Free About 1 hr0 learners Rev. 2026-10-28 0

In February 2003, as the United States made its case at the United Nations for invading Iraq, a woven copy of Picasso's Guernica hanging near the press area was covered with a blue curtain. Officials gave practical reasons, but many people suspected a simpler one: a picture of bombed civilians made a poor backdrop for talk of war. Images have that kind of power. They crown emperors, curse invaders, record oaths, flatter the rich and, now and then, tell the truth when words are not allowed to.

Here you will learn to look slowly and well, starting from what is actually on the surface before asking what it meant and who paid for it. You will travel from hand stencils blown onto cave walls to Chinese scholars' mountain scrolls, Gothic windows, Kongo power figures, a Paris jury laughing at Manet and a urinal that changed the rules. By the end you should be able to stand in front of almost any object, from a temple bronze to a museum label about stolen brass plaques, and ask sharper questions about beauty, power and who gets to decide.

Levels

  1. 1 1. How to Look at a Work of Art 5-question quiz
  2. 2 2. First Images: Caves to the Ancient World 5-question quiz
  3. 3 3. Many Traditions, Many Purposes 5-question quiz
  4. 4 4. Medieval Europe and the Islamic World 5-question quiz
  5. 5 5. The Academy, the Salon and Realism 5-question quiz
  6. 6 6. Modernism and the Break with Tradition 5-question quiz
  7. 7 7. Art and Power: Propaganda and Protest 5-question quiz
  8. 8 8. Who Decides What Is Art? 5-question quiz

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