Which miracle did St Patrick perform? The great British art quiz

Looking up … William Orpen’s St Patrick, from the Potteries Museum and Art Gallery in Stoke-on-Trent. Photograph: Todd-White Art Photography/The Potteries Museum & Art Gallery

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 Potteries Museum and Art Gallery in Stoke-on-Trent. The Potteries Museum and Art Gallery has one of the largest and most diverse regional collections outside of London, holding almost one million objects across its six outstanding collections, comprising of fine and decorative art, ceramics, local history, natural sciences and archaeology. Its fine art collection, established in the 1920s, is distinguished by early- mid-20th-century art.

You can see art from the Potteries Museum and Art Gallery on Art UK here, and find out more about the gallery on its website here.

1. 

   Thérèse Lessore’s 1940 painting depicts a view from a famous Georgian Spa resort. Can you name the town?

   1. Harrogate

   2. Tunbridge Wells

   3. Buxton

   4. Bath

2. 

   Mark Gertler’s Head of a Basque Shepherdess was probably painted during one of his lengthy stays on the continent, necessitated by his delicate health (he had tuberculosis). Later in his career, he also designed packaging for which well-known brand name?

   1. Pears soap

   2. Cadbury’s chocolate

   3. Huntley & Palmers biscuits

   4. Hovis bread

3. 

   This painting by John Emery depicts a scene inspired by which Shakespeare play based in Italy?

   1. The Merchant of Venice

   2. The Two Gentlemen of Verona

   3. Othello

   4. The Taming of the Shrew

4. 

   Irish-born artist William Orpen’s atmospheric depiction of St Patrick draws on the old masters of Spanish painting such as Diego Velázquez and El Greco. What is the famous miracle attributed to the saint?

   1. Destroyed a cauldron of beer with his breath

   2. His body did not decompose until 18 months after his death

   3. Banished snakes from Ireland

   4. Reunited the head and body of a man who had been beheaded

5. 

   In William Mainwaring Palin’s painting of the Temple of Minerva, the goddess Minerva wears a tunic decorated with the symbol of a serpent, one of the sacred creatures associated with her. Can you name another that also takes the form of a famous object in the Potteries Museum and Art Gallery’s collections?

   1. Peacock

   2. Cow

   3. Owl

   4. Lion

6. 

   The invention of paint tubes in the 1840s increased the popularity of painting en plein air and enabled artists to capture dramatic landscapes in situ. This famous mountain peak in the Alps was painted by John Nash Peake in 1899. Which one is it?

   1. Mont Blanc

   2. Weisshorn

   3. Matterhorn

   4. Monte Rosa

7. 

   This model of the sculpture Eternal Spring by Auguste Rodin was cast in bronze between 1898 and 1918. The original was to be part of a large-scale decorative scheme depicting hell, inspired by the work of which author?

   1. Piers Plowman – William Langland

   2. Huis Clos – Jean-Paul Sartre

   3. Paradise Lost – John Milton

   4. The Divine Comedy – Dante Alighieri

8. 

   The West Country has been a popular destination for artists since the 19th century, with several regional schools being established there. This view by Staffordshire artist John Currie was painted during his visit to Cornwall. Where is it?

   1. Lamorna

   2. Newlyn

   3. St Ives

   4. Polperro

Solutions

1:D - Thérèse Lessore was a founder member of the London Group of artists, formed to organise modern art exhibitions in Britain. This work was exhibited in the show Nine Painters: Vanessa Bell, Quentin Bell, Anthony Devas, Duncan Grant, Derek Hill, Therese Lessore, Colin MacInnes, Patricia Preece, Geoffrey Tibble at Alex Reid and Lefevre Ltd in May 1940, no. 49. Image: Entrance to the Pump Room, Bath, 1940 – Thérèse Lessore (1884–1945), the Potteries Museum & Art Gallery, 2:B - To promote its brand as a leader in British product design, Cadbury’s invited leading artists of the day to design unique chocolate boxes. In 1933, it launched its Famous Artists series of chocolate boxes – 11 designs were chosen: two by Laura Knight and the rest by Arthur Rackham, Edmund Dulac, CRW Nevinson, Mark Gertler, Philip Connard, Dod Procter, Ernest Procter, George Sheringham and Arthur Watts. Image: Head of a Basque Shepherdess, 1922 – Mark Gertler (1891-1939), the Potteries Museum & Art Gallery, 3:C - The discarded white glove near Desdemona’s feet is a clue. Read as a symbol of Desdemona’s (lost) virtue, it alludes to Othello’s rising suspicions about her fidelity as the tragedy unfolds. In Act III, scene IV, Othello asks Desdemona to give him her hand, when she does so he claims its moistness indicates lust. Othello then demands her handkerchief, which she cannot produce, thus sealing her fate. Image: Othello Relating His Adventures (copy after Douglas Cowper), 1879 – John Emery (1802-1893), the Potteries Museum & Art Gallery, 4:C - At the outbreak of the first world war, Orpen chose to stay in London rather than return to Ireland, to avoid conscription. He became one of the most prolific of the official British war artists sent to the western front. He produced 138 works depicting soldiers, prisoners of war, refugees and the dead, as well as portraits of generals and politicians. Image: St Patrick, 19th-20th century – William Orpen (1878-1931), the Potteries Museum and Art Gallery, 5:C - The museum's owl slipware jug (known as Ozzy) first came to the world’s attention on an episode of the BBC’s Antiques Roadshow in March 1990. He was acquired shortly afterwards to join the museum's significant slipware collection and is one of its most popular objects. Image: The Temple of Minerva, 19th-20th century – William Mainwaring Palin (1862-1947), the Potteries Museum and Art Gallery, 6:C - The pyramid-shaped peak of the Matterhorn has four distinct sides that align with the cardinal directions: north, south, east and west. The north side faces Zermatt Valley and the east overlooks Gornergrat ridge, both in Switzerland, while the south face points toward the Italian town of Breuil-Cervinia and the western side overlooks the Swiss-Italian border. Image: The Matterhorn, 1899 – John Nash Peake (1837-1905), the Potteries Museum and Art Gallery, 7:D - Rodin, inspired by Dante’s epic poem The Divine Comedy, planned to represent the gates of hell, populated by sculptural figures on a pair of monumental bronze doors for a new decorative arts museum in Paris (the museum was never built). Eternal Spring was originally conceived to represent forbidden love, based on the tragic love story of Paolo and Francesca, as told in the first part of Dante’s poem. Image: Eternal Spring, 19th-20th century – Auguste Rodin (1840-1917), the Potteries Museum and Art Gallery, 8:B - Currie was one of the most promising artists of his generation. He worked as an artist in the Potteries, painting ceramics before going to London to attend the Royal College of Art in 1905. However, in 1914 his ascendant career was cut short by his murder of his lover and muse, Dolly Henry. He shot Dolly and then himself, dying later in hospital. Image: Newlyn, Looking towards Mousehole, 19th-20th century – John Currie (1883-1914), The Potteries Museum & Art Gallery

Scores

1. 6 and above.

   Hats off to you – this result certainly isn't up the spout.

2. 0 and above.

   This was more a crock smash than fine china.

3. 3 and above.

   Not a bad result, if not quite worth getting your finest bone china out to toast.