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Leonardo da Vinci Quizzes, Trivia and Puzzles
Leonardo da Vinci Quizzes, Trivia

Leonardo da Vinci Trivia

Leonardo da Vinci Trivia Quizzes

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'Mona Lisa' just may be the most famous portrait in Western art. Leonardo's achievements covered many fields - you will find quizzes on his life and accomplishments in the People category.
5 quizzes and 53 trivia questions.
1.
  The Da Vinci Code   great trivia quiz  
Collection Quiz
 10 Qns
Paintings by Leonardo
Although only a handful of works by the Renaissance's most iconic artist and polymath have survived, they have attained near-legendary status. How many of them can you pick out from this list?
Average, 10 Qns, LadyNym, Mar 23 24
Average
LadyNym gold member
Mar 23 24
226 plays
2.
10 Paintings Leonardo da Vinci
  10 Paintings: Leonardo da Vinci   best quiz  
Photo Quiz
 10 Qns
The Florentine master and innovative genius, Leonardo da Vinci, remains one of the most recognized painters in the world. Let's take a look at ten of his incredible works.
Average, 10 Qns, trident, May 23 20
Average
trident editor
May 23 20
339 plays
3.
  Pass the Bread: Who's Who at the Last Supper   best quiz  
Label Quiz
 13 Qns
Thirteen guests grace the table, all sitting on one side, in Leonardo da Vinci's famous painting "The Last Supper." Do you know who each of the diners are?
Average, 13 Qns, trident, Jan 05 22
Average
trident editor
Jan 05 22
186 plays
4.
  The Mysterious Mona Lisa    
Multiple Choice
 10 Qns
The Mona Lisa may very well be one of the most famous paintings in the world. Her mysterious smile captures the attention of people from around the globe. How much do you know about the mysterious Mona Lisa?
Average, 10 Qns, kkoala87, Jul 09 19
Average
kkoala87
Jul 09 19
1622 plays
5.
  Mona Lisa and Her Mysteries    
Multiple Choice
 10 Qns
Some questions, suitably reverent I hope, about the world's most famous painting.
Average, 10 Qns, londoneye98, Nov 06 16
Average
londoneye98 gold member
475 plays
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Leonardo da Vinci Trivia Questions
1. Popular tradition favours the idea that the "Mona Lisa" was painted in which Italian city?

From Quiz Mona Lisa and Her Mysteries

Answer: Florence

Michael White, the biographer of Leonardo, believes that the "Mona Lisa" was begun during the artist's second period of residence in Milan in 1508-13, but possibly still not finished until he moved to Rome later. Most encyclopaedias and dictionaries of art, however - not to mention wikipedia - state categorically that it was painted in Florence.

2. How is the lady in the picture posing?

From Quiz Mona Lisa and Her Mysteries

Answer: sitting in an armchair by a window

According to my venerable Phaidon picture-book "Italian Renaissance Painting" by Keith Roberts, the painting was once wider but has at some point been cut at the sides, so that the sides of the window-frame are no longer visible.

3. Where does the painting hang today?

From Quiz The Mysterious Mona Lisa

Answer: The Louvre Museum in France

Though painted in Italy, since the 16th century, when she came into the possession of Francois I, King of France, she has remained in that country. She currently hangs in the famous Louvre museum, where she has been since 1804 and now has her own room.

4. How did the "Mona Lisa" first arrive in France?

From Quiz Mona Lisa and Her Mysteries

Answer: Leonardo carried it there himself

Apparently the artist carried this painting with him every time he moved home, which seems to have been quite often. There is a widely-believed story that Salai, a close companion of Leonardo's, took it back to Italy after the artist's death, but that leaves a mystery as to how, in that case, it found its way back to France later, to hang in the Louvre as it does today.

5. What was the real name of the woman who posed as "Mona Lisa"?

From Quiz The Mysterious Mona Lisa

Answer: Lisa Gherardini Giocondo

Lisa Gheradini Giocondo was about 25 when she posed for Leo's painting. She was the daughter and wife of wealthy men and it is believed her husband paid Leo for her to be painted. She started as Mia Donna Lisa (my lady Lisa) and it got shorted to Monna Lisa. Due to a spelling error in English it is now known as "Mona Lisa". She is called "La Giocondo" in Italian and "La Joconde" in French. (By the way, 'materassino ad aria' is Italian for air mattress.)

6. By what name is the "Mona Lisa" usually known in Italy?

From Quiz Mona Lisa and Her Mysteries

Answer: La Gioconda

The name is as beautiful as the painting - and equally beautiful in French: "La Joconde".

7. What was the "Mona Lisa" painted on?

From Quiz The Mysterious Mona Lisa

Answer: poplar wood panel

da Vinci used oil paints on a poplar wood panel. The panel is 30 inches tall and about 20 inches wide.

8. Which Italian writer of the mid-sixteenth century is responsible for the belief that the "Mona Lisa" was the third wife of Francesco del Giocondo, a rich Florentine merchant?

From Quiz Mona Lisa and Her Mysteries

Answer: Giorgio Vasari

Painter, architect and biographer, Vasari - like many other good writers - was not averse to making things up for himself when hard evidence was lacking, so nobody can be sure if his identification of Leonardo's sitter is the true one. He is the sole source for this, and similarly it seems to be he who is behind the belief that the painting was done in Florence rather than in Milan.

9. When was the "Mona Lisa" stolen?

From Quiz The Mysterious Mona Lisa

Answer: 1911

Employee Vincenzo Peruggia smuggled her out under his smock when he was in the room alone in the Louvre. Two years later, in 1913, she was returned after he attempted to sell the painting in Florence.

10. Which French writer, who spent thirty years of his life in prison, described the "Mona Lisa" painting as "the very essence of femininity"?

From Quiz Mona Lisa and Her Mysteries

Answer: the Marquis de Sade

He had very good taste - in some respects, at least.

11. What did Oscar Wilde have to say about the "Mona Lisa"?

From Quiz Mona Lisa and Her Mysteries

Answer: The picture reveals to us a secret of which, in truth, it knows nothing

Sometimes the most boring answer is the correct one! When Oscar tries to be serious he usually falls flat on his face, in my opinion.

12. What did Sigmund Freud, rejecting the identity of the Florentine lady, suggest about the "Mona Lisa" painting?

From Quiz Mona Lisa and Her Mysteries

Answer: It is an idealised portrait of Leonardo's dead mother

This is, at least, more convincing than the "self-portrait" theory, which has been advanced in all seriousness by some people.

13. Who famously, in the interests of modern art, drew a moustache and goatee beard onto the image of the "Mona Lisa"?

From Quiz Mona Lisa and Her Mysteries

Answer: Marcel Duchamp

He also wrote a sexually explicit comment underneath, which cannot be repeated in a family quiz - either in French or English.

14. One of the reasons that the "Mona Lisa" is considered such an amazing painting is due to the revolutionary new technique Leonardo used. What was it?

From Quiz The Mysterious Mona Lisa

Answer: blending tones and colors without distinct lines

The blending of tones and colors that Leonardo used is called sfumato. By using this technique, an artist shades the colors into one another, creating hazy forms.

15. Other artists have made many reproductions and alterations to the painting. Who was the artist that added a mustache and goatee on "Mona Lisa"?

From Quiz The Mysterious Mona Lisa

Answer: Marcel Duchamp

He added this to a postcard in 1919 bearing the "Mona Lisa" and it became his most famous painting.

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