Deck 12: Innovation and Exploration 1453-1533

Question 1

Raphael's School of Athens is of interest in part because:

A) many of Raphael's contemporaries are used as models for the various philosophers.
B) it is the first painting to make use of the newly discovered technique of single-point perspective.
C) it was the first painting to be completed in Italy using the new medium of oil.
D) it was the last painting of the Italian Renaissance done using the fresco technique.
E) Raphael utilized many of his apprentices to complete the work rather than work on it directly.

Answer 1

many of Raphael's contemporaries are used as models for the various philosophers.

Question 2

Machiavelli admired Cesare Borgia for his:

A) civic-mindedness and sense of duty.
B) military achievements and humility.
C) Christian morality tempered with a willingness to avenge wrongs.
D) levity and immorality.
E) ruthlessness and shrewdness.

Answer 2

ruthlessness and shrewdness.

Question 3

Castiglione's description of the "Renaissance man" as accomplished,witty,cultured,and stylish was:

A) a rejection of the older Renaissance ideal of education in the classics for the purpose of creating virtuous citizens.
B) an acceptance of the older Renaissance ideal of education in the classics for the purpose of creating virtuous citizens.
C) impossible to achieve.
D) believed to apply to all individuals regardless of class.
E) made the basis for curriculum reforms in Italian lay schools.

Answer 3

a rejection of the older Renaissance ideal of education in the classics for the purpose of creating virtuous citizens.

Question 4

According to Machiavelli,the ideal form of government was a(n):

A) republic modeled on the Roman example.
B) oligarchy modeled on Venice.
C) monarchy modeled on France.
D) principality, the model of which he sketched in The Prince.
E) republic modeled on Plato's Republic.

Question 5

The retelling of the Song of Roland in fifteenth-century Italy differed from the original by its:

A) setting, which was changed to Italy from Spain.
B) lack of any suggestion of heroic idealism.
C) language: the original was in vernacular French and the retelling in Latin.
D) ending, which had Roland surviving to be rewarded for his heroism by Charlemagne.
E) use of irony to stress the heroic idealism of Roland.

Question 6

Renaissance scholars of Plato sought to combine classical Platonic thought with:

A) vigorous diplomatic training and public service.
B) Islamic mysticism, theology, and ritual.
C) ancient mysticism and mainstream Christianity.
D) a rejection of the Jewish Kabbalah.
E) the precepts of the Jewish Kabbalah.

Question 7

Leonardo da Vinci's paintings sometimes display a keen understanding of human psychology by presenting their subjects as:

A) always having balanced, controlled emotions.
B) experiencing multiple emotions at the same time.
C) always experiencing only a single emotion.
D) emotionless.
E) excessively emotional.

Question 8

Marsilio Ficino taught that human beings are capable of attaining their own salvation:

A) by understanding the separation of their souls from their bodies.
B) through a complete rejection of this world and constant prayer and solitude.
C) by engaging fully in ethical civic action.
D) through participating in all the sacraments.
E) by exercising their own talents to the fullest degree possible.

Question 9

Leonardo da Vinci's basic approach to painting was to:

A) produce as much saleable artwork as possible for his patrons.
B) emphasize the emotional content by distorting proportion and scale.
C) depict one central mood or emotion in each piece.
D) imitate nature as closely as possible.
E) relate his impression of his subject rather than simply duplicating it.

Question 10

The invention of the printing press in Europe increased the volume and rapidity of communication,thereby:

A) increasing the cost of books.
B) encouraging greater levels of censorship.
C) making it more difficult to censor problematic or dissenting opinions.
D) making books even more precious than they had been in the Middle Ages.
E) creating the circumstances for the invention of broadsheets in the fifteenth century.

Question 11

Although Leonardo da Vinci was born in Florence,he ended his career in:

A) Germany, where the Holy Roman Emperor was his patron.
B) Milan, where the Sforza duke was his patron.
C) Rome, where the pope was his patron.
D) Naples, where the king of Spain was his patron.
E) France, under the patronage of the French king.

Question 12

Machiavelli advocated for tyrants like Cesare Borgia to take control of Italy because:

A) he believed dictatorships were the only legitimate form of government.
B) his patron was such a tyrant.
C) he believed most Italian people were too poorly educated to participate in government and so a true republic was impossible.
D) he believed that sixteenth-century Italy was so chaotic that it needed strong dictators to lead it into a more settled state favorable to self-governance.
E) the Roman Republican model that informed his political theory had been ruled by a series of dictators.

Question 13

The great painters of Florence improved upon techniques developed by:

A) Albrecht Dürer.
B) Hans Holbein the Younger.
C) Masaccio.
D) Bernardino Lanino.
E) Lorenzo Sabatini.

Question 14

Plato's works were translated from Greek into Latin by:

A) Giovanni Pico della Mirandola.
B) Niccolò Machiavelli.
C) Petrarch.
D) Lorenzo Valla.
E) Marsilio Ficino.

Question 15

In the fifteenth century,the majority of the great painters were from:

A) Venice.
B) Rome.
C) Pisa.
D) Florence.
E) Naples.

Question 16

Although Venetian artists copied techniques used in Florence,Venetian paintings differed from those produced in Florence because they:

A) did not generally include philosophical or religious allegories.
B) did not use vanishing point perspective.
C) included political content in their art.
D) were not sponsored by individual patrons.
E) were only religious in nature.

Question 17

Italian painters of the fifteenth century mastered:

A) the use of acrylic paints.
B) the art of manuscript illumination.
C) pointillism.
D) the use of vanishing perspective to depict three dimensions.
E) the ability to create stained-glass effects using paint on canvas.

Question 18

In contrast to the civic humanists,Castiglione's Courtier stressed as the hallmark of true nobility:

A) strenuous public service on behalf of the city-state.
B) an ideal of effortlessness and elegance at court.
C) the necessity for a courtier to be an accomplished scholar.
D) being as widely read in the classics as possible.
E) the ability to take as lovers as many of the women at court as possible.

Question 19

Italian artists of the Renaissance experimented with all of the following techniques EXCEPT:

A) vanishing point perspective.
B) the effects of light and shade.
C) realistic portrayals of the human body.
D) portraiture.
E) brass rubbing.

Question 20

The printing press was a tool of European monarchs because:

A) it enabled the establishment of printed money.
B) it enabled the widespread circulation of propaganda.
C) a king's license was necessary to own a printing press.
D) books were heavily taxed.
E) kings were able to choose which books would be printed and which would not.

Question 21

The last Muslim territory to fall in Spain was:

A) Toledo in 1085.
B) Murica in 1243.
C) Seville in 1248.
D) Faro in 1249.
E) Granada in 1492.

Question 22

As a textual scholar,Erasmus's crowning achievement was his:

A) edition of the New Testament in Greek and in Latin.
B) edition and translation of Plato's dialogues.
C) Colloquies.
D) commentary on the works of Cicero.
E) commentary on Utopia.

Question 23

The most important factor in the rise of Spain as a major European power was the:

A) exile of the Jews from Spain.
B) end of the Hundred Years' War.
C) unification of the kingdoms of Aragon and Castile.
D) defeat and annexation of Muslim Granada.
E) construction of the Great Armada to subjugate the other European powers.

Question 24

After the end of the Hundred Years' War,the French king Charles VIII attempted to expand his territory even further by invading _________ in 1494.

A) The Holy Roman Empire
B) Northern Italy
C) The kingdom of Aragon
D) The kingdom of Navarre
E) Holland

Question 25

Renaissance architecture emphasized the importance of:

A) rotundas.
B) geometrical proportions.
C) vaulted arches.
D) large, impressive buildings.
E) buildings with large windows.

Question 26

For Michelangelo,the central feature of Renaissance humanism was:

A) classical learning.
B) the ethics and virtues taught by Plato.
C) the drive to understand the place of a disembodied soul.
D) a practical, secular education.
E) the drive to understand an embodied, masculine mind.

Question 27

All of the following are reasons why the ideals of the Italian Renaissance were slow to impact northern Europe EXCEPT that:

A) the curricula of northern universities left little room for study of the classics.
B) education in the north was more religiously oriented compared to the more secular education common in the south.
C) few people traveled between Italy and northern Europe before the turn of the sixteenth century.
D) rulers in the north were less committed to patronizing artists and intellectuals than were the rulers of the Italian city-states.
E) most individuals who were influenced by Renaissance thought before the sixteenth century were not public intellectuals or teachers but worked outside the university system under private patronage.

Question 28

Erasmus wrote works of all the following types EXCEPT:

A) humorous satires and dialogues.
B) Christian moral treatises.
C) letters to friends and contemporaries.
D) treatises of scholastic theology.
E) a Greek New Testament.

Question 29

One important difference between the Italian Renaissance and the Northern Renaissance that followed was the northern:

A) reluctance to compose classical Latin prose in the style of Cicero.
B) appreciation for scholasticism and its central texts.
C) rejection of the church fathers as religious authorities.
D) interest in traditional Christian wisdom over classical virtues.
E) rejection of classicism in their approach to art.

Question 30

In their voyages along the west coast of Africa,the Portuguese were initially in search of:

A) slaves and copper.
B) a sea route to India.
C) spices and gold.
D) gold and slaves.
E) silver and diamonds.

Question 31

Ferdinand and Isabella's decision to sponsor Columbus's voyage was spurred by:

A) Columbus's impassioned plea for a patron made to the royal court.
B) a desire to counter successful Portuguese exploratory and commercial ventures.
C) a desire to counter successful English exploratory and commercial ventures.
D) a belief that Columbus could prove the world was round.
E) a belief that there was unknown territory to be discovered across the Atlantic.

Question 32

After the Council of Constance,the papacy entered into a series of agreements with national monarchies called concordats.The result of these concordats was:

A) a centralization of religious authority in the papacy.
B) the increasing wealth of the papacy.
C) the monarchs' promise not to interfere with the election of bishops.
D) the granting of extensive authority to monarchs over the churches in their domain.
E) the promise that monarchs would have the right to tax church lands.

Question 33

The ars nova introduced _________ lyrics and music into the liturgy of the Mass during the Renaissance.

A) French
B) Italian
C) Polyphonic
D) Monophonic
E) Homophonic

Question 34

The reputation of the papacy in the Renaissance suffered,in part,because:

A) popes engaged in unseemly contests of power with other Italian rulers.
B) popes in this period often withdrew from their position to join monasteries.
C) the wealth the church had possessed in the Middle Ages declined rapidly.
D) the papacy refused to allow Christian scholars to read classical texts.
E) the papacy continued to lose territory belonging to the papal states.

Question 35

Ivan the Great gave further substance to the idea that Muscovy was the heir to Rome after the fall of Constantinople by:

A) making Greek the official language of Muscovy.
B) adopting the use of the Roman phalanx in his army.
C) encouraging his subjects to adopt Roman Catholicism.
D) attacking Constantinople in an attempt to dislodge it from Ottoman control.
E) marrying the niece of the last Byzantine emperor.

Question 36

One result of the "Reconquista" was to end the Spanish convivencia,which was the:

A) relative harmonious coexistence of different religious and ethnic groups in Spain since 750 C.E.
B) homogeneous Christian identity that had existed in Spain since 750
C) tax regularly paid by residents of Spain to the Ottoman Empire.
D) Muslim practice of exiling Jews.
E) Muslim practice of persecuting Christians.

Question 37

Albrecht Dürer was the first northern European artist to master:

A) Italian Renaissance developments in oil painting.
B) Italian Renaissance techniques of engraving.
C) Italian Renaissance techniques of proportion and perspective.
D) the anatomical precision of Italian Renaissance nudes.
E) the Italian Renaissance technique of tempura painting.

Question 38

Thomas More's Utopia was a(n):

A) political treatise about the best form of government.
B) etiquette guide for courtiers.
C) light-hearted fictional story.
D) epic poem modeled on Arthurian texts.
E) devastating critique of contemporary culture.

Question 39

Rabelais' Gargantua and Pantagruel regarded human appetites as:

A) always excessive.
B) a product of original sin.
C) a source of joy.
D) natural and healthy.
E) requiring control.

Question 40

Sculpture during the Renaissance broke with the recent past in that statuary:

A) would now be created only to use as memorials for those who had died.
B) could now be used as a part of tombs to honor the dead.
C) would now be incorporated into the supporting columns of triumphal arches.
D) could now be used instead of columns at the front of buildings.
E) now became freestanding figures "in the round."

Question 41

The Spanish modeled their Caribbean sugar plantations worked by enslaved African laborers on:

A) Portuguese sugar plantations on the Cape Verde Islands.
B) Genoese sugar plantations on the island of Madeira.
C) Muslim sugar plantations on the island of Majorca.
D) Aztec sugar plantations on Hispaniola.
E) their own estates in Europe.

Question 42

Thomas More was put to death for not allowing Henry VIII to remarry.

Question 43

In the long history of slavery in Western civilization,the basic patterns of slavery were not racialized (in other words,directly related to ethnicity or skin color)until:

A) Europeans needed slave labor to develop the Atlantic colonies of Madeira, the Canaries, and the Azores.
B) Lisbon became a significant market for enslaved Africans in the middle of the fifteenth century.
C) Columbus returned with indigenous people from the New World in 1492.
D) Hernán Cortés conquered the Aztec Empire of Mexico between 1519 and 1521.
E) Francisco Pizarro conquered the Incan Empire of South America in 1533.

Question 44

Niccolò Machiavelli's work suggests that he was more of a political theorist than a political realist.

Question 45

A "Renaissance Man" as defined in Castiglione's book The Courtier was considered to be one who could subordinate his personal morality to political ends.

Question 46

Leonardo da Vinci considered artists to be skilled craftsmen.

Question 47

Erasmus believed that the entire society of his day was caught up in despair because of the inflexibility of ecclesiastical reform.

Question 48

Although only 1 out of 5 ships and 18 out of 265 sailors returned from Magellan's voyage,it proved that:

A) the world was too large for a western sea route to Asia to be economically feasible.
B) a western sea route to Asia was economically feasible.
C) ships could easily be dragged across the Isthmus of Panama.
D) South America was easy to sail around.
E) Magellan, who survived the voyage, was an excellent navigator.

Question 49

The most lucrative export of the Spanish colonies in Central and South America was:

A) indigenous slaves.
B) sugar.
C) rum.
D) silver.
E) gold.

Question 50

Within a century of the Europeans' arrival in Central America,the native population there declined by as much as:

A) 20 percent.
B) 40 percent.
C) 50 percent.
D) 70 percent.
E) 90 percent.

Question 51

Michelangelo's David was created to celebrate Florentine civic ideals.

Question 52

The massive influx of silver from New World Spanish colonies resulted in:

A) greater wealth for almost all Europeans.
B) a massive devaluation of gold.
C) the production of fine silver jewelry for the aristocratic class.
D) the Spanish crown hording silver.
E) massive inflation.

Question 53

In the rule of the Papal States the pope,as a churchman,was unable to lead armies or make alliances with other princes.

Question 54

In economic terms,New World colonization and plunder had the greatest positive effect on the:

A) Italian city-states of Venice and Genoa.
B) Portuguese.
C) Spanish.
D) English.
E) Dutch.

Question 55

Renaissance music had its roots in medieval musical forms.

Question 56

Under Ferdinand and Isabella,the conversos (Jews who had converted to Christianity)had all the same privileges as those who had been born into Christian families.

Question 57

Hernán Cortés was aided in his conquest of the Aztec Empire by all of the following EXCEPT:

A) people subjugated by the Aztecs who wanted to rebel.
B) a consort who was indigenous and spoke the common language of the empire.
C) the European rifles he had brought with him.
D) European bacteria.
E) the tactical planning of his native allies.

Question 58

Portugal came to dominate the Far East spice trade by doing all of the following EXCEPT:

A) sending trading fleets to India regularly.
B) blockading the mouth of the Red Sea.
C) blockading the Strait of Gibraltar.
D) establishing a series of forts along the west Indian coastline.
E) seizing Malacca, a well-known center for the spice trade on the Malay Peninsula.

Question 59

The printing press was instrumental in the spread of humanist ideas.

Question 60

Beginning in the 1440s,design changes in Portuguese caravels allowed them to:

A) use a larger rudder, allowing for more accurate navigation.
B) use square sails, promoting faster travel into the wind.
C) employ larger crews on smaller ships.
D) utilize oars in addition to sails.
E) sail with two masts and faster, triangular sails.

Question 61

How did the invention of the printing press impact the exchange of knowledge in the early modern world?

Question 62

How does the Reconquista and Spanish conquests in Central and South America reflect the crusading ethos of the late Middle Ages?

Question 63

How did the Portuguese and Spanish motives for exploration and colonization differ?

Question 64

How was the conquest of the Aztec Empire achieved?

Question 65

What new technologies made exploration possible?

Question 66

In what ways did Erasmus embody the ideals of the Northern Renaissance?

Question 67

European colonists on Hispaniola turned to cattle raising and sugar production because there was no gold to be found in the mines.

Question 68

Few if any people believed the world was flat when Columbus began his voyage.

Question 69

In what ways did Leonardo da Vinci represent the ideal "Renaissance man"?

Question 70

The infusion of silver into the European economy was ultimately disastrous.

Question 71

Relatively few of the slaves who passed through the major Ottoman slave markets were Europeans.Most were African.

Question 72

The reason galleons and caravels were made so large in this period was to make it possible to arm them more heavily.

Question 73

What role did slavery play in the empires of the fifteenth century?

Question 74

How is it possible to reconcile the two different political positions presented in Niccolò Machiavelli's works,Discourses on Livy and The Prince?

Question 75

What new techniques characterized Renaissance art?