Baroque visual-art characteristics and artistic developments.
Test your knowledge with these top questions!
In Rembrandt's The Return of the Prodigal Son, what does the father do?
The scene comes from a Bible story in which a son wastes his inheritance before returning home.
Rembrandt was born in which present-day country?
Rembrandt moved from Leiden to Amsterdam, where a growing market for portraits helped build his career.
Rembrandt used acid to cut drawn lines into copper plates for which printmaking process?
Rembrandt reworked his printing plates, so collectors can compare different versions of the same image.
Artemisia Gentileschi is associated with which art movement?
Gentileschi used strong light against dark backgrounds to make biblical scenes look immediate and dramatic.
Caravaggio's The Calling of Saint Matthew shows Matthew working in which profession?
Caravaggio dressed the men at the tax table in clothes of his own time, bringing a biblical event into a familiar setting.
Which Dutch painter created Girl with a Pearl Earring?
The painting is a tronie, a study of a character or expression rather than a portrait of a known sitter.
Rembrandt's The Night Watch portrays members of which group?
Rembrandt arranged the militiamen as if setting out together, rather than lining them up for a static group portrait.
Which liquid does a kitchen servant pour from a jug in a famous painting by Johannes Vermeer?
The painting is called The Milkmaid, but the woman is a kitchen servant rather than someone who milks cows.
Which biblical heroine did Artemisia Gentileschi paint beheading Holofernes?
Gentileschi shows Judith's maid helping hold the general down, making the killing a forceful joint effort.
Vermeer used natural ultramarine, a blue pigment made from which stone?
The stone came from mines in Afghanistan, making natural ultramarine one of the most expensive pigments of Vermeer's time.