One of the most popular parts of Musea has always been our monthly art questions. Here are a bunch of them with the answer below each.
Scroll up the question and see if you can answer it. Perhaps you would have won the prize! Then scroll further and check your guess with the correct answer. Good luck!
Q.
In what country did the Cinderella fairy tale originate?
Clue - Cindy had small feet
A.
The foot-binding country of China. Our winner Molly Ferguson added, 'She began with the name Yen-shen. Her story was recorded by Tuan Ch'eng-Shih in AD 850-60.
Q.
It's the first week of January 1914. A certain someone goes into a wardrobe shed and emerges dressed as a figure that remains to this day the world's best known fictional representation of a human being. Name the costume.
A.
The "Little Tramp" costume of Charlie Chaplain. He said that he chose the costume so that everything would be a contradiction - pants too big and baggy, coat too tight, hat too small, boots too large, then added the cane and small mustache. "I had no idea of the character. But the moment I was dressed, ... I began to know him, and by the time I walked on to the stage he was fully born.
Q
Many critics think this is the most beautiful and enchanting comic strip ever penned. It was one of the first and debuted on Oct. 15, 1905. Name it.
A.
Little Nemo In Slumberland where each night he'd take another trip into the world of his dreams.
Q.
What simple way is there to walk through any maze and get out the other end - EVEN BLINDFOLDED!
A.
Put your left hand on the left wall and without letting go, walk through the maze. Also works with your right hand on the right wall.
Q.
What was the first novel written on a typewriter?
A.
"Adventures of Tom Sawyer" by Mark Twain in 1876.
Q.
What ancient lost fortress city was discovered virtually intact by an American (who later became a Govenor and an US Senator) in 1911?
A.
"Machu Picchu, fortress city of the ancient Incas, which covers 5 sq. mi. of terraced stonework linked by 3,000 steps, high in the Andes. The discoverer was Hiram Bingham from Connecticut.
Q.
What is the "Tonic Sol-fa"?
A.
It is the method of musical notation using letters and syllables instead of notes on a stave, devised by John Curwen. The 8 notes of a major scale are denote by do, re, mi, fa, sol, al, ti, do. Sharps and flats - just change the syllable - sol sharp is se, and ti flat, is taw.
Q.
What artists took abstraction to its ultimate with his painting titled, "White on White"?
A.
The Russian, Kasimir Malevitch, inventor of "Suprematism'. It was painted c. 1918.
Q.
Dante was one of the world's greatest poets. One of the world's greatest pieces of sculpture was originally the figure of Dante. Name it.
A.
"The Thinker; The Poet, fragment of a door." Or as we know it, "The Thinker" by Auguste Rodin. The Thinker was originally conceived by Rodin as the figure Dante pondering the Inferno (part 1 of his 3 part Divine Comedy)
Q.
Speaking of thea-taa, who was the first actor in recorded history?
A.
Thespis, who in 535 B.C. Greece won the first 'tragic contest'. He is known as the father of Greek Drama because he introduced the idea of an actor playing against the chorus.
Q.
Literary math question:
1. Take the temperature at which books burn
2. Divide it by that "Catch" number.
3. Multiply by the sum of the digits in that "Big Brother" year.
What number do you keep getting no matter how many times you repeat the process?
A.
1. "Farenheit 451" divided by
2. "Catch 22" and multiply by
3. The sum of the digits of that "Big Brother Year" "1+9+8+4" = 22
451 divided by 22 times 22 = 451. A nightmare of a puzzle!
Q.
What 20 minute film of 1927 featured a pie fight that used 4000 real pies?
A.
The 1927 short of Laurel & Hardy, entitled "The Battle of the Century" 12-31-27
Q.
What is the term that expresses the technique used in playing the harp where the player quickly goes up and down the scale using his fingers and thumb?
A.
"Glissando"
Q.
Why are there no shadows in Japanese Paintings?
A.
Because the Japanese feel that shadows are temporary and only that which is permanent should be in paintings.
Q.
Who wrote an entire novel without using the letter "E"?
A.
French writer George Perec in his novel "A Void" or "La Disparition".
Q.
Where does the snow on your tv set come from?
A.
It is remnants of radiation from the big bang. Specifically, 1% are photons from the Big Bang!
Q.
This form of divination came from asking a question then randomly picking a quotation from a book - in the West the Bible and Virgil's Aeneid were favorites - and seeing how the quote chosen related to predicting one's future. What is this type of divination called?
A.
Bibliomancy.
Q.
Name the single largest collaborative art project ever undertaken in the U.S. Clue: it consisted of 2.5 million pieces of art.
A.
With 750 artists working from "34-37" on 2.5 million pieces of art: storymen, layout and background artists, animators, inkers, painters, and cameramen - it was Walt Disney's film "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs", the first animated full length film.
Q.
One of the most popular characters in literature was based on a Scottish sailor named Alexander Selkirk. Name the literary character.
A.
It was Daniel Defoe's Robinson Crusoe. Our winner, Jack Hamilton adds these fun facts: The island Selkirk was marooned on was Juan Fernandez 400 miles due west of Valparaiso, Chile. Selkirk was part of a group of ships controlled by Capt. Bartholomew Sharp (Black Bart). He quarreled with his ships captain, William Dampier and by mutual aggreement was set ashore, thinking the crew would mutiny and join him. They did not! He was stranded ( he had foolishly taken no food or water) for 4 years 4 months until he was rescued in Feb 1709 when English privateers saw the smoke of his fire.
Q.
I am looking through my time machine telescope: and I see Mozart at the EISVOGEL, Shubert at the BOGNER, Beethoven playing piano at the FRAUENHUBER, Strauss Sr. at the SILBERNESS, Jr. At the DOMMAYER, Mahler at the SPERL, Brahms taking a nap at the HEINRICHSAHOF and Klimt and Schiele at the MUSEUM. What kinds of hangouts are all thse artists hangion out at?
A.
Coffeehouses. Vienna is world famous for them.
Q.
This painter studied with Andrew Wyeth, worked for not only the pulp magazines but every major slick mag from Saturday Evening Post to Cosmopolitan, painted portraits of President Kennedy, and others, and was a 1st rate pin-up artist in the 40's, but hey NONE OF THAT MATTERS because it was he who not only painted the dogs gambling but the POOL PLAYING DOG PICTURE, "The Hustler" that just happens to be the best selling print in American art history. Name him.
A.
Arthur Sarnoff.
Q.
Poor scientists - never get the credit they deserve! They're the real rock stars! For instance the following list of names are of scientists whose inventions/discoveries of this century have each revolutionized at least 1 art form. They are some of the most important scientific breakthroughs of the century. Your mission (should you choose to accept it) is to name their discoveries. The entry with the most correct will win with a 2 correct minimum:
Leo Baekeland,
Wallace Carothers,
Philo T. Farnsworth,
Chester Carlson,
Tim Berners-Lee.
A.
Leo Baekeland - plastic - records to computer casings, etc.
Wallace Carothers - synthetic fibers - fashion
Philo T. Farnsworth - tv picture tube - TV
Chester Carlson - photocopier - zines
Tim Berners-Lee - internet.
Would you like more of these? E-mail me and let me know.
Back to Main Page