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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. How soon after Leonardo's birth did his father Piero marry Albiera, Leonardo's stepmother?
(a) Two years after.
(b) Eight months after.
(c) One week after.
(d) Eight years after.

2. What was different about Leonardo's drawings of machines than those of his contemporaries?
(a) Leonardo's drawings were never shown to anyone.
(b) Leonardo's drawings did not use color.
(c) Leonardo's drawings were done using charcoal.
(d) Leonardo drew all of the different pieces of the machine separately.

3. Lorenzo de' Medici, a great supporter of the arts in Florence, founded and funded Florence's first public what?
(a) Art studio.
(b) Zoo.
(c) Library.
(d) Museum.

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) Chiaroscuro.
(c) Stippling.
(d) Staccato.

5. The squaring of a circle was a concept first discovered and discussed by what great thinker?
(a) Aristotle.
(b) Hippocrates.
(c) Plato.
(d) Archimedes.

Short Answer Questions

1. While Leonardo often drew and painted full-body male nudes, by contrast, almost all of the women he painted were what?

2. 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?

3. Isaacson writes that "No scientist before Leonardo had methodically shown how birds" (183) perform what action?

4. The troops of which French king marched through Italy, putting a halt to Leonardo's creation of the horse monument, since his materials were needed to construct cannon?

5. What kind of organization was the Compagnia di San Luca that Leonardo joined in 1472?

Short Essay Questions

1. What were the main techniques Leonardo adopted from his mentor, Andrea del Verrocchio, that would go on to be featured prominently in all of Leonardo's later works?

2. What does Walter Isaacson say was the main lesson he tried to take from Leonardo's life in order to apply it to his own life?

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

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

5. What plan did Leonardo have for the casting of the horse monument that no one had ever attempted before?

6. What did Leonardo mean when he wrote, "He who has access to the fountain does not go to the water-jar" (176)?

7. When Leonardo joined a competition of architects, what was the assigned task for the contest?

8. Which branch of mathematics interested Leonardo above all others?

9. What information was recently discovered in 2017 about Leonardo's birth mother?

10. What qualities of Leonardo's character are discussed as qualities that would have made him a misfit in any place besides Florence?

(see the answer keys)

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