Q 01/05

Which singer posed in front of the Mona Lisa with Jay-Z in the 2018 music video 'Apeshit'?

A) Rihanna

B) Alicia Keys

C) Beyoncé

D) Mary J. Blige

Answer · why

C) Beyoncé

Beyoncé and Jay-Z filmed 'Apeshit' inside the Louvre, and the video is reckoned to have helped the museum draw a record 10.2 million visitors that yea...

Q 02/05

The Mona Lisa is painted in oil on a panel of which wood?

A) Cypress

B) Oak

C) Walnut

D) Poplar

Answer · why

D) Poplar

Poplar: the thin panel warped as the humidity around it changed, until a crack opened from the top edge down through the sitter's hair to her forehead...

Q 03/05

Lisa del Giocondo, the Mona Lisa's likely sitter, was married to a merchant in which trade?

A) Silk

B) Spices

C) Grain

D) Wine

Answer · why

A) Silk

Silk was the trade of her husband, Francesco del Giocondo, yet he never received the portrait he is said to have ordered: Leonardo kept it and was sti...

Q 04/05

The Italian title La Gioconda puns on the sitter's married name and means what?

A) The silent one

B) The golden one

C) The hidden one

D) The happy one

Answer · why

D) The happy one

The happy one: gioconda is the feminine of her husband's surname, Giocondo, and also means cheerful, like the English 'jocund'. Her smile may be part ...

Q 05/05

Which Renaissance biographer wrote in 1550 that Leonardo painted 'Mona Lisa' for Francesco del Giocondo?

A) Benvenuto Cellini

B) Baldassare Castiglione

C) Giorgio Vasari

D) Niccolò Machiavelli

Answer · why

C) Giorgio Vasari

Giorgio Vasari also wrote that Leonardo hired musicians and jesters to keep Lisa amused while she sat, to chase off the melancholy that painters tend ...