What lies in the center of the painting?

A strange sleeping face-like creature

The Persistence of Memory Quiz: Dali's Melting Clocks

The Persistence of Memory quiz stares at the soft watches drooping across a dreamlike coast. Play 10 interactive questions on Salvador Dali, 1931, MoMA, the painting's small size, melting clocks, ants, the strange sleeping face, the Catalan landscape of Cap de Creus, the Camembert story and the 1954 Disintegration version.

Start the Persistence of Memory Quiz

🎯 Daily Trivia Challenge • 🧠 10 Questions • ⏱️ 150 Seconds

Question 1 / 10 Time: 150s

Artist
Who painted The Persistence of Memory?
Year
When was it painted?
Museum
Where does the painting hang?
Size
What surprises many visitors about its size?
Clocks
What are the famous objects in the painting?
Ants
What crawls on the orange watch?
Face
What lies in the center of the painting?
Landscape
Which real coastline inspired the background?
Cheese
What did Dali say inspired the soft watches?
Later
Which 1954 painting revisits the scene?

Explanations: answer key for all 10 questions

Q1: Who painted The Persistence of Memory?
Answer: Salvador Dali
He was a Spanish surrealist.
Q2: When was it painted?
Answer: 1931
Dali was in his twenties.
Q3: Where does the painting hang?
Answer: Museum of Modern Art, New York
MoMA has owned it since 1934.
Q4: What surprises many visitors about its size?
Answer: It is quite small
It is about 24 by 33 centimeters.
Q5: What are the famous objects in the painting?
Answer: Melting pocket watches
They droop over branches and ledges.
Q6: What crawls on the orange watch?
Answer: Ants
Dali linked ants to decay.
Q7: What lies in the center of the painting?
Answer: A strange sleeping face-like creature
Many see it as Dali himself.
Q8: Which real coastline inspired the background?
Answer: Cap de Creus in Catalonia
Dali lived nearby.
Q9: What did Dali say inspired the soft watches?
Answer: Melting Camembert cheese
He saw it on a hot evening.
Q10: Which 1954 painting revisits the scene?
Answer: The Disintegration of the Persistence of Memory
It breaks the scene into blocks.

The Persistence Of Memory Quiz – Dali's Melting Clocks

Salvador Dali painted The Persistence of Memory in 1931. Though one of the most famous paintings in the world, it is small, about 24 by 33 centimeters, and has hung at the Museum of Modern Art in New York since 1934.

Soft pocket watches melt over a branch, a ledge and a strange sleeping face that many see as Dali himself. Ants swarm an orange watch, a symbol of decay in his work.

The background shows the cliffs of Cap de Creus in Catalonia. Dali said melting Camembert cheese inspired the watches, and in 1954 he revisited the scene in The Disintegration of the Persistence of Memory.

What This Quiz Teaches

Art fans will enjoy these questions.

Who painted it
Where it hangs
What it shows
What inspired it
How Dali revisited it

Did You Know?

The painting is often linked to ideas about time.
Dali called his method paranoiac-critical.
The 1954 version is in Florida's Dali Museum.
Dali's mustache became nearly as famous as his art.
The soft watches appear in countless parodies.