Paintings of Velasquez Trivia Quiz

Answer: Genre paintings

The woman, who appears to be blind, is cooking eggs over a clay stove; the boy holds a glass (this same boy appears in the painting "The Water Carrier of Seville" in almost the same position). All of Velasquez's early paintings were genre paintings; these are, in fact, some of the first genre paintings in Spanish art.

Answer: Christ in the House of Martha and Mary

Most depictions of this scene show Martha interrupting the conversation between Jesus and her sister to complain that Mary is not helping her with the work. This painting depicts Martha in the kitchen just before this confrontation; Jesus, Mary, and a third, unidentified female figure are seen in what appears to be a mirror over Martha's shoulder; she is looking directly at them in the other room (and at us, since we are where they would be in reality).

The simmering hurt and resentment on her face are palpable. An older woman (Her mother or an older servant) seems to be advising her (To speak up for herself? Not to be so upset?).

It is an endlessly fascinating painting.

Answer: Duke-Count de Olivares

Velasquez painted a full-figure and an equestrian portrait of de Olivares (Gaspar de Guzman), who was also the mentor and advisor to Philip IV from 1621-1643. Olivares was one of the most influential men in Europe until his fall from favor in 1643; broken in health and spirit, he was "allowed to retire" by King Philip.

Answer: Brown and silver

The glory of this portrait is the brilliant rendering of the elaborate and intricate embroidery on the king's outfit.

Answer: Charles I

The elegant Stuart monarch in his cavalier's dress was a favorite subject of painters of this period. Sadly, his reign came to a tragic end with his beheading in 1649 (by tragic coincidence, his grandmother had been the similarly ill-fated Mary, Queen of Scots).

Answer: All of these

"Las Meninas" is an amazing work; it is, at once, an portrait (of the Infanta Margarita) a family portrait (the royal parents can be seen in a mirror at the back; Velasquez' use of mirrors is always ingenious), a genre painting (there are several other figures- the Infanta's attendants, a female dwarf, a Carmelite nun, a few courtiers, and a dog), and a self-portrait of the artist (he is standing in front of a large canvas on an easel on the left hand side).

The little Infanta Margarita who is the painting's focal point is only one quarter the height of the large canvas. Luca Giordano declared this work to be "The theology of painting".

It is hard to disagree.

Answer: All of these.

Queen Marianna (the niece of Philip IV, whom he married in 1652) wears the typical grotesquely wide hoopskirt of the period, heavily decorated with gold braid. Her hair is plaited around the top of her head in a demi-lune. As would also be true of Goya, Velasquez did not flatter his royal subjects; the queen was clearly neither beautiful nor, if her rather sour expression is any indication, possessed of any great charm.

Answer: The defeated man is shown with dignity, standing, and with his men

Most paintings depicting historic surrenders show the vanquished man as a debased figure, on his knees before the victor, and seemingly abandoned by his troops. Not so in this painting, in which the defeated man is shown bowing humbly, but on his feet, surrounded by his proud army.

The victorious general is depicted as neither haughty nor condescending, but as genuinely gracious and sympathetic.

Answer: Spanish peasants

Bacchus, wearing his traditional garb of loincloth and a crown of vine leaves, sits next to a group of mugging (and clearly tipsy) Spanish peasants wearing the traditional garb of the period and each enjoying a glass of wine. A lone satyr reclines beside Bacchus to the left.

The painting is also known as "The Topers"; its incongruity is quite amusing. Velasquez achieved a similar effect in his painting "The Forge of Vulcan", in which the god, wearing a traditional toga and crown of laurel, gives instructions to a group of archetypical Spanish workmen.

Answer: It was slashed by a suffragette who found it offensive.

"Venus at the Mirror" (alternatively known as "The Rokeby Venus") shows the nude goddess reclining with her back to us; Cupid holds up a mirror in which she -and we- gaze at her face. This painting apparently offended the sensibilities of one particularly militant British suffragette, who went at it with a razor, inflicting serious damage but, thankfully, not destroying what is arguably Velasquez's most beautiful painting of a woman.

Answer: Humiliated

Mars has just been discovered "in flagrante" with Venus by the other gods of Olympus. He cuts a comic figure; nude except for a blanket evidently hastily wrapped around his loins, sulking on the edge of the bed wearing his helmet, which fails to lend him any dignity.

Answer: John

John here resembles nothing so much as a Spanish Dominican friar. He meditates on a distant vision of Mary and Jesus.

Answer: Its subject is an anonymous woman of no royal title

This is one of Velasquez's rare paintings of a woman who is neither a royal family member, nor a religious or mythological figure. It is definitely not a painting of his wife; however evidence exists indicating that it may well have been his daughter, an adult woman at the time of the painting.

Answer: Menippus and Aesop

These were probably painted as a pair; such portraits of ancient philosophers were a common subject. Ribera and Rubens had done similar paintings, Ribera of Archimedes (or Democritus), Rubens of Democritus and Heraclitus.

Answer: True

Velasquez delighted in painting what we now called "challenged" individuals; he endowed these figures with great humanity and dignity and seemed to catch their essential character. This portrait of a court "fool", with his sweetly innocent expression, is a particularly fine and moving example.