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 from National Trust for Scotland. With industrial buildings, castles, mansions and cottages, the collections range from fine and decorative art to furniture, books and associated archives. NTS collections can be found in more than 50 properties and provide a view into the lives of people across Scotland. The collection cares for around 300,000 objects and has a painting collection of international significance.
You can see art from the National Trust for Scotland on Art UK here.
How old is Agnes Murray-Kynynmound in this portrait by Allan Ramsay (1713–84)?
Eight
Ten
Twelve
Fourteen
Culross Palace in Fife was built by a merchant named Sir George Bruce. How did he make his money?
Coal and wool
Timber and wool
Salt and timber
Coal and salt
The Scottish artist Edward Atkinson Hornel (1864–1933) used photographs to aid his paintings and was greatly inspired by Japanese culture and photography. Which Japanese city became most famous for its hand-coloured photography studios in the late 19th century?
Yokohama
Osaka
Kyoto
Fukuoka
In this painting by John Opie (1761–1807) we see seven of the children of the 21st Laird of Brodie, posing with their family dog. Brodie Castle is full of portraits that show the family with their favourite animals. Can you guess what unusual pets Violet Brodie (1878–1958) was particularly fond of?
Ostriches
Toads
Tadpoles
Owls
In this beautiful example of a double portrait, James V of Scotland is depicted with his second wife, Mary of Guise. However, this is a 19th-century copy of a 16th-century original. Where can you find the original portrait?
The Palace of Holyroodhouse
Hardwick Hall
National Portrait Gallery
Fotheringhay Castle
In the painting at Brodick Castle on the Isle of Arran – The Temptation of Saint Anthony by David Teniers II (1610–90) – the saint is depicted being tormented by a number of gruesome beasts and demons. Which of these bizarre and sinister creatures always appears in Tenier’s depictions of St Anthony?
Frogs, bats and crabs
Flying fish, or ‘serras’
A defecating egg with the head and legs of a chicken
Lions, serpents and dragons dressed as monks
All of the above
Designed by William Adam in the 1770s, Haddo House was the home of the Gordon family who entertained the great and good of British society; which statesmen does this portrait by Richard Evans depict?
Admiral Lord Nelson
Sir Robert Peel
Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington
Robert Stewart, 2nd Marquess of Londonderry
Which monarch is depicted in this painting?
James V
James VI
James VII
Charles Edward Stuart
Solutions
1:A - The prominent Scottish painter, Allan Ramsay (1713–1784), painted Agnes Murray-Kynynmound in 1739, when the sitter was only eight. When Agnes’s father, Hugh Dalrymple-Murray-Kynynmound, died just three years later, she went to live with her aunt and uncle at the Palladian house Newhailes. At the age of 15, she eloped with the 24-year-old Gilbert Elliot, and their eldest child became the first Earl of Minto. Image: Falkland Palace and Garden, 2:D - Sir George Bruce built one of the first underwater coal mines by tunnelling down beneath the sea bed and building a shaft in the water, so coal could be loaded on to ships. While the best coal was traded, the rough coal was put into "pans" along the shore and sea water was heated to create salt. He built a home (now known as Culross Palace) by the port in 1597. Business was doing so well that by 1611 he was building a large extension. Here he is depicted in a painting by George Jamesone (1589/90-1644). Image: National Trust for Scotland, Royal Burgh of Culross, 3:A - Photographs of this type were known as Yokohama shashin (Japanese for "photograph" or "photography"). They originated in the Japanese city of the same name in the 1860s–80s. Hornel visited Japan in 1893–94 and 1921. This painting by Hornel, titled Japanese Musician, was painted 1921-25. Image: Broughton House and Garden, 4:B - Aside from dogs, cats and horses, Violet Brodie also kept a succession of toads, including one called Cleopatra. Despite Violet’s avid interest in photography, we don’t have a visual record of her amphibious friends – but she did include a clipping in a scrapbook album she compiled between 1906 and 1913. Image: National Trust for Scotland, Brodie Castle, 5:B - The original portrait was most likely painted after the deaths of both James and Mary, possibly from existing portraits of the pair. They were the parents of Mary Queen of Scots (1542–1587), who during her imprisonment by Elizabeth I (her first cousin once removed), was put into the care of the Earl and Countess of Shrewsbury, the owners of Hardwick Hall in Derbyshire. Image: National Trust for Scotland, 6:E - Teniers explored the theme of The Temptation of Saint Anthony throughout his career and produced hundreds of variations on the subject, reusing and adapting imagery and motifs. Popular motifs include demons in the form of lions, serpents and dragons, some dressed in monk's habits, as well as other creatures associated with the devil, such as frogs, bats, crabs and "serras" (flying fish). The unusual motif of a defecating egg, bearing a chicken's head and feet, appears in almost all Tenier’s depictions of the saint. Image: Brodick Castle, Garden & Country Park, 7:C - Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington, who was twice Tory prime minister (from 1828-30 and briefly in 1834). His portrait is at Haddo because the 4th Earl, George Hamilton-Gordon, was the secretary of foreign affairs during the duke’s first term in office. Both men resigned in protest of the 1832 Reform Act which sought to increase access to the vote). Some years later, William Ewart Gladstone was a guest at Haddo in 1884, around the time he was introducing a similar bill: the Representation of the People Act. Image: Haddo House/Positive Image, 8:B - This portrait attributed to the Flemish artist Adrian Vanson (d. before 1610) is a depiction of King James VI (1566–1625). Vanson was court painter to the king, working in Edinburgh from 1584. Image credit: James V, attributed to Adrian Vanson, Falkland Palace & Garden, National Trust for Scotland, Falkland Palace & Garden
Scores
8 and above.
There's hasn't been a Sheffield-related triumph like this since the glory days of Def Leppard. Up the blades!
7 and above.
You have a heart, soul and mind of pure Sheffield steel.
6 and above.
Truly impressive.
5 and above.
Wear your pink glove, babe – you got 5 out of 8!
4 and above.
Half marks. That's a creditable effort.
3 and above.
Not bad. Not amazing either.
2 and above.
To you, Sheffield culture means Arctic Monkeys. And why not?
0 and above.
Oh crikey.
1 and above.
Well, it's a start.
