Book Cover Living With Art 5e Online content by Brian Gore
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Chapter 3: Themes and Purposes of Art


Essay Questions

Chapter 3: Themes and Purposes of Art

  1. Compare and contrast the images of marriage shown by Henri Rousseau’s A Wedding in the Country and Marc Chagall’s The Bride and Groom of the Eiffel Tower. What does each image say about marriage and the artist who painted it? Which one do you prefer? Why?

  2. Explain how the Parthenon, a rectangle, the Great Stupa, a rounded mound, and Chartres Cathedral, a modified cruciform shape, could all symbolize their religions. Why don’t the Christians have rectangles for their churches? Why didn’t the ancient Greeks use mounds for their temples? Why don’t Buddhists worship in cross-shaped shrines?

  3. What is the political message of Hyacinthe Rigaud’s Louis XIV? How does the artist get this message across to the viewing public? Contrast this with Honoré Daumier’s Murder in the rue Transnonain; what is Daumier’s political message, and how does he convey it in his print?

  4. How could a statue that didn’t look like him serve as a good public relations campaign for the Roman emperor Augustus? Explain what he hoped to achieve by promoting an image of himself that was not real.

  5. Suppose that Paul Cezanne and Georgia O’Keeffe were brought back to life to be interviewed on a talk show about their respective approaches to nature in art. What do you imagine each would say to the other about his/her work?
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