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Leonardo da Vinci - Quiz
Contributed by: Downes
  • 1. When was Leonardo da Vinci born?
A) April 15, 1452
B) June 15, 1478
C) March 22, 1433
D) August 10, 1520
  • 2. Which Italian ruler was a patron of Leonardo da Vinci?
A) Cleopatra
B) Julius Caesar
C) Napoleon Bonaparte
D) Ludovico Sforza
  • 3. What is Leonardo da Vinci's most famous portrait?
A) The Starry Night
B) Mona Lisa
C) American Gothic
D) Girl with a Pearl Earring
  • 4. What French king invited Leonardo da Vinci to live and work at the Château de Cloux?
A) Philip II
B) Louis XIV
C) Francis I
D) Henry VIII
  • 5. What did Leonardo da Vinci dissect to study human anatomy?
A) Animals
B) Mannequins
C) Insects
D) Corpses
  • 6. What was the name of Leonardo da Vinci's notebook filled with sketches and ideas?
A) Scroll
B) Codex
C) Tablet
D) Tome
  • 7. Who was the teacher who inspired and encouraged Leonardo da Vinci's artistic talents?
A) Andrea del Verrocchio
B) Rembrandt
C) Pablo Picasso
D) Vincent van Gogh
  • 8. What is the title of the mural painted by Leonardo da Vinci that depicts the dinner Jesus had with his disciples before his crucifixion?
A) The Sistine Chapel
B) The Last Supper
C) The Creation of Adam
D) The Birth of Venus
  • 9. What is Leonardo da Vinci's full name?
A) Leonardo Raphael da Vinci
B) Leonardo Donatello di Vinci
C) Leonardo Michelangelo di Vinci
D) Leonardo di ser Piero da Vinci
  • 10. Where did Leonardo spend his last three years?
A) Rome
B) Milan
C) France
D) Florence
  • 11. What record did Salvator Mundi set in 2017?
A) Oldest painting sold at auction
B) Largest painting sold at auction
C) First painting by Leonardo sold at auction
D) Most expensive painting sold at public auction
  • 12. Which field did Leonardo make substantial discoveries in?
A) Anatomy
B) Chemistry
C) Astronomy
D) Philosophy
  • 13. What type of vehicle did Leonardo conceptualize?
A) Armoured fighting vehicle
B) Submarine
C) Hot air balloon
D) Steam engine
  • 14. Which invention by Leonardo entered manufacturing unheralded?
A) Flying machine
B) Ratio machine
C) Automated bobbin winder
D) Armoured fighting vehicle
  • 15. What is the approximate distance of Vinci from Florence?
A) 20 miles
B) 50 miles
C) 10 miles
D) 30 miles
  • 16. What was Leonardo's father's profession?
A) Merchant
B) Florentine legal notary
C) Painter
D) Artisan
  • 17. What nickname was given to Antonio di Piero Buti del Vacca?
A) 'The painter'
B) 'The quarrelsome one'
C) 'The notary'
D) 'The scholar'
  • 18. How many times did Ser Piero marry after Caterina?
A) Four
B) Three
C) One
D) Two
  • 19. How many half-siblings did Leonardo have who survived infancy?
A) 11
B) 16
C) 8
D) 5
  • 20. At what age was the last of Leonardo's half-siblings born?
A) 50 years old
B) 46 years old
C) 40 years old
D) 30 years old
  • 21. What type of education did Leonardo receive?
A) Religious schooling
B) Military training
C) Basic and informal
D) Advanced formal
  • 22. Which skills were included in Leonardo's basic education?
A) Engineering, anatomy, and astronomy
B) Latin, philosophy, and science
C) (Vernacular) writing, reading, and mathematics
D) Sculpture, painting, and music
  • 23. What is the name of Leonardo's earliest memory recorded in the Codex Atlanticus?
A) Flying a bird for the first time
B) A kite came to his cradle and opened his mouth with its tail
C) Painting his first artwork
D) Meeting his father
  • 24. Who recorded Leonardo's biography in 'Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects'?
A) Antonio da Vinci
B) Giorgio Vasari
C) Francesco da Vinci
D) Leonardo da Vinci
  • 25. Where did Leonardo da Vinci become an apprentice around the age of 14?
A) Medici Palace
B) Verrocchio's workshop
C) Bargello
D) Platonic Academy
  • 26. Which artist's death coincided with Leonardo becoming a studio boy?
A) Piero della Francesca
B) Masaccio
C) Ghiberti
D) Donatello
  • 27. Who were Leonardo's contemporaries that he met at Verrocchio's workshop?
A) Michelangelo, Bramante, Titian
B) Botticelli, Ghirlandaio, Perugino
C) Donatello, Masaccio, Ghiberti
D) Alberti, Piero della Francesca, Raphael
  • 28. Which artist's work was known for realism and emotion in frescoes?
A) Masaccio
B) Piero della Francesca
C) Leon Battista Alberti
D) Ghiberti
  • 29. What was the title of the painting Leonardo collaborated on with Verrocchio?
A) Madonna of the Rocks
B) David
C) Tobias and the Angel
D) The Baptism of Christ
  • 30. What technique did Leonardo apply to parts of 'The Baptism of Christ'?
A) Watercolor
B) Tempera only
C) Oil paint
D) Fresco
  • 31. What did Leonardo paint on a buckler shield that was sold for 100 ducats?
A) Mona Lisa
B) The Last Supper
C) Vitruvian Man
D) A monster spitting fire
  • 32. What was the form of the silver string instrument Leonardo brought to Milan?
A) A horse's head
B) A dolphin's tail
C) A lion's mane
D) An eagle's beak
  • 33. What was the name of the equestrian monument Leonardo planned for Ludovico Sforza?
A) Gran Cavallo
B) Gattamelata
C) Bartolomeo Colleoni
D) Regisole
  • 34. What was the trompe-l'œil decoration in the Sala delle Asse intended to resemble?
A) A forest of oak trees
B) A garden of roses
C) A vineyard
D) A pergola created by interwoven mulberry trees
  • 35. Where did Leonardo flee to after Ludovico Sforza was overthrown?
A) Florence
B) Milan
C) Venice
D) Rome
  • 36. Who was Leonardo in service to in Cesena in 1502?
A) Pope Alexander VI
B) Charles II d'Amboise
C) Cesare Borgia
D) Ludovico Sforza
  • 37. Which anatomical feature did Leonardo da Vinci make one of the first scientific drawings of in utero?
A) Liver
B) Heart
C) Foetus
D) Lungs
  • 38. Who assumed the papacy in March 1513?
A) Lorenzo de' Medici's son Giovanni as Leo X
B) Pope Clement VII
C) Giuliano de' Medici
D) Pope Julius II
  • 39. What was the total amount of Leonardo's pension in France?
A) 10,000 scudi
B) 5,000 ducats
C) 15,000 florins
D) 8,000 crowns
  • 40. Where did Leonardo da Vinci die?
A) Milan
B) Rome
C) Clos Lucé
D) Florence
  • 41. What was the height of the skeleton discovered by Houssaye?
A) 2.00 metres (6.6 ft)
B) 1.50 metres (4.9 ft)
C) 1.60 metres (5.3 ft)
D) 1.73 metres (5.7 ft)
  • 42. What nickname was given to Leonardo's assistant Salaì?
A) Il Salaino
B) The Master's Shadow
C) The Little Genius
D) The Pupil
  • 43. Who was Leonardo working on an equestrian monument for?
A) Pope Leo X
B) Lorenzo de' Medici
C) Gian Giacomo Trivulzio
D) King Francis I of France
  • 44. Which king of France supported Leonardo in his old age?
A) Charles IX
B) Henry II
C) Louis XII
D) Francis I
  • 45. Under whom did Leonardo da Vinci study mathematics in the 1490s?
A) Marcantonio della Torre
B) Nicolas Poussin
C) Luca Pacioli
D) Cardinal Louis d'Aragon
  • 46. What is 'sfumato', a technique used by Leonardo?
A) A style of painting with visible brushstrokes
B) The subtle shadowing that creates a smoky effect
C) A method of using bright, contrasting colors
D) A way to create three-dimensional effects with lines
  • 47. What was Leonardo da Vinci's painting technique for 'The Last Supper'?
A) Tempera over a ground that was mainly gesso
B) Oil on canvas
C) Fresco on wet plaster
D) Encaustic wax painting
  • 48. Who was King Francis I's royal advisor that sent instructions regarding Leonardo?
A) Guillaume Gouffier, seigneur de Bonnivet
B) Francesco Melzi
C) Antonio Maria Pallavicini
D) Lorenzo di Credi
  • 49. Who was Leonardo's favourite student?
A) Giovanni Antonio Boltraffio
B) Bernardino Luini
C) Marco d'Oggiono
D) Count Francesco Melzi
  • 50. What did Vasari say about the 'Mona Lisa's' smile?
A) 'It is identical to the original model's smile'
B) 'So pleasing that it seems more divine than human'
C) 'It is a simple and unremarkable feature'
D) 'It lacks any emotional depth'
  • 51. What was the subject of a project Leonardo may have commenced for Charles II d'Amboise?
A) A mural
B) A map
C) A portrait
D) An equestrian figure
  • 52. In what year did Leonardo first state the 'laws' of sliding friction in his notebooks?
A) 1505
B) 1512
C) 1493
D) 1520
  • 53. Who observed Leonardo at work on 'The Last Supper' and wrote about it?
A) Matteo Bandello
B) Michelangelo
C) Ludovico Sforza
D) Vasari
  • 54. Who made explicit his opinion that Leonardo's relations with Salaì were intimate and homosexual?
A) Sigmund Freud
B) Melzi
C) Vasari
D) Walter Isaacson
  • 55. Which artist's drawings were based on Leonardo's anatomical studies for publication?
A) Michelangelo
B) Raphael
C) Titian
D) Nicolas Poussin
  • 56. Which river's flow did Leonardo devise a scheme to divert in 1502?
A) Arno
B) Adige
C) Po
D) Tiber
  • 57. What was one of the projects Leonardo worked on for Pope Leo X regarding the Pontine Marshes?
A) Designing a fountain
B) Building a new church
C) Plans for draining them
D) Creating a botanical garden
  • 58. What did Leonardo decorate with scales dipped in quicksilver?
A) A statue
B) A painting
C) A lizard
D) A manuscript
  • 59. What did Leonardo make notes on while dissecting cadavers in the Vatican Gardens?
A) Anatomy of the human body
B) Engineering designs
C) Botanical studies
D) A treatise on vocal cords
  • 60. What was found on one finger of the skeleton discovered by Arsène Houssaye?
A) A bronze ring
B) An iron nail
C) A gold necklace
D) A silver bracelet
  • 61. Which pupil of Leonardo is considered to have artistic merit comparable to others like Marco d'Oggiono?
A) Melzi
B) Salaì
C) Luca Pacioli
D) Boltraffio
  • 62. Which painting by Leonardo da Vinci is characterized by the Virgin Mary sitting or kneeling to the right, approached by an angel?
A) Annunciations
B) Virgin of the Rocks
C) Mona Lisa
D) Saint Jerome in the Wilderness
  • 63. Where did Leonardo live from September 1513 to 1516?
A) At Medici's Vaprio d'Adda villa
B) In the Belvedere Courtyard in the Apostolic Palace, Rome
C) Clos Lucé near Château d'Amboise
D) Porta Orientale, Milan
  • 64. What event led to the demolition of the church where Leonardo was buried?
A) World War I
B) The Black Plague
C) An earthquake in 1802
D) The French Revolution
  • 65. Which drawing technique did Leonardo use in 'The Virgin and Child with Saint Anne and Saint John the Baptist'?
A) Grisaille
B) Sfumato
C) Chiaroscuro
D) Impasto
  • 66. What did Leonardo identify as defining the circulatory system?
A) The brain
B) The liver
C) The heart
D) The lungs
  • 67. Who owns the Codex Leicester?
A) The British Library
B) Bill Gates
C) Robert Lehman
D) John Nicholas Brown I
  • 68. Which book did Leonardo collaborate on with mathematician Luca Pacioli?
A) Mona Lisa
B) Vitruvian Man
C) Divina proportione
D) The Last Supper
  • 69. What was Leonardo given as a monthly allowance in Rome?
A) 50 scudi
B) 33 ducats
C) 40 crowns
D) 20 florins
  • 70. Which flying machine did Leonardo design that mimics bird flight?
A) Helicopter
B) Hot air balloon
C) Flapping ornithopter
D) Glider
  • 71. Which Renaissance movement recognized no polarities between the sciences and the arts?
A) Baroque period
B) Renaissance humanism
C) The Enlightenment
D) Romanticism
  • 72. Which painting by Leonardo da Vinci is characterized by a calm young woman accepting her role as the Mother of God with confidence?
A) Lady with an Ermine
B) The larger Annunciation
C) Mona Lisa
D) Saint Jerome in the Wilderness
  • 73. Who also worked on the project to divert the Arno river's flow alongside Leonardo?
A) Ludovico il Moro
B) Pope Leo X
C) Michelangelo
D) Niccolò Machiavelli
  • 74. Who discovered a partially complete skeleton believed to be Leonardo's remains?
A) Charles Nicholl
B) Mary Margaret Heaton
C) Napoleon III
D) Arsène Houssaye
  • 75. Who collaborated with Leonardo in his anatomical studies from 1510 to 1511?
A) Luca Pacioli
B) Nicolas Poussin
C) Verrocchio
D) Marcantonio della Torre
  • 76. In which year did Leonardo write to Ludovico il Moro about creating machines for city protection?
A) 1482
B) 1499
C) 1502
D) 1510
  • 77. Which of the following did Leonardo not study anatomically?
A) Monkeys
B) Cows
C) Insects
D) Bears
  • 78. How was the painting referred to as Joconda valued in Salaì's posthumous inventory?
A) 300 lire
B) 505 lire
C) 750 lire
D) 1000 lire
  • 79. In what year was Leonardo charged with sodomy, and how old was he at the time?
A) 1492, aged forty-one
B) 1503, aged fifty-two
C) 1476, aged twenty-four
D) 1485, aged thirty-three
  • 80. What technique did Leonardo perfect that represents internal components in technical drawings?
A) Isometric view
B) Perspective view
C) Orthographic projection
D) Exploded view
  • 81. What did Leonardo create that walked towards the King during a pageant?
A) A mechanical lion
B) An equestrian statue
C) A painting of Francis I
D) A portrait of Louise of Savoy
  • 82. On what date did Leonardo da Vinci pass away?
A) June 23, 1524
B) March 30, 1498
C) April 15, 1506
D) May 2, 1519
  • 83. When did Leonardo return to Florence after leaving Borgia's service?
A) Mid-1505
B) Early 1503
C) Late 1504
D) Early 1506
  • 84. Where was Leonardo sorting out a dispute in 1507?
A) Milan
B) Florence
C) Venice
D) Rome
  • 85. Which television series built ten machines designed by Leonardo?
A) The Art of Engineering
B) Doing DaVinci
C) Leonardo's Dream Machines
D) Masters of Invention
  • 86. Which of Leonardo's works is noted for its androgyny and eroticism?
A) Mona Lisa
B) Vitruvian Man
C) The Last Supper
D) Saint John the Baptist
  • 87. What year were documents published revealing Houssaye's actions?
A) 2019
B) 2005
C) 1999
D) 1987
  • 88. Who summoned Leonardo to Milan in 1506?
A) Cesare Borgia
B) Charles II d'Amboise
C) Pope Alexander VI
D) Ludovico Sforza
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