Shakespeare in Art Trivia Quiz

Answer: King Lear

Ford Madox Brown's "Cordelia's Portion" is the artist's impression of a scene from "King Lear".
The best-known film adaptation of "King Lear" was directed by Peter Brook in 1971 with Paul Scofield in the title role. The cast also included Cyril Cusack (as Albany), Irene Worth (Goneril), Susan Engel (Regan) and Patrick Magee (Cornwall).

Answer: Richard III

Hogarth's "David Garrick as Richard III", part of the collection at the Walker Art Gallery in Liverpool, depicts Act V, Scene 3 of Shakespeare's history. Richard has just awoken from a sleep haunted by the ghosts of those he has murdered. The Battle of Bosworth Field is imminent and Richard realizes that he is alone and death is coming.
Born in London in 1697, Hogarth is credited with pioneering western "sequential art". As a cartoonist, he established a style of satirical political illustrations that is still known as "Hogarthian" today.
The most famous screen portrayal of Richard III was by Lord Olivier in a 1955 film that he also directed. Other members of the illustrious cast include Sir John Gielgud (as George, Duke of Clarence, Richard's brother), Sir Ralph Richardson (as the corrupt official, the Duke of Buckingham) and Helen Hayes (as the Duchess of York).

Answer: A Midsummer Night's Dream

Entitled simply "Puck", Reynolds painted this work for the Boydell Shakespeare Gallery in London.
Reynolds, born in Plympton, Devon in 1723, was the leading portrait painter of the 18th Century. A founder of the Royal Academy and its first President, was knighted by George III in 1769.
Puck, also known as Robin Goodfellow, is a clever, mischievous elf who Shakespeare describes as "shrewd and knavish sprite" and "that merry wanderer of the night". On screen he has famously been played by Mickey Rooney (in the Oscar-winning 1935 film adaptation) and by Ian Holm (in the 1968 film version).

Answer: Hamlet

Entitled "Actors before Hamlet" hangs in the National Museum in Warsaw.
Born in 1850, Wladyslaw Czachórski's best-known works are mostly scenes from Shakespeare plays including three from "Hamlet" and "Juliet's Funeral" from "Romeo and Juliet".
"Hamlet" is both Shakespeare's most famous play and his longest. It has been adapted for the screen numerous times. Amongst the most famous of those versions is the 1948 film directed by Laurence Olivier in which he also plays the title character. Other members of the cast include Jean Simmons (as Ophelia), for which she earned an Oscar nomination, Anthony Quayle (as a soldier, Marcellus), Peter Cushing (as Osric), John Laurie, who would later earn fame in "Dad's Army" (as the soldier Francisco) and Christopher Lee in an uncredited and non-speaking role as a spear-carrier.

Answer: Othello

Delacroix's "The Death of Desdemona" depicts a scene from "Othello".
Born Ferdinand Victor Eugène Delacroix in 1798 in Île-de-France, Eugène Delacroix was the leader of the French Romantic school. Many of the best-known works of Delacroix are depictions of the works of Shakespeare, Walter Scott and Johann Wolfgang von Goethe.
Famous adaptations of "Othello" include the 1952 film with Orson Welles directing and playing the title role and the 1965 Royal National Theatre production directed by Stuart Burge starred Laurence Olivier as Othello, Frank Finley as Iago, Derek Jacobi as Cassio and Dame Maggie Smith as Desdemona.
Other adaptations include Gioachino Rossini's opera "Otello", which premiered in 1816 and Giuseppe Verdi's operatic version which was first performed in 1887. The music of Henry Purcell accompanied a 20-minute, four character ballet version of the play entitled "The Moor's Pavane", first performed in 1949.

Answer: The Merry Wives of Windsor

This painting, entitled "Falstaff in the Washbasket", is by Henry Fuseli, born in Zurich, Switzerland in 1741.
The character of Sir John Falstaff features in three of Shakespeare's plays, the two "Henry IV" histories and the comedy "The Merry Wives of Windsor". He also appears in operas by both Giuseppe Verdi ("Falstaff", Verdi's last opera) and Otto Nicolai, "Die lustigen Weiber von Windsor", in which he is disguised as a woman. The 1799 opera by Antonio Salieri, "Falstaff", is also an adaptation of "The Merry Wives of Windsor".

Answer: Macbeth

This 1854 painting is entitled "Macbeth Seeing the Ghost of Banquo". Born in 1819 in the municipality of Santa Bárbara de Samaná on the northern coast of what is now the Dominican Republic, Théodore Chassériau is renowned for his portraits, historical and religious paintings, allegorical murals, and Orientalist works. Chassériau also painted another picture based on this same play entitled "Macbeth and Banquo Meeting the Witches on the Heath". One of Shakespeare's darkest and most powerful works, "Macbeth" is also the shortest of his tragedies.

There have been many screen adaptations of "The Scottish Play": Orson Welles directed and played the title role in 1948; Roman Polanski directed a particularly graphic version in 1971; and director Trevor Nunn's 1978 adaptation stars Sir Ian McKellen and Dame Judi Dench as Macbeth and Lady Macbeth.

Answer: Romeo and Juliet

This 1823 oil-on-canvas is entitled "Last Kiss of Romeo and Juliet". Born in Venice in 1791, Francesco Hayez spent time in Rome, Naples and Milan during his long life (he lived to be 90). He is particularly renowned for his historical works and his portraits.
Always one of Shakespeare's most popular plays, "Romeo and Juliet" is one of the most filmed plays of all time. Most notable are George Cukor's multi-Oscar-nominated 1936 version starring Norma Shearer and Leslie Howard as the star-crossed lovers, Franco Zeffirelli's 1968 adaptation with Leonard Whiting and Olivia Hussey, and Baz Luhrmann's 1996 "Romeo + Juliet" with Leonardo DiCaprio and Claire Danes.
Sergei Prokofiev's ballet, first performed in 1938, and the Broadway show and 1961 film "West Side Story" are alternative versions of The Bard's play.

Answer: The Tempest

This paintings of a scene from "The Tempest" entitled "Ferdinand Lured by Ariel", is part of a private American collection.
Sir John Everett Millais, born in 1829 in Southampton, England was one of the original members of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, which was founded at his parents' house in London.
"The Tempest", thought to be Shakespeare's last play, is best described as a romantic tragicomedy. First filmed in 1905, the most notable non-silent version of the play is the 1960 adaptation directed by George Schaefer and starring Maurice Evans (as Prospero), Richard Burton (Caliban), Lee Remick (Miranda) and Roddy McDowall (Ariel).

Answer: The Two Gentlemen of Verona

The painting entitled "Valentine Rescues Silvia" is based on a scene from "The Two Gentlemen of Verona".
Angelica Kauffman was born in 1741 in the city of Chur, now the capital of Graubünden, the largest and the easternmost canton of Switzerland.
"The Two Gentlemen of Verona" is thought by some to be Shakespeare's first play, and it is certainly the first in which a heroine dresses as a boy. It also has the smallest cast of any of his plays. Completely ignored so far by Hollywood, the only film adaptation of the play is a 1931 silent Chinese version known in English as "A Spray of Plum Blossoms".