View a FREE sample

This test consists of 5 short answer questions, 10 short essay questions, and 1 (of 3) essay topics.

Short Answer Questions

1. According to the author, what would Baudelaire have called the young boy in Gericault's portrait?

2. What does the author say La Tour paints, at the end of Appendix 4?

3. The author compares Carlyle to what other artist?

4. Which of these is NOT an example given by the author of great nature art?

5. What do schizophrenics share with other psychotics, according to the author?

Short Essay Questions

1. What is unique and praiseworthy about Japanese and Chinese art, according to the author?

2. What is "Sartor Resartus"?

3. According to the author, how did Gericault see the world?

4. What is unique about La Tour's style of painting?

5. To what does the author compare the world inhabited by schizophrenics in Appendix 6?

6. What is the difference, according to the author, between the two paintings he compares at the end of Appendix 5?

7. What does the author say in Appendix 5 about "Nature at the middle distance"?

8. What does Gericault say about his own artwork, according to the quote in Appendix 7?

9. What does the author say about Vuillard at the beginning of Appendix 5?

10. According to the author, what is unique about "Raft of the Medusa," artistically speaking?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

The difference between Eastern and Western art is significant to Huxley. What are the major differences between these two cultural art forms? Why does Huxley feel that these differences are so significant? How do the differences between Eastern and Western art relate to the visionary experiences Huxley talks about in the rest of the text?

Essay Topic 2

According to Huxley, mescalin altered his perceptions in a variety of ways. What were some of the ways in which his perception of reality was altered? How did he feel about these changes? What is Huxley's theory regarding how mescalin works on the human brain? Is this theory accurate? What lasting effects resulted from Huxley's use of mescalin?

Essay Topic 3

Huxley devotes one appendix to discussing the art of Georges de La Tour. How was Huxley affected by La Tour's art? What was unique about it? What does La Tour's art have to do with visionary experiences? Do you think other people who saw La Tour's art viewed it in the same way Huxley did?

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 881 words (approx. 3 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample