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This test consists of 15 multiple choice questions and 5 short answer questions.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. Leonardo believed that deep observation must be done in what manner?
(a) Quickly.
(b) Improvisationally.
(c) In steps.
(d) In a group.

2. Rather than being a surname of Leonardo's, what does the phrase "da Vinci" indicate?
(a) Leonardo's hailing from the town of Vinci.
(b) Leonardo's illegitimate status.
(c) Leonardo's status as his father's firstborn son.
(d) Leonardo's status as a polymath.

3. In what season of 1452 was Leonardo born?
(a) Winter.
(b) Summer.
(c) Autumn.
(d) Spring.

4. Throughout his life, Leonardo devised how many different formulas for squaring a circular shape?
(a) 212.
(b) 169.
(c) 39.
(d) 64.

5. Which European city had the greatest percentage of literate citizens in 1472?
(a) Florence.
(b) Barcelona.
(c) Berlin.
(d) Milan.

6. What term did Leonardo eventually use to describe the object he hoped would result in human flight due to the device's flapping wings?
(a) Tricheco.
(b) Mosca.
(c) Uccello.
(d) Anatra.

7. Leonardo was known to buy birds from the marketplace and do what with them?
(a) Breed them.
(b) Set them free.
(c) Give them as gifts.
(d) Use them in experiments.

8. What was the name of Leonardo's mother?
(a) Lucrezia.
(b) Antonia.
(c) Piera.
(d) Caterina.

9. While Leonardo often drew and painted full-body male nudes, by contrast, almost all of the women he painted were what?
(a) Hiding their nakedness with their hair.
(b) Clothed and shown from the waist up.
(c) Turned away from the viewer.
(d) Clothed and shown from the waist down.

10. In what year was a great deal of information found and published about the identity of Leonardo's mother?
(a) 2017.
(b) 1773.
(c) 1860.
(d) 1592.

11. Much of Leonardo's thinking regarding birds was gathered into a notebook now known as the Codex on the Flight of Birds. How many folios are present within that notebook?
(a) 6.
(b) 18.
(c) 10.
(d) 3.

12. What was Leonardo's favorite branch of mathematics?
(a) Statistics.
(b) Geometry.
(c) Calculus.
(d) Algebra.

13. What is the term for the technique that uses contrasts of light and shadow in order to achieve the appearance of three dimensions in a two-dimensional work?
(a) Juxtaposition.
(b) Stippling.
(c) Chiaroscuro.
(d) Staccato.

14. How many godparents gave witness to Leonardo's birth?
(a) 20.
(b) 10.
(c) 8.
(d) 6.

15. On what day of the week was Leonardo born?
(a) Friday.
(b) Sunday.
(c) Saturday.
(d) Thursday.

Short Answer Questions

1. Whose death prompted Leonardo's father to bring him to Florence at twelve years old?

2. When Donato Bramante was hired by Ludovico Sforza to remodel the dining hall of the convent of Santa Maria delle Grazie, what painting was Leonardo hired to create on the dining hall's wall?

3. In the late years of what decade did Leonardo begin to devise contraptions that would enable human flight?

4. What book written by Luca Pacioli included 60 illustrations by Leonardo, the only drawings Leonardo ever published in his lifetime?

5. What role did Leonardo inhabit upon his arrival to the court of Ludovico Sforza?

(see the answer keys)

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