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People Depicted in Paintings

Name the real and mythological people depicted in these paintings.
Quiz by Quizmaster
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Last updated: August 10, 2018
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First submittedAugust 10, 2018
Times taken35,835
Average score72.2%
Rating4.47
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+18
Level ∞
Aug 10, 2018
#14 is really tough, I know. But it is a very famous painting.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Death_of_Marat

+2
Level 85
Aug 10, 2018
Thank you, Al Stewart's "Palace of Versailles"!
+2
Level 77
Aug 11, 2018
I forgot his name, but I've seen the painting this last month on a tv program where they explained a lot about it. Never saw it before that.
+3
Level 63
Aug 11, 2018
Marat is in lots of wax museums.
+1
Level 72
Aug 15, 2018
Like the others I recognise the painting but I would never have got the answer. I've not heard the name before.
+3
Level 88
Aug 16, 2018
Marat stabbed in the bath is very famous - the iconic painting of the French Revolution, yet the lowest guessed at 34%. The could-be-anybody Rembrandt was gotten by 84%. What am I missing?
+1
Level 73
Aug 21, 2018
If I'm not mistaken, the painting has been cropped just a little. In the images that I have seen, mainly in French history and art history classes the painting has the subject's and the artist's names in the lower right corner. Of course, that would have ruined it for the quiz, but it makes it easier to remember who he was after you've seen it a few times.
+7
Level 67
Nov 25, 2018
I recognize the painting of Marat, but I could not recall his name. I got Rembrandt correct...I didn't know it was him on sight, but it looks very much like an artist in that picture, and I generally recognize the style of the painting to be the style of the Dutch masters, so...Rembrandt is an obvious choice from there.
+1
Level 76
Nov 25, 2018
I know who Marat is but had never seen the painting before
+12
Level 82
Nov 25, 2018
That portrait of Rembrandt is ubiquitous. You see it all the time. Also.... people have heard of Rembrandt before.
+2
Level 66
Mar 29, 2020
I haven't heard of or seen marat before. And all the others were easy. So not that famous. "in French history and art history classes" Well that explains it, might be well known if you are from france or study art. But if you havent had those classes.

(and yea the rembrandt painting is all over the place, on jetpunk alone I ve seen it a dozen times (I thinkeven more than henry! though henry definitely has been the answer more often and the thumbnails on quizzes, not counting those)

+2
Level 71
Mar 9, 2021
I think including Marat made sense. I learned about both him as a figure and this painting of him at my (American) high school. While he's typically overshadowed by figures like Robespierre (probably because he wasn't a political leader himself and basically lived in a bath tub), he still played a major role in drumming up the sentiment that led to the Reign of Terror. And his death was quite significant as well, leading to further radical sentiment against "enemies of the state" and his depiction as a martyr.

TL;DR Marat was an pretty important figure in the France Revolution who should be recognized more. Also, the painting itself is pretty amazing.

+2
Level 60
Mar 9, 2021
It doesn't need art History classes or French history classes. French Revolution is World History, and you don't need to know those paintings. Any dead person on a bathtub is Marat as any one in the cross is Jesus, someone tied to a mast is Odysseus and naked woman on top of a horse is Godiva.
+1
Level 70
Mar 10, 2021
never heard of Marat before, while the Rembrandt looks like a self portrait, and one of the dutch masters.
+1
Level 66
Feb 1, 2022
With Marat I knew the story but forgot his name. With Rembrandt I just made an educated guess. Can't really do that with Marat.
+2
Level 45
Nov 25, 2018
I mistakenly thought Marat was the artist, not the character depicted. Boy did I feel stupid when I saw the answer.
+1
Level 82
Nov 25, 2018
That's the only one I missed. Don't even know who that is.
+5
Level 75
Nov 25, 2018
I've never seen the portrait, but I saw the play, Marat/Sade, a shortened name of the correct title, "The Persecution and Assassination of Jean-Paul Marat as Performed by the Inmates of the Asylum of Charenton Under the Direction of the Marquis de Sade," and it was an easy guess. (It was a very strange play.)
+2
Level 55
Nov 26, 2018
Excellent! I tried Jacobin for #14 -- because you never know what the Quizmaster might have permitted :-) Then tried "Jean Paul" (couldn't remember Marat at first) and even David (the painter), on the same theory. Great choice of a painting. It's very famous, but it's interesting that the actual subject, a huge deal at the time, has slipped into relative obscurity - so that it's the painter, and not the person, that I bet most people would remember! It'd be fun to have a whole quiz of famous paintings of now-obscure "famous subjects."
+1
Level 66
Nov 26, 2018
I totally remembered who he was and the circumstances of his death, but blanked on his name.
+1
Level 85
Nov 4, 2020
I thought for sure it was spelled Murat.
+3
Level 69
Dec 14, 2021
You're mixing it up with one of Napoleon's cavalry officers (and also a slaveowner from Florida, who was his son)
+1
Level 81
Mar 9, 2021
Well, a part of his name can be read from the paper he holds in his hand. That helped me remember it.
+1
Level 63
Mar 9, 2021
I first saw it at a wax museum.
+1
Level 79
Aug 7, 2022
That's what I come to this site for. I have actually never seen that painting before, never heard Marat, and have never even heard of the artist. Time to learn!
+5
Level 69
Aug 10, 2018
Great concept for a quiz! Got stumped only on Cleopatra but in the last seconds I noticed the bottom of the Isis symbol... the goddess she is supposed to embody. I love many of these paintings, nice one!
+2
Level 63
Aug 11, 2018
You are observant!
+1
Level 55
Nov 26, 2018
Plus, who would a Victorian painter show as a dark and sultry temptress wearing a crown and sitting on a throne under an Egyptian symbol showing snakes? Not many candidates!
+1
Level 84
Mar 9, 2021
I would have guessed Cleopatra if she had looked female to me. Since the picture depicted a male, I tried Tutenkhamun and Ramses II.
+1
Level 70
Mar 10, 2021
it was the cat head that did it for me, led me towards Africa, and hence Cleopatra, on review the decoration on the wall behind her looks clearly egyption
+4
Level 76
Aug 10, 2018
Quite a few imaginary characters here, does anyone know what they actually looked like?! Especially "Adam" who is reaching out to a hand older than his, which would make him, er, not the first dude on Earth...
+2
Level 63
Aug 11, 2018
To pose for the sitting, God's arm had to come into concretion.
+16
Level ∞
Nov 25, 2018
Jerry928 are you trolling?
+1
Level 88
Mar 25, 2020
Adam got a short "shrift" in the painting.
+1
Level 38
Mar 9, 2021
the old man is God
+1
Level 70
Mar 10, 2021
very famous painting of god touching the hand of his creation.
+2
Level 71
Aug 11, 2018
Good quiz, not too difficult as the pictures were well chosen.
+2
Level 89
Aug 11, 2018
Finally all those art history classes pay off!
+1
Level 63
Aug 11, 2018
So you didn't attend them high. Good move for you.
+2
Level 26
Aug 12, 2018
Wow I definitely need to up my game at art history.
+3
Level 69
Nov 25, 2018
lovelllly quiz that i've been waiting for to be made because i'm a lazy hoe :^) although it is rather easy, i have to say...even marat, supposedly the more difficult painting, is easily recognizable for anyone with a vague interest in art and the more famous paintings/artists
+1
Level 65
Nov 25, 2018
I totally agree. Knowledge of history plays a role too. In Italian first grades of primary school French Revolution is stressed for its breakthrough standing and if you ask a kid "gimme three names of revolutionaries" they will be Robespierre, Danton and Marat.
+1
Level 43
Nov 25, 2018
Great quiz
+7
Level 65
Nov 25, 2018
For people living outside anglosaxon mainstream and with minimum knowledge in arts and history the tough one is Lady Godiva, not Marat for sure
+1
Level 84
Jan 12, 2019
Agreed, even for this person living within the anglosaxon mainstream. I was happy to stare for a while though at the Lady. :-)
+1
Level 78
Dec 8, 2020
I got Godiva, but I think she should be wearing sky blue, rather than red, given the city where she was riding.
+1
Level 71
Mar 9, 2021
She isn't wearing anything, unless you were referring to the horse
+1
Level 71
Mar 9, 2021
The only reason I know about Lady Godiva at all is because she's mentioned in "Don't Stop Me Now" by Queen :)
+2
Level 72
Mar 9, 2021
Never bought a box of chocolates? :)
+1
Level 37
Nov 25, 2018
Got Godiva; missed Marat (thought that he was the artist, not the subject); Confucius (looked vaguely like Rasputin to me) and I never saw this particular depiction of Odysseus.
+3
Level 57
Mar 9, 2021
I got Oddyseus because I read the part of the story where he was tied to the ship’s mast in order to avoid being lurked into the sirens.
+1
Level 66
Nov 27, 2018
Please consider Kǒng Fūzǐ for #16 in addition to his Latinized name.
+1
Level 72
Mar 9, 2021
Then you would have to accept 孔子
+3
Level 84
Jan 1, 2020
Strangely, I fare much better identifying Marats and Rembrandts in picture line-ups than I do Biebers and Lohans.
+1
Level 56
May 18, 2022
Me too. I am terrible at identifying popular people everyone else seems to know.
+1
Level 34
Feb 19, 2020
Jean Paul Mara should be accepted!
+1
Level 54
Mar 9, 2021
Why? His name is Marat.
+1
Level 68
May 2, 2020
I got Rembrandt from one accidental glance in an art museum. Never thought I could recall it, but I first thought it was Michelangelo.
+1
Level 56
May 18, 2022
I know very little about art appreciation, but when I saw this self-portrait of Rembrandt at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC I was transfixed.
+1
Level 54
Sep 24, 2020
i saw it at a lego museum, https://i.pinimg.com/originals/ce/cc/5c/cecc5c2eb3d7f3eb3e3d4aab6b275ba2.jpg
+3
Level 62
Mar 9, 2021
I have never seen that picture of Cleopatra before. I honestly thought it was a guy.
+1
Level 84
Mar 9, 2021
Me too.
+2
Level 64
Mar 9, 2021
Nice one, not that hard, though as some would put in the comments. Marat is quite an easy one for a French.

I stumbled on the stunning Lady Godiva, though.

And by the way, what do you meant, and which one is "impossible"?

Thanks!

+1
Level 39
Mar 9, 2021
I wish Odyssey was accepted
+1
Level 48
Mar 10, 2021
It's Odysseus because that's how it spelled, Odyssey is not correct as its a different word entirely.
+1
Level 38
Mar 9, 2021
does anyone know why Godiva did that? no? it was to get peasants attention so she could stir them up to not pay taxes to the king. i see it worked at getting attention from what ive read.
+2
Level 57
Mar 9, 2021
The version I’ve heard was that her husband, the lord, wanted to raise taxes on the peasantry. She protested, and he said he wouldn’t raise them if she rode naked through the town, thinking that she’d never do that.
+1
Level 63
Mar 9, 2021
She knew they'd throw chocolate to her.
+1
Level 70
Mar 9, 2021
That French Revolution class from fifteen years ago is still paying off.
+1
Level 70
Mar 9, 2021
Really enjoyed that - the only one that threw me was Washington, which I am sure Americans guessed easily. All answers are easy if you know them!
+1
Level 46
Mar 9, 2021
I forgot that English is like the only language where it's something else than 'Maria' smh.
+3
Level 65
Mar 9, 2021
Rembrandt had a last name, just like Vincent van Gogh. Maybe putting Rembrandt van Rijn under the picture is more complete?
+1
Level 78
Oct 19, 2021
He's universally known as 'Rembrandt'.
+2
Level 63
Mar 9, 2021
I guessed a bunch of kings for Cleopatra.
+2
Level 84
Mar 9, 2021
Yup. Tutenkhamun, Ramses II, and a few Roman emperors for good measure.
+1
Level 54
Mar 9, 2021
Jacques Louis David approves of this quiz. I count three of his paintings here.
+1
Level 57
Mar 9, 2021
please accept "mary antoinette"
+1
Level 47
Mar 9, 2021
But that's not her name, it's Marie, not Mary (I know it's pretty much the same, but that would be like asking John to be accepted for Juan)
+2
Level 78
Oct 19, 2021
Or accepting Johnny for Jesus
+1
Level 44
Mar 10, 2021
Oof why is Lady Godiva nude
+1
Level 51
Mar 10, 2021
Because that's what she's famous for....riding naked through the streets as a protest about higher taxes.
+1
Level 78
Oct 19, 2021
Said by someone who has truly never heard of Lady Godiva
+1
Level 68
Mar 10, 2021
"Then Marat, in his bath"
+1
Level 51
Mar 10, 2021
Loved this! Rembrandt took a while...such an ordinary-looking man. Could be anybody. But got it based on the style and time period.
+1
Level 65
Mar 15, 2021
Cleopatra looks like Frodo in the Lord of the Rings.
+1
Level 76
Jan 25, 2022
Ah, yes, Washington standing up in a rowboat. One of the many historical inaccuracies in that one.