View a FREE sample

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

Short Answer Questions

1. After meeting the monk in Chapter 40, what does Alessandra think of the monk?

2. Why does Alessandra assume the painter is the father of her child?

3. What does Erila do when she wakes Alessandra in Chapter 43?

4. In Chapter 30, how does the painter say he learned about the human form?

5. Why does Alessandra say the painter suffers from boils?

Short Essay Questions

1. How does Savonarola respond to being excommunicated?

2. How does Alessandra grow closer to the painter when he stays with her and Cristoforo?

3. What does Alessandra do after learning Cristoforo has faked his death?

4. Why is the painter arrested?

5. What is Alessandra's life like when the painter is at the convent?

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

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

8. Why does the painter come to visit Alessandra in Chapter 21?

9. What happens to the painter after he is released from jail in Chapter 42?

10. What happens when Alessandra visits the chapel before the dedication?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

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

Essay Topic 2

Compare Cristoforo to the painter.

Essay Topic 3

What is the author's commentary on the power of loss? How does she make loss into a motif?

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 645 words (approx. 3 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample