Judy Chicago Trivia

1. This Native American honored with a place setting at "The Dinner Party" lived c. 1786-1812. Her son, pictured with her in a US government engraving, was born in 1805.

From Quiz "The Dinner Party": Wing Three

Answer: Sacajawea

Sacajawea is one of those female icons, like Cleopatra or Pocahontas, that people think they know something about but who has ended up being rather one-dimensional. Sacajawea did much more than guide Lewis and Clark and then quietly go away until reappearing on the US dollar coin with her baby on her back. It is of interest that the official guide to Judy Chicago's "Dinner Party" states that Sacajawea was included in the artwork as "an example of European exploitation". Sacajawea's "Dinner Party" plate is painted with a traditional star-shaped Native American design. Anne Hutchinson, also honored in "The Dinner Party", was an American colonist who challenged church doctrine and was excommunicated and banished.

From Quiz "The Dinner Party": Wing One

Answer: Painted china place settings on embroidered runners

"The Dinner Party" consists of a triangular table, 48 feet long on each side, on which are place settings for 39 important women from history. Each setting contains a plate embellished with what Ms. Chicago calls "vulvul" imagery. The plates rest on embroidered runners, different for each woman, that celebrate traditional female crafts; the table stands on a tile floor adorned with the names of 999 additional women. It is divided into three sections, or wings, which follow chronological history. Ms. Chicago co-ordinated the china painting and embroidery and has stated that these arts are less respected because they are traditionally produced by women. (info from www.judychicago.com)

From Quiz "The Dinner Party": Wing Two

Answer: Theodora

Empress Theodora rose from humble beginnings (her father was a bear trainer, and she was an actress and perhaps even a prostitute) to rule the Byzantine Empire jointly with her husband, Justinian. She encouraged religious and social tolerance, supported laws against forced prostitution, and was a patroness of architecture. Theodora's plate is reddish-purple and green, and her runner is embroidered with Byzantine designs.

From Quiz "The Dinner Party": Wing Three

Answer: She was an author and a feminist theoretician

Mary Wollstonecraft, although most famous as an early feminist, wrote in many genres, including politics, history, travel and even romance. She suffered a difficult childhood, a series of disappointments in relationships, and ultimately death in childbirth, which unfortunately predated any notion of asepsis by several decades. The runner upon which her "Dinner Party" plate is placed shows this grisly scene in delicate embroidery. The famous composer honored with a "Dinner Party" place setting is Ethel Smyth (1858-1944); the gay feminist writer was Natalie Barney (1876-1972).

From Quiz "The Dinner Party": Wing Two

Answer: Hrosvitha

Among many other works, Hrosvitha wrote an epic poem about Otto I, Holy Roman Emperor. Her "Dinner Party" plate departs from the bright colors of those around it; its brown and tan design suggests an acorn. Of the incorrect answers, Marcella (325-410) founded the first Christian convent in Rome. She is also honored by a place setting in Wing Two of "The Dinner Party". Walladah Bint Mustakfi (c. 1001-1080) was a poet in Cordoba, Spain, and Zoe (c. 978-1050) was a strong-willed, manipulative Byzantine empress.

From Quiz "The Dinner Party": Wing Two

Answer: Obstetrics and Gynecology

"De Passionibus Mulierum Curandarum" translates as "On the Sufferings (sometimes translated as "Diseases") of Women". It was one of the first attempts in Western medicine to provide a scientific approach to pregnancy, childbirth, infertility, and that mysterious enigma, a woman's body. Trotula's "Dinner Party" plate resembles a glazed Italian tile, with a stylized caduceus design.

From Quiz "The Dinner Party": Wing One

Answer: Wisdom

Very simply, "Sophia" means "Wisdom" in Greek. Hagia Sophia, meaning Holy Wisdom, was the major basilica of the Eastern Othodox Church in Constantinople (present-day Istanbul). Sophia is included in "The Dinner Party" as a representation of feminine wisdom and power in the spiritual realm. Her plate looks like a stylized flower, yet with considerably more energy and a suggestion of the fire of wisdom.

From Quiz "The Dinner Party": Wing Three

Answer: Table Runner

As conceived by Judy Chicago, each woman's goblet and ceramic eating utensils are identical. Although not historically accurate for each woman's time period, this is meant to underscore the basic similarity between women. However, each woman's painted plate and embroidered or otherwise decorated table runner is unique.

From Quiz "The Dinner Party": Wing Two

Answer: France and England

Eleanor lived to be nearly eighty, bore ten children, and never stopped planning, managing, and involving herself in political intrigue. Her plate at "The Dinner Party" is one of the most striking of the 39. It resembles a fleur-de-lys for Eleanor's French origins, and rests on a medieval tapestry runner.

From Quiz "The Dinner Party": Wing One

Answer: Creating peace and prosperity in Egypt

Hatshepsut was one of very few female Pharaohs. Despite much opposition (largely from male relatives who would have preferred to be Pharaoh themselves), she reigned for twenty years. Her time on the throne was notable not for wars, but for exploration, peace, and the building of great monuments, among them Hapshepsut's own tomb, on which are inscribed these words: "I will make you to be the first of all living creatures, you will rise as king of Upper and of Lower Egypt, as your father Amon, who loves you, did ordain." (from http://www.bediz.com/hatshep/story.html) Upper and Lower Egypt were united around 3000 BCE, and the Library of Alexandria was founded in 283 BCE. Hatshepsut's plate is brilliant in primary colors and gold, and rests on a white runner embroidered with her name and a border of hieroglyphics.

From Quiz "The Dinner Party": Wing One

Answer: Judith

Judith, slayer of Holofernes, is the only Biblical heroine at "The Dinner Party", although there are many Bible names included in the 999 names written in gold on the tile floor on which the artwork's table stands. The Apocrypha are fourteen Biblical books accepted by the Catholic and Orthodox churches, but not by Jews or Protestants. Judith's plate rests on a runner featuring an embroidered sword.

From Quiz "The Dinner Party": Wing Three

Answer: It's pink and frilly

Ms. Dickinson, who lived from 1830-1886, began her poem "A Prayer" with these words: "I meant to have but modest needs, Such as content, and heaven; Within my income these could lie, And life and I keep even." Her frilly pink "Dinner Party" plate seems, to many viewers, not in keeping with Emily's New England Congregational upbringing.

From Quiz "The Dinner Party": Wing Two

Answer: She was burned as a witch in Ireland

Petronilla was certainly guilty of something, but it was probably that she served the wrong mistress. Her employer, Dame Alice Kyteler, was known as "The Sorceress of Kilkenny". Dame Alice would doubtless have suffered the same fate as her maid, but her money and position enabled her to flee to England. (from www.sacred-texts.com/pag/iwd/iwd03.htm, describing Petronilla's ordeal) "The Bishop had her flogged six times, and under the repeated application of this form of torture she made the required confession of magical practices." Petronilla was burned at the stake in 1324, becoming the first person executed for witchcraft in Ireland. Her "Dinner Party" plate features fire around a central flower. It is unknown how many persons (men as well as women) died as a result of witch hunts, but modern estimates range from 40,000 to well over a million.

From Quiz "The Dinner Party": Wing One

Answer: Boadaceia

Boadaceia (often spelled Boudicca) was a Celtic widowed queen who led a revolt against Roman oppressors in 60-61 AD. Even Tacitus, a Roman historian, describes the horrors Boadaceia and her daughters endured at the hands of the Romans. Aspasia, also a subject in Wing One of "The Dinner Party", was a 5th-century BCE Greek woman who fought for women's rights. Boadaceia's plate, in red, brown and yellow, is one of the most overtly sexual in Wing One, and also incorporates subtle Celtic motifs. It rests on a thick felt runner.

From Quiz "The Dinner Party": Wing Three

Answer: Virginia Woolf

Virginia Woolf is one of the shining lights of 20th-century literature. The author, a probable victim of childhood sexual abuse in her own home, fought a disabling mental disorder to produce more than two dozen works of fiction, biography and non-fiction before her death by suicide. The recent popular film "The Hours", while not accepted as accurate by all Woolf scholars, has inspired a resurgence of interest in the author's work. Ethel Smyth and Vita Sackville-West were two of Ms. Woolf's lovers; Clarissa Dalloway is one of her most famous literary creations.

From Quiz "The Dinner Party": Wing Two

Answer: Elizabeth I

Elizabeth's plate at "The Dinner Party" is a stylized butterfly design in rich jewel colors, resting on a velvet, pearl-encrusted and richly embroidered runner.

From Quiz "The Dinner Party": Wing Three

Answer: External female genitalia

Although many of Judy Chicago's "Dinner Party" plates suggest feminist power themes, Georgia O'Keeffe's plate looks the most overtly vaginal. This is appropriate both because O'Keeffe's flower paintings often look like female genitalia and because her plate is last and thus symbolic of the distance women have come since the very first "Dinner Party" place setting, Primordial Goddess. I hope you have enjoyed this, the third of my "Dinner Party" quizzes.

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Last Updated Dec 21 2024 5:51 AM

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