Pictures at an Exhibition - Time Quiz

Answer: London Millennium Footbridge

All the bridges I've mentioned are in London and do cross the Thames. However, only one of these bridges opened in 2000 and is accessible only for pedestrians.
Blackfriars Bridge is an arch bridge completed in 1869 according to a design by Thomas Cubitt (1788-1855). It is open for motor vehicles (cars and motor bikes), as well as for pedestrians. There is also a Blackfriars Railway Bridge in the vicinity, open for trains only (self-evidently).
There have been older bridges at about the same place as the modern London Bridge. However, we'll discuss here only the one that has been in place since 1973. This London Bridge is built upon prestressed-concrete box girders. The bridge was designed by the engineering firm Mott, Hay and Anderson (a firm founded in 1902 - since 1979 known as Mott McDonald), and was built by the contractors John Mowlem and Co - a company established in 1822. It carries part of the A3 motorway (London - Portsmouth).
Tower Bridge is a combined bascule bridge and suspension bridge, open for motor vehicles and pedestrians. It was designed by Horace Jones (1819-1887) and constructed by five major contractors (and probably a number of subcontractors as well). Tower Bridge opened June 30th, 1894.
The Millennium Bridge (full name: London Millennium Footbridge) is the suspension bridge we were looking for in this question. It was destined to open in 2000, which it did - but only for two days because of the "wobbling". A word on the architects of this pedestrian bridge: Arup is an engineering company founded in 1946, Foster and Partners is an architectural firm founded in 1967 by Norman Robert Foster (born 1935) and Sir Anthony Caro (born in 1924) is an English sculptor.

Answer: Palazzo Pitti

All the buildings given as options are situated in Florence, Italy. I'll discuss them roughly from North to South.
The Accademia is situated in the Via Ricasoli. Its Gallery welcomes hundreds of visitors every day, who are keen to see the original statue of the "David" by Michelangelo (1475-1564).
If you follow the Via Ricasoli to the south, you'll arrive at the Santa Maria dei Fiori - better known as the Duomo - the main church of Firenze. This church is world famous for the cupola designed by Filippo Brunelleschi (1377-1446). If you're in good shape, try and climb the cupola - after 463 steps you'll obtain a marvellous panorama.
From the Duomo, take the Via dei Calzaiuoli to the south to arrive at the Piazza della Signoria. In the south corner, you'll find the entrance to the largest museum in Florence: the Galleria degli Uffizi. Its numerous highlights include the "Birth of Venus" by Sandro Botticelli (1445-1510).
Leaving the Uffizi, you can cross the Arno River by the Ponte Vecchio to arrive finally at the Palazzo Pitti. This museum contains several masterpieces by Rafael (1483-1520), and a dozen ceiling frescoes by Pietro da Cortona (born Berrettini, 1596-1669). I visited the Palazzo Pitti in June 2008. At that time, most ceiling frescoes by Pietro da Cortona were splendidly restored. One fresco was being restored at that time, and work on "The Golden Age" was yet to begin.

Answer: De Limbourg

All the names given are relatively notorious artists' families.
The family Pourbus has given us three Belgian Baroque painters: Pieter Pourbus (1523-1584), his son Frans the Elder (1545-1581) and Pieter's grandson Frans the Younger (1569-1622). All of them lived and worked in Bruges.
The Quellin family had its roots in Antwerp. Members include: the sculptor Erasmus I (1584-1640); his sons Erasmus II (painter, 1607-1678), Artus I (sculptor, 1609-1668) and Hubertus (1609 (?)-1687, drawing artist); Erasmus I's grandson Artus II (sculptor, 1625-1700); and Erasmus I's great-grandsons Artus III (1653-1686, sculptor in London), Cornelis (painter, 1658-1709) and Thomas (1661-1709, sculptor in Copenhagen).
The brothers Le Nain were French painters: Louis (about 1593-1648), Antoine (about 1599-1648) and Mathieu (1607-1677). These three brothers all signed their paintings with "LN" - the abbreviation of their family name. Their style was so closely related that it is quite impossible to ascribe their works to one of the brothers, unless it would be a work dated after 1648.
The brothers De Limbourg completed "Les très riches heures du Duc de Berry", a chronicle with exquisite illustrations of all the months of the year. Paul (born about 1375), Herman (born about 1380) and Johan (born about 1385) either worked together for these illustrations or made each their own copy, in which latter case we can't detect individual style differences. That's why the aforesaid chronicle is ascribed to the three brothers together. It was their last masterpiece: the three brothers all died in 1416.

Answer: Giuseppe Arcimboldo

Leon Battista Alberti (1404-1472) was an Italian Renaissance architect. His masterpiece is the Tempio Malatestiana in Rimini, Italy.
Alessandro Algardi (1598-1654) was an Italian Baroque sculptor. He is best remembered for his bas-relief "The Meeting of Leo I and Attila" (1646-1653), which you can admire in St. Peter's in Rome.
Angelo di Nalduccio was a medieval Italian sculptor, active from 1342 until 1389. One of the surviving statues by his hand is the polychrome wooden statue of "The Archangel Gabriel" (completed in 1370), which you will find in the Tuscan village Montalcino (better known for its excellent wine).
Giuseppe Arcimboldo (1530-1593) is the only mannerist painter of these four. He lived and worked near Milan. His series on the four seasons was preceded by a series on the four elements: "The Fire", "The Water", "The Air" and "The Earth". Each and every of his elaborate paintings we know nowadays, seems to be a portrait from afar, but is built up of relatively small objects associated with the theme (for example: flowers for "Spring", fruits for "Summer", grapes and autumnal leaves for "Autumn", fish and crustaceans for "Water", matches and a cannon for "Fire", books for "The Librarian").

Answer: The Battle between Carnival and Lent

Pieter Brueghel the Elder (1525-1569) was the first of a notorious family of Belgian painters. Other members of this family include his sons Pieter the Younger (1564-1638) and Jan (1568-1625), and his grandsons Pieter III (born 1589) and Jan II (1601-1678).
All the paintings mentioned in this question are works by Pieter the Elder.
"Proverbs", one of his best known works, depicts about 100 Dutch proverbs.
"Mad Meg" (in Belgium and the Netherlands better known as "Dulle Griet") shows us the personification of war en route to looting and manslaughter. Whatever you might call this painting it is not merry at all.
"Bird Trap" is a winter landscape with a trap destined to catch some birds. This scene was depicted by several members of the Brueghel family.
The picture I've asked for is "The Battle between Carnival and Lent". During Carnival, people tried to eat and drink as much as they could, because they knew that with Ash Wednesday would start Lent - a period of forty days in which they were no longer allowed to "eat, drink and be merry".

Answer: Venus

The Palazzo Schifanoia in Ferrara, Italy was decorated by Francesco del Cossa and by Cosme Tura. Del Cossa painted the allegories of March, April and May, while Tura completed the allegories of June, July, August and September. It may have been the intention of the principal to have also allegories for the other five months, but these have not been painted.
Minerva was the goddess of wisdom. The "Allegory of March" by del Cossa is dedicated to her.
Ceres was the goddess of harvest. It is of course Tura's "Allegory of August" that refers to Ceres.
Juno was the goddess of matrimony. Although you would expect her in the "Allegory of June", she was not depicted in the Palazzo Schifanoia.

Answer: Presentation of the "October Manifesto"

The massacre in St. Petersburg was on Sunday 22 January 1905. A large crowd came to the Winter Palace to ask social reform (better working conditions, better wages and a shorter working day). For some reason that is not yet clear, the Tsarist army opened fire, leaving at least 96 dead demonstrators. (This is the official number of deaths admitted by the Tsarist army, but other estimates are much higher - up to 4,000 killed and wounded.)
Count Leo Tolstoy, notorious author of "Anna Karenina" and "War and Peace", was born in Yasnaya Polyana in 1828. He died in 1910 in Astapovo, maybe from a cold (or complications related to this disease).
The October Revolution did not take place in 1905, but in 1917. According to the Julian calendar that was in use in Russia at the start of this revolution, it is dated October 25th. But soon after the revolution Russia adopted the Gregorian calendar, according to which the October Revolution took place November 7th.
The October Manifesto was a petition asking for basic civil rights: freedom of religion, freedom of speech, freedom of assembly and freedom of association, as well as universal suffrage (for men only - women were excluded). At the time, people thought this would be the first step towards a better world. Alas, the Tsarist regime held a veto right and frequently used it in order to stop social reform.
Ilya Repin (1844-1930) was a Russian painter and sculptor. Besides some historical paintings, Repin left us several portraits of Russian intellectuals (authors Leo Tolstoy and Alexander Zhirkevich, musicians Modest Mussorgsky and Anton Rubinstein, politician Konstantin Pobedonostsev...)

Answer: Pentecost

Every one of you should know the religious meaning of Christmas: the birth of Christ in Bethlehem. It inspired innumerable artists to make displays (paintings, sculptures) with the Holy Family, angels, adoring shepherds or adoring kings, and perhaps some mammals (an ox, a donkey, some sheep, perhaps some dogs). This is not the event I've described in the question.
All Saints Day (November 1st) is a Catholic holiday held to celebrate every saint and martyr, known or unknown. Many of the most important saints have a specific day on which they are remembered (for example: St. Joseph on March 19th, St. Patrick on March 17th), but in order to honour them all, the Catholic Church established All Saints Day. As far as I know, no one ever named a painting after All Saints Day.
Ascension (the fortieth day after the Resurrection of Jesus) is the miraculous event in which Jesus is taken up into heaven, where He will sit at the right hand of His Father. Many artists painted the Ascension. Let's name here only a few: Giotto di Bondone (1266-1337), Pietro Perugino (1448-1523) and Tintoretto (Iacopo Comin or Iacopo Robusti, 1518-1594).
The event that inspired El Greco can be found in Acts 2:1-13. The apostles (and Mary, according to this painting) received the Holy Ghost, seeming to be tongues of fire. El Greco wanted to display the presence of the Holy Ghost by the symbol of a dove.
This event is known as Pentecost: the fiftieth day after the Resurrection of Jesus Christ.
El Greco (born Domenikos Theotokopoulos, 1541-1614) was a Spanish painter born in Crete. Other artists who depicted the Pentecost are for example Giotto di Bondone, Anthony Van Dyck (1599-1641) and Jean II Restout (1692-1768).

Answer: Omaha Beach

All the beaches I've mentioned were landing zones on D-Day (June 6th, 1944). Juno Beach fell in the Canadian sector, while British troops landed on Gold Beach and Sword Beach and the Americans had to take Omaha Beach and Utah Beach.
Robert Capa (born Andrei Friedmann, 1913-1954) was born in Hungary and adopted American nationality. In this capacity it was only natural for him to accompany the American troops on D-Day.
Omaha Beach was the landing zone on which the allied troops suffered the most casualties. This has perhaps contributed to the importance of Capa's photographs.
By the way, the fact that most of Capa's photographs were lost had nothing to do with enemy activity. It was because of an accident in the darkroom where the photographs were to be developed and printed.

Answer: A ship

There are two good reasons to pick the right option out of the answers I've given here.
First of all, in 1730 only the ship existed yet as a means of transportation for passengers. The first passenger train service was opened in 1807, the first automobile was invented around 1885 by Karl Benz (although sources differ widely: the word "automobile" was only invented in 1890, so before that there was no consensus about the definition of an automobile) and the first plane took off in 1903.
The other reason why you should have been able to pick the right option is the specific geography of Venice. The city consists of over 100 tiny islands and one district on the Italian mainland. Transport in Venice is dominated by ships (gondolas, ferries, etcetera) while there is almost no place for cars. Planes land on Marco Polo International Airport on the mainland, and the railway station is also on the mainland (in the district of Mestre).
The Bucintoro is specifically the galley of the Doge, the political leader of Venice. It was used to sail into the lagoon each Ascension Day in order to celebrate the ritual marriage of Venice to the sea, until the vessel was destroyed in 1798 by the French army.

Antonio Canaletto (1697-1768, born Canal) was a Venetian painter. His father Bernardo Canal and his nephew Bernardo Bellotto were also famous painters in their time. (Nowadays one remembers only Antonio).

Answer: Nighthawks

All the titles I've mentioned here are paintings by Edward Hopper. If you remember the title of this quiz and the introduction, you should realise that only one of these paintings fits in our category: artworks referring to a specific period or moment in time. Neither "Automat" (1927) nor "Chop Suey" (1929) nor "Office in a Small City" (1953) contains a reference to time in the title of the work.
Edward Hopper (1882-1967) was an American painter.
Let's discuss here briefly the four paintings I've mentioned.
"Automat" shows us a woman, elegantly dressed, in an empty bar or restaurant. The woman holds a cup of something (probably coffee) in her hand. The world outside is covered in darkness.
"Chop Suey" shows us two women at a table in what is probably a Chinese restaurant. Dinner is not yet served, but a pot of tea is already on the table.
"Office in a Small city" shows us a man sitting in a corner office looking out on a skyline with some buildings of the same altitude.
"Nighthawks" depicts a bar or restaurant on the corner of two deserted roads. In the restaurant, a man sits with his back towards the spectator, with some kind of drink before him. A couple (man and wife?) orders something from the server.

Answer: Georges Seurat

All these painters are pointillists. Pointillism (called "divisionism" by Seurat) is an art movement that creates paintings by juxtaposing bright dots of colours, so that from a distance the desired image is created. However, if you look too close on pointillist paintings, you would see only a bunch of brightly coloured spots.
Signac (1863-1935) was a French pointillist. One of his pointillist masterpieces is "The Papal Palace, Avignon" (1900).
Theo Van Rysselberghe (1862-1926) was a Belgian pointillist. His masterpieces include the portraits of Alice Sèthe (1888) and Maria Sèthe.
Chuck Close (born 1940) is an American painter. Having started his career in a photorealistic style, he changed to pointillism after a spinal artery collapse. He has made several portraits.
Seurat (1859-1891) created "Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte" in 1884. This masterpiece shows us a fashionable afternoon trip to a park near Paris.

Answer: De Medici

Michelangelo (1475-1564) was born with the surname Buonarotti. The tomb he designed with the statues "Day", "Night", "Twilight" and "Dawn" was not his own family grave. Michelangelo's own tomb was created by Giorgio Vasari (1511-1574) and decorated by Valerio Cioli (1529-1599), Giovanni Bandini (1540-1599) and Battista Lorenzi (1527-1594)
Alighieri was the family name of the famous Florentine poet Dante (1265-1321). There is a tomb of his in the Florentine church Santa Croce, but Dante was in fact buried in Ravenna. I haven't found any information as to who designed Dante's tomb (or tombs, for there are of course two: one in Florence and one in Ravenna).
With the name Casiraghi, I refer to Stefano Casiraghi (1960-1990), second husband of princess Caroline of Monaco (born 1957). Michelangelo did of course never hear of Stefano Casiraghi, and never designed a monument to Stefano's family.
The statues "Night" and "Day" decorate the tomb of Giuliano de Medici, whereas "Twilight" and "Dawn" are apparent at the tomb of Lorenzo de Medici (Lorenzo the Magnificent). These two brothers have their tombs in the Sagrestia Nuova ("New Sacristy") of the San Lorenzo church in Florence, Italy.

Answer: Soleil Levant

Claude Monet (1840-1926) was one of the founders of the French Impressionism. He propagated a quite quick method of outdoor painting. This enabled him to catch the influence of changing weather. In fact, some of his painting series depict the same subject (two haystacks, Rouen Cathedral, the Houses of Parliament in London...) in different weather conditions. The painting in this question depicts a view of the sea outside Le Havre by sunrise.

The painting "Impression: soleil levant" was one of the most characteristic artworks displayed at the "Salon des refusés" ("Salon of the Refused") in 1874, where Monet and some of his friends exposed an unconventional art.

The "Salon des refusés" found its origin in 1863 (with state sponsoring), and was repeated in 1874, 1875 and 1886. An art critic who was stunned by Monet's "Impression: soleil levant" launched the term "impressionism" to express his contempt of this breach with classical art.

However, Monet and his fellows were not insulted by this term, but chose to see it as a compliment. (This is a phenomenon that has arisen a few times in history: someone wants to insult a group of people, but these accept it as a compliment).

Answer: Dali

The elephant on thin legs is perhaps only a background figure, but it certainly helps to ascertain that the artist in this question must have been Salvador Dali (1904-1989). A similar elephant can also be seen on "The Temptation of St. Anthony" and "The Elephants".
Dali's masterpiece is of course "The Persistence of Memory", showing a number of melted (or melting) clocks.

Sources for this quiz include: "World History" by Carl Grimberg, "7000 Years of World History" edited by Christoph Columbus Verlag AG, "Verschueren Groot Encyclopedisch Woordenboek", "Le Petit Larousse", the Encarta Encyclopedia on CD-ROM, the Catholic Encyclopedia (www.newadvent.org/cathen), the Web Gallery of Art (www.wga.hu), the Webmuseum (www.ibiblio.org/wm/paint/auth), Artnet (www.artnet.com) and Wikipedia (http:/en.wikipedia.org ).