問題詳情

Questions 30-39By 1776 the fine art of painting as it had developed in western Europe up to thistime had been introduced into the American colonies though books and prints,European visitors and immigrants, and traveling colonists who brought back copies(and a few original) of old master paintings and acquaintance with European art(5) institutions.By the outbreak of the Revolution against British rule in 1776, the status of theartists had already undergone change. In the mid-eighteenth century, painters had beenwilling to assume such artisan-related tasks as varnishing, gilding teaching, keepingshops, and painting wheel carriages, houses, and signs. The terminology by which(10) artists were described at the time suggests their status: "limner" was usually applied tothe anonymous portrait painter up to the 1760's: "painter" characterized anyone whocould paint a flat surface. By the second half of the century, colonial artists who weretrained in England or educated in the classics rejected the status of laborer and thoughtof themselves as artists. Some colonial urban portraitists, such as John Singleton Copley,(15) Benjamin West, and Charles Wilson Peale, consorted with affluent patrons. Althoughsubject to fluctuations in their economic status, all three enjoyed sufficient patronage toallow them to maintain an image of themselves as professional artists, an imageindicated by their custom of signing their paintings. A few art collectors JamesBowdoin III of Boston, William Byrd of Virginian, and the Aliens and Hamiltons of(20) Philadelphia introduced European art traditions to those colonists privileged to visittheir galleries, especially aspiring artists, and established in their respectivecommunities the idea of the value of art and the need for institutions devoted to itsencouragement.Although the colonists tended to favor portraits, they also accepted landscapes,(25) historical works, and political engravings as appropriate artistic subjects. With thecoming of independence from the British Crown, a sufficient number of artists and theirworks were available to serve nationalistic purposes. The achievements of the colonialartists, particularly those of Copley, West, and Peale, lent credence to the boast that thenew nation was capable of encouraging genius and that political liberty was congenialto the development of taste-a necessary step before art could assume an important rolein the new republic.
30. What does the passage mainly discuss?
(A) European influence on colonial American painting
(B) The importance of patronage to artist
(C) The changing status of artists in the American colonies in the eighteenth century
(D) Subjects preferred by artists in the American colonies in the eighteenth century.

參考答案

答案：C
難度：適中0.625
統計：A(3),B(0),C(5),D(0),E(0)

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