All AP Art History Resources
Example Questions
Example Question #61 : Ancient Through Medieval Sculpture
This statue is missing all but which of the following elements?
Metal jewelry
Paint
Engraved cartouche
Marble arms
Marble plinth
Paint
The Venus de Milo displayed in Paris’s Louvre museum is famously missing its original marble arms and plinth. It’s also missing the polychromatic paint and gold or silver jewelry that would have adorned it. A cartouche, on the other hand, is an oval engraving containing hieroglyphs that spell out a person’s name, and it is specific to the art of ancient Egypt.
Image citation: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e0/Venus_de_Milo_Louvre_Ma399_n2.jpg
Example Question #62 : Ancient Through Medieval Sculpture
The Discobolus of Myron dates to which period?
Hellenistic
Early Classical
Mycenaean
Archaic
Trojan
Early Classical
The Discobolus of Myron, named for the Athenian sculptor Myron, dates to the Early Classical period (also described as the Severe style). The statue was created between 480 and 440 BCE. Like many Early Classical works, it is defined by its simple, un-ornate aesthetic, its use of bronze, and its fairly novel portrayal of human emotion and action. The statue is further distinguished as Early Classical by the sculptor’s desire to depict a person in motion, a human moment frozen in time.
Example Question #63 : Ancient Through Medieval Sculpture
What is this object?
The mask of Homer
The mask of Odysseus
The mask of Tutankhamen
The mask of Agamemnon
The mask of the Sun God Ra
The mask of Agamemnon
This famous mask is named after the legendary ancient Greek King Agamemnon (see Homer’s Iliad and Aeschylus’s Oresteia). While Tutankhamen’s burial mask is similarly resplendent, the Egyptian burial mask was stylistically much different from the ancient Greek. King Tut’s in particular featured a long, cylindrical beard, lapis lazuli, and turquoise in addition to the gold. The other three masks are fictional objects (but denote historical figures).
(Image accessed through Wikipedia Image Commons: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c8/MaskOfAgamemnon.jpg)
Example Question #64 : Ancient Through Medieval Sculpture
This object comes from which ancient Greek civilization?
Severe
Minoan
Mycenaean
Hellenistic
Spartan
Mycenaean
The famous mask of Agamemnon (c. 1500s BCE) was discovered in Mycenae in the 1800s. While early discoverers thought the mask belonged to the Greek King Agamemnon (see Homer’s Iliad and Aeschylus’s Oresteia), later scholarship revealed that the mask actually predated the historical Agamemnon by centuries. The Mycenaean civilization predated the Archaic era and was itself predated by the Minoan civilization.
(Image accessed through Wikipedia Image Commons: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c8/MaskOfAgamemnon.jpg)
Example Question #65 : Ancient Through Medieval Sculpture
This mask would have been used to celebrate what occasion?
Wedding
Coronation
Funeral
Human sacrifice
Baptism
Funeral
Like other ancient Greek masks, the mask of Agamemnon would have been used to cover the face of a ruler during a funeral and interment. It was discovered covering the face of a body in a burial shaft and was accompanied by weapons, jewelry, and other artifacts. Later, in ancient Rome, wax casts and stone would replace gold as the choice for funerary masks and portraiture.
(Image accessed through Wikipedia Image Commons: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c8/MaskOfAgamemnon.jpg)
Example Question #66 : Ancient Through Medieval Sculpture
To what era does the Venus de Medici date?
Minoan
Hellenistic
Pan-Hellenic
Archaic
Severe
Hellenistic
The Venus de Medici (c. 1st century BCE) is a Hellenistic-era sculpture depicting the Greek goddess of love, Aphrodite. It features a dolphin poised at the foot of the standing nude goddess, who looks off into the distance and who is designed to be viewed from all angles (sculpture in the round). Its existence and that of similar female nudes challenged the earlier Greek conception of the male nude as the model of perfect human beauty.
Example Question #67 : Ancient Through Medieval Sculpture
Of what material is the Venus de Medici made?
Wood
Quartz
Brass
Marble
Ebony
Marble
Like many Hellenistic sculptures, the Venus de Medici (c. 1st century BCE) is made of marble. Brass, ebony, wood, and bronze were all far less common materials in ancient Greek sculpture. The dolphin at the goddess’s feet serves as a support for the extremely heavy medium, and other famous statues of Aphrodite have notoriously broken over the years.
Example Question #68 : Ancient Through Medieval Sculpture
What artwork is this?
The Terracotta Army
The Riace Warriors
Alexander the Great
Discobolus of Myron
Laocoön and His Sons
The Riace Warriors
These are the famous Riace Warriors (c 450 BCE). The Terracotta Army is a large group of clay statuary from ancient China, and Alexander the Great is a portrait bust. The Discobolus of Myron is statue of a single discus thrower, while Laocoön and His Sons features a man intertwined in battle with snakes and his two sons.
(Image taken from the public domain: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/96/Reggio_calabria_museo_nazionale_bronzi_di_riace.jpg)
Example Question #69 : Ancient Through Medieval Sculpture
Of what material are these statues made?
Ivory
Marble
Bronze
Teak
Proto-cement
Bronze
The Riace Warriors, also known as the Riace bronzes, are a pair of life-size nude male warrior statues. They were discovered in the sea in the 1970s, and, while they are primarily made of bronze, they also feature details in other materials: copper lips and ivory eyes, for example. Teak, ivory, and cement were not otherwise common materials for large statues in ancient Greece.
(Image taken from the public domain: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/96/Reggio_calabria_museo_nazionale_bronzi_di_riace.jpg)
Example Question #70 : Ancient Through Medieval Sculpture
To what era do these statues date?
Hellenistic
Severe
Idealized
Minoan
Late Classical
Severe
The Riace Warriors are an excellent example of Early Classical sculpture. Their use of contrapposto and their slightly idealized forms distinguish them from earlier Archaic work, as do their elaborately worked beards and hair. Their makers are unknown, and the statues are thought to have been buried underwater after a shipwreck of uncertain date.
(Image taken from the public domain: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/96/Reggio_calabria_museo_nazionale_bronzi_di_riace.jpg)