Q 01/05

The giant stone figures called moai were carved by the Rapa Nui people of which Pacific island?

A) New Zealand

B) Easter Island

C) Galápagos Islands

D) Tahiti

Answer · why

B) Easter Island

Easter Island's moai are often called heads, but they have full bodies: many near the quarry are simply buried to the shoulders, which fed the myth.

Q 02/05

What classical sculpture technique involves a figure standing with most of its weight on one foot, resulting in a relaxed, asymmetrical pose?

A) Sfumato

B) Contrapposto

C) Chiaroscuro

D) Foreshortening

Answer · why

B) Contrapposto

Contrapposto first appears in the Kritios Boy of about 480 BCE, which breaks from the rigid frontal stance of the earlier kouroi.

Q 03/05

Which technique, perfected in the Mona Lisa, softens edges by blending tones without hard outlines?

A) Sfumato

B) Pointillism

C) Impasto

D) Tenebrism

Answer · why

A) Sfumato

Sfumato comes from the Italian sfumare, to fade out like smoke; Leonardo wanted tones to merge 'without lines or borders', and the art historian Ernst...

Q 04/05

Which Italian term names the strong contrast of light and shadow used to model volume?

A) Chiaroscuro

B) Alla prima

C) Impasto

D) Sgraffito

Answer · why

A) Chiaroscuro

Chiaroscuro, Italian for light-dark, also names a kind of print: 16th-century Italian woodcutters printed each tone from a separate block to imitate i...

Q 05/05

Which Manet painting scandalised the Paris Salon of 1865 with a frank nude whose details marked her as a prostitute?

A) Olympia

B) Le Déjeuner sur l'herbe

C) A Bar at the Folies-Bergère

D) The Fifer

Answer · why

A) Olympia

Olympia's confrontational gaze did the damage: she stares straight at the viewer, and details in the picture identified her as a prostitute.