Chapter 12—The Fifteenth Century

MULTIPLE CHOICE (2 points each)

1. Which city was the most important center of the early Italian Renaissance?

a. / Venice
b. / Naples
c. / Florence
d. / Rome

2. What was most revolutionary about Masaccio's painting?

a. / Its two-dimensionality
b. / Its expressive force and realism
c. / Its juxtaposition of "warm" and "cool" colors
d. / Its mastery of the oil-on-wood medium

3. Who were the two most famous competitors in the 1401 competition for the decoration of the doors of the Florence Baptistery?

a. / Brunelleschi and Ghiberti
b. / Michelangelo and Leonardo
c. / Donatello and Masaccio
d. / Botticelli and Mirandola

4. What name did Michelangelo give to East Doors of the Florence Baptistery?

a. / The Archway of Angels
b. / The Portal of Bliss
c. / The Blessed Doorway
d. / The Gates of Paradise

5. What was Brunelleschi's contribution to Florence Cathedral?

a. / He painted the interior frescoes.
b. / He designed the dome.
c. / He designed the transept.
d. / He created the artwork for the nave.

6. What was the primary source of the Medici family's wealth?

a. / shipping
b. / banking
c. / wool trade
d. / agriculture

7. Who was the greatest Florentine sculptor of the first half of the 1400s?

a. / Donatello
b. / Michelangelo
c. / Masaccio
d. / Botticelli

8. What was the subject of Donatello's most famous near-life size sculpture?

a. / Adam
b. / Moses
c. / Abraham
d. / David

9. What was innovative about Donatello's portrayal of David?

a. / He portrayed the character as an old king.
b. / He used a completely new artistic medium.
c. / He combined a classical form with a Christian subject.
d. / He showed the figure with an element of tension in his expression.

10. What Florentine banker founded an academy for the study of Plato?

a. / Cosimo de Medici
b. / Lorenzo de' Medici
c. / Piero de'Medici
d. / Savonarola

11. What is the message of The Song of Bacchus?

a. / Always proceed with an eye toward the future.
b. / Don't underestimate the power of music.
c. / Enjoy the present moment.
d. / Respect your elders.

12. What famous painting of Sandro Botticelli celebrates the spring?

a. / The Birth of Venus
b. / Madonna of the Rocks
c. / La Primavera
d. / Giovanni Arnolfini and his Bride

13. Which of the following was NOT designed by Brunelleschi?

a. / The dome of Florence Cathedral
b. / Palazzo Rucellai
c. / The loggia of Ospedale degli Innocenti
d. / Pazzi Chapel

14. Which composer was one of Dufay's most prominent pupils?

a. / Fra Savonarola
b. / Lorenzo de' Medici
c. / Guillaume de Machaut
d. / Johannes Ockeghem

15. Which artist wrote the first theoretical treatise about creating perspective in art?

a. / Piero della Francesca
b. / Paolo Uccello
c. / Fra Angelico
d. / Masaccio

16. Which Dominican monk preached against Florentine art and culture?

a. / Pico della Mirandola
b. / Piero de' Medici
c. / Fra Savonarola
d. / Giorgio Vasari

17. What two earlier "renaissances" were there in the 800s and 1100s?

a. / Ninth-century Venice and the Byzantine Renaissance
b. / Twelfth-century Paris and the Carolingian Renaissance
c. / The eleventh-century Spanish and Netherlandish Renaissances
d. / The Roman and Sicilian Renaissances of the eleventh century

18. What were seen as the advantages of humanist education and learning?

a. / It would perfect and ennoble man.
b. / It would provide entertainment.
c. / It would satisfy humanity's basest desires.
d. / It would leave to a life of solitary religious devotion.

19. What did Pico della Mirandola write?

a. / Oration of the Dignity of Man
b. / The Praise of Folly
c. / Civilization of the Renaissance in Italy
d. / The Prince

20. Who invented printing with movable type?

a. / Girolamo Savonarola
b. / Johannes Gutenburg
c. / Aldus Manutius
d. / Leonardo da Vinci

21. In the 1500s, who was the most important Christian humanist in Europe?

a. / Aldus Manutius
b. / Niccolò Machiavelli
c. / Desiderius Erasmus
d. / Giorgio Vasari

22. What is the subject of The Praise of Folly?

a. / A celebration of the comedic arts
b. / A satirical criticism of society
c. / A call to live for the moment
d. / An account of a traveling actors' troupe

23. Who was the most famous composer of the fifteenth century?

a. / Guillaume de Machaut
b. / Guillaume Dufay
c. / Cosimo de' Medici
d. / Marsilio Ficino

24. What two innovations were made to European music during this period?

a. / The perfection of organ-playing and the elaboration of Gregorian Chant
b. / The development of musical notation and the invention of the harpsichord
c. / The invention of the trombone and trumpet
d. / The secularization of the motet and the use of folk tunes

25. What is the frottola?

a. / A Venetian secular ode to court life
b. / A Florentine amusing or romantic song
c. / A Roman religious hymn
d. / A Sienese devotional poem

SHORT ANSWER (6 points each)

1. According to Jacob Burckhardt's The Civilization of the Renaissance in Italy (1860), how did the values and beliefs of the Renaissance differ from those of the Middle Ages?

2. Do you think Donatello's David emphasizes physical beauty or religious truth? Explain.

3. How was Botticelli's Birth of Venus influenced by Platonic idealism as well as the Christian view of the Virgin Mary?

4. Which book of Machiavelli is often considered the first purely secular study of political theory? According to Machiavelli, what was the role of morality in the exercise of power? What justification did he offer for the use of cruelty or hypocrisy?

5. From what class did most women who received a humanistic education come? What pressures did women scholars confront? Who in the text exemplifies the pressures women faced?

KEY TERMS (2 points)

1. ______Humorous or amorous poem set to music

2. ______The period named after Lorenzo de' Medici's accomplishments

3. ______Four-lobed frame used in the Baptistery competition

4. ______Artistic style of Fabriano's paintings

5. ______Renaissance system of learning and reform

6. ______Lines that converge on a single point in a painting

7. ______Collection of ancient Jewish learning

8. ______Books that included psalms and passages to be recited at certain times during the day

9. ______Famous book by Machiavelli

10. ______Flemish painter of Giovanni and His Wife