Q 01/05

The Mona Lisa is painted on what surface?

A) A white poplar panel

B) Stretched linen canvas

C) A wet plaster wall

D) A sheet of copper

Answer · why

A) A white poplar panel

The sitter is traditionally identified as the Florentine noblewoman Lisa del Giocondo.

Q 02/05

Who stole the Mona Lisa from the Louvre in 1911, claiming it belonged in Italy?

A) Guillaume Apollinaire

B) Adam Worth

C) Vincenzo Peruggia

D) Pablo Picasso

Answer · why

C) Vincenzo Peruggia

The two-year theft made the painting world famous; it was recovered in 1914.

Q 03/05

Van Gogh painted The Starry Night in June 1889 from the window of what?

A) A boat on the Rhône

B) His asylum room at Saint-Rémy

C) His Yellow House in Arles

D) A café in Montmartre

Answer · why

B) His asylum room at Saint-Rémy

The village below the swirling sky is imaginary; the painting has hung at MoMA in New York since 1941.

Q 04/05

How many versions of The Scream did Edvard Munch create, in paint and pastel?

A) One

B) Two

C) Seven

D) Four

Answer · why

D) Four

Both painted versions have been stolen from museums and recovered; a pastel sold for a record price in 2012.

Q 05/05

Girl with a Pearl Earring by Vermeer is what kind of painting, in Dutch 17th-century terms?

A) A commissioned family portrait

B) A biblical history painting

C) An allegory of the senses

D) A tronie, a study of a head

Answer · why

D) A tronie, a study of a head

It has been in the Mauritshuis in The Hague since 1902 and got its current title only in the late 20th century.