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