The Brackets!

Sunday, March 15, 2009

The Monday Quiz LXVI

Art of the Seventeenth Century

Many of you will perhaps find this one especially brutal. You've got seven chances to make five. For full marks, identify the painter (e.g. "Leonardo da Vinci") , or the title and the country ("It's the Mona Lisa, by one of those Italian guys.") Half marks for the right title without the right painter ("The Mona Lisa"). Half marks for the country and genre (It's a portrait by one of those Italian guys").
It has been a while since our star Art History dorks Becky and g have been around, so with any luck you'll be as in the dark as everyone else. Courage!

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Paint your answers in the comments.

23 comments:

  1. Really? Partial credit for guessing a genre and a country? Well, hell, here goes.

    1. A crowd scene by one of those, um, Dutch guys. (Is "crowd scene" a genre?)

    2. Las Meninas by one of those, uh, Spanish guys, written about by Foucault.

    3. Portrait by one of those Dutch guys? Plus a still life of bread and an early mousetrap on the floor maybe?

    4. I want to say this one isn't just a portrait but a self-portrait, but I'm not sure why. Maybe because he's looking at the viewer. And I don't know his nationality, but I'll just say French because I haven't used it yet today.

    5. Religious scene by an Italian guy? (I didn't realize the genres were going to mess me up. I knew I was ignorant on the rest of it.)

    6. Family portraityness by a Dutch guy? With a special appearance by more bread, but a total lack of mousetraps despite keeping the food on the floor.

    7. Pastoral landscape by an Italian?

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  2. I'll leave this one to La Gringissima...

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  3. Not so good on the Northern Baroque, but here goes...

    1. Rembrandt

    2. Las Meninas by Diego Velazquez (my favorite!)

    3. Vermeer. Did you know he used a camera obscura? it's true!

    4. Franz Hals. You can tell by the smirk.

    5. Poussin.

    6. Some Dutch interior chaos in the house genre scene. It could be English, but I don't think they were as big on the genre scenes as the Dutch.

    7. Hmm. Claude Lorraine?

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  4. 3. Vermeer
    (I think he is Dutch...)

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  5. 1. Rembrandt's "Night Watch"
    2. Portrait of the Infanta, with Velasquez inserting himself shamelessly
    3. Vermeer's humble portrait of Milkmaid ...or maybe just a housewife, but "The Milkmaid" is what came to mind. I have a mounted print in my kitchen this very moment
    4. Franz Hals.....a wealthy gentlemen in the halcyon days of Dutch trading
    5. A Biblical subject, by ?Fragonard?--possibly Potiphar's wife?
    6. Breugel...a family scene
    7. Watteau-- a landscape with figures from myth

    Some of these I've been lucky enough to see in person

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  6. 1. is this 'the night watch'? i know it's by rembrandt
    2. the ladies in waiting (?) / velasquez
    3. milkmaid (?) vermeer
    4. ? / ?
    5. ? / ? it's definitely biblical
    6. ? / steen (?) dutch
    7. ? / italian ?

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  7. 1) Caravaggio
    2) Velasquez
    3) Vermeer
    4) Rubens?
    5) no idea at all
    6) looks Dutch
    7) David?....hmmm

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  8. 1 Rembrandt, Netherlands, The Night Watch. Now with restored color.
    2 Velazquez, Spain, Las Meninas
    3 Vermeer, Netherlands I think, uh, Woman with Pitcher
    4 Oh, I'm going to say Franz Hals, Netherlands, um, Cavalier de Groot
    5 Yeah, uh, let's say Titian, Italian, uh, Visitors to the Tomb. Yeah.
    6 OK, I know this one, it's Christmas, the bawly boy has gotten the Dutch equivalent of coal in his stocking...so Netherlandische again, by, uh, Van Eyck?
    7 OK, here's a nice pastoral scene, and I'm going to say it's French, which means I get to struggle to name a French painter of the period...uh, uh, Lorrains.

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  9. 1. Rembrandt, Nightwatch
    2. Oh, you're doing this one again, and I'm gonna get it wrong again, but it's something about Princess Margarita, La something,
    3. Vermeer, I don't know, I'll say "maid with a jug"
    4. Some Dutch dude, painted by some other Dutch dude.
    5. Some English dude painting Greek dudes
    6. More Dutch, or maybe it's Flemish, I don't know.
    7. Another English dude painting Greek dude & dudettes

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  10. No idea about any of them.

    BUT, I did try your 'better than robert redford' dessert this weekend and it was damn tasty. I ate a little too much and made myself a bit sick, so I don't know how often I'm going to make it though...

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  11. I guess these art quizzes are the price I pay for also getting nice juicy geography quizzes on a regular basis.
    1. Rembrandt.
    2- "The Surly Dwarf", by that Estonian dude
    3. Ah, who am I kidding, I have no idea about the rest....

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  12. One of 'em's a Rembrandt. But which?

    I recognize a few others.

    I can pronounce "Caravaggio," but I don't know if he painted one of these.

    Nice dog.

    Nice sheep, but for Pete's sake, put some clothes on.

    What, no pooches playing poker? Elitist.

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  13. 1) The Night Watch, Rembrandt, The Netherlands
    2) Las Meninas (a nickname, don’t remember the real title), Velasquez, Spain
    3) Woman with a pitcher of milk, Johannes Vermeer , the Netherlands
    4) The jolly something, portrait by Frans Hals, the Netherlands
    5) Aaack, can’t remember- Shepherds in Arcadia? Some mythic scene by David or Poussin, France
    6) Hmm, interior Genre scene by some Dutch guy, the Netherlands
    7) Another Day in Arcadia, mythic scene by some French guy: Ooh, wait – is it the Judgment of Paris? One guy, three women and a cherub?

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  14. 1. Rembrandt
    2. Spanish
    3. Dutch
    4. Flemish
    5. Italian
    6. Dutch
    7. hmmm, Italian?


    I recognize many of these but am clueless as to who painted them right now.

    These and many similar are used for the counterfeit game on games for the brain. http://www.gamesforthebrain.com/

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  15. Yay for 17th century art. Boooooo for omitting dutch still life (the vermeer is quite nice though) Um, I have the feeling I've some of these, in books if not in person... but I can't remember any of the names.

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  16. In the Amsterdam museum, what have we here? The most soulful painting since, well....

    1. Rembrandt, The Militia Company of Captain Frans Banning Cocq. Or, as it is more commonly known, The Night Watch.

    2. Velázquez, Las Meninas

    3. Vermeer, The Milkmaid

    4. Frans Hals, Laughing Cavalier

    5. Poussin, Les Bergers d'Arcadie or Et in Arcadia ego.

    6. Steen, The Feast of Saint Nicholas.

    7. Claude Lorraine, The Judgment of Paris.

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  17. First of all, let's give it up for art historians Elaine and d, who didn't quite make the E.P. cutoff but showed highly meritorious art history mojo.

    Seems like a while since we've heard from art historian Fool for Paper, but along with art historian Mrs.5000 they make it to five correct answers and a MQLXVI EP.

    Finally, let's give it up for art historian la gringissima, who scored a whopping 6 1/2 to take home a MQLXVI EP with an extra helping of respect, yo.

    Mrs.5000 moves to the top of the leaderboard, one point ahead of DrSchnell; la gringissima makes it a tie for third.

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  18. @Serendip: The genres are especially confusing because the genre of #s 3 and 6 is "genre painting." I didn't make up the lingo....

    @Carto: Well left!

    @fingers: You crack me up, dude.

    @Kadonkadonk: I am honored! It doesn't take too much to make one a bit sick, though. Don't say I didn't warn ya.

    @DrSchnell: In point of fact, you didn't really have any idea about #2 either, did you. Really. Patronizing my enthusiasm for Estonia is only going to take you people so far. Also, did you notice that Kadonk made the Redford?

    @Reb: You're booing Rembrandt, Valezquez, Steen, Vermeer, and Hals? Damn, tough room....

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  19. Tsk, tsk, tsk. My art history prof is shaking her head (though no doubt in heaven-- I took that course ....ouch, 37 years ago.) You did a good (i.e., cruel) job of starting us off with well-known works and then slyly slipping into lesser artists. Once again I fall by the wayside! not least for failing to read the directions. The Milkmaid averted her eyes when I entered the kitchen for a glass of cold water...

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  20. Naturally, I looked up "genre painting" after your explanation to see what it entailed, and while it sounds comprehensible (aside from what from my admittedly biased perspective is a loony use of the word "genre"), I don't understand a couple of things.

    First, I can certainly understand why the woman pouring from a pitcher could represent a scene from life, but why isn't it also a portrait (or isn't portrait even a genre)?

    Second, given that according to the OED the use of the term "genre" as "a style of painting in which scenes and subjects of ordinary life are depicted" begins in 1861 and is therefore anachronistic to these pictures, what terms might the painters and their contemporaries have used to describe these paintings instead?

    (Just to clarify, since tone doesn't always come across in writing so well, these are sincere questions I'm asking in an earnest if somewhat sleep-deprived attempt to learn a little something, not a pitiful and obviously pointless attempt to milk another half-point or two out of you.)

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  21. Serendipity,
    I am like you-- "genre" did not mean anything to me, whereas Period or Style might have, and I would simply have said, "Oils" if I had even answered that question. I had a year of art history, and "genre" just wasn't in the vocab except as you used it. But that class was some time ago, AND (I hate to admit how brain-dead I am these days) I did not even do the math correctly. I took that class ~42 years ago, not 37. Ouch. Where did the time go?

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  22. I don't know when the term came to be used, but for as long as I've been interested in art -- a meager 10 years -- "Dutch genre painting" has been the label universally used to indicate, well, Dutch genre painting. I had trouble with the word at first too, but like all jargon it feels natural after a while.

    Portraiture is painting that is intended to depict and memorialize a specific person. There's no reason to think that painting #3 is intended to specifically depict Liisa Groooot the servant girl, say, for posterity. [Insert obvious comments about class relations here.] Instead, the subject of the painting is presumably a (generic) serving girl at her everyday labors -- a quotidian scene of commoner life, ergo genre painting.

    A more ambiguous example might be the famous cookie-inspiring "Girl With a Pearl Earring." Is it a portrait of a specific young woman, or is it a more general picture meant to evoke a "generic," if you will, young woman. I think the later, but can't be bothered to check just now.

    Compare with the (yummy) Hals painting, #4. Although we're not sure WHO this is supposed to be, it is plainly intended to be a specific depiction of a specific person, and moreover a specific person who would have the dosh to have himself commemorated in a portrait. Note that he is not DOING anything, but just BEING, resplendent in his Sunday best. Every inch a portrait.

    As to what the Dutch painters of the 16th and 17th Century would have called this style of work, I can say this much with certainty: it would be in Dutch.

    As to where the time went, with any luck it went into decades rich with satisfying episodes, incidents, and experiences? Just guessing.

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  23. Oh.....yeah, come to think of it!

    I posted something to your g-mail (i am probably in Spam) plus a notice of absence... See you in april!

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