The Ultimate They Call Me Mellow Yellow Quiz | Colors

Answer: Horse

The use of yellow ochre was used by very early man to paint images on the walls in various places around the world to record some aspects of daily life. they may show gathering honey, such as found in an 8,000 year old cave painting in Valencia, Spain - or hunting animals - or the occasional battle - or the assorted images found on rocks and caves in Australia which date back 28,000 years.

Perhaps the most famous of these cave paintings are those found in the Lascaux Caves in France which have been estimated to be 17,300 years old. The 20,000 painting contained therein depict various animals, figures of humans and also puzzling geometric figures. Some 900 of these have been identified. They feature over 360 horses including that famous yellow image, 90 stags, a bear, a rhino (how amazing to think these were found in France back then), and many bulls. Thousands of years after the artists themselves died, these long ago images reach out to us to allow us a glimpse of that far distant time. They're very moving. "Ars longa, vita brevis".

The photo clue is of a sulky, pulled along by HORSES, to transport people from here to there in days gone by.

Answer: Egyptians thought their bones were made of gold

The ancient Egyptians believed, probably through very successful public relations campaigns, that their pharaohs were gods and that their skin and bones were made of gold. They accordingly portrayed them in these shades, made either from yellow ochre or a product we know today as orpiment. Rather unfortunately, orpiment is a deep yellow arsenic laden, very toxic mineral found in the crust surrounding the mouth of volcanoes (presumably extinct), or along lave flows, or beside magma gas vents. So most tomb painters probably didn't live long enough to enjoy their creations. Interestingly, when King Tut's tomb was revealed in 1922, of the many treasures revealed, one of these was a small box filled with orpiment.

The photo clue includes a SKELETON sitting in a shopping trolley, and that is the answer to this question.

Answer: Judas Iscariot

Generally speaking, the apostles of Jesus, depending which biblical book you read, were referred to as disciples before the crucifixion of the Lord, and as apostles after the resurrection, when they were sent out worldwide to spread the good news. By the time the Middle Ages rolled around, many drawings and painting of the first twelve often saw Judas Iscariot portrayed in colours of yellow, even though he is never described as wearing such in the Bible. As a result of this colour choice, the colour yellow soon became associated with undesirable traits such as duplicity.

The photo clue is of coins, almost thirty in fact, the same number of coins for which JUDAS betrayed Jesus.

Answer: Jews

The Renaissance was a period in European history that linked the Middle Ages with the "modern" historical period. It ran from approximately the 14th to the 17th centuries and is considered a time of rebirth of culture, learning and science. It also had its darker sides of course. All non-Christians, including Jews, were associated with the colour yellow, and, during the 16th century Spanish Inquisition, this was particularly the case with those considered heretics. If they refused to change their views, they were forced to appear before the inquisition wearing yellow capes. Centuries later, during World War II, Jews would once again be associated with the colour yellow when forced to wear yellow triangles marked with the Star of David on their clothing.

The photo clue is of the Star of David, a symbol readily associated today with people of the Jewish faith. Such is its significance that it is pictured on the national flag of Israel.

Answer: Saint Nicholas

Pawnbrokers, money lenders and those dealing in financial transactions once had a very strong association with the colour yellow, and pawnbrokers still do today. The National Pawnbrokers logo, for example, displays the famous suspended three golden balls associated with that trade in earlier times. These were hung above their places of business as a form of early advertising.

The connection they have with their patron saint, Nicholas, the Bishop of Myra (270-343 AD), is that he is depicted holding three bags of gold. Since his early life of protecting those falsely accused and distributing his money to the poor, Saint Nicholas has become associated with the much loved Christmas figure of Santa Claus. Oddly enough though, pawn brokering, in spite of being heavily associated with Jewish people over time, actually began as a trade in China in the fifth century, while in medieval Europe, the most notable money lenders of all were the famous Medici banking family of Italy - with several popes coming from same.

The photo clue is of Santa Claus, also known as SAINT NICHOLAS.

Answer: China

The colour yellow in China is associated with joy, wisdom, history, culture, and glory. It is also associated with the Chinese compass which, contrary to the one used in the west, has five directions. These are the standard north, south, east and west, plus the addition of the middle pointer - and that is where the association with yellow springs. It represents the middle or centre, and China is considered to be the Middle Kingdom. The residence of their emperor was also considered to be the precise middle of the world. The first imperial ruler, Huangdi, was known as the Yellow Emperor (died 2598 BC), and yellow became the colour of the ensuing Emperors from that time. Right up to the 20th century, Puyi (1906-1967), who was the last emperor of that nation, forced from the throne in 1912 while still a child, stated in his memoirs that his earliest memories of that childhood was being surrounded by the colours of yellow.

The photo clue is of fine crockery, also known as CHINA.

Answer: Her dress

"A Young Girl Reading" was painted by Jean-Honore Fragonard (1732-1806) in 1770. This quite lovely work, as its title suggests, shows a side-on view of a young girl engrossed in reading the book she holds in her hand. The background of the work is done in soft and appealing warmer tones, so that it is the colour of her yellow dress in the foreground based against those more muted colours that first draws the eye. Fragonard details the girl's face much more definitely than the rest of the painting and initially had painted her head facing towards the viewer. Those broader background strokes very much remind one of the Impressionist style of art that would appear in art works one hundred years later.

The heart-breaking Vincent Van Gogh (1853-1890) was also a devotee of the colour yellow. In a letter to his sister in 1888, he wrote that "Now we are having beautiful warm, windless weather that is very beneficial to me. The sun, a light that for lack of a better word I can only call yellow, bright sulfur yellow, pale lemon gold. How beautiful yellow is!"

The photo clue is of a yellow DRESS, the answer to this question.

Answer: Narcissus

The lovely narcissus flower comes in shades of either yellow or white. Known as long ago as Ancient Greece, this plant's name comes to us from their legend of Narcissus, the handsome young man who was so enamoured of his reflection in a pool of water that he fell in love with it, thinking it was someone else. He was lured there by the god Nemesis in retribution because he had ignored Echo, a young mountain nymph who had fallen in love with him, leaving her to die of a broken heart. Now he himself was in love, but whenever he reached his hand down to touch the handsome face gazing back at him from the pool of water, it quivered and disappeared. In despair he finally committed suicide, and, on the spot where he died, the beautiful narcissus flower sprang up in his memory. Thank goodness he didn't pass his intelligence genes along.

The photo clue is of a mirror that reflects an image, and NARCISSUS fell in love with his own reflected image.

Answer: Journalism

"The Yellow Kid" was a very popular cartoon appearing in several American newspapers between 1895-1898. Long since forgotten by most, this cartoon, created by Richard Outcault (1863-1928) depicted a group of kids from New York's "wrong side of the track" acting out the "class and racial tensions of the new urban, consumerist environment" in which they found themselves. Social commentary, in other words. The two newspapers which featured this cartoon in particular, "The World" and "Journal America" - run by the Pulitzer and Hearst organisations respectively - soon became known as "the yellow kid papers". Over time this morphed into "the yellow papers", and then to "yellow kid journalism" and finally into "yellow journalism" a term we associate today with sensationalism and sometimes widely inaccurate news reporting.

The photo clue is of newspapers that features stories written by people who work in the field of JOURNALISM.

Answer: Powdered uranium

Yellowcake, which is also known as urania, is a form of powdered uranium, obtained via a mining process known as leach mining. This drills down into solid deposits of minerals, then uses leaching solutions to dissolve same, before pumping the result back up to the surface for processing. Though still mining, it replaces the other more damaging process such as underground mining, blasting, or open cut. When processed in this way, the uranium product known as yellowcake is a coarse powder that pongs to high heaven, will only melt if the temperatures reach 2880 Celsius (that's VERY hot) and is associated with so much tragedy and horror today.

The photo clue is of an atomic bomb blast, also long associated with URANIUM.