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This test consists of 5 multiple choice questions, 5 short answer questions, and 10 short essay questions.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. Walter Isaacson states that Leonardo's Vitruvian Man perfectly symbolizes the ideal of what?
(a) Aesthetic beauty.
(b) Science.
(c) Individuality.
(d) Humanism.

2. In whose honor was the horse monument intended to be created, with a sculpture of his likeness to be placed upon the back of the horse?
(a) Pope Alexander VI.
(b) Ludovico Sforza.
(c) Duke Francesco.
(d) Cesare Borgia.

3. In the late years of what decade did Leonardo begin to devise contraptions that would enable human flight?
(a) 1460s.
(b) 1490s.
(c) 1480s.
(d) 1500s.

4. 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) Staccato.
(d) Chiaroscuro.

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

Short Answer Questions

1. What height did Leonardo plan his horse monument to reach once completed?

2. During the 70 years following the creation of The Officers of the Night in 1432, an average of how many men per year were accused of sodomy?

3. Leonardo's work entitled Codex Madrid I is largely devoted to the design of what?

4. What is the term for the technique Leonardo invented that sought to blend shadows and lights so that no borders or lines were apparent?

5. In what year did Johannes Gutenberg begin selling Bibles created on his newly-invented printing press?

Short Essay Questions

1. Who was Salai and what were some of his character traits?

2. What occasion prompted Leonardo to paint The Last Supper?

3. What was revealed about Leonardo's looks and personality in early works written about his person?

4. Discuss an example of Leonardo's use of analogies that led him to new scientific discoveries.

5. What are the reasons that Renaissance Italy has come to be known as "a golden age for bastards" (9)?

6. In what way did Leonardo's illegitimacy grant him certain freedoms?

7. What was the main source of information used by Walter Isaacson in his writing of Leonardo's biography?

8. How did the books included in Leonardo's personal library inventory in 1492 represent the extreme diversity of his interests?

9. The essayist Benedetto Dei wrote in 1972 that Florence "has all seven of the fundamental things a city requires for perfection" (26). What were the seven things he named?

10. What symbolism did Leonardo see in the reeds he included in his drawing of Pleasure and Pain?

(see the answer keys)

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