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1

Gettyimages 94911839

Monte Albán, estimated to have been built in 500BC, and located in what is now known as the state of Oaxaca in Mexico, was primarily occupied by which pre-Columbian civilization?

The Zapotec civilization

The Aztec civilization

The Olmec civilization

The Inca civilization

The Mayan civilization

Explanation

Monte Albán was the cultural and political center of the Zapotec civilization for over one thousand years. The Zapotec civilization occupied the area now known as Oaxaca in Mexico. It was founded between 500 and 700BC, and later abandoned, over 1,000 years later. Although other Pre-Columbian civilizations discovered and potentially occupied the remains of Monte Albán after its abandonment, no civilization occupied it as their cultural and political center like the Zapotec civilization did.

2

Who was the painter of the odd court painting Las Meninas?

Diego Velazquez

El Greco

Titian

Hans Holbein

Raphael

Explanation

Diego Velazquez was an idiosyncratic painter who became the offical court painter for the Spanish king Philip IV. Velazquez's unique composition style, love of odd subjects, and expressive portrait style found its culmination in Las Meninas, a 1656 painting that shows the daughters of the King with their attendants and the painter in a large room with people coming and going. The painting was so remarkable that Pablo Picasso made a cubist version of it in the twentieth century.

3

What technological discovery (or rediscovery) was necessary for the completion of the dome atop Florence's Il Duomo in 1436?

Concrete

Calculus

Flying Buttresses

Aqueducts

Steel support

Explanation

The rediscovery of concrete was the key to completing the dome atop Il Duomo. Filippo Brunelleschi found the lost recipe for concrete, a recipe that was lost in the Middle Ages; prior to the Middle Ages, concrete was used often by the Ancient Romans.

4

Who was the painter of the odd court painting Las Meninas?

Diego Velazquez

El Greco

Titian

Hans Holbein

Raphael

Explanation

Diego Velazquez was an idiosyncratic painter who became the offical court painter for the Spanish king Philip IV. Velazquez's unique composition style, love of odd subjects, and expressive portrait style found its culmination in Las Meninas, a 1656 painting that shows the daughters of the King with their attendants and the painter in a large room with people coming and going. The painting was so remarkable that Pablo Picasso made a cubist version of it in the twentieth century.

5

Which style emerged in France between 1140 and 1270, dominating the artistic mood of Europe for nearly 400 years? The movement is historically associated with the re-urbanization of Europe and, in its late period, an increasing aesthetic of secularity.

Gothic Architecture

Romanesque Architecture

Byzantine Architecture

The International Style

Explanation

The Gothic style emerged from France, was the longest lasting European architectural movement, and is associated with the rise of the Great cities in Europe. Romanesque and Byzantine architecture are rooted in other regions and were highly religious for the duration of their dominance. The International Style was a very brief phenomenon, and is distinguished by its unique, elongated rendering of the human figure.

6

Michelangelo's David displays this compositional technique, wherein the figure's posture is tense on one side and relaxed on the other because its weight is shifted disproportionately to one foot.

Contrappusto

Figura serpentinata

Formal balance

Interaxial balance

Explanation

"Contrappusto" (meaning counterpose in Italian) is the term used to describe a posture in which the figure's weight is shifted to one foot, causing the shoulders and hips to twist off the body's central axis so they are no longer parallel, as seen in David. It was introduced in Classical Greek art and rediscovered in the Renaissance.

7

The                      was a basilica church that was converted into a mosque in 1453 following the Ottoman invasion of Turkey.

An image of the building is shown below.

File:Hagia Sophia Cathedral.jpg

Hagia Sophia

Sistine Chapel

Blue Mosque of Sultan Ahmet

Crystal Mosque

Wazir Khan Mosque

Explanation

This is an image of Hagia Sophia in Istanbul, Turkey.

It was first a Greek Basilica church under Constantine and converted to a Mosque when the Turks invaded and occupied Istanbul in 1453.

This is the only answer choice that fits the historical context of being converted to a mosque in this region (Istanbul, Turkey/Greece). Though the Blue Mosque is in Istanbul, it was built after the occupation.

Image is in the public domain, accessed through Wikipedia Media Commons: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Hagia\_Sophia\_Cathedral.jpg

8

Semi-circular arches from the first millenneum CE are a common feature of European churches in the style of architecture known as                     .

Romanesque

Gothic

Classical

Byzantine

Explanation

Romanesque churches dominated European architecture from sometime in the mid-to-late first millennium CE until about 1200. Romanesque churches were massive stone edifices that were marked out by having their doors and windows constructed out of simple semi-circular arches. Romanesque architecture was largely supplanted by the much more ornate and imposing Gothic style in the late Middle Ages.

9

What is a tribune?

Upper galleries over the inner aisle for overflow crowds

Designs of Biblical scenes woven into cloth

A series of radiating chapels

Monastery courtyard with covered walkways

Explanation

Tribunes are galleries above the inner aisle that open down into the nave. These housed overflow crowds in Medieval churches, such as San Clemente in Rome.

10

David 1475.jpg large

Who is the subject of this sculpture, a popular figure in Renaissance art?

David

Samson

John the Baptist

Hercules

Moses

Explanation

This is David, also sculpted by artists like Donatello and Michelangelo. The head of Goliath sits at David's feet. John the Baptist was also beheaded, but by Salome, a woman. Hercules and Samson tend to be represented with more muscularity, and Moses is usually an older figure.

Work is in the public domain, accessed through WikiArt: http://www.wikiart.org/en/andrea-del-verrocchio/david-1475

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