Why is a tree sprouting from this boat?: The great British art quiz

Ship of Fools by Kehinde Wiley. Photograph: Tina Warner/© the artist, National Maritime Museum

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 sets the questions.

Today, our questions are thanks to the Queen’s House, Greenwich. One of the first buildings in the UK to be constructed in the Palladian style, it has long been an important site for women’s history. Today this London building is home to the National Maritime Museum, spanning old master paintings to contemporary installations.

You can see art from the National Maritime Museum on Art UK here. Find out more on the Royal Museums Greenwich website here.

1. 

   How many pearls is Elizabeth I thought to be wearing in the ‘Armada portrait’?

   1. More than 50 but less than 150

   2. More than 150 but less than 300

   3. More than 300 but less than 800

   4. More than 800

2. 

   Anne of Denmark commissioned the Queen’s House after the Tudor Palace of Greenwich became part of her ‘jointure’. How, is it said, did Greenwich become ‘her’ palace?

   1. She won it in a card game

   2. She was given it by her husband James VI/I for her birthday

   3. She was given it by her husband James VI/I as an apology for swearing after she accidentally shot his favourite dog while out hunting

   4. She was given it by her husband James VI/I as a wedding gift

3. 

   Inigo Jones was employed at the early Stuart courts in which of the following capacities?

   1. An architect

   2. A set designer

   3. A costume designer

   4. All of the above

4. 

   Which monarch invited Dutch artists to set up a studio in the Queen’s House?

   1. Charles I

   2. Charles II

   3. Queen Anne

   4. Queen Victoria

5. 

   Which monarch weighed in on Christopher Wren’s plans for what is now the Old Royal Naval College to insist that the Queen’s House had an uninterrupted view of the river?

   1. Charles II

   2. James II

   3. Mary II

   4. Queen Anne

6. 

   For which painter was Emma Hart (later Emma Hamilton) a muse?

   1. Thomas Gainsborough

   2. Thomas Lawrence

   3. Angelica Kauffmann

   4. George Romney

7. 

   This painting by Henry Nelson O’Neil was painted in 1861, the same year as which historic event, alluded to in the work?

   1. Italian unification

   2. The outbreak of the US civil war

   3. The emancipation of the Serfs in Russia

   4. The death of Prince Albert

8. 

   The motif of a tree growing out of a boat in Kehinde Wiley’s Ship of Fools refers to an old master painting, with which Wiley’s work shares its name, by which artist?

   1. Hieronymus Bosch

   2. Jan Mostaert

   3. Pieter Bruegel the Elder

   4. Pieter Aertsen

Solutions

1:D - In the Elizabethan world, pearls symbolised purity and chastity, and so were particularly appropriate for Elizabeth I, the ‘Virgin Queen’. Extremely expensive and sourced via trade networks extending across the world, they were also a statement of the queen’s power and influence. Image: Elizabeth I, 1533-1603 (the 'Armada portrait'), c1588, English School, 2:C - Anne was a proficient rider who also enjoyed the thrill of hunting. The Queen’s House as designed for her would originally have straddled a public road running between the Greenwich Palace complex and the deer-stocked Royal Park to the south, providing a convenient and luxurious means of passing from one to the other without having to venture onto the road. Image: Anne of Denmark (1574–1619), c1605, John de Critz the elder (1551/52-1642), 3:D - Inigo Jones designed the Queen’s House for Anne of Denmark, and completed it for Henrietta Maria, queen consort to Charles I. He also designed stage sets and costumes for court masques in which both queens performed. In this portrait Jones comes face to face with one of the most talented English painters of the 17th century, William Dobson. Image: Inigo Jones (1573-1652), c1642, William Dobson (1611-44), 4:B - Father and son duo Willem van de Velde the Elder and the Younger migrated to England in the winter of 1672-3 in response to an open invitation from Charles II to Dutch artists. The Van de Veldes were the top marine painters of their day and Charles made sure they were motivated to stay by paying them a salary and giving them a studio space in the Queen’s House. Image: An English Ship in a Gale Trying to Claw Off a Lee Shore, 1672, Willem van de Velde II (1633-1707), 5:C - Though she never lived in the Queen’s House, it is to Mary II that the House owes its view to and from the Thames, depicted here by Canaletto. She insisted that Wren’s plan for Greenwich Hospital (now the Old Royal Naval College) should not block the words ‘visto’ from the Queen’s House to the river. The closest distance between the College blocks is exactly the width of the House (35.4 metres). Image: Greenwich Hospital from the North Bank of the Thames, c1752, Canaletto (1697-1768), 6:D - George Romney painted Emma more than 70 times, in many different guises from history and literature. She was a talented performer, and her role in Romney’s studio is better characterised as a creative collaborator rather than simply as a model. She is perhaps most famous for being Admiral Horatio Nelson’s mistress, but she was also a noted linguist, ambassador, political hostess and fashion influencer. Image: Emma Hart (c1761-1815), Later Lady Hamilton, 1785-86, George Romney (1734-1802), 7:B - This large painting captures the variety of feeling among a crowd bidding farewell to emigrants on board a ship departing the Thames. It was exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1861, the year the US civil war broke out, and the inclusion of a black man in the crowd is understood to indicate the artist's support for the anti-slavery movement. Image: The Parting Cheer, 1861, Henry Nelson O'Neil (1817-80), 8:A - Kehinde Wiley’s work often engages with old master paintings in novel and visually powerful ways to explore contemporary subjects. Here he portrays four young individuals against a backdrop reminiscent of a seascape by Van de Velde (see question 4) and introduces the absurd motif of the tree, inspired by Bosch’s Ship of Fools (in the Louvre) to consider the plight and the bravery of 21st-century migrants. Image: Ship of Fools, Kehinde Wiley (b1977)

Scores

1. 6 and above.

   Not bad but you're not yet ready to reign

2. 5 and above.

   Not bad but you're not yet ready to reign

3. 3 and above.

   Not bad but you're not yet ready to reign

4. 2 and above.

   Oh dear – you did royally rubbish

5. 1 and above.

   Oh dear – you did royally rubbish

6. 8 and above.

   Time to crown yourself King or Queen of this quiz!

7. 4 and above.

   Not bad but you're not yet ready to reign

8. 7 and above.

   Time to crown yourself King or Queen of this quiz!

9. 0 and above.

   Oh dear – you did royally rubbish