In Classical Greek sculpture, what is contrapposto?LibreTexts, Art History (Boundless), section 6.05 The Early Classical Period. DSST outline area I (15%), c. Greece
The Parthenon on the Athenian Acropolis was dedicated to which deity?Wikipedia, "Parthenon". DSST outline area I (15%), c. Greece
Under which pharaoh did Egyptian art shift sharply into the Amarna style?LibreTexts, Art History (Boundless), section 4.05 The New Kingdom. DSST outline area I (15%), b. Egypt
What is a ziggurat?Wikipedia, "Ziggurat". DSST outline area I (15%), a. Ancient Near East
What is carved at the top of the stele that carries the Code of Hammurabi?Wikipedia, "Code of Hammurabi". DSST outline area I (15%), a. Ancient Near East
What is the oculus of the Pantheon in Rome?LibreTexts, Art History (Boundless), section 8.04 The Nervan-Antonines. DSST outline area I (15%), d. Rome
What were the Pyramids of Giza built to be?LibreTexts, Art History (Boundless), section 4.03 The Old Kingdom. DSST outline area I (15%), b. Egypt
Show all 50 questions (43 more)
Middle Ages 6
In the Byzantine period, what form did the decoration inside a building often take?LibreTexts, Art History (Boundless), section 9.01 Early Byzantine Art. DSST outline area II (12%), a. Early Christian, Byzantine & Romanesque
What did flying buttresses make possible in Gothic churches?LibreTexts, Art History (Boundless), section 18.02 Gothic Architecture. DSST outline area II (12%), b. Gothic
What does the Bayeux Tapestry depict?Wikipedia, "Bayeux Tapestry". DSST outline area II (12%), a. Early Christian, Byzantine & Romanesque
Where did the Gothic style of architecture originate?LibreTexts, Art History (Boundless), section 18.02 Gothic Architecture. DSST outline area II (12%), b. Gothic
Which architectural device carries the round dome of Hagia Sophia over its square base?LibreTexts, Art History (Boundless), section 9.01 Early Byzantine Art. DSST outline area II (12%), a. Early Christian, Byzantine & Romanesque
Which features mark Romanesque architecture?LibreTexts, Art History (Boundless), section 17.02 Romanesque Architecture. DSST outline area II (12%), a. Early Christian, Byzantine & Romanesque
Renaissance 7
Albrecht Dürer, the best-known artist of the German Renaissance, worked chiefly in which field besides painting?LibreTexts, Art History (Boundless), section 20.03 Books of the Northern Renaissance. DSST outline area III (15%), d. 16th-Century Northern Europe
The Bruges painter Jan van Eyck is known above all for his mastery of which medium?LibreTexts, Art History (Boundless), section 20.02 Painting in the Northern Renaissance. DSST outline area III (15%), b. 15th-Century Northern Europe
Landscapes and scenes of peasant life, painted large, were the specialty of which Flemish Renaissance artist?Wikipedia, "Pieter Bruegel the Elder". DSST outline area III (15%), d. 16th-Century Northern Europe
Pope Julius II commissioned a fresco cycle for the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel. Which artist carried it out, from 1508 to 1512?Wikipedia, "Sistine Chapel ceiling". DSST outline area III (15%), c. 16th-Century Italy
What is sfumato, the technique associated with Leonardo da Vinci?Wikipedia, "Sfumato". DSST outline area III (15%), c. 16th-Century Italy
Which 15th-century Florentine architect built the dome of Florence Cathedral and is credited with working out linear perspective?Wikipedia, "Filippo Brunelleschi". DSST outline area III (15%), a. 15th-Century Italy
Why is Donatello's bronze David a landmark of Renaissance sculpture?Wikipedia, "Donatello". DSST outline area III (15%), a. 15th-Century Italy
Baroque 5
Caravaggio's paintings are known for tenebrism. What is it?LibreTexts, Art History (Boundless), section 21.04 Painting of the Baroque Period. DSST outline area IV (10%), a. Italy, France & Spain
Gian Lorenzo Bernini was the leading Baroque master of which art?LibreTexts, Art History (Boundless), section 21.03 Sculpture of the Baroque Period. DSST outline area IV (10%), a. Italy, France & Spain
Las Meninas (1656), set in the Spanish royal household, was painted by whom?Wikipedia, "Las Meninas". DSST outline area IV (10%), a. Italy, France & Spain
Which Dutch Golden Age painter is now the most renowned for genre scenes that capture light in domestic interiors?LibreTexts, Art History (Boundless), section 21.05 The Dutch Painters. DSST outline area IV (10%), b. Holland & Flanders
Which Dutch master painted The Night Watch (1642)?Wikipedia, "Rembrandt". DSST outline area IV (10%), b. Holland & Flanders
Rococo and Neoclassicism 5
Antonio Canova is the best-known Neoclassical artist in which field?LibreTexts, Art History (Boundless), section 28.03 Neoclassicism. DSST outline area V (9%), Rococo and Neoclassicism
The discovery of which buried Roman cities fed the Neoclassical taste of the 18th century?LibreTexts, Art History (Boundless), section 28.03 Neoclassicism. DSST outline area V (9%), Rococo and Neoclassicism
Which color palette is typical of the Rococo style?LibreTexts, Art History (Boundless), section 28.02 Rococo. DSST outline area V (9%), Rococo and Neoclassicism
Which painting's success at the Paris Salon of 1785 gave Neoclassical painting new momentum?LibreTexts, Art History (Boundless), section 28.03 Neoclassicism. DSST outline area V (9%), Rococo and Neoclassicism
Who is considered the first great Rococo painter?LibreTexts, Art History (Boundless), section 28.02 Rococo. DSST outline area V (9%), Rococo and Neoclassicism
Romanticism and Realism 4
The Gleaners, a Realist scene of peasant farmers, is by which painter?LibreTexts, Art History (Boundless), section 28.08 Realism. DSST outline area VI (8%), Romanticism and Realism
Gustave Courbet, the main proponent of Realism, challenged convention by painting what?LibreTexts, Art History (Boundless), section 28.08 Realism. DSST outline area VI (8%), Romanticism and Realism
What does Goya's The Third of May 1808 commemorate?Wikipedia, "The Third of May 1808". DSST outline area VI (8%), Romanticism and Realism
Who painted The Raft of the Medusa, a landmark of French Romantic history painting?LibreTexts, Art History (Boundless), section 28.04 Neoclassicism and Romanticism. DSST outline area VI (8%), Romanticism and Realism
Impressionism and Post-Impressionism 4
Georges Seurat is linked with which technique?LibreTexts, Art History (Boundless), section 28.10 The Rise of Modernism. DSST outline area VII (8%), Impressionism and Post-Impressionism
What does it mean that the Impressionists often painted en plein air?LibreTexts, Art History (Boundless), section 28.09 Impressionism. DSST outline area VII (8%), Impressionism and Post-Impressionism
Which of these artists is counted among the Post-Impressionists?LibreTexts, Art History (Boundless), section 28.10 The Rise of Modernism. DSST outline area VII (8%), Impressionism and Post-Impressionism
Which painting is said to have given the Impressionist movement its name?Wikipedia, "Impression, Sunrise". DSST outline area VII (8%), Impressionism and Post-Impressionism
Early twentieth century 6
The name of the Fauves, the group around Henri Matisse, means what in French?Wikipedia, "Fauvism". DSST outline area VIII (12%), a. Emergence of Modernism
Which 1907 painting by Pablo Picasso gives two of its five figures African mask-like features?Wikipedia, "Les Demoiselles d'Avignon". DSST outline area VIII (12%), a. Emergence of Modernism
Which architect founded the Bauhaus school in Weimar in 1919?Wikipedia, "Bauhaus". DSST outline area VIII (12%), b. Art between the World Wars
Which event of April 1937 moved Picasso to paint Guernica?Wikipedia, "Guernica (Picasso)". DSST outline area VIII (12%), b. Art between the World Wars
Whose manifesto of 1924 established Surrealism as a movement?Wikipedia, "Surrealism". DSST outline area VIII (12%), b. Art between the World Wars
With Fountain (1917), Marcel Duchamp originated what kind of artwork?LibreTexts, Art History (Boundless), section 29.01 European Art in the Early 20th Century. DSST outline area VIII (12%), a. Emergence of Modernism
Postwar to Postmodern 3
Andy Warhol is the best-known artist of which movement?LibreTexts, Art History (Boundless), section 30.02 The Art World Grows. DSST outline area IX (6%), Postwar to Postmodern
Jackson Pollock's action painting is made in which way?LibreTexts, Art History (Boundless), section 29.10 Abstract Expressionism. DSST outline area IX (6%), Postwar to Postmodern
Which movement was the first specifically American one to win international influence, making New York City the center of Western art?Wikipedia, "Abstract expressionism". DSST outline area IX (6%), Postwar to Postmodern
Contemporary 3
Robert Smithson's Spiral Jetty (1970), built of rock in the Great Salt Lake, is an example of what?LibreTexts, Art History (Boundless), section 30.03 Dematerialization. DSST outline area X (5%), Contemporary
What defines conceptual art?LibreTexts, Art History (Boundless), section 30.03 Dematerialization. DSST outline area X (5%), Contemporary
What is installation art?Wikipedia, "Installation art". DSST outline area X (5%), Contemporary
How this list was compiled: Our own questions, written to the exam content outline in the DSST fact sheet for Art of the Western World (Prometric, Rev 06/2018, https://getcollegecredit.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/ArtOfTheWesternWorld.pdf, read 2026-10-12): Ancient World 15%, Middle Ages 12%, Renaissance 15%, Baroque 10%, Rococo and Neoclassicism 9%, Romanticism and Realism 8%, Impressionism and Post-Impressionism 8%, Early Twentieth Century 12%, Postwar to Postmodern 6%, Contemporary 5%. This bank holds 50: 7, 6, 7, 5, 5, 4, 4, 6, 3 and 3. Every fact was read on 2026-10-12 on the public page named under its question: the open textbook Art History (Boundless) on LibreTexts, and Wikipedia. Licence: Questions, choices and explanations are original work of this site.
How it works
This DSST Art of the Western World practice test has 50 questions of our own across the fact sheet's ten periods. It is unofficial and not affiliated with, endorsed by or sponsored by Prometric, the owner of the DSST program.
Read the full guide
What the exam covers
The fact sheet (Rev 06/2018) lists ten periods: Ancient World 15%, Middle Ages 12%, Renaissance 15%, Baroque 10%, Rococo and Neoclassicism 9%, Romanticism and Realism 8%, Impressionism and Post-Impressionism 8%, Early Twentieth Century 12%, Postwar to Postmodern 6%, and Contemporary 5%. The bank holds 7, 6, 7, 5, 5, 4, 4, 6, 3 and 3.
Length and timing
The exam has 100 questions in 2 hours, and the fact sheet says some are pretest questions that are not scored. Exam mode gives 60 minutes for 50.
Words, not pictures
No question here shows a picture, so each one names the work, the artist or the technique it asks about.
Ancient World, Renaissance and Early Twentieth Century are 42% of the exam between them.
Keep one signature term for each period: contrapposto, pendentives, sfumato, tenebrism, en plein air, readymade.
Questions and answers
Is there an Art of the Western World DSST study guide?
Prometric's fact sheet is the free one. It gives the ten periods with their percentages and a list of reference textbooks. Under each answer here is the public page the fact was read on.
What does a DSST Art of the Western World exam study guide need to cover?
Everything from the Ancient Near East to Contemporary art. The outline splits the Renaissance into Italy and Northern Europe in the 15th and 16th centuries, and the Baroque into Italy, France and Spain against Holland and Flanders.
What score do you need on the DSST Art of the Western World exam?
The fact sheet states no percent. It gives the American Council on Education's recommendation of 3 semester hours of lower-level credit at a minimum score of 400; whether your college accepts that is its own decision.
Are these questions from the real exam?
No. Each one was written for this page from the outline, then checked in an open art history textbook or Wikipedia. None is copied or reworded from the exam or the fact sheet's samples.