Q 01/05

What is regarded as the defining design element of Gothic architecture?

A) The pointed arch

B) The Doric column

C) The dome

D) The round arch

Answer · why

A) The pointed arch

Its use led in turn to the pointed rib vault and new ways of bracing the walls from outside.

Q 02/05

Gothic architecture was supplanted from the mid-15th century by which style, born in Italy?

A) Baroque

B) Byzantine

C) Renaissance

D) Neoclassical

Answer · why

C) Renaissance

Gothic itself had evolved from Romanesque, and lingered on in England and Belgium into the 16th century.

Q 03/05

In which region did Gothic architecture originate?

A) Northern France

B) Central Tuscany

C) Coastal Flanders

D) The Rhineland

Answer · why

A) Northern France

It spread from there across Latin Europe during the 13th century.

Q 04/05

What did medieval builders themselves call the style, in Latin?

A) Opus Gothicum

B) Opus Barbarum

C) Opus Francigenum

D) Opus Romanum

Answer · why

C) Opus Francigenum

It was also called opus modernum ('modern work') or novum opus ('new work'); Italians said maniera tedesca, 'German style'.

Q 05/05

Which writer popularised the sneering label 'Gothic' in his 1550 Lives of the Artists?

A) Filippo Brunelleschi

B) Andrea Palladio

C) Leon Battista Alberti

D) Giorgio Vasari

Answer · why

D) Giorgio Vasari

He blamed the Goths, who had sacked Rome, for the 'barbarous German style'.