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Quiz about Scandalous Art
Quiz about Scandalous Art

Scandalous Art Trivia Quiz


Art has never met with polite indifference. Art has inspired and enraptured, but also provoked, shocked, and even created public uproars. This quiz focuses on some of the most famous scandals in art history.

A multiple-choice quiz by Arlesienne. Estimated time: 8 mins.
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Author
Arlesienne
Time
8 mins
Type
Multiple Choice
Quiz #
265,316
Updated
Dec 03 21
# Qns
20
Difficulty
Average
Avg Score
14 / 20
Plays
3403
Awards
Top 5% quiz!
Last 3 plays: Guest 174 (10/20), angostura (20/20), Guest 162 (10/20).
Question 1 of 20
1. Now considered a stepping-stone in the birth of modern art, this painting by Pablo Picasso was first regarded with abhorrence. It depicts five naked women, geometrically shaped, and is named after a street in Barcelona, (in)famous for its brothel. Complete the title of the painting: "Les Demoiselles d'..." ("The Young Ladies of ...") Hint


Question 2 of 20
2. "I have seen, and heard, much of Cockney impudence before now; but never expected to hear a coxcomb ask two hundred guineas for flinging a pot paint in the public's face", stated famous critic John Ruskin, in 1878. The object of his harsh review was the London exhibition of an expatriate American artist, in particular his painting "Nocturne in Black and Gold: The Falling Rocket". The consequences: a big uproar, and a sensational trial for libel! Who was the painter, especially noted for his mother's portrait? Hint


Question 3 of 20
3. "The one thing the world will never have enough of is the outrageous", declared the most eccentric showman of the 20th century, a Spanish Surrealist painter whose scandals made of him a myth alive. Who was that artist, most noted for his extravagant, curly moustache and such iconic images as melted clocks and burning giraffes? Hint


Question 4 of 20
4. A big surprise were the results of a poll conducted in 2004 among 500 international art experts. They voted "Fountain", a porcelain urinal, as the "most influential modern art work of all time", ahead of creations by Picasso, Warhol and Matisse. Who was the artist that shocked the establishment by putting on display an autographed urinal, and calling it "art"? Hint


Question 5 of 20
5. An absolute sensation, between rapture and outrage, was the international exhibition held in 1913 in New York that first introduced modern art into the United States. What was the name of the exhibition? Hint


Question 6 of 20
6. This celebrated muralist was commissioned in 1933 to paint a fresco for the RCA building in the new Rockefeller Center. The result was a severe cultural shock for the patrons: in the provocative composition, titled "Man at the Crossroads Looking with Hope and High Vision to the Choosing of a New and Better Future", they discovered a portrait of Russian Communist Leader Lenin! That was too much to bear, so the work was first hidden from public display, then officially destroyed. Name the artist. Hint


Question 7 of 20
7. In the 1930's, the improper cleaning of a "treasure" housed at the British Museum in London, which allegedly damaged it badly, was not only an international scandal, but an additional reason for the country of origin to claim its property back. To what treasure am I referring? Hint


Question 8 of 20
8. Indifferent to the beauty canons of his time, this Italian master of the "chiaroscuro" (dark-light technique) used as models old people, beggars, street urchins and prostitutes. One of his most "iniquitous" works was the "Death of the Virgin" (1601-1603), refused by its commissioners because the Madonna showed too coarse features, bared legs and a swollen belly. Who was that artist? Hint


Question 9 of 20
9. In February 2004, a Russian oil tycoon purchased and returned to his country nine precious Russian works of art belonging to the Forbes Collection. A St. Petersburg's expert created a scandal by claiming one of them was a fake. What works of art were they? Hint


Question 10 of 20
10. It might seem odd in our days, but this celebrated masterpiece by Édouard Manet, portraying a reclining naked woman with a maid and a black cat, provoked storms of protest when first exhibited at the Paris Salon in 1865. What is its title? Hint


Question 11 of 20
11. 'It is imagined that I do my work in a storm of controversy, somewhat like the atmosphere of a boxing ring', complained this British sculptor in his autobiography. In fact, before his official consecration, he had to go through several public scandals, such as the destruction of his 18 nude "Strand Statues", for reasons of "decency", or the uproar created by his "obscene" angel for the Oscar Wilde memorial in Père Lachaise Cemetery in Paris. Who was that artist, finally knighted by Queen Elizabeth II in 1954? Hint


Question 12 of 20
12. The Parisian "Beau Monde" cried "O la la, quel scandale!" when this portrait by John Singer Sargent was unveiled at the Paris Salon in 1884. The monumental painting depicted a notorious American beauty living in Paris, erotically pale, dressed with a long, low cut black dress, in a sexually suggestive and haughty pose. What was the title of the painting, today housed at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York? Hint


Question 13 of 20
13. Gustave Courbet's erotic painting "The Origin of the World", which depicts graphically a nude female torso, has always been considered one of the most shocking works of art of all time. Banned from public view for many years, it was finally acquired by an important museum that engaged a special attendant only to observe the reaction of the visitors. What is the name of the museum, that also houses the finest collection of Impressionist masterworks in the world? Hint


Question 14 of 20
14. While he was guest in the house of his patron and friend, Dr. Max Linde, to portray his children, this artist refused to celebrate Christmas with the family, and preferred to spend it in a brothel. This was taken as an affront, and created a great tension between him and his protector. The event, though, as offensive as it was, gave rise to one of the artist's masterworks: "Christmas in the Brothel". Who was that painter, especially acclaimed for his anguished, screaming faces? Hint


Question 15 of 20
15. A spectacular scandal in the world of art happened in the 1970's. After the suicide of this Russian/American Abstract Expressionist painter, his heirs started a legal action against his trustees, accusing them of corruption and fraudulent practises. The trial disclosed for the first time the secrets and machinations of the art market. Who was that artist, especially famous for his gigantic, colour fields paintings? Hint


Question 16 of 20
16. Which Michelangelo's nude sculpture, often defined "the most beautiful man in the world", had to bear the affront of a fig leaf for several centuries (and still has in some reproductions)? Hint


Question 17 of 20
17. Another male nude, "The Age of Bronze", gave rise to many rumours at the Paris Salon in 1877, because the sculptor was suspected of having used a casting. As often, the stir only served to make famous the name of the artist. Who was that sculptor, who carved such notable statues as "The Thinker" and "The Kiss"? Hint


Question 18 of 20
18. In 1937, the exhibition "Entartete Kunst" (Degenerate Art) in Munich was the Nazi's official condemnation of modern art. Which German avant-garde movement, including the painters Beckmann, Nolde etc, was especially represented? Hint


Question 19 of 20
19. According to a widespread belief, two of Francisco Goya's most popular portraits depict the Duchess of Alba, with whom the artist had allegedly an adulterous relationship. The paintings, showing the noblewoman respectively "vestida" (clothed) and "desnuda" (naked), were accused of "obscenity", and the Spanish master was brought up on charges before the Inquisition Court. Under which fictitious name are the portraits known? Hint


Question 20 of 20
20. The Rococo painting "The Swing" (1766) was an immediate success, not only for its artistic merits, but also for the scandalous sauciness of the subject: a lovely young woman, while rocking on a swing pushed by her elderly husband, is secretly flirting with her lover, and their adulterous complicity is underlined by a statue of Cupid holding his finger to his lips. Which painter created it? Hint



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Quiz Answer Key and Fun Facts
1. Now considered a stepping-stone in the birth of modern art, this painting by Pablo Picasso was first regarded with abhorrence. It depicts five naked women, geometrically shaped, and is named after a street in Barcelona, (in)famous for its brothel. Complete the title of the painting: "Les Demoiselles d'..." ("The Young Ladies of ...")

Answer: Avignon

Pablo Ruiz y Picasso was born in Málaga, Spain, in 1881, and died in Mougins, France, in 1973. He is probably the most famous artist that has ever lived, and has influenced almost all art movements of our time.

"Les Demoiselles d'Avignon", a canvas of monumental size, was painted in 1907, and is now held at the Museum of Modern Art, in New York City.
The painting, created in Picasso's so-called "Rose Period", depicts with sharp geometric lines a group of five naked women. The title, "The young Ladies of Avignon", refers to a street in Barcelona, in which a notorious brothel was located. Years later, Picasso stated that "Les Demoiselles d'Avignon" was his "first exorcism painting", against the fear of dangerous venereal diseases. Picasso's chief interest, though, was a new representation of the human figure. The use of geometric forms to portray faces and bodies, inspired by Iberian sculptures and African masks, caused a revolution in the art world, and prefigured the birth of Cubism.
2. "I have seen, and heard, much of Cockney impudence before now; but never expected to hear a coxcomb ask two hundred guineas for flinging a pot paint in the public's face", stated famous critic John Ruskin, in 1878. The object of his harsh review was the London exhibition of an expatriate American artist, in particular his painting "Nocturne in Black and Gold: The Falling Rocket". The consequences: a big uproar, and a sensational trial for libel! Who was the painter, especially noted for his mother's portrait?

Answer: James McNeill Whistler

Painter and etcher James Abbott McNeill Whistler (1834-1903) was American, but divided his professional life between Paris and London, achieving fame not only for his artistic talent, but also for his wit and eccentricity. His frequent exchanges of "bon mots" with Oscar Wilde were legendary. One episode is memorable: after a brilliant remark of Whistler's, Wilde uttered: "I wish I had said that", and Whistler replied: "You will, Oscar, you will!"

In art, Whistler's primary concern was a harmonious composition of forms and lines, colours and lights, and for his artistic concept, many critics saw in him a forerunner of abstract art.
Among his most famed works are "Arrangement in Grey and Black No. 1: Portrait of the Painter's Mother" (1871) and "Arrangement in Grey and Black No. 2: Portrait of Thomas Carlyle" (1872-1873).
His "Nocturne in Black and Gold: Falling Rocket", the canvas that aroused John Ruskin's indignation, was a suggestive study of fireworks over London's Cremorne Gardens at night. Whistler sued Ruskin for libel in a sensational trial. He won, but was only awarded a symbolic farthing, and the enormous legal costs bankrupted him in 1879.
3. "The one thing the world will never have enough of is the outrageous", declared the most eccentric showman of the 20th century, a Spanish Surrealist painter whose scandals made of him a myth alive. Who was that artist, most noted for his extravagant, curly moustache and such iconic images as melted clocks and burning giraffes?

Answer: Salvador Dalí

"Artists are meant to be madmen, to disturb and shock us", said Anne Rice ("Interview with a Vampire"). And no artist knew how to play his role as madman better than Salvador Dalí, although he himself stated: "The difference between a madman and me is that I am not mad." With his extravagances, his exhibitionism, and his talent for self-publicity, he was always at the centre of the media's attention. Opinions about him were divergent: some saw him as a fraud, and doubted the artistic value of his works; others saw in him an unequalled genius.

Salvador Dalí (1904-1989), born in Spain, was the most popular figure of the Surrealism, the movement influenced by Sigmund Freud's theories of dreams. He was a highly prolific artist, with over 1500 paintings, many drawings, sculptures, prints, theatre set designs, etc. In his works, Dalí created an extraordinary universe of bizarre, dreamlike and symbolic images. Among his most acclaimed works is "The Persistence of Memory", studded with hallucinatory, melting clocks.
4. A big surprise were the results of a poll conducted in 2004 among 500 international art experts. They voted "Fountain", a porcelain urinal, as the "most influential modern art work of all time", ahead of creations by Picasso, Warhol and Matisse. Who was the artist that shocked the establishment by putting on display an autographed urinal, and calling it "art"?

Answer: Marcel Duchamp

Painter and mixed media artist Henri-Robert-Marcel Duchamp was born in July 28, 1887, near Blainville, France, but lived in New York from 1942, and became an American citizen in 1955.

Although associated with Cubism, Surrealism and Dada, he always trespassed every artistic boundary.
In painting, his most renowned canvas is "Nude Descending a Staircase" (1912), a series of overlapping cubist figures which create a sense of motion.
In sculpture, he originated kinetic art, an innovation which was crucial for the evolution of 20th century avant-garde. Especially famous are Duchamp's "Readymades", i.e., as Surrealist leader André Breton defined them, "manufactured objects elevated to the dignity of works of art through the choice of the artist." Besides "Fountain", other Readymades produced by Duchamp were a bicycle wheel (considered the "first kinetic sculpture"), a shovel, and a comb.
5. An absolute sensation, between rapture and outrage, was the international exhibition held in 1913 in New York that first introduced modern art into the United States. What was the name of the exhibition?

Answer: Armory Show

"Armory Show", the exhibition of modern art held in 1913 first in New York, then in Chicago, was a legendary event in the history of American art. Its name is derived from the locations of the show, the 69th Infantry Regiment Armory in New York. At the exhibition were represented the most illustrious names of contemporary art: over 300 avant-garde artists, from Europe and America, with 1250 paintings and sculptures. Many were seen in the US for the first time, among them Picasso, Duchamp, Matisse and Kandinsky.
The new art aroused in the American public the most different feelings: enthusiasm and admiration in some cases, disgust and shock in others. The exhibition's impact was, in any case, enormous, and changed definitely the course of American art.

A curiosity: about Duchamp's "Nude Descending a Staircase", President Theodore Roosevelt said: "There is in my bath-room a really good Navajo rug which, on any proper interpretation of the Cubist theory, is a far more satisfactory and decorative picture."
6. This celebrated muralist was commissioned in 1933 to paint a fresco for the RCA building in the new Rockefeller Center. The result was a severe cultural shock for the patrons: in the provocative composition, titled "Man at the Crossroads Looking with Hope and High Vision to the Choosing of a New and Better Future", they discovered a portrait of Russian Communist Leader Lenin! That was too much to bear, so the work was first hidden from public display, then officially destroyed. Name the artist.

Answer: Diego Rivera

Mexican painter and muralist Diego Rivera (1886-1957) is widely regarded as one of the greatest figures of 20th century Latin American culture. He was married to Mexican artist Frida Kahlo, and their turbulent marriage was as famous as their artistic careers. Rivera was an engaged and pugnacious artist. His large frescoes reflect Mexico's social problems, and have mostly didactic and political intentions. In 1922, he co-founded the Revolutionary Union of Technical Workers, Painters and Sculptors, and in the same year he entered the Mexican Communist Party. He remained faithful to the revolutionary cause till his death.

The controversy about the portrait of Lenin included in "Man at the Crossroads Looking with Hope and High Vision to the Choosing of a New and Better Future" ended with the destruction of the mural in 1933. After leaving the US, Diego Rivera made a new version of it in Mexico City, and titled it "Man, Controller of the Universe."
7. In the 1930's, the improper cleaning of a "treasure" housed at the British Museum in London, which allegedly damaged it badly, was not only an international scandal, but an additional reason for the country of origin to claim its property back. To what treasure am I referring?

Answer: Elgin Marbles

On display at the British Museum in London, the so-called "Elgin Marbles" refer to the collection of sculptures which Thomas Bruce, 7th Earl of Elgin and British ambassador to the Ottoman Empire, acquired in 1806 in Greece and took to England. Removed from the Parthenon in Athens, they consist of the friezes, a caryatid and a column. Greece has always contested the legitimacy of Elgin's purchase, which occurred during the Ottoman occupation of Greece, and has claimed the return of the sculptures as part of the country's cultural heritage.

In the 1930's, the British Museum cleaned the marbles employing copper tools and abrasive alkali which erased forever the original colouring and the patina of the surface. That ignited an international scandal and reinforced Greece's plea. For a long time the British Museum denied the negative consequences of the cleaning, but sixty years later it finally admitted that the Marbles were damaged by "heavy handed" methods, although not as badly spoilt as some Greek experts stated.
8. Indifferent to the beauty canons of his time, this Italian master of the "chiaroscuro" (dark-light technique) used as models old people, beggars, street urchins and prostitutes. One of his most "iniquitous" works was the "Death of the Virgin" (1601-1603), refused by its commissioners because the Madonna showed too coarse features, bared legs and a swollen belly. Who was that artist?

Answer: Caravaggio

As an artist, Caravaggio was a revolutionary; as a man, he was passionate, impetuous, and often violent.
Born Michelangelo Merisi (1571-1610) in Caravaggio, near Milan (hence his nickname), he moved in 1592 to Rome where he worked for several influential patrons, among them cardinals and aristocrats. He had often problems with the law because of his sanguine temper. After killing a man in a duel, he had to flee Rome, and died during his exile.

Many of his religious and secular paintings show sufferance and death. In a time of ideal beauty in art, he depicted his figures as ordinary human beings, with all their flaws and weaknesses, emphasising the realism of his subjects by dramatic contrasts of light and shadows. His so-called "chiaroscuro" technique made him famous, and had a great influence on contemporary and later artists.
His masterwork "Death of the Virgin", the largest painting that Caravaggio ever produced, was refused by the church that had commissioned it, and was acquired by the Duke of Mantua at Peter Paul Rubens' suggestion. It entered then into the collection of Charles I of England, and was bought later by French king Louis XIV. Today it is in the collection of the Louvre Museum in Paris.
9. In February 2004, a Russian oil tycoon purchased and returned to his country nine precious Russian works of art belonging to the Forbes Collection. A St. Petersburg's expert created a scandal by claiming one of them was a fake. What works of art were they?

Answer: Carl Fabergé Eggs

Goldsmith and Jeweller to the Imperial Court of Russia, Peter Carl Fabergé (1846-1920) is especially famed for the Easter Eggs he made for the Tsars and the European royalty. Fabergé Eggs are masterpieces of jewellery, the epitome of luxury. In gold, silver, or enamel, they all contain a little "surprise", i.e. a perfect miniature replica of a coach, a flower, a ship or other objects, all finely chiselled and encrusted with the most precious gemstones.
The first Easter egg was commissioned by tsar Alexander III for his wife Maria. The gift was so much appreciated that it started a tradition of more than thirty years. Also Nicholas II, the last tsar, carried on the Easter ritual. Fabergé created about 50 eggs, but only 42 of them have been found.

In 2004, Russian billionaire Viktor Vekselberg purchased all nine imperial eggs belonging to the Forbes collection, and returned them to his country. A scandal aroused when the eminent art expert Valentin Skurlov, and Tatyana Faberge, great-granddaughter of the famous jeweller, stated that one of the eggs, the one known as "Spring Flowers", was a fake. That was indignantly denied by Vekselberg who confirmed the genuineness of all eggs, and defined Skurlov's statement as "cheap provocation". The controversy has not yet been resolved.
10. It might seem odd in our days, but this celebrated masterpiece by Édouard Manet, portraying a reclining naked woman with a maid and a black cat, provoked storms of protest when first exhibited at the Paris Salon in 1865. What is its title?

Answer: Olympia

The establishment was hostile to Édouard Manet (1832-1883) throughout his life, yet he never stopped trying to receive an academic consecration.

"Olympia", presented at the Paris Salon in 1865, was ferociously attacked by critics and audience alike. Inspired by Titian's "Venus of Urbino", the canvas depicts, with an unusual realism, a nude courtesan.
It was not the nudity that was considered the most outrageous aspect of "Olympia", it was rather the theme: Manet didn't paint a mythological or biblical woman, but presented a self-confident, modern courtesan who didn't lower her head, but, on the contrary, met boldly the eyes of the observers. And the Parisian public couldn't accept to be reminded of prostitution at an art exhibition.
Not only the painting's subject aroused storms of protests; also Manet's new, revolutionary technique was strongly criticised by the most conservative academicians, and met with scepticism by the public.
In spite of all the attacks, though, Manet's work found several illustrious defenders, like Émile Zola, Claude Monet and Pierre-Auguste Renoir.
11. 'It is imagined that I do my work in a storm of controversy, somewhat like the atmosphere of a boxing ring', complained this British sculptor in his autobiography. In fact, before his official consecration, he had to go through several public scandals, such as the destruction of his 18 nude "Strand Statues", for reasons of "decency", or the uproar created by his "obscene" angel for the Oscar Wilde memorial in Père Lachaise Cemetery in Paris. Who was that artist, finally knighted by Queen Elizabeth II in 1954?

Answer: Jacob Epstein

American-born from Polish parents, sculptor Sir Jacob Epstein (1880-1959) became a British citizen in 1910. He studied in Paris with Auguste Rodin. Noted for his realistic and powerful works in stone or bronze, Epstein broke many taboos and frontiers, becoming a pioneer of modern sculpture. Many of his works were first greeted with outcries of public indignation. His first big commission in 1907, 18 large, nude figures for the British Medical Association's Building in the Strand, aroused storms of protests, and had to be removed as offensive to public morals. In 1912 he designed and installed Oscar Wilde's grave at the Père Lachaise Cemetery in Paris, which had the same destiny: it created an uproar and was vandalised.

After First World War, he primarily devoted himself to bronze busts, and in the course of the years he portrayed many famous men like Joseph Conrad, Haile Selassie and Sir Winston Churchill. He himself was knighted in 1954.
12. The Parisian "Beau Monde" cried "O la la, quel scandale!" when this portrait by John Singer Sargent was unveiled at the Paris Salon in 1884. The monumental painting depicted a notorious American beauty living in Paris, erotically pale, dressed with a long, low cut black dress, in a sexually suggestive and haughty pose. What was the title of the painting, today housed at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York?

Answer: Madame X

American painter John Singer Sargent (1856-1925) lived primarily in Europe. He became the most popular and best paid portrait painter of his time, and depicted a great number of celebrities.

In 1883, he painted Virginie Gautreau, a notable American-born beauty, wife of a rich Parisian banker, and showed the portrait at the Paris Salon of 1884 under the title of "Madame X".
The enormous canvas outraged the Parisian society and ignited a big scandal. All was considered shocking: her imperious pose, her pale complexion which revealed the use of powder, her low cut black dress with one strap seductively dangling off her shoulder (which was later changed), and much more.
Madame Gautreau's reputation suffered irremediably, and Sargent lost every hope to make a career in Paris. He decided to move to London, where he established himself as the favourite portraitist of the aristocrats and the wealthy.
13. Gustave Courbet's erotic painting "The Origin of the World", which depicts graphically a nude female torso, has always been considered one of the most shocking works of art of all time. Banned from public view for many years, it was finally acquired by an important museum that engaged a special attendant only to observe the reaction of the visitors. What is the name of the museum, that also houses the finest collection of Impressionist masterworks in the world?

Answer: Musée d'Orsay

Although modern photography and cinema have considerably evolved our moral standards about artistic nudity, the oil painting "The Origin of the World" by French artist Gustave Courbet (1819-1877) is still considered challenging, often even shocking.

The canvas was painted in 1866. The scandal created by such erotic work, which depicts with great realism a nude female torso, obviously increased Gustave Courbet's fame. The painting was banned from public view for many years, and was purchased by French psychologist Jacques Lacan, who hung it in his country house. To avoid outraging his guests, Lacan asked André Masson, his stepbrother, to build a double frame and put another picture on it. As a cover-up of the original painting, Masson drafted a surrealist version of it. The canvas is now in the collection of the Musée d'Orsay in Paris.
14. While he was guest in the house of his patron and friend, Dr. Max Linde, to portray his children, this artist refused to celebrate Christmas with the family, and preferred to spend it in a brothel. This was taken as an affront, and created a great tension between him and his protector. The event, though, as offensive as it was, gave rise to one of the artist's masterworks: "Christmas in the Brothel". Who was that painter, especially acclaimed for his anguished, screaming faces?

Answer: Edvard Munch

"Disease, insanity and death were the angels which attended my cradle", said Norwegian painter Edvard Munch (1863-1944). His family had a long story of mental illnesses and untimely deaths, and he placed his own obsessions, grief and anxiety deep inside in his paintings. The most famous of them is "The Scream".

Ophthalmologist Dr. Max Linde (1862-1940) from Lübeck, Germany, owned one of the most important private collection of contemporary art in Europe. Thanks to his assistance and friendship, Munch achieved fame and financial independence. Many of Munch's works were commissioned by Linde and featured him and his family. "Christmas in a brothel" was painted in 1904/05 while Munch was guest at Linde's house to portray his children. The episode of Christmas spent in a brothel caused a separation between Linde and Munch, but there was a reconciliation some months later.
15. A spectacular scandal in the world of art happened in the 1970's. After the suicide of this Russian/American Abstract Expressionist painter, his heirs started a legal action against his trustees, accusing them of corruption and fraudulent practises. The trial disclosed for the first time the secrets and machinations of the art market. Who was that artist, especially famous for his gigantic, colour fields paintings?

Answer: Mark Rothko

Born as Marcus Rothkowitz in Daugavpils, Latvia in 1903, Mark Rothko emigrated to the United States in 1913. He is considered a crucial figure in the Abstract Expressionist movement, although he himself refused any label: "I am not an abstract painter. I am not interested in the relationship between form and colour. The only thing I care about is the expression of man's basic emotions: tragedy, ecstasy, destiny."

Mark Rothko committed suicide in 1970. In his will, he appointed three of his closest friends as executors. A few months after the artist's death, they sold some of his paintings to a gallery, in which they were financially involved, at very favourable conditions. Too favourable, thought the heirs, and sued the trustees, accusing them of fraudulent practises and corruption. The trial went on for many months, and it publicly disclosed, for the first time, many of the intrigues and tricks that dominate the international art market.
Rothko's works are exhibited in the best museums around the world.
16. Which Michelangelo's nude sculpture, often defined "the most beautiful man in the world", had to bear the affront of a fig leaf for several centuries (and still has in some reproductions)?

Answer: David

Along with Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo Buonarroti (1475-1564) is the embodiment of the Renaissance man. He was an absolute prodigy in every artistic field: painting, architecture, engineering or poetry. His life is studded with masterworks: he designed the dome of the St Peter's Basilica in Rome, painted the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel, and created the greatest statues of all times.

In 1504, he sculpted his magnificent David, a colossal statue in Carrara marble, commissioned by the city of Florence to be installed in the central Piazza della Signoria. Over the centuries, the triumphant nudity of that perfect body has never ceased to offend public decency, and in many reproductions David's "private parts" have been demurely covered with a fig leaf.
The original David is housed in the Galleria dell'Accademia, whereas a plaster copy towers in Piazza della Repubblica, in Florence. Both uncensored.
17. Another male nude, "The Age of Bronze", gave rise to many rumours at the Paris Salon in 1877, because the sculptor was suspected of having used a casting. As often, the stir only served to make famous the name of the artist. Who was that sculptor, who carved such notable statues as "The Thinker" and "The Kiss"?

Answer: Auguste Rodin

French artist Auguste Rodin (1840-1917) has often been regarded as the greatest sculptor since Michelangelo. He was the last of the classical artists, and at the same time the pioneer of a new sculpture. His innovative techniques, which aimed at expressing human emotions through the postures and motions of his subjects, had a profound influence on subsequent generations.

When he presented his "Age of Bronze" at the Paris Salon of 1877, he was highly praised, but, because of the extreme realism of his work, was also unjustly suspected of having made a cast from a live model. The uproar had a positive consequence, though: it made his name famous internationally.

Rodin's most iconic masterpiece is "The Thinker" (1880), which was his first creation to be erected in a public place. It is a portrayal of Italian poet Dante Alighieri. Among Rodin's works are also "The Burghers of Calais" (1884-1886) and "The Kiss" (1886).
18. In 1937, the exhibition "Entartete Kunst" (Degenerate Art) in Munich was the Nazi's official condemnation of modern art. Which German avant-garde movement, including the painters Beckmann, Nolde etc, was especially represented?

Answer: Expressionism

The Nazi regime, alarmed about the increasing popularity of modernist art, which contrasted with the political aims of the Third Reich, started a defamatory campaign against the avant-garde, labelling it "Entartete Kunst" (Degenerate Art) and forbidding it. "Entartete Kunst" was also the title of an exhibition inaugurated in Munich in 1937, that later travelled to several other German and Austrian cities. The exhibition put on display over 650 paintings, sculptures and prints confiscated from 32 museums and private collections in Germany. The creations, all modernist artworks, were presented together with mocking or demonising comments.

Many of the exhibited creations are considered today masterworks of contemporary art. Especially represented at the exhibition were artists of the so-called German Expressionism, which included movements as "Der Blaue Reiter" (The Blue Rider) and "Die Brücke" (The Bridge). Most notable figures of the German Expressionism were Emil Nolde (1867-1956), Ernst Ludwig Kirchner (1880-1938) and Max Beckmann (1884-1950).
19. According to a widespread belief, two of Francisco Goya's most popular portraits depict the Duchess of Alba, with whom the artist had allegedly an adulterous relationship. The paintings, showing the noblewoman respectively "vestida" (clothed) and "desnuda" (naked), were accused of "obscenity", and the Spanish master was brought up on charges before the Inquisition Court. Under which fictitious name are the portraits known?

Answer: Maja

Francisco José de Goya y Lucientes (1746-1828) was born in Fuendotodos, a village near Zaragoza, Spain. Accomplished as painter and etcher, he had a great influence on contemporary and later artists, and is often called "the Father of Modern Art". Among his most important works are "The Third of May" (1808), which depict the brutal massacre of unarmed street fighters by French soldiers in Madrid, and the "Disasters of War" (1812-15).

Both "La Maja vestida" (The clothed Maja) and "La Maja desnuda" (The naked Maja) are on display at the Prado Museum in Madrid. Created at a time when the depiction of nude women were severely prohibited by the Church, the paintings were a landmark in the annals of Spanish art.
The Duchess of Alba was, with her husband, one of Goya's most influential patrons. Today, her identity as the naked and clothed Maja is no longer officially accepted, and other women have been suggested as the possible model.
20. The Rococo painting "The Swing" (1766) was an immediate success, not only for its artistic merits, but also for the scandalous sauciness of the subject: a lovely young woman, while rocking on a swing pushed by her elderly husband, is secretly flirting with her lover, and their adulterous complicity is underlined by a statue of Cupid holding his finger to his lips. Which painter created it?

Answer: Jean-Honoré Fragonard

French painter Jean-Honoré Fragonard (1732-1806) was a favourite with Louis XV's and Louis XVI's courts; among his most influential patrons were Madame de Pompadour and Madame du Barry. For the latter he painted "Progress of Love", a series of four large paintings, held today at the Frick Collection in New York.
Like no other painter, Fragonard succeeded in capturing the frivolity, the hedonism and the gallantry of the Rococo age. His exquisite paintings are always finely detailed and delicately coloured, and depict graceful scenes of romance and sensuality, often set in gardens.

He was extremely prolific, producing over 550 paintings, thousands of drawings and 35 etchings. Other well-known works by Fragonard: "The Stolen Kiss" and "The Music Lesson". "The Swing" is on display at the Wallace Collection in London.
Source: Author Arlesienne

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