AP Art History Quiz
Questions: 16 · 10 minutes
1. The increased availability of which material, partly through trade with Portuguese merchants, supported the production of many royal plaques in the Kingdom of Benin?
Marble
Porcelain
Jade
Brass
2. Pablo Picasso created Guernica in direct response to which event?
The bombing of the town of Guernica during the Spanish Civil War
The storming of the Bastille during the French Revolution
The invasion of Poland at the start of World War II
The October Revolution in Russia
3. Which Mughal ruler commissioned the Taj Mahal as a mausoleum for Mumtaz Mahal?
Akbar
Aurangzeb
Shah Jahan
Babur
4. What kind of knowledge is encoded by traditional Marshall Islands stick charts?
The genealogies of European colonial governors
The boundaries of agricultural fields measured for taxation
Relationships among islands, ocean swells, and navigation routes
The elevation profiles of volcanic mountains
5. On Yaxchilán Lintel 25, Lady Xook’s bloodletting ritual and vision helped serve which political function?
It documented the replacement of Maya religion by Christianity
It rejected royal ceremony in favor of anonymous civic government
It connected ritual sacrifice and supernatural contact to dynastic authority
It commemorated a merchant agreement with the Aztec capital
6. In Andy Warhol’s Marilyn Diptych, repeated images of Marilyn Monroe most directly connect celebrity portraiture with what broader concern?
Mass production, media repetition, and the commodification of fame
The exclusive use of art for private religious devotion
The recovery of individualized handcraft from medieval guilds
The scientific reconstruction of ideal human proportions
7. Following the Protestant Reformation, a Catholic patron influenced by Counter-Reformation priorities would be most likely to favor art that does what?
Removes recognizable religious figures from churches entirely
Treats sacred narratives chiefly as opportunities for secular satire
Communicates sacred stories clearly and encourages emotional engagement
Rejects dramatic movement in favor of strict geometric abstraction
8. Which ruler commissioned the sixth-century rebuilding of Hagia Sophia in Constantinople?
Constantine I
Suleiman the Magnificent
Charlemagne
Justinian I
9. Which feature of Polykleitos’s Doryphoros most clearly marks a shift away from the rigidity of an Archaic Greek kouros?
Its frontal pose and symmetrical distribution of weight
Its balanced contrapposto stance, with weight concentrated on one leg
Its use as a colossal guardian at a palace entrance
Its strongly abstracted body made from flat geometric planes
10. Which pope commissioned Michelangelo to paint the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel?
Pope Julius II
Pope Urban VIII
Pope Innocent X
Pope Gregory I
11. How did the design and ceremonial use of Versailles reinforce Louis XIV’s political authority?
They placed royal life within an intentionally modest rural setting
They made the king the focus of an elaborate, controlled court environment
They concealed the king from courtiers and minimized court ritual
They transferred ceremonial power from the monarchy to elected officials
12. A Kongo nkisi n’kondi contains spiritually charged materials and may have nails or blades driven into it. What was a principal purpose of these additions?
To invoke spiritual power in matters such as agreements, disputes, or protection
To decorate a funerary object without activating any social function
To record astronomical observations through a fixed calendar system
To demonstrate the sculptor’s rejection of community participation
13. A late nineteenth-century painter uses an off-center subject and a composition that appears abruptly cropped at the edges. Which development most directly helped popularize this visual effect?
The invention of linear perspective in Renaissance Florence
Photography
The construction of Roman concrete domes
The revival of Egyptian hieroglyphic writing
14. Katsushika Hokusai’s Under the Wave off Kanagawa belongs to which Japanese artistic tradition?
Haniwa ceramic sculpture
Rinpa folding-screen painting
Zen monochrome ink painting
Ukiyo-e woodblock printing
15. A Gothic cathedral builder wants taller walls and larger stained-glass windows without sacrificing structural stability. Which feature would best achieve that goal?
A solid concrete barrel vault
A post-and-lintel roof with closely spaced columns
A stepped pyramid base supporting the nave
Flying buttresses that transfer lateral thrust outward
16. Which combination is most characteristic of Jan van Eyck’s Arnolfini Portrait and other Northern Renaissance panel paintings?
Broad encaustic strokes and an intentionally unfinished surface
Layered oil glazes, minute detail, and surfaces rendered with precision
Fresco applied rapidly to wet plaster in a monumental civic hall
Flat tempera shapes arranged without attention to material texture