Q 01/05

In which Dutch city did Vermeer live and work his whole life?

A) Utrecht

B) Leiden

C) Haarlem

D) Delft

Answer · why

D) Delft

He was baptized, married, painted and buried there, earning the nickname 'The Sphinx of Delft'.

Q 02/05

Which museum holds Girl with a Pearl Earring?

A) Rijksmuseum

B) Louvre

C) National Gallery

D) Mauritshuis

Answer · why

D) Mauritshuis

It arrived in The Hague by bequest in 1902 after selling at auction for about two guilders.

Q 03/05

Roughly how many paintings did 21st-century scholars universally attribute to Vermeer?

A) 12

B) 66

C) 120

D) 34

Answer · why

D) 34

Thoré-Bürger once credited him with 66; he probably painted fewer than 50 in total.

Q 04/05

What kind of light source lights most of Vermeer's interior scenes?

A) A window on the left

B) A candle on the table

C) An open doorway

D) A skylight above

Answer · why

A) A window on the left

Hans Koningsberger noted that nearly all of them seem set in two small rooms of his Delft house.

Q 05/05

What object did Vermeer paint out of The Milkmaid, later revealed by X-ray?

A) A clothes basket

B) A wall clock

C) A sleeping cat

D) A second window

Answer · why

A) A clothes basket

He also painted over a large wall map behind her; the removals tightened the focus on the pouring milk.