Pictures at an Exhibition - Can You Cook It? Quiz

Answer: Matzo

Leonardo Da Vinci (1452-1519) was an Italian painter, architect, scientist and inventor. He left us only a few paintings, but these are very famous. The Santa Maria delle Grazie convent was decorated with "The Last Supper" (1494-1498) - a fresco showing us Jesus Christ and His twelve apostles on the night before He was crucified. The painting shows us the dramatic moment when Jesus Christ has announced that one of the apostles would betray Him. (Luke 22:21).
As Leonardo experimented with revolutionary techniques which were not yet brought to perfection, the painting has sadly withered over time. One would expect to find the classical "bread and wine", but the wine glasses seem to have disappeared. (Perhaps specialists could find traces of the wine glasses in studying the painting from a distance at which ordinary visitors will never be allowed). The bread is still there.
Let's examine some of the options I gave. Pumpernickel is German bread made of rye flour and having a very dark appearance. Leonardo's painting certainly doesn't picture this type of bread.
Bagels are ring shaped little breads made of yeasted dough. Leonardo's "The Last Supper" doesn't seem to incorporate bagels; however, it could be hard to tell.
Pizza is a typical Italian recipe. The traditional pizza (a round, flat piece of bread) is topped with tomatoes and cheese, and other toppings as you like it. In Leonardo's time, tomatoes were still considered poisonous plants. So pizza in Jesus Christ's time would be a formidable anachronism.
Matzo is unleavened bread. According to the gospels, the Last Supper took place in preparation for the Pesach feast (Passover). During this week, the Jews were not allowed to eat leavened bread. This tradition commemorates the Exodus from Egypt: the Jews had to leave in a hurry, so there wasn't time to add yeast to their bread.

Answer: The Peasant Wedding

Pieter Brueghel the Elder (1525-1569) was a prolific Belgian painter. Several of his family became painters as well: his sons Pieter the Younger (1564-1638) and Jan the Elder (1568-1625), his grandsons Jan the Younger (1601-1678) and Ambrosius (1617-1675), and the husband of his granddaughter Anna, David Teniers the Younger (1610-1690). Pieter the Elder painted a wide variety of subjects, while Pieter the Younger (Hell Brueghel) specialised in apocalyptic scenes, and Jan the Elder was famous for his still-lives with flowers.
All the paintings I've mentioned in this question were made by Pieter the Elder. "The Hunters in the Snow" was intended to symbolise the month of January for a series commissioned by the Antwerp merchant Niclaes Jonghelinck. Alas, only five of the twelve paintings remain: January, February, July, August and November. None of these paintings shows us some rice cakes.
"The Fall of the Rebel Angels" is a religiously inspired painting. This painting and two others of the same year 1562 ("The Triumph of Death" and "Mad Meg") deal with demons, devils and corpses. I would certainly not classify these paintings as "merry" paintings.
"The Land of Cockaigne" shows us the legendary land in which no one needs to do hard labour, food is abundant and for free, and one can indulge all kinds of pleasure. In Brueghel's painting, you'll find a roasted pig running around with some knives in the back, a flying roasted goose and rice cakes growing on the roof. The same rice cakes on the roof appear also in the painting "Netherlandish Proverbs".
Only the painting "The Peasant Wedding" shows us some people carrying a door full of desserts (maybe rice cakes, maybe porridge). In the foreground, we find a young boy tasting one of those desserts. If this painting shows rice cakes, they are purely symbolical: rice is associated with fertility, and at that time one's offspring was one's only superannuation scheme. I would dare say that no ordinary Belgian peasant at that time (mid Sixteenth Century) could afford rice cakes, because the rice had to be transported for a tremendous distance and so the price was quite elevated.

Answer: Joachim Beuckelaer

Aubrey Beardsley (1872-1898) was an English illustrator in Art Nouveau style. His most noted illustrations served for Oscar Wilde's theatre play "Salome". Many of Beardsley's illustrations shocked the art world for their explicit sexuality.
Henri Cartier-Bresson (1908-2004) was a French photographer. Probably his best known photo is "Behind the Gare St. Lazare", showing us an anonymous Frenchman running through a large puddle.
Pieter Aertsen (1508-1575) was a Dutch painter. Only a few of his paintings have survived the religious conflicts in the Netherlands during the Eighty Year's War. One of these paintings, and the one that fits perfectly in this category, is "The Cook". Pieter trained his nephew Joachim Beuckelaer.
It is Joachim Beuckelaer (1530-1574) we were looking for in this question. The series of paintings to which I refer is inspired by the classical theory of the Greek philosopher Empedocles on the four elements. However, several of these paintings have also a moral implication that was quite well known in the Sixteenth Century (but is nowadays reduced to specialised knowledge). For example, the different cabbage varieties sold by a young woman in the painting "Earth" hint at the fact that this woman was reputedly unchaste. I need not explain the moral implication of carrots and gherkins (think about the form). To add to this suggestion, you'll find one of the women present is carrying a basket full of apples - remember the story of Adam and Eve.

Answer: Grapes

Michelangelo da Merisi (1571-1610) was known as Caravaggio. He left us a large quantity of paintings. Caravaggio's "trademark" is the chiaroscuro: a typical contrast of dark and light shades.
Bacchus is another name for Dionysus, the Greek god of wine. In this quality, I find it self-evident that he holds a bunch of grapes in his hands. Incidentally, there lie two peaches before him on the table.
The reason why the painting is entitled "Sick Bacchus" remains unclear. Nowadays Bacchus' face is a bit sallow, but this might be a consequence of the withering of the artwork during over 400 years.
Caravaggio completed in 1596 another "Bacchus", this time sitting at a table on which we can find a basket filled with overripe fruits (mainly apples).

Answer: Yes

Peter Paul Rubens (1577-1640) was a prolific Belgian painter. He left us over 2000 paintings.
The painting "Fall of Man" shows us Adam and Eve standing in front of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. They're nude (of course), but two twigs flutter elegantly before their loins. Eve holds something in her right hand and takes it to her mouth, but her hand conceals what she is holding in her hand. Adam waves a finger in admonishment to her.
The serpent we would expect to find in this painting is well camouflaged. It coils around the Tree, a bit to the left of Eve and above her head. Also above Eve's head is one single fruit, vaguely recognisable as an apple.
Incidentally, there is no biblical reason why all artists having interpreted this scene depict one or more apples. The Bible does not point at one specific kind of fruit (see Genesis 3:1-6). But the Bible definitely confirms that Adam and Eve used fig leaves to cover up their intimate body parts (Genesis 3:7).
Apples have a connotation with various legends in western tradition. See for instance the fairy tale of "Snow White". I'll give you yet some other examples out of Greek mythology: the Trojan War starts with Eris, the goddess of discord, throwing a golden apple with the inscription "For the Prettiest". When the goddesses Aphrodite, Athena and Hera invoke the help of a human arbiter, Hermes takes the apple to the Trojan prince Paris. This last scene was painted by the Italian artist Francisco Hayez, 1791-1828. Paris gives the apple of discord to Aphrodite, in exchange for the prettiest woman on Earth, Helen. Alas, Helen is already married to the Greek King Menelaos... The "Judgment of Paris" is the title of paintings by (among others) Lucas Cranach the Elder (1472-1553), the Swiss Niklaus Manuel Deutsch (1484-1530), Rubens, Claude le Lorrain (1600-1682), Luca Giordano (1634-1705) and Antoine Watteau (1684-1721).
According to another Greek myth, the swift huntress Atalanta vowed to marry only the one who would beat her in a race. Only Hippomenes succeeded, tricking Atalanta by randomly dispersing some golden apples. Guido Reni (1575-1642) depicted this scene.
One of the twelve labours imposed on Hercules was to steal the golden apples of the Hesperides. On his way to the lovely garden tended by these mythical creatures, Hercules offered to take over the task of supporting the celestial globe from Atlas.

Answer: Turkey

Francisco de Goya y Lucientes (1745-1828) was a prolific Spanish painter. He is best known for the painting "The Third of May" (painted in 1814), commemorating some Spanish resistance people executed by Napoleon's army in 1808.
Apart from a large quantity of portraits of the royal family and other Spanish aristocrats, Goya left us a series of historical paintings (including "The Third of May") and some paintings of people from the lower classes (for example "The Milkmaid of Bordeaux"). Two of the still-lives he produced are "The Butcher's Counter" (1810, with some pieces of beef) and "The Plucked Turkey" (1812).
Did you choose the seagull? There is a quite popular saying that seagull is as distasteful as a leather sole. So I would advise you never to try and cook a seagull.
Four of the six species of Flamingo find their habitat in South America. The two best known species live in "the old world": Africa, Southern Europe and Western Asia. As far as gastronomy is concerned: the rich Romans (including Lucullus) considered flamingo's tongues as a quite savoury dish. Needless to say the price was exorbitant.
There are a number of birds belonging to different families that are called quails. When reviewing a list of quails, I've discovered that they live almost all over the world. The Japanese quail, the New Zealand quail and the Himalayan quail refer of course to their main habitat, while the common quail (the one that was most prominent in French cuisine) lives in the Mediterranean and the Sahel. Exodus 16:1-13 states that the Jews ate "manna and quail" during the forty years after leaving Egypt.
The turkey finds its origin in North America and Mexico. However, different languages refer to different supposed origins of this bird. In English, it refers to the Turkish region, while the French name "dinde" ("from India") and the Dutch name "kalkoen", the Danish name "kalkun" and the Norse name "kalkuner" (all derived from the city Calcutta, in India) seem to implicate a more eastern origin. In Portuguese, the bird is named "Peru" - close but not quite accurate.

Answer: Paul Cezanne

First of all, a little remark: sometimes your display gets very confusing if one of the given alternatives contains diacritical marks (such as accents). That's why I've omitted the accents in the names of Cézanne and Poiré.
Let's start with explaining the least familiar name. Emmanuel Poiré (1859-1909) was a French illustrator. He was born in Moscow and adopted the Russian nickname "Caran d'Ache", the Russian word for "pencil". The brand name "Caran d'Ache" was given to the eponymous company as a salute to Emmanuel Poiré, but he had no share whatsoever in the company.
Charles Edouard Jeanneret (1887-1965) is better known as Le Corbusier, the world famous Swiss architect. His constructions are spread all over the world.
Paul Delvaux (1897-1994) was a Belgian surrealist painter. Typical of his paintings are deserted railway stations and nude women.
Paul Cézanne (1839-1906) is the Post-Impressionist we were looking for. He painted landscapes ("Mont Saint Victoire", in different seasons and atmospheric conditions), portraits and still-lives.

Answer: Vincent van Gogh

Willem De Kooning (1900-1997) was a Dutch-American artist. He started out in an abstract expressionist style with portraits of anonymous people and later produced some landscapes.
Roy Lichtenstein (1923-1997) was an American working in Pop-Art style. He made several lithographs using a style which reminds one of comic cartoons.
Claes Oldenburg (born 1929) is Swedish-American sculptor. His specialty is enlarged household objects, such as a "Clothespin" or a "Crusoe Umbrella" larger than life.
Vincent Van Gogh (1853-1890) is the correct answer to the present question. He worked for a while in the Netherlands and in Belgium. His best known artworks were made in France: the "Sunflowers" were painted in Arles, "Starry Night" in Saint-Remi-de-Provence and the "Portrait of Dr. Gachet" in Auvers-sur-Oise.
Van Gogh's painting "The Potato Eaters" contains a peculiar side-show: one of the family members is pouring coffee into some cups. This is quite astonishing, as coffee was considered a rather luxurious product, and the portrayed family is very poor (maybe a mineworker's family).

Answer: Salvador Dali

Henri Matisse (1869-1954) was not a Spanish artist, but a Frenchman. He was the most prominent painter of the Fauvist movement. His best known painting is "The Dance" (1909 and 1910), with five nude dancers depicted in red against a dark green and dark blue background. There are two versions of this painting: the one of 1909 with rather pale colours, and the one of 1910 which is darker.
Oskar Kokoschka (1886-1980) was not Spanish either, but Austrian. He left us (among others) "The Bride of the Wind", "Summer Flowers with Iris and Cuckoo-Flower" and a "Pieta".
Bartolomé Bermejo (born before 1475) was a Spanish painter of religious scenes. Some of his works are "Christ Leading the Patriarchs into Paradise", "Pieta of Canon Luis Despla" and of course a "Crucifixion".
Salvador Dali (1904-1989) is the only Surrealist mentioned in this list. He will always be remembered for paintings such as "The Persistence of Memory" (the one with melted clocks) and "The Temptation of Saint Anthony" (with an elephant on elegant paws, style Louis XV). But personally I find his "Eggs on the Plate without the Plate" one of the most intriguing pictures. (Warning: don't try and experiment with this setting in your kitchen. You're bound to clean up the whole kitchen, and egg yolk makes very nasty stains.)

Answer: Yes

Andrew Warhola (1928-1987) adopted the alias Andy Warhol. He belongs to the Pop-Art movement, showing popular themes in an unusual setting. Warhol completed a series of portraits of Marilyn Monroe (in different bright colours) and a series on "Campbell's Soup".
The word "series" is quite appropriate here: the original work shown in the Museum of Modern Art in New York shows all 32 varieties of Campbell's soup that existed when Warhol first made this artwork. These include clam chowder, chicken noodle soup, onion soup, split pea soup, green pea soup, pepper pot, tomato soup, beef broth, cream of asparagus soup, bean soup, black bean soup, cheddar cheese soup, Scotch broth, vegetable soup, beef soup, chicken 'n dumplings soup, tomato rice soup, cream of celery soup, minestrone, chili beef soup, cream of chicken soup, chicken vegetable soup, chicken soup, chicken gumbo, vegetable bean soup... Nowadays, a series of 32 soup cans would be largely insufficient to depict all varieties of Campbell's soups.

This quiz uses (among others) following on-line resources: Wikipedia; Web Gallery of Art; Artnet; Webmuseum and The Bible Gateway.
Furthermore I have consulted the Encarta Encyclopaedia on CD- ROM and the following books: "P.P. Rubens" by Frans Baudouin (1977); "Van Gogh and Gauguin: the Workshop of the South" by Druick and Zegers (2001); "Le Petit Larousse" (1993); "Verschueren Groot Encyclopedisch Woordenboek" (1996); "World History" by Carl Grimberg et alii (2004) and "7000 Years of World History" edited by Lekturama (1977).

The topic for this quiz was suggested by my dear father on his 88th birthday.