Art Trivia

1. One of the most famous kisses in the history of art can be seen in the painting "Pygmalion and Galatea" (ca.1890). Who is the author of this famous work?

From Quiz Best Art Kisses Coming to You in TEN, Nine, Eight

Answer: Jean-Léon Gérôme

"Pygmalion and Galatea" (ca. 1890) is an oil on canvas (88.9 x 68.6 cm) by the French painter and sculptor Jean-Léon Gérôme. It was based on "Metamorphoses" from Ovid and shows the king and sculptor Pygmalion kissing the statue of Galatea (which he carved), at the moment that the goddess Aphrodite brings her to life. Between 1890 and 1892, Gérôme painted and sculpted several versions of the theme. In each version of the painting, the sculpture appears at a different angle. Since 1927, the most famous version has been in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. The painter and sculptor Jean-Léon Gérôme (1824-1904) was born in France. His works have varied themes: historical paintings, Greek mythology, oriental themes, portraits, and other objects. He was one of the greatest representatives of the Academic period.

From Quiz Simply, Still Life

Answer: A painting of inanimate objects

A "Still Life" painting is a collection of one or more every day objects, and according to the Tate Museum Glossary, the subject of a Still Life painting can be "anything that does not move or is dead". Edouard Manet's painting titled, "Painting of a Dead Fish" certainly would qualify as a Still Life of an inanimate object. Many other Still Life paintings are of lovelier inanimate objects such as flowers and fruit. Uh-Oh! I forgot, there may be some who find more beauty and meaning in a painting of a dead fish. Actually Manet's painting is quite interesting. Its color, composition, and depth contribute to its beauty (in this quiz maker's eye).

From Quiz Art Smarts

Answer: Pablo Picasso

Pablo Diego José Francisco de Paula Juan Nepomuceno María de los Remedios Cipriano de la Santísima Trinidad Martyr Patricio Clito Ruíz y Picasso was the Picasso's full name at birth in 1881. Picasso co-founded the Cubist movement, along with developing the collage. During the Second World War, Picasso remained in Nazi-controlled Paris and limited by his art and supplies, turned to writing. He wrote two plays "Desire Caught by the Tail" and "The Four Little Girls".

From Quiz What's In A Painting?

Answer: Tarts

The painting offers a plethora of proverbs, some that are also used in English, such as "to bang one's head against a wall", whilst others are not. The proverb in question is "to have the roof tiled with tarts", meaning to be very wealthy, which falls into the latter group. American band The Fleet Foxes used the painting on the cover of their debut album. The original is in Berlin, but actually Vienna is the place to go if you want to see a lot of Bruegel.

From Quiz Growing a Painting

Answer: Water lilies

The magic of water lilies is well known to us from Monet's paintings. They come in shades of white, pink, red, apricot and yellow and add beauty and colour to any body of water from a lake to a small water feature. They range from petite, miniature varieties, through to those with large flowers. Most do well in water about 30 to 60 centimetres deep. Miniature varieties can thrive even in more shallow conditions. (Question by Calpurnia09)

From Quiz Painting Details

Answer: Because she is busy searching for something in a chest

She is probably a maid searching for her lady's undergarments. The other maid is already holding a gown.

From Quiz Mosaic Madness I

Answer: Tempered glass

Ellen Blakeley is a mosaic glass artist from the USA who has developed a process of using clear glass with coloured material underneath, such as leaves, paper or foil. She often tints her grout to complement this.

From Quiz Saintly and Secular

Answer: Titian Vecelli

Giovanni Bellini (c.1430-1516) was Titian's (c.1488-1576) teacher and painted many portraits of the Virgin Mary. Tintoretto (1518-1594) was very briefly the student of Titian and is known for his paintings in St. Mark's in Venice. Veronese's (c.1528-1588) "Feast in the House of Levi" was originally a painting of the Last Supper; it was so scandalous that the Inquisition charged him with heresy (1573), he got away with it by changing the title to 'Feast in the House of Levi'.

From Quiz Elephant Artists: Painting for Peanuts

Answer: Their former jobs in the logging industry have disappeared

Some of the answer choices for this question may be silly, but the problem of deforestation and the loss of jobs for elephants is real. For centuries, Asian elephants have been bred and trained to work in the forests of southeast Asia. Since these jobs have disappeared, not only elephants but also their mahouts (trainers) have become unemployed. Revenue from selling elephant paintings, books and videos helps to defray the (often considerable) cost of supporting such large and wonderful animals.

From Quiz Arty Allsorts (A Bit Easy)

Answer: Ancient Greece and Rome

Italian Renaissance writers did indeed despise their IMMEDIATE forebears: they coined the term "Gothic" for what they called this "barbarous" and "uncouth" art, which never really took off in Italy anyway. They wanted to get back to what they saw as the classical simplicity and purity of ancient Greece and Rome. Architects returned to solid walls, rounded arches and classical columns in place of the windows and pointed arches of the last few centuries. As far as sculpture goes, Michelangelo's "Bacchus" and "Pieta" were considered by his contemporaries to surpass any contemporary and to rival the ancient Greeks on whom their works were modelled, and his "David" to surpass even them.

From Quiz Arty Allsorts (A Bit Hard)

Answer: A perfect circle

So what, I hear you snigger? I could do that with my child's compass. Aha - Giotto didn't use a compass. Or a piece of string. Or anything else except a red pen. According to Vasari, the Renaissance biographer, Giotto fixed his arm firmly to his side to make a compass of it. Now are you impressed?

From Quiz Nice and Easelly

Answer: Picasso

At his birth in October 1881, Picasso was originally left on a table as stillborn. Happily an uncle and qualified doctor called Don Salvador spotted that the infant was alive and saved him from asphyxiation. Young Picasso went on to become one of the world's most prolific painters and sculptors, dying 92 years later in 1973.

From Quiz I Love Art

Answer: Ed Harris

He was nominated for a best actor Oscar for this role.

From Quiz Art Mix

Answer: black figure & black

The black-figure pottery had black silhouette-like black figures (women had white faces) on a reddish clay background, and lines were incised into the surface of the pots to define and decorate. Somewhere around 500 B.C. the red-figure replaced the black-figure style. The artist set red figures against a black background and painted the faces, bodies, and draperies with a brush to create more complex images.

From Quiz Art

Answer: Photographer

Alfred Stieglitz was one of the most influential photographers and art dealers in 20th century America.

From Quiz Mesmerizing Art Questions

Answer: Floating world

Some of the other famed Japanese woodblock print artists, such as Hokusai and Hiroshige, were also associated with the ukiyo-e tradition.

From Quiz Eye-Catching Art Questions

Answer: Stieglitz

It was his 'Georgia O'Keeffe: A Portrait - Hands with Thimble' (1930) that was sold in 1993 at auction by Christie's New York for 398,500 dollars! O'Keeffe was, of course, his wife. This record was later overtaken. In 2007, Sotheby's London sold Andreas Gursky's "99 Cent II Diptychon" for a cool 3.3 million dollars!

From Quiz Art For Goodness Sake!

Answer: Crivelli

A legendary incident concerning a real Saint of the Christian Church. Saint George seems to have been a soldier in the army of the Roman Empire in the year 300.

From Quiz Famous Artists and Works of Art

Answer: El Greco

From Quiz Best Art Kisses Coming to You in TEN, Nine, Eight

Answer: Bed

Henri Toulouse-Lautrec (1864-1901) was born in France and was an influential painter of the Post-Impressionist period. He became known for his works depicting scenes of Parisian life, not always very demure, at the end of the 19th century. In addition to his lively and vibrant depictions of the famous Parisian cabaret Moulin Rouge, to which he was a frequent visitor, Toulouse-Lautrec portrayed not-so-glamorous aspects of bars, cabarets, and brothels. Toulouse-Lautrec made four paintings depicting two people in bed, often interpreted as lesbian couples. In the work "In Bed, The Kiss" ("Au lit, le Baiser"), 1892, one of these four paintings, Lautrec portrays two prostitutes kissing in bed. The work was executed in oil on cardboard, 70 x 54cm. In 2015, it was sold at a Sotheby's auction in London for £10,789,000.

From Quiz Simply, Still Life

Answer: The Dutch Reformed Church

The Dutch Reformed Church in Holland aided the emerging popularity of "Still Life Art". In the mid-seventeenth century many of the reformed churches rejected the large and ornate religous paintings of the past; thus, in order to make a living, many artists changed their genre to "Still Life" painting. A rising middle class was also instrumental in establishing this art form. Many affluent citizens of Holland considered owning a Still Life painting prestigious. The Dutch artist Jan Van Huysum's (1682-1749) celebrated painting, "Still Life: a Vase of Flowers", is one example of their early works.

From Quiz Art, Artists, and Inspiration

Answer: poplar wood

Possibly the most famous painting in the world, the "Mona Lisa" or "La Gioconda" is believed to be the portrait of Lisa Gherardini, the wife of a wealthy silk merchant. It is an oil painting done on a poplar wood panel. Da Vinci so loved this painting that it was never actually given to the client who commissioned it, and the artist worked refining it for over a dozen years.

From Quiz What's In A Painting?

Answer: An owl

It's much disputed whether this portrait is a workhouse inmate, a drunken lady in a pub scene, a witch, or an amalgamation of all three. There is evidence to support all theories. Apparently there are records of a Malle Babbe being in an asylum where one of Hals' offspring ended up. In Dutch "Malle" means loony. However, she is having a pint, and Hals often painted pub scenes. Then there is the owl. Although the owl has long meant "wisdom" in sophisticated Western society, it's also had long associations with witchcraft in folklore, where it's very much like the witch's black cat. The painting is alternatively known as "The Witch Of Haarlem". Bosch also often painted owls, often sitting aloft a scene where morality has gone astray.

From Quiz Growing a Painting

Answer: The seed of the flax plant

The origin of using oil based paints is not entirely understood, however by the early Renaissance period oil painting was very popular. The colour is produced by mixing various pigments or chemicals with the oil. Unfortunately, in the early days, the pigments used were often toxic such as arsenic compounds, lead and cadmium. (Question by Dutty4eva)

From Quiz Just Picture This

Answer: Van Gogh

Vincent van Gogh painted the series "The Sunflowers" in 1887/88. Van Gogh was born in 1853 and committed suicide in 1890. In December 1888, frustrated and suffering from depression, he cut off the lower part of his left ear.

From Quiz Painting Details

Answer: A straw hat

The red lace on the first girl's dress, the black glove with the red pearls bracelet on the second girl's hand, they all show Courbet's care for details and composition. The straw hat with its red ribbon half emerging from behind the trees is used to add depth to the painting.

From Quiz Art and Food

Answer: Most of the fruit shows signs of decaying.

Although some art historians suggest that Caravaggio simply painted what he had available, the usual explanation for the less than perfect state of the fruit is that it is a metaphor for the decaying in life. The painting is not a tempera but an oil.

From Quiz Mosaic Madness I

Answer: trencadis

Trencadis is a Catalan word that describes many of the mosaics designed by Gaudi. Pique assiette uses broken crockery as the tesserae. Zillij is the famous Islamic Art of tile making. The double indirect method is a mosaic technique.

From Quiz Saintly and Secular

Answer: Saint Lawrence

Architects Juan Bautista de Toledo and Juan de Herrera designed the Escorial in the shape of a grid, St. Lawrence's method of martyrdom. Philip II commissioned the building in thanks for his victory in the battle of San Quentin (1557), in which his troops destroyed a small hermitage dedicated to St. Lawrence. St. Lawrence was martyred under Valerian in 258 and may have been the keeper of the holy grail; St. James (the Greater) is one of the patron saints of Spain and was martyred under Herod Agrippa in 44; St. Ignatius (Loyolla) was the founder of the Society of Jesus (Jesuits) and died in 1556; St. Turibius (of Mongrevejo) died in 1606 and was a Spanish judge at the court of the Inquisition, he also championed AmerIndian rights.

From Quiz Arty Allsorts (A Bit Easy)

Answer: Architect, sculptor and painter

According to writer Robert Campbell: "America's other great artists -- our painters, sculptors, composers - don't really rank with the tops of all time. They're not Rembrandt or Michelangelo or Beethoven. Wright alone has that standing." If you have a living room, a carport or an open plan house, you own an architectural invention by Wright (1867-1959). He virtually created a distinctively American architecture characterised by wide spaces. Some consider him the greatest architect who ever lived. Arguably his best creation is the house called Fallingwater (http://www.wam.umd.edu/~stwright/frank-lloyd-wright/fallingwater.html) Moore (1898-1968) is generally recognised as the greatest British twentieth century sculptor. His females echo the shapes of landscape features such as mountains, and his influence thus extends even beyond sculpture, to landscape painting. Pollock (1912-1956) is usually accepted as one of the leading abstract expressionist painters. He is especially famous for pouring and otherwise applying the paint directly onto huge canvasses, which he did in the early 1950s; "Blue Poles" and "Lavender Mist" are well-known examples.

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Last Updated Nov 16 2024 5:44 AM

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