Paintings with philosophical meaning by famous artists. "Allegory with Venus and Cupid" warns of syphilis

Among the noble works of art that delight the eye and evoke only positive emotions, there are paintings that are, to put it mildly, strange and shocking. We present to your attention 20 paintings by the brush worldwide famous artists that make you terrified...

"Failure of Mind to Matter"

A painting painted in 1973 by the Austrian artist Otto Rapp. He depicted a decomposing human head, placed on a birdcage containing a piece of flesh.

"The Hanging Live Negro"

"Dante and Virgil in Hell"

"Hell"

"The Great Red Dragon and the Sea Monster"

"Spirit of Water"

"Necronom IV"

"The Flaying of Marcia"

"The Temptation of Saint Anthony"

"Severed Heads"

"Scream"

"The Death of Marat"

"Still life of masks"

"Gallowgate Lard"

"Saturn Devouring His Son"

"Judith Killing Holofernes"

"Nightmare"

"Massacre of the innocents"

"Study of the Portrait of Innocent X Velazquez"

"Garden earthly pleasures»

Man has been drawn to creativity from time immemorial. Beginning with rock paintings mammoths and gods, painted clay vessels, wall frescoes, ending with masterpieces of modern art, which we have the opportunity to admire every day. All painters, in search of the extraordinary, try to bring something unique and diverse to the style. Some people pay attention to the smallest details, others are looking for new shades and subjects, but there are a number of unusual artists who decided to surprise the world not only with the help of a brush.

The artist who paints the rain

A few years ago, 30-year-old avant-garde artist Leandro Granato became a real asset to Argentina. The artist invented quite unusual technique applying paint to canvas - through the tear duct. Since childhood, the guy knew how to take water into his nose and immediately spray it out through his eyes.

When inspiration exhausted its resources, Leandro decided to try just such a drawing technique. And I was right. His paintings start at $2,000 and sell out extremely quickly. Interestingly, in order to create one such painting, Granato uses 800 ml of paint for each eye socket. The Argentine even developed a special harmless eye paint, which, according to doctors, does not affect the artist’s health in any way.

Two fingers in your mouth and everything will pass

Millie Brown has lived by the motto “all art has a right to exist” for many years. And all because the artist’s way of painting does not fit into the accepted framework at all.

The girl, no matter how ugly it may sound, draws with vomit. Millie swallows colored soy milk at special intervals and then feels sick. The paint naturally comes out, creating “special designs.” Oddly enough, the artist’s robots are increasingly gaining popularity, and among her devoted fans you can even find Miss Outrageous Lady Gaga herself.

Pictures of size 4 breasts

The American artist Kira Ain Vizerji also became famous for her extravagance. Her prominent breasts help her create paintings that cost at least $1,000 each. The girl became an innovator in this technique and already has dozens of followers around the world. Kira herself explains this strange approach to painting by the fact that her breasts allow her to apply paint from completely different angles and make it easier to realize all the artist’s ideas.

"Penis art"

Another master who uses his body as a tool for painting and earning money is Australian Tim Patch. A shocking artist’s brush is his dignity. Tim himself, without undue modesty, asks to be called “Pricasso” (from the English “prick” - “member”) and positions his work as the first “penis art” in history. In addition to the application technique, the Australian became famous for the fact that while working he wears only a bowler hat, which must be silver or pink.

Nigerian heritage and elephant dung

English creator Chris Ofili is one of the most prominent admirers of Nigerian culture. All his paintings are directly imbued with the spirit of Africa, Nigerian culture, sex and elephant excrement. Ofili uses manure instead of paint. Of course, in order to avoid odors, flies and damaged paintings, the raw materials undergo special chemical treatment, but the fact remains a fact.

"Blues Written in Blood"

The Brazilian painter Vinicius Quesada went even further and shocked the public with a collection of paintings called “Blues Written in Blood.” The latter in the literal sense of the word. To create these masterpieces, the artist needed three colors: red, yellow and blue. The first author decided to extract from his own veins.

Every two months, Quezada goes to the hospital, where doctors take 480 milliliters of blood from him to create masterpieces. When fans offer the genius their blood instead of paint, he sends them to blood collection points for the sick, since he believes that donation is more important than art.

underwater art

Kiev resident Oleg Nebesny is one of the few artists in the world who decided to combine his two favorite hobbies: diving and drawing. Oleg paints pictures at a depth of 2 to 20 meters and explains this by the fact that all the beauty underwater world only the eye and only the moment can capture. It takes the artist only 40 minutes to create his works. Before starting, waterproof glue is applied to the canvas (this way the paint is not washed off from the canvas). Among other things, the colors at depth seem completely different. And the brown on the surface can even turn scarlet.

Ashes and painting

Val Thompson crossed all moral taboos. A woman paints beautiful canvases by adding the ashes of cremated people into the paint. Her paintings sell in the thousands, and customers leave rave reviews on websites. The first robot, Val, was created for Anna's neighbor Kiri after the death of her husband John. The canvas depicted a deserted paradise beach, where John most loved to spend time. The painting created such a sensation that Val even opened her own company, Ashes for Art.

Paintings with soul and body

What we consider a real misfortune, Alison Courtson managed to use as material for her creativity. The 38-year-old American paints her paintings with the most common dust. Interestingly, Alison collects material from vacuum cleaners, shelves and closets of the customers themselves. The artist says that she chose such a strange material because house dust consists of 70% skin from the inhabitants of the house. Therefore, we can safely say that her paintings are not only about the soul, but also about the body.

Works of menstrual art

We ask highly impressionable readers to skip the last point of our excursion into unconventional art. Hawaiian artist Lani Beloso suffers from a common disease among women: menorrhagia, in other words, heavy menstruation, and decided to use this phenomenon in her pictures. How she came to this is unknown. At first, the “artist” simply sat over the canvas, and the blood itself painted certain images. Later, Lani began collecting material every month and drawing pictures from it. So the girl created 13 paintings in chronological order, as if showing society how much blood she loses in a year.

The worst thing is that this is not the entire list of people who decided to deviate from the accepted canons. So if you suddenly are an artist and decide to make your contribution to the development of art, I’m afraid you will have a hard time finding original ideas.

Painting, if you do not take into account the realists, has always been, is and will be strange. But some paintings are stranger than others.
Some works of art seem to hit the viewer over the head, stunning and amazing. Some draw you into thought and in search of layers of meaning, secret symbolism. Some paintings are shrouded in secrets and mystical mysteries, and some surprise with exorbitant prices.

Bright Side carefully reviewed all the major achievements in world painting and selected two dozen of the most strange paintings. The selection does not include paintings by Salvador Dali, whose works completely fall within the format of this material and are the first to come to mind.

"Scream"

Edvard Munch. 1893, cardboard, oil, tempera, pastel
National Gallery, Oslo

"The Scream" is considered a landmark event of expressionism and one of the most famous paintings in the world. There are two interpretations of what is depicted: it is the hero himself who is gripped by horror and silently screams, pressing his hands to his ears; or the hero closes his ears from the cry of the world and nature sounding around him. Munch wrote four versions of The Scream, and there is a version that this painting is the fruit of manic-depressive psychosis from which the artist suffered. After a course of treatment at the clinic, Munch did not return to work on the canvas.

“I was walking along a path with two friends - the sun was setting - suddenly the sky turned blood red, I paused, feeling exhausted, and leaned against the fence - I looked at the blood and flames over the bluish-black fjord and the city - my friends moved on, and I stood trembling with excitement, feeling the endless scream piercing nature,” Edvard Munch said about the history of the painting.

"Where do we come from? Who are we? Where are we going?"

Paul Gauguin. 1897-1898, oil on canvas
Museum fine arts, Boston

According to Gauguin himself, the painting should be read from right to left - three main groups of figures illustrate the questions posed in the title. Three women with a child represent the beginning of life; middle group symbolizes the daily existence of maturity; in the final group, according to the artist's plan, " old woman, approaching death, seems reconciled and given over to her thoughts", at her feet "a strange White bird... represents the futility of words."

The deeply philosophical painting of the post-impressionist Paul Gauguin was painted by him in Tahiti, where he fled from Paris. Upon completion of the work, he even wanted to commit suicide, because: “I believe that this painting not only surpasses all my previous ones, and that I will never create something better or even similar.” He lived another 5 years, and that’s what happened.

"Guernica"

Pablo Picasso. 1937, oil on canvas
Reina Sofia Museum, Madrid

"Guernica" presents scenes of death, violence, brutality, suffering and helplessness, without specifying their immediate causes, but they are obvious. It is said that in 1940, Pablo Picasso was summoned to the Gestapo in Paris. The conversation immediately turned to the painting. "Did you do this?" - “No, you did it.”

The huge fresco painting “Guernica,” painted by Picasso in 1937, tells the story of a raid by a Luftwaffe volunteer unit on the city of Guernica, as a result of which the city of six thousand was completely destroyed. The painting was painted literally in a month - the first days of work on the painting, Picasso worked for 10-12 hours and already in the first sketches one could see main idea. This is one of the best illustrations of the nightmare of fascism, as well as human cruelty and grief.

"Portrait of the Arnolfini couple"

Jan van Eyck. 1434, wood, oil
London National Gallery, London

The famous painting is completely filled with symbols, allegories and various references - right down to the signature “Jan van Eyck was here”, which turned it not just into a work of art, but into a historical document confirming a real event at which the artist was present.

The portrait, presumably of Giovanni di Nicolao Arnolfini and his wife, is one of the most complex works of the Western school of painting Northern Renaissance. In Russia recent years The painting gained great popularity due to Arnolfini’s portrait resemblance to Vladimir Putin.

"Demon Seated"

Mikhail Vrubel. 1890, oil on canvas
Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow

The painting by Mikhail Vrubel surprises with the image of a demon. The sad long-haired guy doesn’t at all resemble the common human idea of ​​what he should look like evil spirit. This is the image of strength human spirit, internal struggle, doubts. Tragically clasping his hands, the Demon sits with sad, huge eyes directed into the distance, surrounded by flowers. The composition emphasizes the constraint of the demon’s figure, as if squeezed between the upper and lower crossbars of the frame.

The artist himself spoke about his most famous painting: “The demon is not so much an evil spirit as a suffering and sorrowful one, at the same time a powerful, majestic spirit.”

"Apotheosis of War"

Vasily Vereshchagin. 1871, oil on canvas
State Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow

The picture is written so deeply and emotionally that behind each skull lying in this pile, you begin to see people, their destinies and the destinies of those who will never see these people again. Vereshchagin himself, with sad sarcasm, called the canvas a “still life” - it depicts “dead nature.” All the details of the picture, including the yellow color, symbolize death and devastation. Clear blue sky emphasizes the deadness of the picture. The idea of ​​the “Apotheosis of War” is also expressed by scars from sabers and bullet holes on skulls.

Vereshchagin is one of the main Russian battle painters, but he painted wars and battles not because he loved them. On the contrary, he tried to convey to people his negative attitude towards the war. One day, Vereshchagin, in the heat of emotion, exclaimed: “I won’t paint any more battle paintings - that’s it! I take what I write too close to my heart, I cry (literally) for the grief of every wounded and killed.” Probably the result of this exclamation was the terrible and bewitching painting “The Apotheosis of War,” which depicts a field, crows and a mountain of human skulls.

"American Gothic"

Grant Wood. 1930, oil. 74×62 cm
Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago

The picture with the gloomy father and daughter is filled with details that indicate the severity, puritanism and retrograde nature of the people depicted. Angry faces, a pitchfork right in the middle of the picture, old-fashioned clothes even by 1930 standards, an exposed elbow, seams on a farmer’s clothes that repeat the shape of a pitchfork, and therefore a threat that is addressed to everyone who encroaches. You can look at all these details endlessly and cringe from discomfort. "American Gothic" is one of the most recognizable images in American art XX century, the most famous artistic meme of the XX and XXI centuries. Interestingly, the judges of the competition at the Art Institute of Chicago perceived "Gothic" as a "humorous valentine", and the residents of Iowa were terribly offended by Wood for portraying them in such an unpleasant light.

"Lovers"

Rene Magritte. 1928, oil on canvas

The painting "Lovers" ("Lovers") exists in two versions. In one, a man and a woman, whose heads are wrapped in a white cloth, are kissing, and in the other, they are “looking” at the viewer. The picture surprises and fascinates. With two figures without faces, Magritte conveyed the idea of ​​the blindness of love. About blindness in every sense: lovers do not see anyone, we do not see them true faces and we, and besides, lovers, are a mystery even to each other. But despite this apparent clarity, we still continue to look at Magritte’s lovers and think about them.

Almost all of Magritte’s paintings are puzzles that cannot be completely solved, since they raise questions about the very essence of existence. Magritte always talks about the deceptiveness of the visible, about its hidden mystery, which we usually do not notice.

"Walk"

Marc Chagall. 1917, oil on canvas
State Tretyakov Gallery

"Walk" is a self-portrait with his wife Bella. His beloved is soaring in the sky and will soon drag Chagall, who is standing on the ground precariously, into flight, as if touching her only with the toes of his shoes. Chagall has a tit in his other hand - he is happy, he has both a tit in his hands (probably his painting) and a pie in the sky. Usually extremely serious in his painting, Marc Chagall wrote a delightful manifesto of his own happiness, filled with allegories and love.

"The Garden of Earthly Delights"

Hieronymus Bosch. 1500-1510, wood, oil
Prado, Spain

“The Garden of Earthly Delights” - the most famous triptych of Hieronymus Bosch, which got its name from the theme of the central part, is dedicated to the sin of voluptuousness. The picture is filled with transparent figures, fantastic structures, monsters, hallucinations that have taken on flesh, hellish caricatures of reality, which he looks at with a searching, extremely sharp gaze.

Some scientists wanted to see in the triptych a depiction of human life through the prism of its vanity and images earthly love, others - a triumph of voluptuousness. However, the simplicity and certain detachment with which individual figures are interpreted, as well as the favorable attitude towards this work on the part of the church authorities, make one doubt that its content could be the glorification of bodily pleasures. To date, none of the available interpretations of the painting has been recognized as the only correct one.

"Three Ages of a Woman"

Gustav Klimt. 1905, oil on canvas
National Gallery of Modern Art, Rome

“The Three Ages of a Woman” is both joyful and sad. In it, the story of a woman’s life is written in three figures: carelessness, peace and despair. A young woman is organically woven into the pattern of life, an old woman stands out from it. The contrast between the stylized image of a young woman and the naturalistic image of an old woman becomes symbolic meaning: The first phase of life brings with it endless possibilities and metamorphoses, the last - unchanging constancy and conflict with reality. The canvas doesn’t let go, it gets into the soul and makes you think about the depth of the artist’s message, as well as the depth and inevitability of life.

"Family"

Egon Schiele. 1918, oil on canvas
Belvedere Gallery, Vienna

Schiele was a student of Klimt, but, like any excellent student, he did not copy his teacher, but looked for something new. Schiele is much more tragic, strange and frightening than Gustav Klimt. In his works there is a lot of what could be called pornography, various perversions, naturalism and at the same time aching despair. "Family" is his latest work, in which despair is taken to the extreme, despite the fact that it is his least strange-looking picture. He painted it just before his death, after his pregnant wife Edith died of the Spanish flu. He died at 28, just three days after Edith, having painted her, himself, and their unborn child.

"Two Fridas"

Frida Kahlo. 1939

Story difficult life Mexican artist Frida Kahlo became widely known after the release of the film "Frida" with Salma Hayek in leading role. Kahlo painted mostly self-portraits and explained it simply: “I paint myself because I spend a lot of time alone and because I am the subject that I know best.” In not a single self-portrait does Frida Kahlo smile: a serious, even mournful face, fused thick eyebrows, a barely noticeable mustache above tightly compressed lips. The ideas of her paintings are encrypted in the details, the background, the figures that appear next to Frida. Kahlo's symbolism is based on national traditions and is closely connected with Indian mythology of the pre-Hispanic period. In one of best paintings- “Two Fridas” - she expressed the masculine and feminine principles, connected in her by a single circulatory system, demonstrating her integrity.

"Waterloo Bridge. Fog effect"

Claude Monet. 1899, oil on canvas
State Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg

When viewing the painting from a close distance, the viewer sees nothing but the canvas, on which frequent thick oil strokes are applied. The whole magic of the work is revealed when we gradually begin to move away from the canvas to a great distance. First, incomprehensible semicircles begin to appear in front of us, passing through the middle of the picture, then we see the clear outlines of boats and, moving away to a distance of approximately two meters, all the connecting works are sharply drawn in front of us and lined up in a logical chain.

"Number 5, 1948"

Jackson Pollock. 1948, fiberboard, oil

The strangeness of this picture is that the canvas of the American leader of abstract expressionism, which he painted by spilling paint on a piece of fiberboard laid out on the floor, is the most expensive painting in the world. In 2006, at Sotheby's auction they paid $140 million for it. David Giffen, a film producer and collector, sold it to Mexican financier David Martinez. "I continue to move away from the usual tools of the artist, such as the easel, palette and brushes. I prefer sticks, scoops, knives and flowing paint or a mixture of paint with sand, broken glass or something else. When I am inside the painting, I am not aware what I am doing. Understanding comes later. I have no fear of changes or destruction of the image, since the picture lives its own own life. I'm just helping her out. But if I lose contact with the painting, the result is dirt and disorder. If not, then it’s pure harmony, the ease of how you take and give.”

"Man and woman in front of a pile of excrement"

Joan Miro. 1935, copper, oil
Joan Miró Foundation, Spain

Good name. And who would have thought that this picture tells us about the horrors of civil wars. The painting was made on copper sheet during the week between October 15 and October 22, 1935. According to Miro, this is the result of an attempt to depict a tragedy Civil War in Spain. Miro said that this is a picture about a period of anxiety. The painting shows a man and a woman reaching out to embrace each other, but not moving. The enlarged genitals and sinister colors were described as "full of disgust and disgusting sexuality."

"Erosion"

Jacek Jerka

The Polish neo-surrealist is known throughout the world for his amazing paintings, in which realities are united, creating new ones. It is difficult to consider his extremely detailed and, to some extent, touching works one at a time, but this is the format of our material, and we had to choose one to illustrate his imagination and skill. We recommend that you read more.

"The hands resist him"

Bill Stoneham. 1972

This work, of course, cannot be ranked among the masterpieces of world painting, but the fact that it is strange is a fact. There are legends surrounding the painting with a boy, a doll and his hands pressed against the glass. From “people are dying because of this picture” to “the children in it are alive.” The picture looks really creepy, which gives rise to people with weak psyche a lot of fears and speculations. The artist assured that the picture depicts himself at the age of five, that the door is a representation of the dividing line between real world and the world of dreams, and the doll is a guide who can guide the boy through this world. The hands represent alternative lives or possibilities. The painting gained notoriety in February 2000 when it was put up for sale on eBay with a backstory saying that the painting was "haunted." "Hands Resist Him" ​​was bought for $1,025 by Kim Smith, who was then simply inundated with letters from creepy stories and demands to burn the painting.

When a person, for some reason, does not want to rely on traditional methods of creating paintings in his creativity, then experiments begin. When he is not satisfied with the “realism” in his works, when the works of Leonardo and Boucher seem boring and uninteresting, he is born A New Look for art. When for him playing with the past turns into a way to look into the future, another art appears. True, sometimes such aspirations cross the border, turning into something far from art, and then the main thing is to surprise with originality.

So, unusual artists, unusual ways creating paintings and unusual paintings.

ABOUT artistic value I won't talk. Each of the listed authors calls himself an artist, a creator. Each of the viewers will determine for themselves what is art and what is not, as well as the line beyond which there is no longer shocking, but there is something unclear.

Red Hong

The author who captivated me with his unusual look at the most ordinary items or not quite objects. For her, creativity is not limited to paints and a brush, because it is much more interesting to give free rein to imagination and let it result in something interesting and alive. And imagination is such a thing that it can lead to the idea of ​​using a coffee cup or a basketball instead of a brush, or you can even get by with socks.
“When I first visited Shanghai, I came across an old alley where laundry was waving on bamboo sticks sticking out of the windows of houses. It was an incredibly beautiful sight! An amazing thing - such traditions in a modern noisy metropolis. This inspired me to create something unusual out of the usual for everyone things in your home area"

Carne Griffiths

What if you use unusual colors along with the usual ones? No, not magical, but quite ordinary almost paints, especially if you drip them on White dress. What if you use tea or brandy as paint, or maybe whiskey or vodka? And the end result will be airy, without black spots, full of light lines, attracting with a strangely attractive symbiosis of the human and the natural.

Vinicius Quesada

As they say - Blood is life?: Then the artist Vinicius Quesada put life into his works in the literal sense, because he paints with his own blood. The paintings are strangely attractive with their shades of red.

Jordan Eagles

The works of this artist, who also uses blood, although not his own, but taken from a slaughterhouse, are even more surprising. Jordan Eagles creates something frighteningly attractive, especially when you know what and how he creates his work. Using different techniques, he turns blood itself into an object of art.

Jordan McKenzie

Jordan McKenzie went even further, who also creates with liquid from human body. For his works he uses canvas, hands and his... penis. Everything is amazingly simple - a splash of sperm on the canvas, a little technical processing and the picture is ready. This kind of creativity is a pleasure and you don’t need the sickening smell of blood, paint brushes or even a cup of coffee.

Millie Brown

Millie Brown also spews liquids from herself, but they are no longer of entirely natural origin.

Elisabetta Rogai

But Elisabetta Rogai creates her works from exquisite materials - white and red wine. This, it would seem, should limit her color palette, but this does not interfere with her work at all.

Judith Brown

Painting a picture without hands will be problematic, but what if the hands themselves become a brush and create. What will happen if fingers become a tool, and ordinary coal dust blossoms into a variety of shapes and types? And there will be works by the artist Judith Brown, which in a strange way combine abstract and concrete images.

Doug Landis

Or you can draw without hands, like Doug Landis. After he became paralyzed, he began to draw with a pencil in his mouth! And one can only envy his fortitude.

Tim Patch

Meet Tim Patch, aka Prickasso, aka the penis artist. Why penis? But because he draws with it.

Ani Kay

Another person believes that he can create a work of art without using traditional brushes or pencils, and he doesn’t need his hands. He is also a supporter of the idea that drawing with your hands is boring. Ani Kay decided to draw with his tongue.

Natalie Irish

Kiss, as it turns out, we don’t know much about it. After all, you can create with a kiss, putting your love into what you create. Actually, this is what artist Natalie Irish does - she paints with kisses and lipstick.

Kira Ayn Varszegi

You can do it with your hands, you can do it with your penis, you can do it with your lips, but why isn’t the breast a tool, Kira Ein Varzeji thought and began to create. She paints with breasts, but being limited by the shape of the breast itself, she creates abstract images, unlike Patch, who even manages to create portraits. But Kira has everything ahead! Good luck to her in this difficult field of art.

Stephen Murmer.

Stephen Murmer, who paints with his buttocks, is not far behind them.

I smeared the fifth point with paint, sat down on the canvas and done! And if something is missing, then you can follow the example of the same Patch. Or you can actually draw both at once. As they say - cheap and cheerful, although I got excited about cheap - these paintings have a considerable price.

Martin von Ostrowski

“The artist has the right to use materials with a particle of the author in order to show or prove that he is part of the organic world. The sperm stores my genes, which play an important role in the reproduction of a human being along with the female egg. And in my feces there are microorganisms that live in symbiosis with digested food. Likewise, the artist is part of a large complex of the innumerable organic world, and in order not to get lost in it, he must leave a tangible mark on the art he creates.”

And in the end you can draw yourself

or famous personalities

or portraits like this, using sperm to create.

P/S/ He also has less “amazing” works.

Chris Ofili

It may not be so original. Animal secretions can also be used instead of human ones. If you like the color of elephant excrement, take it and use it, no one will say a word against it. Moreover, it gives such scope in choosing shades of brown. Which is exactly what Chris Ofili fell for.

Mark Quinn

You can paint with human blood, but you can also make sculptures from it. Frozen. And from my own too. One such portrait takes about 4 liters of blood, if not more.

Val Thompson

But you can draw not only with blood and all sorts of secretions. You can draw by the person himself, or rather by what is left of him after death. Ash, for example, as Val Thompson does it. Artificial diamonds have already been made from ashes, now you can still paint, all you need to do is mix it with paints.

Xiang Chen

Anyone can draw, the main thing is that the eyes are not afraid, and the hands do it. But sometimes the eye itself, in the literal sense of the word, becomes a tool for the creator. Artist Xiang Chen paints with his eyes using a special device.

To be continued...

Draw with a knife, chewing gum, tape, nails or fish hooks, words and tapes, bacteria... there is no barrier to human imagination.

Artists are imaginative and try to create unusual paintings, adding uniqueness and diversity to them. Some paintings enchant and inspire, while others frighten with the images depicted.

Venus with a mirror

The canvas was painted by Diego Velazquez during a trip to Italy. This was done secretly, since in Spain at that time depicting a nude figure was strictly prohibited.

There are many unpleasant stories associated with the work. The first owner was a merchant from Spain, who suddenly went bankrupt after purchasing the masterpiece. At first, trade began to go worse, and then more serious troubles occurred - goods were captured by pirates, ships sank. The merchant began to sell his property to recoup his losses and sold the painting. “Venus with a Mirror” was purchased by another person who was also involved in trade. Almost immediately, his warehouses burned down from a lightning strike. He also sold the canvas.

The third owner was stabbed to death in his own home three days later. After, for a long time no one wanted to buy Venus with a Mirror. The painting was passed from one museum to another until one crazy woman named Mary Richardson vandalized it and cut it up with a meat cleaver. The canvas was restored and returned to London National Gallery, where it is located to this day.

Scream

Edvard Munch, the author of the work, had manic-depressive psychosis. He often suffered from depressive disorders, and at night he was tormented by nightmares. On Munch's canvas there is a mystical image of a hairless creature with an open mouth.

Most critics argue that Edward depicted himself on the canvas. But the artist says something completely different─ that this is just a “cry of nature.” He was walking with friends and saw a sunset, which inspired him to paint a strange picture.

If you believe the legend, then everyone who came into contact with “Scream” was harmed in one way or another. One museum employee was involved in an accident, and another committed suicide.

Rain Woman

One of the most unusual paintings in the world was painted by Vinnitsa artist Svetlana Taurus at the end of the 90s of the last century. Before her, she was unknown to anyone. A few months before Tilets began her creation, she began to have visions. Sometimes Svetlana felt that she was being watched from the side. Despite the fact that the artist tried to drive away disturbing thoughts, they appeared again. After some time, Taurus had the idea to paint a portrait of a mysterious woman. She set to work, her hand guided by some invisible force. The portrait was ready in record time - in just five hours.

Months later, rumors began to circulate in the city that there was a curse hanging over the painting. All the customers rushed to return it to the art store, without even taking their money back. Each of them claimed that the canvas comes to life at night. People began to suffer from headaches and other ailments and could not sleep.

“Rain Woman” is a very atmospheric and impressive picture. It perfectly combines the background, perspective and proportions. Perhaps it is this fact that has such an impact on the emotional state of the owners.

last supper

The canvas shows an image of the last Easter feast of Jesus Christ and his disciples-apostles. It is believed that Christ is talking about the future betrayal of one of his close associates. The artist tried to depict the reaction of each student to the spoken phrase. The very name of the picture already speaks of his sacred meaning. The work really shows hidden characters and messages.

The Duke of Milan asked for the work to be made to order. It is known that da Vinci was looking for models for his work for a long time. The image of Christ was especially difficult. In the end, he modeled him on a young singer from a church choir, who seemed to him the personification of purity and spirituality. The most amazing thing is that three years later, Leonardo found a drunkard in a ditch and drew the image of Judas from him. As it turned out, it was still the same singer. " last supper"was completely completed in 1498.

During World War II, the church where the work was located was hit by a shell. The building was completely destroyed, but the wall with the fresco miraculously survived.

Metamorphoses of Narcissus

One of the strangest paintings by Salvador Dali was painted in 1937. This is a beautiful and symbolic work, for which Dali used special paints and brushes. Also, the artist tried new technology applying strokes.

The painting shows a guy admiring his beauty. In the foreground he is sitting by a pond and admiring his reflection, next to him is an image of a stone hand with an egg. The latter is a symbol of rebirth and new life.

Now "Metamorphoses of Narcissus" is in London at the Tate Gallery.

Kiss

The masterpiece was painted by the Austrian artist Gustav Klimt using real gold leaf. He worked on its creation for a year. The canvas depicts two lovers embracing in a flower meadow. There is nothing and no one around, only a golden background.

One version says that the painting was commissioned by a certain count. He wanted to be photographed with his beloved. When the girl saw the painting, she liked it so much that she immediately agreed to become the count’s wife. According to the second version, “The Kiss” features an image of Gustav himself and his beloved woman Emilia.

Dance

The painting was painted by Henri Matisse using only three colors - green, blue and red. It depicts only people frozen in dance and nature. There are no unnecessary details. The canvas seems to be alive and transmits vibrations very well.

The dance is distinguished by its nobility and captivates with its naturalness. The artist's idea was to capture that moment when a person unites with nature and is filled with ecstasy.

Water lilies

The landscape is the creation of the talented impressionist of his time, Claude Monet. When he finished working on his work, he decided to celebrate this event with his friends. A small fire occurred in the artist's studio, which was immediately extinguished. No one attached any importance to the incident, but it turned out that the masterpiece carried an invisible fiery phantom.

“Water Lilies” were hung in a restaurant located in Montmartre. Surprisingly, the establishment burned down in just one night. But the painting miraculously survived. It was later purchased by art patron Oscar Schmitz. A year after the purchase, his house also burned down. Moreover, the fire started in the office with the canvas. And again, the masterpiece remained safe and sound. The next victim of the landscape is the New York Museum contemporary arts. "Water lilies" were transported into it, and a few months later there was a fire. The masterpiece was partially charred. After restoration, the landscape no longer exhibited “fire hazardous” properties.

There are many more interesting paintings, painted by the most talented artists. There are many in the world creative people who constantly invent and create new unusual works.

Unusual paintings by artists