Deck 23: The Baroque Court: Absolute Power and Royal Patronage

Question 1

Why has the era of Louis XIV's reign come to be known as the Age of Absolutism?

A) Science was providing answers for what previously was unknown.
B) Louis was a strong monarch who exerted power based on divine right.
C) Artists and architects looked to the absolutes of Classical style.
D) Louis XIV served as monarch both to France and the Holy Roman Empire.

Answer 1

B

Question 2

André Le Nôtre designed Versailles's formal garden with

A) sweeps of gently rolling lawns against a woodland background.
B) a grid along a north-south axis with the palace at the center.
C) a series of increasingly larger circles surrounding the palace.
D) pathways radiating like sunbeams from a central axis.

Answer 2

D

Question 3

Louis IV's Classical Baroque was created by the blending of

A) Classical architecture with Baroque dramatic effects.
B) Baroque architecture with Classical symmetry.
C) Classical proportion with Baroque asymmetry.
D) Baroque dramatic effects with Classical sensuality.

Answer 3

A

Question 4

According to Nicolas Poussin,a painting's subject matter should be drawn from

A) the everyday life of moral people.
B) the Bible only.
C) the artist's imagination.
D) Classical mythology or Christian tradition.

Question 5

Diego Velázquez's Las Meninas (The Maids of Honor)is considered a complex painting,most notably because of

A) the number of figures in it.
B) its focus on individual actions.
C) the obscurity of its symbolism.
D) its competing focal points.

Question 6

Cardinal Richelieu was furious with Pierre Corneille for his play El Cid,because,in it,he

A) ignored the Classical unities.
B) included bawdy humor.
C) satirized Richelieu.
D) satirized a Spanish story.

Question 7

Louis XIV of France considered himself "the Sun King," because

A) his attire was so rich that he glittered when he walked.
B) France's domain was so large that the sun never set on it.
C) he saw himself as dispensing wealth, like the sun god Apollo.
D) he believed that he commanded the sun to shine.

Question 8

What new dance form,which quickly became the age's most popular,emerged from Louis's court?

A) ballet
B) bal-musette
C) canarie
D) minuet

Question 9

Why did the English Puritans invite Holland to invade Britain in 1688?

A) Oliver Cromwell was proving to be a tyrannical ruler.
B) James II imposed too many restrictions on them.
C) Cromwell raised taxes to support his troops in the civil war.
D) James II appointed Catholics to high government positions.

Question 10

Nicolas Poussin modeled his Classical approach to painting most closely upon the work of

A) Michelangelo.
B) Leonardo da Vinci.
C) Titian.
D) Raphael.

Question 11

The English King Charles I's court painter was

A) Anthony Van Dyck.
B) Titian.
C) Peter Paul Rubens.
D) Hans Holbein.

Question 12

The ribald Cavalier sensibility was most pronounced in

A) English opera.
B) court painting.
C) restoration dramas.
D) masques.

Question 13

Louis XIV was fond of Peter Paul Rubens's paintings because of their

A) Classical rationality and clarity.
B) frank sexuality and sensual brushwork.
C) geometric compositions.
D) absence of allegory and moral undertones.

Question 14

The Palace of Versailles's Hall of Mirrors was designed to celebrate

A) the alliance between France and Spain.
B) Louis XIV's marriage.
C) the end of the six-year war with Holland.
D) Louis XIV's eighteenth birthday.

Question 15

In 164,the English Parliament raised an army against King Charles I for

A) marrying the sister of the French king Louis XIII.
B) proposing changes in the Church of England's liturgy.
C) claiming that he was a divinely appointed king.
D) forming a secret alliance with the Scots.

Question 16

The French playwright Jean Racine holds the distinction of being the first to

A) produce a successful comedy.
B) stage a play in the Théâtre du Palais Royal.
C) live entirely on earnings from his plays.
D) be sanctioned by the Académie Française.

Question 17

Diego Velázquez's paintings were greatly influence by those of

A) Rembrandt.
B) Johannes Vermeer.
C) Caravaggio.
D) Nicolas Poussin.

Question 18

The English people found Oliver Cromwell difficult to tolerate as their leader,because he

A) changed the state religion to Catholicism.
B) refused to participate in peace talks with France.
C) imposed too many restrictions on them.
D) raised taxes to support his troops in the civil war.

Question 19

Why did Spain enter a period of decline after the death of Philip II?

A) The country lost control of its New World gold-producing holdings.
B) Severe inflation and a loss of tax revenue bankrupted the court.
C) Its Spanish Armada had to be rebuilt following the fleet's defeat by England.
D) It had withdrawn from the Holy Roman Empire.

Question 20

Robert Herrick's "To the Virgins,to Make Much of Time" is

A) an English opera.
B) a carpe diem.
C) an elegy.
D) an allegory.

Question 21

The Southern Cuzco school's Our Lady of the Victory of Málaga recalls Inca religious worship in the

A) background showing an Inca temple.
B) Virgin holding an Inca ceremonial staff.
C) framing columns.
D) gold leaf, which is associated with sun worship.

Question 22

Describe three of the subjects and their actions in Diego Velázquez's Las Meninas.

Question 23

The purpose of Francisco de Quevedo's literary life was to

A) satirize Spanish social structures and religious institutions.
B) expose the Spanish people's corruption and foolishness.
C) dramatize the conflict between love and honor.
D) illustrate how the comedy and tragedy could be mixed.

Question 24

Compare Peter Paul Rubens's idea of a beautiful human body,which came to be known as Rubenesque,to today's standards of the body beautiful.

Question 25

New Spain retablos (altarpiece ensembles)were designed to be extravagant to

A) contrast with the simplicity of the indigenous people's sacred spaces.
B) impress the indigenous people into converting to Christianity.
C) show the indigenous people how their taxes were spent.
D) Christianize the indigenous people's existing art.

Question 26

Explain how the English Cavalier literature (Herrick's "To the Virgins to Make Much of Time" and Wycherley's The Country Wife)can be viewed as rebounds from the Puritan rule of Oliver Cromwell.

Question 27

Compare Nicolas Poussin's painting philosophy and style to Peter Paul Rubens's philosophy and style.Cite specific examples of each artist's work.

Question 28

Describe the differences in politics and appearance of the English Cavaliers and the Roundheads.

Question 29

The Christ child in the Laguna retablo shows a unification of Pueblo and Christian traditions by

A) holding a green peyote button.
B) being swaddled in a buffalo hide.
C) having the eyes and mouth of a kachina.
D) being dressed in silver and gold cloth.

Question 30

Define "absolutism," and show how Louis XIV's rule exemplifies it.

Question 31

Explain how and why Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz's San Pedro Nolasco dramatizes the diversity of language and culture in New Spain.

Question 32

Citing specific examples,show how the European Baroque style blended with the art and culture of the New World's indigenous peoples.

Question 33

How did Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz dramatize New Spain's diversity in her villancicos?

A) The female narrator wore native garments.
B) The soloists sang in three languages.
C) The Gregorian chant was sung in Nahuatl.
D) The religious drama was based on Aztec legends.

Question 34

What is the Spanish notion of pundonor,a favorite theme in Calderón's plays?

A) Men were obligated to avenge violations of their women's honor.
B) Duty to king and country took precedence over all other matters.
C) False accusations-violations of honor-led to dire consequences.
D) Men and women held differing views of the meaning of honor.

Question 35

Explain the reasons for the Spanish citizens' anger toward the ruling class,and show how this anger was reflected in the satires of Francisco de Quevedo y Villegas.

Question 36

In Henri Testelin's Jean-Baptiste Colbert Presenting the Members of the Royal Academy of Science to Louis XIV,why does Louis look out of place amid the scientific dignitaries and instruments?

A) He looks bewildered by the instruments.
B) He is the image of ostentatious excess.
C) He is much shorter than the scientists.
D) He is rendered obsolete by the scientists.

Question 37

Why in 1680 did the Spanish program to convert the Pueblo to Christianity fail?

A) Spain lost its New World holdings to the Dutch.
B) Facing financial crisis, Spain recalled the missionaries.
C) The Pueblo revolted and killed many of the Spanish.
D) Disease introduced by the Spanish decimated the Pueblo.

Question 38

Identify and describe three of the six dances that can make up a suite.