Name That Famous Painter

[akirlu]

Here's where we find out who knows their Manet from their Monet from their Seurat from their Van Gogh.

So, lately I've been playing the Free Rice vocabulary game again as an occasional brain candy sort of thing(and can NOT get beyond point score level 52 out of 60 -- have they made it harder? Have I gotten dumber?), and noticed for the first time that there was a link that said "Change Subjects" in the bar above the game box. Clicking the link gets a page of other multiple choice matching games you can play besides obscure English vocabulary -- Geography, Math, Chemical Symbols, Languages, and ... Art! Yes, it turns out you can test your ability to match famous paintings to the name of the painter, too. I don't know how often one is likely to mistake a Winslow Homer painting for one by Hiroshige or Peter Breugel the Elder, but I'm having fun with it. Next, chemical symbols!

Comments

[txanne.livejournal.com]

Whoa, the vocab is way harder than it used to be.

[akirlu.livejournal.com]

Well, I'm glad I'm not the only one who thinks so.

[bibliofile.livejournal.com]

Some of the Impressionists were drilled into me in junior high, with the help of the local art museum (and its world-class collection of Impressionists).

For some, I confess that I just noticed Rousseau's signature on one of his early works, magnified.

[akirlu.livejournal.com]

Oh, but Rousseau is so distinctive!

[bibliofile.livejournal.com]

Especially in his later works. I like to look at the art, though, so clicking on the painting meant that the signature was legible.

[don-fitch.livejournal.com]

I understand that Free Rice has added at least one more level of difficulty, and ... yup, i'm finding even the simpler/early ones more challenging (a change which I don't think is a good idea).

[akirlu.livejournal.com]

Yes, it would probably be more encouraging if at least the earlier ones were easy enough to be rewarding to those who are not already members of the Fadiman camorra.

[kalimac.livejournal.com]

The "name that country" I find pretty easy. Painters is a lot tougher, rendered easy mostly by the fact that many of the wrong answers are not faintly probable. No, I don't think "The Last Supper" could have been by John Singleton Copley.

[maryread.livejournal.com]

Wow, I am using Name That Country to work out everything that's changed since I last learned geography. I mean like even Europe is different. Not that we ever did Africa properly, so some of this is looking for entirely new brain cells to be stashed in.

[maryread.livejournal.com]

OMG that's addictive. Twenty years of schoolin and they put you on the day shift...

Some nice paintings in there that I've never seen. Some need cleaning, where ever they are IRL. It's vaguely educational! I certainly don't know the Asian artists at all.

[maryread.livejournal.com]

Lotta this vocabulary is French. Buncha technical latin too. But some, I gotta wonder, who USES these words?

[don-fitch.livejournal.com]

I often speculate about the people who select these words. The group apparently includes a zoological taxonomist, a botanist, maybe a geologist, probably at least three high-scoring/ranking members of the Society for Creative Anachronism, and a scholar of Elizabethan English literature & drama.

And, yeah, unlike, say, Anu Garg's "A Word A Day" e-letter/site, this one doesn't feature very many words that might possibly be used in conversation with members of s-f Fandom.

[shikzoid.livejournal.com]

Really? I saw quite a few words I wouldn't have known if I hadn't been hanging around fandom.

[don-fitch.livejournal.com]

Oops! Yes. I should've said "...very few new-to-me words...". And quite a few of the rare words I did get seem to have been learned though the fandom/SCA overlap. But, basically, Free Rice expands my recognition vocabulary much more than my use one.

[vgqn.livejournal.com]

What fun! Though I'm astonished at how well I was doing at the paintings by just guessing at quite a number of those. Not sure what that means.

[ladyjestocost.livejournal.com]

What's with all the Impressionists?

[akirlu.livejournal.com]

I can never figure out the way they pick vocabulary, either, so I couldn't tell you. Maybe they feel they tend to be more famous than some other periods?

[tysolna]

It's definitely gotten harder, I can't get past 41 either. But it helps having read Shakespeare, it seems.

[frandowdsofa.livejournal.com]

Oooh ta, I haven't played that for yonks, and it looks much more fun now!