Where did Henry Wellcome keep his cats? The great British art quiz

Wellcome Collection. A Sleeping Cat, 19th century, unknown artist. Photograph: Wellcome Collection

This quiz is brought to you in collaboration with Art UK, the online home for the UK’s public art collections, showing art from more than 3,000 venues and by 45,000 artists. Each day, a different collection on Art UK will set the questions.

Today, our questions are set by the Wellcome Collection, which is a free museum and library in London that aims to challenge how we all think and feel about health.

Through exhibitions, collections, live programming, digital, broadcast and publishing, they create opportunities for people to think deeply about the connections between science, medicine, life and art.

You can see art from the Wellcome Collection on Art UK here. Find out more on its website here.

1. 

   Who is this painting by?

   1. Jackson Pollock

   2. Albert Oehlen

   3. Ellie of Nashville

   4. William Gear

2. 

   What does the insignia on this man's robe indicate?

   1. A physician

   2. A professor at the University of Montpellier

   3. The grand master of a Freemasons' Lodge

   4. A knight of Malta

3. 

   The Victorian painter James Nasmyth (1808-90) painted this picture of an alchemist. The artist also happened to be an inventor. Which of the following did he not do or achieve?

   1. Stipulate that his ashes should be disposed of in a brown paper bag

   2. Invent a steam-operated device that transformed the manufacture of iron and steel products

   3. Build scale-models of the mountains and lakes of the moon in order to photograph them under electric light

   4. Have a university department named after him

4. 

   This gouache and pencil painting on ivory represents Ganesha, the Hindu elephant-headed god of wisdom, success and remover of obstacles. Although different versions about his birth exists, Ganesha is popularly known as the son of Parvati and who?

   1. Vishnu

   2. Brahma

   3. Shiva

   4. Krishna

5. 

   Joseph Priestley (1733-1804), radical politician, theologist and chemist is pictured here playing backgammon in his house in Birmingham, but what element has he been historically credited for discovering?

   1. Carbon

   2. Nitrogen

   3. Oxygen

   4. Fluoride

6. 

   This 19th-century Japanese gouache painting depicts a blissful sleeping cat. Where did Henry Wellcome’s cat Pip and her two off-spring sleep as reported by the Liverpool Echo in 1936?

   1. Inside decommissioned Tabloid medical chests, made by his company Burroughs & Wellcome, returned from the British 1924 Mount Everest Expedition

   2. He invented a mobile sleeping device, so he could take his sleeping cats anywhere

   3. Outside in an out-house. Henry was actually allergic to cats

   4. In a palatial Regents park residence, complete with ballroom, occupied solely by the cats

7. 

   This drawing attributed to Francesco Rosaspina (1762-1841), was made after an altarpiece by Domenichino. After training with Denis Calvaert, in 1595 Domenichino joined the Accademia degli Incamminati, a private art school founded by:

   1. The Carracci family

   2. Guercino

   3. Francesco Albani

   4. Guido Reni

8. 

   This Venetian oil painting portrays a man who was formerly identified as the anatomist Andreas Vesalius. To which emperor did Vesalius dedicate his work De Humanis Corporis Fabrica?

   1. Philip II

   2. Charles V

   3. Maximilian I

   4. Ferdinand I

Solutions

1:C - Ellie of Nashville is an elephant in Zoo Knoxville, Tennessee, a centre for breeding pandas and African elephants. Paintings by elephants appear to have first aroused public interest in 1970 when the elephant Carol from the San Diego Wild Animal Park painted some pictures on the US TV show The Tonight Show With Johnny Carson. Image: Green, Red and Orange Streaks, 2000, Ellie the elephant (active 2000), Wellcome Collection, 2:D - He is Gregorio Caraffa (c1614–90), 61st grand master of the Knights of Malta (1680–90). The Knights of Malta originated in a chivalric order in the 11th century to care for Christians making the pilgrimage to Jerusalem. As shelters for travellers were known as hospitals, the knights became known as the Knights Hospitallers. Image: Gregorio Caraffa (c1614-90), 61st Grand Master of the Knights of Malta (1680-90), 18th century, unknown artist, Wellcome Collection, 3:A - Aside from being a painter, Nasmyth invented the steam hammer, in which the force of the hammer blow could be controlled. The department of engineering at Heriot-Watt University in Edinburgh is named after him. Image: An Alchemist in His Laboratory, 19th century, James Nasmyth (1808-90), Wellcome Collection, 4:C - According to tradition, Parvati carved a boy from earth and as her husband Shiva was away, her new son stood guard while she bathed. When Shiva returned, the boy denied him entry. Shiva decapitated Ganesha in anger but when Parvati learned of this, she was so enraged she decided to destroy Ganesha. Shiva repented, found a new head for the boy from an elephant and restored their son to life. Image: Ganesha, the Elephant-Headed God of Wisdom, Literature and Success, Along With His Vehicle, the Rat, 19th century, unknown artist, Wellcome Collection, 5:C - Priestley's scientific reputation rested on his invention of carbonated water and his discovery of several gases, the most famous being what he coined "dephlogisticated air" (oxygen). Image: Joseph Priestley (1733-1804), the Discoverer of Oxygen, 1912, by Ernest Board (1877-1934), Wellcome Collection., 6:D - Henry Wellcome, collector, entrepreneur, philanthropist and even inventor, was also a devoted (and eccentric) cat owner. There are photographs of his cats, alongside lengthy care instructions for cat-sitters, in the archive of Wellcome Foundation Ltd, which includes the newspaper cutting revealing the ‘Millionaire’s Mansion for Cats’. Henry himself resided in a nearby Portland Place hotel. Image: A Sleeping Cat, 19th century, unknown artist, Wellcome Collection, 7:A - The Accademia degli Incamminati (Academy of Those who are Making Progress) was one of the first art academies in Italy, founded in 1582 in Bologna by the three Carracci cousins: Agostino, Annibale and Ludovico. Image: The Martyrdom of Saint Agnes (after Domenichino), 18th-19th century, Francesco Rosaspina (1762-1841), Wellcome Collection, 8:B - De Humanis Corporis Fabrica, commonly known as the Fabrica was printed in 1543. The same year, Vesalius presented his book to the Holy Roman emperor Charles V, who appointed him as regular court physician and granted him lifelong pension and the aristocratic title of Count Palatine. Vesalius also gave Charles V a special vellum copy of the work and dedicated The Epitome to his son Prince Philip II. Image: Portrait of a Man (once designated as Andreas Vesalius, 1514-64, anatomist), 16th century, Italian (Venetian) school, Wellcome Collection

Scores

1. 6 and above.

   Congratulations – you know your way around a lab as well as a gallery.

2. 0 and above.

   A valiant attempt, but you didn't turn lead into gold in this instance.

3. 3 and above.

   An experiment with mixed results.