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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. How does the painter try to stop himself from painting in Chapter 30?

2. How does Cristoforo react to the plague?

3. Why do Alessandra's servants feel compassion for her when she is pregnant?

4. Where is Cristoforo when Alessandra first feels her labor pains?

5. What does Erila do when she moves into town?

Short Essay Questions

1. Why is the painter arrested?

2. In Chapter 25, why does Alessandra ask her mother about her engagement?

3. How does Alessandra prepare to end her life?

4. What does Alessandra do when she begins to go into labor?

5. How does painting the convent's chapel's fresco affect Alessandra?

6. How does Alessandra's pregnancy change her relationship with the servants?

7. What does Alessandra do before the painter leaves the convent?

8. What does Savonarola do when the plague comes to Florence?

9. How does Savonarola respond to being excommunicated?

10. In Chapter 22, what worries Cristoforo about the current political climate?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Compare Cristoforo to the painter.

Essay Topic 2

How does this novel develop the Italian Renaissance into a character instead of a setting?

Essay Topic 3

Examine the theme of freedom in The Birth of Venus. Consider freedom in relationships, society, politics and the arts.

(see the answer keys)

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