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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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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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
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.
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.

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