Interesting facts about painting (9 photos). Interesting facts about painting (10 facts)

"The Persistence of Memory"

Many critics have tried to understand the meaning that Dali included in his work. Someone saw in it Albert Einstein's theory of relativity, believing that this is how the artist transferred the law of physics about space and time into painting. The author himself said that the theory of Heraclitus, which argued about the connection between time and the flow of thoughts, is better suited for his masterpiece.

"The Last Supper"

All attention in the picture is focused on two heroes: Christ and Judas. A young man from the church choir was perfect for the face of Jesus. Only the image of the vile Judas still did not come to the artist. Yet three years later, Leonardo da Vinci found the ideal sitter. It was some drunkard who was lying in the gutter. Immersed in cheap booze and constant visits to the tavern, in a sober state he remembered that once upon a time he had posed for an artist. It turns out that on the canvas Jesus and Judas had the face of the same person. Only, if at first it was a young and clean choirboy from the church, then the second was a dirty and lost drunkard.

"Dream"

"Boat"

"Feast of the Gods on Olympus"

"Sistine Madonna"

"Morning in a pine forest"

When visiting a city or country, travelers do not ignore famous museums. There they closely examine famous paintings, trying to understand what is special about them. Some facts will help you understand this.

The most mysterious smile in the world: “Mona Lisa” by Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519)

• Most mysterious picture in the world they consider “La Gioconda (Mona Lisa)”.
• It is not known for certain who the model was and for whom the painter painted. There is an opinion that the painting was commissioned by a wealthy Florentine. But who would wait that long for a job? Other researchers believe that the woman depicted is the ideal of the Renaissance. There is an opinion that Leonardo da Vinci painted the picture from himself.

• No one knows exactly when the painting was started.
• The canvas is not finished.
• The title is a spelling error. "Mona" - short form"Madonna".
• The Mona Lisa is not entirely perfect. The woman has no eyebrows.

• Damaged painting. In 1956, a stone was thrown at the area above the woman's left elbow.
• Leonardo da Vinci was an unusual person. He is not only a painter, but also an inventor, scientist, sculptor, engineer, and architect. He even came up with designs for handbags!
• The artist made personal notes from right to left, with his left hand and in a mirror manner, dismembering corpses to understand the structure of muscles.

• The painter left behind a small artistic legacy - only 20 canvases.
• Leonardo da Vinci played the lyre very well and sang well.
• Most often the master depicted women.

“The first day for the Russian brush”: Karl Bryullov (1799-1852) and “The Last Day of Pompeii”

• Thousands of people besieged the St. Petersburg Academy of Arts in 1834 to see The Last Day of Pompeii.
• The artist devoted six whole years to creating this painting.
• There was one more thing in the first drafts actor- robber. But then the artist removed it.

• K. Bryullov created the picture for Demidov. The breeder then gave her as a gift.
• A walk through the ruins of Pompeii greatly inspired the painter. He even participated in archaeological excavations.
• Bryullov made himself one of the characters - a man with a sketchbook on his head.
• Several women in the picture have the features of the creator’s beloved, Yulia Samoilova.

• The dead woman in the foreground is a symbol of the fall of Antiquity.
• Bryullov was the one who opened the way Russian artists. His paintings were exhibited as a guide for beginning painters. · After painting “The Last Day of Pompeii,” the master began to be called “the divine Charles.”

• The painting became the first Russian painting to make a splash throughout the world.
• The artist was deaf in one ear due to a slap in the face that his father gave him.
• “And the “Last Day of Pompeii” became the first day for the Russian brush,” so exclaimed the poet E. A. Baratynsky.

• In Bryullov’s studio one could often hear poetry – reading aloud made it easier for the artist to work.
• Some of the painter’s paintings were completed by his students.
• He even dedicated a poem to this picture.

Union of 14 best artists: the Wanderers

• Their story began in 1863, when graduates of the St. Petersburg Academy of Arts demanded the right free choice topics of the competition work in order to receive gold medal. They were refused. Then the "Artel of Artists" appeared, including painters from Moscow and St. Petersburg.
• More famous name connections - "Association of Traveling Art Exhibitions".

• The artists were dissatisfied with the slogan of the Academy of Arts - “Art for art’s sake.” They proclaimed that art should be for people.
• The first exhibition took place in St. Petersburg in 1871.
• One of the founders of the community was. His most famous paintings are “Unknown” and “Inconsolable Grief.”

• There are many opinions about the canvas “Unknown” by I. N. Kramskoy. Some believe that I. N. Kramskoy portrayed Anna Karenina. Others suggest that this is the wife of the Decembrist. Sometimes you hear the idea that this is an actress or the daughter of an artist. Many people confuse the woman with the heroine of the poem “The Stranger”.
• The artists were actively supported by P. Tretyakov, many works of the Peredvizhniki are now stored in his gallery - one of the largest and famous museums Russia. It is in it that you can see the canvas “Ivan the Terrible and his son Ivan”, “Morning Streltsy execution" , "Above eternal peace"I. I. Levitan and much more.

• I. N. Kramskoy often worked in portraiture; M. E. Saltykov-Shchedrin, I. I. Shishkin, P. A. Tretyakov painted with his brush.
• Characters genre works I. N. Kramskoy often paints women, and portraits - men.
• V.I. Surikov preferred to create paintings where the main character was the whole people, as in the painting “The Morning of the Streltsy Execution.”

• Almost all the paintings feature a church.
• It was Isaac Levitan who considered “the best Russian landscape painter.”
• Most of all, I. I. Levitan was inspired by the Volga. He especially liked the town of Ples, whose church is visible in the painting “Above Eternal Peace.”

• V. I. Surikov great importance gave details. He always made a lot of sketches for such large paintings as “Lady Morozova”.
• The painting “Mermaids” by I. N. Kramskoy was created based on “May Night”.

Song of the Sea: Ivan Konstantinovich Aivazovsky (1817 – 1900)

• One of the most talented artists was a philanthropist and collector.
• He was born in Feodosia, and since childhood he saw the sea and ships.
• “I.K. Aivazovsky” really became the artist’s real name in 1841. Before that, he was officially addressed as Hovhannes Ayvazyan.

• The artist played the violin beautifully.
• He became the first Russian painter whose paintings were exhibited at the Louvre.
• The artist had four daughters. He was very worried that his last name had not been passed on to his grandchildren. And so he adopted the son of his eldest daughter.

• Some paintings are signed "Guy". After all, the marine painter’s father, having arrived in Feodosia, changed his surname to “Gayvazovsky”.
• The abyss and ships most often appear in the paintings of this artist. But there are also canvases with landscapes of the East, and on a religious theme.
• During his lifetime, the painter was called the pioneer of the genre sea ​​painting in Rome.

• The creator was adored by the fleet for his battle paintings of sea battles.
• In 1846, during the tenth anniversary exhibition creative activity I.K. Aivazovsky’s squadron of warships under the command of V.A. Kornilov arrived in Feodosia to congratulate the hero of the day.
• The most famous painting by I.K. Aivazovsky is “The Ninth Wave”. In terms of skill, it was compared to Karl Bryullov’s painting “The Last Day of Pompeii.”

• The name “Ninth Wave” appeared because in many countries sailors consider this wave to be the most destructive.
• Tretyakov liked the painting “The Ninth Wave” so much that he wanted to buy it for his gallery, but the canvas is kept in the Russian Museum. IN Tretyakov Gallery You can see more than two dozen paintings by the marine painter, including “Rainbow” and “Black Sea”.

• The painter created about 6,000 paintings in a variety of formats during his life.
• Aivazovsky never painted from life, he only thoughtfully and carefully examined the object, and then painted it in his studio.
• Aivazovsky didn’t do well with people, so the painting “Pushkin’s Farewell to the Sea” was painted in a duet with Repin.

• On any artist’s canvas, be it a storm or a battle, there is always an image of hope.
• The artist's canvases often become targets of theft.
• The Marinist received ten orders. He threw five of them (those that were given to him in Turkey) into the sea.

Interesting Facts about painting
Some famous paintings have a very interesting, and sometimes even funny story creation. Facts will tell you something you may not already know about famous artists and their masterpieces.

1 Leonardo da Vinci for a long time could not find a sitter for the image of Judas in The Last Supper.

For many historians and art critics, “ last supper» Leonardo da Vinci is greatest work world art. In The Da Vinci Code Dan Brown focuses readers' attention on some of the symbolic elements of this painting in those moments when Sophie Neveu, while in Lee Teabing's house, learns that Leonardo may have encrypted some great secret in his masterpiece.
“The Last Supper” is a fresco painted on the wall of the refectory of the monastery of Santa Maria della Grazie in Milan. Even in the era of Leonardo himself, it was considered his best and famous work. The fresco was created between 1495 and 1497, but already during the first twenty years of its existence, as is clear from written evidence of those years, it began to deteriorate. It measures approximately 15 by 29 feet. The fresco was painted with a thick layer of egg tempera on dry plaster. Beneath the main layer of paint is a rough compositional sketch, a study in red, in a manner anticipating the usual use of cardboard. This is a kind of preparation tool.
It is known that the customer of the painting was the Duke of Milan Lodovico Sforza, at whose court Leonardo gained fame as a great painter, and not at all the monks of the monastery of Santa Maria della Grazie.
The theme of the picture is the moment when Jesus Christ announces to his disciples that one of them will betray him. Pacioli writes about this in the third chapter of his book “The Divine Proportion”. It was this moment - when Christ announces betrayal - that Leonardo da Vinci captured. To achieve accuracy and lifelikeness, he studied the poses and facial expressions of many of his contemporaries, whom he later depicted in the painting. The identities of the apostles have repeatedly been the subject of controversy, however, judging by the inscriptions on a copy of the painting kept in Lugano, these are (from left to right): Bartholomew, James the Younger, Andrew, Judas, Peter, John, Thomas, James the Elder, Philip, Matthew, Thaddeus and Simon Zelotes.
Many art historians believe that this composition should be perceived as an iconographic interpretation of the Eucharist - communion, since Jesus Christ points with both hands to the table with wine and bread.
Almost all scholars of Leonardo's work agree that the ideal place to view the painting is from a height of approximately 13-15 feet above the floor and at a distance of 26-33 feet from it. There is an opinion - now disputed - that composition and its system of perspective are based on the musical canon of proportion.
What gives The Last Supper its unique character is that, unlike other paintings of its kind, it shows the amazing variety and richness of the characters’ emotions caused by Jesus’ words that one of his disciples would betray him. No other painting based on the Last Supper can even come close to unique composition and elaboration of details in Leonardo's masterpiece.
So what secrets could he encrypt in his creation? great artist? In The Discovery of the Templars, Clive Prince and Lynn Picknett argue that several elements of the structure of the Last Supper indicate symbols encrypted in it.
Firstly, they believe that the figure is right hand from Jesus (for the viewer she is on the left) - not John, but a certain woman. She is wearing a robe, the color of which contrasts with the clothes of Christ, and she is tilted in the opposite direction from Jesus, who is sitting in the center. The space between this female figure and Jesus is shaped like the letter V, and the figures themselves form the letter M.
Secondly, in the picture, in their opinion, next to Peter a certain hand is visible, clutching a knife. Prince and Picknett claim that this hand does not belong to any of the characters in the film.
Thirdly, sitting directly to the left of Jesus (to the right for the audience), Thomas, addressing Christ, raised his finger. According to the authors, this is a typical gesture of John the Baptist.
And finally, there is a hypothesis that the Apostle Thaddeus sitting with his back to Christ is actually a self-portrait of Leonardo himself.

Zloty section" Leonardo da Vinci

Leonardo's most famous work - the famous "Last Supper" in the Dominican monastery of Santa Maria delle Grazie in Milan - was completed between 1495 - 1497.
Leonardo's brush captured the last joint meal (dinner) of Jesus Christ and the twelve apostles on the eve of the day (Good Friday) of Christ's death on the cross.

Leonardo prepared carefully and for a long time for the Milan painting. He completed many sketches in which he studied the poses and gestures of individual figures. “The Last Supper” attracted him not for its dogmatic content, but for the opportunity to unfold a great human drama before the viewer, show different characters, reveal the spiritual world of a person and accurately and clearly describe his experiences. He perceived the Last Supper as a scene of betrayal and set himself the goal of bringing traditional image that dramatic beginning, thanks to which it would acquire a completely new emotional sound.

While pondering the concept of “The Last Supper,” Leonardo not only made sketches, but also wrote down his thoughts about the actions of individual participants in this scene: “The one who drank and put the cup in its place turns his head to the speaker, the other connects the fingers of both hands and with frowning eyebrows looks at his companion, the other shows the palms of his hands, raises his shoulders to his ears and expresses surprise with his mouth..." The record does not indicate the names of the apostles, but Leonardo, apparently, clearly imagined the actions of each of them and the place to which each was called occupy in the overall composition. Refining poses and gestures in his drawings, he looked for forms of expression that would draw all the figures into a single whirlpool of passions. He wanted to capture living people in the images of the apostles, each of whom responds to the event in their own way.

“The Last Supper” is Leonardo’s most mature and complete work.
There are several legends telling about the great Master and his painting.

So, according to one of them, when creating the fresco “The Last Supper,” Leonardo da Vinci faced a huge difficulty: he had to depict Good, embodied in the image of Jesus, and Evil in the image of Judas, who decided to betray him at this meal. Leonardo interrupted his work in the middle and resumed it only after he had found the ideal models.

Once, when the artist was present at a choir performance, he saw a perfect image of Christ in one of the young singers and, inviting him to his workshop, made several sketches and studies from him.
Three years have passed. The Last Supper was almost completed, but Leonardo had not yet found a suitable model for Judas. The cardinal in charge of painting the cathedral was hurrying him, demanding that the fresco be completed as soon as possible.
And after many days of searching, the artist saw a man lying in a gutter - young, but prematurely decrepit, dirty, drunk and ragged. There was no time left for sketches, and Leonardo ordered his assistants to deliver him directly to the cathedral, which they did.
With great difficulty they dragged him there and put him on his feet. He didn’t really understand what was happening, but Leonardo captured on canvas the sinfulness, selfishness, and wickedness that his face breathed.
When he finished the work, the beggar, who by this time had already sobered up a little, opened his eyes, saw the canvas in front of him and cried out in fear and anguish:
- I've already seen this picture before!
- When? - Leonardo asked in bewilderment.
- Three years ago, before I lost everything. At that time, when I sang in the choir and my life was full of dreams, some artist painted Christ from me.

According to another legend, dissatisfied with Leonardo’s slowness, the prior of the monastery persistently demanded that he finish his work as soon as possible. “It seemed strange to him to see Leonardo standing immersed in thought for the whole half of the day. He wanted the artist to never let go of his brushes, just as he never stops working in the garden. Not limiting himself to this, he complained to the Duke and began to pester him so much that he was forced to send for Leonardo and in a delicate manner ask him to take up the work, while making it clear in every possible way that he was doing all this at the insistence of the Prior.” Having started a general conversation with the Duke artistic themes, Leonardo then pointed out to him that he was close to finishing the painting and that he only had two heads left to paint - Christ and the traitor Judas. “He would still like to look for this last head, but in the end, if he does not find anything better, he is ready to use the head of this same prior, so intrusive and immodest. This remark greatly amused the Duke, who told him that he was right a thousand times. Thus, the poor embarrassed prior continued to push on with the work in the garden and left Leonardo alone, who completed the head of Judas, which turned out to be the true embodiment of betrayal and inhumanity.”

2 It turns out that the term “miniature” has nothing to do with small sizes. This word comes from the Latin "minium" - the name of the red lead paint, which had the color of red cinnabar. This paint was used to write the initial letters of texts and to draw small illustrations in ancient and medieval books.

3 Marcelino Sanz de Sautola, whose daughter was the first to find cave drawings in the Altamira Cave, was accused of having forged the images. Allegedly primitive people could not create a masterpiece with such a complex composition.

4 Researchers, having studied dozens of paintings by great artists written from 1000 to 1800, came to the conclusion that during this period the amount of food depicted increased by 69%.

This conclusion was made by scientists who analyzed the dynamics of changes in portions of food depicted in the paintings of various masters...

Modern man eats twice as much as his ancestor who lived a thousand years ago. This conclusion was made by American scientists who analyzed the dynamics of changes in portions of food depicted in the paintings of masters of different eras.

Experts studied 52 paintings from the “Last Supper” series, which were painted from 1000 to 2000. The researchers compared the sizes of the plates depicted on the canvases and the volumes of food portions. The size of the heads of Christ's disciples was taken as a constant indicator on the basis of which the comparison was made.

It turned out that from century to century the volumes of food depicted in the paintings increased. In particular, over the past thousand years, the portion of the main dish has increased by 69%, a piece of bread has become larger by 25%, and the size of plates has increased by 66%.

Modern man gets fat not only because he eats more. Most modern foods are high in calories and have little nutritional value. Besides that modern people do not receive enough nutrients, kidney and liver cells can cope with the preservatives, dyes and leavening agents that current products are rich in. Therefore, the load on these organs increases and metabolism is disrupted.

IN Lately The so-called cave diet is gaining popularity. Its adherents believe that if you give up modern food, you can lose from 7 to 18 kg in 3-4 months excess weight and at the same time cleanse the body of harmful substances.

The amount of food in the paintings that depict last supper Christ and the apostles have increased significantly over the last 1000 years. As a study of 52 masterpieces of world painting showed, this trend corresponds to the development of a consumer society that tends to eat more and more.

Two brother professors - nutritional psychologist and theologian - Brian and Craig Wansink together analyzed the amount of food depicted on the 52 most famous paintings on biblical story Last Supper. It was then that Jesus said to his disciples, “Truly I say to you, one of you will betray Me.” In addition, it was the last meal of Christ that became the prototype of the rite of communion, where bread personifies the body of the Lord, and wine his blood.

Scientists have examined paintings created in the last thousand years. She measured the size of the food depicted and correlated them with the average size of the apostle’s head in each painting in order to obtain a certain specific value that did not depend on the size of the canvas. A curious thing emerged: the size of portions, the size of plates and the size of pieces of bread have been constantly increasing since the 11th century to the present day. Thus, the size of the main dish increased by 69%, the size of the plates by 66%, and the size of the bread by 23%.

Analysis of the paintings revealed a number of interesting moments. In the Middle Ages, the apostles were portrayed as ascetics. However, the meals appearing in paintings before 1498 (the year in which the world's most famous Last Supper, by Leonardo da Vinci, was painted) were quite large. The 16th century Mannerist artist Jacopo Tintoretto turned out to be the most “generous” with food: in his painting the plates are the fullest.

Scientists believe that the gradual increase in portion sizes in the paintings reflects overall growth consumption in the world. According to the authors scientific work, the paintings are merely a reflection of the “impressive sociohistorical growth in food production, availability, safety, abundance and cheapness.”

5 “Black Square” was not the first painting in this style. Long before Malevich, Alle Alphonse exhibited his masterpiece “The Battle of Negroes in a Cave in the Dead of Night” - an all-black rectangular canvas - at the Vivienne Gallery.

“Black Square” was first painted not by Malevich, but by the French poet Bilot, calling the painting “Battle of the Negroes in the Tunnel”

In 1882 (33 years before Malevich’s “Black Square”), at the “Exposition des Arts Incohérents” exhibition in Paris, the poet Paul Bilot presented the painting “Combat de nègres dans un tunnel” (“Battle of Negroes in a Tunnel”). True, it was not a square, but a rectangle.

The French journalist, writer and eccentric humorist Alphonse Allais liked the idea so much that he developed it further in 1893, calling his black rectangle “Combat de nègres dans une cave, pendant la nuit” (“Battle of the Negroes in a Cave in the Dead of Night”). Without stopping at success achieved, then Allais put out a pristine white sheet of Bristol paper entitled “The First Communion of Girls Suffering from Chlorosis in the Snowy Season”

. Six months later, Alphonse Allais's next painting was perceived as a kind of “coloristic explosion.” The rectangular landscape “Tomato harvesting on the shores of the Red Sea by apoplectic cardinals” was a bright red monochrome picture without the slightest sign images (1894). Finally, in 1897, Allais published a book of 7 paintings, Album primo-avrilesque (April Fool's Album).

Thus, twenty years before the Suprematist revelations of Kazimir Malevich, the venerable artist Alphonse Allais became the “unknown author” of the first abstract paintings. Alphonse Allais also became famous for the fact that almost seventy years later he unexpectedly anticipated the famous minimalist musical piece “4′33″” by John Cage, which is four and a half “minutes of silence”. Perhaps the only difference between Alphonse Allais and his followers was that, while exhibiting his stunningly innovative works, he did not at all try to look like a significant philosopher or a serious pioneer.

6 Abstract artist Henri Matisse's painting "The Boat" hung upside down in the Museum of Modern Art for forty-seven days. During this time, 116 thousand people managed to see it.

A boat is depicted sailing and its reflection in the water surface)) And you need to look at it by turning it 90 degrees
hover text
In my opinion, a wonderful illustration of the true “value” of such art.

7 The idea to depict a soft watch came to the mind of Salvador Dali when he watched Camembert cheese melt in the sun.

8 Vincent Van Gogh sold only one painting in his entire life.

Tragic life Vincent Van Gogh is popular today as some kind of sacred legend that people seem to need more than the shine of his stars and sunflowers. A hungry, almost beggarly existence, full of loneliness and contempt of others, has already turned into worldwide excitement and interest in the 20th century. During his life, Van Gogh sold only one painting (“Red Vineyards at Arles”), and exactly one hundred years later at Christie’s auction in New York, his “Portrait of Doctor Gachet” was bought for $82.5 million (a record among paintings) . Against the background of this unhealthy worship, the image of the artist himself is lost, powerful and vulnerable at the same time, who ended his dramatic path on earth with despair and suicide. Van Gogh lived only 37 years, of which only the last seven were devoted to painting. However, his creative heritage amazing. This is about a thousand drawings and almost the same number of paintings, created as a result of volcanic creative eruptions, when for many weeks Van Gogh painted one or two paintings every day. Van Gogh became the last truly great artist in history, an unattainable example for others, whose selfless and heroic art, like a torch, like a rainbow, now shines over humanity. His paintings are amazing, full of love and suffering dialogue - with oneself, with God, with the world...

9 Edgar Degas painted about 1,500 paintings of ballet dancers .

10 Painting by Ivan Aivazovsky “Chaos. The Creation of the World,” which was written based on the Bible, was bought by Pope Gregory XVI, awarding the artist a gold medal.

Aivazovsky’s “Italian” paintings, presented at exhibitions in Naples and Rome, brought recognition and success to the painter. Critics wrote that no one had ever depicted light, air and water so vividly and authentically. The English artist Joseph Mallord William Turner, who visited one of the exhibitions at which the works of the Russian painter were exhibited, was so shocked by what he saw that he dedicated a poem to him:

Forgive me, great artist, if I was wrong,
Taking your picture for reality.
But your work fascinated me
And delight took possession of me.
Your art is high and monumental,
Because you are inspired by genius.

World creation. Chaos. 1841

The largest work created by the master in Italy is “The Creation of the World. Chaos" (1841, Museum of the Armenian Mekhitarist Congregation, Venice).

Focusing on the skill of Karl Petrovich Bryullov, Aivazovsky created a canvas grandiose in its expressiveness, depicting the confrontation and at the same time the interrelation of two primordial elements - sky and water, which are illuminated by divine light, piercing and uniting them. This work, which is based on the words from the book of Genesis: “The earth was formless and empty, and darkness fell over the deep, and the Spirit of God hovered over the waters” was highly appreciated by Pope Gregory XVI.

Thank you..

You might also be interested in:

Views of old Moscow

At night all cats are gray. Cats in the works of artists

TIHAMIR VON MARGITAI. DESTINY WITH UPS AND FALLS

Each artist’s creation is unique; each painting contains a piece of the soul of its creator. But like any other business, painting has its own nuances, artists have their own tricks. Associated with each picture Interesting Facts, the most interesting ones we will present to you.

1. Apelles(370 - 306 BC) was an outstanding ancient Greek artist, friend of Alexander the Great. Many interesting facts are associated with his name. According to one legend, Apelles held a competition with another artist to determine the realism of the image. When they removed the canvas from the competitor’s painting, the birds immediately flocked to the surprisingly living grape branch. Then they began to remove the bedspread from Apelles's painting, but the assistants were unable to do so - the bedspread was depicted in the painting!

2. One of the most famous paintings Rubens The date of creation of “The Feast of the Gods on Olympus” remained unknown for a long time. Finally, astronomers took a closer look at it, and it turned out that the characters were located exactly as they were located on the planet’s horizon in 1602.

3. B Soviet time each artist had to be able to pass his painting through a commission that often had little knowledge of fine arts. I had to invent the most interesting and unexpected moves. So one artist painted a completely inappropriate yellow dog in the corner of the picture. It was this yellow dog that became main theme discussion for the commission, which no longer paid attention to anything else. A verdict was made - to accept the painting after removing the dog.

4. Van Meegeren was the most talented Dutch artist. Unfortunately, his works were not appreciated, but his copies of paintings by famous painters enjoyed unprecedented popularity. It was these copies that he sold to the Nazis. After the war, he was faced with a dilemma - either be accused of selling national property, or prove that they were fakes. Interestingly, in just a few days, under court supervision, he actually created a new painting.

5. Vasily Dmitrievich Polenov(1844-1927) was a recognized master historical painting. His brushes belong interesting picture with the original title "Christ and the Sinner". But the picture was not accepted at that time, since the artist depicted Christ without the obligatory halo, in fact, as ordinary person. It was possible to exhibit the picture to the public only after it was renamed “The Prodigal Wife.”

6. One artist managed to introduce his fake in the most original way. He painted another picture on top of the fake canvas and took it all to the restorer. In the process of work, he discovered this “dual” interesting fact and the discovery of an “unknown” was announced Monet", the authenticity of which was not in doubt for a long time.

7. Other original way allows you to sell a fake. Two paintings are inserted into the frame, one of which is genuine. This entire “sandwich” is tested and receives an official conclusion about the authenticity of the work. After this, one of the paintings is removed, and the second is sold to a naive buyer.

8. Paintings Viktor Mikhailovich Vasnetsov on epic subjects were not particularly popular among other Russian artists, some even called his “After the Battle of Igor Svyatoslavovich with the Polovtsians” “Dead Man,” and his fabulous “Flying Carpet” “Carpet with Ears.”

9. Interesting business made by one lady in a painting with the autograph of Ilya Efimovich Repin. She simply bought a certain painting for only 10 rubles, but with a proud signature " I. Repin"The lady showed this work to Ilya Efimovich after some time. The artist laughed and added “This is not Repin,” after which the lady sold his autograph (along with the picture, of course) for 100 rubles.

10. Artists often helped each other, because everyone has their own favorite subjects, but there are also weak points. It is natural in this case to use the help of a friend - Repin wrote Pushkin for the picture Aivazovsky"Pushkin on the seashore", Nikolai Chekhov portrayed a lady in black for the painting "Autumn Day. Sokolniki" Levitan, and the most famous bears from Shishkin’s “Mornings in pine forest" wrote Savitsky.

Studies of Malevich’s “Black Square” using a microscope and X-ray revealed that two more early works, painted with colored paints - one belongs to the cubo-futurist period of the artist’s work, the second to the proto-Suprematist period. Also found under a layer of paint was the inscription “Battle of the Negroes at Night” made by Malevich, which refers to an absolutely black comic painting by Alphonse Allais, painted 30 years earlier. And the location and direction of the inscription indicates that the painting hangs upside down in the Tretyakov Gallery.

In 1993, residents of the Japanese village of Inakadate thought about how to attract tourists, and they came up with an idea decoration rice fields. Every spring, farmers come up with a plot for a painting and implement the idea using rice varieties different colors. In addition to traditional Japanese subjects, images more familiar to the whole world appear in the margins - for example, Napoleon or the Mona Lisa. Rice paintings are also interesting because as the summer progresses, the seedlings change in shades. The village is visited by hundreds of thousands of tourists, and in the fall farmers harvest the rice and sell this rice at regular prices.

Beach is an interactive architectural installation developed by Snarkitecture for National Museum construction in Washington, DC, which ran from July 4 to September 7, 2015. Using the experience of spending a summer holiday on the beach with its natural and cultural elements, Snarkitecture tried to realize the beach in big hall museum. Using wood, drywall and mirrors to create a beach that leads into the ocean using 750,000 plastic balls. The museum was open to everyone who wanted to feel the summer holiday within the walls of the museum.

French scientist Pascal Conte claims that Leonardo da Vinci's painting "Mona Lisa" has several layers, and under the well-known portrait he found an image of the real Lisa Gherardini.

According to BBC News, employees of the Louvre, where the painting is kept, have so far refused to comment on the researcher’s statement. Pascal Conte has been studying the Mona Lisa for more than ten years using the “layer strengthening method” he invented. “The technology allows us to see what is under the layers of paint and “peel” the painting like an onion. We can also reconstruct the chronology of the creation of the painting,” Conte said.

The portrait, located under the outer layer of the Mona Lisa, depicts another woman, looking slightly to the side and without the famous La Gioconda smile. Professor of Art History Oxford University Martin Kemp disputed Conte's claim that the hidden portrait is the true image of Lisa Gherardini.

Another British art historian, Andrew Graham-Dixon, supported the French researcher. “Undoubtedly, this is one of the greatest discoveries of the century. Of course, many will object and resist, because the title of the picture will have to be changed. We say: “goodbye, Mona Lisa,” this is a portrait of someone else,” the historian said.

According to Conte, under the hidden portrait he sees at least two more layers of the image: the outline portrait of a woman with a larger head and hands and a painting in which a woman in a mother-of-pearl headdress is visible.

The full title of the “Mona Lisa”, or “La Gioconda” is “Portrait of Madame Lisa Giocondo”. The painting was painted by Leonardo da Vinci in 1503-1505. It is generally accepted that the painting depicts the wife of a silk merchant from Florence, Lisa Gherardini. This portrait is one of the most famous works Italian painter and scientist.

The poster for the famous film “The Silence of the Lambs” shows the face of Judy Foster, whose mouth is covered by a butterfly. On the back of the butterfly there is a skull, which, however, is not a skull. This is a photograph of seven naked women in certain poses. The first version of this photograph was taken by Philippe Halsman in 1951, based on a sketch by Salvador Dali.