Art for grades 9–10: questions with answers

The Art questions for grades 9–10 from the game, with the correct answers and an explanation for each.

  1. Who painted 'Las Meninas'?

    • El Greco
    • Diego Velázquez
    • Murillo
    • Francisco Goya

    Correct answer: Diego Velázquez — Velázquez painted the royal family in 1656 and put himself in the picture; it hangs in the Prado.

  2. Which Madrid museum holds Goya's 'The Third of May 1808'?

    • the Prado
    • the Reina Sofía
    • the Uffizi
    • the Hermitage

    Correct answer: the Prado — The Prado opened in 1819 and holds Spain's royal collection — Velázquez, Goya and Bosch above all.

  3. Whose ballet 'The Rite of Spring' caused a riot at its 1913 premiere?

    • Debussy
    • Ravel
    • Stravinsky
    • Prokofiev

    Correct answer: Stravinsky — The premiere in Paris on 29 May 1913 ended in uproar over the pounding rhythms and Nijinsky's choreography.

  4. Hagia Sophia in Istanbul is the masterpiece of which architectural style?

    • Romanesque
    • Byzantine
    • Gothic
    • Baroque

    Correct answer: Byzantine — Built in 537 under Justinian, Hagia Sophia was a church, then a mosque, a museum, and since 2020 a mosque again.

  5. Who painted the triptych 'The Garden of Earthly Delights'?

    • Jan van Eyck
    • Hieronymus Bosch
    • Albrecht Dürer
    • Pieter Bruegel

    Correct answer: Hieronymus Bosch — The triptych, painted around 1500, is in the Prado; its strange creatures made Bosch a favourite of the Surrealists.

  6. Which architect designed the spiral Guggenheim Museum in New York?

    • Frank Lloyd Wright
    • Le Corbusier
    • Mies van der Rohe
    • Frank Gehry

    Correct answer: Frank Lloyd Wright — Opened in 1959, the museum's spiral ramp lets visitors walk down past the art in one continuous curve.

  7. Who composed the 'Brandenburg Concertos'?

    • Vivaldi
    • Telemann
    • Bach
    • Handel

    Correct answer: Bach — Bach dedicated the six concertos to the Margrave of Brandenburg in 1721; they are among the finest Baroque orchestral works.

  8. Who painted 'Liberty Leading the People'?

    • Jacques-Louis David
    • Ingres
    • Géricault
    • Delacroix

    Correct answer: Delacroix — Painted in 1830 to celebrate the July Revolution; Liberty holds the tricolour over the barricades.

  9. Which Russian composer wrote 'Pictures at an Exhibition'?

    • Borodin
    • Mussorgsky
    • Rimsky-Korsakov
    • Tchaikovsky

    Correct answer: Mussorgsky — Written for piano in 1874 in memory of a painter friend; Ravel's orchestration of 1922 is the best-known version.

  10. Which art movement, born in Zurich in 1916, embraced nonsense and anti-art?

    • Cubism
    • Futurism
    • Dada
    • Bauhaus

    Correct answer: Dada — Dada mocked the values that led to the First World War; Marcel Duchamp's 'Fountain' — a urinal — is its most famous work.

  11. Who directed and starred in 'Citizen Kane' (1941)?

    • Frank Capra
    • John Ford
    • Howard Hawks
    • Orson Welles

    Correct answer: Orson Welles — Welles was 25 when he co-wrote, directed and starred in the film; critics' polls long ranked it the greatest ever made.

  12. Which trumpeter recorded the jazz album 'Kind of Blue' in 1959?

    • Duke Ellington
    • Charlie Parker
    • Miles Davis
    • John Coltrane

    Correct answer: Miles Davis — 'Kind of Blue' is the best-selling jazz album of all time; John Coltrane and Bill Evans played on it.

  13. Which German school of design (1919–1933) shaped modern architecture and furniture?

    • Art Nouveau
    • De Stijl
    • Bauhaus
    • Art Deco

    Correct answer: Bauhaus — Founded by Walter Gropius in Weimar, the Bauhaus united craft and fine art; the Nazis closed it in 1933.

  14. Who composed 'Rhapsody in Blue'?

    • George Gershwin
    • Aaron Copland
    • Duke Ellington
    • Leonard Bernstein

    Correct answer: George Gershwin — Gershwin wrote the piece for a 1924 concert in New York, blending jazz with the concert hall; he also wrote 'Porgy and Bess'.

  15. Which Mexican artist is famous for huge murals of Mexico's history?

    • Diego Rivera
    • José Clemente Orozco
    • Rufino Tamayo
    • Frida Kahlo

    Correct answer: Diego Rivera — Rivera's murals cover public buildings in Mexico City; he was married to Frida Kahlo.

  16. Which classical column order has scroll-shaped capitals?

    • Doric
    • Ionic
    • Corinthian
    • Tuscan

    Correct answer: Ionic — Doric is plain, Ionic has scrolls (volutes), Corinthian has acanthus leaves; the Parthenon is Doric.

  17. Who composed the opera 'Madama Butterfly'?

    • Rossini
    • Donizetti
    • Verdi
    • Puccini

    Correct answer: Puccini — The opera about a Japanese geisha and an American officer premiered at La Scala in 1904; Puccini also wrote 'La bohème' and 'Tosca'.

  18. Who wrote the music for the musical 'West Side Story'?

    • Richard Rodgers
    • Leonard Bernstein
    • Stephen Sondheim
    • Andrew Lloyd Webber

    Correct answer: Leonard Bernstein — The 1957 musical moves Romeo and Juliet to New York's gangs; Stephen Sondheim wrote the lyrics.

  19. Which artist made the famous posters for the Moulin Rouge in the 1890s?

    • Manet
    • Degas
    • Renoir
    • Toulouse-Lautrec

    Correct answer: Toulouse-Lautrec — Toulouse-Lautrec's posters of Paris nightlife in the 1890s made lithography an art form.

  20. Which Polish composer wrote almost exclusively for the piano — nocturnes, polonaises, mazurkas?

    • Chopin
    • Schumann
    • Liszt
    • Brahms

    Correct answer: Chopin — Chopin left Poland at 20 and lived in Paris; almost everything he wrote is for solo piano.

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