This Isn't the Answer You Need Quiz

Answer: Venus

"The Birth of Venus" was created by the Italian artist Sandro Botticelli (c.1445-1510) in around the year 1486. It depicts Venus, the goddess of love, sex and fertility, emerging as a fully grown woman from the sea, while standing in an opened seashell.

She is accompanied by three figures, a pair of lovers in passionate embrace on one side, and a fully clothed female on the other. These are meant to represent love and passion before and after the advent of Christianity. The seashell itself is said to be a representation of a woman's reproductive and sexual organs. Goodness me, Sigmund Freud would be delighted.

Answer: Water

"Water Lillies" was painted by French artist Claude Monet in 1919. It is one of a set of 250 paintings featuring various aspects of his lovely grounds and gardens. It is a quite beautiful work painted at sunset by a fine artist who was in the sunset of his own life at the time. Monet, who lived from 1840 until 1926, is described as the founder of the impressionist art movement.

His works are exquisite, with my own personal favourite being "Woman With a Parasol" painted in 1886.

Answer: Daylight hours

"The Night Watch" portrays a group of soldiers preparing to be led out on an assignment by one captain Frans Banning Cocq. Because at some time during its history, the painting was covered with a dark varnish to protect it, this gives the impression that the scene was set at night, whereas it is actually a daytime portrayal, noted for its contrasting effects of sunlight and shadow. Two others famous features of this rather gloomy and heavy work are its enormous size (11 feet by 14 feet); and the impression it gives of action, at a time when many other works of art at that time tended to portray figures caught in stillness. Rembrandt van Rijn, whose works I find immensely heavy and unappealing, lived from 1606 to 1669. Beauty however is in the eyes of the beholder and "The Night Watch" is considered one of the most famous paintings in the world.

Answer: Scream

"The Scream" is a hideous work by the Norwegian artist Edvard Munch, and portrays a distorted, tortured figure screaming mindlessly against a whirling, surreal and blood-stained background. It's quite horrible in fact, and very disturbing which, of course, is the purpose of the work. Munch (1863-1944) painted four different versions of this nightmare.

Not recommended for the average home, particularly not the nursery, but highly recommended as a gift for someone you dislike, this work has been the target of various art thieves. Why, one wonders? I'd give the ghastly thing away for free. Perhaps the most positive thing that could be said about this work is that it definitely evokes various reactions from its viewers. Rapturous delight, I think, would not be one.

Answer: Pearl earring

This is a lovely work, but with few facts known of its inception or purpose. The same applies to the artist himself, Johannes Vermeer. He lived from 1632 to 1675, and though moderately successful as an artist during his lifetime, it wasn't until the 19th century onwards that both he and his remaining works became so famous.

His paintings are colourful, amusing and full of light and life. The "Girl with a Pearl Earring", painted in 1665, is one such. She conveys the impression of youth, purity, loveliness and innocence and the light reflecting on her face is truly masterful.

The three points of triangular focus in the work are her eyes, her lips and that one adornment of a pearl earring, with the overall colours of the work all rich and vibrant and alive, so lifelike in fact that its almost as though the girl could step out of her frame. "The Girl with a Pearl Earring" is often described as another Mona Lisa. Depending on one's perspective, this could be considered an insult to this exquisite work by Vermeer.

Answer: Supper

Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519) worked on this great work periodically from 1495 until its completion in 1498. "The Last Supper" portrays Jesus and the apostles at their last meal before the crucifixion of Jesus took place. Much waffle has been written about the missing spaces on either side of the head of Jesus, and the fact that the apostle to the right of Jesus looks like a woman. Though that apostle certainly does appear to be a dainty looking fellow, the spaces on either side of the head of Jesus serve, more than anything, to draw the viewer's eye to the central figure of the Lord himself, and the sense of eternity stretching far away into the distance behind him. Either that, or da Vinci may have planned to include two angels on either side in those two spaces, or perhaps even a representation of God and the Holy Spirit, in keeping with the Christian belief of the Holy Trinity.

Answer: Starry

Poor sad Vincent. The "Starry Night" was painted in 1889, and is the view from his window in the sanitorium in which he was hospitalised for a nervous breakdown. It portrays a village in the distance under a swirling, unsettled night sky dotted with stars. Dutch impressionist painter Vincent Willem Van Gogh lived from 1853 until 1890.

He suffered from his tormented mental illnesses almost all his life, yet still managed to leave behind a legacy of startlingly evocative paintings on a variety of themes that tug at the heart.

They seem to swing back and forth between the deepest despair, to a longing for stability, to a great sense of the eternal. His last words before dying from an infection from a self-imposed bullet wound somehow sum up, not only his life, but also his entire range of work.

These were "The sadness will last forever". And, sorrowfully so, this indeed seems to be the case.

Answer: Blue

"The Blue Boy" by English artist Thomas Gainsborough (1727-1788) was painted in 1770. The subject was the son of a wealthy British merchant and looks out at us with all the arrogance and confidence of a young man born into an assured and comfortable life.

The painting is noted for its truly excellent light strokes, its contrasting and brilliantly placed colours, and for the intricacies of the various folds in the outfit the boy is wearing. Gainsborough was particularly famous for his portraits, but towards the end of his career, he was sick to death of painting them, and longed for a life in the country where he could paint landscapes to his heart's content.

Answer: Charles I

"Charles I at the Hunt" was painted around the year 1635. It depicts the British monarch (1600-1649) dressed in comfortable clothing suitable for horseriding, and about to embark on a day's hunting. The setting is rural and relaxed, as are the other figures in the portrait. Charles however still manages to exude an air of confidence and power as he stands in the centre of the work in a somewhat arrogant pose.

He's portrayed wearing a sword, and carrying a walking stick of all things, and is placed on a slight hill overlooking a distant landscape below.

This is said to be because Charles was rather sensitive about his short stature, and the hill gives him the illusion of the height he lacked. The Flemish born Anthony Van Dyck was the leading painter of the British royals and was knighted for his pains.

This in no way detracts from his very real skill as an artist however, and his other well known works more than testify to this. His "Self-Portrait with a Sunflower" is one such. This is a brilliant work that captures the effect of light and shade and the bloom of life perfectly.

Answer: Boating

"Luncheon of the Boating Party" is a lovely work noted for its colours, light brush strokes, and sense of life, enjoyment and movement. Also, to a degree, for its freeing up of strict moral and social codes it conveys. We have men in top hats fading into the background while lusty young fellows in singlets sitting casually on railings or drinking with the sexuallly liberated young women at the table in the foreground.

It's all about life and freedom and the new world and new century fast approaching. Renoir, who lived from 1841 until 1919, was an expert at capturing this sense of the new world in his work.