TOEFL Questions
Still-lifes and Landscapes
The depiction of inanimate objects in painting has two major genres: still-lifes and landscapes. Still-lifes offer a close-up treatment of a physical object or group of objects. While the subject of a still-life could conceivably be any object, floral arrangements and banquet scenes have been the traditional subjects in Western art for many centuries. Still-lifes offer an artist several advantages. First, since they are artificially arranged, the artist retains complete control over all compositional elements of the painting. Color combinations, object positions, and lighting conditions are all largely subject to the artist’s manipulation. Furthermore, still-lifes provide an author with an unlimited time frame in which to work. The artist can simply leave the still-life arrangement undisturbed in his or her studio and return to it day after day. Finally, still-lifes carry great potential for symbolism. Since the artist chooses the elements included in the painting, he or she can exclude those which are not symbolically meaningful.
Still-life painting reached its apex in the West with the Dutch Masters of the 17th century. Religious prohibitions prevented them from painting explicit representations of Christ and the Saints, and symbolism was therefore the only outlet for their religious messages. The Dutch Masters adhered to the convention of painting banquet scenes, but in the midst of the scene would place a potent symbol of impending death, such as a watch. Thus the sensuous aspects of the feast would be tempered with a Christian reminder of the impermanence of such pleasures.
Landscapes are larger in scale but, in some respects, more limited. Depicting natural scenes, landscapes rob artists of the freedom to control the composition of the painting. What little control an artist does have lies in the selection of a site for the painting. Furthermore, closer time constraints are placed on the artists, since the appearance of a landscape can change drastically from season to season, or even from day to day. Landscapes often include a human figure, if only silhouetted in the distance, whose major purpose is to provide scale and perhaps direct the attention of the viewer. For much of art history, landscapes have dealt with pastoral scenes. With the coming of the Industrial Revolution and the mass migrations to city centers, however, landscapes began to increasingly depict urban landscapes.
Q1. The word they in the passage refers to
(A) advantages
(B) artists
(C) still-lifes
(D) subjects
Q2. Why does the author mention Religious prohibitions?
(A) In order to discuss the reaction of the Church to still-lifes
(B) In order to explain why still-lifes were important to the Dutch Master
(C) In order to explain why religious art declined in the 17th century
(D) In order to discuss the limitations of symbolism
Q3. Directions: Select the appropriate phrases from the answer choices and match them to the type of painting to which they relate. ONE of the answer choices will not be used.
Still-life
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Landscape
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Answer Choices
(A) Subjects have changed over several centuries
(B) Elements of the painting often contain hidden meanings
(C) Primarily religious in nature
(D) Artificially created scenes
(E) Often contain a human element
(F) Close-up perspective
A1. (C)
A2. (B)
A3. Still-life (A), (B), (D), (F)
Landscape (E)