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This test consists of 5 short answer questions, 10 short essay questions, and 1 (of 3) essay topics.

Short Answer Questions

1. The fashions worn by the subject of Lady with an Ermine became fashionable in Milan in 1489 when Gian Galeazzo Sforza was married to whom?

2. The four universal conditions of men, according to Leonardo, were mirth, weeping, fighting, and what?

3. In 1489, the portrait subject of Lady with an Ermine was 15 years old and lived not with her family, but with whom?

4. Leonardo's work Madonna of the Yarnwinder was completed at the request of which courtier within the court of Louis XII?

5. Around the time Leonardo began his most famous lost painting, he also undertook what life change?

Short Essay Questions

1. When Leonardo moved to Milan in 1482, what did he discover about the study of anatomy in that location?

2. What novel idea did Leonardo come up with for protecting a port, an idea which he never brought to fruition?

3. While Leonardo came to the court of Ludovico Sforza hoping to work primarily as a military and civil engineer, what was the nature of most of the work he completed in the decade he was in service to Ludovico Sforza?

4. What was the event known as the Bonfire of the Vanities?

5. On whom was the painting Lady with an Ermine based?

6. What are the two possibilities concerning the angel's identity within the painting Virgin of the Rocks?

7. How does Walter Isaacson link the qualities of genius and the qualities of obsession within the chapter about Leonardo's first round of anatomy studies?

8. Though Leonardo had completed the central part of his painting Saint Anne by 1503, he did not give it to the party who had commissioned it. What did he do with it instead?

9. How did Leonardo use his knowledge of geology to inform his painting of Virgin of the Rocks?

10. What reason did Leonardo write in his notebook for his decision not to publicize his findings about how to remain underwater for a long time?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Examine Walter Isaacson's use of characterization methods to portray his biography subject, Leonardo. What effect do these characterization methods have on the book's inherent themes and messages?

Essay Topic 2

Discuss the significance of the coda that is placed by the author just after the body of the narrative ends. How do its themes connect to the overall themes within the biography?

Essay Topic 3

Examine how Walter Isaacson's book Leonardo da Vinci invites the readers to learn particular lessons from Leonardo and to apply those lessons to their own lives. How does he accomplish this goal and how does this goal relate to the overarching themes of the text?

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