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Painting Details Trivia Quiz

Almost unobserved details can add special meaning to a painting. Test your observational skills by playing this quiz.

A multiple-choice quiz by malvasia. Estimated time: 5 mins.

Author
malvasia

Time
5 mins

Type
Multiple Choice

Quiz #
278,312

Updated
Aug 14 23

# Qns
10

Difficulty
Tough

Avg Score
5 / 10

Plays
1012

Last 3 plays: jogreen (6/10), Linda_Arizona (7/10), Guest 35 (7/10).

One at a Time - Single Page - Timed Game

Question 1 of 10

1. In Tiziano's "Venere di Urbino" the main focus is of course on the beautiful woman in the foreground. But there are two other women in the background. You can't see the face of the one on the left; why? Hint

Because she is in deep shadow

Because she is hiding her face with a veil

Because she is busy searching for something in a chest

Because she is wearing a mask

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Question 2 of 10

2. In Courbet's "The Young Ladies on the Bank of the Seine" two young ladies, possibly two "night ladies", are relaxing on the river bank during a hot summer day. What can you see half hidden behind the tree on the right? Hint

A picnic basket

A straw hat

A bunch of flowers

A bush

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Question 3 of 10

3. In Vermeer's "Lady Standing at a Virginal" there is a painting on the wall behind the lady. It shows a Cupid holding something. What is the Cupid holding? Hint

An arrow

A card

A heart

A feather

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Question 4 of 10

4. In the background of Leonardo's "Mona Lisa" a bridge is visible.

True

False

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Question 5 of 10

5. In which of these paintings is the main focus on a tiny white highlight which stands out against a dark background? Hint

Giorgione's "La Tempesta"

Raffaello's "La Fornarina"

Rembrandt's "The Nightwatch"

Vermeer's "Girl with a Pearl Earring"

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Question 6 of 10

6. Carpaccio's "Two courtesans" depicts two ladies melancolicly sitting on a Venetian "altana" (i.e. a sort of terrace built on the top of the house). On the balustrade on the top left of the paintings there are a few pigeons and... something else. Name this something. Hint

An amphor

A vase with a flower

A vase with just a stem emerging from it

An urn

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Question 7 of 10

7. There is a self portrait in Jan Van Eyck's "The Arnolfini Marriage".

True

False

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Question 8 of 10

8. Talking about mirrors, in which other famous painting is a mirror the focal point explaining to us what all the characters are doing? Hint

Rembrandt's "Anatomy Lesson"

Picasso's "Les Demoiselles d'Avignon"

Van Gogh's "Self-Portrait in Front of the Easel"

Velazquez's "Las Meninas"

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Question 9 of 10

9. In Gericault's "The Raft of the Medusa" on the bottom left you can see an unconscious or possibly dead young man who is about to slip from the raft were it not for an old man holding him. This character is almost completely naked, since he wears just a piece of clothing. Which one? Hint

His underwear

Footwraps

A loincloth

A towel

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Question 10 of 10

10. To finish, a quite famous detail. In Holbein's "The Ambassadors", among a lot of symbols and clues there is a funny shape on the floor, at the two men's feet. What is it? Hint

A terrestrial globe

A telescope

A sundial

A skull

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Most Recent Scores

Dec 20 2024 : jogreen: 6/10
Dec 16 2024 : Linda_Arizona: 7/10
Nov 07 2024 : Guest 35: 7/10
Oct 27 2024 : Guest 47: 4/10

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Quiz Answer Key and Fun Facts

Answer: Because she is busy searching for something in a chest

She is probably a maid searching for her lady's undergarments. The other maid is already holding a gown.

Answer: A straw hat

The red lace on the first girl's dress, the black glove with the red pearls bracelet on the second girl's hand, they all show Courbet's care for details and composition. The straw hat with its red ribbon half emerging from behind the trees is used to add depth to the painting.

3. In Vermeer's "Lady Standing at a Virginal" there is a painting on the wall behind the lady. It shows a Cupid holding something. What is the Cupid holding?

Answer: A card

The card, which displays the number one, means that love should be directed to one person only. The painting is an allegory of faithful love, and it goes together with a second painting on a similar subject: "Lady Seated at the Virginal" which by contrast is an allegory of mercenary love.

4. In the background of Leonardo's "Mona Lisa" a bridge is visible.

Answer: True

Although many critics thought the landscape in Mona Lisa came from Leonardo's imagination, the bridge has been identified. It is Buriano Bridge, on the river Arno, near Arezzo. Also other landscape details, like the river affluent and the peculiar rock formations, fit this identification.

5. In which of these paintings is the main focus on a tiny white highlight which stands out against a dark background?

Answer: Vermeer's "Girl with a Pearl Earring"

Pearls mean vanity but also virginity. The pearl worn by Vermeer's girl is too large to be natural though... it was probably enlarged by the painter to add something spectacular to the girl's clean face.

Answer: A vase with just a stem emerging from it

The stem is particularly curious, because it looks as if the painting had been cropped from a larger size. It was recently discovered that a different painting, "Hunt in the Lagoon" (today at Paul Getty's Museum), seems to be the missing piece of the puzzle.

There is in fact a lily on the bottom left corner that perfectly matches the stem. The two ladies so would not be two courtesans but two bored noble ladies waiting for their husbands to come back from the hunt.

7. There is a self portrait in Jan Van Eyck's "The Arnolfini Marriage".

Answer: True

A very tiny self portrait can be seen in the mirror on the wall in the background. The mirror is detailed with astonishing skill. It shows the door in front of the Arnolfini couple where two witnesses to the marriage are standing. One of the two is the painter himself.

The painter signature is just above the mirror "Johannes de Eyck fuit hic 1434" which can be interpreted both as a signature on the painting and as witness on the nuptial contract.

8. Talking about mirrors, in which other famous painting is a mirror the focal point explaining to us what all the characters are doing?

Answer: Velazquez's "Las Meninas"

In Velazquez's work we can see the infanta Margherita that together with her maids of honour, her chaperone, her bodyguard, and two dwarfs is visiting her parents King Filippo IV of Spain and his wife, Queen Marianna. The royal couple are modelling for Velazquez himself (on the left, standing in front of a huge easel) and are just visible in the mirror on the furthermost wall.

Answer: Footwraps

The detail of having bandages wrapped around his feet speaks for the realism of the picture and adds to the drama of the depicted scene.

10. To finish, a quite famous detail. In Holbein's "The Ambassadors", among a lot of symbols and clues there is a funny shape on the floor, at the two men's feet. What is it?

Answer: A skull

The skull is painted in anamorphic perspective, and can be clearly seen only when viewing the painting from the side. It is, then, a kind of subliminal "memento mori", a warning remembering that we all must die. Another hypothesis is that the painting was thought to be hung in such a position that the unknowing visitor would be startled by the sudden appearance of the skull.

Source: Author malvasia

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