Grade 13 - Art MCQ Practice Quiz (Paper 1)
Ten multiple-choice questions on the '43 Group, the Bengal School, the Renaissance, prehistoric, Egyptian, Indus Valley and Hellenistic art, and Sri Lankan architecture.
11 questions
Practice mode - there is no timer, and you can retry as often as you like.
What this quiz covers
This quiz draws on the Grade 13 art syllabus across its full range: modern Sri Lankan art through the '43 Group, the Indian New Life movement, European art from the Renaissance to the Hellenistic period, the prehistoric painted caves, the architecture of Egypt and the art of the Indus Valley, and the sculptural detail of Sri Lanka's own historical buildings.
Several of these questions turn on a fine distinction rather than a fact you either know or do not - whether Egyptian architecture rests on a belief system or on the buildings it produced, or whether the Renaissance is defined by anatomy alone or by naturalism together with theory. Read the explanation even when your answer was right, because the reasoning is what a paper question is testing.
Every question shows the correct answer and a full explanation the moment you answer it, and the questions come back in a different order each time, so the quiz stays useful for repeated revision.
Worked examples
A few questions from this quiz, with the answer and explanation shown - so you know what to expect before you start.
In which cave are the printed footprints of a small child found among prehistoric paintings?
- a.Lascaux
- b.Altamira
- c.Chauvet(correct answer)
- d.Font-de-Gaume
- e.Cogul
Answer: c. Chauvet
A trail of footprints left by a child of about eight was found preserved in the clay floor of the Chauvet cave in southern France, alongside the paintings. They are among the oldest human footprints known in Europe, and they are what make Chauvet the answer rather than the other painted caves listed.
What is described as a meaningful visual-art composition?
- a.A visual expression freed from mental conception.
- b.A meaningful expression made through colour, line and shape.(correct answer)
- c.An expression carried out on a surface on the basis of an experience.
- d.A meaningful expression made with a bright range of colours.
- e.Presenting some theme creatively.
Answer: b. A meaningful expression made through colour, line and shape.
This is the standard definition of composition: the visual elements - colour, line and shape - arranged so that together they carry a meaning. The other options each name only one part of that (a bright palette, a surface, a theme) and leave out the arrangement of elements that makes a composition a composition.
The distinctive feature that arose in Greek sculpture in the Hellenistic period was:
- a.The emergence of an emotionally expressive nature rather than idealism.(correct answer)
- b.Showing compassion and perfected bodily characteristics.
- c.Showing the manner in which bone and muscle action changes.
- d.Sculpture being created under the influence of Egyptian art.
- e.Showing the beauty of the female figure and the strength of the male body.
Answer: a. The emergence of an emotionally expressive nature rather than idealism.
Classical Greek sculpture sought a calm, idealised perfection. Hellenistic sculpture turned instead to feeling shown openly - pain, strain, age, movement. The Laocoon, the Dying Gaul, the Pergamon altar frieze and the Winged Victory of Samothrace are all built on emotion and drama rather than repose, and options 2 and 5 describe the Classical ideal the Hellenistic period moved away from.