Well, my last blog post seems to have been almost a month ago, so it's about time - now I've finished my first semester at uni and have returned home for Christmas - I rambled some more and wrote some questions for people to have a go at (or not, depending on their inclination).
On the University Challenge front, we haven't had a full-on practice session yet despite promises that one would be arranged. At this rate, we'll be rusty if we ever do get on the show. Hopefully January will yield some opportunities for practice, ahead of the supposed interviews with the production team.
Anyway, ten questions based on art (seeing that I made a trip to the Walker Art Gallery while in Liverpool and actually found it quite interesting) - hope you enjoy (and do make suggestions for topics you'd like to see particular questions on, if you like):
1 Which English painter, one of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood founders, created works such as The Hireling Shepherd (1851) and The Awakening Conscience (1853)?
2 The Dada art movement was founded in 1916 in which city?
3 The Embarkation for... Complete the name of this Jean-Antoine Watteau painting with the name of the Greek island which features in its title?
4 In the 1620s, Diego Velazquez served as the principal court painter to which king of Spain?
5 On display at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City, whose most famous painting was the 1851 work, Washington Crossing the Delaware?
6 Which term describes a work in Christian art which shows the Virgin Mary cradling the dead body of Jesus, most commonly in sculpture?
7 Green Stripe, painted in 1905, is a depiction by which French artist of his wife, Amelie?
8 With which primary colour was the artist Yves Klein most associated?
9 Which Italian Renaissance painter had the birth surname Filipepi?
10 How many human figures can be seen in Edward Hopper's acclaimed 1942 painting, Nighthawks?
Answers:
1 William Holman Hunt
2 Zurich
3 Cythera / Kythira
4 Philip IV
5 Emanuel Leutze
6 Pieta
7 Henri Matisse
8 Blue
9 Sandro Botticelli
10 Four
