Multiple-Choice Questions
1. Which best describes Renaissance humanism?
a. study of human nature
b. human-based culture
c. revival of Classical texts
d. a Christian bias
Answer: c
2. Leonardo Bruni was
a. a humanist.
b. chancellor of Florence.
c. a historian.
d. all of these: a humanist, a historian, and chancellor of Florence.
e. None of these answers is correct.
Answer: d
3. Which two cities were most at the forefront of early humanism?
a. Venice and Rome
b. Florence and Padua
c. Rome and Florence
d. Siena and Florence
e. Siena and Padua
Answer: b
4. In the 15th century, the ________ of Florence were the great patrons.
a. Urbini
b. Innocenti
c. popes
d. Medici
Answer: d
5. Which is NOT a feature of Bruni’s tomb?
a. Its sculptor was Marzocco.
b. Lions are a part of its iconography.
c. It merges Christian and Classical motifs.
d. The effigy of Bruni lies on a bier.
Answer: a
6. Who of the following was NOT a condottiere?
a. Federico da Montefeltro
b. Sir John Hawkwood
c. Erasmo da Narni
d. Niccolò da Tolentino
e. Leon Battista Alberti
Answer: e
7. Which author goes with which text?
a. Dante – History of the Florentine People
b. Brunelleschi – Commentarii
c. Alberti – Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects
d. Masaccio – De Pictura (On Painting)
e. Bruni – Laudatio of the City of Florence
Answer: e
8. Which are some of the reasons for Ghiberti’s victory in the competition of 1401?
a. His relief was less expensive to cast and more monumental than Brunelleschi’s.
b. His relief was less expensive and more graceful.
c. His relief was more expensive, but also more elegant.
d. His relief was more monumental, more original, and he had political connections.
Answer: b
9. Ghiberti’s style is
a. aligned by orthogonals of true perspective.
b. realistic.
c. classically inspired.
d. All these answers are correct.
Answer: d
10. Which best defines “foreshortening”?
a. reduction in scale
b. placing a smaller object in front of a larger object
c. a twist at the waist
d. depicting a form in perspective
Answer: d
11. Which is NOT a feature of the Hospital of the Innocents?
a. arcades
b. round arches
c. Doric columns
d. pediments
e. bays
Answer: c
12. Brunelleschi did many things, but he did NOT
a. design the dome of Florence Cathedral.
b. study ancient buildings and monuments in Rome, rediscovering antique proportions and measurements.
c. work in Florence.
d. use the Colosseum as his model for the Ospedale degli Innocenti.
Answer: d
13. Which of the following is NOT a feature of Brunelleschi’s design for the Church of Santo Spirito?
a. Latin cross plan
b. a flat ceiling
c. chapels on three sides
d. stained-glass windows
e. round arches
Answer: d
14. ________ is credited with the Renaissance invention of linear perspective.
a. Ghiberti
b. Brunelleschi
c. Uccello
d. Leonardo da Vinci
Answer: b
15. Which of the following is true of one-point perspective?
a. Orthogonals converge at the vanishing point.
b. Orthogonals run from right to left on the picture plane.
c. Orthogonals are at right angles to the floor of the painted space.
d. Orthogonals are not used.
Answer: a
16. The artist whom Vasari accused of being too obsessed with perspective was
a. Piero della Francesca.
b. Mantegno.
c. Uccello.
d. Masaccio.
e. Brunelleschi.
Answer: c
17. The term paradiso as used in reference to Ghiberti’s doors means
a. the Garden of Eden.
b. the illustration of Dante.
c. the space between a cathedral and its baptistery.
d. the dome of the cathedral.
e. the dome of the baptistery.
Answer: c
18. The medal of John VIII Palaeologus was cast by
a. Alberti.
b. Matteo de’ Pasti.
c. the Byzantine emperor.
d. Pisanello.
Answer: d
19. Which is NOT a new, Renaissance feature of Masaccio’s Holy Trinity?
a. a barrel-vault with coffers
b. architectural forms established by Brunelleschi
c. donors
d. a memento mori
e. one-point perspective
Answer: d
20. Masaccio
a. maintained strict monochrome paintings and avoided contrast in light and dark.
b. used complex, dramatic settings.
c. embellished his scenes with sumptuous drapery.
d. clearly defined his light sources so that shadows were logical and realistic.
Answer: d
21. Masaccio created the barrel vault in the Holy Trinity by using ________ perspective.
a. atmospheric
b. linear
c. intuitive
d. herringbone
Answer: b
22. Which of the following is nearest to the sense of chiaroscuro?
a. gradual shading
b. high contrast of light and dark
c. shadow
d. silhouetting
Answer: a
23. Atmospheric perspective depicts near and far according to
a. diminution in size.
b. increase in size.
c. degrees of clarity.
d. haziness in the sky.
Answer: c
24. Which of the following is a correct match?
a. Masaccio – Famous Men and Women
b. Brunelleschi – one-point perspective
c. Castagno – Holy Trinity
d. Alberti – medal of John VIII Palaeologus
e. Mantegna – Rucellai Palace
Answer: b
25. Which of the following is NOT a correct match?
a. Rimini – Tempio Malatestiano
b. Brancacci Chapel – Florence
c. Sant’Andrea – Mantua
d. Gattamelata – Ravenna
e. Sir John Hawkwood – Florence Cathedral
Answer: d
26. Which is NOT a 15th-century development?
a. illusionism
b. mythological subject matter
c. one-point perspective
d. an increase in literacy
e. stained-glass windows
Answer: e
27. The Camera Picta (or Camera degli Sposi) of the Ducal Palace in Mantua decorated
a. an audience chamber.
b. the chapel.
c. a room for a wedding.
d. the marchesa’s private study.
Answer: a
28. The frescoes of the Camera Picta of the Ducal Palace in Mantua were painted by
a. Fra Filippo Lippi.
b. Andrea Mantegna.
c. Leonardo da Vinci.
d. Sandro Botticelli.
Answer: b
29. In Mantegna’s Parnassus, which god does NOT appear?
a. Apollo
b. Vulcan
c. Mars
d. Juno
e. Venus
Answer: d
30. The artist that refined oil painting with techniques including mixing pigment with linseed oil and using tiny brushes was
a. Jan van Eyck.
b. Paolo Uccello.
c. Gentile da Fabriano.
d. Leonardo da Vinci.
Answer: a
31. ________ was NOT included in Jan van Eyck’s Ghent Altarpiece.
a. The Adoration of the Lamb by All Saints
b. The figure of God/Christ
c. Christ on the cross
d. Adam and Eve
Answer: c
32. St. Luke was the patron saint of
a. artists.
b. book binders.
c. weavers.
d. stonemasons.
Answer: a
33. Hugo van der Goes’s Portinari Altarpiece has
a. rich colors and a somber mood.
b. a confined sense of space.
c. a flat, gold background worked with a pattern punch.
d. dim colors and a somber mood.
Answer: a
34. The Ghent Altarpiece is a
a. diptych.
b. panel.
c. polyptych.
d. triptych.
Answer: c
35. The subject of Man in a Red Turban is believed to be
a. Cosimo de Medici.
b. Jan van Eyck.
c. Philip the Bold.
d. Rogier van der Weyden.
Answer: b
36. The most outstanding examples of the new Flemish style of painting included all of the following EXCEPT
a. Giovanni Bellini.
b. Jan van Eyck.
c. Hans Memling.
d. Rogier van der Weyden.
Answer: a
37. Match the artist with the work.
a. Robert Campin –Ghent Altarpiece
b. Botticelli –Mérode Altarpiece
c. Rogier van der Weyden – St. Luke Depicting the Virgin
d. Ghirlandaio –Portinari Altarpiece
Answer: c
38. Grisaille means
a. imitation sculpture.
b. gesso.
c. foreshortening.
d. contrapposto.
e. oil painting.
Answer: a
39. Which does NOT appear in the Arnolfini Portrait?
a. a dog
b. a mirror
c. sandals
d. fruit
e. a vase of lilies
Answer: e
40. Which does NOT appear in Botticelli’s Birth of Venus?
a. a scallop shell
b. the mother of Venus
c. waves
d. a nymph
e. flowers
Answer: b