday thing.
She holds a balance weighing her gold and pearls, a metaphor for eternal judgment.
A painting of the Last Judgment is seen behind the woman in the background.
The light catches the youthful face of the woman reminding the viewer that beauty is fleeting.
The theme of vanitas—the transience of earthly life—is shown in objects in the painting and inspires spiritual reflections on the fleeting nature of beauty, youth, and riches.
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What is one explanation scholars have proposed for the fact that the human figure in the wall painting in Lascaux Cave is depicted less naturalistically than are the animals?
A. In the view of the artists, animals and humans belonged to separate spheres of being. B. Naturalistic depictions of humans were taboo. C. Animals were more interesting artistically than humans. D. Artists had not yet mastered naturalistic techniques that could be applied to the human form.
Pablo Picasso's painting Les Demoiselles d'Avignon (The Young Ladies of Avignon) was influenced by art from __________.
A. Africa B. India C. South America D. Australia