Ordering Paintings by Persons Trivia Quiz

Frans Hals (born 1580 or 1582, died 1666) was a Dutch painter of the Baroque era. He specialized in portraits.

In 1624 Hals completed one of his most famous portraits: "Laughing Cavalier". It shows us one single man, whose identity has not been revealed: the painting only mentions that the portrayed was 26 years old, so born in 1598. And the fashionable clothing with much lace at the end of the sleeves, indicates that the sitter was quite rich. Although most titles given to the painting point to a military career, details of the delicate embroidery (such as Mercury's cap and a caduceus) may indicate a merchant or even someone involved in medicine: a doctor or an apothecary, for instance.

Grant Wood (1891-1942) was an American Regionalist painter. He created his masterpiece "American Gothic" in 1930.

The painting "American Gothic" shows us two people: a typical Midwestern American farmer to the right, and his daughter to the left. The farmer looks unwelcoming and holds a pitchfork, while the woman is looking at him with an expression as if she won't forgive him any violence towards the audience. 

Although the portrayed persons have not been identified, several sites mention who sat as model: Wood's sister and the Woods' dentist. A dentist with a pitchfork? That is surely a horrible idea.

Gentileschi (1593-1653 or 1654) was one of the very few female Italian painters during the Baroque era whose name and artworks are still known.

An early painting by Gentileschi is based on an Old Testament story: "Susanna and the Elders" (1610-1611), about a nude young woman Susanna taking a bath - when two elders came and spied on her from behind a low wall. Twenty years later Gentileschi made a second version of this artwork.

Another of Gentileschi's masterpieces was "Judith and Holofernes" (about 1620), which shows us not two people but three: the Jewish heroine Judith in full action cutting the throat of the Assyrian general Holofernes, and Judith's handmaid Abra wrestling Holofernes down.

Edouard Manet (1832-1893) was a French modernist painter, whose work can be classified as early Impressionism.

In 1863 Manet shocked the art world with his painting "Déjeuner sur l'herbe" ("Luncheon on the Grass". There are in total four people seen in the painting. I'll describe them, and include my personal view on the quartet.

To the left sits a young brunette woman, fully undressed. Her blue upper garments are beside her, serving as a spread on which a basket with fruits is placed. She looks straight at the audience.

Next to the young woman is a young man, dressed to the nines, including a nicely knotted tie. Personally I would think him to be a lawyer of some kind.

To the right is another young man, also fully dressed, but more in the style of some bohemian - perhaps a successful painter or author. He's engaged in telling something to the other man.

And in the background is a young girl, dressed in her underrobe, playing in a brook or a pond and seemingly getting ready to take off the little clothing she wears and taking a bath.

Picasso (1881-1973) was a Spanish painter, one of the first to develop the Cubist style.

"Les demoiselles d'Avignon" (1907, translated as "The Young Ladies of Avignon") was one of Picasso's first paintings that can be considered more or less Cubist. The title was initially "Le bordel d'Avignon" ("The Brothel of Avignon"), but later changed into a less offending title.

The painting shows us five young women, partially nude. To the far left stands a brunette with a very tanned face, clothed in a robe in Egyptian style. In the centre are two girls with a more European face, who proudly show their bared breasts by lifting their arms above their heads. One seems to wear nothing but a slip, the other has a skirt wrapped around. A bit more to the right sits a woman with her back mostly turned to the audience, her head covered in an African mask. And to the far right stands the fifth woman, also wearing an African mask and at first glance nothing else.

Andrea Mantegna (1431-1506) was an Italian Renaissance painter, best known for his "The Lamentation of the Dead Christ" (1490).

Mantegna was one of many painters who completed an "Adoration of the Magi", but contrary to many others he sticked in his painting of 1495 to the main six persons according to Christian tradition. Others like Giotto, Memling, Brueghel, Durer, Bosch and Rubens added many other people - Bosch even depicted a hunting scene in the background.

Mantegna painted a much more crowded "Adoration of the magi" in 1462 which you can admire in the Uffizi in Florence (Italy). To check out the 1495 version, you need to travel to the John aul Getty Museum in Los Angeles.

Let's list the six persons in Mantegna's "Adoration of the Magi" (1495) from left to right:
At the far left stands Saint Joseph, Jesus' foster father.
Next is Saint Mary, and she holds the baby Jesus Christ.
And to the left we have the three magi, named "wise men" in the King James version. The Bible does not give their names nor even their number, but Christian tradition mentions the old Caspar, the middle-age Melchior and the young Balthasar, who would have come from Africa.
Mantegna has painted Melchior standing next to Jesus Christ, Caspar kneeling slightly more to the left and Balthasar standing to the far left.

Rembrandt (1606-1669, full name Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn) was one of the Dutch masters in the Baroque.

I chose "The Anatomy Lesson of Dr. Nicolaes Tulp" (1632) for this quiz. The titular character, Nicolaes Tulp, stands the furthest to the right, dissecting the arm muscles of a corpse. So that makes already two people, one alive and one dead.

The corpse has been identified as Aris Kindt, convicted of armed robbery and executed by hanging.

To the left we see seven medical doctors or students, some of them closely observing, others looking elsewhere. One of them is holding a piece of parchment on which the seven names would have been inscribed (but you probably need to examine the painting up close to read the names). According to the AI engine used by Google, the seven spectators are Harmen Jansz, Adriaen Slabber, Jacob de Witt, Matthijs Kalkoen, Dirk Pietersz, Jan Hartman and Frans van Loenen.

Diego Velázquez (1599-1660) was one of the most famous Spanish Baroque painters.

"Las Meniñas" (1656) translates to "The Handmaidens", of whom two are portrayed in this painting. But there are many other persons too.
While the painting's title refers to the ladies-in-waiting identified as Doña Isabel de Velasco and Doña Maria de Sotomayor, the principal character is the Infanta Margareta Theresa.

From left to right, we count all together eleven persons:
Diego Velázquez, the painter, working on a canvas that will become the painting;
Doña Maria de Sotomayor, offering the princess a drink;
King Philip IV, depicted in a mirror at the back wall;
Queen Mariana, depicted in the aforesaid mirror;
Infanta Margareta Theresa, five year old and dressed in a grey-white dress with an elaborate brooch in the form of a colourful bouquet;
Don José Nieto Velázquez, the Queen's chamberlain, at a back passage on his way in or out of the scene;
Doña Isabel de Velasco, greeting the princess with a curtsey;
Doña Marcela de Ulloa, Margareta's chaperone, quietly discussing something with her direct neighbour in the painting;
The bodyguard Diego Ruiz Azcona, listening to Doña Marcela's exposé;
The dwarf Mari Barbola, looking quite displeased;
And the dwarf Nicolás Pertusato, who tries to tease a dog seated at his feet.

This is the painting you were witing for, with exactly thirteen persons.
Da Vinci (1452-1519) was a master of the late Italian Renaissance. He completed only a few paintings, but these have worldwide renown.

One of da Vinci's masterpieces is the fresco on the refectory at the convent of Santa Maria delle Grazie in Milan. Three of Leonardo's students have made replicas on the same scale, which are accessible in London (version by Giampietrino), in Ponte Capriasca, Switzerland (painted by Cesare da Sesto) and in Tongerlo, Belgium (painted by Andrea Solari).

There have been, of course, many painters who depicted the "Last Supper", according to the Bible a defining moment in the life of Christ. He and his twelve disciples went to have supper, and Jesus Christ blessed the bread and gave it to his disciples saying it was Christ's body. Also he blessed the wine and gave it to the disciples saying the wine was turned into His blood, poured out to forgive the sins.

When composing a painting with thirteen characters eating, many painters would be tempted to depict six people on the one side of the table and seven on the other, but then you would see half of the disciples only from the back. Another traditional seating with six people on each side of the table and the principal person at the head of the table, would not allow the dramatic effect Leonardo's "Last Supper" creates.

Indeed: the twelve disciples and Jesus Christ sit in one line, all faces visible for the audience. From left to right we have Bartholomew, James the Lesser, Andrew, Judas Iscariot, Simon Peter, Jesus Christ, Thomas, James the Greater, Philip, Matthew, Thaddeus and Simon the Zealot.

The copy made by da Sesto mentions the names of all the thirteen main persons, but also depicts a few minor characters in the background: some angels and a devout person praying for divine intercession. 

Raphael (1483-1520) was an Italian painter and architect during the Late Renaissance (in Italian designated as the Cinquecento).

One of the highlights in Raphael's career was the decoration of four major rooms in the Vatican, with paintings on all the walls and the ceilings. In the principal room, the Stanza della Signatura, Raphael left us the "School of Athens" - a large fresco with a multitude of persons. I counted fifty-four persons, plus a small number of statues and bas-reliefs portraying other persons.

But identifying them is quite hard, as Raphael did not leave us any letters to explain the painting.
Several attempts to identify some people, have resulted to twenty-two possible identifications, most of them Greek philosophers. I've added a few words to the others.

More or less from left to right we have according to the most complete effort of identification, made by professor Vassili Graziou:
1. Zeno of Citium with an unnamed child
2. Epicurus
3. An unknown person, perhaps Duke Federico II of Mantua
4. A person identified either as Empedocles, or as Anaximander, or as the Roman senator Boethius
5. The Moorish philosopher Averroes
6. Pythagoras
7. A Greek politician, either Alcibiades or Alexander the Great
8. Possibly the philosopher Antisthenes or the Greek historian Xenophon
9. The Alexandrine scientist Hypatia or Raphael's model Fornarina, although other suggestions have been made
10. The politician Aeschines or the historian Xenophon
11. Parmenides
12. Socrates
13. Heraclitus
14. Plato
15. Aristotle
16. Diogenes of Sinope
17. Plotinus
18. Euclid or Archimedes accompanied by a few of his students
19. Strabo or the Persian prophet Zoroaster
20. Possibly Ptolemy
21. The Greek painter Apelles
22. The Greek painter Protogenes.