Art of the Ancients Trivia Quiz

Answer: Venus of Willendorf

This figure seems to be a collection of balls arranged, in the round, in a female figure. It is believed to be not any particular woman, but, instead, a symbol of fertility. She is 4 1/8 inches high, made of limestone, and dates from about 28,000-25,000 B.C. (Her hair looks like it's curled or braided, and wrapped around her head).

Answer: Pterodactyl

All three of the wrong answers are known in cave paintings, even the spotted horse. The Pterodactyl lived in a time before humans. Cave art can be seen in several locations in France, and in rock shelters in Spain. Other areas of the world also have prehistoric rock art that can still be seen.

Answer: The Ishtar Gate

The Ishtar Gate has rarely been surpassed in beauty and durability, in the history of architecture. It was restored to its former glory, which was in c. 575 B.C., to be viewed in the Pergamon Museum in Berlin, Germany.

Answer: Temple of Ramses II

The temple of Ramses II, far up the Nile River at Abu Simbel, was completed in 1257 B.C. A huge project was able to move the whole complex, in 1968, far above the waters of the dam which would soon have inundated it.

Answer: Queen Nefertiti

Queen Nefertiti is seen as a painted limestone bust, with a musing expression and carved in a delicate contour. The feeling expresses to the viewer that they must know her, know more about her, but they never will. It is enough just to view the beauty from around 1360 B.C., and 20 inches high. She was seen in the Neues Museum in Berlin.

Answer: The Mask of Agamemnon

"The Mask of Agamemnon" is dated c. 1500 B.C., which is several hundred years before Agamemnon, according to Homer. But the name remains the same. In recent years, some scholars have cast doubt on the authenticity of the find, saying that Schliemann was less than truthful. This charge has not been proven.

Several other beaten gold masks were found at the same time, attached to the mummified faces of Mycenaean princes.

Answer: The Golden Age of Greece

In this period the human figure was idealized to represent the Gods and Goddesses, and the figures were to be perfect, as no real human could be.

As Bruno Snell wrote in "The Discovery of the Mind", "If we want to describe the statues of the fifth century in the words of their age, we should say that they represent beautiful or perfect men...or 'godlike' men." (And women, of course).

It was a period of glory for Athens under the leadership of Pericles. At this time the Acropolis was rebuilt after being destroyed in a war.

Answer: the Elgin Marbles

Between 1801 and 1803, Greece was under Turkish rule. Lord Elgin was the British ambassador to the Ottoman court at Constantinople, and he was given permission to dismantle some of the Acropolis sculptures and ship the best-preserved ones to London.

The British government eventually purchased the sculptures from Elgin at a great monetary loss to him. These sculptures have known a lot of controversy, some calling Elgin a thief, but there is no doubt that by removing them from Greece he saved many from destruction; destruction not only from weathering and earthquakes, but destruction by the ruling Turks.

Answer: True

Little is known about Etruscan architecture, because, when the Romans came to power, they destroyed or rebuilt Etruscan structures. Also, they were not politically united.

Etruscan burial grounds have revealed much about their culture. They decorated the interior of their tombs with rich wall paintings and painted reliefs which told of their lives including banquets and dancing. They had athletic events and wars and, as the culture declined, the subjects of their paintings grew ever more bloodthirsty.

Their tombs varied by location, some areas built them above ground while others were excavated from live rock, or built of tufa-brick. Cemeteries were far from cities and could contain hundreds of tombs along streets.

Answer: Portraits

Early in Roman history, portraitists began making portrait sculpture and painting as, unlike Greeks, they were interested in showing what real people looked like. This type of sculpture probably came from the custom of making wax death masks and keeping them in their homes. An example is "Head of a Roman", a marble bust c.80 B.C. The character of the subject is shown in this life size sculpture, that seems alive and masklike at the same time. The sculptor did not try to idealize the subject, as the Greeks did.

Wall painting was popular in Rome perhaps because the houses had a small number of windows and doors, which left plenty of space to paint landscapes or people, Gods and Goddesses, scenes from myths etc. Unlike the Greeks, the Roman deities looked like real people.