1)
View of Delft, about 1660, by Vermeer. In Proust's La prisonnière, Bergotte gives the last moments of
his life to a farewell visit to this tranquil masterpiece. If only one could settle in advance how one's last hour would be
spent! Standing in front of this picture would come high on my list.
Delft
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2)
Primavera, about 1482, by Botticelli. This fortunate fabric covers the norks of Flora, whose model must have
been the most beautiful woman of the fifteenth century.
Primavera
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3)
Louis-François Bertin, 1832, by Ingres. Painters capable of great portraiture must still be being born at the
same rate as in previous ages. I'm sure that sitters who would pay appropriately for a painting like this would not be hard
to find. It must be that young men are not prepared to undergo the necessary apprenticeship. Of course, by this time the necessary
Masters have also disappeared.
M. Bertin
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4)
Guernica, 1937, by Picasso. After a hand, a foot. My least-favourite of the ten works in this Quiz. I suppose you had
to have been there, really.
Guernica
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5)
Rhinoceros, 1515, by Durer. A hand; a foot; now a nose .... A tough one to encounter - or to identify!
Rhino
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6)
A Bar at the Folies-Bergère, 1882, by Manet. A bottle of Bass, one of the few things in the world which are as delicious
now as they were a hundred-plus years ago. Painted within a year of his death from the great harvester of nineteenth-century
genius, syphilis.
Folies-Bergère
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7)
Rain, Steam and Speed - The Great Western Railway, 1844, by Turner. Another bottle? Yes and no .... Perhaps this amazing
painting should have been Number Six, and Manet's Number Seven. Turner was, after all, the great precursor of Impressionism.
Rain, Steam and Speed
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8)
The Militia Company of Captain Frans Banning Cocq and Willem van Ruytenburch, c. 1642, by Rembrandt. All right, all
right - it's The Night Watch! I have no idea who this bint is, and I don't think anyone else has, either.
Night Watch
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9)
La Gioconda, c. 1505, by Leonardo. I could hardly leave the most famous painting in the world out of a Quiz like this
one. And why is it the most famous painting in the world? You tell me.
Mona Lisa
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10)
Las Meninas, c. 1656, by Velasquez. There are great paintings, and there are Great Paintings. Here we see Velasquez's
friend and patron, Philip IV, apparently reflected, with his Queen, in the background of what may well be the greatest Great
Painting in the world. You may care to know that, apart from the pooch, the only figure in the painting whose name is unknown
is the shadowy chap standing on the right in the second row. He is supposed to be a palace guard, but he doesn't look like
one to me.
Of course, it's ludicrous to compare one great work of art with another, so that's what I'm going
to do. I think that Vermeer's View of Delft is a better painting than Velasquez's Las Meninas, but Las Meninas
is a greater Work of Art than Vermeer's View of Delft. Do I contradict myself? Very well then I contradict myself.
I am large, I contain multitudes ....
Las Meninas
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Don't bottle up your contempt and fury. Mail to davidjw@mindspring.com
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Last Updated: 11 April 2008
