Interesting questions about the paintings. Style: High Renaissance
On December 3, 1961, a significant event took place at the New York Museum of Modern Art - Matisse’s painting “The Boat,” which had been hanging upside down for 46 days, was properly rehung. It is worth saying that this is not an isolated funny incident associated with paintings by great artists.
Pablo Picasso painted one of his famous portraits in less than 5 minutes
Once, one of Pablo Picasso’s acquaintances, looking at his new works, sincerely said to the artist: “Sorry, but I can’t understand this. Such things simply don’t exist.” To which Picasso retorted: “You and Chinese you don't understand. But it still exists." However, many did not understand Picasso. Once he invited the Russian writer Ehrenburg, his good friend, to paint his portrait. He happily agreed, but before he could sit down in a chair to pose, the artist announced that everything was ready.
Ehrenburg expressed surprise at the speed of execution of the work, because not even 5 minutes had passed, to which Picasso replied: “I have known you for 40 years. And all these 40 years I have been learning to paint portraits in 5 minutes.”
Ilya Repin helped sell a painting he didn't paint
One lady bought at the market for only 10 rubles a completely mediocre painting, on which the signature “I. Repin” proudly flaunted. When the art connoisseur showed this work to Ilya Efimovich, he laughed and added “This is not Repin” and signed his autograph. After some time, an enterprising lady sold the painting unknown artist with the autograph of the great master for 100 rubles.
The bears in Shishkin’s famous painting were painted by another artist
There is an unspoken law among artists - professional mutual assistance. After all, each of them has not only favorite stories and strengths, but also weak points, so why not help each other. Thus, it is known for certain that for the painting “Pushkin on the Seashore” by Aivazovsky, the figure of the great poet was drawn by Repin, and for Levitan’s painting “Autumn Day. Sokolniki" the lady in black was painted by Nikolai Chekhov. The landscape painter Shishkin, who could draw every blade of grass and needle in his paintings, when creating the painting “Morning in pine forest“The bears didn’t turn out at all. That’s why Savitsky painted the bears for Shishkin’s famous painting.
A piece of fiberboard, over which paint was simply poured, became one of the most expensive paintings
The most expensive painting in the world in 2006 was Jackson Pollock's Number 5, 1948. At one auction the painting went for $140 million. This may seem funny, but the artist didn’t really “bother” with the creation of this painting: he simply poured paint over a piece of fiberboard laid out on the floor.
Rubens encrypted the date of creation of his painting using the stars.
Art critics and scientists for a long time could not establish the date of creation of one of the most famous paintings Rubens - painting “The Feast of the Gods on Olympus”. The mystery was resolved only after astronomers took a closer look at the picture. It turned out that the characters in the picture were located in exactly the same order as the planets were located in the sky in 1602.
The Chupa Chups logo was drawn by the world famous surrealist
In 1961, Enrique Bernata, the owner of the Chupa Chups company, turned to the artist Salvador Dali with a request to come up with an image for candy wrapper. Dali fulfilled the request. Today this image, although in a slightly modified form, is recognizable on the company's lollipops.
It is worth noting that in 1967 in Italy, with the blessing of the Pope, it was released with illustrations by Salvador Dali.
The most expensive painting Flour brings misfortune
Munch's "The Scream" was sold at auction for $120 million and is today the most expensive painting by this artist. They say that Munch life path which is a series of tragedies, put so much grief into it that the picture absorbed negative energy and takes revenge on the offenders.
One of the Munch Museum employees once accidentally dropped a painting, after which he began to suffer from terrible headaches, which led this man to suicide. Another museum employee, who was unable to hold onto the painting, ended up in a terrible situation just a few minutes later. car accident. And a museum visitor who allowed himself to touch the painting, after some time, burned alive in a fire. However, it is possible that these are just coincidences.
Malevich's "Black Square" has an "older brother"
“Black Square,” which is perhaps the most famous painting by Kazimir Malevich, is a canvas 79.5 * 79.5 centimeters, on which a black square is depicted on a white background. Malevich painted his painting in 1915. And back in 1893, 20 years before Malevich, Alphonse Allais, a French humorist writer, painted his “black square”. True, Allais's painting was called "The Battle of the Negroes in deep cave dark night."
Christ and Judas in Da Vinci's painting have the same face
They say that the creation of the painting “The Last Supper” required titanic efforts from Leonardo da Vinci. The artist quickly found the person from whom the image of Christ was painted. One of the singers was chosen for this role church choir. But da Vinci searched for “Judas” for three years.
Once on the street the artist saw a drunkard who was unsuccessfully trying to get out of a cesspool. Da Vinci took him to one of the drinking establishments, sat him down and began to draw. Imagine the artist’s surprise when, having opened up his thoughts, the drunkard admitted that he had already posed for him several years ago. It turned out that this was the same singer.
Today, in every museum you can listen to wonderful guides who will tell you in detail about the collection and the artists represented in it. At the same time, many parents know that it is difficult for most children to spend even an hour in a museum, and stories about the history of painting tire them quite quickly. To prevent children from getting bored in the museum, we offer a “cheat sheet” for parents - ten entertaining stories about paintings from the Tretyakov Gallery that will be of interest to both children and adults.
1. Ivan Kramskoy. "Mermaids", 1871
Ivan Kramskoy is primarily known as the author of the painting “Unknown” (it is often mistakenly called “Stranger”), as well as a number of beautiful portraits: Leo Tolstoy, Ivan Shishkin, Dmitry Mendeleev. But it’s better for children to start getting acquainted with his work from magical picture“Mermaids”, with which this is the story.
In August 1871, the artist Ivan Kramskoy visited country estate his friend, art lover and famous philanthropist Pavel Stroganov. Walking in the evenings, he admired the moon and admired its magical light. During these walks the artist decided to write night landscape and try to convey all the charm, all the magic of a moonlit night, “catch the moon” - in his own expression.
Kramskoy began work on the painting. The river bank appeared in moonlit night, a hillock and a house on it, surrounded by poplars. The landscape was beautiful, but something was missing - magic was not born on the canvas. Nikolai Gogol’s book “Evenings on a Farm near Dikanka” came to the artist’s aid, or rather a story called “May Night, or the Drowned Woman” - fabulous and a little creepy. And then mermaid girls appeared in the picture, illuminated by moonlight.
The artist worked so carefully on the painting that he began to dream about it and constantly wanted to complete something in it. A year after it was bought by the founder of the Tretyakov Gallery, Pavel Tretyakov, Kramskoy once again wanted to change something in it and made small changes right in the exhibition hall.
Kramskoy’s canvas became the first “fairy-tale” painting in the history of Russian painting.
2. Vasily Vereshchagin. "Apotheosis of War", 1871
It so happened that people have always fought. From time immemorial, brave leaders and powerful rulers equipped their armies and sent them to war. Of course, they wanted distant descendants to know about their military exploits, so poets wrote poems and songs, and artists created beautiful paintings and sculptures. In these paintings, the war usually looked like a holiday - bright colors, fearless warriors, going into battle...
The artist Vasily Vereshchagin knew about the war firsthand - he took part in battles more than once - and painted many paintings in which he depicted what he saw with his own eyes: not only brave soldiers and their commanders, but also blood, pain and suffering.
One day he thought about how to show all the horrors of war in one picture, how to make viewers understand that war is always grief and death, how to let others look at its disgusting details? He realized that it was not enough to paint a picture of a battlefield dotted with dead soldiers - such canvases had existed before. Vereshchagin came up with a symbol of war, an image, just by looking at which, everyone can imagine how terrible any war is. He painted a scorched desert, in the middle of which rises a pyramid of human skulls. There are only dry, lifeless trees around, and only crows fly to their feast. In the distance one can see a dilapidated city, and the viewer can easily guess that there is no more life there either.
3. Alexey Savrasov. “The Rooks Have Arrived”, 1871
Everyone has known the painting “The Rooks Have Arrived” since childhood, and probably everyone wrote from it school essays. And today teachers will definitely tell children about Savrasov’s lyrical landscapes and that already in the very name of this picture one can hear a joyful harbinger of the morning of the year and everything in it is filled with a deep meaning close to the heart. Meanwhile, few people know that the famous “Rooks...”, as well as all the other works of Savrasov, might not have existed at all.
Alexey Savrasov was the son of a small Moscow haberdasher. The boy’s desire to engage in painting did not cause delight in the parent, but nevertheless, Kondrat Savrasov sent his son to the Moscow School of Painting and Sculpture. Both teachers and classmates recognized the talent young artist and predicted a great future for him. But it turned out that, without even studying for a year, Alexey, apparently due to his mother’s illness, was forced to stop studying. His teacher Karl Rabus turned for help to the Chief of Police of Moscow, Major General Ivan Luzhin, who helped the talented young man receive an art education.
If Luzhin had not taken part in fate young artist, one of the most famous paintings in the history of Russian painting would never have been born.
4. Vasily Polenov. "Moscow courtyard", 1878
Sometimes, in order to write beautiful picture, the artist travels a lot, long and meticulously searching for the most beautiful views, in the end, finds the treasured place and time after time comes there with a sketchbook. And it also happens that in order to create a wonderful work, he just needs to go to his own window, look at a completely ordinary Moscow courtyard - and a miracle happens, an amazing landscape appears, filled with light and air.
This is exactly the miracle that happened to the artist Vasily Polenov, who looked out of the window of his apartment in the early summer of 1878 and quite quickly painted what he saw. Clouds glide easily across the sky, the sun rises higher and higher, warming the earth with its warmth, lighting up the domes of churches, shortening thick shadows... It would seem to be a simple picture, which the artist himself did not take seriously at first: he wrote it and almost forgot about it. But then he was invited to take part in the exhibition. He didn’t have anything significant, and Polenov decided to exhibit “Moscow Courtyard”.
Oddly enough, it was this “insignificant picture” that brought fame and glory to Vasily Polenov - both the public and critics loved it: it has warmth and bright colors, and its characters can be examined endlessly, inventing a story about each of them.
5. Ivan Shishkin. "Morning in pine forest", 1889
“Morning in a Pine Forest” by Ivan Shishkin is probably the most famous painting from the Tretyakov Gallery collection. In our country everyone knows her, thanks to reproductions in school textbooks, or maybe thanks to chocolates"Teddy Bear."
But not everyone knows that Shishkin himself painted only a morning forest in a foggy haze, and has nothing to do with bears. This painting is the fruit of joint creativity between Shishkin and his friend, artist Konstantin Savitsky.
Ivan Shishkin was consummate master depict all sorts of botanical subtleties - the critic Alexander Benois fairly scolded him for his passion for photographic accuracy, called his paintings lifeless and cold. But the artist was not friends with zoology. They say that this is why Shishkin turned to Savitsky with a request to help him with the bears. Savitsky did not refuse his friend, but did not take his work seriously - and did not sign.
Later, Pavel Tretyakov purchased this painting from Shishkin, and the artist invited Savitsky to leave a signature on the painting - after all, they worked on it together. Savitsky did so, but Tretyakov did not like it. Declaring that he bought the painting from Shishkin, but didn’t want to know anything about Savitsky, he demanded a solvent and with my own hands deleted the “extra” signature. And so it happened that today the Tretyakov Gallery indicates the authorship of only one artist.
6. Viktor Vasnetsov. "Bogatyrs", 1898
Viktor Vasnetsov is considered the most “fabulous” artist in the history of Russian painting - it was his brushes that belonged to such famous works, like “Alyonushka”, “The Knight at the Crossroads”, “ Bogatyrskiy skok"and many others. But his most famous painting- “Bogatyrs”, which depicts the main characters of Russian epics.
The artist himself described the picture as follows: “The heroes Dobrynya, Ilya and Alyosha Popovich are on a heroic outing - they are noticing in the field whether there is a enemy somewhere, are they offending anyone?”
In the middle, on a black horse, Ilya Muromets looks into the distance from under his palm, the hero has a spear in one hand, and a damask club in the other. On the left, on a white horse, Dobrynya Nikitich takes his sword out of its sheath. On the right, on a red horse, Alyosha Popovich holds a bow and arrows in his hands. There is a curious story connected with the heroes of this picture - or rather with their prototypes.
Viktor Vasnetsov thought for a long time what Ilya Muromets should look like, and for a long time he could not find the “right” face - brave, honest, expressing both strength and kindness. But one day, completely by chance, he met the peasant Ivan Petrov, who came to Moscow to earn money. The artist was amazed - on a Moscow street he saw the real Ilya Muromets. The peasant agreed to pose for Vasnetsov and... remained for centuries.
In the epics, Dobrynya Nikitich is quite young, but for some reason Vasnetsov’s painting depicts a middle-aged man. Why did the artist decide to act so freely with folk tales? The solution is simple: Vasnetsov portrayed himself in the image of Dobrynya; just compare the picture with the artist’s portraits and photographs.
7. Valentin Serov. “Girl with peaches. Portrait of V. S. Mamontova”, 1887
"Girl with Peaches" is one of the most famous portraits in the history of Russian painting, written by the artist Valentin Serov.
The girl in the portrait is Verochka, the daughter of philanthropist Savva Mamontov, whose house the artist often visited. It is interesting that the peaches lying on the table were not brought from warm regions, but grew not far from Moscow, right in the Abramtsevo estate, which was a completely unusual thing in the 19th century. A gardener-magician worked for Mamontov - in his in capable hands fruit trees bloomed even in February, and the harvest was harvested in early summer.
Thanks to Serov’s portrait, Vera Mamontova went down in history, but the artist himself recalled how hard it took him to persuade a 12-year-old girl, who had an unusually restless character, to pose. Serov worked on the painting for almost a month, and every day Vera sat quietly in the dining room for several hours.
The work was not in vain: when the artist presented the portrait at the exhibition, the public really liked the painting. And today, more than a hundred years later, “Girl with Peaches” delights visitors to the Tretyakov Gallery.
8. Ilya Repin. “Ivan the Terrible and his son Ivan November 16, 1581,” 1883–1885.
Looking at this or that painting, you often wonder what was the source of inspiration for the artist, what prompted him to paint just such a work? In the case of Ilya Repin’s painting “Ivan the Terrible and his son Ivan November 16, 1581,” guess about true reasons not at all easy.
The painting depicts a legendary episode from the life of Ivan the Terrible, when in a fit of anger he struck death blow to his son Tsarevich Ivan. However, many historians believe that in fact there was no murder and the prince died of illness, and not at all from the hand of his father. It would seem that what could force an artist to turn to such a historical episode?
As the artist himself recalled, the idea to paint the painting “Ivan the Terrible and his son Ivan” came to him after... a concert at which he heard the music of the composer Rimsky-Korsakov. It was the symphonic suite "Antar". The sounds of music captured the artist, and he wanted to embody in painting the mood that was created in him under the influence of this work.
But music was not the only source of inspiration. Traveling around Europe in 1883, Repin attended a bullfight. The sight of this bloody spectacle impressed the artist, who wrote that, “having become infected... with this bloodiness, upon arriving home, he immediately began the bloody scene “Ivan the Terrible with his son.” And the blood picture was a great success."
9. Mikhail Vrubel. "Demon Seated", 1890
How sometimes the title of a painting means a lot. What does the viewer see when first looking at Mikhail Vrubel’s painting “The Seated Demon”? A muscular young man sits on a rock and sadly looks at the sunset. But as soon as we say the word “demon”, the image of a magical evil creature immediately appears. Meanwhile, Mikhail Vrubel's demon is not an evil spirit at all. The artist himself has said more than once that the demon is a spirit “not so much evil as suffering and sorrowful, but at the same time a powerful spirit, ... majestic.”
This painting is interesting for its painting technique. The artist applies paint to the canvas not with a conventional brush, but with a thin steel plate - a palette knife. This technique allows you to combine the techniques of a painter and a sculptor, literally “sculpting” a picture using paints. This is how a “mosaic” effect is achieved - it seems that the sky, rocks, and even the hero’s body itself are not painted with paint, but are laid out from carefully polished, perhaps even precious stones.
10. Alexander Ivanov. "The Appearance of Christ to the People (The Appearance of the Messiah)", 1837–1857.
Alexander Ivanov’s painting “The Appearance of Christ to the People” is a unique event in the history of Russian painting. It’s not easy to talk about it with children, especially 6-7 year olds, but they should definitely see this monumental canvas, on which the artist worked for more than 20 years and which became his life’s work.
The plot of the picture is based on the third chapter of the Gospel of Matthew: John the Baptist, baptizing the Jewish people on the banks of the Jordan in the name of the expected Savior, suddenly sees Him coming, in whose name he baptizes people. ABOUT compositional features paintings, about its symbols and artistic language the children will find out later. During the first acquaintance, it is worth talking about how one painting became the artist’s life’s work.
After finishing his studies at the St. Petersburg Academy of Arts, Alexander Ivanov was sent “for an internship” to Italy. “The Appearance of Christ to the People” was supposed to be a work of record. But the artist takes his work very seriously: he carefully studies Scripture, history, spends months searching for the right landscape, spends an endless amount of time looking for an image for each character in the picture. The money that was allocated to him for work is running out, Ivanov leads a miserable existence. The painstaking work on the painting led to the artist’s vision being damaged and him having to undergo long-term treatment.
When Ivanov completed his work, the Italian public enthusiastically accepted the painting; this was one of the first cases of European recognition of a Russian artist. In Russia, it was not immediately appreciated - only after the artist’s death did real fame come to him.
While working on the painting, Ivanov created more than 600 sketches. In the room where it is exhibited, you can see some of them. It is interesting to use these examples to trace how the artist worked on the composition, landscape, and images of the characters in the picture.
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. At 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 positioned exactly as they were located on the planet’s horizon in 1602.
3. B Soviet era 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 were 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 original name"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 audience 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. During his work, he discovered this “dual” interesting fact and the discovery of an “unknown 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, A famous bears from Shishkin's "Morning in a Pine Forest" wrote Savitsky.
The great masterpieces of painting that you encounter every day in museums, books, games, movies and even advertising are not just beautiful picture, but also a code with a lot of details and semantic interpretations.
Therefore, it is not surprising that pictures that everyone has already seen a million times can test your logic, attention, intelligence and knowledge of history more than once. Look for picturesque scenes, expose homegrown myths. This is not just mental training, but also good way to outshine all the annoying smart guys in the next conversation. And impress a pretty person with a faint glimmer of thought in her bottomless eyes.
BOTTICELLIAN MOOD
Botticelli Sandro. Birth of Venus, 1482-1486.
Uffizi, Florence
Style: early Renaissance
At first glance Venus, just born from the foam of the sea, chastely covering her breasts and womb, swims to the shore on a shell. On the left, Zephyr and his wife Chloris are blowing roses at her. On the shore, the nymph Ora for some reason hurries to cover the nakedness of Venus with a purple cloak. But the naked shameless woman feels great and in what her mother gave birth to, she does not pay attention to worries and looks forward, through the viewer. A light sadness froze in the eyes of the goddess, as if she were going into earthly life to earn money... sorry, she is going to suffer torment.
In fact The painting illustrates the myth of the birth of Venus. The main role was played by Simonetta Vespucci - the first beauty of Florence, the lover of Giuliano Medici and, according to rumors, the secret passion of Botticelli himself. Need I say that the most noble Simonetta was married to a third, stranger? The gestures and proportions of Venus's body are written in accordance with the canons of classical Greek sculpture. The mantle in Ora’s hands symbolizes the border between two worlds, and the shell symbolizes purity and purity, but as soon as she steps ashore...
That's it! Thanks to Botticelli watering the painting protective layer made from egg yolk, “The Birth of Venus” has been preserved much better than many masterpieces.
CHEESE HOUR
Dali Salvador. The Persistence of Memory, 1931.
Museum contemporary art, New York.
Style: surrealism.
At first glance The clock melts against the sultry backdrop of the landscape from Port Ligat.
In fact The molten clock is an image of the relativity and gluttony of time, which devours itself and everything else, and the clock covered with ants symbolizes death. On deserted shore, personifying the inner emptiness, the head of Dali himself is sleeping, who is the main prisoner of all-consuming time.
That's it! Inspired by melted Camembert cheese, Dali decided to melt a clock on his canvas. The artist often gave funny explanations for his paintings in order to deliberately mislead people. And this is no exception.
MAGICAL REALISM
Rene Magritte. Son of Man, 1964.
Private collection
Style: surrealism.
At first glance A neatly dressed yuppie is about to get hit in the face with an apple... but he doesn't.
In fact In Magritte's paintings, the most interesting thing is always, as luck would have it, hidden by some simple object. IN in this case this is an apple symbolizing temptation. It persistently levitates in the face of a reserved businessman, in whose face the artist depicted the “son of Adam” and himself. Therefore, we are not so offended, because we know what Magritte’s face looks like.
EYES, LIPS, AND MOST IMPORTANTLY, HANDS
Mona Lisa, 1503-1505.
Louvre, Paris
Style: high Renaissance
At first glance A curvaceous woman with shaved eyebrows and sparse breasts, turning half-turn, sits in a chair against the backdrop of a mysterious landscape. In fact, the miracle of the painting is in a technique called sfumato: thanks to smooth transitions from light to shadow and light shading of the eye sockets, corners of the lips and graceful hands develops controversial image a bashful girl and a voluptuous mistress. The second advantage of the picture is the contrast of the fantastic landscape and quite real figure. Plucked eyebrows and a shaved forehead are not a sign of extremism, but just a tribute to the fashion of the Quattrocento era.
That's it! Contrary to the abyss of nonsense written by art critics, Da Vinci's main task was to revive the model's face.
REVELATION OF THE "PROFESSOR OF NIGHTMARES"
Bosch Hieronymus. Garden earthly pleasures, 1500-1510.
Prado Museum, Madrid
Style: Northern Renaissance
At first glance Triptych on biblical themes, reminiscent huge collection kinder surprises.
In fact On the left, in Paradise, God introduces Eve to the stunned Adam. Peaceful life animals are disrupted by the lion's meal, and an owl, a messenger of misfortune, sticks out from the source of Life (the building in the center). In the center there is a prototype of hippie erotic parties - a garden of pleasures, where everyone lets out divine instructions through the forest: they play, eat and indulge in carnal pleasures. According to psychoanalysis: cherries, strawberries, strawberries and grapes, which are eaten here, mean sinful sexuality, fish - lust, and birds - lust and debauchery. On the right, as an inevitable result, are monsters led by Satan the Eggshell and torture machines. Bosch shows us pernicious influence lust. And it all started so well!
That's it! Despite the BDSM bacchanalia depicted here, this painting fully complies with strict biblical canons and is liked by church authorities.
Style: Baroque.
At first glance A stylish young man with a crowd of boys flew in on a winged horse to flirt with a naked fetishist.
In fact The beautiful Andromeda, chained to a rock, was planning to be eaten by a sea monster. But while it was rummaging with seasonings, young Perseus, shod latest fashion into winged sandals, turned the monster to stone. Here we see all the trendy attributes of the ancient Greek hipster: an invisibility helmet, a mirror shield with the head of the Gorgon Medusa and the winged horse Pegasus. But ancient myths served Rubens more as a pretext for depicting naked female charms. It is not for nothing that Andromeda’s light, slightly overweight body is the dominant part of the picture, to which the viewer first of all pays attention. Isn't it?
That's it! Despite Rubens's great contribution to the depiction of naked beauties, he also has his share of ill-wishers who accuse him of being overly enthusiastic about the blooming beauty of the nude. female body. Isn't it stupid?
CHAIROSHADOW MARTYR...
Rembrandt van Rijn. Night watch, 1642.
Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam.
Style: Baroque
At first glance Captain Cock (center) gave the order to march to Lieutenant Reitenburg (right), and everyone immediately began to fuss.
In fact Even the details of the shooters’ clothing move in the picture. Notice the masterful play of light and shadow: the contrast of the dark alley (behind) and the illuminated square. Girl in bright golden dress compensates for Reitenburg's bright doublet, and his halberd sets the direction of movement for the entire canvas.
That's it! Because of the soot that covered the picture, for a long time no one realized that the action was taking place during the day - look at the shadow of Captain Kok's left hand.
NORTHERN MONA LISA
Vermeer Jan. Girl with a Pearl Earring, ca. 1565.
Mauritshuis, The Hague.
Style: Baroque
At first glance An ordinary face of an ordinary girl.
In fact The artist sought to convey the moment of spontaneous movement when the girl turns her head, noticing our presence. According to the name and statements of art critics, the viewer's attention is primarily attracted by the pearl earring. In our opinion, captivated by the attractive gaze and sensual lips, which have remained mysteriously silent for more than three hundred years, the discerning viewer is unlikely to remember the earring.
That's it! This painting has a modern, very indecent “reproduction”, but we didn’t tell you about it!
ANCIENT ROMAN DISASTER WITH A HEAP OF MALOA
Bryullov Karl. The last day of Pompeii, 1830-1833.
State Russian Museum, St. Petersburg.
Style: romanticism
At first glance The city is in a sea of fire, chaos reigns all around. In the center of the composition lies the body of a rich woman, who fell to her death from a chariot, which the horses carry into the depths of the picture. On the right, two brothers save their elderly father. Everyone is panicking.
In fact In the distance, the volcano Vesuvius, the culprit of the disaster, is burning. But the main scene is illuminated not by his flame, but by Bryullov’s remarkable find - a second flash of lightning. The color scheme of the painting is blue, red and yellow colors, illuminated by white light, was very brave for its time.
That's it! Bryullov conceived “Pompeii” as quick way to become famous and did not fail - the painting became the object of universal worship of the Russians, Italians and French.
Perhaps you didn’t know some of this. Take a look at the topic, I hope it will be interesting and tireless to read.
1. Repin wrote Tsarevich Ivan from Vsevolod Garshin, who was nervous and impressionable from childhood. During the war with the Turks, he volunteered to serve in the army and, after being wounded, took up literary activity. We all remember his fairy tale “The Frog Traveler” (and the cartoon!). Repin believed that he could not find a better candidate for the role of the murdered Ivan: “I was struck by doom in Garshin’s face: he had the face of a man doomed to die.” Soon after finishing work on the canvas, Garshin committed suicide - he jumped from the fifth floor down a flight of stairs...
2. Kiprensky’s painting “Girl in a Poppy Wreath” (“Mariuccia”) depicts ten-year-old Anna-Maria Falkucci, the model’s daughter. The artist became very attached to her. The girl had poor health and grew up in extreme poverty. The artist took care of the girl and enrolled her in a school at the monastery. This was in 1819. Many years later, he returned to Italy, converted to Catholicism and secretly married Mariuccia. They did not live together for long. Four months after the wedding, Orest Kiprensky died, and a few months later Mariuccia gave birth to a daughter, Clotilde Kiprensky, whose trace, unfortunately, was hopelessly lost... 
3. For his painting “Ophelia,” John Millais persuaded Elizabeth Siddal, the lover of another artist, Rosetti, to pose while lying in the bath. It was cold in the workshop, so the water in the bathtub was heated with the help of candles standing under its bottom. Elizabeth lay in the water for hours. The water cooled quickly and was freezing cold by the end of the session. The girl fell ill with pneumonia, and later developed tuberculosis. She gave birth to Rosseti dead child. She began to experience severe pain, from which she saved herself with opium; she died from an overdose at the age of 32. 
4. Amadeo Modigliani was poor, very sick and suffered from alcoholism and opium addiction. At 33 he met Jeanne Hebuterne, his greatest and last love, she was 17. The happiness was short-lived. Modigliani died 2 years later. And a day later, unable to bear the loss, Zhanna, who was 9 months pregnant, committed suicide. The artist was buried in a modest grave without a monument in the Jewish section of the Père Lachaise cemetery. 
Fame came to Modigliani only after his death. The merchant Louis Libod, sensing the imminent death of the genius, bought his paintings. And later he boasted to his friends: “Aren’t I lucky? After all, just yesterday I bought them for next to nothing!” The artist did not have time to be buried, but his paintings had already increased in price. 
5. I came up with the riddle of Gioconda’s smile French poet Théophile Gautier (1811-1872), who enthusiastically exclaimed: “La Gioconda! This word immediately brings to mind the Sphinx of Beauty, who smiles so mysteriously from Leonardo’s painting... It is dangerous to fall under the spell of this ghost... Her smile promises unknown pleasures, it is so divinely ironic...” and so on and so forth. Before Gaultier, viewers did not see anything mysterious in Mona Lisa’s smile.
The theft of the painting from the Louvre in 1912 added to the popularity of the painting. The scandal in the press was enormous! During the 3 years that they were looking for it, 6 copies were sold, which were considered the original, and each of them cost a lot of money. 
6. “Black Square” was first shown on futuristic exhibition in Petrograd in 1915. The canvas hung in the “red corner” - under the ceiling, where icons were hung in Russian houses. The First World War was going on and many saw it in the “Square” ominous symbol future disaster. At first, Malevich himself did not know how to feel about his “work.” When he was told about the meaning of the square in Buddhism (the symbol of infinity), he only opened his eyes wide. And then the intense pumping of the square with symbolic overtones began...
And then even the artist’s funeral was turned into a farce - the artist’s body with outstretched arms was transported on a truck platform in a coffin in the shape of a cross, and a “Black Square” was mounted on the hood as a mourning sign. 
And this is a painting called “The Battle of Negroes in a Deep Cave on a Dark Night” (1893). It was created twenty years before the birth of Malevich’s masterpiece (or “masterpiece”?) (1915). The author is a Frenchman from the banks of la Manche, a very eccentric person, humorist writer and artist Alphonse Allais. 
7. Van Gogh did not cut off his entire ear, but only a piece of his earlobe; this happened during a quarrel with Gauguin. However, there is still a widespread legend that the artist amputated his entire ear. This legend was even reflected in the behavior of a patient who operates on himself or insists on a certain operation - it was called Van Gogh syndrome. 
8. A terrible disease - addiction to alcohol destroyed greatest artist Alexey Savrasov. His wife left him, he was fired from art school, where among his students were Korovin and Levitan. IN recent years he spent the night wherever he had to, drank around the clock and painted taverns with a copy of his masterpiece “The Rooks Have Arrived” - for vodka and lunch. Out of pity, his acquaintances gave him a few coins, otherwise he would have drunk even his clothes. Ultimately, at the age of 67, the artist died of delirium tremens in a hospital for the poor. 
9. This may be a legend, but when Leonardo da Vinci wrote “ last supper", he attached particular importance to two figures: Christ and Judas. For a very long time he could not find models from whom to paint these figures. Finally, he managed to find a model for the image of Christ among the young singers. Leonardo was unable to find a model for Judas for three years. Until one day he came across a drunkard on the street who was lying in a gutter. He was a young man who had been aged by heavy drinking. Leonardo invited him to a tavern, where he immediately began to paint Judas from him. When the drunkard came to his senses, he told the artist that he had already posed for him once. It was a few years ago when he sang in church choir, Leonardo painted Christ from it. 
10. In the program “What? Where? When?" connoisseurs were presented with two paintings by Polenov - “Grandma’s Garden” and “Moscow Courtyard” with the question: “What do they have in common?” The experts didn't guess. The answer is simple - the paintings depict the same old noble mansion, but with different angles. The address of this unique house has survived to this day - the Baumgarten house, the corner of Trubnikovsky and Durnovsky lanes on Arbat. 
11.A talented artist is not necessarily talented in everything. Levitan, for example, produced magnificent landscapes, but had a hard time depicting people. So the artist Nikolai Chekhov helped his friend - he drew on his “ Autumn day"lady in black. 
And the bears are on famous painting Shishkin belongs not to the brushes of Ivan Ivanovich, but to the artist Savitsky, a friend of the artist, who later became a friend. Tretyakov purchased this painting from Shishkin for 4 thousand rubles. Having learned about such an impressive sum, Konstantin Apollonovich, who had seven shops, came to Ivan Ivanovich for his share.
Ivan Ivanovich offered him a thousand rubles. Savitsky was seriously offended. The artist’s pride was hurt - how come his work was valued at a quarter of the cost of the painting! Konstantin Apollonovich even declared in his hearts that the main thing in the picture was the bears, which he invented and embodied on canvas, and Shishkin only painted the background.
Now Ivan Ivanovich was offended; he considered the picture to be complete without the bears. an independent work. And besides, Shishkin drew the sketches of the bear family himself. How the matter ended is not known for certain, but the friends did not paint any more joint pictures. 
12. Ivanov worked on the painting “The Appearance of Christ to the People” for 20 years from 1837 to 1857 in Italy. He did huge amount sketches, studied history, Assyrian antiquities and especially the Bible. In order to find the desired landscape, he spent months in the swamps and deserts of Italy. But it was much more difficult to depict the moment of turning to God on people’s faces. To do this, the artist studied Jewish faces, looked closely at the faces of all the people he met, sat for hours in the church and watched those praying. All this delayed the work, he was reproached for being lazy. The money he was allocated for his work has run out. He led a miserable existence. The painstaking work on the painting led to the fact that the artist damaged his eyes and was forced to undergo long-term treatment. Upon arrival in Russia, the fate of the painting was not clear. After it was exhibited, it appeared in print critical article, which greatly upset Ivanov. He fell ill and soon died. On the day of his death, an official message came that the emperor was purchasing the painting for 15 thousand silver rubles (huge money at that time). 
13. While on a retirement trip to Italy, Ivan Konstantinovich Aivazovsky painted the painting “Chaos. The Creation of the World” based on a story from the Bible, which became a real sensation in Rome. Pope Gregory XVI bought it, awarding the artist a gold medal. N.V. Gogol wrote to Aivazovsky: “Vanya! You came little man, from the banks of the Neva to Rome and immediately raised “Chaos” in the Vatican.” 
14. Mikhail Yuryevich Lermontov was not only genius poet, But the most talented artist. There are 13 known oil paintings on canvas, cardboard and wood, more than 40 watercolors, more than 300 drawings and sketches. But his temper, to put it mildly, was not very good. Because of complex nature the writer had a chance for his short life attend 3 duels. The writer’s contemporaries were not very fond of him, the premature death of Mikhail Yuryevich in a duel did not upset anyone, and Tsar Nicholas I generally said: “A dog’s death is a dog’s death.” 
15. Picasso created his first masterpiece at the age of 15 - a painting depicting his relatives at the altar. 
In 2006, American tycoon Steve Wynn agreed to sell Pablo Picasso's The Dream for $139 million, which would have been one of the highest prices in history for a work of art. However, when demonstrating the painting, Winn waved his arms too much and tore the canvas with his elbow. The owner regarded this as a sign from above and decided not to sell the painting after restoration. 
16. Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec was an invalid with bad legs (he broke them several times in childhood and their growth stopped, most likely due to a hereditary disease, Henri’s grandmothers were sisters to each other). 
He was unlucky in love, his short height (152 cm) and his appearance as a dwarf caused ridicule, and all his serious romances ended unsuccessfully. Toulouse-Lautrec was a famous connoisseur of alcohol and popularized cocktails. Lautrec is credited with inventing the Earthquake cocktail, which mixes half and half cognac with absinthe. He died of alcoholism and syphilis in the family castle in the arms of his mother, before reaching the age of 37. 
17. Salvador Dali created the Chupa Chups logo.
And his nickname was “Avida Dollars,” which translated means “passionately loves dollars.” 
18. Vermeer never painted children, although he had 11 of them. 
Watch the movie "Girl with a Pearl Earring" with Scarlett Johansson at leading role, you'll like it. 
19. "Pieta" -the only job Michelangelo, which he signed. He was also a poet and over 300 of his poems are still available. 
20. "Venus before a Mirror" is the only surviving nude Venus of Diego Rodriguez de Silva Velazquez (1599-1660). Perhaps the artist painted other nude models, but at that time in Spain similar paintings were considered obscene. Therefore the picture takes unique place in his legacy. In addition, it is completely unlike anything that came out of the artist’s hand. In 1914, this painting, exhibited in National Gallery in London, cut by a suffragette. 
According to legend, Velazquez was buried, so to speak, in the funerary catacombs of the Capuchins in Palermo (“ Museum of the Dead"). Look on the internet, it's very scary. 
