Home

Tutoring

Subjects

Live Classes

Study Coach

Essay Review

On-Demand Courses

Colleges

Games

Opening subject page...

Loading your content

AP Art History

AP Art History Practice Test: Practice Test 2

Practice Test 2 for AP Art History: real questions and explanations from the Varsity Tutors practice-test pool.

0%

0 / 25 answered

Question 1 of 25

File:The Nightwatch by Rembrandt.jpg 523px-j.vermeer-el_astr_nomo__museo_del_louvre__1688

Figure 3 Figure 4

The painting shown in Figure 4 portrays a(n)  .

Question Navigator

All questions

Question 1

File:The Nightwatch by Rembrandt.jpg 523px-j.vermeer-el_astr_nomo__museo_del_louvre__1688

Figure 3 Figure 4

The painting shown in Figure 4 portrays a(n)  .

  1. astronomer (correct answer)
  2. geologist
  3. priest
  4. king

Explanation: Johannes Vermeer did title his painting The Astronomer, but the painting also gives many clues as to the nature of the individual's profession. The placement of the man working in a study with tools indicates he was some kind of scholar, and not a notable figure in his society. The use of a globe, and his looking out a window, indicate his interest in astronomy, which in the seventeenth century utilized "celestial globes" portraying stars. Figure 3: The Night Watch by Rembrandt van Rijn (1642) Figure 4: The Astronomer by Johannes Vermeer (1668)

Question 2

Which one of the following cannot be found in the Palette of King Narmer?

  1. Atmospheric perspective (correct answer)
  2. Hieratic scale
  3. Hieroglyphic inscription
  4. Animal symbolism
  5. Composite pose

Explanation: Hieratic scale is demonstrated by Narmer's overwhelming stature in comparison to the figures around him. Phonetic hieroglyphs at the center top of each side identify the name of the king. The bull symbolizes the power of the king. Many figures are portrayed in the composite pose: heads and legs are shown in profile while eyes and torsos are rendered frontally.

Question 3

A key difference between churches built after the Protestant Reformation and those before the Protestant Reformation in Protestant areas is that  .

  1. there is less statuary and religious imagery (correct answer)
  2. the architectural details are more ornate
  3. the altar becomes a more central part of the church structure
  4. there is more division between the spaces for clergy and spaces for congregants

Explanation: Protestant theology greatly changed church architecture in Northern Europe after the sixteenth century. Catholic churches, even for the tiniest, poorest parishes, featured ornate statuary and imagery before the Reformation. The Protestant-built churches, by contrast, were much less ornate, featuring fewer images, with altars creating less of a barrier between clergy and congregants.

Question 4

Psyche Revived by Love's Kiss, sculpted by Antonio Canova in 1787, is an example of what style of sculpture?

  1. Neoclassical sculpture (correct answer)
  2. Baroque sculpture
  3. Byzantine sculpture
  4. Rococo sculpture
  5. Art Deco sculpture

Explanation: At first glance, Psyche Revived By Love's Kiss resembles an Ancient Greek sculpture from the Hellenistic period. Given that this sculpture was completed in 1787 - firmly in the 18th century, we must concede that it is neither Ancient Greek nor Ancient Roman. This sculpture is, in fact, an example of Neoclassical sculpture. Neoclassicism as an artistic style was inspired by Ancient Greek and Ancient Roman art and architecture. This style of sculpture is still being produced today.

Question 5

In Yoruba art, the most important body part portrayed in statuary is the  .

  1. head (correct answer)
  2. hand
  3. arm
  4. heart

Explanation: The Yoruba culture of Southern Africa is one of the key artistic hubs of the region, and produces remarkable works in sculpture, jewelry, and masks. One chief feature is the usual focus on the head, which the Yoruba traditionally believe is the home of the entirety of the person. This belief is best reflected in Yoruba busts, which do not even feature necks or shoulders, only the head itself.

Question 6

Which of the following churches is NOT an example of Gothic architecture?

  1. Hagia Sophia (correct answer)
  2. Westminster Abbey
  3. Rouen Cathedral
  4. Notre Dame Cathedral
  5. Lincoln Cathedral

Explanation: Beginning in the twelfth century in Europe, Gothic architecture dominated the building of churches across the continent, with its massive facades, extreme buliding heights, and ornate stone work. This style was used both in new churches like Rouen Cathedral and Lincoln Cathedral, and also in the rebuilding and renovation of structures, as with both Westminster Abbey and Notre Dame Cathedral. This was not the only church style, however, as the Greek churches developed their own massive church architectural style, exemplified by the Hagia Sofia in Constantinople (present day Istanbul).

Question 7

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

  1. Romanesque (correct answer)
  2. Gothic
  3. Classical
  4. 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.

Question 8

The most well known type of Olmec art is  .

  1. colossal basalt sculptures that only depict the head of their subjects (correct answer)
  2. large-scale fresco murals depicting massive battle scenes
  3. intricate silver jewelry fashioned in complex shapes with gemstones
  4. bas-relief sculptures illustrating the ritualistic Mesoamerican ballgame

Explanation: The Olmec civilization dominated what is now Southern Mexico from roughly 1500 BCE to 400 BCE, laying the groundwork for the later civilizations of the Maya and Aztec. The most familiar and most impressive part of their civilization that has survived are basalt sculptures of heads that weigh between 6 and 50 tons, and which took extraordinary coordination to have the stones moved and sculpted into their proper forms.

Question 9

300px-ingo_jones_plan_for_a_new_palace_at_whitehall_1638

This design plan is highly representative of the style known as  .

  1. Neoclassicism (correct answer)
  2. Rococo
  3. Baroque
  4. Gothic

Explanation: Inigo Jones, who drafted this plan for a new Palace at Whitehall, was the first notable English architect, working in the seventeenth century. His greatest contribution to English architecture was to bring Italian ideals of neoclassicism to the British Isles. Neoclassicism's use of perfect symmetry and Greco-Roman aesthetics was a sharp departure from the overly wrought palaces and red brick houses of Tudor England. Image: Plan for A New Palace at Whitehall by Inigo Jones (1638). http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Ingo_Jones_plan_for_a_new_palace_at_Whitehall_1638.jpg

Question 10

African buildings from the eleventh to fifteenth centuries carved from one large stone would most likely be  .

  1. Ethiopian Orthodox churches (correct answer)
  2. Egyptian mosques
  3. Somali palaces
  4. Kenyan temples

Explanation: A peculiarity of Ethiopian architecture has been building entire churches from single blocks of stone from about the twelfth century onwards. This was a common practice for statues and monuments, but Ethiopian Orthodox leaders wanted to enhance the splendor and majesty of certain churches by doing this with buildings. The most famous of these are in Labilela, in Northern Ethiopia, which has been designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site for its rock-hewn churches.

Question 11

The Renaissance painting style of Mannerism was defined by all of the following EXCEPT  .

  1. naturalism in movement (correct answer)
  2. strict compositional forms
  3. highly intellectual approach to art
  4. artificial constructions and poses

Explanation: Mannerism was essentially the second wave of Renaissance painting, being most prevalent in the second half of the sixteenth century. Mannerism took many of the Renaissance values of clarity and formal achievement and pushed them even further. In the works of artists such as Tintoretto, El Greco, and Giambologna created highly stylized, formal works that were paragons of mannerism.

Question 12

Ornate calligraphy and designs featuring words and letters are stylistic features of art from  .

  1. Islamic culture (correct answer)
  2. Russian culture
  3. Sub-Saharan African culture
  4. Native American culture

Explanation: In the Quran, images of all kinds are proscribed, as they are too close to idolatry and attempting to act like God. As such, many Islamic artists focused on geometric shapes and calligraphy in their art. Over time, Islamic art began to be highly ornate and developed around these non-representational images.

Question 13

The particular innovation that allowed large-scale skyscrapers to be built was  .

  1. steel-frame construction (correct answer)
  2. balloon frame construction
  3. latticework
  4. wrought iron

Explanation: Until the late nineteenth century, buildings had serious vertical size restrictions due to the weight placed on them by bricks and other traditional materials. With the introduction of steel, an alloy of iron, new possibilities were available to builders. In particular, the use of steel-frame construction, which built a "sheet" around steel beams, allowed for buildings stretching taller than ten stories.

Question 14

The Arc de Triomphe in Paris monumentalizes French soldiers by referencing  .

  1. Roman triumphal monuments (correct answer)
  2. Greek temples
  3. Medieval cathedrals
  4. Egyptian statuary

Explanation: L'Arc de Triomphe, in English the Triumph Arch, was begun in 1806 during Napoleon Bonaparte's rule to recognize the sacrifice of French soldiers during the Revolutionary Wars. Through a series of governmental changes, the project went on under the supervision of many architects, all of whom kept the general theme of a Roman triumphal arch for the project. Completed in the 1830s, the Arc remains one of the key symbols of Paris, commemorating French heroism in different ways.

Question 15

The artistic device in which an object in a painting is made to look like an object on the painting is known as  .

  1. trompe l'oeil (correct answer)
  2. perspective
  3. marbleizing
  4. photorealism

Explanation: French for "deceive the eye," trompe l'oeil is the painting technique where the artist makes an image that appears three dimensional and outside the painting. The concept goes back to Roman art, where walls in houses would have fake windows of iterms painted on, but was first defined in the Baroque era. The technique can be used to either enhance the dimensionality of a painting, or as a kind of artistic joke, featuring a "mistaken" element.

Question 16

What is this object?

Maskofagamemnon

  1. The mask of Agamemnon (correct answer)
  2. The mask of Tutankhamen
  3. The mask of the Sun God Ra
  4. The mask of Homer
  5. The mask of Odysseus

Explanation: 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)

Question 17

Which one of the following cannot be found in the Palette of King Narmer?

  1. Atmospheric perspective (correct answer)
  2. Hieratic scale
  3. Hieroglyphic inscription
  4. Animal symbolism
  5. Composite pose

Explanation: Hieratic scale is demonstrated by Narmer's overwhelming stature in comparison to the figures around him. Phonetic hieroglyphs at the center top of each side identify the name of the king. The bull symbolizes the power of the king. Many figures are portrayed in the composite pose: heads and legs are shown in profile while eyes and torsos are rendered frontally.

Question 18

The Roman building the Pantheon features columns in the style called  .

  1. Corinthian (correct answer)
  2. Ionic
  3. Doric
  4. Composite

Explanation: Ancient Greek and Roman architecture can be broken down into three main chronological groupings, from oldest to youngest: the Doric, the Ionic, and the Corinthian. As a building of the Roman Empire, the Pantheon, built between 27 BCE and 126 CE, is emblematic of the Corinthian order, especially its ornate columns lining its portico.

Question 19

The Roman building the Pantheon features columns in the style called  .

  1. Corinthian (correct answer)
  2. Ionic
  3. Doric
  4. Composite

Explanation: Ancient Greek and Roman architecture can be broken down into three main chronological groupings, from oldest to youngest: the Doric, the Ionic, and the Corinthian. As a building of the Roman Empire, the Pantheon, built between 27 BCE and 126 CE, is emblematic of the Corinthian order, especially its ornate columns lining its portico.

Question 20

Le Corbusier's Five Points of Architecture are best captured in the building  .

  1. Villa Savoye (correct answer)
  2. Fallingwater
  3. Farnsworth House
  4. Monticello

Explanation: Le Corbusier was both a practicing architect and an architectural theorist. These two identities were best joined in his design and construction of Villa Savoye outside of Paris. The building intentionally and forcefully followed Le Corbusier's manifesto Five Points of Architecture. The five points Villa Savoye followed were having pilotis that lifted the building off the ground, a functional roof that could be used as a garden, a free floor plan without load bearing walls allowing interior openness, large windows that provided vast amounts of natural light, and freely designed facades that acted merely as a skin on the outside of the building.

Question 21

Jacques-louis-david-napoleon-crossing-the-alps4 Sir_arthur_wellesley__1st_duke_of_wellington

Figure 3 Figure 4

Compared to the figure portrayed in the painting in Figure 4, the figure portrayed in the painting in Figure 3 is  .

  1. more energetic (correct answer)
  2. calmer
  3. more confused
  4. underwhelming

Explanation: Jacques-Louis David's portrait of Napoleon Crossing the Alps makes the Frenchman an energetic figure, in motion and ready to lead his troops into battle. David is able to portray the French emperor as the trans-historical and trans-national warrior. By contrast, Sir Thomas Lawrence's portrait of the Duke of Wellington presents a serene figure, but no less serious in his purpose as a general. Figure 3: Napoleon Crossing the Alps by Jaques-Louis David (1801) Figure 4: Portrait of Sir Arthur Wellesley, First Duke of Wellington by Sir Thomas Lawrence (1814)

Question 22

Dega bronze sculptures 01102010 natartgallery sofia 09

The exhibition which first featured this sculpture was considered scandalous because  .

  1. the subjects were depicted in quotidian poses, and some of the sculptures used non-traditional mediums (correct answer)
  2. nudes were presented in erotic poses
  3. more famous sculptors were excluded from the exhibition
  4. the inclusion of African masks

Explanation: In 1881 the use of quotidian poses was regarded as appropriate for an artist to do as a study in his studio, but not to present to the public. The use of mixed media in his sculpture The Little Fourteen Year Old dance was also a novelty. Work is in the public domain, accessed through Wikipedia Media Commons: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Sculptures_by_Edgar_Degas#/media/File:Dega_Bronze_Sculptures_01102010_NatArtGallery_Sofia_09.jpg

Question 23

Of the following choices, which is a recognizable aspect of Romanesque architecture?

  1. Rounded arches (correct answer)
  2. Ribbed vaults
  3. Flying buttresses
  4. Stained glass windows

Explanation: Rounded arches are perhaps the most recognizable feature of Romanesque architecture-not only because they are recognizably "Roman-like" and are similar to the rounded architectural forms found on classical Roman ruins, but also because they stand in stark contrast to the pointed arches of Gothic architecture.

Question 24

The monumental postimpressionist sculpture The Thinker was created by  .

  1. Auguste Rodin (correct answer)
  2. Jean-Antoine Houdon
  3. Pablo Picasso
  4. Jean-Antoine Injalbert

Explanation: The Thinker, portraying a nude man hunched over with his head on his fist deep in thought, is one of the most widely recognized pieces of art in the world. Created by Auguste Rodin in 1880, it was first widely cast in bronze in 1904, and was immediately desired thanks to its rough hewn texture, vivid portrayal of a man, and the emotion it displays. Thanks to being a bronze cast, there are about twenty-eight versions of the sculpture in existence around the world.

Question 25

In a triptych painting, the piece of art is composed of  .

  1. three separate but related panels (correct answer)
  2. two separate, unrelated panels
  3. a giant painting covering an entire wall
  4. many small pieces put together to form a larger whole

Explanation: The triptych was the most common form of altarpieces in Medieval art, usually being painted by the era's masters. A triptych features three separate panels that can fold up, all on some related theme. Usually, these would feature Jesus Christ in some form, as well as saints, angels, prophets, and even sometimes kings.