Artists, Painters, & Architects

Question: Who was the first famous artist of the Italian Renaissance?

Answer: The man whom many consider to be the first great painter of the Florentine Renaissance died when he was only 26. His name was Masaccio.

Question: What Dutch artist is famous for his strange geometrical puzzles?

Answer: M.C. Escher (1898-–1971), a Dutch artist, is known for lithographs and woodcuts that use realistic details and geometry to create bizarre conceptual and optical effects.

Question: Which artist is best known for her large-scale paintings of poppies?

Answer: Georgia O’Keeffe, one of the most famous American painters of the 20th century, created numerous close-up portraits of poppies and other flowers.

Question: With what painter did Jean-Michel Basquiat collaborate?

Answer: The young Jean-Michel Basquiat was befriended by the Pop artist Andy Warhol in 1983, and the two began to collaborate occasionally.

Question: Which of these painters did not work during the Renaissance?

Answer: Salvador Dali was the creator of playful, surrealistic paintings. He was a 20th-century Spanish artist. The other painters worked during the Renaissance.

Question: Which of these was not a Renaissance artist?

Answer: Henry Moore, the English sculptor, was active in the 20th century, long after the Renaissance ended.

Question: What did Jan van Eyck paint on, mostly?

Answer: The Flemish painter who perfected the new technique of painting in oils, Jan van Eyck produced mostly portraits and religious subjects on wooden panels.

Question: Which of these artists made a well-known drawing of Don Quixote?

Answer: Pablo Picasso, the Spanish artist, made an ink drawing of the literary figure Don Quixote in 1955. It has become one of the most famous images of the Spanish knight-errant.

Question: Which of these artists is famous for using human paintbrushes?

Answer: For French artist Yves Klein’s "living brush" paintings, created from the 1950s onward, paint-covered live models pressed themselves against his canvases, leaving impressions of their bodies.

Question: Which of these artists used musical terms such as "nocturne" and "harmony" to describe his pictures?

Answer: To emphasize the analogy between color and music, James McNeill Whistler borrowed musical terms—such as nocturne, arrangement, symphony, and harmony—to describe his paintings and etchings.