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AP Art History — Practice Questions flashcards

6 of 60 questions free to study here · 10 topics · the whole deck is built into Willys

Multiple-choice practice questions, one best answer each, on required works from prehistory to today: attribution, context, function, patronage, materials and comparisons.

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Practice deck · part of AP Art History · written against: College Board AP Art History Course and Exam Description (ten units, 250 required works). Updated 2026-10-10.

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  1. Stone slabs painted in charcoal with animal figures were excavated from a cave in Namibia and dated to c. 25,500–25,300 BCE. Why are these Apollo 11 stones important to the history of art?

    A) They are the earliest known use of post-and-lintel construction
    B) They prove that cave painting reached Africa from Europe much later
    C) They trace the seafaring migration that settled the Pacific
    D) They are among the oldest known figurative images from Africa
    D) They are among the oldest known figurative images from Africa

    The Apollo 11 stones, painted slabs from a cave in Namibia, are among the oldest known figurative images from Africa. Nothing about them shows image-making arriving there from Europe.
    Global Prehistory
  2. In the mosaics flanking the apse of San Vitale, Ravenna (c. 526–547 CE), the haloed emperor and the empress, with courtiers, bring offerings for the Eucharist. What do the mosaics chiefly assert?

    A) The union of church and imperial state under Justinian
    B) The rejection of religious images during Iconoclasm
    C) The founding of Ravenna by early Christian martyrs
    D) Theodora's regency on behalf of a young emperor
    A) The union of church and imperial state under Justinian

    Justinian and Theodora take part in the liturgy, presenting church and empire as one and asserting imperial authority over Ravenna. Iconoclasm rejected images; these mosaics are images of power.
    Early Europe and Colonial Americas › Late Antique and Byzantine
  3. A Maya limestone relief shows a queen who has performed bloodletting, while a vision serpent rises from the smoke and a warrior emerges from its jaws. Which work is it?

    A) Yaxchilán Lintel 25
    B) The Coyolxauhqui Stone
    C) The Codex Mendoza
    D) The Lanzón at Chavín
    A) Yaxchilán Lintel 25

    Yaxchilán Lintel 25 shows Lady Xok's ritual conjuring an armed figure, possibly an ancestor, and legitimizing her husband's dynasty. The Coyolxauhqui Stone is Mexica and shows a dismembered goddess at the base of the Templo Mayor.
    Indigenous Americas
  4. Nails and blades were driven into a Kongo nkisi n'kondi figure, whose belly cavity holds medicine often sealed with a mirror. Why were they inserted?

    A) To mark each generation that inherited it
    B) To record each of a king's battle victories
    C) To seal oaths and stir the spirit to act
    D) To release its power once a funeral ended
    C) To seal oaths and stir the spirit to act

    A ritual specialist (nganga) drove in nails and blades to seal oaths, settle disputes or activate the spirit. Abandoning works to decay after a ceremony is associated with New Ireland malagan carvings.
    Africa
  5. Worshippers walked clockwise around the Great Stupa at Sanchi. How do the carved toranas (gateways) represent the Buddha in scenes of his life?

    A) As a colossal rock-cut figure set in a cliff niche
    B) As a crowned figure seated beneath a sun-and-moon halo
    C) As a dancing figure trampling a dwarf in a ring of fire
    D) Through symbols such as footprints or an empty throne
    D) Through symbols such as footprints or an empty throne

    The reliefs are aniconic: the Buddha appears as footprints, an empty throne or the Bodhi tree. A dancing figure in a ring of fire is the Chola bronze of Shiva as Nataraja.
    South / East / Southeast Asia
  6. Why was Maya Lin's Vietnam Veterans Memorial (1982) controversial when it was first built?

    A) It gave each soldier a hand-painted porcelain marker
    B) It offered a dark wall of names in place of heroic statues
    C) It was made of bottle caps recalling the history of trade
    D) It invited visitors to buy mirrored balls as souvenirs
    B) It offered a dark wall of names in place of heroic statues

    The black granite V cut into the ground lists the dead chronologically, with no heroic figures, and critics called it a 'gash' of shame. It is now counted among the nation's great memorials.
    Global Contemporary

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More AP Art History decks

Global Prehistory to 17501750 to Present and Global Traditions

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About these cards

Review status: Second-reader reviewed, with corrections applied.

Checked against:

  • Topic outline follows the College Board AP Art History Course and Exam Description (effective Fall 2020, with the clarifications implemented for Fall 2026), Units 1–10 and the required image set; no text copied.
  • Facts checked against Smarthistory (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0); reference only, no text copied.
  • OpenStax World History Volume 1, consulted as a reference; no text copied.
  • Also checked against museum, heritage and government pages (the British Museum, Musée du Louvre, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the National Gallery, London, Museo del Prado, Tate, the Australian Museum, Blanton Museum of Art, Chazen Museum of Art, Spencer Museum of Art, North Carolina Museum of Art, English Heritage, the National Park Service, the Library of Congress, the UNESCO World Heritage Centre, City of Chicago Landmarks, the Cathedral Chapter of Córdoba, Chartres Cathedral and Saint-Louis-des-Français, Rome), open textbooks and courses (Utah Valley University on UEN Pressbooks, SUNY/Lumen, Gustlin and Gustlin on LibreTexts, Yale HSAR 252), the Edizioni Atlas Arte textbook, EBSCO Research Starters, IEEE Spectrum, Art21 Magazine and peer-reviewed articles (Rapa Nui Journal, PMC, Médiévales, Kwartalnik Neofilologiczny); reference only, no text copied.
  • World History Encyclopedia (worldhistory.org), consulted, not copied.

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