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